Hearing Byron's words, Gawain was finally stunned: "Girl?"
"Yes..." Knight Byron's face almost wrinkled into an abstract painting, " I only discovered it when I was giving her a bath. I was shocked."
Gawain's eyebrows twitched twice and he looked at the middle-aged knight with a strange expression: "Don't tell me what you have in mind. I'm afraid that child is less than ten years old, okay?"
When Byron heard this, he waved his hands quickly: "It's impossible, it's impossible. Although I am a mercenary, I am not so vulgar, but I am. I think I may not be able to adopt her..."
Gawain found it interesting and was not in a hurry to continue studying his information. Instead, he looked into Mr. Knight's eyes: "Why? She's a woman, so you don't think you can adopt her as your heir?"
"Of course it's not because of this," Byron said with a grimace. She saved my life. It’s okay for me to pass on my martial arts and property to her. It’s just that I’m such a rough guy... How can I raise a girl? I originally thought it was a boy, but now I don’t care. You know what to do..."
Gawain smiled half-smilingly, but his eyes suddenly crossed the body of Knight Byron and looked in the direction of the tent door.
A thin and small figure is standing there.
Byron also realized something and looked back hesitantly. Sure enough, what he saw was the little mute who had secretly followed him.
He... She had already taken a bath, combed her hair, and changed into a clean coarse cloth dress, but the plot of "a homeless dirty kid turns into a little princess when he takes a bath and changes clothes" It didn't happen to this kid. Although she can tell she is a girl now, she has not become any prettier than before: long-term malnutrition and excessive labor have made her look sallow and thin, with rough skin, and her hair is hanging like a clump of dry weeds. On her head, it was the same even after combing it. Her body was thin and her face was sunken due to lack of nutrition. There was nothing cute about it.
She ran here in a daze, as if she didn’t realize that this place was not allowed to break in until now. Now she stood stupidly at the door, while carefully putting her hands and feet together, her face full of confusion. It's nervous and at a loss.
She should have heard the conversation between Gawain and Byron just now.
“Your daughter is here to see you.” Gawain glanced at Byron with a smile, and then waved to the mute girl at the door, asking the child to come over.
"Sir..." Byron called out a little helplessly, but then he saw the little mute walking towards him, and the expression on his face quickly turned into embarrassment and uneasiness, "You...how are you?" Come with me, didn’t you say you can’t run around in this place?”
“Byron,” Gawain said, “I know you think this is difficult, but you can’t throw this child away. Aside, since you promised to adopt her in the first place, this promise should not be based on any subsequent conditions.Take care of her. "
"I..." Byron opened his mouth, but finally nodded, "Yes, I understand. "
"When you encounter difficulties, you can ask for help. There are many people in the territory who know how to take care of children. Don't let go of your knightly airs - and I guess you don't have such airs either," Gawain He smiled and said, "This child not only saved you, but also helped me. She has a lot of credit for me being able to solve the crisis in Tanzanian Town. This child has brought good luck to our territory. We cannot treat her badly." ”
Knight Byron nodded in agreement, while the little mute blinked and looked at Gawain and then at Byron. She could understand what these people were saying, but she didn’t understand how the knights and the territory were like this. The content was profound, so he seemed a little confused.
At this time, Gawain suddenly asked: "Does she have a name?" "
"Name? Byron seemed to have just thought of this at this time, "Ah, by the way, I don't know her name yet... I was so confused before." "
"She should have a name, but unfortunately she can't speak. I'm afraid none of us can know her name." Gawain glanced at the little mute, "You want us to give you a name? Name? "
The mute child immediately reached out and started gesticulating, but Gawain and Byron didn't understand what she meant at all. After a difficult communication failed, the little mute suddenly shouted "Uh-huh" Gawain and Byron looked at each other blankly, and then decided to wait and see. After a long time, the child was out of breath. She ran back.
She stretched out her hand in front of Gawain, with a few peas lying in her hand.
After a long time, Gawain guessed what the child meant: "You are. Say, your name is Wandou? "
The mute child nodded vigorously, holding the waistband of the coarse cloth skirt a little hard with one hand, and pushing the pea forward a little more with the other hand.
This It was Byron who reacted for the first time: "You don't want a new name, you just want to continue to be called 'Pea'? "
The mute child nodded vigorously again.
"This name should have been given by her parents. If it was given by the businessman who cut off her tongue, she would not be named. "She would attach such great importance to her," Gawain guessed, "Pea... I guess when I came up with this name, I hoped it would fill her stomach." "
As he spoke, he reached out and pressed "Pea"'s hair - the touch was really like a ball of weeds.
"Although she can't speak, she I understand, you have to pay attention to your words and deeds in the future and set an example for your children." Gawain smiled and glanced at Byron, and at the same time thought of something, "By the way, buying serfs in Tanzanian town and... Now that Viscount Andrew is helping with the handover of the refugees, you no longer need to keep an eye on it yourself. You can leave this matter to a few smart and capable subordinates. I have a new task for you. ”
Hearing that there was a new mission, Knight Byron immediately straightened up and became serious.
"Don't be so nervous. The mission location is within the territory - I want you to organize a group of people to go to the ruins in the Dark Mountains to investigate the situation."
Byron became curious: "You can do it now Are you ready to fully explore there?"
"Viscount Andrew dug up fragments of the Eternal Slate under the Tanzan Mine. I am increasingly worried about the ruins in our territory and have to speed up the progress. Gawain nodded, "You are a mercenary. You should have some experience in exploring such ruins. Find some careful and courageous experts, bring the best equipment, and check out all the corridors and rooms in the shallow layer first." , drawn into a map. I don’t ask for speed, but for safety and meticulousness - I don’t want experienced soldiers to die in that place, and I don’t want you to miss something important, do you understand? >
Byron straightened his body: "Yes, don't worry, I do have some experience in this area and I won't let you down."
Byron's knight left, and Gawain Walking out of the tent, I looked at the territory that was growing day by day.
Not long ago, this place was just a "camp".
The Frost Moon is approaching, and the weather is getting colder day by day, but the New Cecil Territory is gradually getting on the right track. The first-generation magic engine (after adjustments and optimization by Nicholas Egg) has transformed from a prototype into a Practical machine) has now officially appeared in front of the citizens. This strange-looking but powerful machine, which relies on magic power but can be controlled by ordinary people, has shocked many people's attention. When they were just put into use At that time, many serfs and civilians even looked at those machines with fear - they seemed to think that there were countless invisible little devils living between the repulsion mechanism and the connecting rod bearings, and it was the devil's hands that were pushing those machines. The heavy and terrifying steel operation made it difficult to recruit operators at first. Later, even coercion was used to ensure that each machine had enough manpower to operate...
But this kind of foolish and ridiculous The situation lasted only a short time.
At Gawain's request, the territory pursues a system of "preaching" and "educating", and all new things - whether they are new laws or new machines - must be read out to the people repeatedly. Education, Gawain made up his mind to eliminate ignorance and ignorance in this land, so within a few days, people knew that those machines were a brand new magical device, and it was not because of the machine that it could be manipulated by ordinary people. There are demons inside that are sucking the souls and flesh of ordinary people, but they are the crystallization of wisdom and technology.
Gao Wen deliberately emphasized the presence of “ordinary people” in the entire machine research and development team in his publicity. In particular, he engraved the names of all the craftsmen who participated in the early research and development on the surface of the machine, and those craftsmen usually Living together with everyone, they gained countless admiration and admiration glances. What Gawain gained was the increasingly active spirit of those serfs and civilians who were once numb and ignorant.
Now in the territory, ordinary people can be seen walking around with smiles on their faces.
Under the surging power of the magic engine, various basic productions in the territory are proceeding at a staggering speed.
The mine is using magic engines to pull mine cars and extract seepage water. The supply of iron ore is becoming stable. The only thing limiting the supply now is the uneven road between the mine and the steel plant. Gawain has already begun to order the construction of this section of the road. With the help of Hetty's magic, it is not difficult to level and build a simple road.
The production progress of the machinery manufacturing plant is astonishing. The iron ball star’s golden thighs (even though he has no legs) are more powerful than Gawain expected. All kinds of simple lathes he can think of are there. It was produced day and night. If it were not for the rune furnace powered by the magic network and the sufficient supply of ore in advance, I am afraid that the steel reserves in the entire territory would not be able to keep up with the consumption rate of Nicholas eggs.
The brick kiln factory has already used a simple molding machine from the machinery manufacturing factory, and Rebecca's "cement" work has achieved preliminary results. She has produced a cementing material with up to standard strength. , although there are still big problems with output and yield rate, Gao Wen can already consider letting the territory get rid of wooden houses and tents and enter the stage of "hard houses"...
With such material construction smoothly underway, At this stage, the biggest problem is the shortage of talents.
The labor force is not a problem for the time being, because the area developed by the territory is only that large for the time being, but there are not enough talents to maintain and continue to promote the new machinery and new technologies that are constantly emerging.
Technological progress cannot be accomplished by a few people - although the flash of ideas of a few geniuses may indeed create things that can change the times, these things must be promoted and applied and a sustainable industrial chain must be formed. That will require a large number of mid- to low-end technical personnel.
There are not many "geniuses" among those one hundred people, and there are not even many talents.
Not everyone who is deviant and excluded by mainstream society is a genius. Many times they are excluded by mainstream society just because of low emotional intelligence. However, the lost emotional intelligence will not be added to skill points. In terms of IQ.
Although Gawain said at the beginning that "the territory welcomes deviants", it was more to encourage himself and inspire people. He himself knew that he was counting on the king to screen a hundred of them for him. The revolutionaries of the times are quite unrealistic, and this is also the fact: apart from a highly valuable talent like Jenny and a few good prospects, the rest of the hundred people are basically mediocre people who may be able to Do your job, but don't ask for more.
I wonder how many intellectuals Viscount Andrew can find for me... Considering the overall education level of this era, we can't expect too much.
At this moment, a shout from not far away suddenly interrupted Gawain's thinking.
"Master Ancestor~! Master Ancestor~!" Rebecca shouted and jumped up and down and ran towards this side. She was waving her signature as she ran. Iron staff, and in the other hand he waved a largerolling paper.
Gawain shivered subconsciously when he saw the iron staff in the girl's hand - was this another test of the Parthian staff technique from his ancestors?
But then he saw Jenny followed behind Rebecca. The rune master was holding more scrolls in her hands. She was running extremely hard behind Rebecca. While running, he shouted to Rebecca to slow down.
Gawain breathed a sigh of relief: It seemed that Rebecca was not here to murder the ancestors...
After the two people ran in front of them, Gawain looked at them curiously My own great*N+1 granddaughter: "Slow down, slow down, breathe evenly - what's wrong with you?"
"I... we studied the wild mage's notes and... and Those rune patterns," Rebecca gasped, and finally took a deep breath and said, "Then we figured out the infinite expansion structure of the magic network!"