Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

Ruo Manni handed the matter of her assassination attempt over to Lin Changfeng and, after returning to the military camp, resumed training her soldiers without paying it much attention.

However, by the next day, somehow, this incident had spread and reached her family, leading to a series of flying messages checking on her.

Hebrew Adam was furious, though he knew that with Ruo Manni’s skills, escaping would be no problem. However, concern made him anxious. When he first heard about it, he was so scared that he broke into a cold sweat.

Having had a close call, Hebrew Adam finally understood the fear Ruo Manni must have felt when she first heard about his assassination attempt.

He carefully examined Ruo Manni, and only then did his heart settle. However, his gaze did not soften; on the contrary, it became colder than ever as he swore to her, “I will make sure the Beery family is kicked out as soon as possible.”

There was no need to investigate; both of them knew who was behind this. Honestly, Ruo Manni thought the Beery family really wanted to get themselves killed—how could they dare to provoke both the royal family and the Hua De family at the same time?

Meanwhile, while Hebrew Adam was making his threats, the head of the Beery family, the commander of the 7th Army, was livid, nearly beating his son to death.

“Are you trying to get our entire family killed? You know that the capital is investigating us, and yet you still sent someone to target that young lady. Do you want us to die even faster?” The head of the Beery family shouted angrily.

Navarro Beery curled his large frame into a ball, enduring his father’s furious scolding and the lashings of the long whip.

Of course, this was his biological father, so although the whip landed harshly on Navarro Beery’s body, it only caused him pain—there were no visible marks, and the skin was unharmed.

“I didn’t directly send anyone to act. I merely hinted to those two people to take action. We didn’t get involved directly, no matter how big of a mess they caused, it’s none of our business. Why is father so angry?” Navarro Beery protested, feeling wronged.

Navarro Beery, who had a good relationship with his cousin Brittany Beery, always trusted her words. He believed, just as his cousin had said, that if it weren’t for Ruo Manni’s interference, the second prince, who grew up with his cousin, would definitely have married her.

If the second prince had been with Brittany Beery, he would never have allied with the first prince to target the Beery family. In the past, Queen Amber and the second prince had always been close to the Beery family.

For this reason, Navarro Beery had been harboring hatred toward Ruo Manni for the past year. However, the Hua De family had provided such strong protection for this young lady that their people could never find an opportunity to act.

It was only when Navarro Beery heard that the young lady had returned to Topaz Star and wanted to seize power from the commander of the First Regiment stationed at the Seventh Army’s Topaz Star base, which was under their control, that he became infuriated. His anger led him to impulsively decide to eliminate her.

However, Navarro Beery hadn’t forgotten about the big trouble his family was currently in. He was cautious and did not send his own people to do this. Instead, he had his family’s deputy regiment commander, who was already stationed there, incite the regiment commander to take action.

Since that regiment commander was not a member of the Beery family, if the young lady encountered trouble, even if the National Security Bureau investigated, it wouldn’t point back to the Beery family.

“You fool, under the current circumstances, they don’t even need evidence. As soon as something happens, it will naturally be suspected that it’s our doing. Your actions will only provoke their anger even more. Think about it, before, it was only the royal family looking for opportunities to deal with us. Now, the Hua De family is also coming after us more aggressively. You idiot, not only have you made things worse for yourself, but you’re dragging the whole Beery family down with you!” The head of the Beery family became angrier as he spoke.

In his rage, the strength in his hand unconsciously increased, causing the whip to strike Navarro Beery’s skin, leaving red marks that made him scream in pain.

“Master, please stop hitting him. We should quickly think of a way to get through this crisis,” advised a direct descendant of the Beery family.

Although they were also angry at Navarro Beery and the others for not using their brains, the saying “one for all, all for one” applied—once the deed was done, killing him wouldn’t help. The most important thing now was to come up with a solution.

Ruo Manni naturally didn’t know about the chaos at the Seventh Army headquarters. She had just hung up with Hebrew Adam less than twenty minutes ago when she received a new transmission from Lin Changfeng.

Lin Changfeng, with a somewhat conflicted expression, asked, “Manni, when did you get engaged to the Second Prince? How come you never mentioned it?”

Although Lin Changfeng had stopped being Ruo Manni’s legal guardian a few years ago when her identity was revealed to the Hua De family, he had known her since childhood and had always considered her like a daughter, caring for her as a father would. In his heart, he still saw Ruo Manni as his daughter.

To have his daughter taken by some boy without his knowledge was somewhat frustrating for him.

“We haven’t officially gotten engaged, or I would have definitely told you and Mentor Fang. Actually, I haven’t even told my father and mother,” Ruo Manni replied, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Admitting to her peers that she had accepted Hebrew Adam didn’t make Ruo Manni feel particularly shy, but admitting it in front of her elders was another story.

But how did Uncle Lin know about it? Why did he suddenly contact her like this?

“The Second Prince just transmitted to me and personally inquired about your attack. He referred to himself as your fiancé,” Lin Changfeng cleared up Ruo Manni’s confusion.

Although Lin Changfeng occasionally communicated with the First Prince due to urgent matters and Ruo Manni’s connection to him, he had never had any contact with the Second Prince. He wasn’t very clear about the Second Prince’s pursuit of Ruo Manni either.

So when he received the sudden transmission from the Second Prince, claiming to be Ruo Manni’s fiancé and wanting to ask about her recent attack, Lin Changfeng was quite surprised.

Fortunately, Lin Changfeng recognized from the image that the person on the other end of the transmission was Hebrew Adam, the Second Prince of the Gus Empire; otherwise, he might have mistaken him for a fraud.

The Second Prince, who was rumored to be very proud and aloof, was unexpectedly polite to him. Lin Changfeng immediately knew that this was all because of Manni.

“The investigation is going smoothly. I’m planning to follow up on those leads and clean up the black market thoroughly. Everything is fine, that’s all,” Lin Changfeng said. Upon hearing this, Ruo Manni felt reassured. Lin Changfeng was always busy, so after saying those words, he ended the transmission.

It seemed that Uncle Lin’s message was purely triggered by Hebrew Adam referring to her as his fiancée, which had stirred up his fatherly feelings.

What Hebrew Adam said to Lin Changfeng, Ruo Manni didn’t intend to inquire further about. She knew that both of these men were acting for her benefit, and whatever results came from it, they would surely tell her.

The legendary young lady of Topaz Star suddenly dropped into the Mech Corps, and as a newly appointed company commander, she altered the entire training schedule of the mech division. Such a big move would certainly be noticed by the other two battalions over time.

As a result, the situation of the Mech Corps, Third Company, gradually became known throughout the regiment, and everyone in the station was paying attention to the training progress of the Mech Corps, Third Company.

Since Ruo Manni had signed a confidentiality agreement with the soldiers who were taking the special medications, others knew a little about it but weren’t clear on the conditions and effects of these medications. Thus, their focus was mainly on the new training equipment.

The old saying from the Earth era, “Hard work pays off,” still holds true in the interstellar era.

On the fifteenth day of Ruo Manni’s serving as the commander of the Mech Corps, Third Company, two soldiers at the peak of the fourth level broke through in less than an hour, advancing to the early stages of the fifth level.

Watching the two newly promoted star warriors, tearfully excited, Ruo Manni also felt very happy inside.

These two soldiers had been stuck at the peak of the fourth level for nearly ten years, almost losing hope. They thought they’d live their entire lives in this state, but little did they know, a breakthrough day had finally come.

Sheila proudly said to the other soldiers who were envious, jealous, and resentful of the two successful ones: “Many of you have already reached a critical point in your cultivation. It’s just that your potential was limited by yourselves, combined with the poor training methods before, which is why you couldn’t break through. As long as you follow our training plan and take the medication, a breakthrough is inevitable.”

With the successful examples right in front of them, the group led by Sheila naturally trained even harder, like they had been injected with adrenaline, pushing themselves more than ever before.

Meanwhile, the group led by Tamaki Kazia also saw one of their warriors advance from the early stages of level five to the mid-stage.

Since the promotion was within the same level and the warrior was still relatively young, it didn’t draw much attention.

However, as the saying goes, “One’s own family knows their own matters.” This company commander, though consistently practicing for years, had felt his cultivation stagnate almost completely. Therefore, for him, this breakthrough was like receiving a new hope.

Seeing that, after implementing the new training method, three people had broken through in a short period of time, the deputy company commander was even more confident.

He had actually been at the critical point for even longer—over thirty years.

With just a few weeks of special training and the aid of the medication, his cultivation, which had previously stagnated, started to show signs of loosening up, and he could feel himself approaching the edge of a breakthrough.

The soldiers from the first and second companies, who initially sympathized with the third company, watching them get tortured every day, had now started to envy and resent them. There were signs of a shift in the atmosphere within the Mech Corps.

While the soldiers in the third company were enduring grueling “devil training,” yet still loved training like it was their first love, the long-awaited ten-day break had arrived.

In the previous break, some soldiers from the third company had left the camp to visit the city, but this time, no one planned to rest.

By the evening of that day, only Ruo Manni and her adjutant, Ma, returned to Baili City. The others, including Sheila and Tamaki Kazia, were so immersed in their training that they couldn’t pull themselves away.

The reason Ruo Manni loved to rest so much, and always went back to Baili City during her breaks, was not something she spoke about. However, with the teasing look in Sheila and Tamaki’s eyes and the knowing glance from Adjutant Tong, Ruo Manni felt a bit shy.

Even Pan Shaolu and Marcus Wright knew the reason. Both of them were students from the Xuan Gu First Military Academy and members of the War Realm First Guild.

Although they hadn’t entered the War Realm last time during their break, their classmates, knowing that the two of them were now following Ruo Manni, immediately chattered and shared everything that had happened in the guild hall that day.

When Ruo Manni logged into the game last time, Hebrew Adam boldly announced in the War Realm First Guild hall that Ruo Manni was his fiancée. Within two days, every student at Xuan Gu First Military Academy knew about it.

Soon after, the high society and noble families on Imperial Capital Star heard the news as well.

The Crown Prince and Second Prince were already prominent figures in the Gus Empire, and their romantic matters had always been a topic of great interest to the public.

For the past decade or so, many noble young women from various families had been trying every means possible to make the Crown Prince “fall in love” with one of them. After many failures, the Second Prince had grown into a strong contender. Younger noble women were now eagerly preparing to make their move, only to suddenly hear that the Second Prince had a fiancée. This news was even more discouraging than hearing that the Crown Prince, who had no interest in women and was focused solely on strengthening the Empire, was unattainable.

According to Mina-Olli, she had very reliable sources of information. A few days ago, someone had directly asked King Adam and Queen Amber about this matter. Both of them confirmed it, even saying that the engagement banquet would be held when the two children returned from their long vacation.

Mina-Olli said that for the noble families on Imperial Capital Star, Ruo Manni’s status as the Second Prince’s fiancée was already officially confirmed.

“Your brother was so furious, but unfortunately, he couldn’t beat the Second Prince. Later, he came up with a plan and, together with Dean Atchison, went to cause trouble for the Second Prince. But who would have known, when they came back, he had actually broken through,” Mina-Olli said, both amused and exasperated.

Ruo Manni was naturally thrilled: “Brother has advanced to level six!”

That was a year earlier than in the novel.

“Yes, but you have to know that now that the King and Queen have said it, you can’t avoid the engagement banquet at the end of the year,” Mina-Olli shifted the topic back to the matter at hand.

With such persistence, Ruo Manni suspected that this message from Mina-Olli was actually instructed by Hua Deli. He was too embarrassed to discuss these matters with his sister, so he had tasked his fiancée instead.

Ruo Manni felt indifferent toward the upper-class tradition of engagement parties. Engagements, in her opinion, didn’t hold much practical significance. Especially for a prince, the engagement banquet would definitely be extravagant, and if, for some reason, she and Hebrew Adam broke up after the engagement, wouldn’t that grand banquet become a joke?

Perhaps Hua Deli, having just advanced in rank and needing to consolidate his cultivation, hadn’t been available to meet her. Another obstruction, Dean Atchison, was away on a mission and hadn’t had time to log in for the past half month. Mina-Olli had logged in, but she couldn’t dare to stop the Prince.

Thus, Hebrew Adam held Ruo Manni in his arms for a long time before finally reluctantly sitting down to talk.

He told Ruo Manni that he had informed his King and Queen about their relationship: “Father and Mother both hope that when you return to Imperial Capital Star at the end of the year for your long vacation, we can hold our engagement banquet.”

Ruo Manni expressed her views on engagement parties, and Hebrew Adam immediately grabbed her arm, his breath heavy, looking upset as he said, “You still want to break up with me?”

“Who can predict the future? You might fall for someone else next year,” Ruo Manni replied, as she really didn’t believe in anything lasting forever.

Hebrew Adam grew anxious. “I won’t… ”

Ruo Manni covered his mouth, stopping him from speaking the vows he was about to make.

She hated hearing such sweet words, finding vows made in moments of excitement unrealistic.

In her past life, whether reading novels or watching movies, whenever there were scenes of vows or sweet promises, she would get goosebumps all over and couldn’t tolerate them.

“On matters like this, vows are the most powerless. I’ll only judge by your actions. In the current situation, holding an engagement banquet is too extravagant and wasteful. If we’re still together in the future, we should just get married directly. No need for an engagement,” Ruo Manni said, unknowingly digging herself into a hole.