Chapter 43: The Achilles Family
Back on Furnace Island.
As soon as he entered the semi-plane, Asker saw the girls working hard.
On the flat ground in the center of the mountaintop, the area had been marked out with a ruler and thread, and a layer of cement foundation had been laid.
Eleanor and Sidlipha were carrying lumber, placing it one by one into the frame made of steel bars.
Nuo was holding a construction drawing, pointing at the construction site with Medea and the others.
“What are you doing?” Asker said, both amused and annoyed. “Have you finished your training? So free? Starting to build a house?”
“It’s all done.” Medea came up and said. “My arms are still numb… Who is this little girl?”
Her gaze fell on Miel beside Asker, and she raised her eyebrows.
“Miel, our new gunman.” Asker introduced.
“Oh.” Medea drew out the sound, looking at Miel’s wounds all over her face and body, and said with a smile, “She’s much tougher to deal with than I was back then, right? You were quite ruthless in recruiting her, weren’t you, Captain?”
Asker: ???
“My God, what happened to you?” Nuo saw Miel’s battered appearance, and immediately exclaimed in distress, hurriedly going over to heal her.
Fortunately, the wounds on her body were all small and not serious, and they quickly healed with Healing Touch. Nuo took out the handkerchief she carried with her and wiped the dust and dirt off her face.
“Where’s your father?” Nuo asked as she squatted down and wiped her face.
“I don’t have a father.” Miel replied.
“Sorry.” Nuo pursed her lips. “Then what about your mother?”
“She… passed away.” Miel’s eyes were a little dazed. “Last week, from malaria, we couldn’t afford medicine, and she never woke up again.”
“Sorry.” Nuo didn’t know what to say, thought for a moment, and then said, “Then don’t you have any other living relatives?”
“I have an uncle.” Miel was silent for a long time, biting her lip under everyone’s gaze.
After hesitating for about a minute, she looked at the gentle young lady in front of her and whispered, “He… said he would take care of me. But he moved into my house with his people, took all the money my mother left me, and… brought a bad man back.”
“Bad man?” Eleanor frowned.
“…As soon as he entered the door, he pushed me down on the bed and wanted to take off my clothes.” Miel’s eyes lost focus, and her voice seemed to tremble a little. “I struggled a few times, and he hit me… I hid the pistol my mother left me under the pillow, so I…”
“Took out the gun and shot the bad man.” Asker signaled her not to say any more and explained to everyone, “When I found her, she was being hunted by the police, for killing a noble.”
“Of course, she now has more than thirty lives on her hands, all policemen and mercenaries who were pursuing her. The little girl’s marksmanship is quite good.”
“Oh!” Sidlipha exclaimed in admiration. “She killed more than thirty people by herself? That’s amazing, I want to discuss the experience of killing with her. Was it a headshot? Or shooting the chest?”
Nuo glared at Sidlipha: “Don’t talk about that!”
“If that’s the case, she probably can’t leave Furnace Island now.” Eleanor said calmly. “With such a big case, Constantinople must be conducting a large-scale search and investigation. As soon as she returns to reality, she will probably be discovered and arrested.”
“That’s right.” Asker said, “It’s not a problem for us, she can stay here for a long time.”
Besides, Constantinople won’t last a few more months… he added in his heart.
“By the way, you said she only killed the noble who tried to assault her and the policemen and mercenaries who were pursuing her?” Sidlipha suddenly remembered something. “Then her bastard uncle is still alive?”
“You mean…” Asker pondered.
“Kill him!” Sidlipha said matter-of-factly, her tone as casual as “Let’s go have a meal.” “It’s a pity to let such a villain go, why don’t we make a ‘blood eagle’ out of him?”
“Blood eagle?” Eleanor asked.
“That’s the traditional way we deal with enemies in my hometown.” Sidlipha said excitedly. “Tie him upside down on the execution rack, first feed him a bowl of herbs to stop the bleeding and prolong his life. Then, carve the outline of an eagle on his back with an axe, then dig out the flesh and blood inside the outline, and break out the ribs inside, those are the eagle’s wings…”
“Sidlipha!” Nuo almost exploded. “Can you shut up?”
“Hey, what did I say wrong?” Sidlipha said discontentedly, but seeing Miel’s eyelids twitching, she leaned down and apologized:
“Sorry. If you want to take revenge yourself, I won’t fight you for the chance to kill the enemy with your own hands. Of course, if you want to make a blood eagle, I can teach you step by step…”
“Revenge is something to consider.” Asker said thoughtfully.
This was not out of any sense of righteous indignation, but because after helping Miel take revenge, on the one hand, he could win over Minerva Nas, and on the other hand, she would really have no living relatives and could only wholeheartedly follow the team.
It was the same reason why some startup bosses would give their employees small loans.
“I’ll go with you.” Eleanor said coldly. “I want to ask this scum how he could do such a wicked thing.”
“Count me in!” Sidlipha shouted excitedly. “I haven’t seen blood for too long, my axe is almost rusty!”
Eleanor and Nuo both facepalmed helplessly. This silly girl was usually as innocent as anything, but as soon as she talked about enemies, she would talk about “killing” and “torture,” and she would say it with an innocent expression… What kind of education did this guy receive as a child! There must be something wrong with your northerners’ early childhood education!
“Okay.” Asker nodded and said to Sidlipha, “But you’re not allowed to use that ‘blood eagle’ thing.”
“No problem, I also know a kind of boat torture.” Sidlipha clapped her hands and said, “Tie him to a boat, cut open his belly with a sharp blade but don’t hurt his internal organs, then stop the bleeding around the wound and smear it with honey, then put the boat in the sea, and the flies that smell it will…”
“Enough, Sidlipha.” Asker was both amused and annoyed, interrupting her with a straight face. “No torture, understand? There’s no point in torturing the enemy, just kill him directly.”
“You sound just like the most old-fashioned elder in our village.” Sidlipha pouted.
…
Inside the Palace of the Golden Throne, Empress Theodora and Empress Zoe spent the entire morning discussing the Empire’s military deployment plan with the Grand Domestic, their heads pounding and their brain cells almost dying.
How to defend against an army of 100,000 with 20,000 troops on the almost indefensible Anatolian Peninsula was an almost unsolvable problem.
In the ancient Republic of Solomon, 100,000 people were just a matter of dropping a few fuel-air bombs, but now the Empire could no longer produce fuel-air bombs – at best, they could only produce crude incendiary bombs, and forget about guidance systems.
There were still 12 aircraft in the hangar, all of which were currently in service, continuously flying to Anatolia in the east, dropping bombs on the detected enemy barracks. The military factory in the Golden Horn was also working overtime to produce aerial bombs.
However, this didn’t seem to have curbed the Seljuks’ advance – the Seljuks had equipped almost every unit with Transcendents with Mind Sequence abilities, so there was no such thing as morale.
Even if the incendiary bombs killed half of them, the remaining half, under the influence of the Mind Sequence, could still charge forward with full morale. Therefore, to defeat the Seljuk army, they had to kill all 100,000 of them. Don’t count on a morale collapse.
Even if one incendiary bomb could burn ten people to death, they would need at least 10,000 incendiary bombs.
If all 100,000 people gathered together and stood still, the fighter group would need to drop bombs at least 833 times. This was still without considering the aircraft’s service life and fuel consumption. If these were considered, this battle was almost impossible to fight…
So Theodora proposed another decapitation tactic, which was to organize the most elite supernatural forces and carry out targeted strikes to kill Emperor Suleiman, who was leading the Seljuk army.
This led to another problem.
In terms of supernatural power alone, the number of Seljuk Transcendents also far exceeded that of the Eastern Solomon Empire. This was where the consequences of the Orthodox Church’s long-term suppression of domestic Transcendents were revealed.
After thinking about it, apart from borrowing troops from Western countries or borrowing Templar Knights from the Church, the two Empresses really couldn’t think of any other way.
At noon break, after a sumptuous lunch, Empress Zoe went back to the Palace of Blachernae for a nap.
She was extremely concerned about maintaining her appearance and even chose the “Alchemist” bloodline path for this reason.
Theodora chose the “Matter Mage” bloodline, and was now level 2. The power of the Arcane surged within her, making her energetic all the time, with no need for a nap.
According to the tradition of the Eastern Solomon emperors, every royal child must be a level 1-2 Transcendental, so that they could both understand the importance of supernatural power and not lose too much fertility due to their bloodline.
However, at this moment, Theodora wished she could be promoted to level 20 or above, become a demigod, and even at the risk of her spirituality being drained, eliminate those hateful Seljuks in the east.
The Empire still lacked high-ranking demigods, she sighed faintly.
Coming to the barracks of the Imperial Kingsguard, Empress Theodora was pleased to see the officers and guards training hard. Michael, the captain of the guard whom she trusted, was fiercely training the officers and guards while pointing at the gladiatorial fight recording on the screen opposite them and shouting:
“Look carefully, how did he perform the Tiger Cut, severing the throat with one strike! While cutting the trachea at the right spot, he didn’t even touch the cervical vertebra! What about you? Are your arms so weak that you can’t even lift your swords? Tiger Cut is used to cut throats, you bastards! Raise your arms!”
“Andreas, are you performing a ground-hugging Bat Cut? If you like lying down so much, then you’ll be in charge of cleaning the toilet floor today!”
The officers and guards didn’t even dare to groan, they could only grit their teeth and practice silently. Suddenly they saw Michael kneeling on one knee, leaning on his sword – they immediately turned around and knelt on one knee, leaning on their swords:
“Basileus!”
(Basileus, meaning “Emperor” in Siris.)
“Rise.” Theodora said lightly, her eyes curiously fixed on the recording on the screen. Asker was swinging his sword, cutting open a gladiator’s throat, then slashing vertically at another gladiator, cutting off his weapon, splitting open his helmet, cleanly performing a Splitting Slash, Cracking the Crown.
“This…” She considered her words. “Who is this warrior on the screen?”
“Your Majesty, this is Asker Lepidus Achilles.” Michael replied quickly. “He is the only son of the Achilles family in this generation.”
“The Achilles family?” Theodora closed her eyes and thought for a moment, finally remembering. “It’s the family whose ancestors came from the Dragon Kingdom in the east, if I remember correctly, it was during…”
“The early Fourth Epoch, during the reign of Emperor Trajan of the ancient Solomon Empire.” Michael reminded. “When the Emperor’s eastern expeditionary army was attacking Parthia, they encountered a group of Dragon people from the east in the Persian Gulf, led by an envoy named ‘Gan Ying.’”
“Gan Ying.” Theodora savored the name. “I remember now, what a rhythmic name. The language of the Dragon Kingdom is like a song, naturally with a beautiful melody… Continue.”
“That was the first time we learned of the existence of the Dragon Kingdom.” Michael continued. “During the Great Colonization of the First Epoch, there were actually colony ships landing in the Far East. Unfortunately, due to the First Magic Tide, too much information was destroyed in the long river of history.”
“After confirming that there was still a human kingdom in the Far East, Emperor Trajan was very pleased and took the envoy group to Solomon. He also built the Column of Trajan to commemorate the first contact between the East and the West.”
“On the way back, a soldier from the Dragon Kingdom got a local girl pregnant in Apollonia, Siris province.” Michael said with a wry smile. “He originally thought the other party was a prostitute, but he didn’t expect that she was actually the daughter of a local prominent family, who had a one-night stand with him because she was fascinated by exotic customs. The girl’s father was very angry and forcibly detained him and married him to his daughter.”
“That is the ancestor of the Achilles family.” Theodora nodded.
“Yes.” Michael echoed. “The people of the Dragon Kingdom, whether in skin color, hair color, or eye color, are similar to us Solomons, and they are also natural warriors. That soldier was also good at using swords and spears, with superb and strange combat techniques, even the equally warlike Spartan warriors were no match for him, so the woman’s family named him ‘Achilles (Ἀχιλλεύς),’ meaning ‘Warrior from the River Styx.’”
“Warrior from the River Styx…” Theodora chewed on the words. “I want to meet this warrior. Michael, can you arrange it?”
“I can have someone summon him to the palace for an audience.” Michael said immediately.
“No.” Theodora thought for a moment and shook her head. “Find him. Then take me there, I want to observe this person myself.”
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