Chapter 1036 — The Invitation

The walls, white as ice crystal, were stained with charred black; the towers and banners around the castle had toppled and fallen. The mighty Winterhold still stood upon the mountain, yet a full quarter of the fortress structure had been annihilated in the earlier great explosion — the remaining three quarters stood shivering in the cold wind, and amid the ruined courtyards and the corridors and pillars on the verge of collapse, mages covered in dust and soot were busily at work on repairs.

They were doing all they could to keep the fortress from collapsing further, attempting to reinforce and patch its damaged walls and main structures with magic. Because of the vast residual energy permeating the whole of the Winterhold fortress complex, the mages found it hard to concentrate, and the repair work did not go smoothly — but at least for now, the castle's main hall and several surrounding corridors were safe.

The black-haired, black-gowned head maid walked through the cracked, dust-covered corridors, her short-heeled boots clicking crisply against the stone floor. Despite the wreckage all around, she moved with the same elegance and composure as if she were walking through the Obsidian Palace, and her delicate features masked every change of expression, just as they had for many years — no one could guess from the face of the head maid Dailan what this woman, who had served the Augustus family for hundreds of years, was truly thinking.

Passing through the entrance hall and the corridors, through two empty little rooms, she came to the parlor that had just been cleaned. Luo Yan Augustus was seated in a high-backed chair cushioned in dark red, seemingly lost in thought.

"Master," Dailan walked toward Emperor Luo Yan. "I have returned."

"Welcome back. The journey must have been hard," Luo Yan looked at the black-haired maid and gave a slight nod. "It seems the Cecilites did not make things difficult for you."

Dailan folded her hands before her waist and spoke with meticulous precision: "Gao Yang Cecil is a reasonable man, and the officers under him abide by their code."

Luo Yan looked into Dailan's eyes: "Tell me of your experience on the Cecilite side — is there anything worth reporting?"

A faint glimmer seemed to flash in the depths of Dailan's eyes. She opened her mouth, yet in the last instant before speaking she hesitated, and that brief hesitation immediately caught Luo Yan by surprise — since his earliest memory, he had never seen this "Lady of Steel" show any such "hesitation"!

But a moment later, Dailan spoke: "At the side of Gao Yang Cecil, there are 'remanants' who have survived from the ancient Gondor era to this day."

"...That is hardly surprising," Luo Yan tapped the table lightly, his expression composed. "By our current intelligence alone, among Cecil's technical staff there is at least one archmage from the Gondor era — and as a 'Pioneer Hero' himself resurrected from seven hundred years ago, Gao Yang Cecil is himself a Gondor remnant. The Gondor legacy in his hands exceeds that of anyone else."

"But... the fact that you bring this up so deliberately suggests the Gondor remnant beside Gao Yang is no ordinary person, is that it?"

"...Ophelia Norton," Dailan said. "A member of the royal house from Gondor's Ember era, commander of the Iron Legion, one of the leaders of the Defiers, a cutting-edge technologist — her name now is Verodai Moen, and her identity is that of a princess of old Ansul. This is some manner of soul-immortality technology, but my database lacks the relevant details."

Luo Yan's fingers, tapping lightly on the table, stopped. He sat there expressionless, and for the next few seconds he was motionless as a black-iron sculpture.

"Master?" Dailan looked at him. "What have you thought of?"

Luo Yan's fingers, suspended in midair, finally came down on the tabletop, and with a subtle expression he gave a soft sigh: "To be honest... I am beginning to envy our neighbors a little."

Dailan thought for a moment, then reminded him: "You have said something similar before."

"But this time is different," Luo Yan shook his head. "What I envy isn't merely the resources in Gao Yang Cecil's hands. What I envy more... is his keen mind and the way he looks at things. Those qualities are what let the resources in his hands always produce a far greater effect."

A flicker of confusion surfaced on Dai Lan's face with startling humanity: "Why do you say that?"

"You've only just returned, so your information is a little stale," Luo Yan said, picking up a transcribed document from the table and handing it to Dai Lan. "Before you set foot in the castle, the Cecil people sent us this through the temporary communications line."

Dai Lan took the document curiously and scanned its contents in an instant, while Luo Yan beside him continued: "Beyond matters concerning the armistice agreement, Gao Yang Cecil also raised another matter — 'an initiative to establish a Commonwealth League of the Mortal Nations.' He hopes to use this war, which has drawn the eyes of the entire continent, to reveal the threat of the Divine Calamity, and to leverage the influence of Cecil's and Typhon's respective settlement zones to build a vast... order spanning the whole continent."

"...An ambitious idea," Dai Lan set the document down and offered a fair assessment. "But at this particular moment, it has a chance of being realized — though by my calculations, not every nation will answer his call. Still, so long as a portion of them are willing to join, this 'League' will possess the power to overawe the world. To those nations far removed from this war, the threat of the Divine Calamity may not seem so clear, but the economic benefits of joining this League are obvious enough."

"Yes, obvious — and the Cecil people have always been masters of economic statecraft," Luo Yan said. "They will certainly make the most of that strength of theirs."

At this point he suddenly gave a small laugh and shook his head: "While most people's minds are still stuck on storming cities, seizing land, and holding territory, he has already begun planning a new order for this world."

"And what are your thoughts?" Dai Lan raised his head and watched Luo Yan's reaction quietly.

"...He says he is no idealist, yet now he has placed an utterly ideal vision before me. I want to meet this 'invitation' with absolute rationality, but unfortunately, this world is not entirely rational..." Luo Yan sighed softly, or perhaps it was in admiration. "Sometimes we must take a bit of a risk before we can face the challenges of the future — this invitation, I accept."