Chapter 446 — Broadcast

For the people of the Horsman region, what they had lived through in recent days was far more complicated than everything their ancestors had experienced over several generations combined.

The Horsman family that had ruled this land collapsed overnight; the masters of the castle were replaced by "administrative officials" from Cecil; the concise yet rigorous decrees of the Administrative Hall supplanted the old lords' laws; population resettlement and land distribution followed close behind; the disciplined Cecil army replaced those slack and greedy private retainers of the nobility and enforced the new lord's orders to the letter; and along with all this came one engineering corps after another, one construction site after another...

The changes came so swiftly that their effects were naturally mixed, for better and for worse.

Many felt uneasy, at a loss before all these brand-new things; some could not fathom what those never-before-heard "Cecil laws" and "Cecil order" were even for. The Horsman people, long accustomed to a loose and chaotic way of life, often gathered together to discuss the "incomprehensible" parts of the new laws — such as the ban on relieving oneself in the streets, and the centralized disposal of refuse — while others had noticed the good side of the Cecilans' arrival.

The officials of the Administrative Hall were plainly more reasonable than lords and knights; the laws they issued were enforced strictly, not according to the whim of whatever magistrate happened to hold office. The Cecil soldiers were more disciplined — since occupying the castle and the watchposts they had not taken so much as a scrap from the nearby common folk, and had even helped repair houses. The new lord's promise of land distribution was no empty slogan either; at least the first batch of settlers who had moved to the outskirts of the city had each received their own plot. Though many worried the lord might take the land back at any moment, for the time being at least, they had land in their hands...

For most people, it did not matter who their lord was, nor whose banner flew above the castle; so long as the people's food and clothing were assured, a ruler in this age could reap unimaginable support — and the new Administrative Hall at least guaranteed that much. So even though the new decrees were not easily put into practice, the Horsman Administrative Hall's remaking and construction of this land was still proceeding on schedule.

At the old Horsman castle — now the seat of the Administrative Hall — a group of arcanotechnicians and soldiers were busily at work in the square before the fortress.

These "engineering corps" from the Cecil region had become frequent visitors to the territory of late. As the situation across the Horsman region stabilized, more and more Cecil construction teams entered the area, bringing with them incredible arcanotechnology and using all manner of wondrous machines to build houses and facilities.

The Horsman people called those arcanotechnicians in cloth work uniforms "Cecil sorcerers," because they were always seen using wondrous spells to put up buildings — yet these arcanotechnicians all insisted they were ordinary folk, and so the locals had given them that name.

Whenever the "Cecil sorcerers" worked, there was always a crowd watching. The Horsman people had gradually grown used to the wondrous things the Cecilans brought to this land, and under the Administrative Hall's propaganda had little by little come into contact with this incredible arcanotechnology. But after all, too little time had passed; the so-called "Arcane Age" was still a novel and curious phrase to these locals. The "noble sorcery" that had once stood high above them, belonging only to the aristocracy, was now so close at hand — and the vast majority of common folk could not resist such curiosity.

Quite a few people were gathered around the square at this moment, speculating about what the arcanotechnicians and soldiers were busy with, wondering what use those strange metal parts, crystals, and rune devices might have. Though some soldiers stood guard at the construction site, they showed no intention of driving the crowd away.

The Horsman people had more or less figured out the temper of these imposing soldiers: they truly were disciplined — even common soldiers were as self-restrained as the most upright knights. So long as no law was broken, these sword-bearing soldiers would never trouble commoners or extort money.

"What do you reckon they're doing?" someone in the crowd asked curiously of the person beside him. "You got here early — do you know?"

The man questioned shook his head. "How would I know? They were already at it when I arrived. But I'd guess it's mostly streetlamps... haven't they been putting up streetlamps all over the city lately?"

"This square already has streetlamps — what do we need more for?" a third person nearby retorted. "Anyway, the Administrative Hall folks will tell us sooner or later. Say — does anyone know what's written on the notice in the square today?"

The first speaker shook his head. "I can't read. But it's probably more of those new decrees — no relieving yourself in the streets, building latrines and refuse stations, that sort of thing..."

An old man standing a little behind the crowd overheard and could not help muttering, "Can't even take a shit in the street now. Honestly, that's just unreasonable."

Such was the nature of a crowd's chatter — sometimes in the space of a few sentences the topic would veer off somewhere else entirely. The several men's discussion quickly shifted to those peculiar "Cecil order" rules. Someone shook his head and grumbled, "They even want everyone to boil their water before drinking it — if you ask me, the gentlemen of the Administrative Hall are good folk, but they meddle altogether too much..."

"The boiling water thing, I reckon there's something to it — at least it doesn't taste strange anymore once it's boiled—"

The people began happily debating this new topic, wandering further and further from where they had started — but by now the work in the square had reached its final stage: after a tense spell of bustling about, the arcanotechnicians fixed a strange, large device onto the stone platform at the center of the square.

It was a curious apparatus with a triangular base, runes gleaming across its surface, and a crystal set into its top.

The arcanotechnicians began testing the device, lighting up one rune after another on its surface to confirm its condition. The curious crowd gradually fell silent, their attention drawn back to this odd-looking thing. And just as the crowd's curiosity was being stirred anew, several squads of mounted soldiers suddenly burst from the castle and galloped toward the various exits of the square.

Someone heard the soldiers shouting:

"Citizens of Horsman! The great Duke Gao Yang Cecil will speak to you! Gather in the square!"

Gao Yang Cecil? The lord?

The lord was going to appear in the square? When had he arrived?

The people exchanged glances, every face blank with bewilderment. Of course they knew their new lord's name — but they had never expected the lord himself to show up in this place. There had been no word beforehand, no one had seen carriages or horses enter the city — so how was the lord about to arrive?

And besides... hadn't they heard the lord had taken his army north to fight? Had he already returned? Back so soon... Had he won? Or had the fighting never broken out at all? Or... had he lost?

The people were astonished and confused. Those who had been about to head home, bored with watching the construction, all stopped in their tracks and stayed to discuss this incredible matter of the lord's sudden arrival with the others. And as they talked, they saw another squad of soldiers emerge from the castle and take up formation around that peculiar "arcane device" just installed at the center of the square.