Sword of Dawn

Page 226

"That's it?" Gao Wen raised his eyebrows, and his tone became serious, "To be honest, as the envoy of the Church of the Holy Light, you don't seem to be doing your duty very well—you are really here for the destruction of the church in the southern border and the change of owner of Lu'an City. Did you come?"

Veronica didn't speak, she just looked into Gawain's eyes quietly, her gaze was deep and peaceful, like a bottomless spring, at a certain moment of trance, Gawain felt that he was not with a pair of eyes The human eyes meet—it seems to be just a medium or tool for observing the world, a soulless dead thing, while a real soul is hiding in a deeper place, peeping at itself through this medium.

"What happened in the city of Luan was a regrettable accident. It was the priests of the cathedral who went astray and turned their backs on the teachings of the Lord, so they were expelled by the people. Now the people in the southern border have chosen the order they recognize. Under the guidance of Duke Cecil, a new order has been established, the Cathedral of Luan has been restored, and the Holy Light still shines on this land—the southern border, nothing happened."

After Veronica's voice fell, Gawain couldn't help frowning in astonishment: "Are you serious?"

Veronica smiled lightly: "Isn't this a 'fact' recognized by everyone in the southern border?"

"What good is it for you?" Gao Wen asked bluntly, "Is it for your belief?"

Veronica was silent for a moment, and the invariable smile on her face suddenly receded: "Yes, this is for my belief."

There was a long silence between the two before Gao Wen broke the silence: "Will the Northern Church accept all this?"

"They will—because this civil war will continue. On the Plains of the Holy Spirit, there is a vortex bigger than the southern border."

Chapter 0531 Accident

Until the end, Gawain still failed to understand Veronica's true intentions.

But he was sure of one thing at least—the saintly princess, who is extremely devout in the eyes of everyone, may not be as devout as she appears, or the object of her devoutness is not the saint created by the Northern Church. light faith.

The visitors from the royal capital have left, and a huge source of income has been opened up. The port leading to the Holy Spirit Plain will bring a lot of money and supplies to the new Principality of Cecil. Leaving here, before the arrival of the cold moon, the series of trade routes established by Kord in the east can be on the right track.

In the study room of the lord's mansion, Gao Wen handed over a document to the Minister of Commerce Patrick: "You are in charge of forming the 'White Sands Mining Company'. You can transfer the latest mining machines and blasting consumables at will. I only have one request. : dig out the most ore in the shortest time and ship them back.”

"Yes."

After Padraic left, Gawain lowered his head again, quickly signed the second document, and placed it on a metal plate under the magic net terminal. With a slight buzzing sound, the document was transferred and overwrite.

A half-body projection of Walder Perici appeared above the magic net terminal, and Gawain nodded to the old knight: "A special trestle is prepared in the port area of ​​Panshi City for merchant ships from the Holy Spirit Plain to dock. Just ship back the materials and all the gold coins mentioned in the list attached to the document, and send the rest of the materials directly to the Panshi City Armory to be processed into swords and armor for them to take back."

The old knight on the holographic projection made a knight salute: "Yes!"

The magic net terminal was closed, Gao Wen rubbed the center of his brows, and breathed a sigh of relief, while Amber's voice came from behind him: "You really do not spare any effort to bully people—it's just like Ming Qiang."

Gao Wen didn't turn his head back: "I didn't let Wald process it in front of them, and what is Ming Qiang? Technology cost is not cost?"

"Then the cost of your technology is high enough."

"I can't let the Holy Spirit Plain take advantage of trade opportunities to infiltrate too many spies into the southern border. I have already shown them enough." Gawain waved his hand, and then directly skipped the topic, "Compared to these, You should pay more attention to the establishment of the intelligence network in the east, Kodd has opened up the business route there, and the time has come for the Military Intelligence Bureau to show its talents."

Amber immediately waved her hands proudly: "Don't worry, the first batch of operators has already set off with Kord's caravan."

Gao Wen nodded, stood up and moved his hands and feet, soothing his slightly stiff joints, but just as he was about to sit down again, a faint explosion sound suddenly came from a distance—"Boom !!!”

Amber's figure disappeared into the air almost instantly, and Gao Wen suddenly looked in the direction of the explosion - it was the Institute of Magic Technology.

problem occurs?

"Come and see with me." "Mom?!"

Gao Wen casually fished it to the side, picked up the amber that was being invisible, and left the study. At the same time, through the crystal glass window of the study, there was already a curling wave rising from the buildings in the direction of the Institute of Magical Technology. soot...

When Gawain arrived with sprinting and charging all the way, a large number of people had gathered around the Institute of Magical Technology—soldiers maintaining order were keeping irrelevant people out of the cordon. The security personnel are coordinating with the soldiers who came to help to transfer the wounded to the square in front of the research institute. The medical personnel wearing doctors' short gowns have arrived and are doing emergency treatment for those burnt and blasted. Several heavily armed white knights also arrived at the scene, cooperating with the doctors to treat the wounded.

A large hole was blasted into a building flanking the Institute of Magic Technology, and thick smoke was rising from the hole.

Looks like an experimental accident?Or did Rebecca finally make a big fireball in the lab?

The on-site order seems to be under control—the safety drill system that has been continuously implemented has finally taken effect at this moment.Gawain passed through the busy soldiers and medical staff, and shouted loudly: "Where is the person in charge? Report the situation!"

Amber, who was caught all the way, didn't bother to protest after realizing that there was an accident here, but followed Gao Wen obediently. At this time, she saw a figure standing in the open space sharply, and immediately He poked Gawain's arm: "Over there——Rebecca is there!"

Following the direction of Amber's finger, Gao Wen finally saw Rebecca who was standing on the edge of the crowd, still looking a bit shocked.

He ran over immediately.

Rebecca's face was smudged black, and her clothes were torn from the explosion, but apart from a few obvious scratches, she didn't seem to be seriously injured. After seeing Gawain Immediately afterwards, the girl yelled loudly: "Master Ancestor!! The laboratory exploded!!"

"Are you okay?" Gawain looked at Rebecca's whole body for the first time, and continued after confirming that the girl was not seriously injured, "What's going on? How are the casualties? Why did the laboratory explode?" of?"

Rebecca turned her ears sideways and continued to yell loudly: "Ah? The wind is too strong and I can't hear you!!"

"She was shocked." Pittman also arrived at the scene at some time. The little old man held up a cane made of oak and shook it next to Rebecca's head. A light green halo descended, quickly treating Looking at the various injuries on Rebecca's body, "It should be fine this way."

"Ah, the wind has stopped." Rebecca shook her head with a look of surprise on her face.

Pittman bowed slightly to Gawain: "I was testing the newly completed artificial nerve cord in a nearby laboratory, and immediately rushed over with my apprentices when I heard the explosion."

Gawain nodded. He realized that Rebecca had been bombed at the scene, so he turned to Pittman to learn about the accident: "How about the casualties? How big is the damage?"

"Three people were seriously injured, and a dozen were slightly injured. The good news is that no one died," Pittman did not continue to smile in this situation, but reported seriously and quickly, "Just hand over the lightly injured to the doctor, and the seriously injured I have already dealt with it myself, don’t worry, I won’t die, but I’m afraid it will take a few days to fully recover. As for the damage... It seems that one laboratory has been completely destroyed, and there are another laboratory and a small laboratory nearby that have been affected. Warehouse. As for the cause of the explosion, I don't know."

Hearing that no one died, Gawain was slightly relieved.

Fortunately, this is a world with extraordinary power. Healing spells have effects far surpassing the earth's medical technology. As long as they don't die on the spot, they can basically be rescued.

As more white knights rushed to the scene, the order around the Institute of Magic Technology was completely stabilized, and the seriously injured were quickly moved to places more suitable for treatment.

After receiving Pittman's treatment, Rebecca was completely fine. She stood in front of Gawain with her head drooping, looking ready to be beaten at any time - looking at her experienced posture, Hetty might The first time I came, I couldn't help it.

Of course Gawain didn't intend to beat her - at least he couldn't beat her casually until he knew the situation. He cleared his throat and asked Rebecca to raise her head: "What's going on?"

"We were testing the engine," Rebecca shrank her neck, "the engine of the magic train...and then it blew up."

"The engine of the magic train?" Gawain was taken aback, "You built the engine of the magic train so quickly?!"

"No," Rebecca shook her head whistlingly, "If it is built, it won't explode - we just got a large amplifier and a set of high-power magic nets, trying to see how big it will be It took more power to push such a big engine, and it blew up."

While talking, Rebecca couldn't help shrinking her neck again: "I know you said that the train project can be taken off the table, but I just want to do the preliminary test first... and I didn't delay other projects. ! But the lab did blow up..."

Looking at Rebecca who looked like a frightened rabbit in front of him, Gao Wen couldn't laugh or cry in his heart - he certainly wouldn't punish Rebecca for taking these tests, but at the same time he also had to investigate the whole ins and outs of the accident , and immediately began a series of aftermath work.

The explosion of the Magic Technology Research Institute is not a trivial matter, and it is not a joke. Although people often say that "there is no magician's laboratory that does not explode", the Magic Technology Research Institute has completely surpassed this era. There are too many ordinary people involved, and the operation of the research institute itself is closely related to the lives of the citizens, so there will be many follow-up effects that can be produced by an explosion here.

In addition, the test items described by Rebecca also made Gao Wen vaguely aware of one thing: the manufacture of the magic train may not go so smoothly.

Just to test the booster and energy supply module of the high-power magic energy engine, this kind of accident happened...

In the next few 10 minutes, he asked Rebecca about many details before the explosion, the environment of the laboratory at that time, the test data, and various technical means adopted. As he learned more, he I also confirmed my own thoughts more and more.

Compared with other magic technologies developed by Cecil so far, the magic train has many special features.

Gao Wen knew that the early trains on the earth were a means of transportation with a relatively simple structure and low technical requirements, but in this world, steam engines with low technical requirements could not be built, and the magic train could only start from the rotor engine when it started. In the beginning, this led to the fact that the technical starting point of "trains" in this world is even higher than that of "cars".

Large-scale mana engines with immature technology, complex amplification devices, and the output efficiency is affected by the size of the runes, and the magic net structure can only be rigidly connected. These factors have greatly increased the difficulty of research and development of mana trains—and There is a bigger problem in the middle, that is, the magic train technology is a complete "magic industry" product, and its foundation is brand new, so that many old magic technologies are useless in this field use.

So far, Cecil has developed many "advanced things" that are inconceivable to outsiders, such as the magic network terminal that integrates instant messaging, holographic images, and file transfer functions, such as the rainbow light that uses energy beams as a means of killing Cannons, such as thermal energy ray guns, such as the white knight's inverter holy light device, these things seem to be beyond the era, or even beyond the era, but Gawain himself knows that the truth behind these things is actually just that the world has already changed. It's just the extension and reorganization of technology - ignorant people will marvel that they have developed so fast, but those who understand the truth will realize the high level of technology in this world itself, and it is precisely because of the existing magic technology that has laid down With a solid foundation, Cecil's magic industry has been able to develop so smoothly.

But the magic train...it has gone too far on the road of the magic industry, so that it is difficult for the old magic technology to give it such a big boost.

There is no existing magic that can continue to optimize the magic net and magic energy engine. The progress in this area must rely on the breakthroughs made by Jenny's Rune Research Institute and other materials and engineering departments. Now it seems that Rebecca There must be a problem in this regard.

Fortunately, when the concept of the magic train was proposed, Gao Wen felt that the difficulty of this project might be very high, and he was fully prepared for it.

"Master Ancestor..." Seeing Gawain sinking into deep thought, Rebecca couldn't help rubbing her head. She guessed that she might not be beaten today, so she asked cautiously, "Then... this project should be stopped first. Shall we take a moment?"

Gawain woke up from his contemplation. Looking at the hope on Rebecca's dark face, he already had a decision in his heart.

"It can continue, I will find a way to deal with the subsequent impact of this matter. But in view of the lessons learned this time, all testing sessions of the magic train project must be placed far away from the urban area. In addition, the experimental process has been re-planned and safety protection The measures should also be redesigned to ensure the safety of the experimenters and to separate people from the experimental equipment..."

Rebecca listened carefully one by one, and Gao Wen said one by one seriously.

In the process of technological development, accidents are always unavoidable. As early as the beginning of the construction of the territory, Hetty's laboratory was bombed by Rebecca crystal, but in the end Rebecca crystal was not sealed up, and It shines in today's military and engineering fields.

As magic technology continues to develop, the scale of energy that people can master will inevitably become larger and larger. Today's explosion will not be the last, nor will it be the most powerful one, but even Rebecca has already done it well. He was ready to continue walking, so Gao Wen naturally did the same.

To keep going, all they can do is be careful, cautious, cautious, do everything possible to be safe - and then, do it again.

0532 Feedback

With the heavy iron gate slowly rising under the power of the winch, the majestic Ansu King City opened its gates to the guardians of the kingdom. Under the leaden gray cloud, it was composed of more than ten carriages and a large number of knights and guards. The procession entered the city.

The wheels of the carriage crushed the centuries-old ancient stone road, the slightly loose stone slab trembled slightly, and the small stones creaked continuously between the wheels and the stone slab, but the creaking sound did not How long it lasted, it was covered by the flute and drum sound suddenly played by the musicians in the team.

Victoria slightly opened the cover on one side of the carriage, and through the narrow gap, she saw the empty street outside—a heavy snow just visited Saint-Sunil not long ago, and the snow covered the entire city. In the freezing weather, even the residents of the royal capital would not come out casually, not to mention the back alleys of the common people near the outer city: all the Duchess could see were the white streets and the snow-covered streets. On the roof, the snow has been shoveled off in some areas, but more places still maintain the appearance that the snow has just stopped.

There is a collapsed private house in the corner of sight, which seems to be crushed by the snow. Naturally, there are no residents in the ruins of the private house, and it is unknown where the people who lived here moved—or where they died .

The sound of flutes and drums is still playing, echoing alone in this empty street, as if a group of clowns are telling jokes hard on a stage without any audience, funny and weird, but the musicians don't care about these: they The sound of the music played is not to attract the nearby residents to come out to welcome the nobles, but to let the soldiers at the back of the team quickly adjust their formation after entering the city, and it is also to remind the passers-by in front (if there are any). Get the other side out of the way quickly.

So it doesn't matter if anyone responds or not.

The cover of the carriage was closed.

The convoy passed through the slums of the South City, passed through the Midtown where the citizens lived, and continued towards the Silver Fort. After crossing the Iron Cross Street, the monotonous and boring drumming sound from outside finally stopped, and more and more people Human voices came from all directions.

The convoy entered the inner city where the upper-class citizens and minor nobles lived—after crossing that street, it finally showed a trace of prosperity as the capital of the kingdom.

On the wide streets, the snow has been cleared away. The rich citizens and little nobles wearing colorful and heavy winter clothes have already heard the voices from the Midtown, and they all ran out of their homes to welcome the convoy entering the city.Neither the cold north wind nor the snowflakes blown by the wind can quench the enthusiasm of these people. They stretched their necks by the side of the road, watching the cars with the emblems of the Wilder family, the royal family, and the Church of the Holy Light driving on the road. Then they all cheered and admired, the winter flowers and colored silk strips catalyzed by magic were thrown into the air, like a rain of colorful flowers, and those who threw flowers and silk were all looking forward to it. The windows of the carriage in front of the team can be opened, and the people sitting in the carriage can show up and say hello to them—in the past, the Northern Duchess and the Virgin Princess lived in castles and cathedrals, ordinary wealthy citizens and small Nobles don't have the opportunity to see their faces with their own eyes, but at the moment the motorcade is passing through the wealthy district, this is a rare opportunity.

However, the situation today is obviously different from the past. Amidst the eager anticipation of the crowd, none of the carriages opened the cover, and the entire team just continued to maintain their speed, passed through the crowd without stopping, and passed through the entire road outside the Silver Fort. blocks, drove into the distant castle...

The Duchess Victoria in a white dress led her maids and attendants all the way through the atrium of the Silver Castle and the corridors of the main castle, and came to the study on the upper floor of the castle. The Grand Duke of the Westland, Baldwin Franklin, was wearing a warm and comfortable silk Long robes, sitting on a recliner by the fireplace, concentrating on a large book, seeing the sudden appearance of the Duchess, the Grand Duke of the Western Territory was slightly taken aback, and then quickly got up to greet him: "Ah, the Duchess of Wilder— —Forgive me for not going to the long hall to meet you, this book is so attractive to me."

Victoria scanned the cover of the book in Duke Baldwin's hand, and saw a large string of words in gold on it: "History of Currency Evolution in the Northern Continent and Changes in Trade Lines".

The Franklin family is known as "Ansu's Pocket". Because it is next to the multi-ethnic and prosperous Ogoule Tribal State, the Dukes of the Western Regions are all good at business, and Baldwin Franklin is the best among them. Or, his favorite books are naturally in this field.

But at this moment, after reading this book, Victoria couldn't help but sighed: "Perhaps this trip to the southern border should let you go."

"Oh?" Baldwin Franklin couldn't help raising his eyebrows: "It seems that this trip is not going well? Our founding hero made things difficult for you?"

"No, everything is going well. Grand Duke Gawain Cecil is kind and friendly, and we have also made a big business—that's why I said you should go."

The Duchess's tone seemed plain, but Baldwin, who had known her for a long time, saw an imperceptible trace of irritability in the eyes of the "Ice Queen". He put the book in his hand aside, and his expression became serious: "What did you see in the southern border?"

"...a better place than Saint-Sunil," Victoria thought about her words, and it took her a long time to say this, then she shook her head, "I will tell you about the situation in the southern border in detail later Yes. Now let’s talk about the results of this trip.”

Baldwin Franklin listened carefully to Victoria's narration, his brows sometimes furrowed and sometimes relaxed, and his fingers unconsciously caressed a ruby ​​ring worn on his left hand, although the Duchess only briefly described the negotiations of the trip to the south However, from the words and sentences used by the other party, he can still appreciate how much the "Queen of the North" in front of him was touched in that mysterious southern land.

This made him quite surprised and surprised—it turns out that there is still something in the world that can shake this frozen lady like this.

"So, at least Duke Cecil acquiesced in the coronation of His Royal Highness Wales, and he would not openly support the Eastern Territory...and he also said that he would not use the emergency right of succession 700 years ago." After Victoria's story came to an end, Bai Duke Devon said unhurriedly, "This is better than we expected."

"That's true," Victoria nodded, "In addition, he also agreed to provide paid military assistance to the Royal Army—if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'm afraid I would never have believed that extraordinary weapons could really be mass-produced. "

Baldwin became very interested: "What kind of equipment is that? Is there a sample for me to see?"

"He gave me a sword, as well as several sets of armor and weapons as samples," Victoria said, and turned to the attendant standing at the door, "Bring the things in."

A heavy box was moved into the room, and the samples of the magic armor, melting sword, crystal grenade and scorching ray launcher were presented to Duke Baldwin.

"...It is indeed an exquisite weapon." Baldwin Franklin looked at the weapons and equipment made by machines with a hint of admiration, and picked up a melting sword and looked at it carefully in front of his eyes. He followed Victoria's instructions After activating the magic mechanism of the sword, accompanied by a low buzzing sound, the blade with a thin layer of purple steel plating was immediately covered with a scorching magic force field.

"Oh, it's unbelievable..." Duke Baldwin opened his eyes slightly, but soon frowned, "Its internal magic power is flawed."

Victoria nodded: "That's true. As I said, its magic mechanism is very fragile-according to Duke Cecil, this is to save costs."

Duke Wilder turned off the magic mechanism. As the blade gradually cooled down, his mind also cooled down from the curiosity of seeing new things. After a short thought, he looked at the Duchess: "You just said, every time It takes a gold coin to replace a magic mechanism?"

"Yes."

"...In addition to this weapon called the Melting Sword, the magic cores of other equipment basically need to be replaced frequently?"

"That's true," Victoria nodded, and said before Baldwin spoke, "You don't need to remind me—I know it will cost a lot, and although a separate magic power core is very cheap, it will consume a lot .”

Baldwin glanced at Victoria quietly, then slowly shook his head: "No, Duchess Wilde, you don't know—you underestimated the extent of this 'expensive', in fact, the replacement of the magic core Expenses are the real price of this transaction, compared with it, the price of these swords and armor is not worth mentioning at all."

"So serious?" Victoria finally had a hint of surprise in her eyes.

"Don't question my business sense," said Baldwin Franklin, with a deep sigh, "but don't be disheartened by what I've said—we're dealing with a conspiracy, We have no choice, and Duke Cecil has calculated this point to propose these conditions—even if I was present, I would have to accept all of this. And even with such a high price, these weapons and equipment... are still Good value for money."

"Is it worth the money..." Victoria looked at Duke Baldwin's helpless expression, and calmed down again, "In short, let's gather mages and scholars first, and start trying to imitate these weapons and dismantle their magic mechanism. Find out how these things work."

"Of course, we have to understand these things," Bodwin said in a deep voice, with emotion in his tone, "It's really... a lesson, so business can still be done like this?"

"I'm afraid we will have more lessons this time." Victoria glanced at the Duke of the Western Territory who was in a state of emotion, her tone was a bit complicated, "After seeing the way of life of the Cecil people, I realized something Thing: In these 700 years of peace, Anzu probably hasn't progressed at all - compared with our ancestors, we are far behind."

"Oh?" Patwin raised his voice, showing curiosity, "Tell me about it in detail..."

Victoria pondered for a while, and organized her words: "Then let's start with their government affairs hall..."

……

"The commerce of the Cecilians is very advanced. What we saw in the Kord Trading Company is only a small part of their business wisdom," Belk Rollen stood in the long hall of Solinburg, facing his own My father and Prince Edmund talked about the situation they investigated in the southern border, "I tried to get in touch with a lot of businessmen there, and as a businessman, I also got in touch with their 'Government Office', and I got in touch with a lot of their approval and management processes. , I found that they have very strict business monitoring-the degree of rigor is shocking, which is completely different from the impression we had when we first heard about the various business opening policies of the Principality of Cecil."

Silas Lauren listened to his son's return, and at the same time, his eyes occasionally fell on Prince Edmund who was sitting on the head—this young prince had already shed all his innocence, he was wearing a black steel light armor, and a The wolf fur cloak was draped over his shoulders, and his face was less green and more weathered. He sat on the main seat of the castle, listening to Belk's report with concentration, and from time to time he showed a look of thinking.

From below the steps of his seat, Belk Rollen was still narrating: "Their commerce is indeed open, but in a precisely controlled openness, which explains why their chambers of commerce and the emerging 'companies' To be able to run at that high efficiency and with very few slip-ups...

"Under the operation of the 'factory', Cecil's material output is surprisingly high, and a large number of things can be sold as commodities, which has spawned many merchants who specialize in the wholesale and transportation of bulk goods. shipped far away...