Chapter 1179: Chapter 1178: A Bold Project

After many days of intense heat, a timely rainfall covered the vast land between the rocky ridges Fortress and the Dark Mountain Range. This extensive rainfall lasted for an entire day and night, accompanied by a decrease in heat in most areas and the gradual onset of genuine autumn air.

The window facing the garden was open, and a slight cool breeze blew in from outside. The wind carried the fresh scent of earth, while the bright sunlight, after the rain had cleared, shone through the window, leaving a dazzling patch of light on the windowsill. Gawain stood in front of the wide window, his gaze sweeping over the lush lawn below, where he saw a long Tiel languidly nestled in a small flowerbed surrounded by shrubs. The sea demon’s upper body lay on a thin blanket basking in the sun, while the tip of her tail extended out of the shrubs, leisurely stirring in a puddle by the garden path.

She would probably lie there until the sun went down—then shuffle back inside to continue lying down.

"Sometimes I really envy that saltwater fish," Gawain couldn’t help but show a slightly strange smile, "How does she manage to have so much free time to be idle every day?"

Amber stood slightly behind and to the side of Gawain, peeking towards the garden as well, and smirked: "It’s not impressive being idle; what’s impressive is that she manages to lie around but also doesn’t delay her work as a ship technology consultant—Northport sent a message today saying that the stabilizing wing plates Tiel helped design are performing excellently on the new type of frigate, but as far as I’m concerned, she seems to just be napping here and there all the time..."

Gawain shrugged helplessly and said casually, "Continue talking about the investigation situation up north... where did we leave off?"

Amber nodded: "We have several elite operatives successfully infiltrated the coastal city of Prandell in the Violet Kingdom, the city that Duchess Victoria mentioned before—the preliminary intelligence confirms the clues Victoria talked about, and there are still people there who remember the Loren apprentices who landed in Prandell more than a decade ago, as well as the situation when the apprentices left.

"Our operatives also found the ’road’ the apprentices took when they gathered to head to the City of Thousand Towers—as Victoria described, there isn’t actually a road, only endless dense fog and the vague outlines of thick forests within that fog. One operative, skilled in wilderness operations, ventured into the forest and found that all navigation devices and path-finding spells failed as soon as they entered the fog. There seems to be a strange magical power field there at play. To prevent accidents, the operatives had to withdraw from the forest.

"Additionally, we’ve successfully established rapport with some Violet mages active in coastal cities. Although that ’isolated nation’ is generally very closed off, the residents on the outskirts are quite interested in new things from Loren. Through business dealings and the exchange of knowledge, some mages are willing to tell us about local customs and folk tales... but essentially, these ’fringe mages’ have a very marginal status in the entire Violet society, so the intelligence they can provide is quite limited... let’s put it this way, our intelligence work over there has made some progress, but don’t expect any breakthroughs in the short term."

At this, Amber paused for a moment and then continued: "There’s also news from Talronde—the support team sent by the alliance has settled down smoothly and begun reconstruction tasks. Performing duties on the Dragonkin Wasteland seems to give them extra... motivation, with almost all project progresses exceeding expectations. The naval forces led by Byron Kirk will be returning within a day or two, while the first phase of the support team will remain there, continuing with the year-long reconstruction mission.

"In terms of intelligence, we confirmed that the post-disaster situation in Talronde is consistent with what Ambassador Melita reported, and the situation with the Agondale Provisional Government is better than we imagined. The Intelligence Agency’s assessment is that Talronde’s order will soon be restored, at least there won’t be large-scale chaos or secondary disturbances—the dragonkin are tougher than we anticipated, which should be considered good news for the Loren countries..."

Amber methodically reported the latest information she had in hand, as Gawain listened earnestly, occasionally posing questions, all of which received satisfactory answers, making him unable to help but comment in the end: "You’ve indeed grown quite a lot over these years..."

Amber immediately crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows: "So, a pay raise?"

Gawain glanced at her and said nothing, the two staring at each other, big eyes meeting small eyes, until a few seconds later, they simultaneously burst into laughter, a kind of tacit understanding that comes from years of shared jokes.

"Seriously though, getting a pay raise at your current level isn’t very easy—besides, do you still really care about a minor pay raise at this point?"

"Of course I care, why wouldn’t I?" Amber pouted, speaking with a sense of entitlement, "I rely on that bit of income from the Administrative Office. After all, the law states that formal staff in the administrative system are not allowed to have side jobs. My skills are getting rusty; I tried to pick a lock a few days ago to relive old times, and I couldn’t even open it after the first couple of tries..."

Gawain ignored Amber’s random rambling in the latter part of her sentence, only showing a slight surprise: "...I didn’t expect you to adhere to these rules so strictly. I thought with your personality, you’d at least try to find some loopholes in these regulations..."

Amber initially had a carefree, nonchalant look, but upon hearing Gawain’s words, she suddenly put away her smile and adopted a serious expression. She glanced at Gawain and slowly said, "These legal articles were painstakingly drafted by all of us bit by bit, and only after many years could they finally be smoothly implemented—I used to be a petty thief, but if I still thought about exploiting loopholes today, the efforts of too many people would be in vain."

Gawain hadn’t expected his casual remark to make Amber suddenly so serious, and in his surprise, he couldn’t help but ask, "Why so serious all of a sudden? This doesn’t seem like your usual self..."

"Buck Teeth Bobby was arrested yesterday; I personally ordered it," Amber shook her head, her eyelids drooping slightly so Gawain couldn’t see her true expression at the moment, "Do you remember him? He was one of the earliest operatives in the Intelligence Agency, an old subordinate I brought over from Kant, part of the same batch with Andon... He was a cunning fellow, but I never thought his tricks would one day be aimed at the group’s discipline. The Special Counter-reaction Department found seven major economic misconducts on him...

"Andon came to me early in the morning the day before yesterday; what could I do? I could only apprehend the disloyal old subordinate, just like how I used to deal with those who broke the rules in the dark alleys... If he chooses not to be loyal, I have to be loyal for him.

"After this, I’ll also abide by the rules and take responsibility. After investigating Buck Teeth Bobby’s matter thoroughly, both Andon and I will prepare the report..."

The hallway by the window fell silent. After a while, Gawain sighed softly, "When we’re all going through hard times, most people have no problem sticking together through thick and thin. But when things start to go well, those same companions who endured hardships together might not remain as steadfast... Some want to compensate themselves for past sacrifices, some want to be superior, and some become complacent and turn into the very people they once fought against... That’s why a continuous self-renewal and self-correction mechanism is so important."

"The Special Counter-reaction Department catches people every week. I just didn’t expect that one day even someone I personally trained would end up on the list," Amber said, shaking her head suddenly, "Forget it, let’s not talk about that. It’s actually a good thing—if even veteran figures from the Intelligence Agency can be brought to justice, it means at least for now, the ’correction’ mechanism you’ve built is still working, as you once said—the list of the Special Counter-reaction Department isn’t scary, it’s scary if the list becomes empty."

Gawain nodded. He was about to say something more, but a familiar sound of footsteps suddenly echoed from the other end of the corridor, catching both his and Amber’s attention.

He looked up in the direction of the sound and saw Aunt Heidi, wearing a red-golden long dress, hurrying towards him. Noticing the urgency in his descendant’s steps and the serious expression on her face, he realized she might have important news, so he took two steps forward even before she got closer, "What’s happened?"

"A level-one communication came from the Typhon Empire—it’s a message directly from the Obsidian Palace," Aunt Heidi quickly said as she reached Gawain, catching her breath, "They’ve made a breakthrough while researching the War God fragments, and now they’re hoping to conduct a high-level academic collaboration with us to complete a bold... project together."

"An academic collaboration proposed by Typhon? And it’s related to the War God fragments?" Gawain was a bit surprised because this was the first time since the last "war" that Typhon had proposed such a cooperative project through official channels, and it came much sooner than he anticipated—indicating the Typhon scholars had produced results significant enough to unsettle even Emperor Rosetta Augustus, "This should fall under the theocracy Authority Council’s affairs... What have those Typhons come up with?"

Heidi seemed not yet calmed from the news she had just learned, taking a deep breath before making her tone appear more composed, "In short... they seem to have found a way to open the door to the God’s kingdom—a door leading to the War God’s Divine Realm, allowing mortals to go in and investigate."

Gawain: "...?"

The hallway instantly fell into a quiet, even Gawain couldn’t respond right away. He stared at Aunt Heidi for several seconds, organizing his thoughts before finally muttering a few syllables, "What in the world?"

In the next second, he quickly cleared his throat, trying to regain his ancestorly dignity, "Did you say... opening a door to God’s kingdom?! Are those Typhon people serious?"

"It was direct communication from the Obsidian Palace. If Emperor Rosetta Augustus weren’t taking it seriously, then I’m afraid not many people in this world would," Aunt Heidi sighed, evidently understanding Gawain’s astonished response, as her own reaction had been quite similar not too long ago. "They sent over a concise technical document and a ’inspiration report’ about the project, detailing their research on the War God fragments and the basic idea of opening the door—and why they plan on doing it. I’ve read through the documents, and from the perspective of someone who was once a technical staff... I see no issues with it.

"Simply put, they discovered the ’two sides of the same coin’ characteristic between God and God’s kingdom, and found the ’resonance’ path between them. They confirmed that God’s kingdom does not vanish immediately after a God’s fall but undergoes a long dissipation process. They found a method to materialize this ’path’ and temporarily stabilize it, and have already conducted substantial feasibility verification.

"The document didn’t specify how the Typhon scholars discovered this ’method’, but between the lines, I feel this might somehow be related to Emperor Rosetta Augustus himself."

"Rosetta Augustus himself..." Gawain repeated Aunt Heidi’s mentioned name softly, and gradually realized something—The Augustus Clan, such a venerable family that entangled with the ancient "Eye of the God" over the past two centuries, paid immense sacrifices with each generation, successfully snatched usable knowledge from "God", achieving feats unprecedented in human history, and this knowledge... is wealth even the Cecil Clan’s advanced technology cannot replicate.

The Cecil Clan began researching gods very early and inherited some of the ancient Gondor Defiers’ legacies, thus holding a clear advantage in this field. But Typhon controls knowledge directly from the gods, meaning in some specific areas, the Typhons also have their advanced points—The War God fragment is not monopolized by either Cecil or Typhon. After the Battle of the Bitter Winter Castle, God’s fragments shattered and dispersed, the recovered debris was shared between both sides, and both nations immediately began research on those fragments. But clearly, now Typhon’s results have taken another step forward.

However, it seems Aldernon has not monopolized these results—they have executed the resolution from the 112th meeting, fulfilling the consensus reached by leaders of various countries at the theocracy Authority Council founding assembly: the parse results of god should be co-owned by all mortals, and prior to that, nations with corresponding research capabilities in the council should undertake specific technical projects collaboratively. The ’invitation’ Typhon sent to Cecil now is in execution of this clause.

"The Typhon people are the first to follow the rules," thoughts flashed across his mind, Gawain sighed softly and said, "That’s good—then we should also respond positively. However, before rashly agreeing, we still need to see what exactly the Typhon people have cooked up... Aunt Heidi, first bring the documents from Aldernon to my study, I’ll head there now, and also notify Kamel and Veronica, I might soon need their ’expert opinions’."

Aunt Heidi lowered her head, "Yes, ancestor."

Aunt Heidi turned and quickly left, while Amber beside Gawain started chattering, "Those Typhon people really manage to quietly whip up something that can scare people to death... opening a door to God’s kingdom? We wouldn’t have dared to even imagine..."

"Actually..." Gawain glanced at Amber, saying somewhat awkwardly, "I had considered it, just had no technical leads..."

Amber was dumbfounded for a long time before she finally spoke, "...What kind of thinking is that, are you related to that Rosetta Augustus by any chance?!"

"... If you insist on putting it that way, it’s not impossible," Gawain touched the tip of his nose, sorting through the memories, "Seven hundred years ago, my wife was a distant cousin of Roland Augustus..."

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