Chapter 598 — A Visit to the Typhon Encampment

A gigantic eagle swept across the turbid, chaotic sky, bearing couriers and tidings from distant lands. Under the watchful eyes of soldiers and craftsmen alike, the iron-grey raptor circled twice high above, then, guided by the beacons on the ground, descended steadily onto the landing platform at one side of the Peak Base.

"Coo! Coo!!"

Its mission accomplished, the great eagle loosed a loud, excited cry—shameful as the sound was, its master was clearly long accustomed to it. Soryu leapt down from the raptor's broad back, light of foot and graceful of bearing, then patted her partner's drooping feathers and set off toward the camp.

Along the way she glanced up and saw that on the open ground not far off, the frame of a hexagonal tower, dozens of meters tall, had already risen.

The frame was plainly unfinished; new structures were still being added to its upper levels. In the dim light of the sky she watched jagged steel bars and rune-carved pillars stretch and interlace within the frame like a giant's bones and veins, while a faint rune-glow circulated near the structure's base, supplying the whole site with a steady source of magic. Inside and out of the sturdy scaffolding, powerful machines and weight-shaving pallets ceaselessly hoisted building materials and workers to every corner of the frame, casting the tower body and embedding magic mechanisms.

A little farther from the site, in a narrow strip stretching toward the Black Forest, a series of smaller towers could be seen either already risen or beginning to take shape—the sites of the "pressure-release points" and "purifiers."

Even in the bitter winter cold, these works had not been delayed in the slightest; rather, with machinery and manpower all in place and several temporary frontline factories in the base now running, efficiency had climbed considerably.

Even the high-tier courier from the Silver Empire could not help but exclaim, "The Cecilians' efficiency... it's terrifyingly high..."

A voice came from nearby, cutting short Soryu's admiration: "You've only been gone two days—no need to sigh like that. Two days of construction doesn't look like all that much change."

Soryu turned at the sound and saw Gaoyang standing not far away with a faint smile. She couldn't help but smile back, and as she walked over she said, "Elves are good at sensing changes precisely, down to the details. I could even count how much those workers raised those buildings in just two days..."

"How much?"

"...That's—it was a figure of speech. You weren't nearly this pedantic seven hundred years ago!"

"An occasional joke helps keep one's spirits up. On this wasteland, that's a precious thing," Gaoyang said, shifting the subject with a light touch. "How went the reply?"

"You must have guessed already. Luoyan Augustus welcomes you to visit at any time. He will receive you with the highest protocol—the protocol for welcoming heroes and for welcoming the highest nobility of a neighboring realm," Soryu said, drawing from a finely carved, openwork wooden tube she carried a letter sealed with magic thread and wax. "This is his reply."

Gaosong's gaze fell upon the scroll bearing the Typhon imperial crest.

After a pause of a second, he took the reply, opened it casually, and swiftly scanned its contents.

The ruler of the Typhon Empire answered Gaoyang's earlier letter in impeccable terms—courteous without fail, yet full of majesty—and at the letter's end, that emperor of great talent and grand strategy gladly accepted Gaosong's visit and expressed his welcome.

A moment later, Gaoyang put away the reply he had long anticipated and let out a soft breath. "Good. Then I set out tomorrow."

Soryu could not help but be startled. "So soon?"

"I've long wished to meet that Typhon emperor, and I've prepared for it a long while," Gaolan said, then added offhandedly, "By the way, your queen has sent word—the Silver Empire has formally entered deep technological cooperation with the Cecil Empire. You and your courier corps will remain at my side for the time being as exchange ambassadors; since you were away, Magister Banner accepted the queen's orders on your behalf."

Soryu blinked, momentarily taken aback.

So soon?

The news itself did not surprise her. Ever since she learned that the Duchy of Cecil intended to establish technological exchange with the Silver Empire, she had expected the Silver Queen to agree—the queen had never been a rigid traditionalist, and more than half of the court advisors she trusted most were progressive reformers. She simply had not thought word would come so early.

Setting aside the necessary drafting of official documents, coordination between departments, and other steps in the empire's internal process, the proposal itself had most likely been approved within two or three days!

The high-tier courier lowered her eyelids slightly, thoughts stirring in her heart.

...This was not a normal speed for settling a proposal.

The queen and the "Iron-Willed Prime Minister," Lord Valendian, had pushed this through directly.

It seemed... the troubles the astromancers had run into were greater than outsiders imagined.

...

Somber, turbid clouds shrouded the wasteland sky, and the outline of the giant sun was blocked beyond them as well; only the hazy radiance that drifted slowly across the sky, ever rising and setting, proved to the people that the sun existed, marking the alternation of day and night.

At the Typhon Peak Base, within a stone palace that rose straight from the ground, Luoyan Augustus sat before his desk, head lowered as he reviewed the documents his chief attendant had just transcribed.

The contents of these documents were all the most vital intelligence from within the realm and matters urgently requiring the emperor's personal orders. Relayed through relay mage-towers along the route, they were transmitted to the Peak Base at almost no regard for cost—the money spent on each letter could match two years' income for a common household.

There was not much content in the documents, and only a small portion required his personal instruction; most were detailed reports on the domestic situation, the nobles' council, and the various legions. Luoyan Augustus quickly finished them all, and on that cold, slightly sinister face hid a faint, barely perceptible smile of satisfaction.

Grand Duke Pei Yi Wendell, supervising the realm at home, had done well; the empire ran in good order.

The emperor rose, handed the processed documents to the chief attendant who had long waited at his side, then breathed out softly and strode to the floor-to-ceiling window at one side of the room.

A third of the Peak Base lay spread before him.

The empire's engineering mages had shaped this base through the miracles of magic. Before winter came, hundreds of mages had, by such spells as transmuting stone to mud, mud to stone, wall-building, and rock-shaping, turned this rotting, twisted land into an encampment, and on that foundation had drawn the fortress arrays and set a magic shield capable of protecting the entire Peak Base. Now the craftsmen and engineering mages within the base worked in shifts under the shield's protection, raising that all-important "secondary tower."

He could see that on the south side of the Peak Base, a haze of magic radiance was shining; several mages floating in the air were using mage hands to stack massive boulders onto the platform, and in the portion already stacked, the outline of the first and second stories of an octagonal tower body could already be discerned.

Facts had proven the policy of systematically registering transcendent professions, granting them state establishment, and enforcing unified management to be effective. Were it not for this "New Policy" begun more than a decade ago, who would dare imagine that "engineering mages" could exist?

Yet as Luoyan gazed at the scene beyond the window, his brows drew slightly together.