Chapter 567 — The Tower Keeper, and a Visitor

Once summer set in, the weather grew hotter by the day.

Though Ansau was on the whole a northern realm, its southernmost reaches still knew blazing summers, and this year the heat seemed to have arrived earlier than usual.

The Fire Constellation had become a regular in the night sky, and the Giant Sun lingered longer each day; where the sky had once still been pitch-black at four or five o'clock, at the same hour it was now already flooded with the glow of dawn.

Out on the plains of the northwestern frontier of Frostgate City stood a tall tower in silence. In the seams of its base glimmered a faint magical light; now and then a thread of radiance slid across its outer wall. A great crystal floated at its summit, and several oddly shaped metal brackets extended from the top, the rune devices at their ends turning slowly in the breeze as they faced the brilliant morning glow.

It was a fine, clear summer morning.

The tower keeper, Grelin, woke from sleep. After a quick wash, he came up to the tower's upper level in a thin shirt and shorts.

The ever-brightening sunlight streamed through the crystal windows of the workroom, and outside, a flock of wild pigeons went flapping across the sky.

"...Stupid pigeons... I hope they haven't been shitting on the signal amplifier..."

Grelin muttered, tossed the flatbread he hadn't finished the night before onto the heating plate, pressed the frost-rune substrate into the energy slot on the wall, and opened the workroom's ventilation duct.

Fresh cold air blew into the room through the duct, scattering the heat that had begun to rise and jolting Grelin, still a little drowsy, fully awake.

The keeper let out a satisfied sigh of admiration—the new setup the city had sent people to install last month really did work well.

He could not help recalling the "advertisement" he had seen earlier on the arcanonet terminal—the slogan that Cod's Household Convenience Company used as its trademark:

Magic, for a convenient life.

When most people first encountered the notion, they had been bewildered and astonished; even Grelin, a tower keeper who dealt with arcanomechanical devices every day, had never imagined what the world would look like once magic became utterly part of daily life—yet it had come to pass, and in a dazzling manner.

Arcanomechanical devices were no longer merely a lord's private property, nor merely the domain of the "public" sector; cheap and convenient civilian arcanomechanical devices were making their way among the common folk. Slowly, yes, and for the moment still a privilege of the wealthier city dwellers, but they were truly entering ordinary people's lives.

And they truly did bring convenience.

Outside the window the metal apparatus turned slowly. The keeper went to his observation post and watched the great steel bracket rise gradually into the air, the rune structure at its end meeting the dawn-washed sky like some kind of horn. Then he returned to his workbench, casually activated the arcanonet terminal there, and took out his logbook, writing down the day's first monitoring record with great care:

"...Firemonth 30th, clear, light breeze. Luan Arcanonet Hub Tower, first monitoring record. Amplifier operating normally, mana crystal operating normally, arcanonet broadcast signal..."

Grelin looked up and saw the preset signal display taking shape above the activated arcanonet terminal, the identification marks from the Horsman Hub Tower and the signals of the subordinate relay towers blinking one by one across it.

"Arcanonet broadcast signal normal, strength excellent..."

Grelin recorded it all with scrupulous care, not the slightest bit slipshod.

He was a particularly earnest and meticulous man, and that was precisely why he had gotten this "tower keeper" job—simple and dull as it was, it demanded a fair grasp of arcanomechanical knowledge, and it paid quite well. It suited Grelin perfectly, and Grelin, with five children to feed, needed it badly.

This arcanonet hub tower was one of the three hub towers of the entire northwestern region of the Duchy of Cecil, a vital node sustaining arcanonet transmission from the Luan area to the Horsman area. Relying on the great mana crystal and amplification apparatus at its top, the tower provided signal transmission and reinforcement for more than a dozen unmanned small relay towers across the plains, and supplied energy to the southern district of Frostgate City besides—making it exceedingly important.

Apart from Grelin himself, two other tower keepers worked here with him, though one of them was on night watch and the other had already gone out to inspect the unmanned relay towers on the plains.

And besides the three technical keepers, there was a small garrison post on the tower's lower level, where ten fully armed "tower guards" stood watch, and the tower itself carried its own magical shield—all of it to guarantee the safety of the arcanonet on the northwestern frontier.

As far as Grelin knew, the tower was to receive more hands in the near future, and by then things here ought to be livelier.

"People who can properly operate these arcanomechanical devices aren't easy to find..." the keeper muttered, pressing the inspection confirmation button on the arcanonet terminal to send a safety signal back to the arcanonet control center, and shook his head. "I hope they're graduates of Cecil Academy..."

The crisp, fragrant aroma of the sweet flatbread being toasted drifted over, and Grelin felt his stomach rumble. He stood up and walked toward the heating plate.

As a man who did not much care for socializing, he always took his breakfast alone; only at supper, when all three keepers were in the tower, would he go down and dine with the tower guards at the garrison post.

But just as he rose to his feet, a shadow suddenly flashed past the window, drawing the keeper's attention.

Goddess of Magic!! Don't tell me a whole flock of pigeons has come to shit on the amplifier?!

Grelin hurried to the window and craned his neck toward the distant sky. He did not see the pigeons that were always making trouble for him, but he did see several enormous, eagle-like birds of prey winging eastward under the ever-rising sun.

And on those eagle-like birds, vague outlines of human figures could just be made out.

For a good few seconds the keeper stood dumbstruck before he realized what those birds of prey he had never seen before actually were—they were the elven giant eagles mentioned in the notice documents a while back, the ones he had previously heard of only in stories.

After a brief moment of astonishment, Grelin dashed to the workbench and called the highest control center on the arcanonet terminal. With the internal liaison channel engaged, the connection went through almost instantly, and a girl with flaxen hair appeared in the holographic projection.

Grelin spoke rapidly: "This is Luan Hub Tower—just now sighted elven giant eagles entering our airspace. Please notify the lord."

"Received. Thank you for your report."

After hanging up, Grelin let out a long breath. Thank goodness he hadn't missed this sighting—though he knew the watchtowers nearby would have noticed the elven giant eagles as well, he still didn't want any slipshod work on his part.

The keeper returned to the window and looked once more at the sky the giant eagles had crossed—the elven giant eagles were exceedingly swift, and in but a few short minutes those vast shapes had shrunk to a few small specks in the distance, soon lost to sight against the backlight of the morning sun.

Grelin drew back his gaze, but his eyes suddenly swept past the arcanomechanical apparatus turning slowly outside the window, and his stare froze.

...Truly worthy of giant eagles—this "output" puts pigeons to shame!!

The keeper stared in dismay at the "giant eagle leavings" on the amplifier bracket, and suddenly felt that this clear summer morning was not quite so lovely after all.