Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 380 - 379: Peace?

After the dragon completely flew out of surveillance view, Gawain reluctantly reconnected the satellite and adjusted the satellite camera to search that area for a dozen more minutes. Finally, he had no choice but to accept the fact that he had lost track.

He then checked the situation at Covenant Castle one more time and confirmed that nothing had exploded there before completely disconnecting.

The night was deep, and the inner city district of the Cecil territory was shrouded in a peaceful but not dark nocturnal scene. Bright Magic Crystal Street Lamps dispelled the darkness of the night. The distant street lamp light and a hint of starlight streamed into the room through the large windows of the study. Gawain did not turn on the lights. In this dark environment, he allowed his consciousness to be clear and focused, and he fell into a state of contemplation.

The dragon had appeared again, just as Gawain had anticipated—Dragonkin’s interest in this continent had not ended.

Although it was unclear why this mysterious race was concerned with this continent, both from historical records and what Gawain personally witnessed, they clearly paid attention to the situation on the continent. This time, the dragon’s appearance confirmed that—when Gawain saw it, the dragon was flying over Covenant Castle. Gawain believed this could not be a coincidence.

The last time a dragon appeared was on the site of the aberration’s first invasion of the human world after a seven-hundred-year absence from the realms of the mortal kingdoms.

While pondering, Gawain made a hypothesis—could it be that whenever anything ’historically significant’ occurs in the realms of mortals, these dragons will appear? But what do they appear for? Just to observe?

If he hadn’t just been spying on Covenant Castle using the satellite view, Gawain might have wanted to ridicule the dragon’s perverse interest—but now that they’re all like-minded, he could only lament how they’re all rather bored...

But no matter what that dragon’s purpose was, one thing was certain: the ’dragon’ as a creature deserved its legendary status as a powerful being. They could even intuitively sense observations from synchronous orbit satellites. Although it seemed that the dragon had no way of dealing with such satellite observations, only avoiding them by darting around, it was enough to make Gawain feel amazed.

The only comforting thing was that no one knew about the connection between Gawain and the satellite, and even the legendary dragons couldn’t trace the satellite signal back to him to accuse him of spying...probably...

Moreover, speaking of spying, everyone was hanging in the sky watching others meet—who would report whom?

After figuring this out, Gawain felt an epiphany and thought next time he could justifiably continue tracking that dragon—if it happened to wander into the surveillance area again. But speaking of which, the dragon’s alertness and mobility were a big problem. Gawain still couldn’t figure out how such a large creature could perform such an exaggerated spiral dive action in the air... It was so fast he couldn’t even adjust the focus.

A slight breeze from the window interrupted Gawain’s thoughts, and he raised his head. In the perception of a legendary knight, he saw a shadow sneaking onto the windowsill.

As the shadow was about to steady itself on the ground, Gawain immediately asked loudly, "What are you doing jumping out of windows in the middle of the night?!"

Sure enough, he then heard a thud, and Amber, practically prostrate, appeared from the air, and the half-elf lady awkwardly climbed up from the ground. She immediately lunged at Gawain with a tooth and nail, "You scared me to death! You sit in the dark in your study late at night, and when you suddenly speak, it’s terrifying, you know that?!"

Gawain easily held Amber’s head down, letting her, who was short, bounce around a meter away, while her reaching hands couldn’t even touch his shoulder: "And you, a stealth user, are actually afraid of someone talking to you in the dark?"

"No one usually talks around me while I’m working, okay?!

Hmmmm... Gawain felt that Amber’s words had many layers of meaning...

"What happened?" After making a silent retort in his heart, Gawain let go of his hand and casually turned on the Magic Crystal Lamp in the study—he had kept it off since dinner as he was focused on monitoring Covenant Castle’s situation, not bothering to turn on the light. Now, there was no need to keep the darkness, "You rarely come to report at this hour."

"Soldrin is back," Amber said while rubbing her hair that Gawain messed up, "and brought back some significant information—I think you should know it as soon as possible."

"Back already?!" Gawain was a bit surprised, "What information?"

"They discovered a Class I isolation door at the southern end of the Defied Fortress. On the other side of the door should be a yet undiscovered large experimentation site; according to the signs in the ruins, this experimentation site is named ’Shadow Testing Grounds’," Amber said, "Soldrin suspects it’s a large area similar to the Defied Fortress. Since they weren’t fully prepared, he has returned with his team to rest and intends to explore again after preparations."

"A new large area?" Gawain furrowed his brows slightly, not expecting the first exploration of the ruins after the weather warmed up to yield such significant findings, "Who else knows about this?"

"Just you," Amber said, "Shall we inform Kamel tomorrow?"

"...No need, he doesn’t understand the situation outside of the defied Fortress," Gawain shook his head and then glanced at Amber. "Speaking of which... Shadow Testing Grounds, you seem quite proficient in shadow manipulation?"

"Huh?"

Eastern region of Anzu Kingdom, Winterhold Castle, the long-awaited first formal negotiation had finally ended.

The rulers of the two countries and their followers exerted their utmost efforts at the negotiation table, engaging in a battle of wits and eloquence for several hours, expressing their respective demands and beliefs, and in the process reached a preliminary consensus—or perhaps, exhausted every bit of energy and had to temporarily lay down the gauntlet. Throughout this process, Duke Silas Loland felt physically and mentally drained.

The feeling of negotiating with people at the table is almost more exhausting than fighting on the battlefield.

The only consolation was that he was not the lead commander in this negotiation battlefield—the wise old King Francis II was the one charging forward. It was hard to imagine that such an aged king could exhibit such resilience and strength at the negotiation table, undeterred, to the extent that Emperor Rosetta Augustus and his entire advisory group couldn’t gain any verbal advantage over Anzu.

Now, the negotiation had finally ended, and whether people were beside the negotiation table or waiting outside the hall and the castle, all couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Following the negotiation was a banquet, a difficult negotiation should conclude with a grand feast—and the social activities at the banquet could be seen as extensions of the negotiation in a certain sense. Aware of this, Duke Silas Loland stood in the banquet hall holding a glass of red wine, casually conversing with the surrounding Anzu, his eyes never leaving the center of the banquet hall.

Francis II was at that spot, where the Typhon Emperor was also present, apart from a few accompanying attendants standing beside them, undoubtedly serving as guards.

Outside the conversing king and emperor, the remaining attendees could be distinctly divided into two groups—Anzu and Typhon, each occupying one side of the banquet hall, forming their own groups to engage in discussions, simultaneously maintaining vigilance towards the other side.

The ritual officers who originally designed this banquet segment couldn’t have anticipated this, yet this awkward situation was evidently unavoidable—although from Duke Silas Loland’s perspective, simply canceling this façade of a banquet might be the simplest solution, those adhering strictly to rules and etiquette likely wouldn’t think so.

As he pondered, a young man approached the Duke of the East.

"Prince Edmund," Duke Loland raised his glass in salute to the blond young man, "Your performance at the negotiation table was remarkable."

Apart from the king, this promising young prince was undoubtedly the most noteworthy presence at today’s negotiation, his sharp words and insights like swords even earned praise from Emperor Rosetta.

"Uncle Loland, let’s not be too formal here," the young prince smiled, raising his glass towards the duke in return, "Moreover, without the Loland Clan guarding the eastern region, today’s negotiation might not even have had the chance to begin—we should jointly celebrate today’s progress."

Finally, a slight smile appeared on Duke Silas Loland’s always majestic and somewhat inaccessible face: "Yes, a celebration is in order—for the impending peace."

Although the negotiation wasn’t over, and both sides would continue to wrestle on this matter a while longer, significant progress in today’s talks couldn’t be denied, with everyone aware that the rulers of the two countries were striving earnestly to achieve peace, which was indeed the purpose of everyone gathering here.

"Peace...Peace is certainly invaluable," Edmund chuckled softly, "But unfortunately, simple peace cannot solve all issues—resolve the state of decay in Anzu."

"Patience, my Prince, we must have patience," Duke Silas Loland spoke in a calm and steady tone, "As long as we resolve the peace issue with Typhon, we will have the opportunity to revive this ancient kingdom."

In the Typhon-occupied "half of the hall," the young Wolf General Andresha Wendell cast a complex look towards Anzu’s King standing in the center of the hall.

A middle-aged man with a mild demeanor and mage-like aura, clad in a light-colored cloak stood beside the young Wolf General. Noticing Andresha’s gaze, he gently shook his head: "Andresha, learn to control your emotions."

"...Yes, Uncle Palin... Count Winterhold," Andresha Wendell, upon hearing the advice of her lifelong caring elder, took a deep breath to rein in her gaze, "I just never anticipated... this day would indeed come."

"We should feel glad," Count Winterhold smiled, though his gaze fell upon Emperor Rosetta Augustus, "Our Emperor ultimately chooses a path of peace."

Andresha Wendell couldn’t resist murmuring under her breath: "Peace, huh..."