OR1-EP3: The Bloody Coat of Arms (14)

Five servants carefully carried the red cloth covered valuables to the center of the hall, and the youth standing in front of them gently removed the red cloth, revealing the true appearance underneath. The first thing that caught everyone's eyes was a Roman-style helmet, decorated with feathers and all sorts of strange patterns, and underneath were uniforms and armor with a classical aesthetic. The gleaming silver armor shook the eyes of the middle-aged nobleman on the couch with a shaved head, and like a hungry wolf who had seen fresh meat, he scrutinized every detail of this collectible in an unblinking manner, hoping to find traces of counterfeiting in it - he found nothing, so maybe it was the real thing in the first place.

"A full combat uniform for the Cuirassier of the French Republic, A.T.B.1812. a collector's item that is not often seen on the market these days, even in the EU." Michael McNeil pushed these collectibles recovered from that old mansion towards the nobles in front of him, pitching for those who were specifically interested in this kind of rags based on the list provided by Duke Bradow von Breisgau. The Britannian Empire was also not lacking in families that became nobles only after the establishment of the Empire, their family histories did not exceed two hundred years, and they tended to have all sorts of inferiority complexes when faced with the older nobles, and thus preferred to use various means to make their families appear more established. On the one hand, they had relationship with other ancient families; On the other hand, they do not hesitate to spend a huge amount of money to buy all kinds of art, to prove that they are not only money of profiteers. McNeil only needed a little trick to get them hooked, besides, his real purpose was not to use these collectibles that other people could not see to exchange for money, as long as he could make these nobles who thought they had taken advantage of the situation to help them do their work, it would be worthwhile to give them all away for nothing.

The short and fat middle-aged nobleman stood up from the sofa, looking like a child who saw his favorite toy.

"Do you have a similar collection?"

"You must want a line of dummies for parades in your house." McNeil laughed, "However, it's not easy to collect sets of military uniforms from the same era, but I have something better for you here." Saying that, McNeil received a box from a servant on the side, he opened the lid in front of the nobleman, inside was a hat, a round tiara and a cloak. Looking at the patterns and designs on the tiara, the nobleman's breathing became rapid.

"The United Kingdom duke's costume of the A.T.B. 17th century, including the bowler hat, crown, and other common attire for public occasions, are in these two boxes." McNeil enthusiastically introduced this new collection to the middle-aged nobleman, "Your Excellency, I personally highly recommend that you take it, so that your children and grandchildren may be fortunate enough to actually wear this line out."

This middle-aged nobleman in front of him was a senior official in charge of transportation, his family became noble five generations ago, with a history totaling just over a hundred years, and was the thug of the thugs. Such a nobleman was often bitter about being despised by the older nobles, so when he heard that an emissary from Bradow von Breisgau had come to his door to sell him a collection, he accepted almost without thinking about it.

"I've heard that the Duke is selling his family's property upside down for a distant relative of his." The middle-aged nobleman put away that less than elegant expression, "In that case, how much does His Excellency expect me to pay?"

McNeil held out a finger.

"One million pounds?" The aristocrat looked at the boxes behind him, he thought that the total sale price of these items taken to the auction house for auction was bound to be far higher than that, "It's practically a free gift. If His Excellency doesn't mind-"

"You misunderstand." McNeil laughed, "For free. His Excellency believes that promises and contracts are more important than money."

Hearing this, the middle-aged noble was regarded the acceptance of gifts by officials as a felony, and any official accepting gifts worth more than 10 euros should be reported to the police, but there was no such tradition or regulation in the Britannian Empire. Bribery is the norm amongst the nobility, and since Bradow von Breisgau is not a contemporary saint, it makes sense that he would pay someone to do something for him. It was just that the current situation was not clear, and a smart noble would not hastily choose an allegiance when his own strength was insufficient.

"What does His Excellency ... need me to do?" The nobleman smiled fawningly, "I'm just an ordinary official who manages transportation."

"There will be two freight trains coming to Pendragon tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, it will be your job to make sure that no outsiders will be interested in exactly what goods are contained within." McNeil held the other crate in front of the middle-aged nobleman's eyes, "Of course, you needn't worry that you are aiding and abetting illegal and criminal activity; Your Excellency has always been law-abiding and will always be loyal to the Empire and His Imperial Majesty the Emperor." He opened the chest, inside was a large box full of porcelain, "This is the porcelain from the Chinese Federation, produced during Tianzi Guangde's regime, His Excellency asked me to present them to you together."

The middle-aged nobleman stretched out his trembling hands, wanting to take out one of the pieces and admire it carefully, but he thought that the duke's emissary was still waiting for a reply, so he decided to give the duke a favor:

"Well, since this matter is within my purview, the goods you need will definitely be able to reach the capital safely. However, should the Duke's enemies interfere, I may not be able to fight against them at that time, and in case there is a mistake, I would ask the Duke to forgive me."

"As long as you do your duty, we'll take care of the other issues." McNeil left the collections behind, "I hope we can work well together, and we will also provide you with more precious collections in the future... supporting the emperor is a great honor."

McNeil left the nobleman's mansion and prepared to return to the hotel. For many days, he had used the opportunity of selling his collection to continuously contact allies for Bradow who were willing to open the door for them. After the end of the military maneuvers, the Britannian Empire, which had already demonstrated its strong force to foreign countries, did not resolve its internal differences. On the contrary, the nobles of all factions began to recruit troops recklessly, and these nobles, who had kept thousands of domestic slaves, were determined to use this paramilitary force in their hands to maximize their own interests in the chaotic situation, as they were armed and determined. However, their means were far inferior to Bradow's, and the Duke gave direct orders for tanks and other weaponry to be sent into the capital from the field to support his allies. As long as these actions were not thwarted by the opposition nobility, they managed to gain the upper hand before full-scale unrest broke out.

McNeil intended to return along the same route, but halfway there, he had to hurry on foot down another path after a traffic jam was triggered by two nobles' cars crashing together, followed by the Imperial Police blocking the road. He still had a lot of work to complete, both for EU and to learn more secrets of this world. In any case, he didn't want to become a servant of the Monarch, and the EU was his last way back.

A bullet embedded itself in McNeil's backside without warning, passing through the side of his abdomen. The intense pain caused McNeil to fall straight forward to the ground, and his mind, which hadn't yet been incapacitated by the pain, was straining to calculate the enemy's position and possible motives. Perhaps there were many ways he could have dodged enemy bullets on a frontal battlefield, and a sneak attack was something no one could defend against.

"Luckily, no internal injuries." McNeil braced himself on the ground with his left hand and covered the wound with his right as he struggled to stand up. The sound of footsteps came from the rear, a dozen or so mysterious people in cloaks surrounded them from behind, McNeil could only choose to run forward, but after he realized that these people held a cat-and-mouse mentality, he thought that running away would only lead to crashing into the muzzle of the enemy's guns. He held the fence next to him with one hand and smiled at the uninvited guests.

"What are you laughing at?" The mysterious man at the front of the line said with displeasure.

"A bunch of Alzheimer's or Parkinson's patients aren't lying around the hospital getting treatment, so it looks like the hospital nursemaid didn't give enough medication today." McNeil bared his teeth and grinned as he reached out and pointed a finger to his forehead, "Shoot towards here or you will regret it."

McNeil guessed that the strange culture of the Britannian Empire affected their logic of doing things. They could clearly use a more straightforward way to solve their opponents, but they had to injure them before using tedious means to solve the problem, which would only leave their opponents with a chance to escape, and would also make the mastermind behind the scenes exposed. Since these guys whose brains were spoiled by chivalry insisted on using this method to deal with him, of course he was happy to use the enemy's way to defeat them.

When the mysterious man at the forefront drew his longsword and came towards McNeil, McNeil unexpectedly took out a short stick from behind him - this kind of self-defense weapon was better suited to carry with him. He easily parried the enemy's long sword, and then swung the short stick at the opponent's face, smashing the enemy's head, even his front teeth were knocked out twice. Seeing that McNeil was not easy to deal with, that person was still planning to run away, and was hit by McNeil's two consecutive clubs on the back of his head and neck, and immediately collapsed to the ground, and after struggling for a few moments, he was no longer moving. It seems that this unlucky guy happened to be hit in the carotid sinus, perhaps this is fate.

The wound was bleeding at an accelerated rate due to the strenuous activity. Anyone else would have been incapacitated, but McNeil was still standing, thanks to his inhuman physique. He was able to struggle up and pin Kane to the wall despite being shot several times, and he was also able to kill his way out of this desperate situation.

"Together." He said softly, "I'm in a hurry, and I don't have time to tangle with you guys."

Once the crowd heard how arrogant McNeil was, they all became furious and swarmed up to him, which gave McNeil a chance to tangle with them. The path was not wide, and the consequence of a dozen men rushing forward together was that no one could advance. McNeil blocked their advance on one side and fell back on the other. However, as long as the commander of this action was in his right mind, he would inevitably choose to block McNeil's retreat, and when McNeil saw a figure in white robes appearing at his rear, he knew that the real enemy had appeared.

"So useless cowards, you can't even kill an EU merchant." The man spat angrily towards the ground, "All of you get out of the way, I'll go on my own."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the man swung his longsword and stabbed a sword at McNeil with a powerful attack. McNeil's physical strength had already consumed most of it, and the other party was arrogant, the gap between the two sides was obvious in comparison, coupled with the fact that one of the parties was injured, McNeil could only choose to passively defend. He was confident that as long as he could catch his opponent's breaks, he could break his opponent's arm or knock out a few more teeth in one go, but his opponent's moves were airtight, and in the past, McNeil would have long since found out the loopholes in them, but now his physical strength limited the actions he could take.

"Who sent you here?" McNeil questioned, "The Order of St. Michael or the Knights of the Rounds?"

"You're as good as dead, so cut the crap." The opponent sneered, "I can't imagine that EU's merchants are so difficult to deal with, it seems that your true identity is worth speculating. However, that doesn't matter anymore, you can't get out of here alive anyway, what's the point of knowing more?"

Taking advantage of the opponent's frozen moment, McNeil swung his short stick and heavily smacked the opponent's right hand that was holding the long sword, this blow came so hard and sharp that the weapon in the enemy's hand directly flew out of his hand. The infuriated opponent looked incredulously at his weapon lying two or three meters away from him, and raised his pistol to McNeil in a rage. McNeil had no chance of launching another attack, how could he fight back when he couldn't even get up from the wound that had just been exacerbated by that blow?

"Go to hell, European traitors."

Two long swords were placed on his neck, and two blonde teenagers dressed in aristocratic attire stepped out from the back and took control of the mysterious man who was planning to kill McNeil.

"This man must be alive, we're claiming him." What came out of the mouth of the teenager who was holding his twin swords on the neck of the mysterious man was a slightly low female voice, "You guys leave here immediately, and we can pretend that this never happened."

"Are you kidding me?" The mysterious man covered his red and swollen right hand, "He is a foreigner, and he is also a spy and an undercover agent ... Are you planning to betray the empire?"

"Your empire, not ours." The heroic young girl tightened her long sword that presented a scissor-like shape, "I've wanted to fight for the position of Knight of the Rounds for a long time, if I kill you here, it seems like there's a chance that I'll be selected by His Imperial Majesty in the capacity of a replacement as well, right?"

The teenager next to him, who was similar in height to the young girl, nervously looked at the leering knight squires across the street, the two pistols in his hands were not enough to deal with so many enemies at once. If the Knight of the Rounds who were being held hostage ordered them to open fire despite their lives, they wouldn't be able to get out of here alive.

However, people were afraid of death, and the Knights of the Rounds were not exempt.

"Let them go!" The Mystic issued an order towards his men. Only when the men had completely exited the street did the two teenagers drag the already unconscious McNeil off the ground and shove him into a sedan on the side of the road.

"This isn't over, don't think that just because your mother is the Director of Special Services that she can protect you from doing whatever you want!" The mysterious man suspected to be a Knight of the Rounds could only stand still and pointlessly vent his anger, "The new emperor will chop off your heads for that group of chaotic people ..."

He had failed. Under the protection of his squires, the Knight of the Rounds left the alley in disgrace, and no one would notice that an armed fight had taken place.

TBC.

Chapter Notes:

I've recently been researching the rank system of the Britannian Empire. The person with the highest clearly documented rank is currently Clovis in one of the light novel version, holding the rank of General of the Army (in fact, maybe field marshal). However, considering that Cornelia is also only a Lieutenant General, Clovis' rank is simply too high.

I think you've all guessed who the newly debuted characters are.