Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 419 - 418: The Road to Revenge

Although the Eternal Sleepers are a cult that people fear and avoid, the psychic network they established truly amazes Gawain. He finds it hard to imagine how, amidst the world’s overall medieval development, a group of evil cult followers conceived the idea of building such a psychic network and creating a virtual world within it. Moreover, it’s not just the psychic network; there are many things in this world that seem unbelievable to Gawain. On one hand, the world maintains a nearly medieval darkness and backwardness at its core, while on the surface, it seems as advanced as a near-future planet Earth. These two completely opposite and contradictory situations coexist in the same world. Even though Gawain knows that it’s the unique development pattern of magic technology and the aftermath of a chaotic wave hundreds of years ago that led to this situation, he can’t help but marvel from time to time.

Just like now, he saw Patty, whom he hadn’t seen for several days, on the psychic network. The two of them, separated by hundreds of kilometers, could have a face-to-face conversation in the psychic network. But in the real world outside, most ordinary people might never hear of new happenings in a neighboring city in their entire lives.

Whenever he thinks of this, Gawain finds it unbearable—the Transcendents of this world might be accustomed to enjoying the conveniences of magic technology while watching the struggles of the common folk and the poor. But the more he encounters these things, the harder he finds it to accept them.

Fortunately, a crucial step in Magic Web Communication technology has already been taken.

As these reflections emerged in Gawain’s mind, Patty, who was resting beside the flowerbed, finally saw "Uncle Celsey" not far away—the little girl was sitting alone today and wasn’t running around, which was quite a rare sight—she stood up from the bench and waved her arms vigorously at Gawain: "Uncle! Uncle! I’m here!"

Gawain had already confirmed Selena Gerfen wasn’t around, so upon hearing Patty’s call, he smiled and approached. He looked curiously at the little girl’s side: "Alone today?"

"Sister Selena seems to be sick these days, she hasn’t come," the little girl pouted, appearing a bit unhappy, "Uncle, you’ve also been missing for several days..."

"Uncle is usually busy." Gawain smiled, pressing the little girl’s hair, yet a hint of doubt crossed his mind: Selena Gerfen "sick"? Is she really sick? Or is the Eternal Sleepers up to some big project again? Or has something else happened?

These questions certainly won’t yield answers from little Patty, and Gawain only felt slightly puzzled. He then temporarily put them aside and began to chat idly with Patty.

Then, unsurprisingly, he heard news about Gran Territory—

"Mom went out, taking many knights with her," Patty said, not very pleased, "The people in the castle say there’s a war outside, but they all think I’m a child and don’t want to say much to me... Only the maid sister told me that Mom will definitely come back..."

"Of course, you should believe the maid’s words. Your mom will definitely come home." Gawain smiled, gently stroking the little girl’s hair.

He naturally knew the whereabouts of Lady Ropeney Gran.

The lady must have already gathered the remnants of the aristocrats scattered in the northern areas and is leading them toward the rocky ridges Fortress at the edge of the Plains of the Holy Spirits. She is accompanied by loyal guards she trained over the past decade, as well as dozens of well-equipped, well-trained Cecil soldiers. She is on her path of revenge, undeterred by any hardships or suffering.

The hatred accumulated over ten years isn’t easily released cleanly; the cannon attack at Broken Stone Ridge marks the beginning of reclaiming the southern borders for Gawain, while for Lady Ropeney Gran, it is the starting point of revenge. Honestly, Gawain never imagined that the weak-looking lady would achieve so much—when she sent a secret report indicating she would continue sending aristocrats to their doom, even he was shocked.

But he knows it’s best to let Ropeney go forward; no one could do it better or with more dedication than her.

He only needs to fulfill the promises he made—to destroy the last of the aristocratic resistances when the time is ripe, and in the process, protect Gran Territory, protect her daughter.

He looked at little Patty sitting beside him, swinging her feet, and casually asked: "With your mother not home, are you scared?"

"Not at all," Patty raised her neck proudly, "I’m very brave! Besides, the maid sister stays with me at night... and there’s also the new maids and guards in the castle recently, they tell me stories too."

"New maids and guards, huh." Gawain casually responded, feeling slightly reassured.

The so-called "maids and guards" were those who, before the war started, entered Gran Castle through Lady Ropeney’s channels. They are highly-trained Steel Dragoon Warriors and Intelligence Agency operatives, tasked with protecting her castle and daughter during Lady Ropeney Gran’s absence. On the other hand, they are also monitoring the situation of Gran Territory.

Gawain trusts Lady Ropeney very much; he believes that even for revenge, the lady won’t betray the alliance established with him. However, he does not dare to trust the loyalty of other people on noble lands of this era—especially in Gran Territory, a place with a precedent for rebellion, and Lady Ropeney Gran obviously shares this view.

No one can guarantee how long stability can be maintained in Gran Territory once the lady leaves and becomes "missing," just from the intelligence Gawain has received, in the Carol, Peibo, Konsko areas, the news of the Noble Coalition Army’s defeat spread chaos within a week; he definitely can’t let Gran Territory fall into the same chaos.

Looking at little Patty in front of him, Gawain fell slightly into thought.

By now, Lady Ropeney Gran should have arrived or nearly arrived at rocky ridges Fortress, according to the agreed timetable, it’s time for him to send people to "take over" Gran Territory—after all, if Cecil’s Army deliberately ignores Gran Territory after a major victory, it would easily arouse suspicion.

...

Traversing the endless wilderness, eating the coarsest food, wearing tattered clothes, not only entangled with the mud and rubble in the wilderness but also constantly prepared to fight the roaming wolves and brown bears... The past ten days have been nothing short of a nightmare for Viscount Carol and his companions.

Not to mention that the shadow of the Cecil Clan loomed over this nightmare, along with those terrifying magic spells that could erupt into destructive explosions with a sharp whistle at any moment—although they appeared less frequently in the latter part of this nightmare, every time Viscount Carol recalls everything he experienced at the Broken Stone Ridge and on the road of escape, he can’t help but feel a chill running down his spine.

But fortunately, every nightmare has its waking moment, and the long night will eventually see the dawn.

After more than ten days of fleeing, the remaining noble lords—which might also be the last glorious bloodline on the southern borders (at least that’s what the people in the team believed)—finally reached the destination of their escape journey.

The majestic fortress standing on the border of the Plains of the Holy Spirits finally appeared before them.

When the towering walls of the rocky ridges Fortress came into view, Viscount Carol was nearly moved to tears. The wind blew on his face, cracked and darkened by days of hard traveling and negligent care, cutting like a blade. Yet, at this moment, the Viscount could entirely tolerate and ignore that pain. He immediately waved his arms and loudly said to Viscount Konsko beside him, "Look! The rocky ridges Fortress! We’ve finally made it! We’re safe now!"

"Thank the Goddess of the Night for protection..." Viscount Konsko said excitedly, not forgetting to glance at the admirable lady leading the team not far away, "And thank Lady Ropeney... she truly saved us all!"

Viscount Mari Oran couldn’t help but look in the direction of Ropeni Ge’lan as well. Seeing that slender figure on the horse, the complicated expression flashed across the face of this Viscount, whose territory was only separated from Gran Territory by a small river.

A truly determined lady... indeed determined.

But that fleeting complicated expression was soon replaced by the relief of safely arriving at the rocky ridges Fortress, overpowering everything else at the moment.

The commander of the rocky ridges Fortress, Sir Maryland, directly loyal to the royal family, was on the high walls, watching with vigilant concern for any changes occurring around the fortress.

The recent messages coming from both the north and the south of the fortress have made this high-level knight lord deeply worried. He has heard about the great upheaval occurring within the royal family—though he only knew some imprecise details, it seemed a great crisis was soon looming over the kingdom. Yet, what was even more concerning was the south: to the south of the rocky ridges Fortress, the Cecil Clan, which had been silent for a century, was no longer dormant.

Merchants traveling from north to south brought shocking news, and the messages came one after another, first saying that over forty nobles from the southern borders suddenly united to attack Duke Cecil, and then shortly after, they directly relayed the news of seventy thousand of the noble coalition army being utterly defeated by Cecil’s archMage Corps—who knows where this fantastical "archMage Corps" came from.

When Sir Maryland received these messages, he didn’t dare believe they were true. It was absurd, a seventy-thousand strong army! Now, how many people did the entire Cecil region have?

That was seventy thousand, led by noble lords and knights! Even if they were seventy thousand pigs, for the Cecil Clan to capture, there’s no way they could catch them all so quickly, right?!

However, what happened afterward brought deep uneasiness, even making Sir Maryland almost believe those tales from the southern merchants were true—since then, all communications with the southern noble families have been entirely cut off.

Noble families in remote regions might not contact the rocky ridges Fortress for several months, but even the Carol family, just beyond a ridge to the south, losing contact was quite troubling.

Sir Maryland paced with slight agitation along the wall, contemplating whether to send a squad of knights to the south to check the situation—or dispatch a team of envoys, under the pretense of visiting the Carol territory, to take a look down south. But just as these thoughts arose, a personal soldier suddenly ran up beside him.

"General! Below the fortress... a large group of people is coming!"

In all situations, Sir Maryland had gotten used to having soldiers call him general, a habit he developed after taking charge of the fortress. Looking at the slightly flustered soldier before him, the general had a slightly displeased look: "Why panic—what kind of large group of people?"

"They look like beggars—but they claim to be southern nobles!"

Sir Maryland’s expression froze.

It seemed he didn’t need to send knights or messengers to the south after all.

(Dawn, the book friends’ circle is holding a writing contest for fan micro-novels with rewards! For details, check the pinned post in the book friends’ circle~~~)