Chapter 481 — Spreading Far and Wide

A new war had already begun.

If this were the shallow, narrow-minded self of the past—the one who had scraped a living swindling and hoodwinking in a rural adventurer's tavern—she likely would not have grasped the deeper meaning behind those words. But at this moment, Gibri understood in an instant just how astounding a feat it was she was about to undertake.

If her voice truly could reach across the whole of the Southern Region.

If these materials before her could truly be delivered into every person's eyes and ears.

Then... the bad times for the Daylight Church had come.

The Daylight Church's extremism was no recent development. Their campaigns to strike down heretics and squeeze the common folk had deep roots, and in recent years had only grown more savage. Yet countless ordinary people still silently endured it all—some even seemed to have grown accustomed to it, as though ordinary folk truly could not feel suffering and knew nothing of resistance. But Gibri, once one of those ordinary people, knew the truth was nothing of the sort.

The masses were numb, but not wholly thoughtless. They were used to swallowing their grievances, but that did not mean they liked it.

They bore it all simply because, cut off from information and starved of knowledge, they could neither see the dark truth of the Church nor imagine that any other way of life could exist in this world. And more important still: there had never been a single voice that spoke from the standpoint of ordinary people.

But once the first surge of excitement ebbed, a question quickly surfaced in Gibri's mind: "My lord, these things may indeed deal the Daylight Church a heavy blow, but the God of Holy Light has a great many believers in the Southern Region. Many common folk truly have faith in the Holy Light. In that regard..."

"Exactly. So what I intend to do is not to root out the Holy Light, only to root out the Daylight Church," Gao Yan nodded. "For those who sincerely seek the Holy Light, I will of course give them the Holy Light. Afterward I'll arrange for you to meet once with Light, the Great Patriarch of the New Holy Light Church. You can get a proper understanding of what form the Holy Light faith of Cecil's own people ought to take."

"The Great Patriarch... Light?" Gibri blinked in astonishment. "That pastor gentleman?"

"The very same, though he is no longer a pastor," said Gao Rong, rising, looking forward to the expression Gibri would wear when she saw the White Knights drilling in formation across the territory. "Miss Gibri, you have been away too long. The changes here exceed anything you can imagine—go and experience them with your own eyes."

The witch Gibri departed. For a time, only Gao Yang and Betty—still cradling the great teapot and gazing off into the void—remained in the reception room. After a moment of silent thought, Gao Yang looked at the daydreaming little maid: "Go and bring Rebecca to me."

The little maid snapped to attention: "Ah! Yes!"

Betty had been gone only a short while when the door opened, and Gao Yang heard a voice brimming with energy from the doorway: "Ancestor~~ you wanted to see me?!"

"Yes, I wanted to ask..." Gao Cen replied, turning his head toward the door—and the instant he saw Rebecca, the words he had meant to say became a strangled cry: "You finally set the house on fire?!"

He stared slack-jawed at his little granddaughter before him—half her face was blackened with soot, the upper half of her clothes and her hands were smeared all over with ash. To look at her, one would believe she had just blown up the Institute of Magical Technology.

Gao Yang remembered the last time Rebecca had appeared before him in such a state—it was when she had nearly blown up a laboratory. The fool roe deer with her wildly original ideas had tried to mold a 1:1 statue of her Ancestor using giant fireballs, and when she got to the left leg, the fireball exploded... To this day, Gao Yang could not decide whether to be astonished at the girl's thought process or at the fact that she had managed to hold it together until three-quarters done before it blew...

Had this girl been playing with giant fireballs like modeling clay since she was small?

At the Xuanmai Sect's words, Rebecca immediately stuck out her tongue in embarrassment: "Um... I was in the kitchen just now..."

"What were you doing in the kitchen?" Gao Yang blinked. "Stealing food and fall into the stove by accident?"

Rebecca put her hands on her hips, utterly self-righteous: "I was stewing bone broth for you!"

Gao Yang grew even more baffled: "Why were you stewing bone broth?"

"Aunt Hedy said you're getting on in years and your bones are weak," Rebecca sold out her aunt without a moment's thought, and only afterward realized what she had done. "Oh right, Aunt said not to tell you. But I figured if I cooked for you myself, you'd definitely be happy!"

Gao Yang: "??"

What kind of nonsense was this!

Even pooling the perspective of a transmigrator with the experience of a satellite spirit, Gao Yang could not work out what was going on in the head of his great-great-great... great-granddaughter. And if Rebecca's head had been caught in the city gate, so be it—but now Hedy had to go and muddy the waters too...

He finally had a vague inkling of whose idea it had been that he drink bone broth every single night lately.

Yet surprised as he was, puzzled as he was, Gao Yang at least understood that this little hellion before him had wanted to show some care for him—though, as always, her clumsy hands had ruined everything. Still, the intention deserved encouragement. He had no choice but to swallow the look of utter despair back into his belly and, striving for composure, said: "All right, I understand your intention. But next time, don't be so careless. Where's the broth you stewed?"

"It smelled too good. I couldn't resist."

Gao Yang: "..."

It seemed that had nothing to do with her intention after all...

After straining for a good long while to keep his face in a stern expression, Gao Yang dragged the conversation back, almost stiffly, to where he had meant to begin: "Let's set that aside for now—I called you here to confirm the implementation status of the magic-net broadcast system. What areas can we now cover with the magic-net signal?"

Hearing that it was a matter of business, Rebecca hastily wiped her face and reported with utmost seriousness: "Along the cross-shaped axis centered on the Kant territory, we've built a trunk network using magic-energy relay towers. The magic-nets of the four newly built cities are now connected to the trunk network, and coverage has essentially been achieved. In addition, in some of the satellite towns along the cross-shaped axis, we've ensured that every town has at least one magic-net broadcast terminal, and all have passed trial operation."

After a pause, she continued with a hint of embarrassment: "Areas beyond the cross-shaped axis are not yet covered for the time being. On one hand, the construction teams can't keep up—manpower and materials are limited after all. On the other, the population in those remote areas is scattered, and the villages haven't been consolidated yet, so laying magic-nets and installing broadcast facilities isn't worth the cost. And there's also a problem with the production capacity of magic-net terminals. Of the new magic-net terminal factory, only half the production lines have passed inspection so far..."

The problems brought on by the territory's overexpansion had existed from the very beginning and were still fermenting even now. The limited manpower, materials, and factory capacity of Cecil's industrial zone constrained the spread of new technology across the Southern Region, and likewise constrained the construction of infrastructure.