Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 420 - 419: Behold This Fortress, Impregnable as Steel

Since the north has been continuously sending those unsettling news, the situation in the south has become as if shrouded by an overcast cloud, turning into complete chaos. The atmosphere of the rocky ridges Fortress has grown more tense by the day. This fortress, standing as the most majestic stronghold at the southern end of the Plains of the Holy Spirits, is a source of pride for everyone, but now it has suddenly become an isolated island caught between two storms—the nobles of the southern region have suddenly all lost contact. The Cecil Clan, which has been silent for a hundred years, seems to be planning a major endeavor, yet the messengers sent north by the fortress in search of support only brought back disappointing news—

Due to the deterioration of the situation in the royal capital, the clouds of civil war loom, and the two regent dukes and the prince regent have already begun calling on nobles from across the land to dispatch forces to prepare to deal with the Eastern Territory Rebels. The royal capital has no spare energy to support rocky ridges Fortress, especially since the fortress has not yet suffered any substantial attacks: the big shots in the royal capital seem far from realizing just how rapidly the situation is deteriorating in the southern borders. In their eyes, the Eastern rebels led by a prince and a militant duke are evidently a more serious threat than the "chaos" in the south.

In this tense and delicate situation, the rocky ridges Fortress can only keep its gates tightly closed and begin implementing the strictest lockdown ban. Except for merchants holding a pass personally signed by Count Pompeii and Transcendents from around the fortress, no one is allowed to pass through—yet even without these bans, the number of business travelers to the fortress has plummeted to the lowest point recently.

The keen-scented merchants have long felt a sense of crisis, and at such a sensitive time, no one dares to take the risk of being caught as spies by the aristocratic leaders by casually crossing the fortress. In recent days, there have been times when the number of merchants passing through the fortress gates was less than two digits, far fewer compared not only to the peak of last autumn and winter but even to previous years.

And today, the rocky ridges Fortress finally welcomes a great number of "guests"—the nobles defeated and driven out from the southern region.

At the sight of nearly a thousand ragged, frail but armed individuals, the entire fortress nearly entered a state of combat readiness. The soldiers truly couldn’t see this as a noble team and instead thought it was all the fallen mercenaries, bandits, and robbers of the southern borders gathered to plunder the city. After a tense standoff and a complicated verification process, it was only with difficulty that Sir Maryland, the commander of the fortress, finally confirmed that the crew before him, which looked like a combination of bandits and beggars, was indeed the nobility of the southern borders—the downtrodden nobles.

He would never forget this scene for the rest of his life.

The tightly sealed gates, adorned with purple steel rivets and adamantite panels, were opened. The tall, brawny, black-haired Sir Maryland led the pioneering knights out of the city to welcome these unfortunate gentlemen and ladies. He stared in disbelief at a young man in the team wearing a tattered coat, with greasy, stringy hair and a yellow, cracked face, finally recognizing with great difficulty that this was Viscount Carol from the nearest Carol territory. Viscount Carol had come face to face with Maryland more than once, but their meeting under such circumstances was the first of its kind.

"For heaven’s sake! My Viscount! What have you all been through?!" Sir Maryland looked at these unfortunate people in shock and spotted several other familiar faces in the crowd, "It seems those terrible rumors are true?!"

"Disaster, a disaster, an awful, merciless, brutal war with no classical honor whatsoever destroyed everything," Viscount Carol trembled slightly, "And honorable Sir, please refrain from invoking heaven... those words give me nightmares now."

Next to him, Viscount Konsko covered his forehead, his tone full of pain: "We got such a beating by our ancestors..."

"...May the Holy Spirits bless you, everything will get better," Sir Maryland, who had seen his share of storms throughout his life, found himself unfamiliar with the current situation. Unsure of how to continue this strange conversation, he could only quickly lead these downtrodden gentlemen and ladies into the city, "I have prepared hot water for you; traversing through the muddy wilderness must have been dreadful."

"We need food first, cheese, steak, wine, my god, bathing can totally wait!" Viscount Mari Oran hastily said, "Is there food?"

"Of course, I had already instructed the city to prepare food when I came out, rocky ridges Fortress is well-stocked," Sir Maryland nodded immediately, but as a high-level knight stationed at the fortress, he couldn’t help but glance at the nearly thousand-member team with vigilance, "However, forgive my caution—as letting so many people into the fortress all at once could be dangerous, I must conduct the necessary checks to prevent spies from mingling among them, an occurrence that is easy under such circumstances."

Viscount Konsko looked back at the soldiers and knights who had traveled with him through the entire battle zone, and loudly said to Sir Maryland: "Honorable Sir, these men have followed us through life and death, loyal and admirable—of course, I understand the regulations of the fortress, so I only hope you can complete the checks quickly so that these brave warriors can enter the city to eat and rest as soon as possible."

Moved by these just and generous words, the soldiers couldn’t help being touched. Meanwhile, Viscount Konsko casually spurred his horse to Sir Maryland’s side, lowered his voice, and softly said, "Do whatever checks you need to, just take us to eat something first."

The nobles, knights, and priests in the team moved towards the city under the company of Sir Maryland and the pioneering knights, while the others began to receive checks from the fortress soldiers. Lady Ropeney gazed indifferently at the soldiers conducting the checks with a glance, then followed the other nobles.

She knew what these checks were about, so she wasn’t worried in the slightest—in the absence of a complete personnel registry and identification system, the so-called check was merely asking around the team to see if members could vouch for each other’s identity. Perhaps this method was somewhat useful for identifying a few spies mixed among the army, but who would expect that an entire retinue led by a noble might be nothing but spies?

She lifted her head and watched as the majestic gates of the rocky ridges Fortress drew closer, then stepped through.

"Gentlemen, ladies, you are safe," said Sir Maryland from his horse as they crossed the fortress gates, smiling at the nobles beginning to show relief, "This fortress is impregnable."

Viscount Carol looked up at the black walls emitting a faint magical glow. The famous walls indeed settled his heart somewhat, but he couldn’t help saying, "Honorable Sir, allow me to say—Gawain Cecil’s danger is beyond your imagination! He has, by some unknown means, formed a terrifying army, we almost did not confront this army head-on before collapsing, and now he is likely consolidating forces in the south, gathering strength. He might well set his sights on here..."

Sir Maryland couldn’t help but turn back: "But I heard that he wasn’t the one to initiate the war?"

"...Indeed, we were the ones who initiated it," Viscount Carol revealed a pained expression, "But now I must say, it was a trap right from the start! We were led into it! From the beginning, Duke Cecil had prepared for war, being passive was just a guise, he was aggressive from the outset—Sir, don’t be deceived by the illusion that he’s not attacking rocky ridges Fortress for the moment, he will come!"

"I’ll seriously consider your warning, Viscount," Sir Maryland looked deeply at Viscount Carol, "and I will report your plight to... the royal capital as soon as possible. But forgive me for bluntness, the help you are likely to receive may be limited, rocky ridges Fortress can only serve as a shelter at best."

"Sir, the Cecil Clan is back! They intend to take back everything they’ve lost over the past hundred years! Have you forgotten the original purpose of constructing rocky ridges Fortress..."

"Viscount, of course I remember the original purpose for establishing the rocky ridges Fortress, but please remember, it was you who betrayed the Cecil Clan or divided Cecil’s lands, not us, nor any family on the Plains of the Holy Spirits," Sir Maryland waved his hand slightly, interrupting Carol’s words, and then sighed lightly, "And it’s not that I am unaware of the crisis in the south. I can see the threat of the Cecil Clan from you, but what I can do is quite limited."

Seeing the complex expression on Sir Maryland’s face, Carol and the surrounding aristocrats finally sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere. Viscount Konsko couldn’t help but ask hesitantly, "Sir, what happened?"

"Don’t you know?" Sir Maryland shook his head and said softly, "The King is dead."

...

In the Cecil commercial district, at "Balance Square," a new large facility is being erected.

The tower-like skeleton made of alloy stands in the center of the square like a peculiar stele. The outer panels, decorative and for night-time illumination, are lightly and precisely covered over the tower’s surface after undergoing a Weight-Reduction process. The Mage Technicians climb to key positions on the tower with the use of hoisting devices and safety ropes, welding the panels and skeleton firmly together with scorching energy beams. At the top of the tower floats a large obelisk, emitting a gentle glow.

This facility is near completion, currently undergoing final touch-ups. The Magic Obelisk at the tower’s top is the core device of the facility, also providing energy to various magical devices on site. Beneath the obelisk, the underground Magic Web is being connected gradually by the tower’s covering panels. Those glowing magic symbols are siphoning surging energy from the Magic Web, injecting it into the obelisk’s base and eventually releasing it outward from the obelisk, forming a magical power field that can cover the entire district.

Gawain stood near the construction site, watching the runes and Magic crystal lamps on the tower light up and go off one by one as the Mage Technicians conducted their tests, feeling a bit sentimental inside.

Once this tower is completed, the westernmost street of the commercial district and the newly established West City District will be completely covered by the new type of Magic Web.

This also means that Cecil Castle will be fully within the signal coverage range of the "Magic Web Communication." After waiting for a while longer, once the Magic Obelisk relay towers on the North-South Avenue are completed, it will be possible to communicate with Kant territory from any corner of Cecil Castle.

Of course, the premise is that the production of communication equipment has to keep up.

Gawain glanced not far away, where a few soldiers were guarding a large cart. On it were several large devices with triangular bases and crystal structures. These were the "Public Magic Web Communication Terminals" personally made by Saint Nicholas Egg before the production line was operational, now waiting to be installed.

Rebecca stood beside Gawain, her face full of pride because the idea of placing a Magic Obelisk on the tower was hers. This originated from her continuous monitoring of the actual operation situation of every Magic Obelisk in the territory: "Placing a Magic Obelisk on a special ’tower’ can effectively increase signal transmission stability and range. Of course, this also makes it conspicuous and easy to become a target for long-range spell attacks, so I set up a magic shield rune group inside the tower—anyway, the redundant energy of the Magic Obelisk is abundant, so it’s more than enough to sustain a set of shields."

"Is it just a set of shields?" Gawain tilted his head and glanced at the girl, "I also heard that you initially planned to bury three hundred pounds of Magic Crystal Bomb underneath the tower?"

"Uh... wasn’t that because you said to set up relay towers in the wilderness to ensure full signal coverage," Rebecca scratched her head awkwardly, "It’s so dangerous in the wild, what if someone comes to destroy it..."

"This is an energy broadcasting tower and signal relay tower, not a front-line bunker," Gawain tapped Rebecca on the head, "It’s fine as long as it’s sturdy enough, are you expecting a signal tower to kill eight thousand enemies during wartime or something."

Rebecca laughed foolishly, trying to brush it off, while Gawain, after reprimanding this child, couldn’t help but stroke his chin, deep in thought.

Rebecca’s idea of burying bombs under the Magic Obelisk relay tower was indeed a bad one, too risky and not worth it, but she did have a point—the world isn’t very peaceful.

The wilderness of this world is full of hidden dangers, far from being flooded with the light of civilization, and it is still a time of chaos and war, so the self-protection capability of those relay towers set up outside major cities does need considering...

Burying bombs isn’t feasible; perhaps an Ao Explosion might work...

Seeing the ancestor suddenly fall into a state of contemplation, Rebecca couldn’t help but muster the courage to stand on tiptoe and wave her hand in front of Gawain: "Ancestor sir, why do I feel like you are starting to agree with me?"

"I’m just thinking about the defense issues of various outdoor facilities..." Gawain brushed Rebecca’s hand away, about to say more, when he caught sight of Amber running rapidly towards them from the corner of his eye.

When Amber arrived, Gawain curiously asked, "What’s happened?"

"Wright is back!" Amber took two breaths, "He seems to have experienced something... he has regained the Holy Light!"