Chapter 369 — Cecil's Preparations

"I merely have some uneasy premonitions," Gao Yang said, affirming Heidi's words from the flank. "I am willing to believe that the leaders of both nations have recognized the common threat rising from the wasteland, and that they can understand the folly of the two nations going to war at this time. But I very much doubt that everything will proceed so smoothly... The Sleepers, the Congregation of the End of All Things, the pro-war nobles in each of the two nations, and that 'madness' rumored of the Typhon emperor—there are far too many factors threatening this negotiation. Once something goes wrong in the course of the talks, it will be too late to make preparations after war has broken out."

"I understand," Heidi nodded slowly. "The Civil Affairs Office will begin to act as well. In truth, ever since the various trade routes were opened, the work of stockpiling materials has never stopped—but now I will increase the pace of stockpiling according to wartime standards."

Cecil's territory looked to be a place of peace and prosperity, but in fact, because of Gao Song's sense of crisis, this land had been preparing to meet war from the very beginning—whether the enemy was a mutant or a human. Over the past year, Gao Yang had opened trade routes in three directions; now the various ores from the Leslie territory to the west, the medicinal raw materials and wheat from the Kant region to the north, and the grain, hides, and textile materials from the Gelan territory to the east were being delivered to the warehouses in an unending stream every day.

Outsiders knew only that Cecil's territory had earned astonishing wealth in alchemical potions, magic machinery, and other fields—but they could scarcely imagine that more than half of that wealth had in fact been spent at an equally astonishing rate, turned into the war-materials in Gao Yang's warehouses...

"Beyond stockpiling materials, we must also consider, in the event of war, the maintenance of public order in the territory, public opinion, logistics, distribution of supplies, and so on," Gao Dai said, looking not only at Heidi but at everyone present. "Cecil possesses prosperity and order far beyond the outside world. What we must prove is that even in war, this prosperity and order will remain far beyond that of any other place."

After the arrangements for war preparation in all aspects were complete, Gao Yang declared the meeting adjourned, but the atmosphere in the room remained somewhat tense and grave.

Seeing this, he laughed: "Of course, we are only making preparations here against a rainy day. Perhaps the negotiation will conclude very smoothly; perhaps nothing will happen at all. So don't be too nervous—life has to go on, after all."

Hearing this, Amber could not help muttering: "The way you say that makes me even more nervous..."

Gao Shao glared at the fellow. "What kind of talk is that?"

Amber mumbled: "Last time you said it would be fine so long as the mutants didn't come attacking, and then before winter was over, more than three thousand monsters came to besiege the city..."

Gao Cen brought his palm down on the half-elf's skull. "With Rebecca gone, you're the one in charge of being thick-headed, is that it?!"

"Ow, Mom, that hurts!"

Thanks to the half-elf lady's spirit of dedication and sacrifice, the atmosphere in the room was at once no longer so tense and grave after Gao Yang's slap...

After he had smacked Amber into docility, Gao Yang remembered something and looked toward Byron: "By the way, winter is over now, and it seems we can restart the exploration of the remaining portions of the 'Fortress of Defiance.'"

After Kamael joined Cecil's territory, many of the secrets of the mountain ruins had been unlocked, and the place had been renamed with its formal name from the Gondor Empire period: the Fortress of Defiance. At present, a third of the Fortress of Defiance had been put back to use; after modernization of the magic net, it had been supplied with energy and turned into the site of an arsenal, a manufacturing plant for precision equipment, and a warehouse for war-materials. But a very large part of it still lay hidden in the unknown darkness.

Although Kamael had once been one of the Fortress of Defiance's senior technical personnel, that ancient fortress was simply too vast in scale and held too many secrets buried within; only the Gondor royal house of that year had held all of the fortress's secrets. So Kamael had only helped Gao Yang draw up structural maps of the fortress's lower levels and the Defiance Keep region; as for the situation in the fortress's south and east, it was still one great puzzle.

After winter set in, Gao Yang had suspended the work of exploring the unknown regions of the Fortress of Defiance and ordered the corridors leading to the fortress's southern and eastern regions temporarily sealed off. But now winter was over, the weather was gradually warming, and he judged it time to restart the project.