Cecil arranged the most comfortable accommodation for the guests from the royal capital - not in the Lord's Mansion, but in an independent building under the Government Affairs Department near the Lord's Mansion. It is said that this building was built specifically to welcome important guests and was called the "Autumn Palace" by the Cecil people because it was only completed this fall.
This novel arrangement once again made visitors feel the uniqueness of the Cecil Principality.
Duke Victoria was leaning lazily on the soft and comfortable couch, relaxing her limb muscles that were slightly stiff due to the fatigue of the journey and the dinner, and carefully observing everything in this room. Furnishings - Frankly speaking, the furnishings here cannot be compared with the word "luxury". Although the things are very exquisite, they are not at all the same style as the guest rooms in Silver Castle, but the things here are still impressive.
All the lighting facilities here rely on magic crystal as the core. This cheap and simple light-emitting device is difficult to popularize because it requires constant infusion of magic power, but it is something that can be seen everywhere in the streets in Cecil. ; The room is as warm as spring, but the fireplace on the west side is not lit. Obviously, the fireplace is not a heating facility, but just some kind of decoration. The real heating here is provided by something called the "Magic Thermal System" Solved; large and bright curtains hang in front of the large floor-to-ceiling windows. The weaving technique of the fabric is very strange, the stitching is simple, and even has a sense of cheapness, but its neatness is surprising, as if it is a skilled craftsman. It seems that the old weaver worked tirelessly to weave such a cheap and simple cloth...
The black-haired maid Maggie stood behind Victoria, massaging the tight muscles on the hostess's shoulders with gentle techniques. Feeling the muscles under her fingers relax a little, the black-haired maid spoke softly: "You have been observing everything here."
"Really? So obvious?" Victoria's Her tone of voice rose slightly, and her body stretched out more lazily - she could maintain the most perfect condition in any unofficial occasion, but at this moment it was time for her to relax. She sighed, "I'm a little bit... I regret not bringing along a mediocre and shallow nobleman from the royal capital to act as a "flower protector" - he can ask questions about every novel thing on my behalf. There are really too many things here that I don't understand, but I don't understand them. I have asked too many 'why's along the way."
"There are indeed many novel things here - but they seem to be just various magic devices, nothing like you in the cold winter. The magic mechanism installed in the castle is more advanced, isn't it?" Maggie said her opinion, "The Cecil people use magic crystal lamps for lighting, and the inner court of Winter Castle can also open their doors automatically. Your wizard tower Same thing, ah, they also have a magic car that can drive automatically - it's not faster than a dragon-blooded horse, let alone your white-feathered gryphon."
Obviously, this black-haired man is not able to run faster. It seemed to the maid that her mistress was so confused by Cecil's dazzling "tricks" that she paid too much attention to those novel and interesting magic devices.But Victoria shook her head: "No, Maggie, you don't understand - any of the Cecil people's magic devices does not surprise me. What really surprises me is that each of their magic devices has thousands of Tens of thousands.”
Maggie’s fingers pressing on the hostess’s shoulders paused for a moment.
“Grand Duke Gawain is pushing the extraordinary power to everyone, and he is breaking the boundaries between extraordinary people and ordinary people. The scary thing about the matter is that not only is he qualified to do this, but also He did it too," Victoria sat up and her expression became serious, "I can't figure out how he did it..."
The black-haired maid did not answer, and the duchess did not expect to be able to do it. When she heard the answer from the maid, she just shook her head: "Maggie, bring those 'newspapers', I want to take another look."
"Yes."
A stack of newspapers was delivered to Victoria. Looking at this kind of thing that was also unheard of elsewhere, she couldn't help but sigh softly: "Let's start by making the common people literate..."
From the north The envoys from the royal capital have never come into contact with this thing called a newspaper. However, it has long been in the sight of every ordinary person in the south. It is available to everyone and is incredibly cheap. Many of it is considered "confidential" in the eyes of the northern nobles. In this way, intelligence information is openly spread in the Principality of Cecil, including the price of food, the appointment and dismissal of officials in various places, and the construction of new towns - these things that should be exclusively controlled by the nobles are allowed to be discussed by the common people here. , as long as they learn basic reading and writing skills in school.
Others in the envoy may not have noticed this thing called a newspaper, but Victoria had noticed it as early as when she left the Rock Fortress and passed through Kande City - a "newsboy" was there at that time. This kind of printed matter was sold along the street. On a whim, the duchess ordered someone to buy a copy. Then, she was deeply shocked by this thing.
Her eyes quickly scanned the content about prices, construction, and current affairs news, but she thought about how difficult it was for her to get statistical information on transit merchants before leaving Pompeii. experience.
But compared to these contents, what concerns the duchess more is the commentary articles about current events in newspapers.
"Maggie...you know? If we have this in our hands, we don't have to consider whether the nobles and citizens support the crown prince of Wales when he is crowned," Victoria said, raising the newspaper in her hand. Full of helplessness, "We can even make people in the East start to doubt their lords and princes."
"Do you want to distribute similar things in Saint Sunil...or the Holy Spirit Plains?"
Victoria's voice was full of exhaustion: "It's useless, our people are illiterate - and the nobles of the Holy Spirit Plain and the Royal Capital will not allow the farmers to put down their hoes and run to read and understand the truth. Then question them later.”
She only said half of it, but she didn’t say the rest: If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes.Regarding the large amount of information about Lu'an City, her own thoughts are actually similar to those of the nobles in the royal capital and plains...
No, it would be better to say that once the nobles in the royal capital and plains know what happened in Lu'an City They even dare not let the people read.
A breeze blew from the side. Victoria stopped talking to Maggie. She looked at the corner of the room and nodded slightly: "Dark Crow, you are back."
A body A figure wearing black soft leather armor emerged from the air. The Royal Shadow Guard "Dark Crow", who once belonged to Francis II and is now under the command of the Duke Regent, bowed to Victoria and saluted: "Duchess, there is nothing strange around this building. "
"It seems that our founding hero is upright," Victoria nodded, but her eyes couldn't help but glance over the "newspaper" at hand, and then she looked at the Royal Shadow Guards not far away, " Have you found out anything?"
"There seems to be another group of visitors in this city besides us. I heard they are a group of businessmen, but they live some distance from the 'castle'. The distance required us to cross the outpost. We were worried about being discovered, so we didn’t go to investigate.”
“A group of businessmen…” Victoria said lightly, as if talking to herself, “The one it is rumored to be. The founding hero really liked 'business'... He relied on the power of businessmen to rise rapidly."
Dark Crow lowered his head: "Are you going to investigate those businessmen?"
"No need, it's not wise to alert the host's other guests," Victoria shook her head, then her eyes suddenly fell on Dark Crow's shoulder, her voice turned slightly colder, "Besides, you have been discovered."
< p> "...Huh?!" Dark Crow was startled, and then noticed the mistress's gaze. The royal shadow guard immediately turned back, and finally noticed something strange on the back of his shoulder. He reached out to grab it, and the result was He fished out a small note from the gap in his leather armor.Seeing the content on the note, the Royal Shadow Guard's expression suddenly changed:
"Hey, let's take a walk? - The Shadow Goddess's daughter stayed here."
p>
"Duchess——" Dark Crow immediately crawled to the ground, with shame and a hint of trembling in her voice, "I...I was careless..."
A blood-curdling weapon The ice pick seemed to have formed on the back of his neck, and the Royal Shadow Guard felt that his nerves and blood were getting colder. However, the next second, the bone-chilling feeling receded like a tide, and he heard the duchess's voice. A voice came from the front: "Get up."
Dark Crow broke out in a cold sweat and stood up as if he had been reborn. Victoria opposite him sighed: "Gawain Cecil once After training Ansu's first batch of royal shadow guards, he will definitely have the most powerful shadow master working for him. It is normal that you are not an opponent. After canceling all the covert operations, the shadow master who has never appeared this time. It just gave us a warning, but when Cecil speaks out, it may not be just a warning.”
Dark Crow breathed a sigh of relief, even though he wanted to say that he should know the "Daughter of the Shadow Goddess" who left the note on him. The other party was not a shadow master at all. In a head-on fight, he was probably only a little stronger than a goose. , but as an adult with normal intelligence, he now hopes that the hostess can overestimate the power of the half-elf as much as possible...
"Now that you have been discovered, do something else. "Okay," Victoria continued, "You leave the city first, follow our second convoy into the city officially the day after tomorrow, and then move around Cecil City - go to the places you are allowed to visit, I want you to focus on three Something like that."
"Please give me instructions."
"Observe how Cecil manages 'people' and understand why they are so efficient; observe the ordinary people here. What are the things people talk about most in daily life, and find out what Cecil Principality looks like in their eyes; finally, observe their market, I want you and other shadow guards to look at everything sold in their market. Record it, including the approximate price changes, and ask about the place of production and daily sales of those things, as well as their management of the market."
"Yes. The Dark Crow's figure disappeared into the air. After a moment, Maggie looked at her mistress: "You finally mentioned the Cecil people's market... Do you want to understand how Duke Cecil's business operates?"
"This is one of the purposes," Victoria nodded, "but more importantly, it is to understand how strong Duke Cecil is after he conquered this land - we have been from Rock Fortress to All routes in Cecil City are planned, and what we can see is also planned - the market is our only way to understand other areas in the south."
Duke Gawain. How many cars, how many ships, how many cities are completely under his control, how many areas are directly connected to the roads of Cecil City, how many gold coins are flowing in this land every day, and how many armies can these gold coins support... …These things can be estimated from the market.