Chapter 123

  On September 11, 479 of the Imperial Calendar, at the age of 21, Lieutenant Favneril acquired all rights to the Viscountcy and received the entrusted items from the Imperial Herald's Office. He was now fully recognized as the ninth Viscount Favneril. Three days later, following the custom of noble succession, he had to pay homage to His Imperial Majesty Friedrich IV.

  Young Viscount Rudolf von Fafnir walked straight through the outer gardens of the New Worry Palace and stood quietly in the audience chamber, waiting for the Emperor's summons at the suggestion of an imperial attendant. Soon, an imperial attendant came to report: "Viscount Rudolf von Fafnir, you may have an audience with His Imperial Majesty."

  Favniel followed the chamberlain to a room outside where the Emperor received foreign ministers, and the chamberlain at the door announced: "The ninth generation of Favniel Viscount. Rudolf von Favniel has arrived." Then, after a few minutes, he led Favniel into the room.

  The room was carpeted with a magnificent red rug woven by hundreds of craftsmen over decades, and at the far end, on the throne, sat an elderly man. Fafnir walked across the rug for tens of meters, and when he was five meters away from the old man, he lowered his head to pay homage, but in his heart, he was thinking of treasonous thoughts: "With my current abilities, just one second... ...one second would be enough to rush over this distance of five meters and kill the emperor, and if I had three seconds, all the guards in the room could be slaughtered... Hehehe." His mind thought of this idea, but his actions were extremely respectful, perfectly repeating the rituals taught by the old steward and the frontiersman.

  The elderly man above spoke, his words filled with a sense of languid emptiness: "Is that the 9th generation Viscount Farfneil? Please, be at ease. What a handsome and powerful young man... Just looking at you reminds me of the 7th generation Viscount Farfneil from back in the day... The clever Richt von Farfneil."

  Fauniel's current appearance is the same as he initially decided, the form adopted in a Western-style world - the appearance of Count Dracula from Van Helsing. So even after cartoon rendering, he is still a handsome man with a slender and tall figure, about 186 cm tall. After hearing Friedrich IV say something casual to him, he straightened his body, and while Friedrich IV was sizing him up, he also sized up the emperor: "This emperor is actually wise and all-knowing, but lazy and completely irresponsible, just like ashes that have burned out." At the same time, he fully felt the feeling of personally joining this galaxy universe's grand opera, "I really did join... ... What kind of biography will I have after a hundred years? However, it's indeed the cosmic era, cartoon-rendered imperial women are mostly beauties, not real German dragon knights at all..."

  "Your Majesty, I...". Favniel had barely uttered a sentence when Emperor Friedrich IV waved his hand and said, "You were about the same as me in my youth... Alright, from now on, strive for your own future and fight for the empire..." The emperor ended the meeting and had the attendant lead the stunned Favniel out. "What? That's it? Not even a fraction of the treatment I received! What do you mean we were similar in our youth?! You bastard! Are you saying that I'm just like you, struggling to survive in the empire's lower-class brothels, fighting over scraps?!". But then he thought again, "That old man really is good at judging people, even with the support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs... Is this the discernment of an elder? Ugh, I'm far older than you... But indeed, it's true. An elder's experience can see right through a person. You little brat Friedrich, aren't you just a lazy guy who won't even try to save the empire, completely lacking in responsibility? You're only good at watching plays. Isn't your motto 'Après moi, le déluge'?"

  Viscount Fafnir had just left the New Worry Palace when he saw a luxurious palace car drive into the palace, and with his superhuman vision, he caught a glimpse of the beautiful young girl sitting in the back seat as the door opened - that golden hair and emerald green eyes, elegant and pure temperament. It wasn't until several years later, at an imperial banquet hosted by the Emperor for the nobility, that Viscount Fafnir was able to confirm his suspicions - it was Annie Rodger von Greward Countess.

  After the audience, Fafnir and his two trash friends spent a long vacation in Odin - the newly appointed captain of the cruiser was kicked to Odin as an idle post by the Military Department just 36 hours later - their direct superiors had long known about the evil deeds of the three people, two old hands at fighting and quarreling, and a rotten gambler who could find the local underground casino in 5 minutes wherever he went, three physically overabundant young people who were corrupting the fleet's style and still had a headache-inducing noble status, it was better to throw them under the eyes of the military police and the Military Department.

  Three guys were having a great time in Odin, two of them were spending their energy on cheap prostitutes and streetwalkers as usual, while the third guy was trying every way to borrow money from his two friends without paying back. It wasn't until all three of them became penniless and deeply in debt that they started thinking about finding a solution: "Damn it, Karl! You borrowed money for yourself, that's fine! But you even used our names to borrow usury loans! Now this bad account is yours alone to deal with!"

  "Viscount Farnsbury! Who was it that, after I borrowed money from outside at exorbitant interest rates, forcibly took away 75% to indulge in whoring? And our beloved Counsellor, Baron von Schütz! You've also stolen a pretty penny from the Viscount's pocket, haven't you?"

  "That's not true! I just borrowed a little money from Rudolf and forgot to write an IOU, that's all! Besides, didn't you ask me to return it several times already? Karl."

  The three of them discussed and cursed for half a day, and finally after Fafnir beat up the other two, they came to a conclusion: "Damn it, we have to find a way to make some money! The noble allowance is not enough at all! And we also need to find a way to avoid trouble!"

  Schutke's eyes lit up, and he snapped his fingers, saying: "Great! I've got a plan! We'll petition to go to the front lines! While avoiding danger, we can also embezzle military funds!"

  Fawkes punched Shutruk's head: "Can you think of such a rotten idea? What is your IQ? How did you graduate from military school?"

  However, the three of them didn't have many other options either. Moreover, Lafiel was starting to find the constant chaos boring. "The world of Legend of the Galactic Heroes can't be spent like this; a good show should be watched up close."

  "Alright, I'll go read books, you guys come with me!"

  480 years of the Imperial Calendar, summer. After having plagued Odin and harassed the MP department for nearly a year, these three guys joined the front line again. Major Fafnir has now resumed his original position as the captain of the cruiser, and the two cronies are still his deputy captains and commander of the Marine Corps.

  In the 482nd year of the Galactic Empire, in a series of battles between the Imperial Army and the Alliance Army along the planet Caburhlanga, Major Favner - his noble qualifications helped greatly, performed outstandingly in battle, destroying multiple Alliance destroyers and cruisers, successfully covering the Imperial Ground Forces' defense from above. After the war, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel due to his achievements. However, what made him dissatisfied was "the flagship has become a small speedboat again!!" Now he is on the destroyer flagship "Cabur 9", commanding 500 destroyers, currently stationed in the Iselrun Fortress. There are countless Lieutenant Colonels in the fortress, and a small one who commands a destroyer squadron - well, still has some weight among the Lieutenant Colonels... Just then, a group of blonds and redheads appeared in Lieutenant Colonel Favner's line of sight, "The opening of a magnificent opera? ... These kids have been promoted so quickly? Did the blond really sell out? That one over there is Double Beryl, right? Go! But it's just a small Major after all."

  Colonel Fafnir still had not received any promotion in Imperial Year 485, whereas the former Lieutenant Colonel Goldarmy had rapidly risen to Major General and was now above Fafnir.

  The viscount's life remained corrupt, and his two friends - Lieutenant Colonel Shuttek and Captain Karl were the same. However, there was good news, Viscount finally became the commander of a cruiser squadron, with the cruiser "Von Mark 4" under him, with 250 cruisers and 700 destroyers, assigned to General Grimmelshausen, Goldfur became his colleague. "Fortunately, not directly superior..." Fafnir sighed.

  In March 485 of the Imperial Calendar, the Battle of Vanphorite officially began. This was the prologue to many people formally taking the stage.