Facing Lady Dimitrescu's words,
Javier waved his hand decisively in refusal. He believed in Ethan's abilities and in the conviction of a father.
If Ethan couldn't even defeat Salvatore, then there was no way he could ever defeat Mother Miranda.
Without hesitation,
Javier quickly took out a general map of the village and several weapons from inside his trench coat to hand over to Ethan.
An old-fashioned Colt M1873 revolver, a short-barreled shotgun, and some ammunition.
Just in case,
Javier also gave several grenades to Ethan. If used properly, a single High-explosive grenade would be enough to kill that fish monster, Salvatore Moreau.
Now that the Duke was absent,
Javier had taken on the Duke's role; thus, the selling and providing of weapons fell to Javier.
Fortunately,
Javier had the ring's system storage space,
which was piled high with a massive amount of weapons and ammunition, enough for Ethan to use lavishly.
In a sense, Javier's arsenal was even larger and richer than the real Duke's inventory.
"..."
"Thank you. Your name is Javier, right? Although I don't know what your purpose is,"
"I still thank you for giving me this rare hope and miracle. Otherwise, I would truly have been swallowed by the abyss of guilt and regret and died..."
Taking the firearms, ammunition, and map handed over by Javier, Ethan equipped them all on his person.
At the same time, he looked up at Javier.
Ethan hesitated for a moment before speaking,
his eyes filled with pure gratitude. This was Ethan—a good father, a good man, and a kind soul.
Ethan could clearly sense that he might be being used as a pawn by Javier and the people in the village, like a dog being ordered around and led by a leash.
But Ethan wasn't angry,
because he only cared about his beloved wife Mia and his daughter Rose. He only wanted them to live well.
And now...
Javier had given Ethan that hope,
so Ethan didn't care what Javier's goal was, even if he was being used as a blade for killing.
Not long after,
Ethan left Castle Dimitrescu carrying his weapons and the Flask containing his daughter Rose's crystallized remains.
Javier had originally intended to help Ethan keep it safe. After all, this was the real world, not a game.
There was no inventory space.
It was very troublesome for Ethan to run around with a Flask the size of a thermos, let alone when he would eventually have four.
But thinking that Ethan only needed to kill Salvatore before returning to the castle, Javier gave up on the idea of safekeeping.
Firstly, he didn't want to separate the father and daughter; secondly, it was only two Flasks for now, so it shouldn't be too troublesome for Ethan to carry.
After all, Javier would help obtain the remaining two Flasks of crystallized remains himself. They could gather them all together once they returned to the castle.
"He's gone..."
"Father God, do you have any further instructions?"
Watching Ethan slowly leave Castle Dimitrescu, it felt as if this dungeon level had been cleared like child's play.
As the mistress of the house, Lady Dimitrescu suddenly frowned and asked. To be honest, she was a bit annoyed.
Because a mere human had cleared her castle so easily; it felt incredibly strange.
It felt as if she were being ignored, but remembering this was to overthrow Mother Miranda's rule, the Lady ultimately endured it.
"There are indeed more instructions. Next, I need you all to pretend to be injured and hide your three Vampire daughters,"
"Have them hide in the most secluded room in the castle for a few days. If they get bored, it doesn't matter if they watch those movies I brought to pass the time; I'll leave that to your arrangement, Lady."
"To tell you the truth, Mother Miranda does not trust you four noble lords. To ensure your deaths, she will disguise herself as an old crone wandering the village."
"You should all know this, so she will likely come to check the situation. Lady Dimitrescu, you need to reluctantly damage the decorations in the castle,"
"Create a scene that looks like a fight just happened. Then, when Mother Miranda arrives to inspect, pretend to be heavily wounded and barely surviving, with the castle severely damaged and your three Vampire daughters all dead."
"This is your next task. Otherwise, Mother Miranda will find it hard to believe your loyalty, Lady..."
Facing Lady Dimitrescu,
Javier assigned her the corresponding task. Since Ethan had already left the castle with the Flask of crystallized remains,
then Lady Dimitrescu, having supposedly fought him, naturally couldn't remain unscathed.
She had to feign being heavily wounded to bypass Mother Miranda's suspicion; this was the most critical part.
Otherwise, Mother Miranda would view Lady Dimitrescu with the same impression as that traitor Heisenberg, making it impossible to get close to Mother Miranda for a sneak attack.
After all,
Mother Miranda had disguised herself as a decrepit, rambling old crone wandering the village,
the same Hag who often guided and directed Ethan.
That was the form Mother Miranda took to observe the situation in the village. She was treated as Mother Miranda's successor witch by the villagers and was thus quite respected.
At the same time,
that was also the method Mother Miranda used to guide Ethan into killing the four noble lords.
The Hag—Mother Miranda in disguise—first told Ethan that his daughter Rose was in the village, giving him the idea to explore.
Then she told Ethan that Rose was in the castle, and later Ethan followed her lead and fought through Castle Dimitrescu,
obtaining the crystallized remains.
Simultaneously, she revealed that Rose's remains were distributed among the other three noble lords, continuing to guide Ethan to kill the remaining lords.
Therefore,
under these circumstances,
it couldn't be ruled out whether Mother Miranda would use The Hag's appearance to spy on the situation in Castle Dimitrescu.
If she saw a lively Lady Dimitrescu and discovered that the Flask of Rose's crystallized remains had been taken by Ethan,
it would be hard for Mother Miranda not to suspect
whether Lady Dimitrescu had betrayed her like that traitor Heisenberg.
Thus, faking injuries and putting on an act was necessary. This would at least prove that Lady Dimitrescu hadn't intentionally let Ethan take the Flask,
nor did she want to betray Mother Miranda; she simply couldn't win. This would be slightly more reasonable...
"This..."
Upon hearing this,
Lady Dimitrescu showed a troubled expression. Although she had been mentally prepared,
having to destroy the various furniture and walls in her castle and stab herself a few times to pretend she was defeated by a worm like Ethan
was truly difficult for Lady Dimitrescu to accept.
Firstly, the castle—she had lived there for decades and truly couldn't bear to wreck it. One must know she was a noble lady, and aristocratic dignity was sometimes very important.
"This is the reward..."
"Remember to do as I said. Otherwise, it's not just a matter of pride, but more about Mother Miranda's trust."
"If you aren't injured, Mother Miranda will no longer trust you and will treat you as a traitor."
"That's all. Next, I'm leaving Castle Dimitrescu for a while. I plan to discuss cooperation with the other lords."
Seeing Lady Dimitrescu's hesitation,
Javier quickly took a small glass bottle from his pocket and threw it to her.
Inside was a drop of his viral blood.
It was enough to enhance Lady Dimitrescu's own power. With this payment, our eight-foot-tall lady should easily be able to give up that ridiculous pride.
Javier soon left the castle.
His next move was to head to Heisenberg's Iron Factory on the outskirts of the village. This traitor was one of the most likely partners to bring on board...
Volume 10 Resident Evil Village, Revenge: Chapter 21 The Steel Bio-Factory
Heisenberg's Iron Factory,
located at the outermost edge of the village. Within this secluded village was hidden a modernized factory building.
This was built on Mother Miranda's orders for her research. After all, the village was isolated;
if the experimental equipment was too backward,
then it would be hard for her mold research to progress, including essential things like electricity generation.
Therefore, Mother Miranda needed such an Iron Factory.
Coincidentally,
when Heisenberg merged with the mold, he gained the power to manipulate metal through magnetism, so the task and the ownership of this territory fell to him.
Meanwhile,
besides providing daily electricity,
the Iron Factory also housed Heisenberg's various "I love inventing" masterpieces. The most famous were the steel zombie cyborgs Heisenberg created using corpses.
These semi-mechanical mutants, modified from male corpses, were divided into Soldat Ein and Bio-Armored Soldiers. The former were modified using only mold-infected corpses,
serving as guards and workers in the factory.
The latter were modified from corpses implanted with the gift, their hearts replaced by a reactor of the gift.
Equipped with drills and other mechanical weapons, they had even stronger combat capabilities.
Some Bio-Armored Soldiers were equipped with ventilators to provide oxygen.
Their weakness was the reactor vent on their bodies; once destroyed, the Bio-Armored Soldiers would undergo an internal explosion.
To this,
Javier could only say
that Karl Heisenberg was indeed a talent.
He could actually use the mold as a power core and combine it with steel to create a bunch of cyborg soldiers.
This was indeed impressive and quite outrageous.
It was like Tony Stark... no, like a guy in Pakistan hand-crafting an Iron Man suit from a pile of scrap metal.
Although the concept of a mold reactor sounded very mystical,
considering this was the Resident Evil world where all sorts of superpowers had appeared, a mold reactor didn't seem impossible.
Therefore, in Javier's view,
Heisenberg could already be compared to that genius girl Alexia... no, genius auntie.
Although Heisenberg's IQ was a bit lower than that freak Alexia,
he was still not bad.
After all, he hand-crafted things in a scrap heap, which was different from Alexia's environment with advanced equipment.
The only pity was
that Heisenberg harbored resentment toward everyone in the village,
including Mother Miranda. Born common, he could have lived a very peaceful life, but he never expected to be dragged in by Lady Dimitrescu's human trafficking.
Having already left the village, he was kidnapped and brought back.