Sword of Dawn

Page 245

A short video was played quickly, and Hetty waited until the screen switched back to the previous program, and then broke the silence with a hint of admiration: "This is the latest advertisement of Kede Family Business, ancestor, you really didn't Misread, that businessman named Ke De... really has a talent that ordinary people don't have... Ancestor? What's wrong with you, Ancestor?"

Gao Wen was still staring at the screen on the holographic projection until the end of the show, and he did not move his eyes away, with a strange expression on his face. This abnormal situation made Heidi very nervous, until she continued After yelling three times, Gao Wen suddenly woke up as if waking up from a big dream: "Ah——I was distracted just now."

"Ancestor, are you... are you really alright?" Hetty couldn't help but asked with concern, because the expression on Gawain's face just now was really not the same as before. On that always calm and majestic face, she actually felt Saw a hint of...sentimental.

But that's not sentimental, because there's a palpable sense of relief and joy mixed in.

"I'm fine, I'm just feeling a little emotional..." Gawain looked at Hetty's nervous expression, and comforted him with a smile, "Seeing these things spontaneously appearing among the people, I feel that my all-time promotion has not been in vain."

It is not an easy task to bring advanced ideas and magic technology into this era. From the very beginning, Gawain knew this, but what he was most worried about was never the "difficulties" in this process, he was most worried about Yes, it is because my own promotion and construction are "one-way stacking", it is because this society really has no basis for change, and I am not ready to face the new era-magic technology seems to be developing rapidly, and the Principality of Cecil It seems that he is rising rapidly, but he never dared to breathe a sigh of relief, because he was afraid that one day, when he, the so-called "guide", fell, the development of this land would stagnate, or even... go back.

Until now, he was still not completely sure whether the Principality of Cecil would continue to develop after he suddenly fell down, but at least one thing he was sure of: this once stagnant water was now flowing.

Or maybe, it has never been a pool of stagnant water, even in the darkest and most oppressive Middle Ages, in the depths of this pool... There is always a small group of people waiting for the era of flowing water.

After calming down, Gao Wen suddenly felt that his previous worries were really a bit arrogant. He couldn't help shaking his head in self-deprecating way: "Hetty, don't you think... I'm actually a little arrogant?"

"Arrogance? Why do you think so?" Hetty's eyes widened in surprise, "Your greatness is recognized by history, and your achievements are truly established on this land. Compared with these achievements Wake up, I think you are too humble in ordinary times... A mediocre baron would engrave his boring life on stone, but you have refused anyone to make a statue of you."

"It's better not to mention this aspect," Gao Wen waved his hand, "Aside from the Kede Family Business Company, is there any similar technology-based private industry that has emerged?"

"Rarely, most people have just adapted to the changes in the principality's situation. There are very few people like Kodd who can react quickly and find business opportunities from magic technology. But it's not completely absent—also in Carroll In the area, a businessman found a new ice-making technology by using the general-purpose rune baseplate, and in the Housman area, several craftsmen partnered to open a workshop, and they tried to improve the existing mana water pump to Adapt to the lower water table in the Horsman area. Besides... there's nothing."

"As long as you have it...as long as you have it..." Gao Wen nodded repeatedly.

The development of society will naturally give birth to some things. With the gradual promotion of magic technology, colleges around the world continue to spread knowledge to the public, and the upper-level public is constantly exposed to the latest magic devices. There will definitely be smart people with active thinking—— —As long as there are enough expected benefits and driven by interests, these smart people with active thinking will take the initiative to contact and even want to master these new fields. Intellectuals will be the biggest driving force.

They will grab the earliest technological and policy dividends, and in Gao Wen's view, this is what they deserve.

At the current stage, the real magic technology is actually still in the hands of the "officials", in the hands of the Magic Technology Research Institute, Rune Research Institute, Machinery Manufacturing Institute and various design bureaus, but Gao Wen has never restricted those non-military and non-secret The technology and knowledge of the society spread outwards, and civilian-use magic terminals are sold publicly. In colleges and night schools in various places, there are also general-purpose rune substrates used for "literacy" that are open to the outside world. Private "technical companies" have developed on this small basis.

"These things need to be encouraged, not only encouraged, but also publicized," Gao Wen said with a smile on his face, "We support the folks' spontaneous research and improvement of magic technology, as long as they comply with the law, we must support and reward them. interest is the key to technology promotion and development... It seems that the 'patent' system should be improved soon."

"Patent? Is it the thing you mentioned before that is used to manage various technological achievements?" Hetty blinked, "I see, I will come up with a draft as soon as possible."

"Well," Gawain nodded, then looked up at the mechanical clock on the wall, "Speaking of...the elves should be here soon, right?"

"Two hours ago, there was a sighting report from the Tanzania Hub Tower. According to the flying speed of the giant eagle, it should arrive soon," Hetty nodded, "Are you ready to welcome it?"

"Get ready," Gao Wen stood up, "That's an important guest."

Hetty sighed: "The royal family is really in decline - such an important messenger has to rely on a foreign race."

Gawain smiled and glanced at Heidi: "Otherwise? Let them argue with the people from the East for half a month who is more qualified to contact the South. I'm afraid the team won't be able to go out in winter."

The elves are coming.

Huge and mighty gray-black giant eagles flitted across the sky like pieces of galloping dark clouds, and flew from the northwest sky. The northwest corner of the city wall extends all the way to the administrative area in the center of the city. Next to the Lord's Mansion, on the open square in front of the "Autumn Palace", soldiers of Cecil in bright armor have been waiting for a long time.

Gawain brought Hetty and Rebecca who were the representatives of the family and the government affairs department, Solderling who temporarily played the role of "Elf Affairs Officer", and several government affairs department officials stood on the square, watching the huge bird of prey fall from the sky .

Facing exotic raptors like giant eagles is a rare experience for humans in the north, but until those huge raptors landed one after another, the soldiers on the scene still stood straight in place without any unnecessary movements .

After the giant eagle landed, tall and elegant figures jumped off the backs of the mounts, and then walked towards Gao Wen and the others.

A nearby military band played music at the right time.

During the sound of the music, Gawain first glanced at the giant eagles, then he turned his head slightly, and asked Hetty beside him, "Did they fly all the way in from the northwest border?"

"Yes, it was the first to fly over the Luan area and was discovered by the local magic network hub tower, and then flew here along the line of Horsman-Asoke-White Lake Inlet-Tanzan."

Gao Wen pondered for a while, and said to himself: "Although it may be a bit early... but the concepts of air defense and air force cannot be blank..."

Hetty was taken aback: "What did you say, ancestor?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Gawain shook his head, and then his eyes fell on the elves who were walking towards him, and a short-haired female elf, who seemed relatively short even among humans, was the first to enter his field of vision. The memory from Gawain Cecil was instantly activated, and he couldn't help muttering in a low voice, "...to see an acquaintance?"

Rebecca on the side was suddenly curious: "My lord ancestor, do you know any of these elves?"

Gawain smiled, nodded, and then walked forward: "Sonia Shuangye—we haven't seen each other for seven centuries."

The short-haired woman walking in the middle of all the elves quickened her pace. She walked quickly to Gawain, but she did not respond to the other party's greeting after standing still. Instead, she looked Gawain up and down several times, with a strange look on her face With a scrutinizing expression, she didn't show a smile until a few seconds later, and stretched out her hand: "Even if I saw it with my own eyes, I still can't believe it's true...you really came back to life?"

Gawain held Sonia Shuangye's hand, using the hand-kissing ceremony common to both humans and elves as a courtesy, and then shook his head helplessly: "If the old territory hadn't been burned down by a passing blue dragon with a mouthful of dragon flames, I can bring you my coffin board as a witness."

"Without any evidence, elves have a good memory—I still remember the details of your appearance and voice," Sonia Shuangye nodded, "Her Majesty Belsetia ordered me to say hello to you on her behalf. General Lomar, Countess Seria, Count Quel Doan, General Shanna, Sage Ghidorn, and Chief Messenger Ji Liye send their greetings to you."

After she finished speaking, she immediately turned to a courier partner beside her: "Write everything down, I brought everything with me."

"Okay, I've got it down."

Gao Wen couldn't laugh or cry when he heard the other party say such a long list of names that were deeply impressed in Gawain Cecil's memory, he spread his hands helplessly: "I left in a hurry back then, and I couldn't meet you again as promised. On the one hand, but such a sudden death in battle... can't be in the plan, can it?"

Sonia Shuangye waved her hand: "Anyway, I brought my words."

At this time, Rebecca, who was following up together, couldn't bear it any longer, and began to chirp: "Hey, you really know each other, my lord? Who were those names just now? Are they all your friends back then, my lord? How are you, my lord?" Amazing!"

"I knew a lot of people back then, so I don't need to be so surprised," Gawain glanced at Rebecca, and at the same time signaled Hetty who was next to him with his eyes to quickly control this stupid roe deer who might be ashamed at any time, and then He turned around and walked towards the autumn palace with these special envoys, and waved to Soldering who was not far away, "Solderling - don't stand so far away, come and call Say hello."

Solderin had deliberately stood in an inconspicuous position from just now, but he still walked out helplessly at this time. The high-level ranger came to Gawain's side, and looked at the people from the Silver Empire with a slightly strange look in his eyes. The compatriots glanced, and their eyes finally fell on Sonia Shuangye.

Sonia just glanced at Solderling and didn't speak, just waiting for the other party to speak.

Several people walking beside Gao Wen obviously noticed the change in the atmosphere, and under everyone's curious gaze, Soldering finally spoke. He lowered his head and called out with a little embarrassment: "My lord mother... …haven't seen you for a long time."

The expressions of several people became exciting in an instant, and Rebecca's eyes widened even more. She looked at Soldering, and then looked hard at Sonia, who was almost as tall as herself, and finally couldn't help opening her mouth: "……Wow!!"

Chapter 0569 Incomplete Plan

Facing Solderin's slightly awkward greeting, Sonia Shuangye just nodded lightly: "At least he is still healthy."

The people around Gawain were dumbfounded. They rarely dealt with elves. It was impossible for them to have imagined that this elf lady who looked only a few years older than Rebecca would be Soldering's mother. Out of politeness, everyone restrained their overly surprised emotions well - only Rebecca's "wow" was the only accident.

However, Gao Wen had expected such a situation after seeing Sonia Shuangye, he was very indifferent, and said casually: "Why haven't you seen each other for many years, are you so indifferent?"

Solderin shrugged helplessly, while Sonia glanced at Gawain, "He hasn't returned home for seven centuries."

Gao Wen: "..."

Then he couldn't say anything.

"We've already arranged accommodation for you, and I hope you can get used to living in human rooms," Hetty on the side spoke at the right time, relieving the delicate atmosphere of the scene. She said while looking at the huge raptors on the square, "These giant eagles... can they live in the griffin's nest?"

Although Cecil has started to promote the magic network communication, and the function of the griffin as a messenger is declining, but in order to deliver important letters and undertake part of the investigation work, Cecil City still retains a basic griffin team and a griffin nest. such infrastructure.

"It's ok, giant eagles don't choose where to live," Sonia nodded, "The Oran Ranger will tell you how to settle these giant eagles. Also, please settle those griffins whose nests have been occupied, and appease them... their emotions."

A male elf in green leather armor stepped forward. He should be the "Oran Ranger" that Sonia mentioned.

The personnel in charge of managing the Griffin's Nest began to hand over the work to the Ranger, while Sonia and other elves followed Gawain to the Autumn Palace.

The giant eagles that landed on the square seemed a little uneasy about this strange city. One of them raised its head and yelled loudly in Sonia's direction: "Coo! Coo!!"

Sonia stopped helplessly, turned her head and said loudly to the huge bird of prey: "Show some courage! You are a giant eagle!!"

After she finished speaking, she turned her head and continued to walk forward. Gao Wen was taken aback when the giant eagle spoke. He looked at Sonia in surprise: "What's the matter with this giant eagle?"

"It's called Gugu, I just hatched it 40 years ago." Sonia pressed her finger on her temple, and couldn't help shaking her head, "Damn it, I shouldn't let Master Thornheart take care of it... all the people in Moon Valley It's a pigeon!"

Gao Wen: "..."

Fortunately, all these brief episodes did not affect the following welcome process. According to the scheduled plan, the autumn palace prepared a rich welcome banquet and a rest environment that was more in line with the elves' aesthetics for the envoys. Afterwards, in the living room of the Autumn Palace, Sonia Shuangye handed the two letters that had been prepared to Gao Wen.

One of the letters was sealed in a hollowed-out wooden box, with light green vines and leaf decorations visible on the box, and the sealing seal had the mark of the Elven King's Court, and the other letter was sealed in a light gold metal box , with the sword and shield mark of the Ansu royal family on the seal.

Obviously, one was given to him by the Elf Queen, and the other was from Silver Castle.

Of course, from the name at this moment, the second letter should be "co-signed and issued by Silver Castle and the East Territory".

Gawain glanced at Sonia, did not open the two letters, but said casually, "Now, you are both the envoy of the Silver Empire and the envoy of Saint Sunil."

"Strictly speaking, I am just submitting this official letter to you on behalf of Silver Castle. The elves cannot represent any of the human beings. I am just a messenger," Sonia said, "The messenger of Saint Sunil City—and the messenger of the East The team is still in preparation, but they should have already set off by this time, they will hurry up and arrive at your place within half a month."

"I want both face and profit. I don't give in to each other, and I'm jealous of each other. At the same time, time waits for no one... In the end, it became such a nondescript situation. The letter with the royal seal was delivered by the elf messenger," Gao said. Wen sneered and shook his head, "Regardless of those unworthy descendants, let's get down to business—I know the general situation and your intention to come to the human kingdom. How bad is the state of the barrier now?"

"All sentinel towers have been damaged to varying degrees. The effective power of the entire barrier has dropped to 70.00%. It is currently stable, but the self-repair function of the system has been half-stopped. If there is another overload in the next impact, it will be [-]% unbearable. Hold on," Sonia did not hide anything, and in front of this human hero who had experienced the magic tide, she directly told the truth that would cause mass panic outside, "We no longer have the ability to reproduce the core of the Sentinel Tower. Parts, there are no fittings, no replacements, no complete fixes."

After a pause, she said again: "I have already contacted the Duchess Victoria Wilde, she mentioned that you have issued several warnings to the capital, and I have also seen the warning messages you wrote, if my judgment That's right, the initial overload should have started from the northern part of the wasteland - but at that time you... the Ansu people's monitoring of the magnificent wall was useless, and no one noticed the aura vision, waiting for the aberrations to invade Ansu , that is, the period of time when the aberrations you mentioned in your first warning destroyed Old Cecil, the aura has turned into substantial damage."

Gao Wen frowned: "After that time, I have organized people to start remote monitoring of the Grand Wall again, and I haven't seen anything unusual for a long time."

"The self-healing system conceals the situation of the faulty node. When you monitor the barrier again, it is already 'normally operating', but unfortunately it is only normal on the surface," Sonia said seriously, "In fact...the fault has been spreading , spread from one sentry tower to another, until today, spreading the entire barrier."

Hetty who was on the side couldn't help asking: "Didn't your monitoring system detect it? A situation like this where faults continue to spread... Shouldn't there be an early warning mechanism?"

This is exactly what Gao Wen wanted to ask, but Sonia shook her head slightly: "This is exactly what we are investigating recently - the sentinel tower should send out an alarm, even if the self-repair system is temporarily repaired and malfunctions tower, there should be at least one fault record sent back to the highest control center of the Temple of Stars, but in fact all systems can not find these records... In the past few years, all the data sent back by the Sentinel Tower are everything is normal."

Gawain and Hetty couldn't help but looked at each other.

"Is it a deeper fault? Or is someone doing something wrong?" Gao Wen asked seriously.

"We are investigating the situation of the early warning mechanism, and at the same time, we are also sending magisters to check every sentinel tower along the barrier," Sonia said slowly, "but no problems have been found so far. The monitoring of the entire magnificent wall is uninterrupted Yes, no suspicious points have been found in the system, and in addition to the monitoring system, we have also set up a large number of monitoring posts around the wasteland. It was discovered that there was no way anyone would have had a chance to destroy those towers. We really don't know what went wrong."

Listening to Sonia's words, Gawain exhaled softly, and then said: "Anyway, according to what you said, we actually missed an opportunity to repair the magnificent wall..."

"And it's the best chance," Sonia sighed. "When the initial failure occurred, the Sentinel Tower hadn't suffered any substantial damage. We had a chance to completely repair it... But it's useless to say that, the initial failure Don't talk about other Ansu people when it happened, even you should still be lying there..."

Sonia was a little embarrassed when she said this, but Gawain was very calm: "I was still lying in the coffin at the time - when I woke up, I saw that there were distortions everywhere. According to you, it should have passed the end by then. It's time for repairs."

When he died in battle, he was fighting the mutant, and when he woke up 700 years later, he was still fighting the mutant. The so-called "waste fighting" in the previous version was talking about Gao Wen's situation.

"Don't discuss things that are beyond repair, let's talk about the status quo." Gao Wen ended this regrettable and slightly embarrassing topic, and then returned to the right track, "You just mentioned that there is no thorough repair plan. , then did you bring any other plans?"

"Building an external augmentation device, this is an incomplete repair and reinforcement plan, we brought the information—" Sonia said, taking a silver-white cylindrical device from another courier beside her , the device looked like a scroll, but when Sonia injected magic power into it, a clear holographic image suddenly appeared at the end of the "scroll". In the projection made by this illusion magic, a huge tower The device and a large number of intricate runes and magic circle structures are constantly switching between pictures.

Sonia placed the "scroll" vertically on the table, and continued while maintaining the holographic projection: "This plan is to build an accompanying 'sub-tower' outside a part of the Sentinel Tower, to provide additional energy for the Sentinel Tower and to bear part of the burden. Barrier pressure, at the same time, establish a series of "pressure relief points" between the sentinel tower and the auxiliary tower, guide and release the chaotic magic energy accumulated near the sentry tower to the outside of the barrier gradually in a relatively safe way, and release it at the pressure relief point Purification nearby..."

Gao Wen immediately grasped the key points in the other party's words: "Have you found a way to purify the demon tide?"

"In 700 years, we haven't done nothing," Sonia smiled, but there was still a hint of reluctance in that smile, "This device can't purify the entire wasteland, nor can it purify the magic tide. The Chaos Demon can be extracted from the barrier and purified with limited efficiency, the main purpose is to reduce the load on the Sentinel Tower and decompress the repair system. The effect is limited, but better than nothing."

Gawain looked at the complex rune arrays and device exploded diagrams in the illusion magic, his eyes were solemn and concentrated.

This is the technology of the elves, which is different from human magic, but the essence and laws still conform to the description of rune logic. It seems to be able to resist the pollution of the magic tide... Although it is only a little effect, it is indeed effective.

The Silver Empire is indeed in decline, but after all, it has reserves that are difficult for all human countries to match. Before this savings is exhausted, they can still produce such amazing technological achievements.

After just a few seconds of thoughts, Gawain raised his head and looked into Sonia's eyes: "Then let's not waste any more time - which area will be repaired? How many secondary towers and pressure relief points will be built? How much manpower will be required? Material resources? When will the work start? How long is the construction period left for us?"

A few neat questions made Sonia couldn't help covering her forehead and feeling emotional: "Oh my god—if those human nobles in Saint-Sunil can have half your consciousness and efficiency, I'm afraid we have already set out to repair it by now." Barrier!"

Chapter 0570 Deep Talk

Compared to dealing with those Ansu nobles in San Sunil, Sonia obviously admired Gawain's style of conduct.

She talked about what she had seen and heard in Ansu during this period, and she could not help complaining in her tone: "We were delayed in the north for a whole month...More than 40 of the [-] days were spent listening to those nobles to shirk their responsibilities and discuss A meaningless question. In comparison, the so-called 'rebel army' in the eastern region is more efficient than the nobles in the capital, but it still takes a lot of time."

"The kingdom belongs to the king, but its own territory belongs to itself. Enfeoffing nobles must protect their own interests, so once faced with an incident involving the entire kingdom, their efficiency will be extremely low," Gawain said helplessly. Shaking his head, "I expected it a long time ago."

"It's really incomparable to what it was back then..." Sonia sighed softly, "Fortunately, that girl named Victoria still has some traces of her ancestors."

"Victoria Wilde..." Gawain said softly, turning his head to look at Sonia, "What's your impression of her?"

Sonia thought for a while: "Very hard, but also very tired. She concealed it well, but she couldn't hide it from my eyes. She has good talents, not too far behind Snow, but still not enough to deal with the current situation. The situation—I could see that she was struggling to cope with this chaotic kingdom, and her real talents were completely drowned out by the endless refusing and internal friction."

"It hits the nail on the head."

"As an envoy of the Silver Empire, I shouldn't comment too much on Ansu, but as a comrade-in-arms 700 years ago, I have nothing to hide from you," Sonia said frankly, "We contacted the person in the East who claimed to be important. The prince of Zhen'ansu also contacted the nobles and dukes who were loyal to the traditional royal family in Saint-Sunil. Frankly speaking, there are many capable leaders among them-but I doubt that these leaders who are themselves in the quagmire are It's not really able to bring this country back on track. You are the one who created the basic order of this kingdom with your own hands, so don't you just settle in the southern border and sit back and watch all this happen?"

This sentence can be described as extremely sharp, a normal human politician would not raise such a question, but Gawain knows the style of the elves - they have always been straightforward, and they can emphasize that this is a private conversation before they speak bluntly. Ya's biggest euphemism.

The atmosphere at the scene froze for two seconds before Gao Wen smiled and shook his head lightly: "You know that there is a kind of tree near the Ancestor's Peak, called the Susheng Tree."

"...After a hundred years old, it will wither quickly and become extremely dry and flammable. Just wait for a wildfire, and large swaths of revived trees will be reduced to ashes, and new shoots will sprout in the ashes Growth..." Sonia said softly, "This is not a small risk."

"Survival itself is an adventure."

Gawain spoke calmly. He raised his head and looked at the holographic image projected by the scroll-shaped magic device on the table.

In the holographic image, the structure of the magnificent wall in the southern part of Ansu is clearly shown, and in the translucent illustration, the two sentinel towers are shining with eye-catching blue light.

"The two sentinel towers need to be constructed at the same time, right?"

"Yes," Sonia nodded, "One is near the southeast of Ansu, just south of the Dark Mountains. We hope that you will be in charge, and the other is in the southwest of Ansu. Duke Baldwin Franklin has confirmed that he will send a The team will be in charge of that tower—his nephew will personally lead the team. Of course, both teams are officially led and commanded by you.”

"Will the personnel and supplies be in place before the Frost Moon?"

"Both Saint-Sunil City and the East Territory have made a promise that they will share the material pressure, and Duke Baldwin Franklin will provide the manpower needed to repair the Southwest Tower," Sonia affirmed, "And the Southeast Tower The manpower needed on the border... I hope the southern border will be responsible."

"Of course, there's no problem at all," Gao Wen agreed without hesitation, "If I can use my own staff, it will save me a lot of trouble."

What Sonia conveyed must be the plan reached after some negotiations and compromises between the Eastern Realm and the royal family. In this plan, the Eastern Realm and the royal family bear the material pressure, but only the Duke of the Western Realm stands out—the intention is obvious.

They want to maintain the scale of the confrontation on the front line of the Holy Spirit Plain and maintain the number of reserve troops.