As he listened to Baldwin Franklin's report, Gawain's thoughts gradually started to spread.
The information from Augulay's tribal kingdom had confirmed one of his speculations: the mysterious signals that Winter Fort Academy and Solin Fort had heard were not limited to Cecil!
On the other hand, Baidewen's report had come to an end. He looked at Gwen and said, "Your Majesty, we have also received a letter from the Kingdom of Dwarfs, delivered by the leader of the gray elves, Wenna. The King of Forge City, Morton Molten, sends his greetings to you and has agreed to the invitation for a meeting at the 112th Silver Outpost for the Revival Festival next month. Forge City will send its ambassador, Paladin Hueshanyan, to attend the meeting."
"… The dwarfs have finally made an official response." Gwen breathed a sigh of relief. "It seems that our reopening of the sea route has boosted their confidence in participating in the affairs of the continent …"
The Kingdom of Dwarfs was a mysterious country located in the westernmost part of the continent. Although its territory was closely connected to the Lorien Continent, the entire country was completely sealed off by a natural arc-shaped mountain range. The steep cliffs had always blocked the curious sights of the other countries on the continent and the residents on the other side of the mountain range for thousands of years.
For a long time, the dwarfs had lived a self-sufficient life on the other side of the mountain range. It was said that their kingdom was rich in production and had a unique climate. Even if they did not communicate with the other countries on the continent, they could still maintain their prosperity. It was said that they had developed technology and culture completely different from the other countries on the continent, and even retained many of the ancient traditions before the first pioneering. But all of these were just idle guesses. Almost no one had actually crossed the mountain range to see what the Kingdom of Dwarfs looked like. Only a few of the dwarfs who had voluntarily left the kingdom and came inland would occasionally mention their homeland to outsiders. In their description, Forge City was magnificent, iron and stone hills were everywhere, gold and silver were everywhere, bright plains were thousands of acres of fertile farmland, and picturesque scenery on the west coast …
After ending the communication with the Duke of the Western Region, the air around the desk rippled slightly, and Amber's figure appeared. Her face was full of interest. "It is said that the mountain range surrounding the dwarven kingdom is protected by an ancient power. As long as outsiders enter the mountain range, they will get lost and eventually return to the foot of the mountain in confusion. Only the dwarves know the secret to safely cross the ridge, so only the dwarves have ever come inland, and very few people can enter their kingdom …"
"But in fact, the dwarven kingdom is not as mysterious as the legends say. Although it does not have much communication with the other parts of the continent, hundreds of years ago, when humans still had the ability to explore the sea, the Ansu had a period of communication with the dwarves on the sea," Gwen said with a smile. "There are many wonderful customs there, and the dwarves also have unique smelting technology, but it is far from the level of 'otherworldly' described in the legends."
"As you said, that was hundreds of years ago." Amber spread out her hands. "For humans with short lifespans, hundreds of years of separation is enough to turn a land that once had a diplomatic relationship into an incomprehensible foreign land."
"… That makes sense." Gwen thought for a moment and had to agree with Amber. Then he suddenly remembered something, looked up and asked, "Is there any progress on the matter that I asked you to investigate?"
"You mean about the 'Gondor Ironman'?" Amber immediately understood what Gwen meant. She thought for a moment, and the recently collected information came to her mind. "There are some gains, but there is no breakthrough.
"First of all, it's about the identity of 'Lady Diana' in Typhon. At present, we can confirm that she is the leader of the Typhon's special forces, the 'Rogues'. The Rogues are an elite force directly loyal to the Typhon Royal Family. They are divided according to their different functions, similar to the Royal Shadow Guards of the Ansu era or the current Steel Rangers. They mainly carry out special operations and internal and external intelligence missions. The main combatants of the Rogues are basically elite combat mages, and they have undergone special combat training. Unlike ordinary mages, they perform well in various combat conditions, including surprise attacks, assassinations, and close combat. This is somewhat similar to the 'Mage Soldiers' of the Gondor period in historical records. Obviously, these special soldiers were the result of the personal training of the 'Gondor Ironman'.
"Secondly, we have confirmed that Diana has indeed been loyal to the Augustus family for a long time, but she seems to be only loyal to the position of 'Emperor.' She does not side with any political forces, does not support any uncrowned heir, and does not involve herself in factional disputes. I suspect that this has something to do with the contract she made with the royal family hundreds of years ago after she was' repaired 'by the Typhon scholars.
"The above two pieces of information can be summarized and collected from public channels. The third piece is more interesting … It's an 'unexpected gain' from the '25th' …"
Amber said as she rummaged through her bag, took out a carefully folded piece of paper, and unfolded it in front of Gwen.
It's actually information from Daniel? Gwen was a little surprised. He did not expect Daniel to get information related to 'Diana'. Then his eyes were attracted by what Amber showed him.
On the unfolded white paper, what was depicted was not the technical secrets of the ancient Gondor or the secret deployments of the modern Typhon, but a picture that looked like a child's graffiti. A dozen ink dots seemed to be arranged on the paper without any pattern, and a small circle of unknown meaning was drawn in the middle of the ink dots. A line that looked like a radiation-like line connected between the ink dots and the circle in the center. The whole picture looked like a graffiti of a failed, mismatched sun, surrounded by abstract rays of light.
"What is this?" Gwen was confused by the picture. "Some kind of abstract painting?"
"This is the 'work' of 'Lady Diana', and the only 'painting' she usually 'creates'," Amber put the unfolded paper on Gwen's desk with a strange look on her face. "It sounds strange, and in fact, '25th' doesn't understand it either. He only found out about it by chance from the president of the Royal Association of Mages in Typhon.
"The head maid of the Obsidian Palace, the 'never wrong, always alert' Lady Diana, would occasionally do strange things when she was alone. She would find a pen and paper to scribble, and the content of her scribbles was always the same picture, one after another, over and over again … No one knows why she did this, and even she herself did not seem to understand it. Most of these scribbles would be destroyed immediately, but a very small number of them seemed to have been forgotten by her, and fell into the hands of a few curious people who were qualified to enter the Obsidian Palace. "
"This is really … unexpected." Gwen frowned slightly as he looked at the scribbles on the table. He could not understand the deep meaning of the picture, but some associations that did not seem to match the style of the current world appeared in his mind: the unconscious' creation 'of AI after breaking through the limit, the mysterious scribbles of out-of-control robots, the memory errors of the ancient mechanical servants leading to the reproduction of information …
"Is this an accurate drawing of the scribbles? Or is it a 'conceptual drawing' based on impression? "Gwen looked up and asked curiously.
"25th said that this picture is more than ninety percent accurate," Amber nodded. "At most, there is a little error in the proportion of some lines."
"Have you shown this to Kamel and Veronica?" Gwen asked again. "They are from the Gondor era, maybe they have some clues."
"Yes, but they don't understand," Amber shook her head. "Kamel thinks that this thing may be an abstract expression of some ancient runic array, and Veronica suspects that this is related to the deepest memory of Diana when she served in the Vipranton Observatory, but they are just guessing."
"… Diana is a Gondor who has lost part of her memory, and those memories are related to her experience when she left the Vipranton Observatory. These pictures may reveal some of the 'impressions' in her memory, but for a bystander who lacks information, they are just meaningless scribbles," Gwen said as he pondered. "… I am very interested in the secret of the Gondor. Upload this picture to the neural network and hand it over to the analysis team under Meghul III and Selena Gehr under confidentiality conditions to see if there is any known thing similar to this scribbles."
Amber nodded. "Okay, I will do it when I get back."
She kept the paper as she promised. Then she noticed that Gwen seemed to be thinking about something else, and he was unconsciously turning a small silver-white ring in his hand. She quickly recognized what the ring was. "Thinking about Tarlonde again?"
"Still can't contact the Mithril Vault." Gwen nodded and threw the ring in his hand on the table. The small ring bounced on the table and made a crisp sound. "With the technical level of the Giant Dragon, it's impossible that they can't fix a communication system in such a long time. With the 'reputation' of the Mithril Vault for thousands of years, it's impossible that they haven't done anything after losing contact with their customers for so long. Now that the Everstorm has disappeared, according to the various information we have, something seems to have happened to Tarlonde … and it's not a small matter. "
"You're worried about the Giant Dragon?" Hu Po blinked his eyes. "Actually, I don't think there's anything to worry about … That's a dragon we're talking about. Be it in legends or in reality, dragons are invincible. When a volcano erupts, they can even rush in to drink a mouthful of hot water. Why should we worry about such an unreasonable creature?"
"It's because they are such a powerful race that I'm particularly worried now. I'm worried that some kind of unpredictable disaster is brewing in the Arctic, and I'm worried that it will affect the human world." Gwen shook his head. "Assuming the worst situation, the whole of Tarlonde is destroyed by some kind of irresistible force — how powerful is this force?"
Amber was startled by Gwen's conjecture. Her eyes widened. "This … should not be, right?"
"Hypothetically, just hypothetically," Gwen exhaled. "It's like there is a powerful giant standing in the distance. You know clearly that the giant is there, and you know how strong he is. You know that he was fine a second ago, but suddenly the giant is gone. Because it's too far away, you can't see how he disappeared, and you can't see whether he was attacked … At this time, you may be worried about the safety of the giant, but you should be more worried about whether the force that caused the giant's disappearance is spreading to you."
Amber thought for a moment, and suddenly rubbed her arms. "… Ugh, I feel goosebumps!"
"At the end of the day, it's all because of the lack of information. That's why I'm overthinking." Gawain sighed, admitting that he was overthinking. "So, I hope the passionate sirens and nagas in North Port can find some clues. At the very least, we need to figure out what happened in the Eternal Storm."
…
The cold wind was howling, slapping on the twisted steel frame and the temporary shelter wall. The heat source dug out from the ruins was emitting a warm orange glow under the dim sky, radiating a large range of constant temperature heat. A poorly connected projector was placed in the corner of the camp, and several power packs were connected to the base of the projector. The holographic projection was so blurry that it was almost impossible to recognize, but intermittent music could still be heard from the base.
A few weak young dragons were lying on the empty ground beside the projector. The malfunctioning of their implants and the withdrawal of the booster potion were tormenting their minds. The intermittent music from the projector was supporting their will. However, this insignificant support was almost meaningless. In the end, they still had to rely on their own tenacity to survive this cold dusk.
It was not easy. For most of the dragons who had lived in Lower Tarlund, it was not just mental pain that they had to face after being freed from the hallucinogens and enhancers. The burning pain that came from their nervous systems when they could not adapt to the situation was a real physical injury.
After returning to the camp, Melita, who had returned to her human form, stood beside a boulder next to the shelter wall. Her lavender eyes stared at her compatriots who were convulsing in the cold wind. Her eyes fell on one of the young Red Dragons, and she did not look away for a long time.
It was the young mechanic who had performed the implant surgery on her this afternoon. She had been busy all day, and with her efforts, more than a dozen of her compatriots had avoided fatal injuries caused by the malfunctioning implants and alleviated the pain. However, when dusk fell, she encountered a severe withdrawal reaction from the booster … and no one in the camp could help her.
The only booster reserves in the shelter had been used to rescue the wounded.
As if noticing Melita's gaze, the red dragon lying on the ground turned around and revealed a self-deprecating smile as it twitched. "I shouldn't have been so obsessed with 'Soul' and 'Ash' back then … But the sense of accomplishment and fulfillment they gave me was really important …"
She mentioned the names of the two boosters, and these two boosters that directly affected the mind were rampant in the lower Tarlonde.
Melita sighed. She did not know how to answer the mechanic who used to live in the lower Tarlonde and illegally modified the implants. She could only do her best to release a large-scale mental comfort. This spell had little effect on the symptoms caused by the booster addiction, but the young mechanic still showed her a grateful smile.
After that, Melita left the place as if she was fleeing.
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