I became a god through archaeology in the Wizarding World.

The air inside the Crystal Ballroom seemed to freeze.

The steel behemoth known as the Executioner did not continue to roar. It simply stood quietly beside Rhodes, its long tail, laden with spiked hammers, slowly sweeping across the polished marble floor with a sickening sizzling sound.

Each friction felt like a knife being slashed across the already taut nerves of the nobles present.

The old king sat on his high throne, his cloudy eyes moving slightly in their sockets, his hand, adorned with jeweled rings, gripping the armrest tightly.

He looked at Rhodes with an extremely complex expression.

"His Majesty."

Rhodes' voice broke the silence.

He maintained that elegant bowing posture, but did not kneel.

Behind those gold-rimmed glasses, those black eyes were as calm as a bottomless lake.

"This is what I've accomplished in the past few days. Although it was a bit rushed, I think it should be enough to clean up the trash in Plymouth."

He uttered the word "trash" casually, but his gaze seemed to sweep over the Iron Duke's ashen face.

"presumptuous!"

A furious shout rang out.

Iron Duke Balthazar suddenly drew his sword from his waist, the blade pointing directly at Rhodes.

His weathered face twitched, and his eyes burned with fury.

"Rhodes Griffin! How dare you bring this uncontrollable monster into the palace! Are you trying to assassinate His Majesty?!"

With the Duke's roar, the side doors around the banquet hall were violently kicked open.

Two squads of royal guards clad in heavy steam-powered armor rushed in.

They raised their high-pressure steam rifles in unison, their dark muzzles locked onto Rhodes and the steel behemoth.

The hissing of steam valves rose and fell, and the entire hall was instantly filled with the smell of gunpowder.

The nobles screamed and retreated, and the once lavish banquet instantly turned into a tense battlefield.

Facing dozens of steam rifles capable of piercing steel plates, Rhodes didn't even blink.

He simply raised his hand slightly, making a gesture to calm down.

"Your Grace, you're too tense," Rhodes said calmly. "The Executioner may have a bad temper, but it's very obedient. Unless... someone tries to attack its master."

As soon as he finished speaking, the heat dissipation fins on the executioner's back suddenly opened, and a burst of scorching white steam shot out.

Its head, which had been hanging low, suddenly rose, and the steady light in its scarlet electronic eyes began to flicker rapidly, turning into a dangerous strobe state.

"Make it stop! Or I'll order the guns to fire!" the Iron Duke roared.

He wasn't afraid, he was excited.

Destroying this machine here and framing Rhodes for disturbing the Holy See will eliminate this thorn in our side completely.

"Barsadze, step down."

A majestic and aged voice came from the high platform.

The old king slowly stood up.

Although he was old, his imposing presence still made everyone present lower their heads.

"Your Majesty! This thing is too dangerous!" the Iron Duke said unwillingly, "It hasn't undergone any safety testing by the military..."

"I said, step back." The old king's voice grew harsher, his gaze coldly fixed on the duke. "Or is it that in this country, your orders have become more effective than mine?"

The Iron Duke's face stiffened.

He gritted his teeth, finally sheathed his sword, glared at Rhodes, and stepped aside.

"All of you, step back." The old king waved his hand, signaling the royal guards to also withdraw.

The atmosphere in the hall eased slightly, but the oppressive feeling still lingered.

Supported by the eldest princess, the old king walked down the steps and came to Rhodes.

He didn't look at Rhodes, but instead walked around the huge executioner's platform.

He stretched out his withered fingers and tapped the cold, cold-forged steel armor. Listening to the dull echo, a glint of greed flashed in his eyes.

"A perfect masterpiece," the old king exclaimed. "Earl Rhodes, you have indeed lived up to my expectations. With this, we now possess a powerful weapon against the deep-sea monsters."

He turned around, a kind smile on his face, like an elder looking at his own junior.

"Give it to the Royal Guard. I will have the craftsmen mass-produce it according to your blueprints, building an invincible mechanical legion. And you will be the chief designer of this legion, and I will grant you the title of Duke."

These words caused an uproar in the room.

Duke!

That was the pinnacle of nobility!

Rhodes is only in his early twenties this year. If he becomes a duke, he will be the youngest duke in the history of the entire kingdom, and his status will be directly on par with the Iron Duke.

Countless envious and jealous glances were cast at Rhodes.

Even the Iron Duke's face turned deathly pale.

However, Rhodes did not show the slightest sign of ecstasy.

He simply looked at the king quietly, a hint of apology curving his lips.

"I'm so sorry, Your Majesty."

Rhodes' voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly throughout the entire hall.

"I can't give it to anyone."

The hall became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

You refused?

He actually refused the king's reward? He refused the title of duke?

The old king's smile froze, and his eyes instantly turned grim: "Rhodes, do you know what you're saying?"

"I understand, Your Majesty."

Rhodes looked directly into the king's eyes with neither arrogance nor servility.

"The Executioner is no ordinary machine. Its core combines the characteristics of abyssal creatures with the logic of Titan technology. It has no universal operating system, nor is it capable of mass production."

Rod stretched out his hand and pointed to his temple.

"Its control center is connected to my mental energy. In other words, I am its sole brain. If this connection is forcibly severed, or if one tries to dismantle it..."

Rod paused, his gaze sweeping over the greedy nobles around him.

"Its overload program will activate instantly. The power of that mid-level magic core explosion will be enough to send this crystal banquet hall, along with everyone present, flying into the sky."

The sounds of breathing in echoed one after another.

This isn't a gift; it's a blatant threat!

The princess narrowed her beautiful eyes slightly, her gaze towards Rhodes filled with a hint of amusement and wariness.

She originally thought Rhodes was just a clever pawn in the king's game, but she never expected that this pawn had grown to the point of wanting to jump out of the game.

"Are you threatening me?" The old king's voice turned icy cold.

"No, Your Majesty. This is loyal advice."

Rhodes bowed slightly, his tone sincere, but his posture extremely firm.

"Only when it is in my hands will it be a sword to protect the kingdom. If it falls into the hands of a mediocre person..." He glanced meaningfully at the Iron Duke, "it will only become an out-of-control disaster."

The Iron Duke was trembling with rage and was about to erupt when the old king raised his hand to stop him.

The old king stared intently at Rhodes, as if trying to see through the young man's soul.

The current situation is very delicate.

It is an open secret that the Iron Duke is secretly colluding with the Church and even researching biological weapons.

The authority of the monarchy is being eroded.

If we eliminate Rhodes now, we will not only lose a genius, but also leave the Iron Duke without checks and balances.

Moreover, the power that Rhodes had just displayed did indeed make him wary.

Will that executioner really explode? The old king dared not gamble.

After a long silence, the old king suddenly laughed.

"Hahaha! Excellent! What a unique and powerful weapon!"

Laughter echoed in the hall, but there was little genuine joy in it.

"In that case, I will allow you to keep it. However, Earl Rhodes, you must remember that although a sword is sharp, if it wounds its master, its fate is usually to be forged in a furnace."

"Your subject will remember," Rhodes replied calmly.

"Alright, let the banquet continue!" The old king waved his hand, turned around and walked back to his throne, but his back looked somewhat hunched and gloomy.

The music started playing again, but the atmosphere of the banquet had completely changed.

No one dared to underestimate this young scholar anymore.

The way people looked at him was filled with awe and fear.

Rhodes did not linger at the banquet.

He picked up a glass of red wine, took a symbolic sip, and then led the executioner toward the door.

As he passed the Iron Duke, he paused slightly.

At this moment, the Iron Duke's face was so gloomy it could drip water.

Kruger, who was sitting in a wheelchair, kept his head down and didn't dare to look at the steel monster at all.

"Your Majesty the Duke."

Rhodes turned his head and spoke in a voice that only the two of them could hear.

"I know what you're hiding in the lower city."

The Iron Duke's pupils contracted sharply, and he turned abruptly to look at Rhodes: "You..."

"Those flesh puppets made from death row inmates and vagrants, though disgusting, are indeed somewhat creative." Rhodes' voice was as cold as ice. "However, if you think you can fight off executioners with that rotten flesh, you are being far too naive."

"besides……"

Rod pulled the crumpled parchment out of his pocket.

Those were blueprints with Abyss Cult symbols that were taken from Kruger.

He waved it in front of the Iron Duke, and then, right before his eyes, a wisp of blue ghostly fire ignited at his fingertips, burning the parchment to ashes.

"Tell those tentacle-worshipping lunatics: this is my territory. If I see their filthy hands reaching in again..."

Rhodes patted the executioner's claws beside him.

"I will tear them, along with you, to pieces."

After saying that, Rhodes ignored the pale-faced Iron Duke and strode out of the banquet hall.

The heavy rain is still falling.

In the square outside the palace, the reflections of the man and the beast were mirrored in the puddles.

Benjamin was already waiting at the door in his carriage.

Upon seeing Rhodes emerge, he hurried forward to greet him, but was so frightened by the steel behemoth following behind Rhodes that he took a step back.

"My God...you really brought it in? And you even brought it out?" Benjamin stared at Rhodes in disbelief. "His Majesty didn't arrest you?"

"He wanted to arrest them, but he didn't dare."

Rod rubbed his temples wearily.

Just now in the banquet hall, he had to maintain the high-speed operation of his mechanical divinity at all times in order to suppress the oppressive atmosphere of the entire room and precisely control every micro-movement of the executioner.

This consumes a great deal of mental energy.

"Get in the car. Tonight is just the beginning."

Rhodes boarded the carriage, while the executioner skillfully folded his body and lay down on the roof of the carriage like a giant guard dog.

The carriage slowly drove into the rainy night.

"Rhodes, where are we going now? To the basement or back to the bookstore?" Benjamin asked.

"No."

Rod leaned against the soft cushions in the carriage, closed his eyes, and the details of the blueprint he had burned floated into his mind.

That wasn't just a mechanical blueprint; it was a map.

A map pointing deeper into the lower city, to that forbidden drainage area that had been sealed off for fifty years.

The fact that the Iron Duke dared to make moves right under the King's nose shows that his factory had already reached a certain scale.

Factories of that size require enormous amounts of energy and concealed spaces.

"Go to the lower city area, entrance to area C-13."

Rhodes opened his eyes, a cold glint in them like a hunter spotting his prey.

"Now that we've drawn our swords, we need to draw some blood. Tonight, we're going to destroy the Iron Duke's lair."

……

Meanwhile, on the terrace of the Plantagenet Palace.

The princess stood alone in the rain, letting the cold rain soak her expensive silk dress.

She held a glass of red wine in her hand, her gaze piercing through the heavy rain as she watched the carriage gradually disappear into the distance.

"Your Highness."

A ghostly figure appeared in the shadows behind her. It was Nightingale, the chief assassin of the Royal Intelligence Bureau.

"Should I take care of him? The machine is powerful, but the scholar himself is very fragile. Just one poisoned arrow..."

"No."

The eldest princess shook her head, a meaningful smile playing on her lips.

She raised her glass in a toast towards the direction Rod had gone, then downed the glass of red wine in one gulp.

"Keep him. This stagnant pool has been still for too long; we need a catfish."

She turned around, her eyes turning incredibly cold.

"Moreover, compared to that Balthazar who only knows how to act crazy by abusing his military power, this little guy named Rhodes... is more interesting, and more dangerous."

"Pass on my orders: have the surveillance team monitor the military's movements. If Rhodes and the Iron Duke go to war..."

The princess paused, then threw the empty wine glass in her hand off the terrace.

The sound of breaking glass was particularly crisp in the rainy night.

"We'll handle the body collection. Regardless of who wins, the ultimate winner can only be the royal family."