Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 387 - 386: Gawain’s Preparations for War

When the fire at Longwind Fortress broke out, Gawain was just preparing to end his connection with the satellite.

Although he couldn’t see clearly, he could confirm that the border negotiations had ended. Judging by the fact that neither side began fighting, even if the negotiations were unsuccessful, they at least did not escalate into a national war. Therefore, after the King returned to Longwind Fortress, Gawain was ready to temporarily stop paying attention to that area.

Then, the flames soared up.

The fire was ignited from within the fortress. From the satellite images, there were no signs of external attacks. The fire spread in the western area of the fortress but did not extend beyond this area—it looked imposing but seemed to be under human control.

Something went wrong.

Gawain immediately made a judgment, then tried adjusting the satellite camera’s focus, but no matter how much he adjusted, due to the aging satellite lens and the obstruction from smoke and flames, he couldn’t see what was happening below. Only one thing could be confirmed—tonight, something earth-shattering was about to occur.

Without hesitation, he called upon Aunt Heidi, who hadn’t slept yet, and summoned Byron Kirk and Sir Philip, who were ready to rest.

Seeing Gawain’s serious and grim face, Aunt Heidi was startled and forcibly stopped herself from yawning, looking at Gawain with curiosity: "Ancestor, you summoned us so late, did something major happen?"

Gawain was slightly taken aback. Explaining the source of the information seemed to be a difficult task, but after a brief hesitation, he decisively spoke up: "Something’s happening at Longwind Fortress, and I suspect Francis II is in danger—a fatal danger."

"What?!" Byron was shocked, his jaw nearly making a snapping sound, and his eyes widened, "Leader, is your information reliable...I mean, how do you know this?!"

The distance to Longwind Fortress is a thousand miles away, so there’s no way information could travel to the Cecil Clan so quickly—Byron clearly heard Gawain say Francis II "is" in danger, as if he had just seen something firsthand!

"A special source of information," Gawain said, his expression unchanged, deciding to use the most unreasonable logic of "I know everything because I’m your ancestor" to ignore this minor issue, "In any case, we must prepare for the king’s demise—and even for Prince Edmund’s demise."

This startling turn of events left the three before Gawain dumbfounded. Sir Philip instinctively placed his hand on his chest, reciting the name of the War God: "God of War, Kehr...what is happening tonight..."

"If the King dies at the eastern border...Anzu will surely face war," Aunt Heidi quickly started analyzing, "The key now is how all of this relates to the Typhon Empire..."

Before she could finish, the window of the study was suddenly pushed open by an invisible hand, and a gust of cold night wind swept into the room as Amber jumped lightly from the windowsill before Gawain—she was panting heavily, evidently having rushed back at top speed.

In fact, to rush back to the feudal lord’s mansion from the southernmost part of the defied Fortress, for the first time in her life, she pushed her shadow magic to the brink of its limit, traversing back and forth between the shadow realm and the real world, covering almost a day and a half’s journey in just half an hour!

Amber clearly didn’t expect Aunt Heidi and others to be in Gawain’s study, so the intelligence she was about to shout out was swallowed back down. But upon noticing Gawain’s serious and inquiring look, she still spoke up: "The King is dead! Prince Edmund has killed his father!"

Earlier, Byron was shocked by Gawain’s source of information; now it was Gawain’s turn to be shocked by someone else’s source. He looked at the half-elf before him in astonishment: "How did you know?"

Could it be that even this disgrace to all creation has a synchronous orbit satellite of its own?

Amber desperately gasped for breath, finally catching her breath, but when she opened her mouth to speak, she suddenly hesitated about how to explain it—what she had witnessed was too bizarre. Through some spatial rift in the shadow realm, she traveled to the kingdom’s border, then from the border brought one of the regicides back to the southern borders, and afterward, Soldrin and Tiel accidentally beat him half to death... Picking any single thing out of this would sound as unbelievable as a joke, yet they all happened!

Finally, she gathered her words: "We discovered an ancient spatial rift at the Shadow Testing Grounds—the rift was on the shadow realm side. I went over to check the situation, squeezed through the rift, and ended up inside Longwind Fortress. I then saw the King being killed by an old man with my own eyes, and Prince Edmund was standing nearby, evidently an accomplice—then I was discovered and had to retreat urgently. Unexpectedly, the old man followed, but Soldrin set up defenses in the Shadow Testing Grounds, so the old man got hit by four explosive shots from Soldrin’s Steel Cavalry. Now Tiel has him tied up into a ball..."

"What’s all this..." Gawain stared dumbfoundedly at the babbling Amber and quickly caught on, "Wait, you said you also brought someone over? And captured them alive?!"

"Yes! That’s why I came to get you to quickly check on the situation!" Amber slapped her forehead, "You better hurry—the old man is tied up by Tiel, but Tiel looks rather menacing, I’m afraid that sea caterpillar monster might eat the old man!"

Gawain really wanted to yell out about how messed up everything was tonight, but to maintain his ancestral image, he had to suppress all his complaints down to his bronchial tubes, nodding seriously with a stern expression: "I’ll head over immediately."

He then turned to Aunt Heidi and the others: "Aunt Heidi, immediately organize the wartime state manifest. I’ll try my best to return by noon tomorrow. Before then, gather the business, agriculture, and industrial supervisors in the territory for an emergency meeting. Byron, Sir Philip, the Combat Corps’ first unit should enter the highest state of combat readiness, prepared to upgrade to a wartime state at any moment. Additionally, Sir Philip, tomorrow make a trip to Kant and deliver orders to Knight Wald Peric. Have the Second Legion strengthen their defenses, especially watching for any disturbances in the noble territories of the northern region. Report any immediately."

The northern part of the Kant territory is the Carol territory, the main gateway to the Plains of the Holy Spirits, and can also be seen as a buffer zone between the heart of the kingdom and the southern borders. Based on the fire situation inside Longwind Fortress and the intelligence brought by Amber, Gawain believes this is likely an alarming court struggle, potentially even more dangerous than the turmoil of the Fog Month in the past—all the aristocracy of the kingdom are probably about to get embroiled in a chaotic battle. Although he thinks the southern borders, long on the edges of the kingdom, might not be quickly caught up in the upheaval, he still has to find ways to guard against threats from the Plains of the Holy Spirits.

Of course, another reason is that he wants to give the Second Legion, which hasn’t yet stabilized, something to do to prevent any issues when the situation changes, especially with those knights who just pledged loyalty and the former Kant soldiers who just started accepting Cecil military training.

Seeing Gawain about to rise and leave, Aunt Heidi couldn’t help but ask: "Should we find something for Rebecca to do? She is, after all, a Cecil..."

Rebecca is currently the only heir of the Cecil Clan. Though she excels neither in internal affairs nor military matters, Aunt Heidi’s traditional aristocratic mindset makes her feel Rebecca should be involved in these matters as well.

Gawain looked deeply at Aunt Heidi: "Let Rebecca get some good rest, and continue with her usual routine at the Magic Guide Technology Research Institute tomorrow—continue working on vehicle chassis or printing machines. What she’s doing is just as important as preparing for a war."

Then he added: "Aunt Heidi, times have changed. A person’s duties should be determined by their capabilities, not their bloodline."

After leaving those words, Gawain and Amber left the feudal lord’s mansion together.

...

In the Shadow Testing Grounds, Soldrin and the soldiers were on guard around the pond, while Sea Demon Tiel maintained her terrifying and sobering "Sea Demon" form, using numerous tentacles to control Clement’s actions.

But in fact, even without being bound by tentacles, that unlucky fellow barely had the strength to resist or escape.

The power of four explosive shots is no joke—after the enforced life-prolonging effects of the Thorn Skin Spell and Life Conversion ended, unprecedented weakness almost directly claimed Clement’s life. If Tiel hadn’t noticed in time that her "prey" was slowly dying, Clement would probably already be a corpse.

"I’m telling you, don’t die," Tiel kept tapping Clement’s face with a tentacle to rouse the dazed enemy again and again, her tone filled with worry. "If you die by my hands, I can forever forget about those ’little biscuits’ Gawain has collected..."

Clearly, this Sea Demon girl still hasn’t given up on her idea of the "God of Nature" corpse Gawain possesses...

Soldrin watched with a strange expression as Tiel used appropriate healing spells to keep the captive alive and interacted bizarrely with him using her tentacles, unable to help but ask: "Don’t you think your current form alone could scare someone to death?"

Tiel looked down at her scale-covered upper body and the grotesque, bizarre lower half of tentacles, bewildered: "I don’t think so—this is how all our sisters are like over there..."

Soldrin muttered helplessly: "...What kind of aesthetic sense do you sea demons have..."

"The one who can change form the most is the prettiest," Tiel replied matter-of-factly. "Everyone can shapeshift anyway, so the usual appearance is whatever grows..."

Gawain arrived at the scene amidst such a strange atmosphere.

Upon entering the Shadow Testing Grounds, he immediately saw Tiel occupying the entire pond, her enormous and bizarre form, and her mass of tentacles twisting even more than an octopus.

His first reaction was whether he needed to undergo a sanity check...

"You’d better not stare at her tentacles," Amber, following behind Gawain, warned, "The few with patterns are particularly sinister. As soon as you stare at them, you’ll immediately have your mind affected and turn into an especially positive, optimistic, cheerful, and energetic person for at least two hours..."

Gawain: "???"

What in the world?!