“It’s Phillips,” Ulysses replied.
“Phillips?” Lei Luo frowned.
“Phillips won the position of prince with the identity of Emperor Victor’s favorite nephew. When Emperor Victor passed away, Phillips was only a hundred years old. When he fought against Godrian, he didn’t have any outstanding battle achievements, so he didn’t attract much attention.”
As Ulysses said this, he clicked his tongue and continued, “However, there was once when we had a family dinner. When Morse and I were both present, my father seemed to have unintentionally or intentionally mentioned that out of the twelve kings, the most terrifying one wasn’t Papafilin, but King Phillips. Even now, I don’t know if my father was just casually saying this or if he had other intentions. However, one point is obvious. Out of the twelve kings, the old king is only left with Phillips. This may not be a coincidence.”
Lei Luo said, “Yes, when you say that, I also remember. Ever since Emperor Victor married his wife and died, he never remarried, so he didn’t have any children. Back then, when Phillips ascended to the position of king of the kings, he already had the potential of becoming the crown prince. With his position, for so many years, he has never revealed himself. He doesn’t have any outstanding records, nor does he have any records of being muddle-headed. This kind of ability of the middle way is not something that an ordinary person can play with.”
“If our conjecture is correct, then among the 12 feudal lords, there are at least two major forces. One is Papafilin, and the other is Phillips.”
As Ulysses said this, he turned his head and looked at Lei Luo. “And we will become the Third Force.”
Lei Luo was stunned for a moment, and then he laughed.
“Your Highness, I only have a few hundred heavy patrol ships and battle columns under me now. Aren’t you afraid of scaring me to death by pulling me to such a high position all of a sudden?”
“All right. Stop pretending to be innocent in front of me. Even if I let you be the emperor, you won’t be scared to death.”
As Ulysses spoke, he smiled and glanced at Lei Luo before saying, “Now that we have a general understanding of the situation, don’t talk so much nonsense. Let’s start talking business right now. Looking at the current situation, my teacher will use my name to completely settle those useless brothers of mine. It will only take two to three years. After that, he will usurp the throne. In other words, I have at most three years, at least two years.”
Lei Luo smiled and shook his head. He looked at Ulysses and said, “I thought it was strange. Didn’t you say that your teacher promised to make you his heir? Since that’s the case, even if he usurps the throne, what’s the big deal? He’s more than 700 years older than you. When he dies, won’t you still be King Beichen?”
“I will never be anyone’s son again!”
These words almost came out of Ulysses’ mouth. When Ulysses said these words, his expression was also a little angry.
Lei Luo saw that his joke had gone overboard, so he quickly raised his hands and begged for mercy.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness Ulysses. I was speaking nonsense. Then tell me, what do you want me to do?”
Ulysses glared at Lei Luo and continued, “I need you to do two things. First, grow as fast as possible and form a ruling-level power in the third province to be my backing. Second, as early as ten years ago, I had secretly established a military academy in a remote city. To this day, that military academy already had more than 100,000 students. These people could all serve as fleet officers. So, I don’t lack officers. What I lack are soldiers and fleets. And I need your help to turn this officer corps into a powerful fleet and become my direct force. Before I need to use it, I can transfer all these officers to you. But you can’t keep them for yourself.”
Hearing this, Lei Luo asked curiously, “Let’s not talk about other things first. I want to ask something. Ten years ago, you were only in your teens. How could you possibly have the ability to organize a military academy of this scale? How did you manage to maintain such a large-scale military academy without anyone knowing?”
“My father helped me establish it. At that time, I didn’t have a lord’s title and I didn’t have my own independent city. But one day, my father suddenly called me over and said that he wanted to give me my own independent city as a foundation. He gave me a troop of 1,000 officers. He asked them to pledge their loyalty to me. My teacher was with me at that time. However, while my teacher was busy training these officers, my father sent me to a city called ‘Eye of the Future.’ There, I saw a military academy with about 1,000 instructors and 20,000 cadets. I accepted the loyalty of these people there. My father didn’t specifically tell me not to tell my teacher. But I thought that it was better not to tell my teacher about this. So, even today, my teacher doesn’t know that I still have such a team of officers.”
Lei Luo was a little confused.
“What does your father mean by doing this? Could it be that he had long expected Strachey to rebel? If that’s the case, why didn’t he just get rid of him back then?”
“I don’t know either.”
Ulysses shook his head helplessly.
“My father often does such contradictory things. I actually always suspected that my father was suffering from schizophrenia. Many of the things he did were difficult to deduce with normal logic.”
“What a mystery.”
Lei Luo patted his head.
“I hope that one day, we will be able to figure it out. I understand what you mean. Your current capital is the magic data you have and this army of 100,000 officers, right?”
“To be more precise, it is the capital that I can let you know. That’s all.”
Ulysses gave a sly smile.
“Yes, that’s not a problem.” Lei Luo nodded.
“I do need magic information. It can save me money to develop magic. But, as an officer, I don’t need it now. You should keep it for yourself. I haven’t found my own fleet yet. How can I have time to build a fleet for you?”
“There’s no need to rush now. We’ll talk about it when you’ve got your feet firmly on the ground.”
Ulysses said with a smile, “I won’t let you do it for free.”
“Oh? What else can you give me in exchange?”
Lei Luo smiled like a businessman.
“First, just as you said, I’ll provide you with all the technological information that I have in secret. Second, before you have the same title as me, I am willing to share with you the throne of King Beichen and all the power that comes with it.”
The second one surprised Lei Luo.
“Although it’s just empty words at the moment, aren’t your conditions a little too generous?”
