Trenches, Guns, and Magic

Saxon Empire, Dresden.

Three radiant crystal sedans drove smoothly along the broad suburban road.

In the black sedan in the middle, Head Maid Luna sat in the driver's seat, focused intently on the steering wheel.

As the "Radiant Crystal Queen's" all-around personal assistant, proficiently driving radiant crystal vehicles, expertly using various light weapons, and mastering individual combat skills were naturally among her essential abilities.

Cecilia, wearing a black evening gown, and Morin, dressed in his officer's service uniform adorned with a full array of medals, sat in the back seat.

However, the atmosphere in the car had been a bit off since they left the estate...

"Off" wasn't exactly accurate, as Cecilia's emotions were always restrained and rarely showed on her face.

But her right hand had been tightly clasping Morin's since they entered the car, and her grip was noticeably stronger than usual. That was telling enough.

As the capital of the Saxon Empire, a nation of radiant crystal industry, Dresden's infrastructure was excellent. Even the suburban roads were lined with numerous streetlights.

The dim yellow lights flashed past the window rhythmically, reminding Morin of that night a month ago when he led over seven hundred men through the Bulgarian mountain forests.

But back then, he knew what he was doing and how to do it... He wasn't panicked in the slightest.

Now, it was different...

Light and shadow flowed through the cabin as the two stared at each other in silence.

Nearly a month had passed since the Sofia counter-offensive, which ended in a resounding victory for the joint Bulgarian and Saxon forces.

In the surprise attack launched by the instruction unit in coordination with the armored airship, the Greek Expeditionary Force failed to mount any effective resistance.

Not only was their forward command post wiped out directly, but General Philip, the expeditionary force commander, and a host of senior officers were all captured.

Following the "decapitation" of their high command, the Greek Expeditionary Force's roughly constructed defensive lines collapsed completely under the Bulgarian Army's full-scale counter-offensive.

Nearly half of the Greek soldiers became prisoners of war in this massive rout.

The remaining half began a "long-distance running competition" through the Bulgarian mountains. The luckier ones eventually surrendered when cornered, while the less fortunate were laid to rest forever in a foreign land.

With the three-pronged encirclement of the Kingdom of Bulgaria shattered and two of the threats eliminated, the Ottoman Empire realized the tide had turned.

The three Pashas knew very well that they couldn't continue the offensive on their own, especially after the Saxon Army—which seemed to drop from the sky onto every front line—joined the battle...

On June 27th, the day after the last batch of Romanian Army soldiers withdrew from Bulgaria, the Romanian provisional government in Constanța on the Black Sea coast announced its withdrawal from the war through multiple public channels.

For a nation that had lost its king and seen its capital nearly turned into a ghost town, they had no cards left to play in negotiations with the Saxons.

Although the Romanian provisional government had been trying to suppress the shocking negative news that their former king was a vampire by manipulating public opinion, the problem was that this "bombshell" was simply too explosive...

Newspapers of various nations—especially several influential ones in the Gallic Republic, which had already exited the war—competed to heavily report the news of Bucharest becoming a ghost town due to its vampire king.

While the Gallic press likely did this to find a "companion" for their own "Paris Undead Scourge" and divert attention to Romania...

Under immense public pressure, the Romanian provisional government truly had no better option than to withdraw from the war immediately.

Soon after, the Ottoman Empire followed the Romanians in announcing their withdrawal from the war.

They were basically one of the nations that suffered the least direct losses in this Balkan campaign, and they showed the Britannians—who were usually adept at screwing over their allies—what "Balkan speed" meant.

Just like that, the three most capable fighters of the Balkan Peninsula allied forces... The Kingdom of Greater Serbia, the Kingdom of Romania, and the Ottoman Empire. One had its main force crushed and lost its capital; another lost its king and had its capital basically ruined; the last saw the writing on the wall and directly withdrew from the war.

After its expeditionary force was routed, the Kingdom of Greece also announced the withdrawal of its remaining troops and exited the war at light speed. To show their resolve, they decisively sealed their borders, refusing entry to any routed soldiers from the Kingdom of Greater Serbia.

The once-massive Balkan Peninsula allied forces, which boasted about leveling the Austro-Hungarian Empire, fell apart almost overnight.

Facing such a disorganized mess, Crown Prince Georg, now supported by more "beasts of war," commanded the Fifth Army and their Austro-Hungarian allies to sweep across more than half of Serbia with overwhelming momentum, completely dismantling the remaining effective resistance.

Meanwhile, the Saxon delegation, having just concluded negotiations in the Kingdom of Romania, rushed to Belgrade without pause alongside the Austro-Hungarian delegation to begin discussing war reparations with the other Balkan nations.

After all, after being unilaterally crushed militarily, these Balkan nations couldn't simply say "I'm not playing anymore!" and stay out of it.

With this large-scale campaign reaching this stage, while the main force of the Fifth Army commanded by the Crown Prince and the 48th Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Marwitz remained to deter the Balkan nations, "Kampfgruppe Morin" finally began returning home for rest and reorganization after being relieved by arriving troops.

Although the Balkan Peninsula campaign starting in April didn't last long, the combat intensity for the various units under "Kampfgruppe Morin" was by no means low.

Quelling a rebellion in an ally's capital, conducting black ops in an ally's second capital, engaging in large-scale penetration and encirclement battles in the Austro-Serbian border region, launching a surprise attack across the Carpathian natural barrier to take Bucharest, fighting an army of vampires, and finally, dropping from the sky into Sofia...

For a single unit to pull off so many crazy stunts, returning home for a rest was entirely reasonable.

However, as the other combat units of the Kampfgruppe returned to their respective bases and he led the instruction unit back to their garrison in Dresden, Morin—who had thought he could finally get a good rest—found that personally, he had no free time.

Demag's half-track armored vehicle had previously passed Army inspections and was now entering low-rate initial production.

Morin, who had personally pushed this project, unsurprisingly took on the task of field testing it.

He also took the opportunity to submit an application to transfer Major Maximilian von Weichs's 5th Guards Reserve Cavalry Regiment to the instruction unit, reorganizing it into the "Armored Cavalry Instruction Regiment," which was approved by the Army Ministry.

And this meant a whole new workload bearing down on him.

Beyond that, a new wave of official, unofficial, Army, Air Force... all sorts of banquet invitations left Morin feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

Even though the Empire was still facing a multi-front war, the capital, Dresden, had entered a state of revelry due to the continuous string of victories.

Even though this world, thanks to magic, possessed chemical fertilizers and "magical rapid-growth pigs," plus the massive amount of supplies plundered from the Gallic Republic early in the war—meaning the Saxon Empire wasn't facing a food crisis like the Second Reich in his previous world.

In his view, these banquets in the rear were still highly ironic... While Morin tried his best to decline most private banquets, he couldn't easily refuse some semi-official ones where high-ranking military officials personally invited him and made an appearance.

Since Morin returned home, the newspapers were plastered with propaganda hailing him as the Saxon Emperor's "most favored rising star in the military"—shortened to "The Great Saxon Imperial Star." Some of the exaggerated accounts of his battle record made even him blush.

Although Morin understood this was all part of the state machinery's propaganda campaign, it still made him somewhat uncomfortable.

Especially today's banquet, which was attended by His Highness the Crown Prince—who had just earned the title "Georg the Conqueror" and returned from the front lines. This left Morin with no choice but to attend alongside Cecilia.

But even so, the aforementioned issues weren't major problems for Morin.

The truly thorny "difficulty" came from the noblewoman sitting beside him, who remained silent and merely stared at him intently.

After an unknown amount of time, Cecilia's voice broke the silence in the cabin.

"My dear Fritz... Do you really think you can avoid this issue by staying silent like last night?" (Fritz is a common nickname for Friedrich in German-speaking regions.)

"..."

Seeing Morin remain silent, acting like a thief with a guilty conscience, Cecilia continued in an exasperated tone: "You... I originally thought you had changed a lot, but it seems old habits die hard... How could you possibly have the nerve to lay hands on Helga? And on the Balkan front lines, no less!"

Morin was temporarily speechless. In truth, he hadn't expected this to be exposed so quickly.

When Helga finished the field testing of the weapons and equipment and returned home early with her team, Cecilia hadn't noticed anything unusual.

But when Morin returned to the estate a few days ago, Cecilia immediately noticed the strange dynamic between him and Helga.

Finally, while enjoying the afterglow after their "workout" last night, Cecilia casually mentioned that Helga had been acting a bit strange since returning from the Balkan front...

"You have to believe me, Sister Cecilia..."

Morin finally spoke. "It really was an accident."

Cecilia didn't reply immediately, merely turning her head to glance at him.

"An accident."

She repeated the word, her tone calm, betraying no emotion.

"Helga specifically went to the front lines to conduct field tests on weapons, and you're telling me... an accident like this occurred?"

"Unpredictable things do happen at night on the front lines... And I was unconscious from the side effects of a potion provided by the Holy See. I was actually quite groggy and not entirely clear on what happened..."

"Fritz..."

"Sister Cecilia, I'm serious!"

"..."

"Fritz..." Cecilia sighed. "I'm not asking for the details."

"Then what do you want to ask?"

"Have you considered what this means to Helga?"

Seeing Morin freeze and fall silent, Cecilia sighed, her tone softening slightly as she continued, "In the past, I would have just turned a blind eye to your philandering, but our relationship is different now. Naturally, I will think about this more carefully..."

"I don't really mind, and I don't care about my so-called reputation, but the question is, can Helga accept the intimate relationship between you and me?"

Hearing this question, Morin quickly reviewed Helga's reaction at the time in his mind.

"Uh... she should know. She's somewhat aware of our situation."

"'Somewhat aware' and 'truly accepting' are not the same thing, Fritz... You may know how to please women, but you don't understand these more delicate emotions."

Cecilia shook her head in mild exasperation.

"Reactions made in the heat of passion are often impulsive. If she sits down and thinks about it, she might come to a completely different answer. Do you understand?"

Morin fell silent for a moment, not refuting her, realizing her words made sense.

"Then..."

"Forget it, you don't need to worry about it... A busy man like you doesn't have the time to worry about these things."

Morin had just opened his mouth to say something when Cecilia cut him off.

"I'll find an opportunity in the next couple of days to have an open and honest talk with Helga, just to make sure she isn't harboring any strange thoughts... The girl seems lively, but she actually likes to keep a lot of things bottled up."

Morin was stunned for a second, then leaned closer to her, adopting an expression he only showed in front of Cecilia—it couldn't be called a cheeky grin, but it certainly wasn't serious either.

Cecilia glanced at him sideways and reached out to give his waist a moderate pinch.

Morin hissed but didn't dodge.

"Good heavens, what did I do to deserve this... Perhaps General Mackensen was right, I really do spoil you too much."

Cecilia leaned back against the seat as if deflated, muttering in exasperation, "To think I actually have to help you, you little rascal, handle your relationships with girls. My dear 'Colonel Morin,' do you know how many women in this world would find this utterly absurd?"

"But you are not an ordinary woman, Lady Cecilia."

"Smooth-talking again... Mmph!"

In the front seat, Luna gripping the steering wheel, felt the corners of her mouth twitch upward before she quickly suppressed it.

About ten minutes later, the tires rolled onto a gravel driveway, and the car noticeably slowed down.

In the distance, a mansion was illuminated by rows of warm-toned lights, outlining the shadows of the surrounding trees.

A long line of vehicles was already parked outside the mansion's walls. Among them, several staff cars bearing the Black Eagle emblem were particularly conspicuous, parked closest to the main entrance.

Morin took one look, dropped his cheeky grin, and switched back to his serious officer's face.

Cecilia also sat up straight, placed her hands on his chest, smoothed his collar with two fingers, and patted out the wrinkles on his uniform caused by their playfulness.

"Alright, time to get down to business."

The owner of the mansion hailed from the Empire's old nobility. Tonight, whether it was the gardens outside—convenient for men and women to tryst—or the main reception hall, everything was arranged with sufficient elegance.

A waiter led Morin and Cecilia into the reception hall, where warm-toned chandeliers brightly illuminated the entire space.

Guests in various styles of evening wear were scattered about conversing in low tones, the soft clinking of wine glasses interweaving with string music.

Behind them, other guests were whispering. Morin could roughly guess what they were saying... nothing more than the head of United Industries and the Army's rising star attending together again.

Morin swept his gaze across the hall and spotted Crown Prince Georg, wearing a uniform with shining medals, in the crowd.

The Crown Prince was standing near the inner part of the hall, discussing something with two white-haired old nobles, his expression maintaining that gentle warmth that made everyone feel at ease.

Their eyes met, and Georg slightly raised his glass to him in acknowledgment.

Seeing Morin nod in return, Georg redirected his attention back to the nobles before him.

As Morin and Cecilia continued walking into the venue, his gaze swept around the room.

Minister of War Falkenhayn was not far away, holding a wine glass and chatting casually with two officers. Seeing Morin and Cecilia enter, he proactively lifted his chin in greeting.

Moltke the Younger stood slightly further back, hands clasped behind his back, discussing something with another group of officers.

As for Lieutenant General Peter Strasser, the Air Force Minister who was always trying to poach Morin, he was surprisingly also in attendance, currently huddled with several high-ranking Imperial Air Force officials discussing something.

Morin naturally had to proactively go over and greet his direct superiors.

And Cecilia's status and social skills quickly helped Morin, who wasn't adept in such environments, acclimate.

After exchanging pleasantries with Moltke and the others, Morin approached Falkenhayn.

This Minister of War was famously difficult to deal with within the Ministry, but after interacting with him frequently, Morin found the man actually quite approachable—provided you demonstrated sufficient value, of course.

After a bit of small talk, Morin half-jokingly asked him why, with the top two figures of the Army and Air Force present, there were no Navy personnel in attendance. Could it be an "Army-Navy rivalry"?

Falkenhayn chuckled at this, glanced around casually, offered an apologetic expression to Cecilia, then signaled Morin to step aside. He lowered his voice and whispered in his ear: "The Navy has a major operation these past two days, so His Majesty and their people are absent... Stop worrying about it. Get some good rest during this time; you'll be busy soon enough."

"Minister... Didn't you just approve the 'Armored Cavalry Instruction Regiment' project? Why is there more work coming... Can you disclose what exactly I'll be busy with?"

"Hahaha, I can't say right now. You'll know when the time comes..."

Falkenhayn paused, adding, "You're a veteran of many battles, relax... Have a couple of drinks; tonight is just a normal banquet."

With that, the two returned to Cecilia and chatted about matters concerning the radiant crystal supply. This was another major function of these Dresden banquets—networking and deal-making.

Morin quickly pushed the matter to the back of his mind, picked up a glass of champagne offered by a waiter, and joined Falkenhayn and Cecilia in socializing with the other guests.

There were officers he had cooperated with during the war, several of Cecilia's business partners, and some unfamiliar bankers who looked like bad news...

They never stopped to talk for long. Cecilia kept her arm linked through his, her words appropriate, her expressions soft, handling the social affairs flawlessly.

Watching this noblewoman navigate these situations gave Morin a bizarre sense of contrast. The same woman who was playfully poking his waist in the car angrily had switched to a completely different expression management system here...

Just as Morin was taking a break from greeting officers, a slight commotion rippled through the crowd on the other side of the hall, prompting them to turn their heads.

Then, Morin saw a familiar, yet surprising figure.

Dazzling blonde hair, perfect nine-heads proportions, a ceremonial knight's dress uniform, walking with a commanding stride... An aura unique in the entire reception hall.

The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Leonia von Fortis, had arrived.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!