The chaotic and illusory sky envelopes the monotonous earth. The scenery stripped of color presents a state of lack of layering in the field of vision, with an indescribable weirdness. The breeze blows, and fine black particles are rolled up in the wind. Dust, there seemed to be countless pairs of peeping eyes hidden in the dust - Victoria stood in this world filled with black and white, and there was inevitably a trace of surprise on her usually cold and distant face.
The person who surprised her was right next to her. The half-elf with a somewhat overactive personality was standing there with a proud look on his face, his long black hair floating slightly in the air like smoke. Floating, there was a smile in the golden eyes, and a shadow cloud condensed on the lower body. The whole person seemed to have turned into an elf in the shadow world, and was cleverly integrated with this black and white world.
"...Incredible power," Victoria looked at Amber quietly for a few seconds and praised softly, "You are the most powerful Shadow Master I have ever seen. No wonder the Dark Crow was defeated twice. It's in your hands. No one under Duke Cecil is simple."
"It's okay to praise me a few more times. It's rare for someone to praise me like this," Amber smiled proudly. Get up, "By the way, I have an impression of the Dark Crow you mentioned. He was the one who was kicked out of the Shadow Realm twice by me. If you have a chance, you have to persuade him. If it doesn't work, you should practice a two-handed sword and a long-handled hammer." Well, the way of shadow may not be suitable for him..."
Those who are familiar with it know that Amber's mouth will quickly go off topic once she starts talking. Basically, few sentences are meaningful, but Victoria obviously She wasn't quite used to the rhythm of this half-elf, so she was a little dazed on the spot. She probably didn't know how to continue this topic, but fortunately, Amber's BBs were coming in fits and starts, and if she didn't get a response in a short period of time, she would lose it. Skip the thought - the half-elf flexed his hands and feet, looked up at the half-collapsed castle in the distance, showing a strange stacked state, and said in a tone of a criminal preparing to commit a crime: "Don't waste time, Let's start working - there should be the shadow of Tulip Castle over there."
Victoria raised her head and saw the castle at the end of the road: black and white fragments stacked on the gray-black ground. Some distinguishable castle walls can also be seen among the ruins. In this strange and chaotic shadow world, the half-ruined Tulip Castle presents an obvious sense of chaos. Part of its structure seems to have lost its material details, and another part of its structure has lost its material details. They overlap and pile up in a way that violates the laws of nature, and the entire castle loses its coordination like a failed painting. Only the still intact mage tower and part of the ancillary towers are still clearly erected at the rear of the castle.
This is the first time Victoria has entered the Shadow Realm - as a frost mage, her attainments in the Shadow Way are limited to some theoretical knowledge. This mysterious and strange world has opened her eyes and made her He sighed at the power of the half-elf named "Amber" next to him in the shadow arts. She followed Amber, relying on the blessings of swiftness, wind concubine and other spells to keep up with the opponent.Fang's footsteps, and at the same time couldn't help but asked curiously: "Why did you follow Duke Cecil?"
Amber was like a fish in water, speeding through the shadow world, wrapped in black smoke. Flying wantonly in the air, she tilted her head slightly after hearing Victoria's words, with a joking smile on her face: "What? You want to poach people?"
Victoria shook her head solemnly: "No, that was not done by the nobles. , if I really want to hire you, I will negotiate with Duke Cecil directly, and also seek your opinion on a more formal occasion."
"Ah, aboveboard. ...But Lao Zong...Gawain is different," Amber laughed. "If he wants to recruit talents, and if he wants to recruit talents that are obviously impossible to obtain through direct negotiation, then he will definitely lobby for money secretly. She used all kinds of methods to win over public opinion and people."
Victoria once again felt that the topic was a bit difficult to handle, so she could only shake her head: "...our style of conduct is somewhat different."
"So I am more suitable to be with Gawain, not with an 'orthodox' noble like you," Amber said casually, "Didn't you just ask me why I followed Duke Cecil? In fact, it doesn't matter. I dug his grave, and then I was caught by the person involved. In fact, I dug the grave just to hide."
Victoria looked at Amber in shock, as if to confirm. Is the other person joking?
"You can't believe it, right? But it's really the case," Amber said nonchalantly, "Actually, I was quite unhappy about being detained at first. What I wanted to do was pretend to agree. , and then ran away while Gawain wasn't paying attention. However, I discovered one thing later: I couldn't beat him, I really couldn't beat him, and I couldn't run away, so I had no choice but to stay. That's quite right - the salary will go up in the second year."
Victoria listened to all this expressionlessly, but the slight flash in her eyes showed that she was not as calm and indifferent as she seemed. , she took a deep look at Amber and said in the calmest terms possible: "I have never heard anyone describe their loyalty to a nobleman in this way. You... are really... special."
"...Duchess, you made a mistake," Amber suddenly stopped and looked at Victoria, "I have never been loyal to Duke Gawain Cecil. I have never been loyal to any nobleman or his bloodline family."
Victoria's indifferent expression was broken, and she looked at Amber in shock.
“I am not a descendant of a noble. Half of my extraordinary strength comes from my talent, and half comes from a thief who was jointly executed by the church and the nobles. Naturally, I am not qualified to swear allegiance to the nobles because I don’t even have the surname. None, and I don’t need this qualification," Amber said calmly, "At first, Gawain gave me a salary of one gold coin a month, so I was responsible for this one gold coin. Later, the salary increased. , I am responsible for the increased wages.Later, he established Cecil City and unified the Kant area. He let the serfs redeem themselves with work, so that civilians could walk in the middle of the road, so that merchants did not have to kowtow to knights. I like all this, and my job is to maintain All this, so I started taking responsibility for my work.
"Later, he established the Principality of Cecil, where all citizens could study and work. From the year before last to last year, no one starved to death in the winter in Cecil City, so I am loyal to the Duke of Cecil in my heart.
“Duchess, I am not a noble. Even if Gawain gives me a noble title in the future, I will probably never be like you. A standard nobleman within the rules. I have no allegiance to Duke Cecil, the Cecil family, or any so-called noble bloodline or title. Although I respect everyone in the current Cecil family, that is only because they deserve respect, but I don’t Allegiance to them, and they never asked me for allegiance.
"If anything, we have only one common allegiance - our allegiance is to what Gawain Cecil built, not to him.
"Ma'am, if you can't tell the difference, then I'm afraid we will never be the same person. ”
Victoria looked at the half-elf in front of her quietly. After entering the Shadow Realm, this half-elf lady seemed to have changed not only her temperament, but also a little bit of her personality, but what she said Those words... may not be what she really thinks.
"I will try hard to understand. "Victoria said calmly.
"That's your problem. To be honest, I really don’t like nobles, most of them don’t like them, but recently there are two more exceptions in my eyes, one is you, and the other is Belk who lit the beacon,” Amber turned around and continued on her way. Said, "I have always felt that the noble virtues spoken by nobles were all bragging, but at least from you, I have seen something that actually exists - but then again, Duchess, individuals cannot represent the whole, and I still don't Like nobility. ”
Victoria followed the half-elf again. She remained silent for a short period of time, neither defending the aristocratic system nor giving any advice to the person in front of her who seemed to have deep feelings for the aristocratic group. The prejudiced half-elf explained the meaning of bloodline inheritance. Although she once cared about these things, at this moment, she didn't want to defend them at all.
After silence, she just asked. Asked a question: “Did no one in Cecil City really starve to death in the past two winters? "
"Of course, we have a complete population statistics and management system, and the death and birth of every population are registered. "
"...How did you do it? In the absence of an aristocratic system..."
"Are you talking about food supply or population management? ”
“All. ”
“Oh, let’s talk about it slowly.," Amber raised her head and glanced at the collapsed castle that was not too far away, "Maybe we should start with the relationship between land and people..."
...
In the northern plain of Red Maple City, on the bank of the Gorgon River, Gawain stood on an observation tower at the frontline camp, staring at the busy scene in the direction of the dock.
The artillery fire and flames dispersed the corruption on the plain. Pollution, the Cecil Corps successfully occupied a large wharf that once belonged to the local lord. After intense reconstruction and construction, the engineering troops widened the road and strengthened the stone trestle on the basis of the old wharf, turning it into At the temporary military dock, tanks were being lined up neatly towards the reinforced trestles, and phalanxes of fully armed soldiers were queuing up to board the ships.
On the Gorgon River, three people were seen. A Cecil main battleship is performing security missions far away from the trestle, while a series of escort gunboats converted from civilian ships or light gunboats rushed out of the rear shipyard are patrolling back and forth on the wide river. There are also several ships with wide decks and smooth hulls. The sturdy ships were attached to the edge of the pier, carrying the boarding soldiers and tanks.
Those cargo ships that looked nothing like warships were modified military cargo ships deployed from the rear. Although they were said to be modified for military use, due to limited time, they actually only added some steel plates to key parts of the hull, welded a set of shield generators to the hull, and installed a set of shield generators in the cabin. It is just a magic network terminal connected to the "Pioneer", and it does not even have a basic weapon system (adding a weapon system means large-scale modification of the power spine, and the shipyard's production capacity is not enough), their Safety relies entirely on escorting warships.
These "armored transport ships" were originally prepared to transfer refugees from the northern region. They began to be modified when the ground forces advanced to the north, but after When their transformation was finally completed, Gawain discovered that there were few refugees in the contaminated area to transfer, so these ships were used to transport various supplies to the front line. Today, they have a new mission: to fight with The Cecil fleet set sail together, loaded with chariots and soldiers, to the Saint-Sunil defense line to guard that important gateway.
This force heading north via the Gorgon River will arrive several days earlier than the main force on the ground. Saint Sunil.
The sound of footsteps came from behind. Philip came to the observation deck, saluted Gawain and said: "The Iron Rangers have sent Duchess Victoria and Amber to the vicinity of Tulip Castle. The soldiers visually confirmed that the mage tower is indeed still running. If everything goes well, the news will be sent to Saint Sunil today. "
"Very good," Gawain nodded, "When they come back, the ship should be almost loaded here, and they can just board the ship and set off. ”
Philip hesitated for a moment and couldn’t help but confirm again: “Do you really want to go there in person?” "
Gawain laughed: "I'm already here, what's the point of going a little further north?the difference? "
"But the task this vanguard has to perform is arduous and dangerous - in order to support the royal capital as soon as possible, it must break away from the main force on the ground. After arriving in Saint-Sunil, it must at least support it far away from the rear. Fighting alone for five days. In the worst case scenario, Saint-Sunil will be breached before the vanguard arrives, so the vanguard will be sent directly to the deepest part of the monster's encirclement - even if there are two ships, the Pioneer, Aurora and Morning Star. If the warships cover the evacuation, the losses of the troops will be extremely heavy. "
"So it needs a strong ground commander," Gawain glanced at Philip, "You must stay behind to command the main army, and then I will be the one left. "
"...Indeed. "
"I will go to Saint-Sunil to organize a defense line first. With the fire support of three main warships, there will be no problems in the north," Gawain smiled and patted Philip on the shoulder, "You just need to continue Just proceed according to the plan, set up the coastal defense line, and prevent those monsters from further contaminating the west coast. Finally, we will meet up in Saint-Sunil to close the blockade. "
After finishing speaking, he breathed lightly and said calmly: "As for whether the royal city will fall before then... Victoria firmly believes that Baldwin and Wales can defend St. Sunil. , I will believe her just once. ”