Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 324 - 323: Our Path

The news brought by Soldrin is of utmost importance.

Anyone with some sense can realize what impact this will have on the currently tense Typhon-Ansu situation.

For Gawain, this is both bad news and good news—no need to mention the bad news, he had been worried about this issue ever since he climbed out of the coffin and saw the large area of aberrations outside (damn, I fought in vain last time). He was worried about the gradual decline of the great walls, worried about the increasing number of aberrations breaking free from that wasteland to attack the human world. The attack on the Typhon border means that the last aberration attack was far more serious than imagined. The thousands of monsters faced by Cecil are just a part of the aberrations that broke through the great walls. But on the other hand, the appearance of such a monstrous threat might also delay the war...

Delay the war between Ansu and Typhon.

Rebecca, who is a bit slow on the uptake in this aspect, only realized the significance of this matter after being prompted by Aunt Heidi. She blinked curiously at Gawain: ”Ancestor, if the King and the Emperor over there in Typhon can realize the threat of the aberrations, wouldn’t there be no war?”

But Gawain could only shatter the girl’s thoughts: ”Ansu and Typhon will definitely have a war, sooner or later.”

This is the conclusion Gawain reached after analyzing the current situation of the human kingdoms.

Rebecca obviously couldn’t understand how this conclusion came about, and even Amber, who usually has a lot of ideas, was bewildered. Only Aunt Heidi furrowed her brows slightly and showed a thoughtful expression. Seeing this, Gawain didn’t keep them guessing, and took the opportunity to give them a lesson:

”Typhon is developing very quickly and is now very powerful, but in fact, it has reached a critical transition period, also a bottleneck period. This is the most dangerous moment for it. Through multiple successful domestic reforms, Typhon has achieved substantial growth in population, economy, and military. However, this rapid development also planted hidden dangers. On one hand, the improvement in productivity means an increase in resource consumption efficiency, requiring this giant beast to devour a large amount of resources to achieve the ultimate social transformation. On the other hand, Typhon’s population is growing too fast, and its officials and domestic aristocrats lack effective new management methods. The huge population is gradually transforming into a heavy pressure on this Empire.

”Whether to absorb ’nutrition’ or to relieve pressure, Typhon must find an external way to channel it.

”Moreover, there is a more important point: Emperor Rosetta Augustus’s reforms have deeply touched aristocratic interests, whether it is the centralization of legislative power under the royal family or the reassessment of land aristocrats throughout the country. This greatly stimulated the sensitive nerves of those traditional aristocrats. Though Emperor Rosetta managed to suppress the backlash with his strong means and personal ability to implement the reforms, this part of the pressure was not released.

”The development of the domestic economy indeed brought considerable benefits to the land nobility of Typhon, but these benefits clearly haven’t satisfied those greedy individuals who lost a lot of privileges during the reforms. Emperor Rosetta still needs to find more dividends, more rewards that can prove the correctness of his ambitious strategies, to satisfy those still disgruntled vassals—or naturally and reasonably eliminate those who can’t keep up with the times in the process of seeking dividends.

”A foreign war is the best choice—it can solve almost all the problems faced by Typhon after the reform.

”Typhon has already ruled over all the lands in the eastern area of the continent, and its expansion can only go in two directions. To the south, there is the Highmountain Kingdom, which is clearly not suitable for action. The Highmountain Kingdom has the closest ties with the Silver Empire, and the Sacred Stars Temple of the silver elves floats above the southern strait, monitoring the vast Ancestral Forests on the Highmountain Kingdom’s border—do you think if Typhon borrows the Ancestral Forests as a passage to invade other countries, the silver elves will just stand by?

”So Typhon actually only has one choice, which is to go northward, taking Ansu as a sacrificial lamb—among the four human kingdoms, only Ansu has experienced the deadly Fog Month civil strife, with its national power declining most severely. How could the Typhon Empire endure not making a move?”

Rebecca listened in awe as Gawain finished analyzing these things, her eyes almost never stopped sparkling. But at least she still wasn’t slow (probably), though she couldn’t think of these things herself, she could at least understand. The girl’s brow furrowed immediately: ”So it means... even if the two countries don’t fight this time, in a few years, as long as those monsters don’t make any bigger moves, Ansu and Typhon will still fight?!”

”Inevitably,” Gawain nodded, ”and even if the aberrations come out a few more times, as long as the great walls themselves don’t collapse, the two kingdoms will still wage war regardless of the cost—Typhon can no longer wait, Rosetta Augustus is already middle-aged, and he doesn’t seem to have a very strong heir, so if he can’t resolve the hidden dangers of reform within his lifetime or even during his prime, then the golden age of Typhon is sure to turn into a disaster with the Emperor’s decline, and Rosetta himself understands this, as does our King.”

”...Is there really such a complex reason behind this war...” Rebecca mumbled, ”Ancestor, how do you understand all this? You’ve just been revived not long ago, yet you seem to understand things better than everyone here...”

Having seen a lot, experience naturally follows. When you observe a hint of something, you can fill in almost all the preceding and following circumstances. This is the power of satellite spirit...

Gawain shook his head: ”There’s nothing new under the sun, this world hasn’t really changed for hundreds and thousands of years.”

Directly talking about satellite spirit would mean no one could understand, but saying it like this... although still no one understands, it sounds much more impressive.

”Old friend, if I didn’t know your experiences, I would be curious how you thought of so much,” Soldrin shook his head with a strange expression, ”You weren’t willing to think about these things back then, you usually just chopped away at what you didn’t like.”

Gawain sighed, ”That’s because back then everyone was dirt poor, surrounded by nothing but monsters and barbarians, so diplomatic measures were useless. When faced with problems, we just charged through them—nowadays people are civilized, who wouldn’t want to use their brains a bit more?”

”Civilized people...” Soldrin couldn’t help but show a hint of emotion on his face upon hearing Gawain say those words, followed by a long sigh that transformed all his sentiments.

Just as Gawain curiously wanted to ask why Soldrin was sighing, this Elf Ranger posed a question, ”Old friend, why do you think we led those hundreds of thousands of refugees across the wasteland and established kingdoms in this barren land back then?”

The question came suddenly, causing Gawain to pause slightly, while Aunt Heidi, Rebecca, Amber, and even Pittman, standing nearby, all simultaneously showed a slightly curious expression, seemingly anticipating Gawain’s answer.

After two seconds of silence, Gawain smiled calmly, ”To put it grandly, it’s to lead people out of hardship, to protect and continue our civilization; to put it commonly, it’s just to survive—to let everyone survive.”

”Indeed, even the most ordinary thoughts aim to let everyone survive,” Soldrin said with a bitter smile, the cold night of crossing the eastern borders repeatedly flashed through his mind, ”But do you know? On this land we conquered together those years, many people can no longer survive.

”Have you ever heard of something called the Tenant Rent Pardon Act?

”That’s in the southern borders, in Earl Berry’s territories...”

Unable to hold back the urge to spill out, the Elf Ranger recounted all that he saw and heard on that night — seven hundred years of wandering. He had seen dark aspects of society, tragedies more grim and unfortunate than this, but as a powerful Transcendent, he always viewed these as a detached observer, until that night in the eastern borders, when he witnessed firsthand and heard the dark details he had never noticed before. Anzu’s current decline shocked him deeply, and he couldn’t hold back the need to share it all.

In the room, some fell into silence, others into contemplation, while some were more shocked amid their silent thoughts.

Rebecca almost couldn’t believe what she heard, ”How could they do this? That Earl Berry, and the rent-collecting Knights... how can they seize the farmers’ land like this?!”

”Such things are plenty, my young lady,” Pittman spoke quietly after a long silence, ”Do you wonder why so much land keeps increasing in the hands of the Land Nobility? Why the kingdoms continuously cultivate new land each year, and yet more farmers lose their land every year, and the number of serfs keeps growing? Even if you can’t see what’s happening outside, just look at this territory—how did most of the population here come to be? They’re serfs, slaves, landless and homeless refugees; were they born to have nothing?”

Rebecca’s eyes widened, her fingers pale from clenching her fist, ”But... isn’t it a noble’s duty to protect their people? Since childhood, both father and Aunt taught me this, and even the ancestors’ orders were...”

Amber rolled her eyes at Rebecca, ”If ancestral orders worked, there wouldn’t have been that bastard war a hundred years ago. Do you think every noble is as easy to fool as you?”

Normally, based on Rebecca’s habits, hearing Amber tease like this she would undoubtedly swing her Magic Wand with great force. However, this time, she was steeped in confusion, feeling unable to comprehend: ”But... haven’t those farmers realized this is a trap?”

Gawain gently patted Rebecca’s hair, ”Rebecca, you’ve forgotten something: the vast majority of commoners don’t know how much a third or a half or two-thirds of a taka of grain is, nor do they know what two times a third of a taka is. They won’t even estimate how much rent they need to pay five years later. In fact, they can’t read a single word on the ’Tenant Rent Pardon Act’ issued by the leaders—the leaders are the ones who read the orders, and those reading are noble Soldiers, who would never explain anything. So the actual situation is: most commoners are completely unaware of the contents of this act; the leader proclaims they are collecting rent legally, therefore they cannot resist, as for whether the leader truly abides by the law... the leader says they do, so they do.”

”Surely some people must understand...”

”Of course, there will be a few who understand. Some can even recite it by heart after hearing the Soldiers read it, but what good is that?” Aunt Heidi shook her head behind Rebecca, her face filled with deep sorrow and sympathy, ”Do they have the capacity to confront the leader? To find loopholes in these laws? To make others aware of these loopholes? If they don’t, then all they can do is memorize the law and recount these things to an outsider after losing their land.”

Rebecca looked at Gawain, ”Is there... is there no way to change this situation?”

”Of course there is,” Gawain couldn’t help but smile at the foolish deer who practiced the ’Noble Ethic Principles’ but fell into confusion now, ”We are on the path right now.”

Although... this is just the first step.