Sword of Dawn

It was the first time for Rebecca to participate in this kind of occasion—this down-and-out lord lady had never been in such a magnificent place since she was a child, and because of the rejection of the Cecil family by the entire noble circle, she I haven't attended a few decent banquets either.The grandest banquet in her memory was when she became an adult at the age of 16, her father held a very lively celebration party for herself in the castle, but it was nothing more than a long table full of food.

It is completely different from the banquet in Silver Castle.

The entire hall is filled with long tables, all of which are full of delicious food and wine. In the center of the hall is the place where gentlemen and ladies dance. Release magic at the four corners of the hall, constantly creating all kinds of wonderful glare and falling snowflakes in midair—letting a precious mage create the illusion of such a hot atmosphere, in Rebecca's view, it's simply unreasonable. Unbelievable thing.

His Majesty the King... so rich.

At the beginning, Rebecca tried hard to put on a straight face, trying to appear mature and stable, but soon, her girlish nature overwhelmed the calmness she pretended to be. She grabbed Gawain's hand and asked this and that. , while Gao Wen smiled and blew nonsense to her based on his memory and the traveler's imagination.

Rebecca's bumpkin-like behavior couldn't hide from those big nobles who had opened their eyes long ago, but they didn't show any disdain for this little lord from the countryside—maybe they were a little bit in their hearts, but Gawain Cecil kept standing. Beside Rebecca, this inseparable "parent" made everyone have to restrain their contempt and at least keep a smile on Rebecca on the surface.

Then, a few young people came to invite Rebecca to dance with them—probably because they felt that the Cecil family now had an ancestor of the town clan, which would have some potential value in getting closer, but these people They were all blocked by Gao Wen.

Just kidding, with Rebecca's head caught in the door and her tough personality, she can't get along in the southern border. If she deals with the monkey-savvy guys in Wangdu, won't she sell the whole family in an instant?

"Excessive protection will not allow children to grow up," a gentle male voice came from the side, "Viscount Rebecca is already an adult, you should let her get in touch with the social circles of high society."

Gawain turned his head and saw Baldwin Franklin, the Grand Duke of the West, standing behind him, and Victoria Weld, the Grand Duke of the North, standing with Baldwin.

"I died young back then, so I didn't have much experience in disciplining children." Gao Wen shrugged and said nonchalantly.

Baldwin: "..."

Victoria: "..."

"And I feel that even if I don't stop, Rebecca has no time to talk to others."

As Gawain spoke, he pointed to his great-granddaughter on the N+1 floor—the viscountess was lying at a nearby long table and eating a lot of hazel...

"It's...reckless." Duke Baldwin said dryly.

Gawain smiled, and looked at Victoria Wilder, who was standing beside her with an indifferent expression: "Instead of educating future generations, I have some questions for this girl from the Wilder family."

Chapter 0037 The Dragon's News

Hearing Gao Wen's words, Victoria nodded slightly, while Grand Duke Baldwin raised his eyebrows: "Do I need to avoid it?"

"It doesn't matter," Gao Wen casually took a glass of red wine from the tray of an attendant passing by, and turned to look at Victoria, "it's about dragons."

"That's really just a rumor," Victoria said lightly, as cold as the wind in the Northland. If you don't know her well, you may even find her difficult to approach. "I have already sent someone to investigate, except for one Except for the drunkard, no one saw the so-called giant dragon."

"I'm not talking about that one time, but in the hundreds of years in the north." Gawain looked into the eyes of the duchess. "Since my death, how many rumors about giant dragons have there been in the north?"

Victoria raised her eyebrows slightly, and Grand Duke Baldwin looked at her curiously: "So...the so-called 'Dragon Haunting' story seems to be a 'specialty' of your north?"

"In the northern region, there are occasional stories about giant dragons, and there are even some small groups that worship dragons, but these are basically superstitions of the mountain people." Victoria shook her head, "The north is mountainous." , There are often snowstorms in the mountains, and the mountain people regard those wind and snow as the roar of a dragon, and the north is bordered by the Holy Dragon Principality. Being influenced by them a lot, it is inevitable that there will be some strange stories spread—but in fact, the Wilder family has lived in the north for 700 years, and they have never really seen a dragon appearing in the sky until now. Those stories are non-existent That's all."

"But now a real dragon appeared and flew right in front of my eyes." Gao Wen said lightly.

"If there really is a dragon, I will notify you as soon as possible," Victoria said lightly, and seemed to smile a little, "Just now I thought you were going to invite me to a dance."

"I'll forget it—I'm not good at this, and it's been 700 years, and I don't know what modern dance looks like," Gao Wen smiled and shook his head, and waved his hands, "You guys go about your own business, and accompany you here." I'm not comfortable chatting with my 700-year-old living fossil, I'll just see for myself."

The expressions of the two dukes were a little stiff at the same time (Victoria has always been very stiff). Usually, they said this sentence to other juniors or nobles at parties. This is the first time someone said it to themselves in many years. , It feels like returning to my childhood...

Still can't refute...

Watching the two contemporary dukes leave, Gao Wen sighed slightly in his heart.

Sure enough, it wasn't that easy—the Duke of the North mentioned the rumor of a giant dragon in the meeting just now, and he thought it was an important clue.

It has been too long since dragons have left this continent. There have been no actual sightings of giant dragons recorded for nearly a thousand years. Those powerful creatures are almost mythical to most intelligent races on the continent. For Gao Wen, who has been hanging in the sky for thousands of years, giant dragons are no strangers.

After witnessing the giant dragon, he sorted out the memories in his mind and counted all the pictures where the dragon appeared, and after browsing through it, he found that basically all the dragons came from the north.

Regardless of whether the time span is a thousand years or ten thousand years, no matter whether the dragons came to the mainland alone or in a group, they first crossed the mountains in the north and then entered the hinterland of the mainland. Clear purpose - they will run straight to the depths of the mainland, and leave quickly after doing some things, without any intention of traveling around.

It's a pity that Gao Wen's perspective was limited when he was in the sky, he could only see part of the continent and a small amount of coastline in the southern region, and he wasn't even sure where the northernmost part of the continent could spread, so he couldn't guess where those giant dragons came from. Behind the barrier of mountains in the north, there is another continent from the farther sea.

It's just that he has a feeling - the dragon will definitely appear again.

Gao Wen and his party did not stay in the capital for too long, and set off on the third day.

It will take some time for the aid promised by the king to be available: food and supplies cannot be transported by land, otherwise people on the road will consume half of the horse chews, and if they are transported by river, it will take half a month until the water level of the Dorgon River on the Holy Spirit Plain rises It will work; a team of 100 craftsmen and apprentices will also take time to form, mainly waiting for the various associations to recommend all the misfits, powerless, run-on, offended, and offended hapless people, and then choose the most It is also a relatively time-consuming process to register the unlucky top [-] people, and it is already extremely fast to ensure that these people set off before the grain is loaded on the ship.

Gao Wen couldn't afford to wait for this. He finally got the development rights he wanted, and he had a lot of plans waiting to be implemented in his mind, so after getting a lot of documents provided by the king, he couldn't wait to leave the king. All.

When he came here, he walked slowly and wandered all the way, but when he went back, he was very fast, wishing he could fly back directly. At this time, Gao Wen sincerely envied the "teleportation spell" in many fantasy novels he had read. If there is a teleportation spell, how much would it be? Okay, just open the door and you'll be home, so why bother?

It's a pity that in this continent of Loren, although spells exist, they are not as convenient as in the story. The use of magic by various races basically stops at hitting people with a big fireball or compressing a piece of arcane energy to cover their faces. degree.Magic such as teleportation and space storage are not unrecorded, but they are basically close to legends—for example, in the legend, the original elves who have long since disappeared in the long river of history have mastered the technology of space teleportation, and some people say Dragon language magic - the source of many spells in the world - has a description of the space system...

It's a pity that no one has seen the real one.

On the other side, Victoria Wilde, the Duke of the North, has returned to her castle in the Northern Territory - Cold Winter Castle.

The duke guarding the kingdom's four borders cannot leave his territory for a long time. Although the situation in the north is more stable than the east, it cannot be without someone in charge of the overall situation. Therefore, after the first meeting with Gawain Cecil, Victoria Wilde They immediately set off to leave Silver Castle, and took the fastest Griffon back to their territory first.

Throwing the thick and warm silver fox cloak to the servant, Victoria walked quickly to the depths of the castle.

She sat down in her office, and a woman with black hair and black eyes and ordinary appearance stepped forward, put a cup of hot tea on her desk, and then came behind her and skillfully pinched the Duchess's shoulder.

"You look tired," the woman began, her voice low and reassuring.

"The Founding Duke is really resurrected, the legendary Gawain Cecil," Victoria whispered, "the appearance is exactly the same, and the pioneer sword is exactly the same. I dared to use the magic of detecting lies. He said All things are true.”

The woman who looked like a maid refuted Victoria: "Smart tricksters can evade detection of lies, and even if magic works, it is not always so reliable - thaumaturgy always has a probability problem, you can't rely too much on it .”

Victoria shook her head: "Maggie, I still have my intuition."

"Intuition..." The woman called Maggie pondered for a while, "Then what are you going to do?"

"The revived hero seems to have no intention of intervening in the kingdom's current power system, he just wants to take away his permanent development rights," Victoria said calmly about her experience in the royal capital, "What I care about is his respect for the kingdom. The king's attitude - I thought that the founding duke would attach great importance to the orthodox blood of the Moen family, and would even confront the current royal family on this issue, but he actually publicly recognized Francis II as the heir of the founding monarch . . . it caught me off guard."

"They should have contacted in private." Maggie paused while massaging, "You are careless."

"Careless," Victoria frowned, "but now, His Majesty the King may be even more difficult to control..."

"Are you going to..."

"No," Victoria shook her head, "What the Wilder family wants is Ansu Yongsheng, not power."

"So you don't plan to take any action," Maggie continued with the massage, "You are too soft."

"I don't like the way my parents did things. It's not suitable for this era anymore." Victoria said, her gaze involuntarily raised to look at the wall opposite the room.

On that wall, hung the family emblem of the Wilder family, as well as five portraits—the portraits of the founding monarch Charles I and the four pioneering knights—these portraits can be said to be standard in the homes of various nobles in Ansu .

Next to the portrait of the ancestor of the Wilder family is the portrait of Gawain Cecil. The mighty man wearing armor and holding the pioneer sword looked into the distance with vicissitudes of life, as if his gaze could penetrate time and space and see the distant future. The future is so-so-this association made Victoria couldn't help but think of the other party's resurrection after 700 years, so she couldn't help trembling slightly.

"Vicky?" Maggie's voice came from behind.

"Put away the portrait of Grand Duke Cecil," Victoria Wilde said lightly, "it's not appropriate to hang it again."

"Put it away? Can you?"

"...He told me personally that he was not used to being hung on the wall when he was still alive," Victoria said with a hint of fatigue in his voice, "He is an elder, or a good friend of our ancestors, what he said I can't stop listening."

"Okay." Maggie nodded helplessly, and walked to the opposite side to put away the portrait.

At this time, Victoria said again: "By the way, Maggie, you are from the mountains, right?"

"Yes."

"Then you know... the story of dragons? What do you think of them?"

The woman with black hair and black eyes turned her back to Victoria. She was silent for a moment and shook her head: "It's just some boring legend."

"But there really was a dragon appearing in Cecil Territory in the south."

"Really?" Maggie reached out and took off the portrait of Gawain Cecil, "That's probably not a good thing."

Chapter 0038

Gawain Cecil returned safely, with documents signed by the King, and news of the support of the royal family.

Viscount Andrew, who had been waiting in Tanzania for nearly three months, felt that he had made the right decision: the founding hero 700 years ago did not disappoint him, and he was not just a warrior as he had feared at the beginning , but a character with both cunning and strategy.

It's just that he didn't expect that the founding hero would choose the Dark Mountains as the starting point for his family revitalization.

As a small nobleman sitting in the southern border area, Viscount Andrew is no stranger to the Dark Mountains—in fact, the former Cecil and Leslie Territories are both on the north side of the Dark Mountains, and on clear days, as long as you look up, you will be able to see the dark mountains. Can see the magnificent natural barrier.The mountains block the unhealthy air from the wasteland of Gondor. At the same time, because of its many monsters and frequent strange talks, many people turn pale. Even the most desperate hunters rarely go to Living in the dark mountains—even if the southern lords opened up hunting rights in the mountains.

The original Cecil Territory is located a little west of the northern part of the Dark Mountains, Tanzania Town is to the northeast, and the "New Cecil Territory" selected by Gawain is located in the southeast direction of Tanzania Town. The three roughly form a triangle , but the distance between "New Cecil Territory" and the Dark Mountains is the closest among the three, and its southern part even goes directly into the mountains.

A tributary of the Baishui River flowing in front of Tanzania Town will flow into the "New Cecil Territory". From the perspective of transportation, the new home is a good place: it is easy to get material support from Tanzania Town, and at the same time If the territory develops in the future, the trade cost will be reduced a lot.

But the premise is that the people led by Gao Wen can really gain a firm foothold in that barren land.

In Viscount Andrew's castle, the thin and strict nobleman seemed worried: "With all due respect, Your Excellency, the first foothold you chose is not... so suitable. Although there are many lands there, it is far from the darkness." The mountains are too close and lack the protection of civilized society. The beasts in the mountains are a great threat, and every year in the foggy moon, there will be unclean winds across the mountains and blowing from the wasteland of Gondor. It's okay, but those poor and weak civilians and serfs can't bear it..."

"You should have read the map, and you should know that although the places I can choose are vast, the conditions are all similar," Gao Wen seemed disapproving, "In the area next to the Dark Mountain Range, the land I chose is already The best thing is—the unclean wind can be resisted by medicine and magic, and I will find a way to solve the defense problem. As long as we can survive the first year, we can mine ore from the dark mountains, and the territory will be reduced. I can stand still."

He couldn't directly say that the reason why he chose such a place was because the treasure house of the national fortune 700 years ago was buried in the mountain, right?

At least you have to wait until you have opened the treasure house and got everything in your hands before you can let outsiders know about it, and it has to be known in a limited way-it is impossible to hide it completely, those materials will always be used, once you get them Come out to engage in construction, fools can guess the truth.

It can only be guaranteed that before those things are all used, the fewer people who know, the better.

Seeing Gao Wen's resolute attitude, Viscount Andrew had no choice but to remind him, "This is all your decision, and I will naturally support it as much as possible, but please remember our original transaction."

Gawain smiled slightly: "Don't worry, Cecil's family never owes money—if you really worry about me giving you one or two of my antiques?"

Rebecca, who was sitting on the opposite side of the table and reporting what she had seen and heard about the capital with Aunt Hetty, suddenly raised her head and looked in Gawain's direction, her eyes lit up: the old ancestor thought the same as me!Does this mean that he inherited the family tradition?

Hetty knocked on Rebecca's forehead lightly: "Don't look around—go on, you were at the king's banquet, and you were just busy eating from the beginning to the end?!"

"I'm still drinking—I'm old enough to have a little..."

Looking at this girl with a bad mind, Hetty looked desperate: "My God..."

As for Viscount Andrew, of course he couldn't accept Gawain's "good intentions", so he waved his hands quickly: "No need, no need, I believe in the credibility of the Cecil family and the guarantee of the founding heroes...then when are you going to set off?"

"The sooner the better," Gawain nodded, "We'll leave as soon as the supplies are prepared. The support promised by the king will have to wait at least a month. I have to let my subjects get a foothold in their new home first."

For the people who escaped from the disaster in Old Cecil Territory, the three-month recuperation period was over, and the lord's return from the capital meant that they had to prepare for a new life immediately.

Even if most of them don't know what their new life is like.

Knights Philip and Byron were sent out to buy the necessary supplies in Tanzania Town and the materials necessary to build a new territory - food, tools, tents, medicines, and many other necessities that they couldn't think of at all. .

The items that need to be prepared are piled up. Even Hetty, who has been assisting in the management of the territory's affairs, and Byron, who is a veteran of the Cecil family, don't know how to start. No one knows what is needed to build a territory from scratch. In this regard , that is, Gao Wen can help - 700 years ago during the great pioneering period, the ancestors of Ansu built their homes from scratch. Regarding the preparations for the pioneering period, the memory in Gao Wen's mind is a valuable experience .

Of course, due to the time difference of 700 years, Gao Wen's experience and knowledge may not be completely effective, but the basic theory is not much different.

No matter how the tools develop and change, the problems that the pioneers have to solve in the wilderness are still the same, nothing more than food, clothing, housing, transportation, medical care and protection.

As for the funds, Viscount Andrew had previously returned the gold and silver belongings of the Cecil family, together with the money preserved by Knight Philip, although it was not sufficient, it was still barely enough to prepare the initial supplies.

Those refugees from the Cecil Territory walked around the town, buying supplies and hiring vehicles, which naturally attracted the attention of the locals. They had all heard the news of the resurrection of the founding hero, and recently heard about Cecil The lady lord of Er returned from the capital, so he naturally knew that these "outsiders" who had lived in the town for three months were finally leaving.

Most of the lower-class people in Tanzan Town don't care about these "outsiders" going or staying, but the "outsiders" have to buy a lot of things before they leave, which makes the town's commercial guild a lot of money. pens, so their complaints to their lords immediately decreased a lot—before this, the lords requisitioned a lot of shacks for outsiders to live in, and those poor refugees couldn’t even find a few copper coins, which really made them Many business people are very dissatisfied with them.

While the two family knights were running around preparing supplies, Gawain asked Hetty and Rebecca to count all the Cecil citizens, and asked them to make a detailed roster of more than 800 survivors.

"It is necessary to be accurate to each person's name, age, gender, health status, and skilled crafts, and group them by family. At the same time, make another list to list carpenters, stonemasons, and blacksmiths separately. By the way, if possible, give Each person is numbered for easy reference."

This was the task that Gao Wen assigned to the two great-great-great-great-great-granddaughters. He thought it would be easy, but he didn't expect to make the two great-great-granddaughters at N level confused.

They have never heard of basic information registration, nor do they know how this so-called "form" is made.

"Haven't even done basic population registration?" Seeing Hetty and Rebecca's blank expressions, Gawain felt that he was more confused than the other party, "Then how did you count the population of the territory?"

When Rebecca replied, she looked innocent: "Aunt Hetty is in charge of the territory around the castle, and several knight fiefdoms are in charge of several knights themselves. It is enough to know how many men, women, old people, and children there are. , As for who is the blacksmith and who is the carpenter, almost everyone who lives around knows each other, just ask."

Gao Wen: "..."

Fuck?Just inquire about it?The legendary eyes rule the country, the face is calm, and the world is calmed down with one mouthful?

Noticing the changing expression on Gao Wen's face, Hetty suddenly became nervous: "My lord ancestor... Could it be that you and your ancestor used the form you mentioned to count the population when you founded the country?"

Gao Wen quickly fiddled with the information in his mind, and after a while, his face turned pale.

Damn it...it was even more chaotic back then.

The Gondor Empire collapsed overnight, and the prosperous and developed central region was completely wiped out. Those who survived the first wave of shock were all the population in the remote areas—and that ancient empire was a typical unbalanced society. In Gao Wen's view, it is almost deformed: since the magic technology of this world must rely on the magic power focus, and the natural magic power focus is limited, all the advanced technologies of the Gondor Empire are accumulated in the most powerful magic power focus "Dark Blue" in the center of the continent. Around, as for outlying areas where the magic focus is thin...

Incredibly behind.

Therefore, after the demon tide broke out with "Dark Blue" as the center, all the advanced technology and high-level intellectual population of the Gondor Empire were sacrificed to the sky, and those who survived were screened over and over again in the continuous energy radiation thereafter. In the end, when the pioneers led everyone to escape, human civilization can be said to have completely collapsed...

To put it bluntly: The Four Great Kingdoms were established by a group of elementary school students leading a group of illiterates.

It's just that in this world with extraordinary power, the individual power at the top can offset the overall decline brought about by the backwardness of civilization to a certain extent. That's why the original four kingdoms were able to survive a group of pioneers with explosive combat power. It was established under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and withstood the pressure from all aspects at the beginning of the founding of the country.

But, but, but!