Klein woke up with a dull expression.
"Alice," he looked at Alice with empty eyes, and shouted her name with a complicated mood, "what were you thinking?"
Alice thought for a bit, turned her head seriously to look at Klein and said:
"I think He should have listened to all of what I said. That was just the beginning…"
Klein was silent for a moment, pinched the bridge of his nose, gave up reasoning with her, and instead said helplessly:
"Should I be glad that you still remember I'm currently Admiral Admiral Amyrius…"
Alice waved her hand and said: "Probably not necessary, after all, you paid the price."
After staring at the magnanimous-looking Alice and thinking for a few seconds, Klein reached out and mercilessly knocked her on the head.
Alice looked at him in surprise. Before she could gather tears in her eyes, Klein interrupted her act:
"Don't act. I don't believe I can hurt you."
Alice had to swallow back the words that came to her lips, glared at him, and asked: "Are you going back to sleep?"
Klein glanced at the sky, shook his head, and continued "working."
Alice stared at Klein for more than ten seconds, then lay down on the table and began to sleep.
…
After the sky was basically bright, Klein reached out and pushed Alice awake, signaling her to quickly return the stolen chair.
After a while, Cynthia indeed came to the study. Under Cynthia's service, Klein changed his clothes and headed to the dining room.
When Klein sat at the dining table and picked up the snow-white silverware on the table, his eyes were fixed on the exquisite tableware cabinet in the corner of the dining room.
On it were displayed all kinds of porcelain and crystal wine glasses, glittering under the lights, with every glimmer emitting the confusion of money.
Klein reluctantly withdrew his gaze and began tasting this breakfast with a critical mindset.
The servants stood neatly dressed to the side, respectfully waiting to serve. The beautiful Cynthia also spared no effort to offer attentiveness, but Klein's attention was more focused on the food.
First served was a steaming fish soup. Smelling the enticing aroma, Klein suddenly thought of Alice.
Ha, her expression must be especially wonderful now, just watching me eat while she can't eat at all—she must be furious…
Thinking of this, although Klein still kept Admiral Amyrius's serious expression, he couldn't help showing a hint of indulgence when facing the food.
The taste of the fish soup did not disappoint him. His taste buds bloomed under the stimulation of the fish soup, and Klein began to look forward to the next dishes.
Then came fried eggs, smoked meat, sausages and other meaty foods. The aroma was overwhelming, and Klein couldn't help but feast heartily.
Next were the things he and Alice both liked—crispy outside, tender inside, fragrant and sweet various breads and pastries, along with jams, cream, and honey to go with them.
But Admiral Admiral Amyrius wasn't fond of sweets, so Klein only cautiously tasted a little, comforting himself inwardly.
It's fine, at least you ate a bit. Alice couldn't even have a bite.
—Sneaking food from the banquet's long table was fine, but here, it would be easily discovered.
The drink paired with breakfast was black tea with milk and sugar. Although Klein still missed the taste of sweet iced tea, he also understood it would be inappropriate here, so he reluctantly accepted the black tea.
After eating and drinking his fill, Klein leaned back in his chair with satisfaction, closed his eyes, briefly relaxed his body, then opened them again.
In front of him was the dining table covered in a snow-white tablecloth and the dazzling tableware cabinet. The servants served up fish soup.
Klein's smile disappeared.
"I can trap you in a loop of gnawing on chicken legs, making you gnaw this one leg hundreds of times, endlessly!"
Alice's expression when she said this was still vivid in Klein's memory. Because of that, his first reaction was that this was Alice's doing.
No, don't jump to conclusions—maybe… maybe… ha, who else besides her is such a bored angel?!
Klein ground his teeth inwardly and looked up to say to the servant beside him:
"Go prepare a breakfast and place it in an empty room.
"We have an invisible guest who also wants to try today's breakfast."
It sounded like a horror story. The servants and Cynthia's faces turned somewhat pale, but the experienced servants still followed "Admiral Amyrius's" orders.
Cynthia composed herself shortly after the servants left. After looking around carefully, she cautiously asked:
"General, that guest…?"
"Don't worry," "Admiral Amyrius" soothed, "In His eyes, we're probably less valuable than a breakfast."
He… Cynthia's body stiffened for a moment. Even though she wasn't an extraordinary being and didn't know much about the extraordinary world, she still understood the meaning of this pronoun.
She stopped asking, forced herself to focus on the food, though it was clear her appetite was affected.
After Klein repeated the eating process again, he closed his eyes to relax. When he opened them again, he let out a breath of relief—no servant brought another bowl of fish soup.
It seemed he guessed Alice's thinking correctly.
After this long breakfast, Klein rode in a carriage, surrounded by the general's guard, and entered the Olavi Naval Base.
In the morning, accompanied by brigadiers and colonels, he inspected the ship conditions, ammunition stock, visited the newly built training ground and the bathhouse that had been repaired twenty times in the past year.
After lunch in the naval cafeteria, Klein followed the schedule in the diary, summoned all officers of major rank and above to hear reports.
During the entire process, a thick black leather notebook remained open in front of him, containing questions Admiral Admiral Amyrius had specially prepared.
Alice glanced at the serious reporting colonel, then at "Admiral Admiral Amyrius Leavitt" who was drawing turtles, octopuses, and dragons on paper, and fell into thought.
This feels like me during class… though my drawings were much better than his!
Alice glanced at Klein's notebook, puffed her chest out proudly.
Next, Alice found Klein doing a second thing she often did in class—drawing grids on paper and playing Go.
Ah, this.
But back then, she had Song Shu playing with her. Song Shu…
Thinking of Song Shu again, Alice pursed her lips and turned her gaze to the reporting colonel.
"In the past three years… cough cough cough!" The reporting colonel was suddenly choked by his own saliva, coughing violently, interrupting Klein's chess thoughts.
Klein looked up in confusion at the colonel, watching him cough for a while until he stopped, his face red.
Then, the colonel apologized and continued reporting. Klein paused for a bit, then wrote a line on the paper:
"Did you do that?"
(End of this chapter)