NEC Chapter 61: Protection of the Cloudmist Domain

The Black Armor Rider had plenty of lung power, with a voice loud enough that even from several hundred meters away, his words reached the Cloudmist Domain camp clearly.

At this moment, they were in the middle of their daily "reading" session. The young countess was responsible for reading while Chen Mo provided "guidance." Although this book "Noble Etiquette" had long been recorded completely, to avoid arousing excessive suspicion and to buy time, Chen Mo still chose to have Lady Frost "memorize" it section by section each day.

Hearing the name of the Zircon family, Chen Mo immediately realized this was probably coming for him.

His nerves instantly tensed up.

Although he had gotten along quite well with the young countess and her group during this time, he had no idea whether there were any dark connections between nobles.

Chen Mo remembered the reminder from the adults back home, when encountering situations, first prepare for the worst!

He cleared his throat lightly, stopping the young countess who was craning her neck to look outside, and dropped a line, "I have some conflict with the Zircon family. They're probably here for me. I'll go prepare and be right back!"

Before Lady Frost could react, Chen Mo was already jogging toward his dedicated carriage.

He put on his stab-proof vest, inserted the plates, secured the first aid kit and grenade belt in convenient positions, tucked a folding micro submachine gun under his outer coat, put a pistol in his pocket, and loaded the bullets to capacity...

He attached patch bombs to the drone and placed it by the carriage window, removed all the miscellaneous equipment from Little White, leaving only the automatic rifle and remote-controlled bombs...

After completing all this, he took a deep breath and pushed open the carriage door.

Just as he jumped down from the carriage, he collided with Lady Frost's clear, curious amber eyes, staring straight at him, or rather, at his slightly bulky coat.

Maybe I'm overreacting a bit.

A thought suddenly popped into Chen Mo's mind, if things go wrong later, should I... take this little girl hostage?

That seems a bit unfair to her...

But I can't have anything happen to me right now, people back home are waiting for my news.

Well, I'll try not to go to that extreme, but if... if I really reach a dead end, then I'll have no choice.

At worst, after getting through this crisis, I'll compensate them with more things.

Chaotic thoughts clashed violently in his mind, but Chen Mo forced a gentle smile on his face and slowly approached.

Organizing his battle gear had taken some time. By now, both sides had completed their first round of negotiations, and the young countess was proudly beginning to describe to him, "The Zircon family people said you killed their heir. Is it true? I bet he must have provoked you, right?"

"Is he what you called... a bootlicker?"

She waved her small hand, mimicking a commanding gesture, "I told Paven to tell them to get lost! But that big, stupid leader is still outside shouting about wanting to 'hold you accountable'! Hmph, I told Paven that if they dare to pester us again, tie them up and throw them in the river to feed the fish!"

"Don't worry! You're the teacher who's going to help me 'memorize' after all!"

Chen Mo felt a trace of shame for his filthy thoughts just now.

He decided to make things clear, which would also give the other party an explanation. Accompanied by Captain Paven, Chen Mo shouted back and forth with the other party from a distance.

First, Captain Paven controlled the situation, "Mr. Chen Mo is our countess's guest. Originally, we didn't want to bother with your Zircon family's unreasonable troublemaking, but for the sake of fellow nobility, we've come out to clarify the facts with you. We hope you won't continue to pester us!"

Chen Mo nodded gratefully to Paven, then pulled out a small electronic amplifier and shouted to Knight Tikebot, who was blocked outside the guard line, "Knight from the Zircon family, your young master intended to kill, and I was forced to defend myself and counterattack reluctantly."

"In fact, even if you hadn't come looking for me, once I finish my business in the Crescent Moon Federation, I was going to seek an explanation from you!"

"First, to hold your Zircon family accountable for lax discipline, indulging the wicked, slaughtering lives, and even using vile methods to join with your subordinate mercenaries in besieging noble offspring!"

When saying this, Chen Mo felt a trace of sadness.

This defense statement was prepared for him by his family. For this "virtual game scenario incident," they had conducted detailed analysis from all aspects. The most important point was that legal experts pointed out that the little blond had repeatedly killed people before, but because he killed commoners, in this world with huge social status differences, it could only be considered acceptable, not wrong.

That is, those in higher positions had the right to punish and dispose of those in lower positions, it's just that the degree of punishment was excessive, crossing the line, belonging to disproportionate severity.

Only the point of attacking Chen Mo, who was also a "noble," could be caught as an error.

But in fact, Chen Mo was not a noble of this world.

So Chen Mo was using a fabricated, hypocritical excuse to denounce the little blond's real crimes, which couldn't help but make one feel absurd and unrestrained.

Chen Mo steadied himself and continued reciting the script, "Second, your domain acts improperly, posting bounties in underground black markets, wantonly trampling continental conventions and federal laws, treating noble honor as nothing!"

This point Chen Mo mentioned belonged to bringing improper unspoken rules to the surface for criticism. The naive young countess and attendants naturally listened in fascination, while the experienced Captain Paven and Master Locke could only smile bitterly.

"Third, clearly the country has laws and nobles have covenants, yet you attempt to substitute private punishment for public law, which is simply a disgrace to nobility!"

"Fourth..."

If Chen Mo had known about the several other attempted assassinations against him, this script would have needed seven or eight more points.

Overall, the entire content belonged to the type that was righteously indignant in words but basically unenforceable, paper political correctness.

However, under the current circumstances where our side's combat power was greater than theirs, this kind of political correctness still had great value. Knight Tikebot attempted to refute several times but was mercilessly suppressed by the well-prepared Chen Mo. Finally, he could only perform an awkward knight's salute with full anger and turn to leave.

The crisis was temporarily resolved.

The knight captain from Zircon territory couldn't just return empty-handed like this. He could only send someone to report back while leading his squad to follow the Cloudmist Domain convoy from a distance, trying to wait for the results of negotiations between the upper nobles.

When the convoy reached Whitestone Outpost, bad news came. Because an airship on this route had crashed, it would take time to reassemble another airship. The Cloudmist Domain convoy couldn't fly over as originally planned. They could either stay and wait for this airship that might arrive at some unknown time, or travel west to another airship crossing.

Or take a big detour via the ground route from the easternmost end of the Gloomy Forest to return.

Master Locke and Captain Paven discussed it and decided not to wait, taking the eastern detour route.

The journey was suddenly extended considerably. During this time, Chen Mo slightly adjusted his cultivation fanatic style and began to flatter and praise Lady Frost from various angles.

There was no choice. Even with guns and explosives, his life and safety still depended on the whims of these nobles. Moreover, without the young countess's protection, facing those knights alone might not yield good results.

This day, Chen Mo accompanied the young countess in "memorizing" the text and incidentally made up a little joke.

"So, a factory had a big explosion, and the dwarf craftsman in the factory was fired by the factory owner. Others kept asking him the reason, and the dwarf said with a dejected face..."

Chen Mo deliberately left some time, and sure enough, the young countess began rushing to answer, "I know, I know, the dwarf broke the machine!"

"Wrong, guess again!"

"Then the dwarf didn't put out the fire in time?"

"Guess again?"

After three rounds like this, Lady Frost finally couldn't contain herself, "Just tell me, what was the reason?"

Chen Mo deliberately roughened his voice, pretending to be a dwarf and answered in a muffled tone, "When the explosion happened, I was blown up into the sky and only fell down after ten seconds!"

"Guess what happened? That black-hearted factory owner said I was absent from work for ten seconds! Violated the labor contract! Didn't give me a penny of wages and just... fired me!"

The young countess was stunned at first, then burst into laughter.

Well, if she can laugh at this, she hasn't been beaten by society...

Then Chen Mo heard a sentence that nearly made his heart stop.

"Chen Mo, Chen Mo, you're so interesting!"

"When I get married in the future, come find me, and we can have an affair, okay?"

"What???"

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