After several days of extensive inquiry, although there was still no concrete evidence—after all, there hadn't even been a single eyewitness at the time—
According to Josh's judgment, it was highly likely that Captain America had truly been teleported away by the Cosmic Cube.
As for where he was teleported to, that couldn't be determined.
Although in the original storyline, Red Skull was sent to the planet Vomir to serve as the guide to another Infinity Stone—the Soul Stone—Josh believed that the Soul Stone shouldn't require two guides.
So even if both were teleported together, the likelihood of them appearing together on Vor Mir was very low.
As for Captain America being teleported away, Josh felt a mix of regret and relief.
The regret came from the fact that, while he and Cap weren't exactly close friends, they were at least acquaintances.
The relief was simple—though not yet formally recognized by the Council of Nine, Josh had essentially become the head of a Hydra branch and a latent enemy of Captain America.
It wasn't that he was afraid of Cap, but it still felt a bit uncomfortable to have a familiar person suddenly become a mortal foe.
This outcome was just fine.
After a moment of reflection, Josh didn't dwell too much on the matter.
As for the Cosmic Cube...once he truly gained control of the Council of Nine, that would no longer be a problem.
The next day, in a valley west of Innsbruck in western Austria, a luxurious motorcade slowly entered a small town nestled there named Oberstegg.
The townsfolk curiously observed the convoy.
Because this town was remote, the war had barely touched it, and it was rare for any military or bigwigs to come by. So the sudden appearance of such a luxurious convoy naturally seemed quite strange.
Although it was a small town, since Austria was once the core part of the once world-class Austro-Hungarian Empire, the roads were well-built, allowing the convoy to move through the town with ease.
After several twists and turns, the motorcade finally stopped in front of a small house with a courtyard on the town's northern edge.
The arrival of the convoy drew the attention of a large dog in the yard, which immediately barked twice in warning.
As the cars stopped, Josh, wearing an overcoat, stepped out of one of them. Following behind him was Ophelia, dressed in classical attire.
As soon as he got out, Josh spotted the dog in the yard and his eyes lit up—it was a robust Alpine Spirit, the Swiss national dog, a Saint Bernard.
Famous for protecting travelers crossing the Alps, the Saint Bernard was beloved not only in Switzerland but in all regions surrounding the Alpine mountains.
Being a naturally gentle breed, aside from barking a few times to warn them and watching them warily, it didn't show any signs of aggression toward these uninvited guests.
"This is your childhood home? Looks like it already has new owners," Ophelia said as she looked over the small building and asked Josh.
"That's normal. When we left, my father sold this place. As for who he sold it to, I'm not too sure," Josh replied.
Indeed, this small town, this house, was Josh's original body's hometown.
Roughly twenty kilometers north of this town was the Bavarian town of Schwangau.
There, two castles faced each other across a mountain.
They were the famous old and new Neuschwanstein Castles once inhabited by King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
That's also why Josh had suddenly developed a craving to see Neuschwanstein Castle before coming to Europe.
As a child, living here, he had often gone hunting in the border forests on horseback with his father, and while at it, admired those two beautiful castles.
Now, Josh had come to take over those two castles…Ownership of the castles had originally belonged to the Bavarian state government, but in the late stages of WWII, Bavaria was first swallowed by the Hydra Corps, and now occupied by Austria, so naturally, ownership had fallen into Austria's hands.
During his time in Austria, Josh used a series of methods to acquire the ownership of the two castles—almost for free.
But don't think Josh really got a bargain here.
The old Neuschwanstein Castle was fine—it was a completed structure, only needing minor repairs to be livable.
But the new Neuschwanstein Castle…was still an unfinished building.
In the late 19th century, that Bavarian king spent a full 6.2 million marks to construct the new Neuschwanstein Castle.
That was during the reign of Frederick III, using silver marks (at that time there were both gold and silver marks), not the almost worthless modern marks.
In German regions, "mark" was not only a currency unit but also a unit of mass.
One Prussian mark equaled 223 grams.
That meant 1 mark = 223 grams of silver, roughly over four taels; by Qing Dynasty standards, that would be six taels.
So 6.2 million marks equaled about 37.2 million taels of silver in Qing terms.
And how much did that old witch Empress Dowager Cixi spend building the Summer Palace around the same time? Just over 10 million taels of silver!
That means King Ludwig II of Bavaria was even more extravagant and foolish than Cixi.
As a result, the royal family declared him insane and dethroned him, and he mysteriously died a few days later.
When he died, due to his excessive extravagance, not only was the Bavarian royal treasury drained, but he also left behind a debt of 15 million marks.
No wonder that even by the 1960s, Bavarians still cursed him as a madman and regarded the construction of the new Neuschwanstein Castle as foolishness.
But Ludwig had nothing to do with Josh.
What mattered to Josh was that when Ludwig died, the new Neuschwanstein Castle wasn't even completed—it only had the outer shell finished.
Of the 360 rooms in the new castle, only 14 were fully completed.
In the original timeline, it wasn't until the 1990s that the Bavarian state government gradually started restoring and finishing it, and by then, the castle was bringing in tens of millions of marks or euros in revenue annually.
For Josh to finish the castle, under normal circumstances, it would take at least eight to ten million dollars.
Luckily, he had just gotten tens of thousands of free laborers from General McGinnis—not a bad time to put them to use.
Thanks to Germany's excellent basic education system, many of them had engineering knowledge, and at the very least could serve as manual labor.
For these POWs, Josh just had to feed and clothe them, which immediately cut labor costs to the bare minimum.
But since they were still being processed and screened in the POW camps, it would be a while before they were brought here.
So Josh wasn't in a hurry to take over the castles. Instead, he came to visit Oberstegg, this "old home" of his.
And while Josh and Ophelia were talking, the current owner of the small house, alerted by the barking and the commotion of the convoy, had already come out of the house.
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