Sword of Dawn

Page 454

The entourage suddenly showed an embarrassed and nervous look: "I...General, I am not this..."

"It's okay, the new things they brought are really attractive, and most of them are very beneficial," but to the surprise of the followers, Andersa didn't mean to blame. The wolf general just showed a thoughtful look, "I'm just sorry... none of these things were created by us Typhons in the first place."

She looked in the direction of the market. On both sides of the street that was renovated last year, she could see new street lights and magic net devices used to transmit energy—these technologies all came from Cecil, and they were first introduced by businessmen and technical communicators. It was brought from Cecil to the territory of Typhon, and then brought here from the country by businessmen and experts from the country.These are evidence of the growing ties between the two countries, which some are cheered by and others are inevitably anxious about.

As far as Andersa knows, those magical net devices for energy transmission are currently one of the things that make domestic experts most anxious, because up to now, one of the key raw materials for making those obelisks-the raw crystal of Holm-is still It is firmly controlled by the Cecils. Although the scholars of the Imperial Manufacturing Association have successfully cracked many technical difficulties of the obelisk, as long as the source of the Hom Crystal is controlled by the Cecils, the Typhons will The magic net will never be fully autonomous, and the speed of laying the magic net will be limited by the Cecilian's crystal rough stone export quota, and Typhon...

Typhon had to use a large part of his annual export profits to buy those rough crystals—on this commodity, the Cecilians never made any discounts.

It is said that His Majesty the Emperor has already paid attention to this matter, and after learning about the discovery of the original Hom crystal, he sent a large number of exploration teams to the mountainous area on the border of the western polluted area to search for the Hom vein belonging to the Typhon people... So far there has not been any definite good news from those exploration teams.

Hope they get something.

As for Andersa herself... in the face of more and more "cecil things" in the country, she is neither a person who rejoices nor a person who is anxious and panicky.

She only follows Aldernan's orders and safeguards Typhon's interests.

At this moment, the voice of one of the attendants came from the side, interrupting Andesa's thoughts: "The one who passed just now should be the supplementary soldiers of the mechanized mage battle group?"

Another follower looked towards the end of the street, looked at the direction that the troop carrier was leaving, shook his head and said with emotion: "Mages are all rich people, even the mages in the army are the richest troops... ...the knights are still riding."

"His Majesty the Emperor and his military advisers have their own arrangements," Andersa said suddenly, interrupting the discussion of the two followers, "and it's not a matter of funds that the Knights didn't change their outfits—it's just that most legion battles All the techniques rely on traditional military formations and equestrian skills, which cannot solve this problem, and letting knights sit in chariots can only weaken their combat effectiveness."

The two attendants nodded immediately, and then one of them couldn't help looking into the distance—this time in the direction of the barracks: "This is the second batch of recruits this week."

"...The war priest is under 'protective observation', and some knight officers have also been rotated in advance. We need to replenish soldiers to maintain the combat effectiveness of Winter Wolf Castle..." Andersa frowned slightly, then shook her head , "Okay, the following topic is not suitable for discussion here."

The abnormal situation of the Church of the God of War in China is already a secret that cannot be concealed. Out of obvious considerations of national interests, Aldernan has recently issued several orders in succession, making temporary adjustments to several main armies.In Winter Wolf Castle, Andersa's main energy recently has been spent on adjusting the army's deployment, removing hidden units, maintaining the internal stability of the army, and consolidating the border defense forces.She had to transfer many God of War priests and pious soldiers who had followed her through life and death for many years from their posts, and even let some upright and innocent knights go to the rear, called protective observation, but in fact it was close to house arrest.

Doing these things is not easy.

In addition to facing the pressure in her own heart, she also had to face the emotions of her subordinates—it’s okay for soldiers to say that the soldiers of the empire take obedience to orders as their first mission, and it’s okay to say that for knights, they only need to treat them with honor and loyalty Come to enlighten and comfort, but those priests...

Most of them were very good people, good people who were brave and upright, and did nothing wrong at all, and she had to make them suffer unfairly.At the same time, those priests are not entirely soldiers. The battle priests are equivalent to the "reinforcement soldiers" who are voluntarily supported by the Church of God of War to the various legions of the empire. They accept the orders of the officers, but now this order is faintly targeting their beliefs...to appease their hearts Emotions have become Andersa's biggest headache recently.

And all this is not all bad news recently.

The second bad news is the fall of the goddess of magic.

Andersa still can't believe what she has seen and heard in the past period of time-a funeral, a funeral held by humans for gods, a joint statement of two empires, two emperors each writing The eulogy, the national mourning activities, and the ceremony of spreading "holy ashes"... Andersa is not a believer, but these things are still beyond her cognition and thinking habits, so that even today, she is thinking It still feels unbelievable when it happens.

The fall of the goddess of magic undoubtedly had a great impact on the huge number of mages in the empire, although the "funeral" quickly diverted the public's attention in some unexpected way and eased the pressure brought about by the fall of the gods. , but the minds of the mage group are still floating, and the aftermath has not subsided until now.There are a large number of battle mages in the several major legions of the empire, and most of the middle and high-level officers are believers of the goddess of magic. Although their military status makes them have a stronger sense of responsibility, they will not be unable to fulfill their responsibilities due to depression or wavering beliefs , but they are still human after all...

The only thing Andersa feels lucky now is that the impact of the battle mage troops in this fall of gods is actually smaller than she expected - because except for the middle and high-level officers, most of the ordinary battle mages and lower-level The commanders are not believers of the Goddess of Magic, not even shallow believers.

They were cultivated in batches by the empire from schools—training from childhood, unified templates and unified courses, completely practical training methods, and almost no courses on belief shaping.

These batch-trained battle mages don't have much feeling for the goddess of magic, which made Andesa feel the only comfort after having a headache recently, and she even couldn't help but have some thoughts that may seem a bit outrageous to outsiders——

If religious beliefs can be completely removed from the army, it may be a good thing instead. If gods belong to gods and people belong to people, the troubles in this world will probably be reduced by half.

Chapter 0954

Andersa shook her head, throwing out the bold idea that suddenly popped up in her mind.

She is not a believer herself (this is very rare in this world), but even if she is a non-believer, she never really thought that one day the power of priests and the Holy See will be completely eliminated from the army, officials and aristocratic system of the empire What would it look like? This was an overly bold idea, and as a frontier general, it was not enough to think about this kind of problem.

"We've stayed outside long enough," she exhaled, and said to the followers beside her, "it's time to go back to the fortress."

While speaking, she raised her head and saw that the north wind was blowing up the imperial flag on the tall tower in the distance. Three Griffin Knights and two battle mages patrolling at low altitude were passing by the sky. In the place where there is a faint light blue magic eye floating in the clouds, it is the mage sentinel of Winter Wolf Castle monitoring the movement in the direction of the plain.

After most of the God of War priests were transferred from their posts, the defense of Winter Wolf Castle not only did not weaken at all, but became tighter than before due to active mobilization and new patrol shifts. However, this temporary strengthening is At the cost of additional consumption, even if the empire is strong, it cannot be so wasted for a long time.

I hope Aldernan can come up with a solution as soon as possible.

With this in mind, Andersa left the market with two followers and returned to Winter Wolf Castle next to the town.

She stepped into the castle, walked through the corridors and stairs, and came to the second floor of the castle. As soon as she stepped out of the stairs, she saw one of her own soldiers waiting for her at the door of the study.

"General," seeing Andersa's appearance, the soldiers immediately stepped forward and saluted, "I have your letter—from Aldernan, with the imprint of the purple phoenix-tailed flower."

"Matilda's letter." Andersa showed a smile on her face, and then she quickly regained her composure. She took the waxed envelope from the soldier and nodded slightly, "Thank you for your hard work, let's go."

"Yes, General."

After the soldiers left, Andersa turned around and walked into the study room. She casually opened the sealing seal of the letter, glanced at the purple phoenix flower in the corner of the paper, and shook off the white letter paper inside. The familiar handwriting came into view.

It begins with a daily greeting.

Andersa relaxed a little, took off the brown cloak over her coat with one hand, held the letter in the other hand, and paced slowly in the study while reading.

The letter mentioned the recent changes in Aldernan, and mentioned that the Royal Mages Association and the "Typhon Communications Company" will jointly transform the communication towers across the empire-the parliament has completed the discussion, and the royal family has also issued an order. Inexorably the matter was finally carried out, as Matilda had predicted in her last correspondence.

Andersa stood still in front of the window. The sky near dusk was not bright, but the just right sunlight shone obliquely on the letter paper, neither dazzling nor dim, with an extraordinarily comfortable texture. Her eyes were on the Those beautiful handwriting moved, and a smile appeared on the face that was always stiff in front of the subordinates in the past.

"...I went to watch the 'Phantom Drama' which is quite popular in the circle of young nobles recently, and it was surprisingly interesting - although it is indeed rough and impetuous, which is very different from traditional dramas. Different, but I'll admit privately, that stuff is more engaging than any other drama I've seen...

"But I also have to be a little worried. After all, the phantom drama produced by Cecil is based on Cecil as the prototype. Now many young nobles are learning to drink Cecil's Karna wine and assorted tea— — yet only a few years ago, most of the customs of the 'Ansu' were the object of their contempt..."

Andersa gently turned over a page of the letter paper, and the paper made a subtle but pleasant rustling sound as it was flipped.

This is indeed just a personal letter explaining daily life. Matilda seems to write wherever she thinks. After talking about the changes in the imperial capital, she mentioned some of her recent experiences in researching magic techniques and mathematical knowledge. Experience—Andersa had to admit that it was quite difficult for her to even understand those things, but fortunately, this part of the content was not very long—then I introduced other novelties of Cecil Merchant to the country.

Finally, when the sunset was gradually dyed a little red, her eyes fell on the end of the letter paper, and she saw Matilda's beautiful handwriting extending there, outlining lines of words:

"...Andersa, even greater changes have taken place here after you left the imperial capital. There are many things that cannot be expressed in a letter. I only hope that you will have the opportunity to see it with your own eyes...

"Times have changed, and many things have changed beyond our expectations, even beyond my father's expectations, beyond the expectations of congressmen and think tank consultants.

"The empire's market in the southern part of the mainland is expanding rapidly. The Gaoling Kingdom and the elves are doing business with the Typhons. Earl Dyson has opened up the first offshore route and successfully established an outpost on Thasos Island. We The old colonial islands are being reclaimed off the coast, and more and more young people are heading to the south and east coast, looking for opportunities there.

"A few years ago, almost all of us thought that what the empire needed was a foreign war, and I thought so too at that time, but it is different now-what it needs is peace, at least at this stage, which is very important to Typhon Human beings are the greater good.

"I hope you feel the same way..."

Andersa exhaled lightly, and folded the letter paper again. After standing quietly for a few seconds, she smiled helplessly and shook her head.

Once, she received an order to monitor Cecil's movements and wait for an opportunity to launch a decisive attack. Although she did not complete this task successfully, she never violated the order given to herself.But now, the order she has received is to defend the border, maintain order here, and maintain peace with Cecil on the premise of guarding the border—this order is not in line with her personal emotional inclination, but she will still be firm carry on.

It is a matter of course that imperial interests are higher than personal feelings.

"You worry too much... I don't have muscles in my head."

After muttering something casually, she waved those pieces of letter paper in the air, and the flame ignited out of thin air, swallowing a few thin papers in her breath, leaving only a few ashes scattered out of thin air.

The envelope remained—she restored the slightly wrinkled envelope and put it in a small cabinet next to the desk.

The army has strict rules. Private letters received by high-ranking officers cannot be kept, and burning after reading is a rigid rule, regardless of the content of the letter, even if it is just a few blank sheets of paper—and Andersa never You will break the rules you set.

Keeping the envelope is already the greatest "selfishness" she can do.

Then she came to the desk, spread out a piece of letter paper, and prepared to write a reply.

But before writing, she suddenly stopped again. Looking at the familiar table in front of her, Andersa suddenly had some thoughts in her heart for no reason—if her father was still alive, what would he do?What will he say?

My father is different from me. I only know how to solve problems in a military way, but my father has more extensive knowledge and more flexible skills. If he is a father, he must be able to easily deal with the current complicated situation. The anomaly of the Church of the God of War is due to the intrigue among factional nobles, or... the new and confusing relationship between the empire and the Cecilians.

After a few seconds of silence, the young Wolf General shook his head, and began to conceive the words with great difficulty. It took her a long time to finally finish writing this letter to Princess Matilda——

"The letter has been received, everything is safe at the border, and I will remember your reminder. I am very interested in what you mentioned, but I will not go back this year for the holidays - I will definitely next time.

"Andersa Wendell."

Night had fallen, and lights were lit inside and outside the fortress. Andersa let out a long sigh of relief and wiped off the sweat that didn't exist on her forehead, feeling more tired than a day of fighting on the battlefield.

Father still has one thing better than himself - clerical ability...

……

"Oh, Mr. Bard—just in time, this is today's handover order," a young technician stood up from the desk where the magic net terminal was placed, and handed a document with the form and personnel's signature to the person who had just left. The middle-aged man who entered the room looked him up and down unexpectedly, "It's so early today?"

Bud Wendell, who was wearing the uniform of a technician, showed a slight smile, took the handover document and nodded at the same time: "There is nothing to do in the dormitory, why not come over and look at the data."

While talking, he raised his head and looked at this "monitoring room" - several high-power magic net terminals were neatly arranged in the huge room, and two immersion cabins that are still very expensive today were placed in the corners. A technician was monitoring the data beside the equipment, and a low hum echoed slightly in the room.

"You have to cultivate some personal hobbies—such as playing cards and playing football with everyone occasionally," the young technician muttered. "Isn't it boring to write and write in the dormitory all day?"

"I like to write and do calculations—it's more interesting to me than playing cards," Bud said casually, and asked, "Did you get anything today?"

"Of course—no, how can there be such good luck?" The young man shrugged, "Those signals come and go, and whether they appear or not depends entirely on our mood. We can only passively monitor here, and God knows when we will receive a signal next time. "

Speaking of this, he couldn't help but glanced at Bud again, with a trace of curiosity on his face: "Speaking of... I really didn't expect you to get acquainted so quickly in the 'listening group', I thought you were only a temporary Help here for a few days, and I will return to the Druid Research Institute soon."

Bud looked away from the handover list, he slowly sat next to his equipment, and then shook his head with a smile: "I am a little confident in my learning ability, and the monitoring work here is not enough for me. It is difficult. As for the Druid Institute... I have already submitted an application, and my files will be completely transferred from there next month."

"Why?!" The young technician's eyes widened in surprise, "You are a scholar with three oak leaves there, and your treatment should be much better than here!"

"...I don't want to deal with those things anymore, because of some...personal reasons," Bud said with some hesitation, "Of course, I know that druid skills are very useful, so when the shortage of manpower here was the worst, I I joined the research institute, but now the technicians dispatched from the imperial capital are in place, and Ms. Bertila is leading the new research team, there is no shortage of ordinary druids like me."

There was a little self-deprecation in his tone.

"Okay, since you've already decided." The young technician glanced at Bud and said helplessly.

In fact, he didn't know what kind of background and experience this slightly withdrawn colleague with a mysterious past had. As a "monitor" transferred from other places not long ago, when he came here, the man in front of him Already a "senior person" in the technical department of the Sorin area.He only occasionally heard a few words from other people, and he knew that this man named Bard seemed to have a very complicated past, and he was even a Typhon... But these were just insignificant gossip.

The young technician isn't one to dig into other people's past, and he's off duty now.

The colleague left, and other people in the room were busy with their own affairs. Bud finally exhaled softly, sat on his own workstation, and focused on the holographic light and shadow projected by the magic net terminal.

Calm background noise creates a uniform shimmering "curtain" of nothing on the holographic projection.

Bud picked up the small receiver from the side table and held it to his ear.

The resonant crystal inlaid in the earpiece received the monitor signal transmitted from the Sorin hub. It was a soothing sound with few ups and downs. It echoed quietly, sinking into Bud Wendell's heart little by little.

It is reminiscent of the breeze in the green forest and river valley, and of the insects singing one after another in the Long Branch Manor at night in the midsummer season.

Today's monitoring may still not yield anything, but this silence is already the biggest gain for Bud.

……

"Visiting Tarrond... Don't worry, Speaker Andal has left this matter to me!" Melita smiled and said to Gawain, looking quite happy (probably because the extra work can be paid overtime. Earn), "I will take you to visit the various iconic areas of Tarrond, from the hottest arena to the ancient Poetry Square, and if you want, we can also visit the lower city... The Speaker gave I have a very high level of authority, I think you can go wherever you want, except that the upper sanctuary and several major management departments are not allowed to wander around casually."

As she said that, she seemed to suddenly think of something, and quickly added: "Oh, by the way, Noretta will also come, after all, she is the dragon clan that you have the most contact with besides me. Remember her? White Dragon Noretta tower."

"Of course I remember," Gawain nodded, and said as he followed Melita out of the palace of the headquarters of the jury. The bright lights that could be seen everywhere beside the square outside the palace illuminated the wide road ahead, a continuous light extending from the top of the mountain. Then it extended to the direction of the city on the plain, and the flickering and numerous lights in the city even gave Gawain the illusion of crossing over again, making him blink subconsciously, and then turned his gaze back to Melita, " But where are we going now?"

"Before I officially take you on a tour, of course we should first settle in the guest's quarters," Melita said with a smile, looking at Gawain, Veronica, and Amber who was dozing off a little, "I'm sorry, Tal Lund does not have a palace like the 'Autumn Palace' that is specially used to entertain foreign envoys, but if you don't mind, you can all stay at my house for the next few days-although it is a private residence, my house is quite big."

"Of course I don't mind," Gao Wen said immediately, "Then we won't bother you much in the next few days."

Chapter 0955 The Unknown Dragon Society

The dwellings of the Dragon Clan - in the writings of the bards and playwrights of the Loren continent, they are as follows:

Dragons build their lairs in the heart of ancient craters or deep within eternal glaciers, drawing their strength from hot magma or icy ice, depending on the race.Sometimes dragons also live in castles or towers, but they seldom build such exquisite dwellings themselves, but directly occupy the houses of humans or other weak races, and many times—almost all of the time—they will Make a mess of these fine, cozy castles rich in history, until some brave knight or lucky adventurer has a chance to defeat the dragons that occupy the castle, and the terrible attrition and destruction will not end. waste.

——Dorangon Jabandel, a famous playwright in the Ansu era, described it in his book "The Dragon and the Lair".

Gao Wen came to the edge of the "inner balcony", and his upper body slightly protruded from the guardrail, overlooking the scene in the dragon's nest condescendingly——

He saw a vast rotunda, which was supported by exquisite and gorgeous columns, and some kind of alloy structure that humans could not understand was put together in a seamless manner, forming the first layer of walls in the hall.At the outer edge of the hall, you can see the mechanical devices in a dormant state, the small drones busy cleaning the walls of the maintenance equipment, and the decorative lighting combination.And the light from the dome illuminates the center of the hall, where there is a silver-white circular platform, on the surface of which you can see exquisite relief patterns, whose scale and structure can amaze even the most sophisticated artist.

He turned his head again and looked at the place where he was standing - this was an internal residence, it was built on the mountainside, and part of its structure extended into the interior of the mountain, connected with the huge rotunda below, and passed through The lifts and corridors in the mountain are used to realize the traffic on all levels, while another part of the structure is out of sight and can lead to the outside of the mountain. Gao Wen has already visited it once. There is an amazing place where you can bathe in the starlight or The sunny skylight room and the beautiful viewing corridor, all windows are controlled by mechanical devices, which can be switched or filtered at will with a single command.

Melita calls her "nest" a "simple industrial decor"—a style she says is one of the less expensive of several decor styles that have become popular in Tarrond in recent years.

"I don't know how the bards and playwrights in the Loren Continent will feel when they see this scene," Gao Wen looked back from the direction of the dragon's lair, shaking his head and said dumbfoundedly, "especially those who are keen to describe the story of the dragon. of……"

"Most of them won't think much of it—because the best bards and playwrights with the theme of 'Dragon Quest' in Loren Continent are all from Tarrond," said Melita standing beside her, puffing her chest out. , said proudly, "We have contributed 1000% of the best dragon-themed scripts in the human world in the past 80.00 years..."

Gawain glanced at the dragon lady, with a helpless expression on his face: "So you guys created the rumors like 'dragons live in the crater', so don't complain about human beings and make up your living habits. .”

Melita thought about it, but she was easily persuaded: "Well, what you said makes sense..."

While speaking, she turned around and walked towards the other end of the inner residence: "Don't stay here, you can only see the cave here, and the balcony at the other end has a better view than here."

"The houses of your dragon clan... are all in this form?" Gawain followed Melita's footsteps, and asked curiously as he walked, "I mean this kind of structure with a large lair and a small residence. .”

"Most of them are like this," Melita said, "We will have a 'dragon nest' that is big enough to house our own dragon body, and we will build an exquisite 'small house' inside or next to the dragon nest. The dragon nest can be For us to sleep for a long time or to adjust and recuperate the body in the form of a giant dragon, a small residence is a good choice to enjoy life in a human form. Of course... not all dragons are like this."

"Oh?" Gao Wen raised his eyebrows, "Is there an exception?"

"Some dragons who are not so particular will just prepare a 'dragon nest' for themselves, and live in the dragon nest. Anyway, our human form is very small compared to the body, and only needs to occupy a small space, so in the dragon A random layout in the nest is enough to meet the needs," Melita explained quite seriously, "Noretta is like this—she doesn't have a 'humanoid living room', but digs a super giant~~big nest in the mountains. The cave here is much bigger than mine."

While talking, they have already passed through the living room and corridor of the inner residence. The indoor lights controlled by Omega are constantly fine-tuning as the visitors move, so that the most comfortable brightness is always maintained wherever they look.

Hearing Melita's words, Gawain's eyes widened—everything in these customs and customs of Tarrond was so novel and interesting to him, even how these giant dragons usually slept seemed unimportant to him. As if it had become a science, he couldn't help asking: "Then, doesn't Noretta usually rest in human form?"

Melita shrugged: "She built a large bed of more than 1000 square meters in the center of her dragon's nest - it took a long time to run from the center of the bed to the side of the bed, but the advantage is that both the dragon form and the human form are comfortable to sleep on. "

Gao Wen: "..."

Melita glanced at him curiously: "Why don't you talk anymore?"