Andersa looked at her loyal monarch with a trace of astonishment.
At the beginning, she didn't hear anything wrong with what Emperor Rosetta said, because almost any Typhon noble who had mastered the situation and understood the changes in the empire over the years could see that Typhon and Anzu would eventually go to war. It was inevitable, but soon, she realized that Rosetta's words meant more than that.
Gawain Cecil will eventually become an enemy of Typhon.
Rosetta Augustus has always regarded Ansu as his prey, but now, there is a hunter among the prey, a hunter who is also hungry.
"Your Majesty, if this is the case, why do you still cooperate with him?"
"War has many forms, 'cooperation' is one of them," Rosetta said calmly, "In this cooperation, the empire can gain too much, and the Cecilians have something we urgently need. But at the same time, we have what they desperately need... We have their designs on them, and they have their plans on us."
Andersa lowered her head slightly, thinking about the deep meaning contained in the emperor's words.
"The 'magic industry' created by the Cecils is changing the rules of society. I still can't see what it will look like in the end, but I can feel that the existing order is based on land and farming. The order of things will soon be broken by factories and machines, and in this field the Cecilians are ahead of us, but they have their advantages, and we have ours," Rosetta went on, "to put this Send the car back to the country, send it to the Imperial Manufacturing Association, dismantle it into parts, no matter how much it costs, we must figure out how it works. We may not be able to build something better than it for the time being, but at least we must build something that can match it run the same.
"In addition, inform Duke Ferdinand to convene court advisors to make statistics on the production and demand of iron ore, magic materials, grain, and cotton across the country, and plan the initial transportation route.
"Organize scholars in mechanical and magic technology, let them work and live with road builders from now on, and prepare to become 'workers'. There is a high probability that the Cecilians will not allow our mages and scholars to participate In the technical link of repairing the 'railway', it is impossible for them not to recruit workers.
"Prepare me an order for the Duke of Seven to begin preparations for the 'bank'...
"Order the Council to assess the risks of all matters..."
Risk... This word flashed through Andersa's mind, and at the same time, she firmly remembered every order of Emperor Rosetta.
The huge sun was hidden behind the chaotic and dirty clouds, and the light leaked from the clouds gradually approached the western horizon, and the sky quickly dimmed. The street lamps in the camp were lit up one by one, and the bright magic spar lamps released a constant brilliance , so that this small camp is like a lighthouse in the chaos, shining brightly, and complementing the hazy and magnificent majestic wall.
Rosetta Augustus returned to his palace. He sat quietly on a high-backed chair, with many reports and materials related to factories, roads, and cotton production spread out in front of him.
As the night was getting darker, the emperor glanced at the sky outside the window, then leaned back slightly on the back of the chair, closed his eyes, and took a short rest.
The boundless darkness, the extremely quiet darkness, seemed to envelop his senses and spirit for an instant.
Rosetta Augustus opened his eyes, and he saw himself in a magnificent palace.
This palace is extremely gorgeous, with towering columns and a magnificent dome. All the walls and roofs are painted with exquisite paintings and colorful lines. The narrow windows with strong Typhon style are inlaid on the walls on both sides, and the crystal glass of the windows is the same. It has intricate and delicate patterns.
A wide hall appeared in front of Rosetta, which seemed to hold a thousand people for a ball, but in fact, the entire palace was empty.
An unspeakable dead silence enveloped this magnificent and empty building. There were no attendants, no guards, and no one. One after another of light and dark shadows.
Rosetta quietly looked at the uninhabited palace in the dream, with a calm and indifferent expression. After standing still for a short time, he stepped forward.
The moment he stepped forward, countless low, vague whispers and murmurs suddenly came from all directions.
The ubiquitous voice is mixed with small and overlapping conversations, laughing and fighting, and it seems to be mixed with suppressed crying and screaming, as if this empty palace is suddenly full of people, those invisible people Visitors or residents came and went in the empty corridors and halls, talking and laughing, cursing and crying around Rosetta Augustus, but surrounded by these voices, Rosetta just walked forward quietly, as if ignoring All sound interference is eliminated.
Finally, a clear whisper emerged from the chaotic whispers and whispers, and it was hoarse and deep into Emperor Typhon's ears: "... ah... you are here again... so unyielding..."
Rosetta continued to walk forward, and as he took steps, the wide hall shattered silently, and a deep and long corridor leading to nowhere appeared in front of him. There were also narrow windows on both sides of the corridor. The bright skylight shines on the opposite wall through the narrow window. Between the light and shadow, one can see portraits hanging silently on the wall.
Rosetta saw her elder brother, her father, her uncle...
Every person who has inherited the blood of the Augustus family and has left this world hangs here quietly, looking at himself with indifferent eyes through the cold oil painting.
The closest to him is his eldest son who died young.
The young man who was frozen in the picture frame looked at Rosetta, and suddenly said: "Father...don't you stop to rest?"
Rosetta did not stop, and continued to walk forward.
The deep whisper sounded again: "On both sides of this road, there is death, and at the end of this road, there is also death..."
Rosetta is gradually moving towards the depths of the corridor, the surrounding light has become increasingly dimmer, and the portraits on both sides have begun to become older, more faded, and more indifferent and alienated. As if full of malice, he stared at Emperor Typhon walking in the corridor, and the deep whisper continued to sound:
"... why don't you stop and take a rest, you don't need to challenge this impossible task...
"How painful the truth is... it is better to leave it behind, sometimes it is the bliss of mortals to live ignorant...
"Those Augustus before you, they were as stubborn as you, but what happened to them? None of them made it, they were crazy, they were all crazy... You shouldn't have seen it, but since you have seen It’s better to accept this curse calmly…”
At the end of the corridor, all those maddening whispers and whispers suddenly disappeared, and Rosetta quietly raised her head, looking at the portraits hanging at the end of the corridor.
That was the beginning of the name "Augustus" as the ruler of Typhon, the first Augustus of the ancient family before that, lost in time to the ruin of the ancient Gondorian empire, though There are names passed down, but no image has been left in this "palace".
In the dim light, Rosetta saw several portraits: Roland Augustus, Bertomund Augustus, Thalia Augustus...
At the end of these side-by-side portraits, he saw the position of Bertila Augustus, but in the center of the dark frame, there seemed to be a lingering shadow, completely obscuring the seven-hundred-year-old man. The face of a saint who has been active before.
Rosetta looked at the portrait calmly for a while, then withdrew her gaze, and broke the silence for the first time: "Bertila Augustus is really still alive?"
In the depths of the empty palace, no voice responded to his question.
Rosetta seemed to have expected this result, he just showed a mocking smile, turned and walked towards the direction he came from.
The whisper sounded again: "Why aren't you crazy yet?"
Rosetta's footsteps paused slightly, and her voice was low: "We have resilience beyond your imagination."
The palace began to shake violently, as if the dream was about to end.
Rosetta looked up, watching the long and deep corridor continue to fall apart, falling bricks and stones, and in the darkness behind him, that low whisper turned into a distant sigh: "Alas..."
There seemed to be endless regret and helplessness in that sigh, which was very different from the crazy and malicious whispers before.
The last supporting structure of the entire palace also completely disintegrated after this sigh, turning into nothingness.
After the wall completely collapsed, the exterior of the palace was also reflected in Rosetta's eyes. He saw a city, a city that was collapsing rapidly in the collapse of the sky and the earth. Countless towering towers and majestic city walls disintegrated in the violent shaking. A monstrous rift opened in the earth, and an entire city was swallowed up by the earth almost instantly, and among the crumbling things, in the depths of the earth, the last thing he saw was a layer of transparent The dome, the indescribable starlight polymer floating in the dome...
…
The huge sun rises in the east and sets in the west, day and night alternate, and the stars circulate.
The ancient constellations watched the world solemnly and indifferently like the gods, watched the passage of time, and watched the busyness of mortals.
The constellation of Frost passed the highest point of the sky, and winter began to unleash its last power in the last month of the season. The wind howled and the ground froze.
With the support of construction machinery and various other advanced technologies, the "sub-tower" in charge of the Cecil Peak Base completed the main building one month ahead of the scheduled construction period, and a series of "purification devices" spreading from the sub-tower to the north were also completed. After completing the capping of the main body, after that, the installation and debugging of a series of later magic devices will become the main work content of the magicians.
The technical exchanges between the Silver Empire and the Principality of Cecil are finally on the right track. After the initial run-in and small project tests, the elf magisters in the south of the mainland and the human magic researchers in the north of the mainland have established a preliminary With a tacit understanding, the Principality of Cecil and the Silver Empire respectively set up more signal relay towers and boosters in the areas under their control. In a more stable and efficient communication environment, the researchers of the two races straddled the entire Continental has started a series of technology exchange and cooperation projects in telecommunication.
In 738 Ansu, on the 35th day of the Cold Moon, Gawain received a magic net communication from Hetty.
"The special envoys sent by Typhon have arrived in Cecil City," the elegant and steady Grand Consul of the Principality seriously reported the situation in the holographic projection, "according to your order, we will arrange for them to visit the next day The operation of the eastern line of the magic train."
"They're finally here... But it's understandable. After all, it's such an important project. Rosetta Augustus and his think tanks have evaluated it for countless times before finally making a decision," Gawain sat behind the desk, From the window came the unique whistle of a heavy-duty transport vehicle: a batch of rocks, soil, and monster specimens collected from the wasteland had just been loaded and were about to be sent to the research department in Cecil City, "How is the situation in the Principality?" ?”
"Everything is stable. The last batch of exiled knights in the northern region has surrendered. The magic monitoring and sensing devices in all border areas and key urban areas have been laid and activated. According to the plan, the next step is to roll out the sensing devices to villages and towns."
Gao Wen breathed a sigh of relief.
So far, the current social security guarantee of the Principality of Cecil has finally been completed.
The so-called "magic power monitoring and sensing device" is a special facility developed by Kamel and set up by the government affairs department. Its idea comes from the ancient Gondor Empire, and its technology is the contemporary "magic power detection spell" and The product of the fusion of magic network communication technology, its biggest function is to perceive all spell-casting behaviors within the range, and send back the alarm as soon as possible. The "supervisors" of the public security department of the government affairs department can see the alarm from the city sand table The location of the node, so as to quickly lock the unauthorized magic activity.
Of course, this system is not intended to prohibit supernatural beings from casting spells. As long as they carry a special "spellcaster license", relying on the rune array in the license, supernatural beings can cast spells normally. This license must be obtained from the government affairs department. To handle it, you also need to accept regular inspections, rune updates, and qualification assessments. In this way, extraordinary people in Cecil must be registered. As a result of the battle, almost 90% of the Transcendents in the entire Southern Territory are already under the control of the Principality, and there are not many Transcendents who have not accepted the jurisdiction. It was finally implemented smoothly.
This system has been laid since the middle of last year, and now, it has finally become a scale.
Effective management of all supernatural beings sounds very advanced, but in fact this idea is not advanced at all.
Not to mention the Gondor Empire a thousand years ago, Typhon, just one border away, had realized the registration and professional management of extraordinary people many years ago, as evidenced by their special team of "engineering mages".
The Typhon people used a large number of mage towers and a large number of royal mages loyal to the empire to realize the registration and induction of supernatural beings in most urban areas, and set up a large number of training facilities to create "professional spellcasters" who are more loyal and obey the orders of the empire , this method cost a lot of money, but relying on the strong "money ability", Typhon finally realized all this.
Ansu was already a step behind in this regard, so Gao Wen had to use more advanced technology and a more advanced system to make up for the disadvantage of being a latecomer. At least in the principality, he had to achieve more effective control over the extraordinary.
Of course, there must be loopholes in those facilities and systems, and there will always be people who take advantage of the loopholes to find cracking methods to hide mana fluctuations. High-level or legendary-level transcendents may also rely on their own powerful strength to block the monitoring of magic sensor devices and crack them. The confrontation with anti-cracking, monitoring and anti-monitoring will never end, but no matter what, as long as the new management method can play a role, the southern border will be safer. At least, those who try to infiltrate , the cultists who want to secretly perform evil rituals anytime and anywhere are not so easy to sneak in now.
From now on, cultists operating in the southern border will be handcuffed to radiators by law enforcement officers regardless of whether they are eternal sleepers or all things die.
…
After hanging up the communication, Hetty stretched her back vigorously, moving her slightly sore neck.
The cold wind was howling outside the window, and the snow from the previous two days was still pressing on the roofs of several buildings. Crystal clear ice hangings hung from the window sills, showing the cold outside.
Slightly warm air flows along the ventilation duct and blows out from the air circulation outlets on both sides of the office, maintaining a comfortable temperature in the office. Even in this cold weather, the temperature in the room is still comfortable enough to make people sleepy.
In fact, Rebecca had already fallen asleep on the sofa next to her.
Hetty looked helplessly at her niece who was sleeping soundly, and couldn't help shaking her head.
"... just came here to chat with the ancestors... fell asleep before the communication was connected..."
She muttered a few words, but she didn't wake Rebecca up, and she didn't really want to blame anything.
She knew that Rebecca was really exhausted recently. In order to communicate with the Silver Empire and to organize and prepare for the series of new projects, this simple-minded girl hadn't had a good rest for half a month.
This kid needs a good night's sleep.
Hetty found a blanket from the side, and gently covered Rebecca, which made her think of the girl who was never restless when the latter was young, and she was always a master at being kicked, even if two people were arranged The maid watched specially, and often couldn't keep up with Rebecca's speed of kicking the quilt...
As if feeling something, Rebecca, who was lying on the sofa, arched her body slightly, and muttered vaguely: "...Master Ancestor...I will figure it out...the rune of the elf..."
After muttering something, she suddenly giggled in her sleep, as if she had been praised in her dream.
Hetty watched Rebecca's movements, and couldn't help showing a smile on her face. Then she stood up, and glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall not far away.
Cold month, 35th.
In 25 days, winter will be over.