Chapter 183, Conniving With Margaret
After Shady's final action against Roger, the Night Guards closed in on the entire Tianming Army. Unfortunately, Prince Shaq of the Sea Kingdom, who couldn't leave the capital due to his wager, also became a captive of the Empire.
The ocean and the land are completely different environments, and the God of Knowledge commanded the Church to intervene in politics. Therefore, the Mermaid Sea Kingdom has always maintained trade relations with the Green Vines Empire without any conflicts.
Therefore, aside from not being allowed to return home, Prince Shaq has always received a considerable level of hospitality.
The Secret Mage Society even built a simulated seawater swimming pool in the palace where he was being detained. Seeing the prince enjoy swimming, they confirmed their skill.
Prince Shaq, who was tormented by Shady, has come to fully understand the need to be obedient while living under someone else's roof. Thus, he didn't cause any trouble in the Green Vines Empire.
He was waiting for the Empire to resolve the Tianming Army issue and confirm that he held no enmity towards it before releasing him.
Then Margaret presented the strategic plan for the proxy war to the Queen of Eternal Night, and the strategic value of a certain prince from the coastal nation increased sharply.
Unfortunately, despite being greedy and lustful, Shack had his own bottom line. No matter how much Margaret lobbied, he refused the assistance provided by the Empire.
This prince was not smart enough and was repeatedly fooled by Shady. He had already developed the very cunning conditioned reflexes of humans.
The Prime Minister of the Empire took the initiative to approach him, offering military assistance and all kinds of weaponry. The first batch could even be purchased on credit without cash payment (loan).
However, this stroke of good luck that comes out of nowhere is highly doubtful.
He could not think of any conspiracy in the empire, but he believed that there must be an ulterior motive behind the excessive flattery. He simply refused.
No matter how eloquent you are, devil, Your Highness Shaq is immovable and will engage in non-violent non-cooperation with you to waste time.
Even if he delayed, the Mermaid Sea was being brutally attacked by the Naga, but this situation had remained the same for hundreds of years. Prince Shaq felt that, as a mediocre prince, he could not change this situation.
Faced with such a useless and incompetent person, even a small fan wanted to curse at him.
This prince had lost his previous sharpness and only wanted to do less and make fewer mistakes. When the Empire lost patience, he would be sent back to the sea.
Seeing that the desert war was over and the underwater battle was raging, the products sent to the Naga Empire via the detoured Terra Kingdom were improved and new ones were sent again. However, the proxy war that she had arranged earlier had no movement.
At several meetings, Xiao Diao Shan felt that the Empress of the Eternal Night was looking at her with a hint of dissatisfaction in her eyes.
The Empress seemed to be questioning her about who had previously pledged to stir up wars around the world and make the Empire the largest arms dealer.
In fact, she misunderstood, as the Eternal Night Empress's gaze towards her was not unusual at all.
With the Son of the System program, the Empire had too many opportunities to test new equipment, and they simply forgot about her work over there.
The Empress only credited Little Demon a bit for suggesting the idea of using the example of the coastal nation, but she later used the same idea to complete her own strategic layout.
Instead, it was Margaret herself who became obsessed with it.
After she was no longer in the mood to waste time with the mermaid prince, Margaret chose to go to the Maotai Manor and seek help from Roger.
Since Dio has not returned yet, she was forced to disturb her "siblings". There was no other option, right?
Roger was quite surprised to see Margaret secretly asking to meet him.
Although their relationship had eased and they had worked together on many occasions, this was the first time they met privately like this.
"Shake is refusing to cooperate? This is simple." Roger couldn't help but laugh, and immediately understood where Margaret was stuck.
He took out a locked box from his spatial ring, opened it and rummaged through a thick stack of printed materials. Finally, he took out a few pages and magically enlarged them, handing them to Margaret.
"You pretend to be casual and drop these records for Shaque to see, then lower the price of the weapon again and make a hurried departure. After no more than three times, I think he will cooperate with you."
"Is this a record from a certain meeting? Tasika is the queen of Terra, Nicole is the saint of the sea tribe, and this Joestar...he didn't die? Who are Copper Beard and Shana? "
Margaret was left with a lot of questions.
"This is not a meeting...oh well, just treat it as a record of a meeting." Roger promptly stopped talking about the Anti-Green Vines Alliance.
Since the extra-dimensional drawing board created by Tybella had limited functionality, it didn't even have a function to record chat logs, so he had to manually save the dark history of his silly net friends every time they chatted.
It was unexpectedly useful when fooling Prince Shaque and became evidence of collusion between the Naga Empire and Terra Kingdom.
Of course, Margaret understood that the records seen by Shake would make him believe that the empire's support of Seafolk was a way to suppress Terra Kingdom indirectly.
In addition, if Margaret voluntarily offered more favorable conditions, Prince Shake would became greedy and try to further reduce the price and ultimately become Margaret's puppet.
However, Roger's hesitant attitude was really suspicious, and Margaret squinted at him, "Just spit it out... Hmm, acting all mysterious. I even suspect that this Joestar is just a disguise of yours!"
"You really have a strange way of thinking!"
"Of course, I know it's impossible. After all, you killed him yourself~ Anyway, thanks. If you need any help in the future, feel free to tell me!"
The little devil patted Roger's shoulder on tiptoe and stepped forward to deal with Shake, not sparing anyone despite their relations.
She didn't know her casual joke hit the truth and surprised Roger.
This woman's intuition is truly sharp!
"By the way, let me have a look at the list of weapons you're going to sell to the Sea Empire." Roger stopped her.
Margaret didn't question Roger's authority and directly took out an equipment catalog from her dimensional ring before handing it over to Roger.
Then she casually sat on the chair opposite Roger's desk, staring at him with cute and adorable eyes, blinking her red eyes, looking expectant.
In any case, she is his "sibling", and he doesn't like women, so it doesn't matter if she acts cute, right?
Since she had let go of her bias against the Charles family and reached an understanding with Roger that day, she quickly relaxed in front of him.
Demons, these chaotic creatures, always do whatever they want without paying attention to details.
Now that Roger was helping her with the work, she took it as an encouragement from a cheerleader, or even a reward.
The little demon's impudent and curious gaze made Roger feel somewhat uncomfortable, with its intense and hidden sense of dissatisfaction which he could not fully understand.
But women's minds are as deep as the ocean, not to mention this girl's demonic bloodline. If he could figure out their occasionally short-circuited nerves, he might as well be close to a psychiatric hospital.
He didn't pay attention to the mischievous little demon, and focused on the equipment catalog that Margaret handed over to him.
Margaret was indeed intelligent and understood immediately what he was planning to do.
Roger is in charge of the line of the Terra Kingdom, and since the empire sent weapons and equipment to the Naga, Roger must know about it. He is asking this question to categorize things and avoid excessive testing.
Well, the purpose of the proxy war is to make a profit selling weapons and use the battles of others to test unstable weapons and equipment. Is there any problem with that?
However, on Earth, two superpowers were competing in another country's territory, while in the Eternal Night World, only the Green Vines Empire is playing the role of the mastermind behind the scenes...
Therefore, we must pay attention so that when the Mermaids and Naga meet each other, they don't realize that both sides are using the same standard equipment, or else the clone models will be embarrassing for whoever plays it poorly.
Margaret can of course arrange for her subordinates to communicate with both sides and complete this screening work.
But now there is someone doing the work for her, so naturally she is happy to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor.
She followed her idol closely, and even the emperor loves to copy homework. As the most loyal fan, she naturally wants to carry forward this fine tradition.
Roger has always had close communication with the Secret Society and knows their project like the back of his hand. He crossed out most of the equipment provided by the chapter of imbalance, and basically only left equipment produced by the wizard tower in Lydia.
Margaret looked at him deleting page after page of the list decisively, and thought of herself having to deal with a certain witch, her tail shook involuntarily, and she was unusually unsure, "I can't handle that witch... Roger, Do you really like her equipment?"
As they became more familiar, the little demon no longer bothered with formalities and called Roger by his name directly.
"It has great power, but it is also very uncontrollable, so it needs to be tested extensively." Roger handed the equipment catalog back to Margaret. "If you don't want to go, I'll go talk to them myself."
"That truly is too much trouble for you!" Margaret immediately agreed without any hesitation.
This guy had stolen his only friend, he didn't need to be polite to him.
During the Kambusha Desert battle, Sophie revealed the potion made by Lydia and created the "Green Worm Parasitic Night," shocking both sides of the war. After that, Roger wanted to meet the "Bio-Witch" of the Secret Magic Guild.
Now, borrowing from the Sea Country War, there is indeed a reason to go to the Magic Tower where the opposing side is located.
However, it would be a losing business to work for Margaret for free. Half jokingly and half seriously, he said, "You have even given me the work of the Prime Minister, should I also receive your salary?"
"That won't do. This month, I have to use my salary to print the photo album for His Majesty to present to the Knights Order!" Margaret immediately stepped back and cautiously said, "You can keep a record on Dio's account. He has always promised to help me, but has never shown up. Let him pay you later!"
Roger frowned, "Are you threatening me with this again?"
He calmly said, "The premise for Dio helping you is that you have been providing him with breakfast every day. Do you know how many meals you owe him for these days?"
Margaret immediately protested, "Are you saying that I don't want to deliver the breakfast myself?"
Roger sneered, "Or it could be that he doesn't want to help?"
"Well...of course, I understand that he has his reasons..." Margaret's attitude softened, "Or, what if I also bring you breakfast every day too?"
So you also get an additional free chat companion, correct?
"Sorry, I refuse," Roger said firmly. He didn't want to comfort the empty-nested little devil. "You remember you owe me a promise. Do your best to keep it without harming His Majesty."
"Alright, as long as I don't harm His Majesty, I will fulfill your promise," Margaret agreed.
Although the deal resulted in little benefit, it was still worth it to avoid facing that dreadful witch!
Immediately, the two set off on separate missions; Margaret went to sweet-talk Shack, while Roger headed towards a mage tower of equal standing with the Unbalanced Chapter of the Secret Art Society, known as "Life's Orbit".
The owner of this magic tower was Lydia, the assistant magic consultant of the Secret Art Society and also the private physician of the Queen of Eternal Night.
Thanks to Lydia's help, the queen's body issues have been alleviated and she is able to progress through the game's storyline.
Although many events that could damage the queen's lifespan have not occurred yet, the hidden dangers left by her quick growth in the past have become extremely difficult to overcome.
"Life Orbit", this mage tower designed by Lydia, is the experimental sanctuary of the Empire's strongest schools of transformation, magic medicine, and druidism. It is also a massive magical ritual.
It binds the Eternal Night Queen's body with the fate of the Empire, ensuring that her life will expire and the Empire will not perish, and her body will always remain in peak condition.
Naturally, this is once again a wonder-level construction.
Lydia is a legendary figure in the Empire who has made countless contributions. For example, the contribution of alchemists in the project of "Magic Corrosion" is not only for the unbalanced chapter, but Lydia's technical support in magic medicine is also invaluable.
However, her reputation has never been good and she is known as the "Biochemical Witch".
Because she always resorts to extreme measures in order to conduct experiments, many magicians consider her actions to be crazy. She has an individualistic and inexplicable nature, giving off a rather terrifying image.
Frankenstein has mechanized himself to a point that is still acceptable by magicians, but Lydia is someone who is kept at a distance by the entire group of magicians, which shows how terrifying she can be on many occasions.
However, she doesn't care as long as she can explore her own field of interest. And since funding is provided every year anyways, she doesn't need to care about others' opinions.
After the publication of "New Arcane Arts," her imagination was unlocked, offering her opportunities to make some extremely dangerous attempts.
For example, the test tube given to Sophie, containing a green worm with extremely strong vitality and parasitic properties, has the full name "Allogeneic Immune Cell Cancer XII".
In other words, it was a primitive deity's cell that was stimulated by Lydia and mutated. Then, a bunch of properties were magically altered, and finally, it created a terrible biochemical weapon.
Its targeted attack ability did show the characteristics of immune cells, but the combat power it possessed was definitely not something that normal systems could demonstrate, not even the gods.
She provided the military with a list of equipment catalogs, some of which were very imaginative.
The virtual deity project, which Roger was very optimistic about, received considerable assistance from Lydia as well.
However, she didn't participate in it personally, as the biochemical sorceress still had her own research to complete. She effortlessly finished the scientific research tasks assigned to her by the empire, and freely indulged in her own curiosity.
Regarding such a talented and individualistic person, Roger believed he needed to have a proper conversation with her, hoping to gain some inspiration for himself.
