Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Compared to the three army generals, the fourth army officer sitting at the edge of the simple table drew more attention from Wetter—because the person was clearly wearing an officer's uniform.

In contrast to the chairs under the generals, the officer had only a stool to sit on. His hands rested stiffly on his knees, his shoulders tense, and his expression was more constrained than anxious.

Seeing Wetter Pisani and others outside the door, the officer instead let out a long breath and his shoulders relaxed somewhat.

Since the "Florence" commander was in the room, Wetter guessed that the officer should be the representative of General Antonio Serviati, the commander of the "Da Vineta" corps.

But now was not the right time to ask questions.

The army colonel responsible for reception saluted the generals in the basement and stopped outside the door.

Wetter was naturally not swayed by the army's display. He glanced at his two companions with a smile and casually walked into the room.

The heavy oak door closed again, sealing off all sound.

Wetter Pisani tossed his tricorn hat onto the table, pulled out chairs for his two older companions, and asked casually, "You invited us to the Army Headquarters, asked us to wear civilian clothes, yet sent a conspicuous cavalry escort? As expected of the respectable army colleagues, always doing things in an unfathomable way."

The three army generals frowned. The officer sitting at the edge instinctively shrank his shoulders again after just relaxing them.

"The reason we strongly invited you here is due to unspeakable circumstances."

Major General Bal responded politely, placed the documents beside him back into the file box, and pushed the wooden box in front of the three navy officers:

"Because of these—the documents we want to show you hold the highest level of confidentiality. According to the Army Confidentiality Regulations, they cannot be reviewed outside this archive room, nor discussed outside it. Honestly, even within the army, the number of people who can enter this archive room is very few, and even fewer officers are aware of the contents of these documents. Your presence in this archive room signifies we have already shown great sincerity."

Wetter raised his eyebrows, just about to speak when it was Captain Tieye sitting on the other side who spoke first.

Lorenzo Tieye did not even glance at the wooden box. He stared coldly at the three army generals in front of him and asked sharply, "Saying so much nonsense, are you not ultimately going to let us see them?"

Upon this, Rost Layton, who was already holding back his anger, finally lost patience and slammed the table, "You've probably gotten used to acting like kings on the ship! But our army has rules and discipline!"

Wetter Pisani immediately retorted with sarcasm, "So the rules of the army are to spread butter on pork and mix mud with dog shit?"

"[Crude language]!" Layton was exasperated.

Wetter was not to be outdone: "[An old version of crude language]!"

"Enough!" Admiral Zio shouted angrily, "Stop making a fool of yourselves!"

The people in the archive room nearly had their eardrums shattered. It was hard to imagine such a loud voice came from a thin old man.

Layton gritted his teeth, righted the chair he had kicked over, and sat back down angrily.

"Ensuring your safety," Carlo Qiao said concisely, "was Antonio's request."

"That's correct." The officer by the side echoed softly, "Lieutenant General Serviati takes your safety extremely seriously. The cavalry escorting you is also from the Third Corps."

Tieye squinted his eyes, scrutinizing the officer.

"This is Colonel Sebastian Wobang." Major General Bal proactively introduced to the navy officers, "The representative of General Serviati. It is thanks to General Serviati's contribution that our respectable navy colleagues can meet with us openly."

"We were willing to come to your 'Imperial Palace,'" Wetter Pisani snorted lightly, "Not because of Antonio Serviati, but because of Sir Nalesho's face."

Jacob de Bal said meaningfully, "It seems there are some 'pacifists' among us, aren't there?"

The major general emphasized the pronunciation of "pacifists," causing another major general—Rost Layton—to snort coldly.

"Let's get on with what needs to be done." Admiral Zio's words ended the verbal duel in the archive room.

Wetter Pisani and Captain Tieye exchanged glances, ultimately with Wetter reaching for the file box, distributing the documents inside to his colleagues.

Each of the army's top-secret documents was bound with heavy cardstock.

The cover only bore the serial number and security level. Upon opening it, the first page contained receiving and dispatching personnel, the second page was a summary of contents, and further in were the originals pasted on paper.

The first document Wetter took piqued his interest.

The second page of the summary indicated that the document's contents pertained to the Empire's royal family's routine winter hunting ritual last year on the Castile Peninsula.

As he looked further, there were three original documents, all of which were poorly written handwritten copies.

The first original document was a hunting record of the Empire's royal family members during the winter hunt;

The second original document was a bill listing the consumption of alcohol, meat, and flour by the Empire's royal family's palace during the winter hunt;

The third original document was the shortest in length, but it recorded the dietary habits and behaviors of Henry the Sun IV during his stay on the Castile Peninsula.

Considering that the survival of the Empire and the fate of the Alliance greatly depended on Henry IV's life and health, this intelligence was extremely valuable.