I, who was eager to retire, became an Imperial General.

Chapter 306 Illusory Luck, Unexpected Encounter

Early morning, at the Imperial Hotel.

After breakfast, John, as usual, sipped his coffee and casually read the Imperial Morning Gazette to get an overview of the current state of the negotiations and the latest news in the Empire.

As he had anticipated, the peace negotiations stalled on the first day, with the Allied delegation demanding that the Empire return the five towns it had previously captured.

The negotiating team, led by the Imperial Foreign Minister Erias, naturally could not agree to this demand. Instead, they demanded that the other side cede six towns on the border of the Kingdom of Saga and the Kingdom of Loran, citing the Empire's current advantage in the war on two fronts. Otherwise, they would send magical forces to launch a strong bombardment against the allied forces.

Of course, both sides knew that the final threat was impossible, since such a strategy of maximizing losses was meaningless to both. The reason why both sides maintained a strong stance in the initial negotiations was simply to save face for their respective countries, so as to promote the image of their delegations as advocating for their country's interests and daring to challenge the enemy, while further enhancing their citizens' confidence in their respective countries.

Given this tacit understanding, it was inevitable that the negotiations on the first day would reach a stalemate.

However, compared to appreciating the newspapers' artistic front-page stories that vehemently denounced their own delegation against the Allies and portrayed the opposing delegation as a group of greedy and incompetent individuals, a report below caught his attention.

According to the layout of the Imperial newspaper, this report belongs to the category of breaking news.

The report stated that Count Jek Emmentault, driven by personal ambition, meticulously planned the framing of Lieutenant General John Maslow in an attempt to gain political advantage.

Not only did the other party order someone to change John's formal attire for the banquet in advance, but they also secretly colluded with Count Krantz to falsely accuse Lieutenant General Maslow during the banquet. However, the false accusation was cleared up after Princess Alafia arrived.

Count Krantz, who made the false accusation, was also imprisoned, but he died mysteriously during the investigation.

Subsequent investigations yielded no useful information, and the case should have remained unsolved. However, Princess Elafia had ordered a thorough investigation, and the royal family's firm stance successfully instilled fear in the mastermind. Out of terror, the mastermind attempted to defect by disguising himself as a merchant and carrying a large number of confidential documents concerning the empire.

"But this matter was discovered and stopped by Mr. Hans Gruber, a loyal merchant of the Empire."

"Therefore, with no other way out, Count Jik committed suicide by drawing his sword in his carriage and left behind a letter of repentance."

"And under Mr. Hans Gruber's testimony, the surveillance forces also found a large number of documents containing information about high-ranking officials of the Empire, as well as a large amount of gold and silver treasures, carried by Count Gick at the scene."

"Based on physical evidence and witness testimony, it can now be determined that the defection of Count Jik is basically true. In order to ensure that classified information is not leaked, the surveillance forces have immediately launched arrests and interrogations of members of the Emmentalaut family."

"We are continuously following up on this development. The above information is brought to you by Smith Hank, reporter for the Empire Live News..."

So, the mastermind behind framing him and trying to put him in a difficult position at the banquet was this Geek Emmentalout?
“What a surprise…”

Seeing the news that Zeke defected out of panic, was eventually stopped by a businessman, and had no choice but to commit suicide.

John was surprised, but even more puzzled.

In his view, the report seemed to contain some flaws.

First, how did Hans Gruber, as a businessman, discover that Zeke was planning to defect?

Although the trap designed by the other party was foolish enough, it failed to achieve its intended effect and led to bankruptcy.

But since the other party went to such lengths to frame me, it is enough to demonstrate their level of caution.

No matter how terrified one is, the other party's defection should not have been noticed by a mere merchant.

Secondly, there was the matter of the businessman named Hans Gruber stopping Zeke.

Leaving aside how the other party managed to subdue the target in front of the Earl's caravan, which was heavily guarded.

But logically speaking, in this world, given the inherent oppressive power of nobles over commoners...

To put it bluntly, let alone knowing that the other party has defected, even if they witness the other party killing someone in the street, most ordinary people probably wouldn't dare to say anything.

Hans Gruber, on the contrary, took the initiative to stop and capture Zeke, which clearly shows that the other party not only has extremely strong strength, but also has courage far beyond that of ordinary people.

Although the newspaper did not specify the other party's identity or background, judging from the outcome, the other party must not be an ordinary person.

Among the nearly ten thousand merchants in Elena, Zeke, who was trying to escape, happened to pick Hans, who could threaten him, out of a probability of nearly one in ten thousand.

Adding the inference from the first point, we can further reduce the probability of this 'coincidence' by half.

On such an absurdly low probability.

John felt that this was no longer an event that could be described as a coincidence.

"On the contrary, it seems more like a premeditated outcome."

After searching the information and confirming the suspicious points in the incident, John's gaze couldn't help but fall on the photo in the right-hand column of the newspaper article, which showed members of the surveillance team questioning a wealthy businessman.

He scrutinized the face of the businessman named Hans Gruber, his mind constantly searching through his memories.

However, John was unable to find any information about the other person in his memory.

So, is it just an illusion?

This discovery made John frown, but after a moment of contemplation, he did not consider it a misjudgment. Instead, he silently memorized the name Hans Gruber, intending to have Bruno send someone to investigate the other party's background after resolving the recent trivial matters, and then make a decision.

"However, for now, let's go to the magic soldier training base first."

After all, ever since the official appointment letter for the formation of the 303rd Division was issued, the process of recruiting reserve members of the magic soldiers in the Third Air Army and John's divisions has been delayed, and only about one-fifth of the members have been formally incorporated so far.

The reason given by the military affairs department was a shortage of manpower, and that the process was still underway.

It wasn't until yesterday, when Dormammu returned to Walden and personally kicked open the door of the Imperial Military Affairs Office building with His Majesty William's decree, that the formation of the Third Air Army, which had been delayed due to various procedural issues, was officially and swiftly implemented today.

In less than a day, the 303rd Division training base, which originally had only one-fifth of reserve magic soldiers, saw its personnel increase to more than five thousand, directly completing the formation of half a division.

The conservative party major general responsible for bringing the reserve magic soldiers to the training base also called him yesterday, saying that the remaining reserve members would arrive one after another around 12:10 pm today, and the final handover ceremony would be completed at that time.

Perhaps this is because the training systems and combat styles of the Third Air Army and the 1st and 2nd Air Armies are completely different.

It's also possible that they received instructions from their superiors to prevent Dormammu from launching an attack on this matter.

Therefore, the conservative major general was very cautious and did not take any unnecessary actions. Instead, he asked John to arrive at the training base about two hours in advance, at which time he would lead the field officers temporarily assigned to the 1st and 2nd Air Armies back to their units.

The subsequent training program for the reserve members of the 303rd Division will be carried out by several instructors appointed by Dormammu.

As the division commander, he can make adjustments to the training plan in advance. The instructors in charge of training will also make minor adjustments to the three-month recruit training plan for the 303rd Division's reserve members based on his opinions, to ensure that the unit can fully understand and execute the tactical instructions that John wants to achieve in the future.

John had no choice but to inform Lothar of the matter in advance and postpone the lesson until the afternoon.

John did not intend to get too involved in the training program for new recruits.

After all, although he has now completed the memory fusion, the original owner was not a training master and did not have much experience in training soldiers.

Furthermore, the instructors responsible for training the new recruits were all from his old superiors' team, so their abilities were guaranteed. Therefore, he had even less reason to try to teach others.

Of course, his trip there wasn't just a formality; he had two purposes.

Firstly, under the pretext of increasing loyalty to the Empire, the reading of "Maslow's Quotations" was incorporated into the training plan for the reserve magic soldiers of the 303rd Division, thereby ensuring the loyalty of this unit.

Secondly, it's to see if we can find any familiar faces, in case any outstanding talents from the original work join our own unit but we overlook them due to negligence.

Although John knew the probability of the latter idea was extremely low.

But you can never predict luck.

Just as John never imagined that after stepping into Elenor, he would find a younger version of Hartmut at the Hope Beacon Orphanage and bring him under his wing.

"Although the probability is very low, what if, what if there happens to be a former member of the Twelve Protectors, or another mid-game Imperial SR, or even an Allied SR member, who happens to be in our unit?"

"Moreover, Wendy the pig who had her head stepped on by the goddess of misfortune has now returned to her hometown in the countryside. I am currently in an unprecedented state of great luck. Before I could even make a move, Zeke, who had plotted against me, committed suicide out of fear and guilt, which is the best proof of that."

"So, with Lady Luck's favor, finding ten or eight SR members from my recruit unit is a piece of cake!"

John kept telling himself this in his mind.

To ensure his "good luck" would continue, he even went back to his room and washed his hands three times before setting off.

Then he took out three cigarettes instead of incense sticks, used a teacup instead of an incense burner, and placed it in front of the window facing southeast. He then took out a ham, a handful of blueberries, and a red bean pie that he had previously taken from Wendy's snack store as offerings. After lighting the cigarettes, he bowed three times, made hand seals, and kept chanting "May the Heavenly Venerable grant boundless blessings" in his heart while walking the Bagua steps in the room.

They were trying to use this to connect with their ancestors across time in order to gain the blessing of good fortune.

After performing some mystical rituals, John, feeling he had successfully obtained the "Immortal's Blessing" buff, immediately called Bruno, who was standing at the door, and with a grand gesture, asked Bruno to drive him to the training base.

At this moment, the confident Lieutenant General John was convinced that, thanks to his previous mystical practices,

He's sure to gain unexpected rewards from this experience of recruiting new soldiers!
……

However, two hours later, looking at the group of young soldiers in front of him who were clear-headed yet equally foolish, John fell silent.

No, not one!

Not to mention the Allied SRs, not even one of the Empire's slightly famous villains appeared!
"What a joke!"

John's smile vanished completely when his luck failed.

Upon discovering this painful truth, John immediately lost all desire to stay. After forcing a smile and chatting briefly with his former superiors, who were now his subordinates and instructors, he finalized the basic training plan.

He immediately put on a dark face and had Bruno drive him to the West family's house so he could finish the training session that hadn't been able to begin that morning.

However, as John sat in the car, pondering why his usually formidable luck had completely failed him today, and whether it was related to his failure to perform the full version of the blessing, he was...

The next second, while he was agonizing over how to regain his good fortune, he caught a fleeting glimpse of a figure walking past the window out of the corner of his eye.

The moment John met the other person's gaze, his pupils contracted, and his heart was filled with disbelief.

Although the other party was dressed in a common imperial dwelling garment and wore no accessories, their appearance was somewhat unique, aside from their orcish bloodline.

However, from the Empire's aesthetic perspective, the other party was only slightly attractive, not the type that would make people stop in their tracks at first glance.

But the moment John saw the other person's figure, he recognized him.

White fox ears, a tail that habitually wraps around its waist, a perpetually aloof expression, and a simple magic wand hidden in its high-top leather boots.

And then there are the meticulously crafted masks used to disguise one's true face.

All of this undoubtedly points to the person John is most familiar with as the other party's true identity.

"The Great Sage of the Orcs—Maye Sistana!"

But shouldn't the other party be in the Kingdom of Loran at this time? How could they appear in the Empire?

How could they have come to the Empire at this time?
Could it be that, due to my influence on the plot, the Allied Special Operations Department has indeed been established ahead of schedule, just as I suspected, and that they are currently carrying out the Special Operations Department's mission?
Or perhaps the other party didn't join the Special Operations Department, but came to the capital by chance?

"..."

In that instant, John recognized the other party's true identity, and a thousand thoughts flashed through his mind.

But after only a brief moment of thought, he gave Bruno the order without hesitation:

"Bruno, stop the car immediately!"

"Squeak!"

……

(End of this chapter)