Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 428 - 427: The War Machine Sets in Motion Again

The news Gawain had been waiting for finally arrived.

Taking the intelligence passed over by Amber, he swiftly glanced through it, a smile involuntarily appearing on his face: ”The remaining fleeing aristocrats have all arrived at Rock Fortress, just as we expected—they can only take temporary refuge at Rock Fortress, as the Plains of the Holy Spirits haven’t accepted them. Moreover, the fortress is currently in an isolated state, without support from the royal family or the Plains of the Holy Spirits.”

Amber felt incredulous: ”Did the people on the royal capital side really just give up Rock Fortress so easily? That’s Rock Fortress!”

”They haven’t given up but have temporarily shelved it,” Gawain said, casually turning the intelligence into ashes, explaining cheerfully, ”The Eastern Legion led by Duke Silas Loland is Anzu’s most powerful army. They’ve quickly breached the eastern gate of the Plains of the Holy Spirits and established a foothold in the major towns of the eastern plains. With a few more key fortresses captured, they can attack St. Soniel by advancing down the King’s Road. The eastern rebels have a clear objective—to overthrow the Second Dynasty, which poses the greatest threat to the people of the royal capital.”

Gawain then paused, briefly contemplating before continuing: ”But they absolutely don’t intend to hand over Rock Fortress. I can guess what the royal capital is thinking—they’ll use the sturdy walls and soldiers of Rock Fortress to hold back and delay. Rock Fortress spans the gap amidst the mountains between the southern borders and the Plains of the Holy Spirits, and its unique terrain makes it almost impossible to besiege. Cecil’s Army can only attack from the south, while Rock Fortress can receive a constant supply of goods from the northern Plains of the Holy Spirits. Originally designed to endure prolonged high-intensity attacks, this fortress seems to the royal capital as a long-term combat scenario. As long as Rock Fortress holds out long enough, the royal family’s forces can have a breather from the crisis in the eastern region. Eventually, forces from the western regions and even the northern Mountain Legion could come south to assist.”

Amber blinked her eyes: ”So we’ll capture the fortress before the royal capital can react...”

”Go call Byron, Sir Philip, Soldrin, Aunt Heidi. Oh, and Rebecca too,” Gawain nodded, ”The intermission for the aristocratic soldier remnants has ended.”

Moments later, Cecil’s military commanders and the heads of internal affairs and technology gathered in Gawain’s study.

Before Gawain spoke, they could guess the purpose of their summons, and Rebecca, upon entering, curiously glanced around—she seldom had the chance to be called by her ancestor to a military meeting. Though clueless about how she could contribute, her spirits visibly lifted.

Byron looked at Gawain with eager anticipation: ”Leader, are we finally making a move against Rock Fortress?”

”Why do you seem so delighted?” Sir Philip couldn’t help but mutter beside him, ”Didn’t know you loved warfare this much before.”

”Don’t mention it; I promised Pea that I’d bring her a gift once Rock Fortress was captured, and it’s been almost half a month since I boasted about it.”

”Ahem,” Gawain cleared his throat twice, interrupting the exchange between these verbal artisans. He then nodded slightly, ”As Byron mentioned, this war’s intermission is over. Sir Philip, how’s the preparation up north?”

The young knight stepped forward: ”Leader, for the past half month, we’ve been transporting components of various light and heavy artillery and industrial parts to the Carol Region. We’ve utilized the existing Magic Web infrastructure in the Carol Region to set up arms factories to manufacture weapons and ammunition. Currently, the northern parts have sixteen ’Justice’ Railguns and one hundred twenty-seven ’Persuader’ light railguns on standby, with ample ammunition. Additionally, there are two thousand soldiers from the First Combat Corps and two thousand from the Second Combat Corps on standby in the north.”

”That’s sufficient.” Gawain nodded slightly, needing to leave some troops behind to maintain order while taking over the southern borders from various aristocrats. He also didn’t plan on using traditional siege tactics to attack Rock Fortress; the forces amassed in the northern region seemed adequate.

Then he turned to Soldrin: ”Can the Steel Cavalry participate in actual combat now?”

”New recruits need to see blood,” the High-Ranked Ranger answered, ”They’ve been waiting for this day for a long time.”

”Good, there’s a mission suited for you,” Gawain nodded, ”Your job is to cooperate with our insider at Rock Fortress...”

After assigning the mission to the Steel Cavalry, he then turned to Aunt Heidi: ”Regarding food reserves and recent propaganda work...”

Gawain checked the situation in the territory, assigning tasks to each person, yet he hadn’t mentioned Byron. After a while, the mercenary-turned-middle-aged knight couldn’t hold back any longer: ”Leader, what about me? What’s my mission?”

Gawain looked at Byron, pondering briefly: ”Indeed, I have a task for you, an important one, but I need to confirm something else first... Rebecca, how’s the progress on Kamel’s Rainbow Light Device?”

The ”Rainbow Light Device” isn’t a final name but merely a project name. Though it’s Kamel’s project, Rebecca is the highest in charge of the Magic Guide Technology Research Institute, so she is well-versed in the project’s progress.

Upon hearing Gawain’s question, Rebecca immediately snapped out of her slight daydream, revealing a slightly troubled look: ”It’s still the heat dissipation issue—the energy structure is so massive that the accumulated heat is hard to dispel in time. We’re trying to use ice magic circles to forcibly suppress the temperature of the energy structure, but we haven’t found ice symbol-based materials stable enough to function under intense interference. Previous cooling rings burned out quickly.”

”So, aside from the heat dissipation issue, the Rainbow Light Device is operational?”

Rebecca nodded: ”Yes, both prototypes can function—they just can’t run for more than a few seconds.”

Gawain nodded slightly, then turned around to gaze at the large map hanging on the study’s wall.

Rock Fortress indeed differs from most ”stone fortresses” in the southern borders; it’s a real stronghold fortified with advanced magic skills. It boasts a powerful magic barrier capable of drawing magic power from nature to continuously repair itself. Unless its operation is interrupted, even giant cannon bombardments won’t significantly impact the fortress.

According to Kamel, the pure magical damage of the Rainbow Light Device, compared to the Demon Crystal Cannon, makes it more suitable for dealing with magic shields. Hence, he hopes to deploy this new weapon in the assault on Rock Fortress.

In his mind, images from the high-altitude satellite monitor appeared.

The terrain surrounding Rock Fortress vividly unfolded before his ”eyes,” showing the Duoergong River flowing endlessly south from the Plains of the Holy Spirits, splitting at the mountain pass before Rock Fortress. One branch diverged into the mountains, while another extended into the southern borders, becoming the life artery of the southern borders: White River.

Gawain turned around and looked at Rebecca: ”Perhaps we should broaden our thinking; resolving the heat dissipation issue might not be that challenging...”

Rebecca couldn’t quite connect the dots—due to her geography teacher’s lack of martial skills, her grades in geography weren’t stellar, naturally unable to grasp Gawain’s thoughts: ”Do you have an idea?”

”We can use river water to cool the device. I’ve seen Kamel’s prototype and discussed some ideas with him. This plan should be feasible.”

Rebecca was taken aback, her eyes slowly brightening: ”Oh ah! That’s a good idea! I’ll go back and discuss it with Master Kamel!”

Gawain chuckled, then put his hand on the table in front of him, his gaze slowly sweeping across everyone present: ”There’s one more thing—this time I’m going to the front line myself.”

The moment he said this, everyone present looked at each other in amazement, clearly not expecting this.

Although in this era, it’s normal for aristocratic leaders to personally go to the battlefield, Gawain’s presence was absent during the bombardments at Broken Stone Ridge and the White River blockade—only during the previous aberration attacks on the cities did Gawain personally go to the battlefield twice. In other words, apart from defending his homeland, Gawain had not left his territory. He always had a clear stance and self-positioning: rulers should stay behind the lines and try to minimize going to the front and engaging in battle.

So everyone habitually assumed that the old ancestor would stay in the rear this time too, never imagining Gawain had plans to march himself.

”A well-functioning Administrative Office can maintain order during the leader’s brief departure, and I trust Aunt Heidi can look after the rear while I’m gone. The troops remaining in the homeland can also manage the threat from the Dark Mountain Range,” Gawain explained his thoughts, ”The assault on Rocky Ridges Fortress will be a very significant battle, its importance far surpassing dealing with Count Hosman’s seventy thousand mixed troops. It determines whether we can secure a stable and undisturbed foundation. No matter what, I cannot allow any accidents in this operation, so I must personally oversee it.”

Gawain paused, then continued: ”Moreover, there’s a more important significance—the original purpose of establishing Rocky Ridges Fortress, as each of you should know.”

Aunt Heidi looked at her ancestor, her tone complex: ”To lock the Cecil Clan in the southern borders...”

”Therefore, when Rocky Ridges Fortress is breached, I must be on the battlefield.”

Symbolic meaning and appearance projects, Gawain himself could disregard these, yet the basic rules and public opinion of the era do care about these.

Given this, in such a major event, Gawain does not mind going along with the ”symbolic significance” as well.

This pre-war meeting continued into the late night, and when it finally ended, Amber was yawning endlessly. She looked at Gawain, who still appeared very spirited, and couldn’t help but pout: ”I really don’t know what your brain is made of, always coming up with ideas...”

”Just consider it a compliment,” Gawain said casually, then stood up and walked toward the door, ”Next, I’m going to talk to Tiel; are you coming with me?”

Amber hesitated for a moment: ”Is it appropriate to go find her at such a late hour? She’s definitely asleep...”

Gawain glanced at Amber: ”Do you think it makes any difference between day and night for Tiel? Whenever I look for her, she’s sleeping!”

Just as Gawain said, Tiel, the sea demon out of the sea, basically had only one activity on land—sleeping. When Gawain and Amber reached her room, this mermaid lady was floating belly-up in her big pool, looking dead—as truth be told, this saltwater fish indeed had too many styling issues, not only with her unrecognizable walking posture but also a brazen sleeping posture. The maid responsible for changing Tiel’s water at the feudal lord’s mansion took a long time to adapt to the fact that Miss Mermaid flipping belly-up wasn’t dead, but was in fact, backstroking...

Waking Tiel up was an arduous task. Amber struggled for ages, but the fish continued to sleep soundly. Eventually, Gawain hesitated about whether to go up and deliver a jumping chop to rouse this deadbeat fish, at which point Tiel slowly woke up.

The moment the mermaid Miss opened her eyes, she saw Gawain and Amber standing in front of her, giving her a start, and she flipped around, flicking water all over Gawain’s face with her tail: ”Why didn’t you knock on the door!”

”Rubbish! If we had blown up the door outside and still couldn’t wake you, that’d be impressive!” Gawain, rather disgruntled, wiped the water from his face and looked at Amber, who had hidden behind him to avoid the water, ”Did you know that just to wake you, we almost resorted to pouring boiling water into the pool?”

”Boiling water is nothing. I’ve been near the volcanic undersea,” Tiel glanced at Gawain dismissively, ”Speak up, why did you come to see me at such a late hour—by the way, is it actually night?”

Tiel spoke as she looked around, confirming it was night upon seeing the pitch-black view outside the window: ”Turns out it really is night... I just fell asleep then...”

”You fell asleep last night!” Gawain said, glaring, and deeply questioning if coming to find this saltwater fish was a mistake, but he still expressed his intent, ”I came to talk to you about something—we are about to attack Rocky Ridges Fortress.”

Although Tiel spent most of her time sleeping, she was aware that the Cecil was in combat with external forces, so she wasn’t entirely bewildered, only showing slight confusion: ”And so?”

”Would you be interested in taking a look?”

Tiel was taken aback, her tail gently swaying in the water, creating ripples as she leisurely spoke: ”Did you forget our initial agreement—I can share knowledge about the deep-sea with you, and help when those so-called ’aberrations’ attack cities, but I won’t involve myself in battles among humans. Such things are tedious to me.”

”Of course I remember, and I don’t plan on having you partake in human conflicts either. I just want you to help deliver a few things to the north, and then observe quietly from the side.”

”Is it that simple?” Tiel suspiciously looked at Gawain, ”I know you’re quite cunning; have you set a trap?”

Gawain didn’t directly answer Tiel’s question but instead reminded her: ”Aren’t you intrigued by land-based magic skills? Aren’t you sea demons facing a barrier in your own technology system? Perhaps at Rocky Ridges Fortress, you might see things that interest you. It will be where human traditional magic skills collide with Cecil’s Magic Guide Technology. I believe even advanced civilizations like yours may find this level of technological clash worthwhile.”

Tiel’s expression shifted slightly, seemingly tempted, but after a moment, she still shook her head faintly: ”To be honest, I’d rather continue sleeping...”

”On further thought, Amoen, the Giant Stag, is so vast; letting you nibble a few bites isn’t out of the question...”

”Deal!”

Gawain&Amber: ”...”