Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 204 The Thistle Knight
Li Wei felt that he had been tricked by the Queen.

Of course, the rewards at this New Year's banquet were quite generous. Livy received four medals, was knighted as a Thistle Knight, and was also granted the title of Earl.

According to imperial tradition, every Knight of the Thistle must be an earl. The reason seems to be that when King Arthur first appointed his twelve knights, he made them earls.

On the surface, it looks like a good thing.

Well, in fact, it seems to be a good thing.

But the problem is that its political significance is completely different!

The day after the New Year's banquet, the news was featured on the front page of every major newspaper, practically becoming a feature article on Levi. It mainly described Levi's contributions to the Empire over the past year, including the initial assassination of the courtesan, the vampire case, the hunt for the sea monster, the internal strife in Melisia, the terrorist attack on the Steel City… Hmm, looking at it this way, it doesn't seem so surprising that Levi received this medal.

Most media outlets did not express any objection to whether Li Wei was qualified for the Order of the Thistle. Putting aside everything else, the two things alone—hunting the sea monster and announcing the arrest of the rebel leader in person at the Continental Parliament—had already made Li Wei the Imperial Person of the Year.

Furthermore, Li Wei had also developed a close relationship with General Howe of the military during the Melesian Civil War. It was thanks to his reconnaissance that the imperial army was able to annihilate the rebels with minimal casualties, so the military had no objections to this appointment.

But that's not the problem.

Many newspapers, in their reports, considered this to be an attitude displayed by Her Majesty the Queen. As is well known, Emperor Arthur appointed the Twelve Knights and led them to unify the continent and create the empire.

The Queen has always claimed that she wants to bring the empire back to its historical peak, and now she is following in the footsteps of Emperor Arthur by bestowing titles upon the Knights of the Thistle—it's hard to say whether Her Majesty the Queen is plotting to make history repeat itself!

Who wouldn't want to be the next Emperor Arthur!

Incidentally, the meaning of thistle is—those who offend me will be punished.

To put it in more familiar terms—those who offend our empire, no matter how far away, shall be punished.

Therefore, Li Wei felt that he had been tricked by the Queen.

The reason I, the Thistle Knight, am so unlucky is that I am the first of my kind in this era!
If the Queen were to bestow upon Livy the title of the second or third Knight of the Thistle, Livy wouldn't care. After all, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down; as long as he wasn't the one to do so, it wouldn't matter.

But damn, this is the first one! I'm the one who stepped forward!
The Knights of the Thistle correspond to the twelve knights of Arthur the Great, making them politically significant.

Conversely, eliminating Li Wei would severely damage the empire's prestige and morale.

The Queen is hard to kill, but Livy is easier to kill than the Queen.

This is why Li Wei was quite speechless. He originally wanted the Queen to be the main tank (MT) and draw aggro in front, while he, as a DPS, stayed in the back to deal damage. But now, the Queen has dragged him to the forefront to be the main tank as well, at least drawing half of the aggro.

Therefore, the Queen is the main tank, and I am the off-tank.

Now we can only hope that the raid leader won't steal our gear when we fight the boss.

In addition, although Livy was an earl, it was not hereditary but for life, which meant he did not have his own fiefdom. This was to be expected, since the Knights of the Thistle were subordinate to the royal family and therefore accountable to the royal family; it was impossible for a vassal's vassal to not be his vassal.

The Knights were funded by the royal family, and therefore naturally the royal family was in charge of them.

Of course, the knightly orders of this era don't mean that a bunch of mounted knights were actually formed like in the Middle Ages—times have changed, and these days, a mounted raid would just get you shot in a line.

Instead, they created an army specifically for Li Wei!
Well, you know what, the Queen may be ruthless, but she's incredibly generous.

Simply put, Levi can choose one of three types of ships: airships, warships, or land cruisers, make his own requests, and then the Empire will build one specifically for him. After that, it will become a warship under Levi's command.

Airships and warships are easy to talk about, but let's talk about land cruisers here—the Empire has air fortresses in the air and steel fleets in the sea, and of course, it can't only have army soldiers on land. On the contrary, in addition to mechs, the Empire also has ground fortresses called "land cruisers".

Li Wei had also met him once; to put it simply, it was quite straightforward.

Imagine a warship with three pairs of thick, sturdy legs below the waterline, running wildly across the mountains and fields... Yes, it is indeed a land cruiser.

If Li Wei were to comment, he would say it's incredibly ugly, incredibly tacky, and incredibly unattractive.

But you have to admit, a big iron shell that can traverse mountains and valleys, run around everywhere, and blast anything it doesn't like into the sky with a 305mm cannon is indeed incredibly awesome.

Li Wei didn't hesitate much when faced with this choice of three.

Warships were out of the question; Levi had no desire to ever sail again. He also didn't have a place for a land cruiser, and besides, it could only operate on land, making it largely useless to him.

So Li Wei chose the airship.

After all, during the civil war in Melisia, Levi discovered that he had excellent synergy with airships, especially when combined with [Soul Vision], which was practically comparable to modern radar. Radar didn't exist in this era, and Levi was virtually invincible simply by relying on this cheat.

In addition, the fact that airships have fewer personnel and are not involved in large-scale combat operations is another reason why Li Wei chose them. There's not much to say about air combat; there are planes, but they are all quadcopter propeller planes that don't fly very high or very fast, posing virtually no threat.

In fact, people in this era still don't understand what airplanes are actually used for; they just regard them as a novel invention like steam cars.

After all, when it comes to firepower, the Empire has air fortresses. While airships are slower than jet aircraft, they are far superior to propeller planes in terms of stability, comfort, and safety. If aircraft have any advantage that neither of them possesses, it is their agility.

Li Wei was also very curious about what kind of development path airplanes would take in this world.

At least for now, unless someone can develop a jet aircraft, it seems that airplanes have virtually no place in the Imperial Air Force...

But I digress. To get back to the point, Li Wei had his own reasons for choosing the airship.

After all, airships can go anywhere, so if Li Wei were to fight some mysterious monster, he could call for support anytime, anywhere.

When in doubt, just blow it up!
Of course, Li Wei also had his own requirements for the airship. When the airship designers heard Li Wei's requirements, they were also puzzled, but they still agreed to go back and study them carefully to see if they could meet Li Wei's strange requirements.

Since the Queen said he could spend the money as he pleased, Li Wei figured he might as well spend it. As for the issue of his family name and coat of arms, Li Wei resolved it quickly: he would keep his family name and continue using his surname. After all, not everyone in the empire had the same surname, and Li Wei was too lazy to add any strange names to his own.

Finally, there's the coat of arms—well, Li Wei didn't originally have any requirements for this, but considering that it had to match the style of his tower's decoration, he eventually found a skull coat of arms surrounded by roses in the coat of arms provided by the Empire. He heard that this was the coat of arms of a family that had died out in the Empire hundreds of years ago.

Well, in Li Wei's opinion, it's no wonder that a family that used such a bizarre pattern as its emblem would eventually die out.

Although I'm using this myself now, I don't have the right to complain.

After completing all the formalities and confirming everything, Li Wei returned to MI7, practically a salted fish.

"I'm exhausted. I didn't expect there to be so many procedures to go through. Luckily, I don't have many people working for me..."

Slumped in his chair, Li Wei sipped his tea, muttering to himself in disbelief. It was precisely because he hadn't been particularly interested in these rewards that things were progressing quite quickly. On the contrary, the civil officials were all more nervous than he was, repeatedly asking Li Wei to confirm things, as if afraid there might be the slightest problem.

After all, they knew the political significance of Levi's appointment; anyone who didn't do a good job might be exiled to Melisia by the Queen.

After all, they're short-staffed there!

"Hehe, after all, you're a knight now, and a Thistle Knight at that, so of course it's different from before."

The old steward looked at Li Wei and chuckled.

"Oh, by the way, to celebrate your knighthood, we've also prepared a gift for you."

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Li Wei perked up. He had come to MI7 because the old steward said he had a gift for him, and since he had nothing else to do, Li Wei decided to come and take a look.

"What gift? Did Benjamin make it?"

"Haha, it really was him."

The old butler smiled and took out a long box from the side, then placed it on the table and opened it. Inside was a…

"cane?"

Li Wei curiously took out his cane and examined it.

"I already have one."

"This isn't a gun."

The old butler pointed to the handle of the cane.

"Press here."

"here?"

Li Wei reached out and touched a small switch on the handle of his cane, then pressed it down.

Then, with a soft "crack" sound, Li Wei saw the originally smooth staff suddenly split and spread out, turning into sharp blades.

"This is………………?"

"Didn't you say before that you were better at using a whip than a sword?"

"Ah, that's certainly what they said."

Hearing the old butler's words, Li Wei recalled that when he reported to MI7 at the beginning of the new year, he had discussed this matter with the old butler. At that time, the old butler said that since Li Wei was now a knight, he should be equipped with a sword. But Li Wei had no idea how to use a sword, so he simply said that he was more suited to using a whip than a sword.

At least I have a [Whip Technique LV3], right?
To Li Wei's surprise, the old steward actually took his casual remark to heart.
"As a nobleman who carries a sword, a sword is essential, and this sword is no ordinary sword, as I think you can tell."

"Um……………"

Li Wei gripped the hilt of the sword and gave it a light flick. The separated blade then shot out like a venomous snake, whipping across the ground before retracting back into place.

This should be called a whip blade. I remember seeing this thing in a game, I never thought I would actually see it in real life.

“I know your situation, so I specially asked Benjamin to make this sword in the shape of a cane, so as to avoid being exposed. You said you didn’t have a sword, so this sword is for you.”

"Thank you so much."

Li Wei looked at the cane and sword, his expression somewhat complicated.

"However, I have a small problem."

"what is the problem?"

"Why is there a trigger on this handle?"

"hehe."

When Li Wei asked the question, the old butler chuckled.

"you guess?"

(End of this chapter)