Elder brother's garrison

Page 2024

"Huh? Huh? I..."

The feeling of being stared at with strange looks made Nia, who was completely unprepared, dizzy instantly. Especially when this matter was connected with Xiaobai, Nia felt her legs go weak for a moment. Her high heels, which she was not used to, slipped and she swayed and fell to one side.

The ship girls from Nia's family rushed forward with quick reflexes and helped Nia up.

With the help of the ship girls, Nia managed to stand, but the crystal glass in her hand slipped from her grasp and fell toward the ground.

Snapped!

The glass shattered instantly, and the deep red wine splattered all over Nia's skirt with bright red spots.

Seeing Nia's reaction, the admirals immediately retreated, making way for her in a small clearing.

"Admiral Nia's reaction... it feels like she hit the nail on the head?"

Shh... Don't talk about this!

"But we all saw that it was the necklace that Admiral Nia gave to Admiral Lu Lin..."

The admirals looked at Nia and whispered amongst themselves.

……

On the stage, Admiral Ke Yuan looked with satisfaction at Nia, who was pale and looked bewildered and helpless below the stage. Then he turned his head and looked at Xiao Bai, who was standing directly opposite him.

Xiao Bai was looking down at the necklace around her neck, fiddling with the gemstone pendant with her fingers, her face expressionless, as if she were deep in thought about something.

Admiral Ke Yuan's lips curled up silently.

An indescribable sense of exhilaration resonated in Admiral Ke Yuan's heart, making every cell in his body throb with excitement.

—That feels so good.

——That’s it.

—Yes, that's exactly how it feels!

Admiral Nia!

Admiral Lu Lin!

This is the gift I've prepared specifically for you!!!

Admiral Ke Yuan finally couldn't hold back any longer. He stared intently at the silent Xiao Bai with his head down, and a wanton smile appeared on his lips.

Teaming up with Nia, we will suppress Admiral Lu Lin at a grand banquet hosted by the top ten admirals, leaving Admiral Lu Lin disgraced and with nowhere to go, ultimately forcing him to return to Nia's embrace—this was the plan Ke Yuan initially told Nia when he "accidentally" met her and her group tonight.

But there's no such thing as a free lunch.

This is not what Ke Yuan wants to do.

Ke Yuan had long been at odds with Nia, and if Nia became one of the top ten admirals in the future, this grudge would be settled sooner or later.

What Ke Yuan really wanted was for Nia and Lu Lin to fall into the abyss together!

Ke Yuan wanted them to never be able to turn their lives around! He wanted them to spend the rest of their lives in deep regret and fear!

Every word Nia uttered as she berated herself on the secluded path, every single word, and every look of disgust on her face as she spoke—Ke Yuan had it all etched into his memory! Even before that, the humiliation he suffered on the beach at the hands of the special ship girl, the loss of face in front of everyone, and the injuries he sustained—these experiences still made Ke Yuan's fingers tremble violently!

How could Ke Yuan possibly let Nia go!

Nia and Lu Lin did not quarrel, and Ke Yuan had known about this for a long time.

Because Ning Lu was the one Ke Yuan was responsible for sending to investigate Nia and Lu Lin.

The entire process of handling this commission was conducted in secrecy, using Morse code and a walkie-talkie hidden inside a potted planter. The level of secrecy in the way the two communicated was so high that even Ke Yuan's own ship girls were completely unaware of it.

Upon learning this secret, which was little known throughout the entire eighth chapter, Ke Yuan first nodded in approval of the two young female admirals' actions, but then immediately gave them a thoroughly scornful laugh.

Ultimately, it was still the cunning and manipulative tactics of an ignorant young girl, lacking any real skill or finesse.

Ke Yuan quickly figured out the reason why Lu Lin and Nia were acting this way after a little thought... They must want to use this method to force him to come forward, and then use their naive methods to catch him off guard and make him lose face again.

At this point, Ke Yuan already had a plan in mind.

Since Lu Lin and Nia are plotting against me, I might as well play along.

It seems that... Admiral Nia is probably waiting for me to form an alliance with her, then taking the opportunity to obtain some evidence about our alliance, and finally presenting the evidence in front of everyone when I show up, so that I will fail to harm Admiral Lu Lin and end up with a ruined reputation.

pity.

She will never be able to obtain any evidence in her lifetime.

When I met with Admiral Nia tonight, the two ship girls I was with were top-tier aircraft carrier ship girls specializing in target acquisition. Within their target acquisition range, they could clearly sense even a mosquito flying by. It was impossible for any outsider to know that I had contact with Nia. Furthermore, if Nia used an audio or video recording device to record my speech, I was also equipped with jamming devices to prevent such machinery from working. Within a radius of a kilometer, no device attempting to record my information would be able to survive.

Since Admiral Lu Lin and Admiral Nia wanted to harm me, they would pretend to follow my plan before I showed up.

The necklace I had prepared in advance could finally be put to good use.

"Ke Yuan! What do you mean by 'extremely poison'?!" Before Xiao Bai could speak, all ten admirals on the stage tensed up. Admiral Hao Ding gripped the microphone tightly and shouted at Ke Yuan, "Do you know that once you say that, this matter tonight is no longer just a personal grudge?!"

"Of course I know!" Admiral Ke Yuan said loudly to the top ten admirals on the stage, "That's why I said that tonight's events involve the fairness and justice of the entire eighth chapter! If anyone doesn't believe me, they can take off the necklace around Admiral Lu Lin's neck and order the ship girls to open the pendant. Although it seems to be empty inside, it actually contains a highly concentrated deep-sea metal!"

"Deep-sea metal—?"

"Exactly!" Admiral Ke Yuan exclaimed. "As we all know, while deep-sea metal is an extremely pure energy source, it also possesses the property of corrupting the human body! Admiral Hao Ding should be especially aware of this! The necklace currently hanging around Admiral Lu Lin's neck has its pendant positioned right at her heart. Several hours have passed since Admiral Lu Lin entered the banquet, which means her heart has been in close contact with deep-sea metal for several hours! If such a crucial area is disturbed by deep-sea energy, I believe Admiral Hao Ding... and the other top ten admirals should know what the consequences would be!"

After Admiral Ke Yuan finished speaking, the admirals below the stage erupted into chaos once again.

"Elizabeth, quickly remove Admiral Lu Lin's necklace!" Admiral Hao Ding shouted to Elizabeth.

"Understood!" Elizabeth quickly jumped off the platform and rushed to Xiaobai. She raised her hand and reached for Admiral Lu Lin's neck, saying with a tense and worried expression, "Admiral Lu Lin... quickly take off this harmful necklace!"

Little White let Elizabeth take off her necklace.

Elizabeth, panting, first picked up the necklace, closed her eyes, and pressed the pendant to her forehead, carefully sensing its texture.

"Elizabeth, what was the result? Did you sense any deep-sea aura?" Admiral Haoding asked loudly.

"...I'm sorry, Admiral, I...I didn't feel it very clearly." Elizabeth closed her eyes and frowned. "It seems like there is...but it doesn't seem like there isn't..."

"Go open it quickly!"

"understand!"

Elizabeth ran to the side of the platform with the necklace in her arms, placed the diamond necklace she had taken off into a small box in front of everyone, and then reached out and pulled it off forcefully.

Wow!

The diamond necklace was shattered into pieces.

Elizabeth's eyes gleamed as she used the ship's power to begin prying open the pendants on the diamond necklace one by one.

The crisp, cracking sounds rang out continuously.

“It seems that it will take some time before Miss Elizabeth finishes removing the necklace.” Admiral Ke Yuan said to Admiral Hao Ding. “Admiral Hao Ding, in that case, I request that during this time, Admiral Nia come forward and explain why she wanted to murder Admiral Lu Lin.”

"..." Hao Ding was silent for a while, then nodded slightly.

Soon, a path opened up in the crowd of admirals below the stage, and Nia, whose face was still somewhat pale, walked out slowly with her head down.

The ship girls from Nia's family quickly followed.

"This is where the admirals talk, ship girls please step back!" Ke Yuan reprimanded.

“You…” Veneto clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and wished he could punch him.

After hesitating for a long time, the ship girls looked at the quiet atmosphere around them, sighed, and returned to the crowd.

Nia stood in the center of the field.

"Before questioning Admiral Nia, I have something to ask you." Admiral Haoding took a deep breath and asked Ke Yuan, "How did you know that the necklace Admiral Nia gave to Admiral Lu Lin was poisonous? Did she tell you on her own initiative?"

“Of course not!” Ke Yuan said to Admiral Haoding, “I overheard it by chance!”

"By chance?"

"Tonight, I arrived at the banquet rather late due to some trivial matters. On my way here, I did see Admiral Nia. At that time, Admiral Nia was discussing with her ship girl about poisoning Admiral Lu Lin with a necklace containing deep-sea metal."

"She just blurted out something so important in the street?"

"That's a rare little road in the city, with no surveillance cameras and no people!"

"You even know about such a hidden path?"

"That road leads to the wholesale market. I have my own temporary garrison there, and I often go there when I'm buying ingredients for my ship girls!"

Chapter 2843 My Turn

As Ke Yuan replied word by word on the stage, the admirals below grew louder and louder in their discussions.

"...So, when Admiral Ke Yuan mentioned the necklace being poisonous, he was referring to the aura of the deep sea?"

"Deep-sea poison... well, you could call it poison."

"That's strange. If it's a necklace sealed with deep-sea metal, how come none of our ship girls noticed it?"

"Have you forgotten? Ever since Admiral Lu Lin put on the necklace, she has been staying alone in a corner. Since no one gets close, no one notices it."

"Uh... Aren't the ship girls' senses of smell a bit too dull?"

"There might not have been much deep-sea energy sealed in the necklace to begin with, and since the ship girls didn't use their ship equipment powers during the banquet, their sensitivity to sensing deep-sea energy was greatly reduced."

"……Why……"

On the stage, Admiral Haoding asked Ke Yuan several more questions in succession, and Ke Yuan answered them fluently as if he had been prepared in advance.

Finally, Ke Yuan raised his hand to stop Admiral Hao Ding from continuing his questioning.

"Admiral Haoding, why are you interrogating me? Shouldn't the suspect be Admiral Nia now?" Admiral Ke Yuan asked, pointing at Nia, who was pale and trembling. "Or, could you at least ask Admiral Lu Lin a couple of questions?"

"..." Admiral Haoding frowned, looked at Ke Yuan, and sighed slightly, "Alright."

Seeing Admiral Haoding nod, Admiral Ke Yuan's lips curled into a faint smile.

"Admiral Haoding, I believe you will uphold justice!" Ke Yuan shouted. "You should know better than anyone here how devastating the deep-sea aura is to the human body! If we hadn't stopped it sooner, and Admiral Lu Lin had continued wearing that necklace, by the time the banquet ended, the deep-sea aura might have already penetrated her heart, and then even a god couldn't save her! I came forward to report this matter in time not for any reward, but I hope that Admiral Haoding, on behalf of the Admiral's Guild, will severely punish the perpetrators!"

When Ke Yuan mentioned the word "severe punishment," Nia's shoulders trembled as if struck by lightning.

In short, without needing to be explicitly stated, everyone present understood the consequences of the situation.

This is no longer a minor quarrel or a fight of pride.

If the deep-sea metal inside the necklace is discovered, the severity of the matter will be directly upgraded to attempted murder!

The situation is extremely serious!

Although the attempt failed, if convicted of murdering a colleague, the perpetrator will certainly face a severe sentence from a military court.

Thinking of this, the admirals present were extremely nervous.

"I am just an ordinary admiral, and I have no right to judge other admirals." Admiral Haoding said solemnly.

"Where is the Admiral of that section of the river? She is the captain of the military police. Although she doesn't handle rewards, she should handle punishments!" Ke Yuan shouted.

Everyone turned to look at Duan Shuiliu, who remained expressionless.

At this moment, Duan Shuiliu remained silent, staring at the audience below the stage, her gaze fixed on Ke Yuan, Nia, and Xiaobai.

"...If there are any criminals, I will punish them severely."

Duan Shuiliu looked at Ke Yuan, his gaze gradually turning cold.

Admiral Ke Yuan revealed a smile.

"I believe in Admiral Duan Shuiliu!" Ke Yuan shouted.

Admiral Haoding looked at Nia.

As Haoding and the others watched, most of the people present turned their attention to Nia.

"Admiral Nia, I need you to explain the origin of this necklace." After pondering for a long time, Admiral Haoding asked Nia, "And, I hope you can explain to us whether what Admiral Ke Yuan just said is true."

"No...no...I didn't—" Nia quickly stepped forward, waving her hands with a pale face.

"Then tell me, where did I go wrong!" Admiral Ke Yuan shouted at Nia, "First of all, your relationship with Admiral Lu Lin has broken down, and everyone in Chapter Eight knows about this. Secondly, did you give this necklace to Admiral Lu Lin?!"

"No... I, Xiaobai and I didn't have a fight..."

"Heh, it caused such a stir in the whole city before, everyone knew about it, and now you're changing your story and saying you didn't have a fight? Do you think any of us will believe that?"

"I……"

"You're so quick-witted and full of nonsense!" Admiral Ke Yuan shouted at Nia, "Are you going to try and pin the blame for the necklace on me? Saying I instructed you to give it to Admiral Lu Lin?!"

“I…I…” Nia stood there, stunned, her eyes filled with disbelief.

"You little woman, I never imagined you could be so vicious! Admiral Lu Lin was just leaving you, and you actually wanted to kill her!" Ke Yuan roared.