Chapter 575 — Forward Base

"Watching the work progress puts us more at ease," Soyu said with a smile, quite candidly. "And staying out of the city also prevents some rather awkward... mother-son conflicts."

Soyu was plainly joking; in fact, in Gao Yang's view, her relationship with Suo Jilin was quite good — but he could still somewhat understand this elven mother's tangled state of mind upon seeing Suo Jilin —

In all fairness, if he too had a son who hadn't come home in seven hundred years, had no partner, wrote no letters, was bald, wore a wig, and liked to dress in women's clothes...

Halfway through the thought, he dared not imagine any further.

He felt he might choose to lie back down in his coffin and ask someone to help nail the lid shut.

"...As you can see, we are doing our utmost to speed up the road-laying, striving to break through to the Corrupted Plains before the Harvest Festival," Gao Yang said, using the change of subject to mask his momentary embarrassment. "As things stand, so long as no major mishap occurs, the project can be completed on schedule."

"We've seen it — and it has set my mind considerably at ease," Soyu said with a soft breath. "Frankly, I hadn't even imagined you could be this fast; in such a short time you've already begun laying road through the Black Forest. I can see how much manpower and material you've poured into this — and yet look at your royal house: they still haven't delivered even the first batch of supplies! If I may speak bluntly, you're all Ansans alike — how can your efficiency differ so vastly?"

"Not everyone turns magic into productive force," Gao Yang said with a helpless shake of his head. "And besides, the northern nobles don't necessarily all grasp how terrifying the wasteland's threat truly is. The mana tide of seven hundred years ago may still be a vivid memory to the elves, but to humans... it is already an ancient legend from dozens of generations past."

Soyu was no stranger to dealing with humans, and she knew well that Gao Yang's words were reasonable, so she said no more; instead she looked toward the Dark Mountains, toward the South Gate Fortress, and sighed softly. "A fortress from the ancient Gondor era... Seven hundred years ago, I heard that the northern pioneer corps had discovered an ancient ruin while crossing the Dark Mountains — I never imagined that seven hundred years later, it would serve such a purpose in your hands."

"We didn't imagine it back then either," Gao Yang said with feeling. "Just as I never imagined that after watching the Magnificent Wall rise before I fell, I would wake from my long sleep only to have to rebuild the whole thing — fate has never been reasonable."

"You've had rotten luck," Soyu could not help shaking her head. "You fell in the hardest of times, and woke in the next hard time; fate seems intent on arranging for you to fight disaster, never giving you a moment's rest. We had seven whole centuries of peace, and you've not enjoyed a single day of it."

Gao Yang said nothing, because he was not truly Gao Yang Cecil, and so he felt no sense of regret — but beside him Hetty suddenly raised her head. The Cecil steward seemed deeply struck by Soyu's words; she gazed fixedly at her ancestor, and suddenly felt utterly ashamed of her usual smoky makeup.

Gao Yang had no idea why Hetty had suddenly gone red in the face.

...

At that same moment, in the northern part of the Duchy of Cecil — the harbor square of Boulder City.

Sir Wald Perich, Commander of Boulder, stood upon the plaza with his guard and his honor escort, prepared to see off the envoys from the royal capital. They had lingered but half a day in this gateway city, and now they were about to board ship and set out for Xuanyao City.

"Xuanyao City is impressive, Sir," Cohen Loren, leader of the delegation and deputy commander of the Ansu Royal Knights, said to Wald with unreserved admiration. "I came to this land two years ago, but it was nothing like this then. I must admit, this place is truly incredible."

Sir Wald regarded this deputy commander before him — a man who bore the peculiar surname "Loren," yet counted himself among the royalists, and whose delegation contained at once envoys from the Eastern Marches and a special envoy from the royal capital. The implications were enough to set any man thinking. But Wald was not a man who cared for court intrigue or the balancing of noble houses; he merely smiled and shook his head. "Boulder is only a gateway. You have not yet seen the truly incredible face of this land."

"Oh, I am a cool-headed man," Cohen Loren said with a laugh of courtesy. "I shall look upon the novelties here with an appreciative eye alone. After all, however wondrous they may be, they are all made by human hands."

"Then please, after you." Wald raised a hand and pointed toward the docks, and almost in the same instant a long, melodious whistle rang out from within the river bend.

A great ship without sails or oars — one that left Cohen Loren stunned — came gliding slowly toward the harbor from the distant river, accompanied by the sound of breaking waves and the roar of machinery.

The vessel looked as though it had been cast from metal.

"To ensure efficiency, the lord has ordered the river express passenger ship Wavebreaker to come and receive you envoys," Wald Perich said with a cheerful smile. "Please come aboard."

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