Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 315 - 314: Foresight and Vision

The southern borders, Count Hosman’s territory.

The tall and robust Earl Carloff Hosman sat in his reception room, scrutinizing the visitor before him.

As one of the most powerful land nobility in the southern borders, Carloff Hosman always took great pride in his surname and the excellent noble lineage of his family.

His family was originally a branch of the Hosman family from the Plains of the Holy Spirits. A hundred years ago, his visionary ancestors foresaw the true direction of the civil war during the Fog Month and earned their honor by supporting the "Northern Crown Prince." Though his ancestor originally had no right of inheritance, after the establishment of the Second Dynasty, the royal family specially granted land to them in the southern borders, elevating them to the status of earl land nobility, leading the Hosman family to maintain their prosperity for a century.

This undeniably demonstrated the excellence of the family lineage and the importance of foresight for the family. Carloff Hosman always bore this in mind, thus he kept a vigilant eye on everything happening on this land, not only within his own territory but also across the southern borders.

Since the revival of the "founding Duke," his gaze had never left the Cecil Clan territory.

Since the civil war of the Fog Month a hundred years ago, the royal family had always intentionally controlled the development situation in the south. The ancient and vast Cecil Clan was like a giant beast. Even if it collapsed overnight, its remnants still held immense power. To prevent the nobles loyal to the Cecil surname from stirring up trouble, the royal family had repeatedly divided the land over the century, making nearly all southern borders’ nobility direct vassals of the royal family, and limiting the highest noble title to Earl. Therefore, Count Hosman had remained one of the highest nobles on this land for the entire century. But this situation was broken just under a year ago.

The southern borders once again had a "Duke."

Though this Duke did not immediately reclaim his land nor make any declaration regarding the contemporary noble system of the southern borders, instead retaining only the title and heading to the Dark Mountain Range for expansive construction, Earl Carloff Hosman never lowered his guard against this resurrected founding hero. He had a sharp intuition, sensing a different flavor from the Duke’s series of actions — hidden ambitions and threats.

"The current news is just that," the visitor before him said. "Our spies have successfully infiltrated an organization called the ’25th Production and Construction Brigade.’ According to the resurrected Duke’s terminology, it is a ’Secret Construction Department,’ and based on the intelligence gathered by our spies, this department reports directly to the leader, undertaking the highest level of territorial construction tasks. Therefore, the information delivered should be reliable and of high value."

"Good... Mr. Glen, the spies you trained did not disappoint me," Carloff Hosman nodded in satisfaction, then slightly furrowed his brows, "So, Duke Gawain Cecil has obtained a batch of very powerful weapons? And possibly with elf assistance?"

"Yes, they are using these weapons against the monsters wandering from the wasteland."

"The Silver Elves are the builders of the great walls; having weapons to combat wasteland monsters is not surprising. But bypassing Anzu’s royal family to contact Duke Gawain Cecil directly and providing him with aid... that is somewhat peculiar," Carloff Hosman lightly tapped the table, pondering the hidden truths during this interval. "It seems, as I suspected, that the founding Duke is not a ’good neighbor’..."

"Perhaps we should act sooner to control the development of the Cecil Clan territory," the slender middle-aged man referred to as Mr. Glen said with a sinister smile. His already gloomy disposition made him appear even more sullen, his eyes obscured by black hair glinting with a cold light. "Viscount Leslie has clearly aligned with the Cecil Clan, and Kant territory is now effectively under the control of the Cecil Clan. That resurrected man is subtly infiltrating and controlling those lands once belonging to him."

"But now they do not belong to him," Count Carloff snorted lightly. "Yet we cannot make our actions too evident — he is still a Duke of the kingdom, at least nominally and legally. In this situation, anyone who makes the first move against him, regardless of the outcome, will gain nothing."

"Indeed, he is the kingdom’s Duke in name and law, but who truly desires the presence of this ’Duke’? You don’t, Viscount Carol doesn’t, Viscountess Gran doesn’t, and even our King — he doesn’t, yet every individual must show enough reverence to a founding ancestor," Mr. Glen smiled slightly, as a longtime advisor to Count Carloff. He was quite clear about what his insightful friend was contemplating. "We cannot confront the founding hero directly, as it would damage your reputation, but we can make some early alliances and preparations..."

Listening to the advisor’s words, Carloff Hosman’s expression gradually eased.

"One more thing," after the discussion had reached a pause, Mr. Glen brought up another piece of intelligence. "Recently, news from the Leslie territory mentions something called the ’Magic Web’..."

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"Magiweb?" Carloff slightly frowned, "What is that?"

"A type of magical device, or similar to a magical device, that can absorb free-floating magic power from nature, at efficiency many times higher than traditional self-powered arrays. It can stably supply power to devices that require magic energy, such as magic crystal lamps," Glen explained, "You might have guessed, it first appeared in Cecil territory, created by the mage under Duke Gawain Cecil, and then Viscount Leslie, who is closely tied with Cecil territory, purchased the technology—however, Viscount Leslie clearly wants to recover some costs..."

Earl Carloff Hosman couldn’t help but smile: "Any loyalty is limited, as long as the price is right. Does this thing called the Magiweb have significant value?"

"Great value, especially when paired with a device called the ’Magic-Powered Engine,’" Glen said, "The Magic-Powered Engine is a magical tool that can replace human labor, extremely powerful, also a product of Cecil territory. It’s expensive, but equivalent to the power of dozens to hundreds of slaves, and works tirelessly day and night. I’ve already sent someone to Tanzan Town to investigate, and I’m not exaggerating."

Earl Carloff was momentarily stunned: "Really such a powerful magical device? Did that resurrected duke even sell such a thing to Viscount Leslie?"

"Clearly, after the duke was resurrected, he is in dire need of money," Mr. Glen said with a smile, "Of course, I guess he must have held back somewhat on what he sells, after all, nobody wants to hand their precious magical devices to others. But our spies in Tanzan Town have successfully established contact with people under Viscount Leslie, they have ways to secretly obtain a batch—as you said, any loyalty is limited, as long as the price is right."

"Very good, find a way to get hold of one of these so-called ’Magic-Powered Engines,’ and also that... Magiweb, try to obtain it as well," Earl Carloff decisively instructed, as he has discerned the potential value from these matters, timely action is part of the commendable character of the Hosman Family, "Do not worry about the Gold Coins required, getting hold of the magical secrets from Cecil territory is most important."

Glen smiled: "You will get what you want."

In the lord’s mansion within Cecil territory, Gawain finished reading the letter in his hand and looked up to Amber with a smile: "Can you guess what our neighbor residing in Tanzan Town said?"

Amber glanced at the letter, spotting the Leslie Clan’s emblem at the corner of the letterhead, but she didn’t read the content, casually answered: "Recently, other southern nobles began contacting him, planning to purchase the Magic-Powered Engine, right?"

Gawain gave Amber a slightly surprised look: "How did you know?"

"I am the Director of the Military Security Intelligence Bureau! Director, mind you!" Amber suddenly glared, pointing at her own nose, "Appointed by you personally, my goodness, don’t tell me you have utterly forgotten..."

Gawain quickly pushed Amber’s increasingly close face away, waving his hand, "Didn’t forget—Certainly didn’t forget—mostly I never expected you’d actually be working. Every day, I mostly see you mooching meals from various departments, and spending the rest of your time causing trouble for me, I thought you didn’t do any serious work."

Amber: "..."

The half-elf lady glared and confronted Gawain for a long moment, then realizing she couldn’t beat him, retreated deftly, "Aside from the Magic-Powered Engine, I also received intelligence that in the western region of the southern borders, there are several territories where rudimentary Magiwebs or clues related to Magiwebs have appeared. Some aristocratic leaders are recruiting rune craftsmen and runemasters, some are seeking mages at high prices. Based on the flow direction of the ’Magiweb’ intelligence, I judge those local leaders have purchased or stealthily learned part of the Magiweb data and are attempting to replicate."

"The Magiweb has begun to spread... slower than I envisaged, but considering winter’s impact, this pace is still quite good," Gawain mused while nodding, "Viscount Andrew has truly exerted effort."

As soon as Gawain mentioned Viscount Andrew, Amber couldn’t help but roll her eyes: "Just talking about it—previously Viscount Andrew, nervously and sneakily trying to buy off the technicians you sent over, spent a heap of money, half went into your pocket, only after he stealthily learned somewhat, you suddenly sent a messenger to inform him that Magiweb could be sold, not only sold, but allowed him to act as an agent to sell it further afield... Could you be any more conniving?"

"I didn’t plan to con him initially, it’s his own fault for sneaking around," Gawain shrugged, "What frustrates me the most when dealing with nobles of this era is this, clearly it’s possible to openly do business, benefiting everyone, but they insist on over-interpreting and indulging their own fantasies. However, I believe further on, Viscount Leslie will have learned his lesson... doing business with Cecil follows a different set of rules."