The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

Two months later, in Akitsukyo, the capital of the Principality of Hourai, inside the Camphor Leaf Palace.

"Your Highness, I bring good news, but also bad news," Chief Lady-in-Chief Bohe reported as they entered the detached palace, which originally belonged to the Duke of Penglai but was currently being temporarily lent to Anjie. "Which would you like to hear first?"

"The bad news," said Ange, who was sitting at the table in the hall, browsing a stack of newspapers with Fish. "When making decisions, I usually tend to first determine the lower limit of a matter, rather than the upper limit."

"Understood, Your Highness," Mint nodded. "The bad news is that you are still not recognized as the true Princess of Fayun by the major countries outside of the Duchy of Penglai. Apart from the government of the Duchy of Fayun, which is under the control of Lieutenant General Rissimer's Regency Council, and its ally, the Duchy of Ilian, which has rejected your claims, and the Duchy of Yunzhou, which leans towards the Duchy of Fayun's position, the attitudes of other countries, including the royal family, are ambiguous. Of course, the Marquisate of Shisheng has recognized your identity, but..."

“The political significance of recognizing such a remote little country is limited,” Ange said without looking up. “But even so, please write a letter for me to thank Yuedie—at least she kept her promise.”

"It seems the political situation hasn't improved... though we don't expect anything to change anytime soon," Fish muttered, glancing at the local newspapers he'd just bought. "And the good news?"

"The reorganization and resettlement of your friends has progressed. Thanks to Your Excellency the Duke of Penglai's assistance, at least legally there are no longer any problems," Mint said. "Their identity issues have now been completely resolved... even 'those people'."

"Very good, I will certainly express my sincere gratitude to His Excellency the Grand Duke for his kind assistance in the future." Ange smiled slightly and gave Fish a satisfied look. "It's all settled."

"Well, that puts my mind at ease." Fish nodded—ever since their return from the North Pole, settling their "new friends" had been an extremely troublesome matter. Fortunately, things were finally starting to look promising.

The turmoil and war known as the "Great Northern Uprising" officially ended a month ago. According to the official explanation released by the Supreme Command of the Pan-Pacific Empire and confirmed by Emperor Anthemius III, the incident was caused by a group of "reckless cultists and illegal adventurer gangs" who trespassed into the ruins of an old civilization, activating the "malicious legacy" within. The enemies faced by the armies of various nations were described as "evil old human autonomous weapons" and "out-of-control synthetic beasts."

Of course, not a single word in the announcement mentioned "Tai Sui"—their hosts were simply categorized as "synthetic beasts that were extremely rare in the past." As for the Newtype army that had been taken over, they were described as "people who had been driven insane by biochemical toxins."

However, Fish knew very well that the Emperor himself obviously knew something... but he also knew that the man had a reason to cover up what had happened.

Because there was no internet in this era, only the underdeveloped telegraph and newspapers, these claims were not questioned much. More importantly, most of the armed forces that fought against the puppet army controlled by "Tai Sui" had been completely wiped out, with very few survivors. Therefore, very few people were able to make the facts public.

During the war, over 80,000 civilians and 15,000 regular soldiers and militiamen lost their lives, with more than 30,000 missing. Over a quarter of the colonized areas in the northernmost part of the country were abandoned... incidentally, this led to an 8 percent increase in global food prices. Dozens of brigades, regiments, and battalions were disbanded, with only a few exceptions.

This included the security forces commanded by Moon Butterfly, as well as the remnants of the defeated army that Fish and others rescued on Hill 503.

With the "Central Brain" located in the underground facility reduced to ashes by Fish, the rampaging and ever-expanding "Tai Sui" legion abruptly ceased its expansion. Of course, they didn't immediately paralyze like machines whose power had been cut; instead, they became a swarm of disorganized, commandless, and tactlessly chaotic "three-nothing"—headless flies—continuing to blindly attack anyone they encountered. Therefore, after safely escaping the underground facility, Fish and his team had to lead a series of mopping-up operations before finally resolving the problem.

After that, he was surprised to find that the number of people around him had increased exponentially!

When Fish first arrived in the North, although he was nominally the next head of the Fayun-Lindenhild family and the heir to the Grand Duke of Fayun, his actual situation was only slightly better than that of a commander without troops: apart from Ange herself, the only people he could command were Xiaoxing, Shuangye, and three maids led by Bohe, not even enough to form a whole squad.

However, after the war in the North End subsided, everything changed: apart from Shana, a girl from the old civilization era, and her friend Melu, most of the surviving soldiers on Hill 503, led by Baron Ruan Aofu and Lieutenant Redo, decided to join Ange's ranks in their own names and become her direct retainers.

Of course, this gave Ange and Fish, her prospective husband, more than a hundred new subordinates with ample combat experience.

However, these people were only a small part of Fish's new subordinates. Because, in that ancient underground facility, they had also discovered an entire army.

That's right. Although the cloning equipment in the underground facility self-destructed and became unusable after the "Central Brain" died, in addition to Alicia, the underground facility also housed as many as 760 spare rapid clones in dormancy.

Although these rapidly cloned individuals appear to be only fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls, thanks to past genetic technology, each of them is strong and healthy, no less than any properly trained soldier.

More importantly, because the system can directly instill basic tactical skills and related knowledge into the brains of these rapidly cloned individuals, much like instilling swordsmanship in Alicia, these girls can immediately participate in combat without any training after being awakened. Moreover, with Huang Yan's assistance, the subconscious of these girls is also implanted with the instruction of "absolute loyalty to Ange and Fish," instantly transforming them into the most reliable army.

However, even the most loyal and rapidly replicating humans need to eat and resupply. Worse still, the sudden influx of these girls could easily attract the attention of hostile forces if not handled properly.

Fortunately, Yue Die, who was unwillingly drawn into this matter, provided timely help to An Jie, who was having a headache: using the authority of the security commander, she marked all these girls as "rescued refugees" and had them replace the identities of those girls of the same age who had died or gone missing, and "reissued" a large number of identity documents.

After that, through her connections with the Ten Victories Marquisate, she secretly transported Anjie's new subordinates to the Penglai Kingdom in batches.

However, that alone was certainly not enough. To ensure these "refugees" could continue to gather discreetly and be readily mobilized by Anjie, the Duke of Penglai devised a completely new idea…

"Little Angel Academy?" After taking the documents from Mint, Fish read the name aloud. "Is this the name we'll be using?"

"That's right. Theoretically speaking, this is a charitable undertaking sponsored by the Principality of Penglai," Mint smiled smugly, seemingly quite satisfied. "The terrible war in the Northwest has orphaned so many young girls. Therefore, at the request of Princess Fish and Princess Ange, the benevolent Duke of Penglai decided to use the surplus funds of the Principality's charitable fund to open a school to accommodate them, so that these vulnerable girls can be protected until they reach adulthood. Isn't that a very morally sound approach?"

“Indeed.” Fish nodded. “And because of their tragic past, these girls vow to study military technology diligently, join the army, and contribute to resisting these threats… Hmm, that’s the script, right?”

"It's not entirely fake," Ange explained. "After all, the military technology and systems of the old civilization are vastly different from those of this era. So even if they have the relevant military skills, they still need instructors from this era to provide them with some necessary adaptation training."

"Besides, none of us know anything about this era. That might give us away when we're with others. So, we need to learn some cultural lessons related to this era." Alicia walked in and placed a large briefcase on the table.

She was now wearing a probationary warrant officer uniform without epaulets, looking much more mature than when she first met him at the "high school" in her kendo club high school attire. However, she still carried a lead-filled wooden sword for practice at her waist, which made her look quite unique. "In other words, the school is actually real. It's just that everyone will fight for the rightful monarch of the Duchy of Fayun when necessary."

"Well, thank you all very much for your support," Fish said with a smile.

"Not at all, Your Highness, it was you who gave up the generous rewards and bestowed upon us new life," Alicia said solemnly. "We will follow you steadfastly until the end of our lives."

"Uh... that's what I should do. After all, I can't just stand by and watch everyone die from congenital physiological problems in a few years, can I?" Fish spread his hands—according to the agreement with Phoenix Flame, or rather the "Unified Combat Headquarters" it served, Fish could request the rewards he needed after completing a mission. And this time, before leaving the North End, Fish chose "a means to free the girls awakened from the facility from their short lifespans."

At first, Fish was worried that his requested reward might not be honored—it would be terrible if such a means didn't exist. Fortunately, shortly after Fish made his request, a small drop pod landed near their temporary base, containing a full thousand single-use injections.

According to the accompanying instructions, these injectables are filled with specialized medical nanorobots. After being injected into the target body, they can form a miniature organ by dismantling the organic waste produced by metabolism. By continuously replicating similar nanorobots, they can repair the problems of rapid aging and mutation caused by rapid cloning, thereby extending the expected lifespan of the rapidly cloned human to 40-50 years.

However, since each of these injections costs more than the production cost of a fast clone, it was rarely used in the old civilization era—usually only when some "gamers" took a fancy to their fast clone in the game and were preparing to "preserve" it for a long time.

In exchange for these injections, Fish had to give up other rewards, but in his opinion, it was still a very worthwhile deal.

"Hmm, Baron Ruan Aofu and the others have now become nobles of the Duke of Penglai. The ordinary soldiers who joined us, at Anjie's request, have all been promoted one rank, half to her personal guard, and half to nominal teaching positions at 'Little Angel Academy'... Excellent, this is what I wanted," Fish continued flipping through the documents. "The Ten Victory Marquisate will also provide appropriate support for our future operations... Very good..."

After spending another half hour reviewing the remaining documents, Fish finally finished his work for the day, let out a long yawn, and prepared to return to his bedroom. However, he had only taken a few steps when Ange stopped him.

"My lord," Ange wagged her tail very quickly—a sign of her excitement—"please come this way."

"This way?" Fish repeated, somewhat puzzled. As a former residence used by the Duke of Penglai for his pleasures, the Zhangye Palace wasn't actually very large, more like a large country inn or villa, and didn't look particularly impressive from the outside. However, its interior structure was quite elaborate: above ground, the Zhangye Palace had three floors: a reception room on the first floor, a study, music hall, and storage room on the second floor, and several bedrooms on the third floor. But it also actually had a huge underground structure.

Upon moving in, Fish was told that this underground area was a "special zone" used by the former Grand Duke for his pleasures. However, having just ended his escape and frantically catching up on all sorts of essential knowledge, he certainly didn't have the leisure to explore this place. But now, Ange was determined to drag him inside.

"Wait a minute, I heard there's something... special in here..." Fish whispered. "Is it okay to just go in like this?"

"Because we are husband and wife—or at least future husband and wife, so it's fine," Ange said with a bright smile.

"But... what if other people find out..."

"It's alright, they already know," Ange said. "In fact, this whole thing is mainly related to them."

"What is it?"

"Of course, it's about deciding the priority of 'that thing' next," Ange's smile deepened. "This is very important."