Duchy of Lorraine Royal City, Aachen.

With the continuous withdrawal of the Church Court's technical personnel, the nobles of Aachen quickly tasted the corresponding bitterness:

Factories were paralyzed with no one to repair them, and the corresponding electronic products basically stopped being sold, causing both production and consumption to collapse simultaneously.

A noble complained that there was poor mobile signal on his estate and went to the church for help, but found no one to assist—now only priests remained in the church, those who only knew how to preach and sermonize, totally ignorant of any technical know-how.

At this moment, the Frank nobles of Aachen finally realized just how deeply the radiance of God had infiltrated their lives, to the point where they couldn't live without it.

In a certain oppressive atmosphere and undercurrents, this disappointment was gradually transforming into anger directed at the Saxon royal family, and even at the Princess herself... Of course, given the power and prestige of the Unyielding Holy Sword, no one had yet openly come out to denounce Her Highness, but it was evident they couldn't endure forever.

Aske had been staying within the Aachen Palace all this time, never attempting to leave.

Mao Zhongwei and others also sought him out a few times, not mentioning anything about harem or single main female protagonist topics, only engaging in casual conversation.

Yu Ziwen, representing Earth, had already negotiated a technology exchange agreement with the Saxon Family.

The agreement's first phase: The Saxon Family would provide the manufacturing technology for advanced power armor in exchange for basic technical project assistance from Earth's side.

In fact, according to Mr. Shao Qiangang's research, the technological development here was extremely skewed, resembling the characteristics of a certain Soviet nation in the 20th century:

The great nobles controlled the heavy industry and military manufacturing, relatively developed and concentrated, but it basically didn't involve information integration parts, as if the technological ceiling had been artificially capped.

At least that nation produced their own vacuum tubes for replacements, whereas everything related to integrated circuits in Divine Luo was procured from Italy, leaving one to wonder whether it was a lack of willingness or confidence to achieve self-production.

Light industries related to livelihood were mostly concentrated in the hands of local petty nobles, and most belonged to incoming material processing industries. Slightly more technical components were directly exported from Italy as finished products, with the local nobles' factories only responsible for assembly and sales.

Academician Shao Qiangang concluded that these were clear characteristics of an economic colony. The higher tiers of the industrial chain were entirely controlled by Italy, binding the majority of Divine Luo Empire's nobles tightly to the carriage of God by allocating industries with low bottom-line profits.

Yet, even in this Divine Luo Empire, the technology level of the bulletproof and coating materials for the military-used power armor they mastered far exceeded that of Earth. This makes one think of just how terrifying the Church Court's technical strength must be, probably having exceeded Earth's original estimates by a large margin.

Much more exaggerated than the description in the game "Song of Iron and Fire."

Therefore, after reaching a technology agreement with the Empire, Mao Zhongwei and the others essentially completed the initial goal of their organization, and they could return to Earth to report... Yet who would willingly leave now! We have not yet witnessed the peak of the technological prowess of this era's overlord, the glorious might of the Solomon Church!

So Yu Ziwen, in his casual chats with Aske, also probed a few times to see if there was an opportunity to go to Italy—only to find that Aske had no intention of leaving.

Even when others casually mentioned "missing their wives and daughters back on Earth," Aske merely nodded silently with a smile, as if acknowledging his one and only wife as Eleanor.

Ugh, scoundrel!

For a moment, everyone felt a bit sorry for Miss Nora. What about the ten-year promise?

Just as Mao Zhongwei left, little Otto brought people to visit him again.

"Ahem, um, brother-in-law." The young emperor awkwardly referred to him as "brother-in-law," speaking with discomfort, "The Germania Archbishop asked me to inform you that if you wish to go to Italy, he can send a plane over to take you anytime."

"Thank you for informing, Your Majesty," Aske said leisurely, "but I have promised Her Highness that I won't go anywhere until she returns."

"Actually, it wouldn't be a problem if you went for a bit." Little Otto said hesitantly, clearly not very skilled at this, "If my sister comes back after you've left, I can have her go to Italy to find you."

"Then she might strip your skin before she sets off," Aske said with a laugh.

At this, Little Otto immediately showed a frightened expression, clearly aware of how terrifying his sister's temper could be.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly asked quietly:

"Brother-in-law, have you really become a demigod?"

"Of course," Aske replied.

"But you don't seem that powerful," Little Otto shook his head, "Of course, I've seen many powerful Frank demigods, and they all admit they're not as strong as my sister."

"Uh, the rank of demigod doesn't reveal much just by appearance." Aske then explained to him: besides immortality, body enhancement, and possessing special abilities, demigods don't differ much in appearance from ordinary people.

You feel those demigods appear powerful because they've been demigods for many years, long enough to cultivate a grandmaster-level aura.

"So, brother-in-law, have you just become a demigod not long ago?" Little Otto asked confusedly, feeling that this brother-in-law was indeed approachable, distinctly different from the impression demigods usually gave.

"Sort of." Aske smiled without speaking further.

In terms of how long he'd been a demigod, he certainly couldn't compare to Eleanor, who had been in this world for a whole six years.

However, Aske himself didn't feel demigods were that impressive; after all, in the original game world, there were plenty of players above Lv.20... Well, that was just a virtual world, incomparable to this world, but Aske wasn't the type to immediately become egoistic after gaining power, putting on airs up to the heavens.

After Little Otto left, Aske stroked his chin, thinking, so in your arrangement, these people indeed came one after another, and I turned them all away—let's see what tricks you have next.

Surely you can't resort to violence to drive me out of the Aachen Palace?

As Aske thought this, he suddenly heard a familiar sigh from the window:

"Squad Leader, even if you've realized it's me, can you please not deliberately tease me like this?"

Aske turned back to see Miel standing by the window, looking at him with a somewhat gloomy expression.

The half-elf little girl who used to look under ten years old now resembled a high school girl, except her figure... was still not quite developed enough.

Pink hair was divided into strands and braided into small braids, hanging leisurely down both sides of her cheeks, accentuating her delicate little face, giving her a playful and cute temperament, with her emerald green eyes seemingly rippling with glistening light, filled with complex emotions.

"Miel, you set me up," Aske said with emotion.

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