Sword of Dawn

Page 359

Gao Wen couldn't guess what Victoria, who always had a frosty face, was thinking in his heart. He was still thinking about it while complaining——

The weird phenomenon mentioned by Victoria cannot be dismissed as "mysterious malfunction" or "horror and strange talk" at will!

The magic net is a new thing. Even though it has been in operation for several years, its various characteristics have yet to be explored, and various improvements and optimizations have yet to be carried out. As the foundation of the magic industry, any abnormalities exposed by it must be solved. Treat with caution, and even without considering this...

In this world where there are all kinds of extraordinary powers, mysterious phenomena, and weird things, you must be vigilant when facing any event that is weird enough and has a large impact!

Is it true that, as Victoria said, some kind of external interference has affected the operation of the magic net in Winter Castle?Or... is there something trying to pollute the Ley?

Will this influence affect the magic nets in other regions?

If this is the case, its consequences will be disastrous!

Noticing that Gao Wen's expression suddenly became extremely serious, Victoria couldn't help asking after a few seconds of silence, "Your Majesty, what did you think of?"

Gawain woke up from his thoughts, but he couldn't help thinking of some bold plans that Rebecca had proposed a long time ago...

"Perhaps... some key nodes of the magic net should have a physical self-destruct function..."

Victoria was taken aback by Gawain's last few words: "Huh?!"

"Don't worry about it for the time being, it's some technical problem at the beginning of the design of the magic net." Gao Wen waved his hand, put aside his thoughts for the time being, and was going to go back to the technical staff to discuss the details, "In short, the 'abnormal phenomenon' you mentioned is very worthy of attention , after you go back, you have to investigate carefully, even if you really can’t find out the reason, then you have to keep an eye on the operation of the magic net, confirm if there are other abnormalities in it, and report to me in time.”

Victoria lowered her head: "I understand."

Gawain exhaled, and turned to the next topic: "Besides this, is there any other situation in the north?"

"Yes," Victoria nodded, and then talked about one of the reasons why she came to the imperial capital to report her duties in person this time, "We have successfully opened the 'door' of the Holy Dragon Principality, and Baloger Knar, the Grand Duke of Dragon Blood, agreed The request to formally establish diplomatic relations with the empire, and entrust me to personally submit the letter of credence and convey the wish to you. Before the spring, the Principality of Shenglong will send an official mission to handle matters such as sending long-term ambassadors, establishing embassies, sending overseas students, and opening business portals to each other. Prepare."

Gao Wen was stunned for a moment, and then he did not hide his surprise: "Ha! This is really good news! We have knocked on the most difficult door in the north! In this way, the situation will be more favorable to us. !"

"That's right, after knocking on this door, the Holy Dragon Principality will be more inclined to Cecil's settlement area," Victoria, who was expressionless, couldn't help showing a smile, "After all, the Holy Dragon Principality is not only suffering Looking at Cecil, it is also very close to Typhon, and Typhon has been trying to establish communication with the Holy Dragon Principality over the years, which has always been worrying, now... we can be less worried."

"You can't be blindly optimistic. Just knocking on the door doesn't count as pulling the Principality of the Holy Dragon into the settlement area of ​​Cecil. They can still be allies with the Typhon people," Gao Wen said with a smile, "I'm also curious, What moved the stubborn 'Dragonborn' of the Holy Dragon Principality?"

Chapter 0775

What opened the stubborn door of the Holy Dragon Principality?

Gao Wen was really curious about this.

The Principality of Shenglong is located in the extreme north of the mainland. Half of the country is covered with ice-covered mountains. There is not much fertile land. The living environment is even worse for ordinary humans. The country with a harsh living environment made Ansu even fearful in its most prosperous period. Even half of the establishment of the Northern Mountain Corps was to guard against the principality in the frozen mountains. Naturally, there was a reason for this.

The citizens of the Holy Dragon Principality claim to be descendants of dragons, and the higher the nobles, the more they claim to have pure dragon blood. Outsiders do not fully believe this statement, because the Holy Dragon Principality hardly deals with other countries, so there is no People have seen the appearance of "Dragonborn" showing the power of a giant dragon, but at least one thing everyone can be sure of is that the people of the Holy Dragon Principality are by no means ordinary humans. Although they look similar to humans in appearance, their children Being able to run shirtless and chasing magical beasts all over the mountains in the extreme north at tens of degrees below zero, this doesn't look like the average physical fitness of human beings...

And now Gao Wen even got evidence from Maggie: the so-called "Dragonborn" identity of the Holy Dragon Principality is true, at least their upper-class citizens are indeed dragons, but they are genetically defective and weaker than ordinary dragons Just a dragon.

The kingdom established by the dragonborn, even if it is small in size, will be particularly capable of fighting.

In addition to the powerful combat power, the mountains of the Holy Dragon Principality also hide the highest-quality magical metal veins in the northern part of the mainland. The small amount of metal ingots flowing from the Holy Dragon Principality to the outside world are sought-after goods in the northern countries.

Such a country that can fight itself, has valuable strategic resources, and is still in a neutral state will naturally attract the attention of neighboring countries. As early as the Ansu era, the northern aristocratic forces represented by Victoria Wilde had been trying to compete with The Holy Dragon Principality has established a relatively clear and stable connection, but it still has no effect.

Those dragon descendants seem to be very uninterested in the "outside world". Apart from maintaining the most basic material circulation with the outside world, they have not established diplomatic relations with any country, and there is no precedent for sending envoys.

"Perhaps our magical creations have aroused their interest, or it may be that the changes in the empire's situation have reached the ears of the Dragonblood Grand Duke." Facing Gawain's words, Victoria could only speak of her own speculation, " It is even possible that the Cecil businessman who has been active in the north for more than half a year has changed the view of those 'Dragonborn' towards us..."

"How do you say this?"

"Those 'Dragonborn' have always respected warriors who can challenge the mountains and are not afraid of the cold winter. As long as this standard is met, even ordinary human traders will be treated with courtesy - in the past, there were very few such 'warriors' Not much, and since the wholesale price of the Frost Resistance Potion was reduced to one and a half pounds, all the Cecil merchants operating in the northern region are 'warriors'..."

Gao Wen couldn't help laughing: "Is this also counted?"

Victoria's tone was indifferent: "People in the Principality of the Holy Dragon don't care whether the newcomers challenged the cold winter and the mountains by relying on equipment and potions - in their view, foreign objects are also part of their strength, as long as they walk into the mountains against the cold wind Yes, they are all their friends."

"...Looks like I have time to ask Maggie to learn more about the Holy Dragon Principality." Gawain said with a smile.

Of course, he didn't believe that relying on a large group of businessmen drinking potions and singing songs, they knocked on the door of the Holy Dragon Principality. Victoria also took it as a joke when talking about it. But no matter what, that closed country that is inextricably linked with the dragon opened its door to Cecil, which itself is worthy of celebration——

The exiled "Dragonborn", even if they surpass humans in all aspects, should have a hard time living in the icy and snowy mountains, and the various creations of the magic industry can undoubtedly improve their quality of life, presumably the Duke of Dragon Blood I won't reject the magic net and the machine - if I don't, it will be easy to handle.

The Cecilians are going to help the Allies build a railway again...

While feeling happy and relaxed, Gao Wen's thoughts turned to the north, and he remembered the things he had been planning recently.

"In the previous communication, I told you about the plan to build the northern coast, set up a port, and explore the ocean." He looked at Victoria, "What do you think about this?"

Victoria's light-colored eyes were as quiet as ice and snow, and he said while thinking: "Some northern nobles are worried about this, mainly because they worry about huge investment, little return, and dangerous seas, but they no longer have real power, so don't worry too much about this.

"I understand your idea of ​​setting up a port. From the perspective of building the 'Cecil Settlement Area', the current land transportation is very limited. The terrain in the Ogure tribal country is complicated, and the road construction period is long. And the western and southern parts of the mainland Blocked by mountains and forests, there are not many continuous rivers, and only relying on the trade gateway bordering the moss forest and the west, the scale of trade that can be accommodated is very limited-if a port can be established on the north coast and the northern circumcontinent route can be restarted, there is no doubt that it will be greatly improved. solve this problem.

"The one-time investment will indeed be huge, but the subsequent benefits are also unimaginable.

"During the Ansu period, the nobles of various places were enfeoffed. It was impossible for the lords near the northern ridgeline to complete this kind of project, but now the empire has the ability to concentrate the power of the whole country. It is possible to build the northern coast, set up ports, and even restart the northern circumcontinental route. of."

Victoria Wilde, who has always been not very talkative, did not hesitate to speak when talking about these matters, and listening to the duchess's orderly narration, Gawain gradually showed a look of satisfaction.

Just as he judged before, Victoria has vision.

She can easily understand the difference between a feudal kingdom and a centralized empire, and the significance of opening a port.

But her limitations are also obvious: she only noticed the economic benefits of restarting the northern circumnavigation route, but never thought that Gawain's vision of "exploring the ocean" was actually broader.

But it’s not her fault, it’s caused by the limitations of the times and the general social environment—after 700 years of human beings away from the ocean, how many people can realize how cramped this seemingly vast continent is?

"In addition to the northern circumcontinent route, what I really care about...is the entire ocean," Gawain said unhurriedly, "Victoria, I mean the far sea."

Sure enough, after hearing this sentence, Victoria, who had always been expressionless, frowned slightly.

"The far sea...there is full of storms and magical turbulence. Your Majesty, the Church of the Storm is no longer there," she couldn't help but said, "Exploring the far sea is completely different from restarting the near sea route."

"I know, but after all, we can't stay on this narrow continent forever," Gao Wen said, "there is a wider world in the depths of the ocean—sea monsters, dragons, you all know these powerful races, they are exactly Those who come from across the ocean can freely come and go between their country and this continent, but we humans cannot step out, this situation is not very reassuring."

Is this continent... very narrow?

Victoria felt a little puzzled for a while, but she quite agreed with the second half of Gao Wen's words.

Those ancient and powerful races can freely come and go in the human world, but human beings can't take a step in front of the ocean. They know that there may be a vaster world on the other side of the ocean, but they can only hide on land and guess what is there. This situation... is indeed a bit aggrieved.

Of course, an empire, especially an empire that still needs to develop, cannot launch ocean-going operations regardless of cost just for the sake of "not being aggrieved", without sufficient interests to promote, no matter how high the prestige of the emperor and the Supreme Government Office are, to forcefully promote A career that does not see a future will also shake the foundation of the empire, but if it is only a certain degree of exploration and a certain degree of technological accumulation... then it is not a problem.

She knew that Gao Wen's meaning should be the same.

On this basis, she seriously considered how to explore the far seas with the current strength of the Cecil Empire.

While thinking, she slowly said: "Your Majesty, if you want to explore the far sea, the northern coastline is probably not a good 'starting point'..."

Gao Wen frowned: "Why do you say that?"

"According to many records, starting from the northern coastline, after crossing the sea channel formed by the Violet Kingdom and the Holy Dragon Principality, there is an exceptionally large permanent storm circle on the sea surface. This storm circle does not seem to weaken or shift throughout the year, and there is no For any safe route, man-made ships should not be able to break through its blockade at all..."

Gawain opened his eyes wide in surprise, "Is there such a storm circle?"

Across the extreme north of the mainland, beyond the Violet Kingdom and the "Sea Peninsula" of the Holy Dragon Principality, there is a blind spot for his satellite camera monitoring!

"Yes," Victoria nodded, "In fact, there are not only ancient records, but when the weather is clear and the magic environment on the sea is relatively stable, when looking towards the ocean from the high mountains in the north, you can sometimes see The hazy 'wall of clouds' surging on the sea is an indirect proof of the existence of the storm circle."

"A cloud wall that can be seen with the naked eye in the northern border?!" Gao Wen was really shocked this time, "How big is that thing?"

"If the records in the ancient books are correct, and if the observations and calculations of the Wilder family for hundreds of years are correct, its effective range is larger than the entire northern border, even larger than the entire Violet Kingdom, enough to cover half of the Cecil Empire. !"

Gao Wen: "..."

After a moment of astonishment, he couldn't help but mutter to himself: "How did this thing form..."

"No one knows, the existing magic theory and meteorological theory can't explain it, but there are many legends and stories about the eternal storm on the ocean among the folks in the northern border, but they are either contradictory and absurd, or they are randomly attributed to the gods. Power, no reference value."

"Is this storm circle permanent?" Gao Wen couldn't help but confirm it again.

"Yes, for at least 700 years the Wilder family has not observed the slightest fading of it."

"Can you go around?"

"It's impossible to get around from the true north—it completely blocks the northern sea route. If the northern circumcontinental sea route is successfully launched, it is possible to start from the west of the strait, bypass the west coast of the Violet Kingdom, and officially enter the ocean—but this is very difficult. difficult."

"Yeah, it's quite difficult," Gawain couldn't help sighing, "Not to mention adding a long voyage out of thin air, it's unknown whether the Violet Kingdom will be willing to let our exploration ships make a big circle around their offshore waters... ..."

While talking, another question came to his mind:

The northern part of the continent... There is a large-scale and never-ending storm structure in the northern part of the continent, so what else is there in that direction?

The dragon seems to be coming from that direction...

Could that huge storm have something to do with the dragon?Or...was that storm created by the dragon to guard their portal?

If that's the case, exploring the ocean from the north is really the next best thing to do.

At this moment, Victoria suddenly spoke again: "Your Majesty, if the northern route is not an option, we actually have another option..."

Gao Wen raised his eyebrows: "Is there another choice?"

Victoria nodded slightly: "We don't only have an outlet on the north coast. In the northeast corner of the east border, near the border with the Holy Dragon Principality, at the end of the cliffs and highlands, there is also a small outlet..."

"Ice Duke" spoke slowly, and the satellite map in Gawain's mind was also slowly adjusted.

He saw the outlet to the sea, which he subconsciously ignored because it was near the border of the Principality of Shenglong and there were no clear landmarks around it.

Suddenly, he felt the picture in his mind tremble.

Some scattered fragments of memory emerged from the depths of his mind!

That is the memory of Gawain Cecil!

Chapter 0776 Shattered Memories

Those messy and broken memories are like a flash of light bursting suddenly in the darkness, reflecting countless indistinct things that were once hidden. Although fragmented and incomplete, a certain intuition that surged up from the bottom of my heart made Gao Wen suddenly realized what it was——

That was the mysterious record of going to sea, or rather, it was part of the record of going to sea!

Victoria's voice faded away, but Gao Wen's consciousness was already immersed in the depths of the picture that had begun to dissipate.

He "saw" an unknown beach, rocky and desolate, with twisting cliffs and gravel-covered steep slopes extending from a distance, and on the other side, the sea surface was gently undulating, with fine waves Waves hit the reefs near the beach, and the glow approaching dawn was rising from the sea level, and the faintly majestic sunlight shone on the cliffs and steep slopes, plating the whole world with golden light.

There is a huge three-masted ship parked on the distant sea. The hull is wide, with runes and mysterious lines all over the hull. The marks of the storm and the sea show that it belongs to the Church of Storms. On the surface of the sea, the fine waves could not shake it in the slightest.

Gao Wen "walked" into this memory, and he found himself standing on the beach, surrounded by many shadowy figures—these figures were all shrouded in hazy black mist, and their faces could not be seen clearly. They were talking about long-distance voyages, about On the subject of the weather, every sound gave Gao Wen a faint sense of familiarity, but he couldn't even remember a corresponding name.

It was as if these names had been completely erased from his subconscious mind, even if he recalled some memory fragments, he could not regain them.

The memory cannot be disturbed or modified, and Gao Wen doesn't know how to make these shadowy shadows into clear shapes. He can only follow the guidance of the memory and continue to "walk" to the depths.

The time to go seemed to have come.

A boarding boat appeared on the beach at some point, and Gawain boarded it together with those figures covered in black mist, and sailed towards the big ship in the distance.

The sun is gradually jumping out of the sea, the night has almost completely receded, and the scene on the sea is becoming more and more clear, but even so, there is still a lantern with a vague outline hanging on the front of the boat, which seems unnecessary The lantern flickered at the bow, as if dispelling some kind of non-existent darkness—Gao Wen's gaze was involuntarily attracted by the dim light, and the voices of people around him entered his ears:

"...I'm afraid this will be the last sailing of the 'Son of the Storm'... I hope everything goes well..."

"It will go well, it has the best pilot priests, many pilot priests, and a final blessing..."

"But the navigators may also be lost in the depths of the ocean... Now all have lost their shelter, and the children of the sea are no exception."

"It doesn't matter, there are... protecting the minds of the priests, and even if one goes crazy... there will be another one to replace them."

"What if they're all crazy?"

"...then all we have left is courage..."

"Ha, then it doesn't look bad."

Someone laughed heartily, with a sense of openness and depth like waves in the laughter, and Gawain "saw" himself in memory laughing too. Looking at the first light of dawn, it seemed that he was rushing to a feast worth looking forward to, but a word popped up in Gao Wen's mind: to the dead.

After being stunned for a moment, he realized that the word was not his own. It came from the deepest memory of Gawain Cecil, and it was the most impressive impression of the pioneer 700 years ago before boarding that big ship. ——

Afterwards, the picture was shattered, followed by relatively long darkness and intricate and chaotic light and shadow.

Gao Wen thought that this was all he could see, but after a period of darkness, this memory actually had a continuation——

A three-masted sailing ship was parked near the coastline, and Gawain recognized that it was the one that was preparing to go to sea in the last memory.

However, compared with the beautiful and magnificent appearance when it set off, the ship is already devastated at this moment - most of the runes protecting the hull are extinguished, a mast is broken in the middle, and the broken sails are dragged on the side of the ship like a shroud In addition, the wooden decks and hulls that have been blessed by magic are full of shocking cracks and holes, as if the whole ship is on the verge of disintegration.

It seems to have encountered more than one terrible storm, and the storm made it crumbling. If there was not a very weak and thin light curtain covering the hull, blocking the turbulent sea water and barely maintaining the hull structure, it might be approaching The shoreline had disintegrated and sunk before.

In a flash of sight, Gao Wen found himself sitting in the small boat again, but this time, the small boat left the big ship and was approaching the coast.

The huge sun has sunk, and the bright red and dazzling sunset light spills out from the side of the cliff and sprinkles on the sparkling sea. Thousands of miles of sea waves seem to be soaked in blood, soaking into people's hearts.

The dim lantern still hung on the bow, swaying against the setting sun, as if dispelling some invisible darkness.

Except for Gao Wen himself, there were only three figures left on the boat, and all the other seats... were empty.

No one spoke, the atmosphere was terribly dull, and as a passer-by in memory, Gao Wen couldn't take the initiative to break the silence.