Sword of Dawn

Page 223

All the lighting facilities here rely on magic crystals as the core. This cheap and simple light-emitting device is difficult to popularize due to the need to continuously inject magic power, but in Cecil it is a thing that can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys; the room is as warm as spring, But the fireplace on the west side was not lit. Obviously, the fireplace is not a heating facility, but just a decoration. The real heating here is solved by something called "magic energy heating system"; Large and brightly colored curtains, the weaving method of the fabric is very strange, the stitching is simple, and even has a cheap feeling, but its neatness is amazing, as if a skilled old weaver is weaving without sleep It seems that such a cheap and simple fabric...

The black-haired maid Maggie stood behind Victoria, massaging the tense muscles on the hostess' shoulders with gentle movements, feeling the muscles under her fingers relax a little bit, the black-haired maid said softly: "You have been observing Everything here."

"Really? So obvious?" Victoria's tone rose slightly, and her body stretched out more lazily - she can maintain the most perfect state in any unofficial occasion, but at this moment is her time to relax, She sighed, "At this moment, I regret not bringing a mediocre and shallow royal nobleman to act as a 'Flower Guardian'—he can ask this and that about every novelty instead of me. There are too many here. Things I don't understand, but I've asked too many 'why' along the way."

"There are indeed a lot of novel things here—but they seem to be just various magical devices, not more advanced than the ones you set up in Winter Castle, isn't it?" Maggie said her opinion, "The Cecilians use magic crystal lamps for lighting, as do the inner courts of Winterhold, their gates can open automatically, and the same is true for your mage tower, ah, they also have magic vehicles that can drive automatically-no more than dragons. The blood horse runs faster than your white-feathered griffin."

Obviously, in the eyes of this black-haired maid, her mistress was confused by Cecil's dazzling "tricks", so that she paid too much attention to those novel and interesting magic devices, but Victoria shook her head: "No, Maggie, you don't understand—the Cecilians don't surprise me with any of their magical devices. What really surprises me is that they have thousands of each."

Maggie's fingers pressing on the hostess' shoulders paused for a moment.

"Grand Duke Gawain is pushing extraordinary power to everyone, and he is breaking the boundary between extraordinary people and ordinary people. The scary thing about this is that he is not only qualified to do this, but he has also done it," Victoria said. Sitting up, his expression became serious, "I don't understand how he did it..."

The black-haired maid didn't answer, and the duchess didn't expect to hear an answer from the maid, she just shook her head: "Maggie, bring those 'newspapers', I want to read them again."

"Yes."

A stack of newspapers was delivered to Victoria. Looking at this kind of thing that was also unheard of elsewhere, she couldn't help sighing softly: "Should we start by letting the common people know how to read..."

The envoys from the capital of the north have never come into contact with this kind of thing called newspaper, but it has already entered the sight of every ordinary person in the south, everyone can read it, and it is so cheap that it is unbelievably cheap. The "confidential" intelligence information is openly disseminated in the Principality of Cecil, including the price of food, the appointment and dismissal of officials everywhere, and the construction of new towns - these things should belong to the nobles alone, here Let the common people discuss it, as long as they learn basic literacy in school.

Others in the mission probably haven't noticed this thing called a newspaper, but Victoria has paid attention to it as early as leaving the Rock Fortress and passing through Kant City. At that time, a "newsboy" was selling this printed matter along the roadside On a whim, the Duchess ordered someone to buy a copy, and then she was deeply shocked by this thing.

Her eyes quickly scanned the content about prices, construction, and current affairs news, but she thought of the difficult experience she had in obtaining statistics on transit merchants before leaving Pompeii.

But compared to these contents, what the Duchess cared more about were the critical articles about current events in the newspapers.

"Maggie...do you know? If we have this in our hands, we don't have to consider whether the nobles and citizens will support the Crown Prince of Wales when he is crowned," Victoria raised the newspaper in her hand, her tone full of helplessness, "We even It can make people in the east start to doubt their lord and prince."

"Do you want to distribute something similar in San Sunil... or the Plain of the Holy Spirit?"

Victoria's voice was full of exhaustion: "It's useless, our people are illiterate—and the nobles of the Holy Spirit Plain and the capital will not allow farmers to put down their hoes and run to read and write, and then question them after they understand the truth."

She only said half of what she said, but didn't say the rest: If she hadn't seen a lot of information about Luan City with her own eyes, her own thoughts were actually similar to those of the king's capital and the plain nobles...

No, it would be better to say that once the nobles in the royal capital and the plains knew what happened in Luan City, they would be even more afraid to let the people know how to read.

A breeze blew from the side, and Victoria stopped talking with Maggie. She looked towards the corner of the room and nodded slightly: "Raven, you are back."

A figure in black soft leather armor emerged from the air. It once belonged to Francis II, and now under the command of the Duke Regent, the Royal Shadow Guard "Raven" bowed to Victoria: "Duchess, there is no one around this building." Strange."

"It seems that our founding hero is upright," Victoria nodded, but her eyes could not help but glanced at the "newspaper" in her hand, and then she looked at the Royal Shadow Guard not far away, "Have you found out anything?"

"Besides us, there seems to be another group of visitors in this city. I heard that they are a group of businessmen, but they live some distance from the 'castle', and they have to cross the outpost in the middle. We were afraid of being discovered, so we didn't go. Investigate."

"A group of businessmen..." Victoria said lightly, as if talking to herself, "It is rumored that the founding hero really likes 'doing business'... He relied on the power of businessmen to rise rapidly."

Dark Crow lowered his head: "Do you want to track down the situation of those merchants?"

"No need, it's not wise to disturb the host's other guests," Victoria shook her head, then her eyes suddenly fell on Raven's shoulder, her voice turned slightly colder, "Besides, you have already been discovered."

"...Ah?!" Raven was startled, and then noticed the gaze of the hostess. The royal shadow guard immediately turned his head, and finally noticed something strange on the back of his shoulder. A small piece of paper was found in the gap of armor.

Seeing the content on the note, the royal shadow guard's expression changed drastically:

"Yo, let's go for a walk? - The Shadow Goddess's own daughter stays."

"The Duchess—" Raven immediately prostrated himself on the ground, with shame and trembling in his voice, "I... I was careless..."

A blood-clotting ice pick seemed to have formed on the back of his neck, and the Royal Shadow Guard felt his nerves and blood getting colder, but in the next second, the feeling of bone-chilling cold receded like a tide, He heard the voice of the Duchess from ahead: "Get up."

Dark Crow broke out in a cold sweat and stood up as if reborn. Victoria, who was facing him, sighed: "Grand Duke Gawain Cecil once trained Ansu's first batch of royal shadow guards, and he must have the strongest guards around him." The big shadow master works for him, and it is normal that you are not an opponent. After canceling all the covert operations, the shadow master who never showed up just gave us a warning this time, but when Cecil speaks publicly, I am afraid It's not just a warning."

Raven breathed a sigh of relief, even though he really wanted to say that he should know the "daughter of the Shadow Goddess" who left a note on him, the other party is not a shadow master at all, and he might be better than a goose in a frontal fight, But as an adult with normal intelligence, he would like the mistress to overestimate the power of that half-elf as much as possible...

"Since you have been discovered, let's do something else," Victoria continued, "Leave the city first, and officially enter the city with our second convoy the day after tomorrow, and then you will be active in Cecil City— —go to the places you are allowed to visit, and I want you to focus on three things."

"Please order."

"Observe how Cecil manages 'people', and understand why their efficiency is so high; observe what ordinary people here usually talk about, and understand what the Principality of Cecil is in their eyes Finally, observe their market, I want you and other shadow guards to record everything sold in their market, including the approximate price changes, and then inquire about the origin of those things and the daily sales situation, and The way they manage the market."

"Yes."

The shadow of the dark crow disappeared into the air. After a while, Maggie looked at her mistress: "You mentioned the Cecilian's market at the end... Do you want to understand how Duke Cecil's business works?"

"This is one of the purposes," Victoria nodded, "but more importantly, it is to find out how strong Duke Cecil is after conquering this land—our journey from Rock Fortress to Cecil City, the entire route Everything is planned, and what we can see is also planned-the market is the only way for us to understand other areas in the southern border."

How many cars and boats does Duke Gawain have, how many cities have been completely controlled by him, how many areas are directly connected to the roads of Cecil City, how many gold coins flow on this land every day, and these gold coins can support How many troops... These things can be estimated from the market.

Chapter 0526 A Deal

After the welcome banquet ended, Gao Wen did not follow up with Victoria or Veronica immediately, but let these guests rest in the "Autumn Palace", or follow the reception staff he arranged to visit some places. The information he gave The reason is that he hopes that the guests can learn about the land as much as possible, and take a good rest in the past few days to relieve the fatigue accumulated from such a long journey-with this justification, he left the guests for three days.

Victoria didn't waste these three days. During these three days, she did everything possible to learn about Cecil, from people's daily lifestyles to the sporadic information about Cecil's army, from market commodities to surrounding products—— Despite her limited access, she never misses an opportunity to learn more about the land.

It wasn't until the fourth day that she finally heard from Gao Wen.

In the study of the lord's mansion, Victoria Wilde sat on a single sofa specially provided for guests. She looked curiously at the place where Gawain worked on weekdays, and glanced at the full bookshelves and decorative bookshelves. The armor finally landed on a huge map: the map hung on one side of the wall, between two bookshelves, it depicted the entire territory of Ansu, and even a part of the Gondor wasteland, Typhon, and the holy dragon The Principality, the land of the Ogure Tribal State, is the most exquisite and detailed map Victoria has ever seen in her life. It not only accurately marks all the mountains, rivers and rivers, but also marks a large number of numbers used to describe the distance... …

It is not uncommon for the lord to hang a map in his study, but it is not easy to hang such an accurate map. The Duchess's sight fell near the center of the map and stopped at a certain point in the eastern part of the Holy Spirit Plain.

She saw a striking red cross marked near the giant wooden crossing, and beside the red cross was a line of annotation: Ansu 736, the 43rd day of Harvest Moon.

That was the date of the last large-scale battle between the eastern border rebels and the Kingdom Army before winter, and the time and place were exactly the same.

"It seems to be very interested in my map? The girl from the Wilder family?"

Gawain's voice suddenly came from the side, waking Victoria up from her short thoughts. She saw the founding prince enter the room and sit on another sofa next to her.

"Betty, prepare tea and send it to the study." After taking his seat, Gawain waved to the little maid standing by the door, and then turned to Victoria, "I hope I didn't delay too long—the new duchy is always busy. .”

"Of course, I can imagine how busy you are every day." Victoria bowed slightly and saluted Gao Wen. Even though she was both the Guardian Duke, the huge gap in seniority made her always pay attention even in such informal occasions. Etiquette, then she raised her head again and looked at the huge map, "...you have a very good cartographer, and you seem to be very concerned about the situation outside the southern border?"

"The people of Cecil want to live a peaceful life, but the outside world is not as peaceful as we wish—if you want to live a stable life, you have to pay more attention to the external situation," Gawain smiled, "and you Don’t you also care about the situation here?”

The members of the mission group were walking around the city. Of course, such an open matter cannot be concealed. Victoria did not intend to hide it at all. She just nodded slightly: "This land is very mysterious to us. Since autumn, the whole For the capital, the southern border is equivalent to being hidden in the mist, which is of course curious."

The little maid, Betty, brought tea and began to fill up the tea for the guests. Taking this opportunity, Victoria bluntly turned the topic to her own focus: "Duke Cecil, what do you think of the civil war in Anzu? ?”

Gao Wen kept smiling, looked at Victoria and said unhurriedly: "I'm sorry to see the descendants of my former friends make trouble like this, but if you want to ask who I support in this civil war— —Then all I can say is, I don’t support anyone.”

This can be said to be the expected answer. Victoria's expression remained unchanged, but she continued: "We did not start the war. No one in Silver Fort wants Ansu to split. We have been passive since the sudden rebellion in the east."

"Ah, 'he did it first'—I heard Hetty said that Rebecca often complained like this after she got into fights when she was a child," Gawain raised his hand, "Did you know that until winter, Rebecca often complained I taught you a lesson because of causing trouble, so you should be really glad that Charlie, Snow, Anthony, and Evans didn’t come back with me, otherwise you would have to worry about more than just this civil war——Girl from the Wilder family , are you going to explain to Snow Wilder that Anthony Rollen and the children of Charlie Moen's family did it first?"

All the explanations and negotiation scripts prepared by Victoria in advance failed.

She has not communicated with anyone who is her elder for nearly 20 years. In this regard, her experience is even inferior to Rebecca who is beaten twice a month.

But fortunately, her head was smarter than Rebecca's, and after a brief astonishment, she reorganized her words: "...I understand that you and the founders of the kingdom did not build this kingdom to let us kill each other. The civil war will definitely make you sad, but the situation has developed to this point, the war cannot be stopped at will - we cannot hand over the country to a patricide usurper prince and a royal prince who broke his oath, and presumably the Eastlands will not So easy to compromise. So the civil war will continue, and Anzu's strength will be weakened in the course of the war, and we all know-Typhon is waiting by the side, waiting for the last drop of Anzu to be drained Blood."

Gawain looked into Victoria's eyes: "Very well, at least you can still realize that there is Typhon next to you, so in order to end this war as soon as possible - and end the war in a way that meets your expectations, what method did you think of? "

Victoria pondered for a moment, and then said what Gawain expected: "The king's position cannot continue to be vacant."

Gawain adjusted his sitting posture and leaned back on the back of the sofa: "Wales Moen?"

"...His Majesty Francis once appointed Edmund as his heir and swore an oath before his ancestors, but now this oath obviously has to be abandoned. Anzu needs a king and needs to be reunited as a whole. His Royal Highness Wales is currently the only candidate. " Victoria paused, watching every change in Gawain's expression, she continued to speak slowly, "We hope to support Welsh Moen as the new king, this is the common wish of the guardian dukes of the northern and western territories."

She paid attention to the changes in Gawain's expression, but Gawain's expression did not change. The founding Duke just maintained that faint smile, listening like an outsider, and did not express his opinion until she finished speaking for a long time.

Gawain froze the atmosphere for a full 2 ​​minutes, before breaking the silence suddenly: "Victoria, is the Mithril oath in Winterhold still okay?"

The Duchess's heart stopped for a moment. Although the expression on her face remained normal, the tension in her eyes did not escape Gawain's eyes.

There was no wavering in Gao Wen's mind: as he had predicted a long time ago, as a founding hero shrouded in halo, the nobles of Ansu would not mind hanging him on the wall, writing it on a book, carving it on a stone. Even on the altar, but they would never mind the founding hero sitting on the throne——

Because the heroes on the stones in the books on their walls can be fake, but the one on the throne is real.

But he didn't even expect that the emergency agreement 700 years ago would be useful. He just mentioned it, and then continued: "Do you think Wales will be a qualified king?"

"He will," Victoria still lingered on the contents of the mithril oath, she replied cautiously, "Although His Royal Highness is not as sharp-edged as Edmund, he has inherited his father's stability and integrity, Only such a king can heal the scars of Ansu after the civil war and restore the country as soon as possible - and after experiencing the trauma of war, people will also hope to usher in a gentle king who will support His Royal Highness Wales. "

"But it's not enough for you to change the situation with the Eastern Territory - I know what you think, support a king, gain legitimacy, win the support of more nobles, let the people have courage, the idea is good, and probably It really has a little effect, but don’t forget that there is also a qualified crown prince in the East, and in the past 20 years, that crown prince has been more popular. Even if you crowned Wales in advance, the East will not A new king can be established immediately, bringing the situation back to the previous state."

"But if you can also support Her Majesty Wales, then the legitimacy of the new king will be greatly strengthened, and more nobles and people will fall to the royal family," Victoria couldn't help but said, "Your attitude is very important..."

"Shall I publicly support one of Charlie Moen's heirs to kill another?" Gawain knocked on the small table between the two sofas, "You should understand that it is difficult for me to express my position easily in this civil war of."

Victoria knew that it wasn't that Gao Wen couldn't express his opinion, he just didn't want to.

The founding duke is a man who coexists with caution and radicalism. He is cautious now because he doesn't trust the Royal Army at all—but he doesn't seem to trust the Eastern Rebels either.

This is already the best situation that was expected at the beginning.

"Then what do you mean..." the Duchess looked into Gawain's eyes and asked tentatively.

"I have no objection to the coronation of Wales," Gawain said calmly, "but if he wants me to recognize him as king, he must at least show his achievements as king."

Having said that, he paused for a moment.

"And as for the mithril contract in Winter Castle - the girl from the Wilder family, you can put it away with peace of mind. I don't plan to use it."

It wasn't until these words came out that Victoria Wilde was truly relieved.

Gawain Cecil didn't explicitly support the Crown or either side of the Eastlands, but at least he didn't intend to be king.

In this way, at least Ansu will not have to face another civil war.

After confirming Gao Wen's attitude, the Duchess's heart settled down, and according to the plan made before departure, she began to seek greater support from Gao Wen: "Thank you for your understanding—— But if you can give the Royal Army greater support, then this civil war may end sooner. As you just said, just crowning His Royal Highness Wales cannot fundamentally change the current situation in Ansu. The bloody balance of the realm...must be broken."

"As I said just now, I'm just 'not opposed to the coronation of Wales'," Gawain interrupted Victoria, "I will not publicly support any side of this civil war, and to be honest, the southern border has just experienced a There is a war, my army needs rest, my people need rest, we can't afford to be exhausted."

This is a well-founded reason, and Victoria can't think of a place to refute it.

But after a moment of silence, Gawain suddenly spoke again: "However, as Charlie's good friend, I can't just sit back and watch his kingdom fall apart like this."

Victoria's eyes widened slightly: "You mean..."

"I am willing to provide some help in other fields, besides the army," Gawain said unhurriedly, "such as weapons and armor..."

Chapter 0527 Achievement

Weaponry?

Hearing Gao Wen's words, Victoria couldn't help but move.

The situation did not exceed expectations, everything was as she had speculated these days - Cecil was short of money.

In the past three days, Victoria has used various methods to investigate the situation in the southern border. Although she has no way to directly contact the personnel of the government affairs hall, nor can she leave the city, she can get into the market of the Cecilians, With access to their newspapers, hearing voices in the streets, and even seeing twice the magic of projection—the Cecilians call this magic "show"—from the information that can be disseminated publicly, she can tell Infer many useful things.

The development of Cecil is very rapid. Gawain Cecil, the founding hero who experienced the Gondor period, seems to be using his knowledge from 700 years ago to build this land. He started several projects of amazing scale, Including the redistribution of the population of the entire southern border and the construction of several new cities at the same time, and such a large-scale project undoubtedly requires amazing wealth to support it.

The newly-born Principality of Cecil should already be very tight financially—this is the conclusion that Victoria has inferred during the investigation of the past few days.

And long before she arrived in the southern border, she had been thinking about what to use to appease and win over the founding grand duke—the "acknowledgment" from the royal family, or the "authentication of legitimacy" from the contemporary nobles. The duke, who is itself a source of legitimacy, is meaningless, but knowing that Cecil's finances may be tight, she thinks she has found the best "gift".

And after seeing Cecil's extraordinary equipment, she did have a great interest in those things. She just didn't know how to take the initiative to talk about it, but now it seems... Both sides need each other. is the best situation.

"You should have seen my army and the re-armed Rock Fortress." Gawain looked at the little change in Victoria's eyes that ordinary people could not detect, knowing that the other party was already thinking in his own direction, he restrained himself With an unbearable smile in his heart, he continued to say sternly, "The principality is initially set, my army is only enough to protect this land, but we have a lot of weapons prepared to deal with the war, and those are high-quality extraordinary weapons , it must be very helpful to the Royal Army."

"There is no doubt about it," Victoria said immediately. "The people of the Eastern Border are good at fighting, and it is difficult for our soldiers to fight against them. But if there is a group of powerful weapons, the situation will definitely be different from what it is now..."

"Then it would be great," Gawain nodded, but then changed the subject, "After all, supernatural weapons are different from ordinary swords. The Cecil family spent a lot of money building them, so I can't give them away for free. To the Royal Army."

Victoria was not surprised by this: "Of course - extraordinary weapons have always been rare, and it would be a great thing if they could be purchased with money. But I would like to know what weapons you have that you can sell to the Royal Army, and how many are there?" ?”

Gao Wen smiled slightly and stood up: "Come with me, I think the actual display will impress you even more."

Victoria followed Gao Wen's footsteps. They left the Lord's Mansion and took the magic vehicle directly to the administrative area. After a while, the surrounding buildings gradually became sparse, and several watchtowers appeared in sight.

They came to the weapons testing ground in the northeast of the city.

After getting out of the car, Victoria couldn't help but look back at the vehicle she was on just now—this is really a very convenient and fast thing, especially on the battlefield, it will not be as easily frightened as a war horse, and it has a solid shell and Huge strength, if you install ballista on the car, deploy archers and javeliners, or use them to transport food and grass... How good would it be?

While thinking about it, a young knight had already arrived in front of Gawain and Victoria. This was Philip who had been notified in advance and was getting ready on the proving ground: "My lords, everything is ready."

Gawain signaled Philip to lead the way, and Victoria temporarily restrained her thoughts. Accompanied by some entourage, she followed Gawain and the young knight, and soon came to an open space that had been emptied in advance and was guarded by soldiers.

She saw a soldier walking up to Gao Wen. The soldier was holding a long wooden box in his hand. When the wooden box was opened, there was a beautiful but imposing one-handed sword with a dark blue blade inside. long sword.

She had seen this kind of sword before—in the hand of the knight named Margarita, she was impressed by it.

"This is an extraordinary weapon with the power of the fire element. We call it the Melting Sword," Gawain picked up the long sword, swung it randomly twice, and then pressed a mechanism on the hilt in front of Victoria, and the long sword immediately There was a very slight hum, and its blade quickly turned red, and the air near the blade instantly showed a distortion visible to the naked eye—this made Victoria realize the astonishing heat on the blade, "As if As you can see, its high-heat blade is the source of its power. In the case of normal slashing, it can easily cut off any ordinary sword, and it can also cut light and medium metal armor in two. When dealing with heavy armor units It might not be as effective - but its heat can keep warming the armor of a heavily armored fighter, and the damage is still deadly."

Victoria moved closer, and took the long sword that Gawain handed over. She felt the astonishing heat emanating from the latter, but she also felt the automatic magic power inside the sword: "It doesn't require magic power for the user?"

"Yes, this is a self-sustaining extraordinary weapon, as long as it is trained, ordinary people can use it."

Self-sustaining Paradox Armor - This is the most expensive of the Paradise Armaments!

"It's no wonder that the coalition of nobles in the southern region will not be your opponent." Victoria looked at the deadly and beautiful weapon in her hand with admiration, "If ordinary soldiers can also be equipped with magic weapons, any army will become extremely terrifying...a pair like this How much is your sword worth?"

Gawain looked at Victoria's reaction with satisfaction, and said a price that made the other party stunned: "Only twenty ansu yuan gold coins—or seventeen gold shield coins."