Trenches, Guns, and Magic

The female knight, widely respected as the "Golden Lion," quickly spotted Morin standing beside Cecilia after sweeping her gaze across the hall.

A smile immediately bloomed on the Grand Master's face. Ignoring the inquisitive and awestruck stares around her, she strode directly toward Morin and Cecilia on firm, powerful legs.

Her meticulously tailored ceremonial knight's dress uniform fit her perfectly. Her golden, wavy hair was tied back in a high ponytail that swayed with her steps, seeming to drape her in a radiant golden aura under the hall's lights.

Morin had often wondered how this Grand Master, who trained so rigorously and was exceptionally disciplined, managed to maintain such gorgeous long hair...

As Leonia approached, several groups of conversing guests involuntarily threw glances her way, then discreetly looked back.

Though they continued talking, their focus was visibly diminished, dedicating a significant portion of their attention to eavesdropping in that direction.

They couldn't be blamed. After all, as the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Leonia rarely attended such banquets previously.

Even when she did make a rare appearance, her status and aura almost guaranteed she would be the most conspicuous presence in the room every time.

When she arrived before the two with a smile, many nearby attendees began whispering among themselves, clearly curious about when "The Great Saxon Imperial Star" had gotten involved with the "Golden Lion."

Some with more erratic trains of thought began speculating if there was some deeper meaning behind this.

A few folks whose "loyalty was not absolute" even imagined scenarios where the royal family was thoroughly centralizing military power, firmly grasping the Empire's most powerful military forces in their own hands...

Morin also clearly felt Cecilia's grip on his arm tighten the instant Leonia approached.

It was a typical, instinctual defensive reaction when an outsider stepped onto one's territory.

Normally, if it were any other woman, the supremely confident Cecilia wouldn't be nervous, let alone this guarded.

But the problem was this Grand Master of the Teutonic Order.

She was different...

Perhaps Leonia's overly athletic physique and height didn't align with the current mainstream aesthetics.

Old Europe in the early 20th century was truly in a transitional period regarding female beauty standards.

Before the war broke out in 1914, the core of Europa's aesthetic emphasized female curves and cultivated a sense of exquisite, complex luxury—the highly sculptural "S-curve."

Women used corsets to push their hips back and their chests forward, forming a pronounced, "pigeon-breasted" posture.

As for makeup... makeup application hadn't yet become popular. It was considered unseemly in high society at the time, even directly associated with women of the night.

The ideal look for Old European aristocrats was a naturally pale complexion, as this was a symbol of wealth and status, indicating no need to toil outdoors.

But after the 【Fireball】 went off in Sarajevo in late June 1914, the world underwent drastic changes.

While nations implemented "total mobilization" to acquire massive troop numbers, it brought a new problem—the number of workers (broadly referring to all working personnel) maintaining the functioning of society also plummeted because they all went to the front.

This led to changes in the social structure...

Women entered the workforce in droves, and aesthetic standards shifted toward practicality, simplicity, and even somewhat androgynous styles.

Complex crinolines and corsets were completely discarded, replaced by straight up-and-down, "flat" figures that didn't emphasize body curves.

And with the awakening of a certain "-ism," makeup became common and accepted, while women's trousers, sheer chiffon, and tulle dresses gradually became new favorites...

But regardless, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Leonia, had nothing to do with either of those two aesthetic styles... They were completely irrelevant to her.

But Cecilia had been with Morin for so long that she had completely figured out certain "kinks" of his... She had also noticed that Morin's aesthetic preferences had shifted somewhat since joining the military.

To Morin, all of Leonia's traits hit his "strike zone" perfectly, not to mention the bonus points of her majestic bosom and golden, wavy hair...

"Good evening, Colonel Morin... It seems my information was accurate. You did attend this banquet tonight."

Leonia stopped, her front armor swaying slightly with the motion.

She first greeted Morin with a smile, then turned to Cecilia and executed a crisp, dashing knight's salute.

"Long time no see, Lady Falkenstein... You look enchanting tonight; you make the starlight seem dim by comparison."

Before Cecilia could react to this statement, Morin almost couldn't hold back a laugh.

Cecilia was indeed somewhat surprised. She hadn't expected the Grand Master to pull this move, leaving her momentarily unsure how to respond.

However, precisely because of this "traditional knightly flavor" radiating from the Grand Master and her relatively straightforward personality, some of Cecilia's anxieties were quickly dispelled.

Returning to her normal state, Cecilia smiled and offered an appropriate response. After exchanging pleasantries, Leonia's attention naturally shifted back to Morin.

The moment she spoke, the topic seamlessly transitioned directly into the entire process of the Balkan campaign, including the Armored Knight airdrop tactics and various tactical details of coordinating with ground forces.

This included the training syllabi and airdrop operational procedures already produced, as well as some issues exposed during actual operations.

These questions were quite specific; they weren't general evaluations but genuine inquiries into the details.

For instance, the impact of airdrop altitude and speed on the knight's combat readiness upon landing, and practical application issues like how ground infantry units should guide targets for the Armored Knights.

It was glaringly obvious that this Grand Master had probably jumped a few times herself, making her questions incisive and to the point.

Morin didn't beat around the bush either, laying out his thoughts on these issues point by point.

In truth, he really liked this direct, no-nonsense discussion style with Leonia. Her personality was also incredibly helpful for this kind of project exchange.

Just like Helga and Patricia, while she was equally alluring, once she entered an academic discussion, she became highly rational, preventing Morin's mind from wandering.

Back and forth, the conversation had completely slid into a technical discussion on the coordination between Armored Knights and infantry.

Morin took the opportunity to raise a question that had always bothered him.

"Grand Master, I must admit that Armored Knights hold an irreplaceable position in assisting ground force advances. But precisely because I've experienced so many battles coordinating with Armored Knights, I've found an issue that has yet to be resolved..."

Leonia: "Colonel Morin, there is no need to be so cautious. Your ideas and experience are very helpful to the Knight Order, so just speak your mind directly."

"Then I will be blunt..."

Morin said seriously, "In certain situations requiring long-distance tactical mobility, Armored Knights possess practically zero mobility."

"Mobility? Now that they can be airdropped via armored airships, their mobility should be vastly improved compared to before..."

Leonia frowned slightly, clearly not fully grasping Morin's point.

Morin: "That is true, but armored airship airdrops only solve the problem of rapid deployment to a designated location... Well, you could say it's a leap from nothing to something."

"But in reality, completely relying on armored airships is unrealistic... Right now, it's only because of the instruction unit's special status that we receive almost on-call armored airship support. Conventional combat units won't necessarily receive such treatment."

Morin paused, and seeing that Leonia was listening intently, he continued, "This also means that in combat, Armored Knights cannot follow infantry units in deep-penetration maneuver warfare... The precious engine hours of an Armored Knight obviously cannot be squandered on continuous 10 to 20-kilometer maneuvers to rush behind enemy lines."

"For example, in the battle we fought right after arriving at the Austro-Hungarian and Serbian border, because the armored airships weren't in position yet, when the instruction unit penetrated deep using trucks, the Armored Knights were entirely unable to provide support."

Leonia wasn't unfamiliar with the "penetration maneuver warfare" Morin mentioned.

In fact, the very battle he used as an example had been compiled into a detailed combat report by Paulus and the others shortly after it ended.

Aside from the report from the instruction unit's command echelon, it also included a massive amount of combat logs from frontline non-commissioned officers.

This report garnered significant attention after being submitted to the Army General Staff.

Besides the research on platoon- and company-level infantry tactics and firepower deployment, the concept of mature, large-scale "mobile warfare" utilizing mechanized vehicles also became a new research direction.

Ultimately, this combat report, along with many others previously submitted by the instruction unit, was bound into a booklet—after errata corrections and the addition of "insights" from the General Staff's operations department—and distributed to mid-to-high-ranking officers.

Because it involved coordinated combat with Armored Knights, it was also sent to the Teutonic Order.

And now, after Morin raised the point "Are Armored Knights truly such inconvenient things?" again, Leonia fell into deep thought.

She quickly realized that she, and the rest of the Knight Order, might have underestimated the depth of some of Morin's ideas. He seemed to be thinking much further ahead than anyone else.

The recent changes in Armored Knight combat were merely a beginning, or rather, the start of some kind of revolution.

Having figured this out, Leonia experienced a moment of enlightenment. She suddenly understood why Morin was so insistent on having Armored Knights use ranged weapons, and why he came up with unorthodox concepts like "two-seater Armored Knights"...

Soon, after organizing her slightly jumbled thoughts, Leonia asked tentatively, "So, Colonel Morin, your idea is that you hope Armored Knights can fully keep up with infantry during... er... what you call 'penetration maneuvers'? And rely on their formidable combat capabilities to provide direct support to the infantry, rather than acting purely as a 'trump card'?"

"Hahahaha, that's merely a beautiful hope... At least in the short term, it will be very difficult for Armored Knights to achieve that."

Morin laughed and shook his head upon hearing this. He knew very well that if they wanted Armored Knights to follow mechanized infantry in ground penetrations, there were only two paths.

Either abandon the bipedal walking mechanism and switch to heavy treads... but then it would no longer be an "Armored Knight," but would directly become some bizarre "Guntank" contraption.

Moreover, a massive amount of foundational design, including "Synesthesia Operation," would likely require major overhauls.

The other path was to develop tank transporters matching the performance level of the WWII M26 "Dragon Wagon," capable of hauling Armored Knights with a combat weight of over 18 tons while maintaining a certain speed.

Furthermore, as the equipment of Armored Knights evolved and "two-seater Armored Knights" entered service, the actual payload requirement would only increase.

But clearly, for the Saxon Empire, whose half-track armored vehicles were still in their infancy, this was absolutely not something they could produce in the short term.

Morin: "From the current perspective, a relatively more realistic plan is to have the Imperial Air Force figure out a way to commission more transport-type armored airships... Or, by lowering firepower and payload requirements, develop a lower-cost small-to-medium armored airship specifically designed for the aerial assault transport of Armored Knights..."

Leonia: "...That actually makes sense?"

"But that obviously requires shifting more of the military budget to the Air Force~"

Morin replied with a smile, "And from what I know, the Army, Navy, and Air Force are currently bickering incessantly over budget issues... The Army wants new vehicles and new guns, the Navy wants more and bigger warships, and the Air Force wants more armored airships and mass-produced combat aircraft..."

Standing nearby listening, Cecilia initially didn't think much of it, as she didn't truly understand most of the content. She only knew that Morin's early layout in mechanized vehicle production seemed to have excellent prospects and massive profits.

But soon, a subtle change appeared in her expression.

She turned to look at Morin, then at Leonia.

The way the two were discussing Armored Knights forced her to recall Morin, Helga, and Patricia at another banquet...

Back then, those three had also bizarrely turned the banquet into an academic salon, politely declining everyone else's invitations to stand off to the side and discuss light weapons and magitech.

And the result was the current Helga...

A certain image flashed through Cecilia's mind. She closed her eyes and forced the thought down.

It won't come to that. It won't...

Fortunately, Leonia and Helga were vastly different in every respect. This made Cecilia slightly less nervous, or rather, allowed her to relax half her guard.

As for the reason she only relaxed half... it was because Cecilia knew very well that the hardest people to defend against in this world were never the ones who approached with a motive...

...

In the western corner of the mansion's reception hall, on a set of sofas near the floor-to-ceiling windows, four guests were also discreetly observing the direction of Morin and his companions.

Their evening wear was impeccably tailored; the unique cufflinks and brooches were elegant, not tacky.

It was the kind of style that looked unremarkable at first glance but revealed fastidious refinement upon closer inspection—very "old money."

A single glance was enough to tell these were players who had begun primitive capital accumulation long ago...

After observing silently for a while, the one sitting furthest in, a man around fifty with neatly trimmed, graying sideburns, spoke first.

"Look at that. Not just the Air Force, now even the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order is taking the initiative to speak with him. What other connections does he have that we haven't discovered?"

Hearing his words, a middle-aged man with glasses next to him set his wine glass on the coffee table and said in a voice only the four of them could hear, "I said it before.. this Colonel Morin's network within the military is much deeper than our initial assessment."

"A deep network isn't a problem; in fact, it's a good thing... After all, he's still just a colonel."

Another man swirled his wine glass and said, "For us, the most important question isn't how many connections he has now, but what he will develop into in the future..."

Glasses Man: "It's hard to say what the future holds, but after this Balkan campaign ends, the military merits this guy has amassed will likely earn him another 'special promotion'... especially now, with the royal family practically showing their hand in courting this 'Kingslayer'."

"Exactly why we need him to be a friend, rather than letting him grow unchecked."

The man who spoke first summarized methodically.

The four fell silent for a moment.

A somewhat stout banker, who had remained silent the whole time, finally looked away from Morin's direction after observing carefully and turned to the people sitting beside him.

"Speaking of which, I've noticed a problem... The people you brought tonight... I doubt they'll be able to hook up with Colonel Morin~"

"Why?"

"Look for yourself. That Lady Falkenstein is guarding him like a mother hen protecting her chick..."

The stout banker shook his head and continued, "The head of United Industries, universally recognized as the most difficult woman to deal with in our circles... Compared to her, the ones we brought fall short in every conceivable aspect..."

The middle-aged man with glasses thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. "Looking at it that way, if we rashly send people to make contact tonight, and that lady sees through it, the losses will outweigh the gains."

"Then there's no rush for tonight. Startling the snake by beating the grass isn't our style."

"We can arrange it later, when he makes a solo appearance."

The stout banker said no more, turning his gaze back to the depths of the hall, where Morin was discussing something with the Grand Master.

Cecilia's posture beside him seemed utterly casual, yet she never strayed more than a half-step from him.

"This woman is certainly... quite protective of her food~" The banker let out a chuckle that the others instantly understood, and the four shared a tacit smile.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the hall, the Crown Prince had finished his conversation with the old nobles and was walking toward Morin with his wine glass.

The man who had spoken first discreetly withdrew his gaze, re-adopting the expression appropriate for a banquet guest.

"Drink first. We do nothing tonight."

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