Chapter 530 — The Day of Departure

It was plain that the Duchess's invitation was sincere, yet Gao Yang only smiled faintly and shook his head. "Rather than go to the royal capital to sit in your councils and discuss a pile of things I do not understand, I have more important work to do here."

Victoria meant to say more, but then she noticed where Gao Yang's gaze had gone: due south, toward the Dark Mountains.

Her expression turned grave. "You are still worried about that wasteland?"

"I have never stopped worrying—do not think that seven hundred years of calm means it will stay calm forever," Gao Yang said, looking into Victoria's eyes. "Victoria, I ask you now not as an elder but as a guardian duke of equal rank: do you truly believe that once the civil war is over, once Wells takes the throne, the nobles of Anseth can hold back Typhon to the east and the wasteland to the south?"

Victoria wanted to give an immediate yes, but before the answer could leave her lips, she had already fallen silent.

In these ten-odd days at Cecil, she had observed a great deal, and in that observation she had confirmed one thing.

Duke Gao Yang Cecil had been making preparations all along—for a war, perhaps for many wars.

He had already taken the entire Southern Marches. His army could effortlessly crush a coalition of more than forty nobles, yet he had not stopped. He had forged a monster of steel at Boulder Fortress, yet he had poured even more effort into the Dark Mountains than into Boulder Fortress. The civil war in Anseth had dragged countless kingdom nobles into the mire, but to this founding ancestor risen from the dead, that civil war hardly mattered—his enemy was a threat far greater.

Had the nobles of the royal capital seen all this, most would have concluded that the founding Duke was simply overwrought, that he was still trapped on that battlefield of seven hundred years ago and therefore drove his people to relentless war like a vengeful ghost, blind and obsessed, even at the cost of pushing his newborn duchy to the brink of financial ruin. But after seeing with her own eyes the records of two Cecil defensive battles and hearing the recollections of those who had lived through them, she would not draw so hasty a conclusion.

And even if the Gondor wasteland could still be dismissed as some vague, unseen threat, what of Typhon, close at hand?

More than once had the people of Anseth felt the tip of that empire's blade at their throats.

"The nobles of Anseth have many problems," the Duchess finally broke the silence, meeting Gao Yang's gaze with steady eyes. "But even to set them in order, we first need an intact Anseth."

"...Not an especially excellent answer, but worthy of your title," Gao Yang exhaled, then said as though casually, "By the way, there is one more thing I must ask of you. Rest assured, it will not be difficult."

"Say the word."

Gao Yan nodded. "I hired a batch of craftsmen and mages from the capital, and they want to bring their families over—but I hear the capital is under martial law now."

He had not forgotten the promise he made to Cohen—that young mage from the capital had asked, before pressing the button on the Holy Light Inversion Array, that his family be brought to Cecil. Gao Cen had kept it in mind all along. It was just that if he had raised the matter with Victoria from the start, it would inevitably have stirred up a pile of unnecessary speculation in her; but now, having concluded their "big business," mentioning it in passing made it seem far less abrupt.

"That is no difficult matter," Victoria said, just as he had expected, without reading anything into it. "Simply give me the list, and I will personally issue travel permits for them."

Victoria departed. Watching the somewhat thin and solitary figure of the Duchess recede, Gao Yi gave a faint sigh.

"Straighten them out... I never had the slightest intention of straightening them out."

A warm, gentle presence drew near from the side. Gao Yang turned his head and saw Verodai Moyne, wearing her serene smile.

"You are leaving today as well," Gao Yang said, nodding to the holy maiden princess. "Is there anything you wish to say?"

"I am only the eye sent by the Lord. My mission is to see, not to speak."

"Is that all?" Gao Yang raised an eyebrow, his tone turning grave. "To be honest, as an envoy of the Church of the Shining Star, you seem hardly conscientious—did you really come here for the destruction of the Southern Church and the change of masters at Frostgate?"

Verodai said nothing; she only gazed quietly into Gao Song's eyes. Her gaze was deep and tranquil, like a spring without bottom. In some fleeting, dazed instant, Gao Yang felt he was not meeting a pair of human eyes at all—they seemed merely a medium or instrument for observing the world, a soulless thing, while the true soul hid somewhere deeper, peering at him through that medium.

"What happened at Mingyuan City was a regrettable accident. It was the clergy of the cathedral who went astray and forsook the Lord's teachings, and so were driven out by the people. Now the people of the Southern Region have chosen the order they accept; under Duke Cecil's guidance, the new order has been established, the Frostbalance Church has been restored, and the Holy Light still shines over this land—in the Southern Region, nothing has happened."

As Verodai's words fell, Gao You could not help frowning in astonishment. "Are you serious?"

Verodai smiled faintly. "Is this not the 'fact' acknowledged by everyone in the Southern Region?"

"What good does this do you?" Gao Yang asked bluntly. "Is it for your faith?"

Verodai was silent for a moment, and the smile that never left her face suddenly receded. "Yes. It is for my faith."

The two stood in silence for a long while before Gao Yang broke it. "Will the Northern Church accept all of this?"

"They will—because this civil war will continue. On the Holy Spirit Plain there is a vortex greater even than the Southern Region's."