Chapter 535: The First Class is Everyone’s Big Brother!

Rowan Atkinson easily caught the undisguised envy in Wentworth's tone.

Ever since the Saxon Empire's "Mage Killer" burst onto the scene, both the Empire and the Mage Council high command desperately wanted an equivalent "symbol" of their own.

Securing this title was enough to elevate any spellcaster's status within the Mage Council to new heights.

But Rowan Atkinson shook his head, his expression grim.

"This title is not a good thing."

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the office.

"Come on, do you really suspect I have surveillance in here?"

Wentworth's expression grew complex, clearly finding Rowan Atkinson's caution both funny and exasperating.

"Relax. This is a restricted area for the Highland Mage Council. You don't need to be so—"

Before Wentworth could finish, Rowan Atkinson raised his hand, his fingertips glowing with faint arcane light.

A ripple of 【Detect Magic】 rapidly expanded, sweeping the entire room. Only after confirming there were no abnormal magical fluctuations aside from Wentworth's personal magical items did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Watching him, Wentworth finally couldn't help but laugh: "You look exactly like an intelligence operative right now, nothing like a combat mage... I bet Military Intelligence would love to recruit talent like you~"

Rowan Atkinson ignored the teasing. He leaned forward, clasping his hands on the desk.

"Wentworth, put away the flattery. And don't envy my current situation... You cannot comprehend what actually happened out there just by reading my written reports."

"Why do you say that?"

Wentworth asked, puzzled. He had noticed earlier that his old friend didn't seem thrilled or excited about receiving this "honor."

"The 'Mage Killer' is just a propaganda stunt cooked up by the brass... The Empire needs a banner to counterbalance the psychological pressure that the real Saxon butcher is causing on the front lines... They pushed me forward because I fit their propaganda needs right now. It doesn't mean I can actually shoulder the weight of that title."

Rowan Atkinson explained, "Besides, the Bulgarian combat mages aren't exactly high-tier. They severely lack experience in mage-on-mage combat. So, how many of them I managed to kill doesn't matter at all... What matters is that I serve to pacify the rank-and-file soldiers."

Hearing this, Wentworth dropped his joking demeanor, a slight frown creasing his brow.

"So you feel there's a gap between you and the Saxon 'Mage Killer'?"

"Not just a gap," Rowan Atkinson corrected, his tone dead serious. "I have zero confidence in facing him head-on..."

Wentworth sat bolt upright in his chair. He knew Rowan Atkinson's strength well... Becoming a 6th-circle Conjuration mage was something his friend had always been immensely proud of.

This was the first time Wentworth had ever seen him look so defeated and lacking in confidence.

Rowan Atkinson slumped back into his chair like a deflated balloon. The images of the final retreat during the Balkan campaign flashed through his mind.

"'Old Man' led a team to engage that Mage Killer directly... He tried to lure him away to buy us time. He was utterly crushed in a matter of minutes. I couldn't have done that myself..."

"Even the Saxon heavy armor troops fighting alongside that monster posed a massive threat! Those guys clad in heavy iron armor moved absurdly fast and packed terrifying firepower..."

"We received no prior intelligence about them, so I have every reason to suspect this is a brand-new unit forged by the Saxons!"

Rowan Atkinson raised his hand, gesturing as if reliving the moment.

"When that sword slammed down, it was only a meter away from the teleportation circle... If we hadn't gotten lucky and activated the circle fast enough, he would have cleaved me in two."

Wentworth fell completely silent. He had stayed in London and never visited the front. Even having read the combat reports, it was difficult to imagine exactly what Rowan Atkinson had faced.

"I finally understand why the Highland Mage Council high command didn't send a high-circle mage to eliminate this enemy."

Rowan Atkinson sighed, continuing to voice his thoughts.

"Looking at the current situation, the risk of doing so is simply too great... Even if they managed to take out this Mage Killer, the high command would never agree to it if the cost was the fall of a high-circle mage."

"Wait, are you saying a high-circle mage could fail?" Wentworth found this inconceivable. His old friend's words sounded like a fairy tale.

"Because the enemy's 'Mage Killer' never fights alone. The Saxons have built an entire tactical system around him! All their tactical maneuvers revolve around him."

Rowan Atkinson rapped his knuckles on the desk, his voice unconsciously rising.

"Whether it's those heavy armor shock troops or the armored airships providing aerial support, they grant that Saxon monster a massive advantage..."

At this point, the 6th-circle mage grew increasingly indignant. Without waiting for Wentworth to speak, he pressed on: "If you ask me, the Empire high command's underestimation of the Saxon armored airships is a major reason we're in this mess!"

"Watch your words..."

"Watch my ass! I'm speaking my mind today!"

Rowan Atkinson slapped the desk, his face flushed. His resentment was clearly even greater than before.

"Before the war, those generals and high-circle mages sitting in their offices generally believed the Saxon armored airships were just flying balloons equipped with a few guns..."

"They thought the airships were too few in number to cover all fronts and that their combat effectiveness was negligible. They assumed a concentrated attack by a few mages could easily shoot them down."

Wentworth nodded. As the Mage Council's liaison at the War Office, he knew the assessment reports back then read exactly like that.

"But the result? Once the war broke out and we started frequently encountering Saxon armored airships on the battlefield, those generals finally realized these massive aerial units weren't so easily dealt with!"

Rowan Atkinson continued his furious tirade against the high command, venting his long-suppressed frustration: "At this stage in the war, the Saxons have developed multiple tactics revolving around armored airships. The threat posed by these beasts of war far exceeds the firepower they carry!"

"They provide aerial reconnaissance, suppressive fire, and even deploy combat troops! That heavy armor unit that nearly wiped us out dropped right out of an airship!"

After ranting endlessly about the high command, Rowan Atkinson let out a long breath and concluded, "In short, both the Imperial military and the Highland Mage Council need a paradigm shift... The era where a single mage flying over a trench could suppress masses of ordinary soldiers is over!"

"If we want to unleash the true power of a mage, we must integrate them much more closely with combat troops."

"The 'Spell Jägers' were a very good attempt, but I feel the Army and Mage Council high command still don't value us nearly enough..."

He looked earnestly at Wentworth. "Those Saxons across the sea provide unimaginable support to their Mage Killer... They pour all their resources into that one man. That entire army practically fights around him!"

Given the situation, Wentworth could only nod in agreement. He waited for Rowan Atkinson to calm down slightly before saying, "I think the high command is actually beginning to realize what you're saying... Since they plan to include the 'Spell Jägers' in the upcoming secret project, it shows they are indeed placing more importance on you. Don't you agree?"

"Let's hope so."

Rowan Atkinson shrugged and stood up to leave.

But upon reaching the door, he stopped and turned back.

"You must push the survivor benefits issue quickly. Don't make those families wait too long. Prices are changing by the day right now. If we wait too long, the benefits won't even be enough for their families to survive..."

Wentworth smiled and spread his hands. "Rest assured, I'll follow up on it~"

...

Across the sea, news of Colonel Morin "causing a scene" at the Imperial Army Central Hospital spread through the Saxon Empire's high command overnight.

The results presentation hosted by Dr. Kaufmann ultimately ended hastily due to Morin's forceful intervention. After all, no one had the guts to reprimand Morin.

The Reichstag members, wealthy merchants, and military censors present were all intimidated by Morin prying the iron bars open with his bare hands.

They each took away their own interpretation of events—some claimed Colonel Morin was shielding cowards and interfering with legitimate medical research, while others said he was standing up for the frontline soldiers risking their lives.

Both narratives had backers pushing them.

Consequently, the next day, when a highly restrained report landed on the desks of the Army General Staff, the Army high command, having remained silent all night, finally had to address the matter.

The report was detailed and entirely devoid of emotional rhetoric.

Drawing from his personal experiences on the Western Front and in the Balkans, Morin precisely detailed the immense toll the nervous system endures when soldiers remain in a bombardment environment for prolonged periods, facing incessant artillery fire and the constant threat of death.

These "psychological issues" appearing in frontline soldiers had absolutely nothing to do with a so-called "lack of courage."

Morin pointed out in the report that these soldiers were not cowardly or fearful; they had simply reached the absolute limits of their physiological and psychological endurance, resulting in mental trauma.

What these soldiers needed most was professional psychological counseling and medical care, not Dr. Kaufmann's highly insulting electroshock therapy.

At the end of the report, Morin penned a single sentence.

"Relying purely on superior oppression, electroshock, and insults cannot bring back these braves who sacrificed everything for the Empire."

Propelled by sympathetic parties, this sentence rapidly became a "golden quote," spreading among mid- and lower-level Army officers, and was even widely known among frontline soldiers.

This led many to praise Morin as a rare senior officer who truly stood alongside the rank-and-file, rather than viewing soldiers merely as numbers like other high-ranking officers.

The Army high command quickly split into two camps regarding the incident.

One camp, primarily comprising traditional Junker nobility and the censorship department, argued that Morin, lacking professional medical expertise, had overstepped his bounds by interfering with medical experiments, damaging military prestige.

The other camp, mostly newly promoted officers who had risen during the war, believed the experiences of this "Hero of the Empire," who had fought long on the front lines and earned stellar merits, were far more persuasive.

After all, Morin was a man who actually led troops in battle. He understood soldiers better than doctors hiding in rear-echelon laboratories.

Following the power struggle between the two sides, the military temporarily halted the large-scale rollout of Dr. Kaufmann's "electroshock therapy."

Rumor had it Dr. Kaufmann was so furious he smashed everything smashable in his office, yet he remained powerless to change the outcome.

Meanwhile, his backer, Mr. Herzog, and other connected individuals remained surprisingly quiet. Aside from urging Dr. Kaufmann to refine the technique quickly, they took no further action.

Personnel from the Office of the Surgeon General, who had also observed the presentation, conveniently issued an assessment report concluding that this new therapy had indeed not been fully scientifically validated and did not meet the criteria for widespread military implementation.

This disagreement over a medical protocol unexpectedly and rapidly evolved into the "main battlefield" for a new round of competition among multiple factions within the Saxon Empire... Even different factions within the Reichstag took the opportunity to attack each other.

However, all these disputes soon ceased to concern Morin and the instruction unit.

Because Morin had far more pressing matters at hand—the extraction of the instruction unit's core personnel and the massive expansion of the unit itself.

The official transfer orders from the Army General Staff had reached the instruction unit's garrison.

Simultaneously, the expansion plan for the entire unit was finalized.

As Crown Prince Georg had promised, the expanded instruction unit reached a "super-sized" brigade level.

Its primary combat strength consisted of three regiments with different structures and functions.

One was a motorized infantry instruction regiment, fully equipped with trucks. This formed the core of the instruction unit, representing the pinnacle of infantry tactics and techniques in the entire army.

The second was an armored instruction regiment reorganized and expanded from Major Maximilian von Weichs' 5th Guards Reserve Cavalry Regiment. Its primary equipment naturally consisted of various mass-produced half-track armored vehicle models.

The last was an expanded artillery regiment, comprising two 105mm artillery battalions and one 150mm heavy artillery battalion—a product born entirely of Morin's "fear of insufficient firepower."

Beyond these three main regiments, the brigade headquarters' direct-reporting units were equally extravagant.

Factoring in the brigade headquarters, the brigade-attached Thunder Warrior squad, Armored Knight squadron, combat engineer battalion, aerial reconnaissance squadron, large-scale supply detachment, field hospital, and bakery company, the unit's paper strength exceeded 12,000 men.

This vastly exceeded the size of a conventional infantry brigade.

To put it in perspective, a standard Saxon Empire infantry division during the same period numbered around 18,000 men.

Operating under a brigade designation, the instruction unit boasted troop numbers approaching a division, yet far surpassed a standard division in firepower and mechanization.

It even possessed independent field hospitals, large supply detachments, and bakery companies—units normally belonging to a division.

And under Morin's personal direction, the expanded instruction unit's ratio of direct combat personnel, combat support personnel, and logistics/maintenance personnel looked nothing like a traditional military unit from the first 15 years of the 20th century.

With 14.6% combat support personnel and 26.5% logistics personnel, the unit's structure closely resembled the German and American armored divisions of World War II.

From Emperor Albert II and Crown Prince Georg down to Chief of Staff Moltke the Younger and Minister of War Falkenhayn, everyone held incredibly high expectations for this newly expanded instruction unit.

The Army General Staff defined the unit's role very clearly:

A campaign-level breakthrough force, a Stormtrooper tactics instruction unit, a mechanized armor experimental force, and a tactical demonstration unit for the entire army.

It would become the sharpest sword in the Saxon Imperial Army General Staff's arsenal. Concentrated at a single breakthrough point, supported by artillery and aerial reconnaissance, it would tear open the front line, thrust deep into enemy territory, and allow follow-up infantry divisions to secure the gains.

To Morin's even greater satisfaction, good news arrived from the Air Force.

After completing maintenance and weapon upgrades following the Balkan campaign, the L15 armored airship would once again be assigned to the instruction unit, providing long-term aerial support.

Based on Andreas's earlier briefing, the L15's upgrades primarily involved replacing some "space-occupying" machine guns and autocannons with 150mm heavy guns to bolster ground support firepower.

It was fair to say that Morin's "primitive combined arms force," possessing infantry, artillery, armor, and aviation coordination capabilities, had become the world's strongest "ground attack group" to date—no qualifiers needed.

But no matter how impressive the paper stats were, they needed to translate into actual combat power.

The expanded troops needed to successfully complete a series of adaptive coordination training exercises.

This was especially true for the combat-experienced officers and soldiers transferred from various main force units. Most had never interacted before, let alone cooperated in battle.

Although the new training syllabus provided a degree of uniformity, different units had different combat habits. Molding these individuals into a cohesive whole was no simple task.

To forge genuine combat power, massive amounts of training were essential.

For Morin and the instruction unit, the current situation featured tight deadlines and heavy responsibilities.

Morin had to bring the expanded instruction unit up to proper combat readiness in the shortest time possible so they could deploy to the Eastern Front according to the high command's plan.

As the massive expansion project at the instruction unit garrison neared completion and the reinforcing troops arrived in succession, the entire base became extraordinarily bustling.

Among the newly joined officers, aside from Gerd von Rundstedt and Hermann Hoth—whom Morin had specifically requested after coordinating with them in the Bulgarian campaign—the unexpected "gacha pulls" came from the artillery regiment and the brigade aerial squadron.

Morin had to admit, the drop rate in this limited "Future Stars of the Third Reich" gacha pool was absurdly high.

This time, he pulled two "utility characters."

One was an artillery staff officer named Albert Kesselring; the other was a pilot named Kurt Student.

Soon, the veterans of the "Instruction Unit 1st Class" dissolved their formations and began a series of training sessions to guide the newcomers.

This was one reason Morin had previously asked Minister Falkenhayn to delay transferring core personnel out of the unit. He needed these veterans, who had survived the bloodbaths of the Western Front and the Balkans, to pass on the instruction unit's tactical philosophies and ethos to the fresh arrivals.

The second reason stemmed entirely from Morin's self-interest.

He wanted the newly incorporated "Instruction Unit 2nd Class" to become well-acquainted with the departing "1st Class" veterans.

Since the Empire's high command had inadvertently handed him the opportunity to forge an "Instruction Faction" within the military, Morin certainly wasn't going to waste it.

A portion of the 1st Class veterans would soon disperse to various main force units across the army as mid- and lower-level commanders.

If the 2nd Class rookies forged bonds of camaraderie with them, then when the instruction unit injected fresh blood into the military again in the future, the "Instruction Faction's" influence would multiply exponentially throughout the Imperial Army.

In certain situations, these invisible bonds were even more reliable than written military orders. On this point...

The history of numerous secret military societies in Morin's original world amply proved it.

The task of having veterans guide rookies faced little resistance during actual execution; in fact, it went quite smoothly.

The prestige of the "Instruction Unit 1st Class" was established very quickly among the latecomers, and the concept that "the 1st Class is everyone's big brother!" took root in no time.

After all, the instruction unit's past battle record was too dazzling. You couldn't count their classic campaigns on two hands, and they had long reached heights unattainable by other conventional combat forces.

In an extremely "power-worshipping" group like the military, newly transferred officers and soldiers naturally harbored a sense of awe when facing these "1st Class big brothers" whose chests were covered in medals and who smelled of gunpowder.

Alongside high-intensity tactical training, Morin didn't neglect ideological conditioning.

After Mass every week, groups of 1st Class veterans would lead the 2nd Class rookies to the newly completed Armed Chapel.

Just as Kleist had planned, the building not only served religious functions, but its rear corridors were meticulously crafted into a Unit History and Honor Hall.

When individual, tide-turning campaigns that once dominated combat reports were concentrated within the Honor Hall of a single unit, the resulting awe was unimaginable to outsiders.

In the spoils display area, the 【Dark Sword】 captured from the Romanian King hung high in the center. The chilling aura emanating from the legendary magic weapon served as the ultimate educational tool.

"Do you see this?"

A 1st Class veteran pointed to a bronze plaque detailing campaign information in the corridor, lecturing the 2nd Class rookies. "This isn't just metal and text; this is honor bought with the blood and lives of your predecessors! From the moment you step foot in this garrison, you are the inheritors of this honor!"

This direct "Unit History and Honor Education" yielded surprisingly excellent results.

Whether it was the rookies just joining the instruction unit or the veterans preparing to depart for new posts, their sense of belonging to this legendary unit deepened drastically.

The rookies yearned to carve their own names onto those bronze honor plaques in future battles.

And the veterans silently vowed that no matter where they went, they would never bring shame to the instruction unit...

These changes brought an irrepressible look of satisfaction to Morin's face.

Because from this moment on, this unit possessed its own soul, thoroughly stamped with his personal mark.

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