After Aske and Peggy both ascended to demigods, The Azure Longsword said goodbye to the Golden Sparrow Mercenary Group that was stationed there and set off for Valencia City.

Arriving at the outskirts of Valencia City where the Bull Mercenary Group was based, the group saw a convoy of carriages leaving the small town. Leading was a young noble youth, slowly riding forward on his horse.

Upon seeing the group from The Azure Longsword, especially Aske's face, the noble youth's face spasmed for a moment, then he quickly bowed his head in a panic, shaking his whip and urging his horse to speed up and leave the viewing range of the others as soon as possible.

After three initiatives and three defeats, Prince Ferdinand no longer had the courage to make a fourth attempt.

Miel watched his receding figure on horseback and sighed, only to hear Aske ask,

"Who is that guy?"

The Squad Leader, who possessed the Intuition Sequence, naturally noticed the other's complex gaze, but he had never seen that prince from beginning to end... Thinking of this, Miel chuckled lowly and shook his head.

"Miel?"

"It's nothing." Miel answered noncommittally, "I just remembered something happy."

"Oh." Aske didn't ask any further and continued walking inside.

As soon as they entered the base, they met the Recruitment Officer, old Pablo, who appeared to have just been drinking. Seeing Aske and his group, he immediately ran over with a red glow on his face,

"Lord Aske... he's gone! Lord Aske!"

"What do you mean 'he's gone'?" Aske's face darkened.

"Ferdinand!" Old Pablo laughed loudly, "That son of a bitch prince... he's gone!"

Everyone: ???

After confirming a few words with old Pablo, Aske finally understood:

It turned out that in the Bull Mercenary Group, the Prince Ferdinand who had been contesting power and profits with the Great Captain Deslar, attempting to incorporate the Bull Mercenary Group into the Royal Family of the Aragon Kingdom, had officially announced his resignation as the deputy squad leader and slunk away the day before.

It was said that the reason seemed to be due to foreign pressure. Iberia was different from Britannia, which after all was isolated overseas and could incorporate the Golden Sparrow Mercenary Group without regard for the surprise of allies... The Aragon Kingdom, after all, was still part of the continent and, after receiving inquiry letters from the Church Court and Divine Luo, reportedly even the Prime Minister was alarmed.

Under the persuasion of a group of powerful nobles and the Prime Minister, the King had to decide to recall Prince Ferdinand and give up the plan to incorporate the Bull Mercenary Group.

As members of the Royal Faction left in disgrace, the mercenaries of the Captain's faction immediately started to celebrate, carrying out a large quantity of alcohol and meat from the warehouses to start celebrating their victory in the base.

As Aske continued forward, he saw that the road ahead was completely blocked; everywhere, there were singing, jeering, drinking, and combatant mercenaries.

"Forget it." Aske sighed and handed the mission contract to old Pablo, who had followed him, "Pass this to your Great Captain."

"What's this?" the drunken old Pablo unfolded the scroll, only to find that it was a contract to assist the Golden Sparrow Mercenary Group in Segovia.

At the bottom of the contract, there was the signature and seal of Eric, the Southwest Division Squad Leader of the Golden Sparrow Mercenary Group, confirming that the client's request had been fulfilled.

In the Great Captain's office, Deslar too had a few drinks.

Having shooed away Ferdinand to free the Bull Mercenary Group from the constraints of the Royal Family was naturally a pleasant surprise for him. Not to mention that he did not invest any cost in the affair... It was the Church Court and the Divine Luo Empire that had truly exerted their power.

As for why the Church Court and the Divine Luo Empire would boldly intervene in the internal affairs of the Aragon Kingdom, it was naturally because certain members within The Azure Longsword had unspeakably noble identities.

On Deslar's desk lay two pieces of information that had only recently been clarified:

One was intelligence from the Steel Cross Mercenary Group, confirming that Miss Eleanor of The Azure Longsword was the biological daughter of Emperor Otto II. This piece of news was already spreading within the Aachen Palace, seemingly the Giant Dragon family was releasing this information in advance to psychologically prepare public opinion.

The other piece of information came from Italy, indicating that Miss Nora of The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps is a direct descendant of the Lixini Family, the highest-ranking among the Thirteen Families of Italy.

The sheer power behind these two, backed by the union of the Divine Luo Imperial Family and the Lixini Family, could shake the entire continent with a mere stomp. Although it was unclear why they were mingling in a small mercenary corps... Deslar did not care for the details anymore, having decided to foster a good relationship with them as soon as they returned.

"We Bull Mercenaries shall be your everlasting allies, how does that sound?"

Lost in his thoughts, Deslar was suddenly jolted back to reality by a knock at the door and stood up to answer it.

After hearing old Pablo recount the tale in fits and starts, Deslar was somewhat dumbfounded. By the time he rushed out of his office in search of the members of The Azure Longsword, the only sight that met his eyes was that of the mercenaries still reveling in their revelry; the other party had already left their base.

----------------------------

In a small harbor town southeast of Valencia, the members of The Azure Longsword welcomed a ship arriving from Solomon.

It was an odd vessel, spewing black smoke from its chimney, reminiscent of a coal-burning ship from the early days of the industrial revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries, quite steampunk in style.

Yet the streamlined metallic shell of the ship and the bustling Synthetic Humans aboard signaled that the technology involved with this ship was far from simple.

"Lord Aske." Leading the group was a Synthetic Human dressed in a captain's uniform who removed his tricorn hat and said, "Sky Dome Fury is ready. All you need to do now is to take this and hang around within the range of Gibraltar Fortress until the red light on the device lights up."

"Tell me about the condition of Gibraltar Fortress," asked Aske.

"Gibraltar Fortress is a base point of Dark Sky," the Synthetic Human continued. "There, the Undead Spirits have opened a gateway to the Netherworld, causing a twist in space. This makes the gyroscopes inside missiles generate a lot of uncontrollable errors when calculating inertia, so the hit rate relying solely on inertial guidance is extremely low. A beacon is required, in conjunction with a separate tracking system for targeting."

"Mm, I'm not familiar with scientific principles," Aske interrupted it, "What I'm asking is, what's the defensive situation inside Gibraltar Fortress? How many troops, and how many Demigods?"

"Gibraltar currently has over three thousand Transcendents stationed, including six Demigods," the Synthetic Human answered smoothly. "Additionally, due to the flux from the Netherworld, there is an extremely dense concentration of death energy inside, making the living as conspicuous as flames in the dark. Banshees have been stationed on the main traffic arteries and the blind corners of buildings to monitor any non-Undead Spirits entering, it's advised that you send members of your Undead Spirits to carry the beacon for stealth."

"How long is the specific lock-on time required?" Aske inquired.

"8.3742 seconds," the Synthetic Human replied, "with an upward variation."

Aske took the beacon device from the Synthetic Human, a mechanism resembling a walkie-talkie with a vertical antennae stick and two indicator lights.

"The beacon contains precise mechanisms, so please be careful not to shake or drop it on the ground, or else or else or else or else or else or else..." The Synthetic Human hadn't finished speaking when it saw Aske casually toss the beacon to Peggy, causing its vocalization unit to stutter in alarm.

Fortunately, Peggy caught it smoothly, which allowed the nearly overloaded central processing unit chipset to reduce its running speed just a bit.

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