Chapter 531 — The Accident

To the very end, Gao Yang never managed to figure out Virolde's true intentions.

But he was at least sure of one thing—the Saint Princess whom everyone regarded as profoundly devout might not be as devout as she appeared, or rather, the object of her devotion was not the Holy Light faith as the Northern Church had shaped it.

The visitors from the royal capital had departed, and a vast source of wealth had been opened; the trade port leading to the Holy Spirit Plains would bring the newborn Duchy of Cecil enormous amounts of money and goods. The guests from the Eastern Marches had left even earlier, and before the chill month arrived, the chain of trade routes Kode had established in the east would be running in full swing.

In the study of the lord's manor, Gao Yang handed a document to Padric, the Minister of Commerce. "You will be in charge of founding the 'White Sand Mining Company.' The newest mining machinery and blasting supplies are yours to command at will. I have only one requirement: dig out the most ore in the shortest time, and haul it back."

"Yes, sir."

After Padric left, Gao Yang lowered his head again and swiftly signed a second document, placing it on a metal plate beneath the arcane network terminal. With a faint hum, the document was transmitted and duplicated.

Above the arcane network terminal appeared the bust projection of Wald Perich. Gao Yang nodded to the old knight. "Reserve a dedicated pier in the harbor district of Rockfort for merchant ships from the Holy Spirit Plains. You need only bring back the goods listed in the document's appendix and all the gold coins; the rest of the goods go straight to the Rockfort Arsenal to be worked into swords and armor, and let them haul those back."

The old knight on the holographic projection performed a knight's salute. "Yes!"

The arcane network shut off. Gao Yang rubbed the space between his brows and let out a soft breath, and then Amber's voice came from behind him. "You really don't hold back when it comes to bullying people—it's practically highway robbery."

Gao Yang did not turn around. "I didn't tell Wald to process them in front of them, and what do you mean, highway robbery? Is the cost of technology not a cost?"

"Then your cost of technology must be sky-high."

"I can't let the Holy Spirit Plains use trade as an opportunity to infiltrate too many spies into the Southern Marches. They've already been shown enough," Gao Yang waved a hand and then skipped straight past the subject. "Rather than all this, you'd better put your mind on building up the intelligence network in the Eastern Marches. Kode has already opened the trade routes there—it's time for the Military Intelligence Bureau to show what it can do."

Amber immediately waved a hand with a smug look. "Relax, relax—the first batch of agents set out with Kode's caravan long ago."

Gao Yan nodded, stood up, and moved his limbs to loosen his somewhat stiff joints. But just as he was about to sit back down, a faint explosion suddenly came from the distance—"BOOM!!!"

Amber's figure vanished into the air almost instantly, while Gao Yang snapped his gaze toward the direction of the sound—the Institute of Arcane Technology.

Something had happened?

"Come with me and take a look." "Mother of—?!"

Gao Lan reached out and scooped up the still-invisible Amber, then left the study. At the same time, through the crystal-glass window of the study, a curling column of smoke and dust was already rising from the cluster of buildings in the direction of the Institute of Arcane Technology...

When Gao Cen arrived at a sprint with a charge, a large crowd had already gathered around the Institute of Arcane Technology—soldiers keeping order were holding the uninvolved onlookers outside the cordon, while the institute's internal security staff were working with the soldiers who had come to help to move the injured to the plaza in front of the institute. Medical personnel in physician's short robes had already arrived and were giving emergency treatment to the burned and blast-injured, and several fully armed White Knights had also reached the scene, assisting the physicians in treating the wounded.

A great hole had been blown open in one of the buildings on the flank of the Institute of Arcane Technology, and billowing smoke was rising from that hole.

So it looked like an experiment accident? Or had Rebecca finally conjured a giant fireball in the lab?

Order at the scene seemed to have been brought under control—the safety drill system that had been constantly promoted over the years had finally proved its worth at this moment. Gao Yang threaded through the tense and busy soldiers and medical staff and called out loudly, "Where's the person in charge? Report the situation!"

Amber, who had been carried the whole way and had not had time to protest once she realized an accident had occurred here, obediently followed behind Gao Yang. At this moment her sharp eyes caught sight of a figure standing on the open ground, and she immediately poked Gao Song's arm. "Over there, over there—Rebecca's over there!"

Following the direction of Amber's finger, Gao Yang finally saw Rebecca, standing at the edge of the crowd and looking still somewhat shaken.

He ran over at once.

Rebecca's face was blackened with soot, and her clothes were torn to rags by the explosion, but apart from a few fairly obvious abrasions, she seemed to have suffered no serious injury. Upon seeing Gao Yang, the girl immediately began shouting at the top of her lungs. "Boss!! The lab exploded!!"

"Are you all right?" Gao Yang immediately looked Rebecca up and down, and only after confirming that the girl really was not badly hurt did he continue. "What exactly happened? What are the casualties? How did the lab explode?"

Rebecca cocked an ear and kept shouting. "Huh? The wind's too loud, I can't hear you!!"

"She's been deafened by the blast," said Pi Yun, who had arrived on the scene at some point. The little old man raised an oak-wood staff and waved it once beside Rebecca's head; a pale green halo descended and swiftly healed the injuries all over her body. "There—this should do it."

"Ah, the wind's stopped." Rebecca shook her head, a look of wonder on her face.

Pi Yun gave Gao Yi a slight bow. "I was in a nearby laboratory testing the artificial nerve cords we just finished; when I heard the explosion I immediately brought my apprentices over."

Gao Yan nodded. Realizing that Rebecca had been too stunned by the blast to be of any use at the scene, he turned to Pi Yun to learn about the accident. "What are the casualties? How bad is the damage?"

"Three seriously wounded, a dozen or so lightly wounded, and the good news is no one died," Pi Yun said, no longer grinning and joking in this situation but reporting earnestly and quickly. "The lightly wounded can be left to the physicians; I've personally treated the seriously wounded myself. Rest assured, they won't die, though full recovery will likely take some days. As for the damage... it looks like one laboratory is completely destroyed, and a laboratory and a small warehouse next to it were also affected. As for the cause of the explosion, I have no idea."

Hearing that no one had died, Gao Yang relaxed slightly.

Fortunately, this was a world where extraordinary powers existed; healing spells far outperformed Earth's medical technology, and so long as a person had not died on the spot, they could basically always be saved.

As more White Knights arrived at the scene, order around the Institute of Arcane Technology was thoroughly stabilized, and the seriously wounded were all swiftly moved to places better suited for treatment.