Chapter 522 — Reception

The Duchess felt the mechanical vibration coming through the magic-guided carriage beneath her, watched the city across the river—a city driven by magic—draw ever nearer, and heard the resounding music carried from ahead. It was a sonorous sound released by some amplification magic, yet the music was unlike any courtly style she had heard at any welcome ceremony; the melody was brisk and richly rhythmic, somewhat like the beat the drummers and buglers struck as an army marched, but more martial and powerful still.

Margarita's voice came from beside her: "This is the 'Phalanx March.' I hope you enjoy this spirited tune."

Was this the taste of that founding hero? Was this a display of martial spirit?

Victoria nodded as reservedly as she could, offering appropriate admiration and satisfaction. By now the convoy had rolled off the Mechanical Bridge, and ahead of it appeared yet more welcoming slogans and great gathered crowds.

Victoria had grown used to these great crowds of citizens gathering in winter.

She kept a faint, almost imperceptible smile, showing the most becoming expression to the people beyond the window—and then she suddenly saw some people waiting by the roadside, aiming strange things—magical devices, surely—at her, and the expression on her face could not help but stiffen for a moment.

Yet she forcibly checked the instinctive urge to cast, for she noticed that knights and soldiers in Cecil armor stood beside those people—she guessed those magical devices must be part of the welcome too, and in an instant she composed her expression and went on meeting everything with that faint air of distant composure.

The next second, with a series of loud reports, one pale-blue sphere after another burst suddenly from the street ahead into the sky, exploding there into great blazing sheets of fireworks.

The members of the retinue from the royal capital all raised their heads, gazing out through the carriage windows in astonishment; even Victoria could not help but show a look of some surprise for a moment.

But she quickly recovered her usual composure.

Those must be fireworks the Cecil mages had released to liven the atmosphere, Victoria thought—such fireworks were hardly rare among the great nobles; at the banquets of high society, mages' firework displays were always an indispensable item, and she ought not to make a fuss over them.

Though the fireworks the Cecil mages released were indeed a little different from those elsewhere—how had they made a fireball spell produce such a tremendous din? And just how many mages had they organized to put on fireworks of such scale?

"Truly a magnificent welcome—I had almost forgotten it was cold winter," the Duchess said with genuine admiration. "I think I have felt the warmth and sincerity of Gao Yang Cecil, Duke of Cecil. This welcome must have cost no small sum."

Beside her, the lady knight Margarita smiled and nodded. "Important guests deserve a magnificent welcome."

"Welcoming those two really did eat up a good chunk of the budget," Hetty murmured with some distress, standing beside Gao Yang in the newly decorated riverside plaza. "It's nearly enough for a new rune foundry..."

"A client of such importance deserves a grand welcome," Gao Yang said, glancing at Heidi, who was already agonizing over the budget, then turning to Rebecca standing at his other side. "The fireworks are well designed."

Today Rebecca had finally dressed herself in the proper attire of a noble young lady. The Cecil heiress wore a pale blue court gown, striving to maintain a demure and composed appearance beside the Xuanyuan Sect, but upon hearing Gao Yang's words she could not help muttering, "Actually, I wanted to set off a few fireballs myself—the howitzers definitely don't make fireballs as big as mine..."

Gao Yang sighed. "We are here to welcome the guests, not to finish them off."

"I'd throw them up into the sky..."

"You said the same thing last time, right before you blew up the courtyard wall."

"Waah—"

Heidi had to cough softly to remind the grandfather and granddaughter beside her: "Ancestor, they're here."

The convoy reached the plaza.

Along the way, Victoria and Viroday had witnessed the prosperity of Cecil, seen the cheering crowds, seen the extraordinarily magnificent fireworks; they and their retinue had crossed the mechanical bridge over the Whitewater River, passed along the broad, orderly riverside avenue, and under the escort of cavalry and countless flowers, this delegation from Holy Sunir had finally come before Gao Yang Cecil.

They had seen all there was to see, and surely felt all there was to feel.

The military band on the plaza struck up once more that impressive march of the phalanx soldiers; a flurry of petals—a byproduct of the daily teaching of the Druid and Alchemy departments at the General Academy—swirled through the air above the plaza; the arcane carriage came to a steady halt at the plaza's center, and under the guard and reception of dashing knights, Victoria and Viroday stepped out of the vehicle.

"An impressive journey," said Victoria Wilde, ruler of the North, performing before Gao Yang the bow of a junior greeting an elder, then, following the custom of nobles of equal rank, lifting her skirt in a curtsy, "far beyond my imagination."

"Cecil has always welcomed visitors, especially the descendants of old friends," Gao Yang nodded with a smile, accepting the full ceremony, then looked toward Viroday at her side. "This is the second time we have met in this place, Princess Viroday."

"Utterly different from last time," said the saintly princess in her priestess robes, her smile gentle and lovely, her voice sweet and pleasing. "Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I could never have believed a city could grow to such a degree in two years."

"All for the sake of surviving in this barren land—for survival, humanity is capable of anything," Gao Yang turned slightly and spread his hands. "Welcome to Cecil—it is ready to receive you."

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