Chapter Sixty-Five: Guardian Knight, Preparing for a Secret Mission!

October 18, 2237, 8:00 PM
An abandoned barn on a farm outside London

In the pitch-black darkness, someone slipped quietly into the barn. From within came eerie, ghostly sounds, accompanied by the murmur of conversation.
“Inno, are you sure there are really ghosts here?”
“Eya! Don’t be afraid, I’m here! Even if there are ghosts, I’ll protect you!”
A man and a woman spoke in the darkness, but the person sneaking in seemed unable to watch any longer!

Creak... snap! Suddenly, the lights flickered on—unquestionably the work of the newcomer.
“Oh come on! Roger! Hugo and I were watching a horror film! Next time, could you please not just switch the lights on out of nowhere?”
On the second floor of the barn stood a few genuine leather sofas and a VR-grade reality television, apparently modified by Tracy.

“My apologies, Your Highness!”
Commander Roger showed not a trace of fear, for he knew their crown prince was a most amiable person.
“Fine, fine! Forget it, I’m done! The mood is ruined! Roger, how’s Wenxin?”
Tracy rose from the sofa and, in one graceful vault, leapt over the railing to land beside Roger in style.

“All is well! Please rest assured, Your Highness. But next time, could you avoid such dangerous stunts? It’s easy to get hurt!”

“Hmph!” Tracy scoffed. Though Roger was his subordinate, he always acted like an older brother.
“Get hurt? You know full well I’ve modified this barn. Getting hurt here would be like a fish drowning in the water it’s lived in for years—impossible!”
Tracy turned and strode to the stairs connecting the two floors.
“Hugo, Roger, come with me!”
He operated the watch strapped to his wrist—his hacking tool, for he was one of the world’s greatest hackers. In seconds, the staircase receded, revealing a hidden passage.

“Yes, Your Highness!”
Hugo leapt down from the second floor. After a soft thud, he stood safely beside Commander Roger.
“Sigh! Hugo, stop setting such a bad example for His Highness. It’s because you always jump down to save time that he’s picked up this habit!” Roger said helplessly. Like him, Hugo was one of Tracy’s closest confidants, so neither could order the other.

“All right, all right! I’ll try not to do it in front of His Highness!”
Feigning innocence, Hugo followed Tracy into the basement.
“Sigh! Hopeless!” Roger sighed, resigning himself to follow the two downstairs.

“Here, take a look at this!”
The basement—or rather, the laboratory Tracy had transformed—was filled with his modified equipment. No matter where you looked, the devices outperformed anything at the Royal Academy of Sciences, even those built by Tyron Taylor himself.
Tracy displayed a blueprint covered in designs and sketches. At a glance, there was no doubt: this was a new mech, rivaling even the mightiest—Angel.

“Guardian Knight? Your Highness, what is this...?”
Hugo and Roger were baffled as to why he was showing them this, especially since he refused to reveal anything about the Angel mech to Tyron Taylor.

“This is the blueprint for a new model. In the entire kingdom, I’m the only one who can build it. That’s why I trust you both. As you know, the leader of Satan is my mentor—Titan. Even Angel may not be able to defeat him; after all, when I created Angel, he was still the Director of the Royal Academy. He’s surely discovered ways to counter it by now. That’s why I need your help. Soon, I’ll infiltrate the Academy again—my old lab. You must make sure no one knows I’ve entered, and guarantee everyone’s safety. Do you understand?”
Tracy laid out his plan for Hugo and Roger, though he kept the details of the infiltration to himself.

“Your Highness! Why not simply tell Tyron Taylor? Why come to us?”
Hugo and Roger couldn’t understand why he’d entrust them with this task.

“The Taylor brothers are already obsessed with developing new mechs. If I told them I was returning to my lab, how could you guarantee they wouldn’t be tempted?”
Tracy had little choice but to devise this plan; after all, his alternate identity—Cole—was just as wanted as his role as the crown prince.

“Your Highness, rest assured, I will not fail you,” Roger and Hugo replied in unison.

“It’s a pity Lord Elman isn’t here—then the four of us would be together!”
Tracy rolled up the blueprint. Hugo and Roger dared not entertain any thoughts of mischief; after all, the prince’s cabinet was as impregnable as his laboratory door.

“Elman is commanding the frontline offensive and won’t be back soon. I expect when the assault subsides in a month, he’ll return,”
As the chief commander of London’s headquarters, Hugo was well aware of the situation.

“It hardly matters. He wouldn’t be of much use in the coming events anyway.”
Tracy activated his hacker’s watch, broke into the London military network, and pulled up Elman’s latest reports and status.
“Let’s get back. No point standing here any longer.”
At his command, Hugo and Roger responded immediately.

“Heh! Seventy-six! You should be returning as well!”
With a slight smile under his commanders’ very noses, Tracy whispered, “Task, continued!”

——Author’s Note——

Ah, sitting here writing with another author, I can’t help but feel the urge to see who can write faster! Time for a little break—perhaps I’ll come back to it later tonight!