Chapter 549

After hearing Leon’s words, Phelia couldn’t help but pause, then asked incredulously:

“Are you sure?”

“I’m very sure.”

After summarizing the intelligence he received from Apheta 00 as briefly as possible, Leon looked at the jade-eyed maiden who seemed a bit at a loss and earnestly said:

“Princess Phelia, now you should understand why you must cooperate with me, right?”

“Huh?”

“To put it simply, if you choose to cooperate with me, on the surface it might look like you’re betraying Prince Andre, but in reality, you’d be helping him correct his mistakes.”

Under the bewildered gaze of the jade-eyed maiden, Leon patiently explained:

“You’re not a mechanical intelligence but human. To avoid both you and your brother dying from illness—since neither of you would survive—your parents had no choice but to make you the core of a mechanical intelligence. It was a painful decision out of necessity.

But your brother, due to misunderstanding, harbored resentment towards your parents. Under the influence of an evil organization, he eventually strayed from the righteous path, raising the sword against your parents and kin under the guise of avenging you, plunging the entire kingdom into turmoil.

So let me ask: as the princess of the Crocodile Kingdom, as the daughter of your parents, and as the sister of your brother, what should you do in this situation?”

“Me… what should I do?”

“Of course, you should cooperate with me, find a way to defeat Prince Andre who has gone astray, save him from the control of the evil organization, and correct his mistakes!”

After pulling the thoroughly confused jade-eyed maiden and sitting her down in the greenery, Leon patted her shoulder and seriously asked, “Prince Andre is so good to you; don’t you want to save him?”

“I… I do…”

With her mind swirling after Leon’s explanation, the jade-eyed maiden opened her mouth but only managed to mutter faintly:

“But you just told me that he tried to kill me twice and now you’re asking me to team up against him…”

“Didn’t you say he had his reasons?”

“That’s what I said… but…”

“No problem then.”

Leon gave Phelia’s shoulder a firm slap, cutting off her thoughts and confidently concluded, “His disregard for family ties and attempts to kill you are proof that he’s under the control of the evil organization. But because of familial bonds, you’ve chosen to forgive him and even plan to rescue him from their clutches. What a touching sibling bond! Isn’t that great?”

“…”

It seems fine… but something feels off…

Without the massive computational support of Apheta 01’s main body, the 12-year-old Phelia’s blank brain could barely handle Leon’s wildly convoluted reasoning, continuously warning her.

Unfortunately, the core feature of soul encoding technology is its mechanical precision, followed by rigid “instructions” of different priorities that suppress and organize the complex and vague human thinking process.

And Leon’s logic… regardless of how insane it sounds upon closer inspection, it appears correct and perfectly fits the logic of soul encoding, theoretically making it operational.

Watching Phelia clutch her head, unable to figure out the issue, Leon patted her back gently and said,

“If you can’t figure it out, don’t worry about it. Helping your brother correct his mistakes is definitely the right thing to do, so let’s just go with it for now and deal with the rest later.”

“So… how do I help him correct his mistakes?”

“Simple. I’m working on this too. By helping me, you’re helping him correct his mistakes.”

“The commanders of the six royal direct-report legions have already been freed from Prince Andre’s control. They are furious about being controlled and have agreed to follow their original mission, supporting you, the last remaining member of the royal family, in correcting Prince Andre’s deranged governance.”

“So once they reorganize their legions, with public support and those six royal legions, given the transportation level of the Crocodile Kingdom, it’ll take about six hours for you to seize control of the entire kingdom, command all armed forces, and become the new Queen of Crocodile.”

“AHHH?!?!”

“Oh, one more thing.”

Ignoring Phelia’s shock, Leon seemed to remember something and advised,

“In the news circulating among the people, you were severely injured trying to expose Andre’s conspiracy. When you give your speech at tonight’s celebration, remember to look paler and tie a bloodstained bandage around your chest. If anyone asks, tell them it’s from Prince Andre’s personal guards shooting you. Got it?”

Wait… what does any of this mean? I was only kidnapped for a few days; how did things escalate like this?

“It’s a bit complicated to explain everything. The goat will fill you in later.”

After picking up the grumbling black goat from the greenery and stuffing it back into the jade-eyed maiden’s arms, Leon stood up, patted her shoulder, and encouragingly said,

“Come on, Your Highness. Whether we can save the Crocodile Kingdom and bring Prince Andre back from his misguided path depends entirely on your speech tonight.”

“Wait! Just wait!”

Seeing that Leon seemed ready to leave, Phelia, whose mind was still muddled, quickly stood up, grabbed his sleeve, and blurted out nonsensically, “But there’s still Apheta 00! She controls more than half of the kingdom’s automatic weapons. Even if I…”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing to concern yourself with.”

Patting the jade-eyed maiden’s hand from behind, Leon explained,

“I’m going to attack Research Zone 1 right now. I’ll go through the cooling lake next to it, dive straight into the lake where the mechanical intelligence is submerged, and completely destroy its main body. That way, it won’t interfere with your plans.”

“Huh?”

Another thunderous piece of information hit her, causing Phelia to hesitantly remind him, “Didn’t you just say that you and Apheta 00 reached an agreement to fight against Andre together? Why are you going to destroy her main body now?”

“Who says that’s her main body?”

Leon curiously replied,

“Isn’t that your main body? I’m going to destroy Apheta 01’s mechanical intelligence main body. What does that have to do with Apheta 00? These are two separate matters.”

“Uh… that’s true?”

“That’s right!”

As the jade-eyed maiden was once again utterly confused, nodding absentmindedly under the sympathetic gaze of the goat’s head, Leon squatted down, looked directly into her eyes, and kindly said,

“To tell you the truth, from the moment I saw you, I felt a connection. Look at how much I’m helping you and your brother—no father could care more. Can you fulfill my one wish and call me ‘dad’?”

“…”

“Of course, if you really can’t bring yourself to say it, signing this will also work.”

While Phelia remained bewildered, Leon pulled out a document with messy handwriting from the Mirror World, placed her hand on it, and the jade-eyed maiden mechanically lowered her head, reading aloud subconsciously.

“Considering the tremendous efforts made by international friend Leon Lane in saving the Crocodile Kingdom, I, in the name of the Sixth Princess of the Crocodile Kingdom, hereby confer upon him the title of Honorary Member of the Crocodile Royal Family?”

(End of Chapter)