yready Chapter 429 - 428: "Taking Over
Chapter 429 - 428: "Taking Over
Gawain should have thought of it sooner, that chatting endlessly with Tiel, this salty fish, is far less effective than offering her a little "snack." Seeing Tiel’s eager expression, he realized all that talk just now was wasted.
But it didn’t matter; the process wasn’t important as long as this salty fish was willing to help.
The verification-type Rainbow Light Device is quite a large weapon, and besides its giant size, its accompanying energy modules are an even bigger headache. According to Kamel’s technical report, the Rainbow Light Device requires a long-term stable energy supply to operate effectively, and the Magic Capacitors currently used in various Magic Crystal Railguns don’t meet this requirement. This means a Rainbow Light Device either needs to be built on a fixed Magic Web as an immobile turret or be "dragged" with a large area of Magic Web onto the battlefield. With Cecil Clan’s current transportation technology, transporting a Rainbow Light Device from land to the front line and ensuring it can be activated is very difficult.
It’s not that it can’t be done—sending parts in bits and pieces in batches for assembly on the battlefield can also work—but it would take too long, not meeting Gawain’s requirement to "take down Riftstone Castle in a short time." And with the time taken to slowly assemble the Rainbow Light Device, Sir Philip could slowly blast open the fortress walls with the Magic Crystal Giant Cannon, rendering the new weapon’s debut meaningless.
The best option is by ship, using the White River’s natural waterway to directly transport the Rainbow Light Device to the foot of Riftstone Castle.
In any case, large cargo ships have far superior transport capabilities compared to land vehicles, and given the ship’s size, it’s easier to install various magic structures inside. Plus, with river transport, Gawain’s plan to use the river water to cool the Rainbow Light Device can be more easily implemented, so whichever way you look at it, waterway transport is the best option.
In fact, even without the "Rainbow Light Device," Gawain had already arranged to build his own naval combat force—after wiping out Earl Peibo’s troops on the White River, he captured a batch of battleships from the southern territories and then arranged a group of craftsmen and mage technicians to try retrofitting and modernizing those ships. He had considered building new ones but constructing ships is really a skillful job, and the bit of book knowledge he accumulated as a keyboard warrior in his past life wasn’t enough to produce usable modern ships. The existing shipbuilding technology in this world had undergone severe discontinuity and regression, and the best shipbuilding craftsmen he could recruit could only build ships of the same level as the "Peibo Fleet" river ships. Thus, he had to choose to modernize the captured battleships, saving time and costs while accumulating technical experience.
But those ships’ modifications weren’t complete yet—recently facing technical issues with power.
With the battle for Riftstone Castle imminent, he didn’t have time to wait for his warships to slowly finish retrofitting. So after much deliberation, he decided to seek help from the existing "water transport expert" in his territory, Tiel. She claimed to be a "Tide Master," so she should be reliable in this aspect.
Of course, with a cautious and prudent mindset, Gawain didn’t pin all his hopes on Tiel—if this salty fish decided to sleep in the pool forever, he had a backup plan: worst case, he could allocate more giant cannons to Sir Philip and wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to open Riftstone Castle’s gate.
The magic shield of Riftstone Castle, no matter how strong, couldn’t withstand continuous heavy cannon bombardment.
After promising to help, and repeatedly confirming she indeed had a small snack to eat, Tiel’s excitement gradually faded. She yawned widely, her eyes showing signs of drowsiness again: "By the way, do you guys have anything else? If not, I’ll go back to sleep... I’ll head to the dock after my nap..."
Gawain glanced at the sea demon, which had already started sinking slowly into the water, and suddenly remembered something: "Anyway, there’s one more thing—Sons of the Storm are fighting the sea demons again. Do you know what’s going on?"
"Huh? Fighting again?" Tiel emerged from the water with bubbles, looking bewildered. "The season isn’t long past when the positions of the stars are corrected, right? My sisters should all be digesting on the seabed... we don’t hunt big squids, nor do we roam near the islands of the Sons of the Storm, why would those brainless humans go crazy?"
Gawain observed Tiel’s genuine confusion and frowned slightly: "So, you don’t know what’s happening either."
"Of course, I don’t know," Tiel shook her head, "I’ve been hanging around under your nose all this time, how would I know about deep-sea matters—but on the topic, how do you know about this?"
"I have my own sources," Gawain didn’t directly answer the question but offered a vague response. Then he noticed Tiel’s indifferent expression and couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity, "You’re not worried about your homeland?"
"There’s nothing to worry about, those Sons of the Storm can’t stir up much turmoil, the ocean belongs to sea demons," Tiel casually said, then yawned, "And swimming back from here is really far away, I might as well conserve some energy... I’ll consider going back when I feel energized..."
Looking at this salty fish spirit, Gawain thought she probably wouldn’t return for the rest of her life.
He shook his head helplessly, turned around with Amber, and left Tiel’s pool. Just as the two were about to reach the door, a sound from the pool suddenly caught their attention, and the sea demon cast her gaze over the edge of the pool while looking at Gawain: "Ah, I just thought of a possibility..."
Gawain turned and looked at her: "What possibility?"
"Endless Sea is covered by Magic Storms; the ocean is the first place to observe magic changes and also the place most easily affected by magic," Tiel had a thoughtful expression on her face. "Those Sons of the Storm have been at sea too long and might... be able to sense the chaotic wave approaching."
Gawain’s expression turned serious, and after a half-minute of somber silence, he nodded slightly to Tiel: "Thank you for your reminder."
Tiel didn’t say much else, but waved dismissively in the pool, then leaned back as if tossing her head back, and resumed her aggressive lounging position with her belly up in the water to sleep.
After leaving Tiel’s room, Amber couldn’t help but mumble: "Chaotic wave, chaotic wave... how great it’d be if such things didn’t exist... every time someone mentions it, it gives me the creeps."
"You’ll get used to it; we were closer to the chaotic wave in the past," Gawain said calmly, "No matter how the chaotic wave comes, as long as humans are alive, life must go on."
"Alright, just like you always say, if the sky falls there’s someone tall to hold it up—you’re so big, you can definitely hold it for a long time," Amber twitched her ears and temporarily put the chaotic wave issue aside, "I’m exhausted, there’s nothing else today, right?"
"Nothing today," Gawain nodded, "But there’s something tomorrow—you’ll accompany me to the Gran Territory."
Before the army marches forth, it’s time to boldly go "receive" Gran Territory.
...
Gawain Cecil’s army marched into the Gran Territory.
The brightly armored Cecil Clan warriors entered the Gran Region without encountering any resistance and quickly raised the Cecil banner on the walls of Riftstone Castle. In this castle perched atop a steep cliff, the anxious attendants and household staff finally saw the "final result" of the "noble war"—they welcomed the new master of the land.
At least in the eyes of those unaware of the full truth, this was the reality.
Ever since the war that changed the situation of the southern borders broke out and the lady of the territory went missing, one-third of the people in Riftstone Castle fled. The remaining two-thirds maintained order under the butler’s strong control (of course, there was help from the hidden Intelligence Agency agents and Steel Cavalry), but beneath the relatively stable order lay a tension that permeated the entire territory.
For those who did not know the truth, the news of the Noble Coalition Army’s defeat was a calamity, meaning they would soon become Cecil captives and slaves, their land plundered, their wealth seized; the extent and timing of this plundering were entirely dependent on when that "furious old ancestor" would spare the time.
Now, it seemed that the old ancestor had made time.
But the "looting" that they worried about was destined not to come.
Gawain entered Riftstone Castle in armor, recalling the anxious Gran attendants and servants he saw along the way. He couldn’t help but secretly shake his head: Ropeni Ge’lan obviously couldn’t make her secret alliance with the Cecil Clan public, so the castle’s occupants still didn’t know their lady was actually allied with Cecil, nor did they realize the Cecil Clan wouldn’t touch a single cent of their wealth. Unfortunately, even now, Gawain couldn’t explain it to most in the castle and needed to fully control the castle and the entire Gran Territory to prevent details of Cecil’s army’s true situation from leaking out once they entered the territory.
Even though the traditional aristocrats in the rocky ridges Fortress didn’t really have an intelligence system, he couldn’t allow any unexpected occurrences.
But this delicate tension... was indeed somewhat amusing.
Fortunately, he didn’t care too much about these matters. After leading the soldiers into the city and doing some superficial work, he went deep into the castle, arriving at the door of the room with big windows.
The maid guarding the door had met Gawain before, but last time he was a guest of the castle, now he stood there as a "conqueror", inevitably making the maid nervous. She looked at Gawain as if facing a formidable enemy, trying hard to muster some courage, seemingly intent on protecting her little mistress—yet that tiny courage almost vanished as soon as Gawain spoke.
"Open the door," Gawain said, "I’m here to see Patty."
"... The lady is resting..."
"Don’t be nervous," Gawain smiled, "I’m Patty’s friend."
The maid guarding the door seemed to want to say something else, but at this moment, the door opened from the inside, and another maid responsible for tending to Patty came out, looked at Gawain with slight reverence: "Miss wants to see you."
Gawain nodded, and before stepping into the room, he looked appreciatively at the maid guarding the door: "You are very brave."
Inside the room, Patty was sitting in her specially made chair, basking in the sun’s most radiant rays of the day.
Her complexion was much better than during their first meeting, obviously, Pittman’s several treatments had been effective.
"It’s Uncle Gawain!" Upon seeing Gawain, the little girl became excited, grinning broadly, trying to support her head and waving her only movable arm, "You came to see me!"
Gawain approached Patty, smiling as he bent down: "I promised, I would come to see you."
The little girl was very happy, the room filled with sunlight seemed like a different world from the tense-filled castle outside; here, the shadow of war seemed never to have occurred, Patty eagerly spoke to Gawain at length, and finally asked: "Uncle Gawain, when can mom come back?"
"Very soon," Gawain squatted in front of the little girl and said with a smile, "I’m bringing her back this time."
The little girl’s head trembled, she was nodding, only unable to control the motion well: "Oh, I miss her a bit."
"You don’t seem scared at all," Gawain gently touched Patty’s hair, careful not to exert force lest he hurt the child, "You know, your mom was actually at war with me."
"I know," Patty said, pausing for a few seconds, then revealing a small, sly smile on her scarred face, "But... uncle, you are mom’s friend, right? Don’t worry, uncle, I won’t tell anyone!"
Gawain was stunned for a moment, then smiled helplessly.
Subsequently, he stood up, bid farewell to Patty, and left the room for the corridor.
The middle-aged butler, loyal to Ropeni Ge’lan and maintaining castle order after the lady’s "disappearance", waited for him in the corridor.
"I’ve heard from Ropeni that you are trustworthy."