Chapter 1031 — The Far Wanderer

The ironman technology of the Gondor Empire—Gao Yang actually knew very little about it. Though he possessed the memories inherited from Gao Yang Cecil, even that Gao Yang Cecil had been nothing more than a lowliest knight-apprentice from the Gondor borderlands, his meager learning gleaned from a handful of country teachers, and such an education would plainly never have touched upon anything so rarefied as "ironman technology."

By Gao Yang's own reckoning, the technology amounted to strong artificial intelligence plus biomimetic robotics—cutting-edge science whether on Earth or in this world.

But in his limited understanding, at least one thing was certain: every ironman, from the day it rolled off the production line, belonged to the "Ironman Legion." Whether dispatched to the various legions of the interior or to some border outpost, an ironman could never break free of that "Legion." The relevant logic was written into the deepest layer of their mind-cores, and by their own devices... they could certainly never alter it.

As a former member of the Gondor royal house, Virodai/Ophelia clearly knew this as well.

So when she encountered an "ironman soldier" who claimed to have broken free of the Ironman Legion, even she could not help but be startled: "Broken free of the Ironman Legion? How did you manage that?"

Dailan shook her head. "I do not remember. My memory apparatus once malfunctioned, and much was lost in the repairs—I know only that I have indeed left the Legion; of this my mind-core holds a clear certainty."

Virodai's expression turned grave. She studied the ironman soldier—who had, for some reason, been operating in the human world for several hundred years—with a serious eye, her tone as gentle as ever: "Then you now serve the royal house of Typhon?"

"Yes," Dailan gave a slight nod. "They once took me in and repaired me. I swore to serve their family."

"Gratitude... a normal ironman would not appear to make such logical judgments. But that is not important," Virodai shook her head gently. "Would you mind if I asked you a few more questions?"

Dailan looked at Virodai for a moment, considered briefly, then nodded to her: "So long as it does not violate the oath I swore to the Augustus family, nor violate my mind-logic."

"Only a few old matters that have little enough to do with this era..." Virodai said warmly. "Do you remember where you were originally stationed, and what work you did?"

Dailan thought back briefly, then nodded. "I was one of the guards at the Viplandton Observatory, charged with protecting the safety of Sir Scott Plantain and Mr. Alphonse Hall."

"Then do you remember the outbreak of the Magic Tide? Were you still at the observatory at the time?"

"...That memory is partially damaged, but on the whole it can be reconstructed," Dailan hesitated slightly this time, but then nodded. "I am certain I worked at the observatory until the very last moment before the Magic Tide broke out, but I no longer have any impression of the specific circumstances."

Virodai thought for a moment, then asked: "And after that? What else do you remember?"

"After that there is a great blank in my memory. When my consciousness came back online, I was already in a nation reestablished by Gondor's remnants—it was still called the 'Kingdom of Typhon' then," Dailan replied. "I was recovered by their court scholars and mages. By their account, I had fallen at the edge of the Grand Wall, my body gravely damaged. They brought me to Orlandell as a research specimen, and it took them nearly thirty years to reawaken me... by then it was already Typhon Year 47."

"They spent thirty years repairing you?" Gao Yang, who had been listening quietly on the side without interrupting, finally could not help speaking up. "And by then it was already Typhon Year 47... which means you wandered for more than a decade after the Magic Tide broke out before being found by humans near the Grand Wall?"

"By the reckoning of time, that is so," Dailan said calmly. "But I cannot be certain whether those ten-odd years were spent wandering the wasteland or moving in the 'beyond the Wall' regions near it—that portion of memory is entirely missing."

"...During the Magic Tide, nearly all unprotected ironman soldiers were struck down and damaged, so you should have been operating beyond the Wall. But there are no absolutes in this world; the state of your mind-core is somewhat strange, which may indicate that you侥幸—that you were fortunate enough to 'live' through the impact of the Magic Tide," Virodai said thoughtfully. "In any case, you have lost the memory from the outbreak of the Magic Tide to your entry into the human realms... truly no impression of it at all?"

Dailan wore a very human expression of thoughtfulness and distress; though the changes were subtle, they still compelled admiration at how nearly indistinguishable she was from a real person. Then she shook her head. "I remember only one very brief, blurred impression—Sir Scott Plantain ordered me to advance northeast. Beyond that, I remember nothing."

The knight's name had now appeared a second time, and Amber could not help asking: "Who is this Sir Scott Plantain?"

It was not Dailan who answered her, but Virodai, platinum scepter in hand—this ancient Defiant clearly knew more about the upper strata of the old Gondor Empire than Gao Yang did: "He was the administrator of the Viplandton Observatory at the time."

"Then it's obvious enough. When the Magic Tide broke out, the director of the Viplandton Observatory ordered his bodyguard to evacuate and run for the safe zone, and this lady complied—but she probably couldn't outrun the Magic Tide, and on top of that she wasn't moving with the refugee troops of the time, so most likely the Tide caught up with her. Damaged, she wandered between the wasteland and the human kingdom for over a decade, until the Typhonians of that era finally found her. Then she was repaired for thirty years, and once fixed and mobile again, most of her memory was gone... that's basically the sequence of events," Amber pinched her chin, her two pointed ears twitching, her analysis delivered with perfect confidence. But then she scratched at her hair and looked at Gao Yang. "By the way—where exactly is that Viplandton Observatory?"

"Near the northern border of old Gondor, close to the Magic-Energy Scorch," Gao Yang said, flipping through the map in his mind and glancing casually at Dailan. "If you set out from there heading northeast, so long as your direction didn't deviate much, you should have come upon the eastern tail-end of the Dark Mountains. The Black Forest hadn't spread that far in those days, so you had a chance to cross the range and go straight into the northern reaches of the Shadow Marsh... that is indeed within Typhon's territory. A perilous journey—I should congratulate you on completing it safely."

Dailan bowed her head slightly to Gao Yang. "Thank you for the praise."

"It's hardly praise," Gao Yang waved a hand, then glanced at Dailan with curiosity. "So... have you told Luo Yan Augustus these things as well?"

"Please forgive me—I am not at liberty to say." The black-haired maid spoke calmly but firmly.

"...So anything touching on your master, you won't casually discuss with strangers," Gao Yang was not surprised. "But I'd guess he certainly knows, and knows more than we do—several hundred years is time enough for the Augustus family to have inquired into everything worth inquiring about."

Dailan maintained that same placid expression, neither confirming nor denying—not even amounting to tacit admission. Only at moments like this did she display a "trait" distinct from a real person: on that face covered in biomimetic skin, steel and polymer beneath, there was simply no information to be read.