Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation Ever since the disturbing news from the north, the situation in the south had become chaotic, and the atmosphere in Rock Fortress had become more and more tense. The fortress, which was responsible for the gate of the southern border, was the most majestic fortress at the southern end of the Plains of the Sacred Spirit. Everyone was proud of it. But now, the fortress had suddenly become an isolated island caught between two storms. All the nobles in the south had suddenly lost contact with them. The Cecil family, which had been silent for a hundred years, seemed to be planning something big, but the messengers sent by the fortress to the north could only bring depressing news.
Due to the deteriorating situation in the King's City and the dark clouds of civil war looming over it, the two Regents and the Regent Prince had begun to call on the nobles to send troops to deal with the rebels in the Eastern Region. The King's City did not have any extra energy to support Firmrock Stronghold, especially when Firmrock Stronghold had not been substantially attacked. The big shots in the King's City seemed to be far from aware of how quickly the situation in the Southern Region was deteriorating. In their eyes, the rebels in the Eastern Region, led by a prince and a military duke, were obviously much more serious than the "chaos" in the South.
In this tense and delicate situation, the Rock Fortress could only close its gates and begin to implement the strictest ban on seclusion. Apart from merchants with passes personally issued by Count Pompeii and Extraordinary individuals in the surrounding areas of the fortress, no one was allowed to pass through the border. In fact, even without these bans, the number of merchants in the Rock Fortress had plummeted to the lowest point recently.
The merchants who had a keen sense of smell had long felt a sense of crisis. At this sensitive time, no one dared to take the risk of being caught by the nobles as spies to pass through the Stronghold. In the past few days, the number of merchants who passed through the gate of the Stronghold was at least less than two digits. Not to mention the peak of the previous autumn and winter, even compared to the previous years, this was an extremely small number.
Today, the Firmrock Stronghold finally welcomed a large group of 'guests' — the defeated nobles who had been expelled from the south.
When they saw the nearly a thousand ragged, emaciated, and armed troops, the entire fortress almost entered a state of readiness. The soldiers could not tell that this was a group of nobles. Instead, they thought that all the mercenaries and bandits in the south had gathered together to plunder the city. After a tense confrontation and complicated identity verification, the fortress commander, Sir Maryland, finally confirmed that this team that looked like a combination of bandits and beggars was actually the nobles of the Southern Territory — the nobles in distress.
He would never forget that scene for the rest of his life.
The tightly shut gate of the fortress, which was covered with purple steel rivets and fine gold linings, was opened. Sir Maryland, a tall and strong man with black curly hair, led the Knight's Regiment out of the city to greet the ladies and gentlemen in distress. He looked at the young man with a tattered coat, greasy hair, and a sallow face in disbelief. It took him a lot of effort to recognize that this was the viscount of Calore. Calore was the closest to Rock Fortress, and Viscount Calore and Maryland had met more than once, but this was the first time they met under such circumstances.
"Ancestor above! My dear viscount! What have you been through?! " Sir Maryland looked at the people in front of him in shock. He also saw several familiar faces in the team. "It seems that those terrible rumors are true?!"
"Disaster, a disaster, a terrible, ruthless, cruel war without any classical etiquette destroyed everything." Viscount Calore could not help but tremble slightly. "And my dear sir, please don't exclaim about ancestors above … I'll have nightmares when I hear those words."
Viscount Consecco, who was next to him, covered his forehead and said in a painful tone, "We were beaten by our ancestors …"
"… God bless you. Everything will be fine." Sir Maryland had seen a lot of ups and downs in his life, but he had never seen such a situation before. He did not know how to continue this strange topic, so he quickly led these gentlemen and ladies into the city. "I've prepared hot water for you. It must be terrible to trudge through the muddy wilderness."
"We need to eat something first. Cheese, steak, wine. My God, we can put the matter of bathing aside!" Viscount Marion Orland said hurriedly. "Is there anything to eat?"
"Of course. When I came out, I had already ordered the city to prepare food. There's plenty of food in Firmrock Fortress." Sir Maryland nodded immediately. But as a high-ranking Knight guarding the fortress, he could not help but look at the team of nearly a thousand people warily. "But forgive me for being cautious. It's dangerous to put so many people in the fortress at once. I have to carry out a necessary inspection to prevent enemy spies from sneaking in. Such a situation is very likely to happen."
Viscount Consecco looked back at the soldiers and Knight who had followed him all the way through the war zone and said loudly to Sir Maryland, "My dear sir, these people have followed us through life and death. They are loyal and respectable. Of course, I understand the rules of the fortress, so I only hope that you can finish the inspection as soon as possible so that these brave soldiers can enter the fortress to eat and rest as soon as possible."
Hearing these righteous and generous words, the soldiers were all moved. Viscount Consecco rode his horse to Sir Maryland's side without batting an eyelid. He lowered his voice and said, "You can inspect us however you want. Take us to eat something first."
The nobles, Knights, and clerics in the team were escorted into the fortress by Sir Maryland and the Knight's Regiment of Firmrock Fortress. The others began to be inspected by the fortress soldiers. Viscount Ropenny just looked at the soldiers indifferently and followed the other nobles.
She knew what the inspection was about, so she was not worried at all. In the absence of a complete personnel registration and identification system, the so-called inspection was nothing more than asking the others in the same team to see if they could prove each other's identity. Perhaps this method of inspection was useful in the case of a few spies sneaking into the army. But who would have thought that a noble's entire entourage was made up of spies?
She looked up and saw the towering gate of Firmrock Fortress getting closer and closer in front of her. Then, she stepped into it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you're safe." Sir Maryland was riding on his horse. When he crossed the gate of the fortress, he turned his head with a smile and looked at the relaxed nobles. "This fortress is indestructible."
Viscount Carole raised his head and looked at the black wall that was emitting a faint magical halo. The famous wall had indeed calmed him down a lot, but he still couldn't help but say, "Respected Sir, allow me to say something. Gawain Cecil is a danger that you can't imagine! He used some unknown method to create a terrifying legion. We were almost defeated before we could confront that legion head-on. Now, I'm afraid he's gathering people in the south and accumulating strength. He may have set his eyes on this place … "
Sir Maryland could not help but turn his head. "But I heard that he wasn't the one who initiated the war?"
"… That's true. We were the ones who initiated the war." Viscount Carole showed a trace of pain. "But now I want to say that this was a trap from the beginning! We were led astray! Duke Cecil was prepared for war from the beginning. Passivity was just a pretense. He was full of aggression from the beginning. Sir, don't be fooled by the illusion that he hasn't attacked Firmrock Fortress yet. He will definitely come! "
"I'll take your warning seriously, Mr. Viscount." Sir Maryland looked deeply at Viscount Carole. "And I'll report your experience to … the Captical as soon as possible. But with all due respect, I'm afraid that the help you can get is limited. Even Firmrock Fortress can only provide you with shelter. "
"Sir, the Cecil family is back! They want to take back everything they lost in the past 100 years! You've forgotten the original intention of building Firmrock Fortress … "
"Mr. Viscount, of course I remember the original intention of building Firmrock Fortress. But please remember that the people who betrayed the Cecil family and divided Cecil's land are you, not us, not any of the families on the Holy Spirit Plains." Sir Maryland raised his hand slightly and interrupted Carole. He then sighed softly. "And it's not that I'm unaware of the crisis in the south. I can see the threat of the Cecil family from you, but there's a limit to what I can do."
Seeing the complicated look on Sir Maryland's face, Carole and the surrounding nobles finally realized that the atmosphere was not right. Viscount Consco could not help but ask hesitantly, "Sir, what happened?"
"Don't you know?" Sir Maryland shook his head and said softly, "The king is dead."
…
Cecil Dominion, the commercial district, Libra Square. A new large facility was being erected.
The tower made of alloy stood in the middle of the square like a strange monument. The outer covering, which was used for decoration and illumination at night, was lightly and accurately covered on the surface of the tower after being treated with weight-reducing spells. The magician used lifting devices and safety ropes to climb to various key positions on the tower and used scorching energy beams to firmly weld the covering of the tower and the skeleton together. At the top of the tower was a large obelisk suspended in the air, emitting a lustrous glow.
This facility was nearing completion, and only the final touches were being done. The magic obelisk at the top of the tower was the core of the facility, and at the same time, it was also providing energy for various magic devices on the site. Below the obelisk, the alloy pillars connected to the underground magic network were being covered by the covering of the tower bit by bit. The shining magic runes were extracting the surging energy from the magic network and injecting it into the base of the obelisk at the top. Finally, the energy was released by the obelisk, forming a magic field that could cover the entire city.
Gwen stood near the construction site, watching the runes and magic crystal lamps all over the tower light up and extinguish one by one as the magician tested it. He felt a little emotional.
After the completion of this tower, the westernmost block of the commercial district and the newly built western district would be completely covered by the new magic network.
At the same time, this also meant that Cecil City would be completely covered by the signal of the "magic network communication". In the future, after a while, when the several magic obelisk relay towers on the north-south road were completed, they would be able to communicate with Kant Dominion from any corner of Cecil City.
Of course, that was on the premise that the production of communication equipment could keep up.
Gwen glanced not far away, where several soldiers were standing guard beside a large vehicle. There were several large devices with triangular bases and crystal structures on the vehicle. Those were the "public magic network communication terminals" that Nicholas Eggface had personally made before the production line started, and now they were waiting to be installed.
Rebecca stood beside Gwen, her face full of pride because the idea of placing the magic obelisks on the tower was her idea. It came from her continuous monitoring of the actual operation of every magic obelisk in her domain. "Placing the magic obelisks on a special 'tower' can effectively improve the stability and range of the signal transmission. Of course, this will also make it conspicuous and easy to become a live target for long-range magic attacks, so I set up a magic shield rune set in the tower. Anyway, the magic obelisk has a lot of redundant energy, and it's more than enough to put up a shield. "
"Just a shield?" Gwen tilted his head and glanced at the girl. "Why did I hear that you were going to bury three hundred pounds of magic crystal bombs under the tower?"
"Err … Didn't you say to set up relay towers in the wilderness to ensure that all signals are covered?" Rebecca scratched her head a little awkwardly. "It's dangerous in the wilderness, what if the enemy comes and destroys it?"
"This is an energy broadcast tower and a signal relay tower, not a frontline fort." Gwen knocked Rebecca's head. "It's fine as long as it's sturdy enough. Do you expect a signal tower to wipe out eight thousand enemies in a time of war?"
Rebecca giggled and tried to get away with it. Gwen could not help but touch his chin after teaching the child a lesson.
Rebecca's idea of burying a bomb under the magic obelisk relay tower was indeed a bad idea. It was dangerous and not worth it, but her consideration was partly reasonable — this world was not peaceful.
The wilderness of this world was full of dangers. Humans were still far from planting the light of civilization in the wilderness, and now it was a time of war. The ability of the relay towers set outside the major cities to protect themselves really needed to be considered.
If self-destruction was not possible, an arcane explosion seemed to be possible.
Seeing that the ancestor suddenly fell into deep thought, Rebecca could not help but stand on tiptoe and waved her hand in front of Gwen. "Ancestor, why do I feel that you are beginning to agree with what I said?"
"I'm just thinking about the defense of various wilderness facilities …" Gwen pulled Rebecca's hand away. Just as he was about to say something, he saw Amber running towards them from the corner of his eye.
When Amber came before him, he asked curiously, "What happened?"
"Wright is back!" Amber gasped. "He seems to have experienced something … He regained the holy light!"
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