PGVCW 43

Playing God in Various Catastrophic Worlds

Chapter 43: The Iron Legion

Everyone stared in sheer disbelief at the unfolding scene. In truth, they couldn't understand a single word these knights were saying, because they were speaking in the tongue of the Xia Kingdom. After all, the two worlds suffered from a total language barrier.

Yet even without understanding the words, seeing these formidable individuals drop to a respectful single knee and observing their absolute, submissive obedience, even a complete fool would know what they were doing.

And so, shock washed over the spectators once more—including Carlo, who had already grown firmly convinced of Xia Wang'an's "imperial princess" status. He wasn't particularly surprised by the sheer number of guards; rather, what completely baffled him was the pristine equipment adorning every single one of them.

How on earth did they manage to keep every guard's suit of plate armor looking as bright and spotless as new?

One had to realize that a full suit of head-to-toe plate armor was exceptionally costly. Not only was the initial purchase price exorbitant, but the ongoing maintenance was a financial abyss. After all, armor didn't just need regular washing; to prevent rust from setting in, it had to be constantly coated in oil and meticulously polished. A complete set of plate armor was a luxury item even for someone of Carlo's social standing. Buying it was a massive expense in its own right, and funding its upkeep only added layers of cost upon cost.

Even the knights who habitually shadowed him possessed incomplete sets of plate armor—yet even so, they could still boast of being among the wealthiest individuals within the entire Albert territory.

Yet right at this moment, these "wealthy individuals" stood side by side with Carlo, their jaws dropping in utter stupefaction as they gazed upon the neat rows of soldiers clad entirely in full black armor—even down to the horses, which were decked out in full tactical barding.

Truthfully, even in their wildest dreams, these local guards wouldn't dare imagine owning a complete set of armor, let alone a second spare set. The mere thought of seeing this many suits of armor assembled before their eyes was beyond comprehension.

The Arrival of Reinforcements

Such an extravagant display of wealth, executed with such terrifying uniformity, allowed everyone present to deeply feel the absolute devotion these knights held for Xia Wang'an. These people looked precisely like the legendary iron legions featured in ancient myths.

Xia Wang'an had already instructed the knights to "rise." Although she had ordered the area used for boiling water to be thoroughly swept and cleaned beforehand, a visceral, instinctive aversion still kept her from wanting the robots to have direct contact with the ground. What if someone happened to casually relieve their bodily functions right there again? Though she hadn't stayed in this world long, her nerves were completely fried by these locals' utter disregard for basic sanitation when dropping their daily business anywhere they pleased.

Yuan Ning and Cai Cai strode forward with bold strides. The specifications of the armor and weaponry they wore were noticeably superior to those of the standard automaton guards, marking them instantly as high-ranking nobles. Of course, Carlo—thinking to himself—refused to admit that the grade of his own personal armor couldn't even match that of these common guards.

"Wang'an, we're here!"

As Cai Cai walked, she unclipped her helmet, letting loose her signature mop of neon green hair. She drew a long arrow from her quiver and pointed it straight at the serf who had just been scared out of his wits and collapsed onto the ground: "Damn you, trying to pull a moral blackmail stunt right on our doorstep!"

Naturally, no one present could understand a word she uttered. To the surrounding onlookers, it simply appeared as though Cai Cai was barking out mysterious foreign incantations while preparing to deal with the audacious serf who dared offend Xia Wang'an.

The Power of Misunderstanding

The distinct advantage of a language barrier instantly shone through here. Because they couldn't decipher Cai Cai's actual words, the terrified serf automatically filled in the blanks, convincing himself that she was pronouncing a death sentence upon him. With rubbery legs, he broke down into frantic sobbing and kowtowed desperately, begging the mighty lords to spare his life.

Cai Cai, who hadn't even begun to flex yet when the target immediately dropped into a full slide-kneel: "......"

Although the psychological impact far exceeded expectations, since a ready-made "chicken" had presented itself to be slaughtered as a warning to the monkeys, there was certainly no reason to let it go to waste.

Flanking Xia Wang'an like a pair of protective walls, she and Yuan Ning took up positions on the left and right in a posture of absolute guardianship. Anyone could tell at a glance that they were hovering over their imperial princess with the hyper-vigilant care of a mother hen shielding her chicks. Anyone who dared violate the majesty of Her Highness the Princess would instantly be treated as an enemy of the highest order.

Cai Cai locked a piercing gaze onto the huddled, trembling serf on the ground, her expression completely devoid of mercy, radiating a heavy, oppressive solemnity. Everyone could clearly perceive that this newly arrived knight's fury had not subsided one bit despite the serf's pathetic wails.

The ambient air seemed to grow thick and freeze over imperceptibly; even the youngest children were so intimidated by the frigid atmosphere that they didn't dare emit a single sound.

Several knights belonging to the Albert territory instinctively shot nervous glances toward Carlo, hoping he might step in to break the tense atmosphere.

Carlo: "......" Why don't you guys go step up instead!

These foreign knights couldn't understand a single word of the local tongue, and they looked utterly murderous right now. If he tried to mediate and they misunderstood his intentions, mistaking him for an enemy and cleaving him in two with a single slash, what then? Even if Princess Wang'an tried to intervene, what if she couldn't stop them in time? Those swords of theirs looked heavy enough to split mountains, and they didn't have a single nick or speck of rust on them—he definitely wasn't going to gamble his life on that.

Carlo shrank his neck defensively, adopting an expression that matched their solemnity and gravity to absolute perfection. His primary objective was simple: project a crystal-clear attitude of “I am totally on your beloved princess's side; whoever offended her has me just as pissed off as you guys.” That way, if these angry foreigners started swinging weapons, they certainly wouldn't pick him as a target.

The Iron Legion Advances

While maintaining his stern expression, Carlo watched as the green-haired knight gave a sharp wave of her hand. Huh? What was the signal for?

The next second, the ground trembled once more.

The black-armored knights marched forward in unison, taking one synchronized step ahead. Though their faces remained completely concealed beneath pitch-black helms, rendering their expressions unreadable, their movements were lightning-fast as they snapped their gazes toward the terrified serf.

Another step forward, and the tiny pebbles scattered across the dirt bounced upward from the vibrations before clattering back down to earth.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Under the horrified gazes of the onlookers, the iron legion forged entirely from black armor pressed relentlessly forward.

Just as they came to a dead halt, before anyone could catch a breath of relief—

Shing!

Every single black-armored knight simultaneously executed a unified, mirror-image motion, drawing massive one-meter-long greatswords from their scabbards.

Right at that precise moment, a stray shaft of sunlight pierced the sky, reflecting off the razor-sharp blades with a blinding, dazzling glare that blurred the outlines of the black-armored knights, making them look as though they were shrouded behind a divine veil of pure light.

Silence— A dead, suffocating silence.

Even the serf who had been wailing for mercy a moment ago was now paralyzed with fright, utterly incapable of squeaking out another sound.

At this very moment, even Carlo—who previously fancied himself well-acquainted with Xia Wang'an—felt a sudden surge of profound awe and reverence toward her. He realized with absolute clarity that this princess's home empire was likely far more unimaginably powerful than what he and his father had dared to speculate. His fingers trembled uncontrollably—partly from sheer terror, and partly from irrepressible excitement.

He heard the green-haired knight utter a series of chilling, solemn foreign syllables with an impassive face: “#%#%!”* Was she officially delivering the final verdict on this serf's heinous crimes?

Thus, the Count's second son tried his utmost to twist the expression of pure shock on his own face into one of grim solemnity; he wanted his actions to clearly convey that even though such an offensive blunder had occurred within the Albert territory, the House of Albert shared their exact same righteous indignation.

Little did the grave, solemn young master know that the "severe judicial sentencing" being handed down by Cai Cai at that exact second actually consisted of the following dialogue:

"Wang'an! Quick, check this out!" "We practiced this supreme flexing routine for ages! It looks so utterly drippy and main-character coded!!"

Xia Wang'an gazed at the sea of black-armored knights pointing their razor-sharp blades directly at the nearly-fainting serf, and nodded internally—it certainly looked imposing. So cool that one almost wanted to record it and air-drop it to [Crazy Dazzling Sesame Rice Cake] so she could write it into her web novel.

Standing to her left, Yuan Ning maintained an expression of icy, unyielding gravity, while speaking entirely opposite words through her comms: "Already got the footage rolling. I've had the camera tracking since second one."

Absolute peak reliability!

Following the short intermission of small talk, it was time to proceed with the classic script of making an example out of a chicken to scare the monkeys.

Cai Cai slid her arrow back into its quiver and slowly drew her own saber. This motion had to be executed with deliberate slowness; as the blade cleared its sheath, her eyes had to remain locked onto the target to maximize psychological pressure. Reciting the mental checklist of her cool-guy choreography guidelines—or rather, the operational procedure reminders—she slowly, agonizingly extracted her weapon inch by inch.

Even though the target couldn't understand a word of it, after hanging around the action squad long enough—

Translator's Note: 

Bro, why are these chapters dropping absolute rizz-level tactical cutscenes just to flex on some random peasant? 💀 Bro really thought it was a federal court case when they were literally just speedrunning a main character intro cinematic. 😭 Big yikes for the local NPC who nearly passed away from pure second-hand intimidation. Don't let this distract you from the fact that we're still coping with this absolute fever dream of a translation grind. Catch you on the flip side!