Chapter 684 — What Is Happening Now

The stupor brought on by drink was an effective aid in helping them make up their minds. Beside each of these men stood a court attendant in a red coat, to ensure that the names they signed were clear and legible.

Count Baling had always been fond of banquets and fine wine, but tonight he had not touched a drop.

Those glorious, decadent days were over.

He raised his pen. The nib touched the paper, and he wrote out a line of neat, sharp words.

...

In the Typhon Empire, at the Obsidian Palace, Luo Yan Augustus sat behind a broad desk, reading the document in his hands with rapt attention.

The arcane-net units operated silently in concealed recesses between the roof and the walls. Steady magic lit the mana-crystal lamps throughout the study, making the room bright as day. Melodious music drifted from a nearby arcane device, carrying a melody that soothed the heart and lifted the spirit. Amid the music, the Great Emperor Luo Yan set down the document in his hands and murmured softly to himself: "...The Cecil Empire, is it..."

The document in his hands was an urgent message from the intelligence department. Although within the empire's borders there were relay chains of griffin knights and transmission towers maintained at nearly no expense, the border quarantine and the chaotic situation in eastern Ansuth meant that these reports had been delayed nearly half a month before reaching the Typhon Empire. Their timeliness was already greatly diminished. The report mentioned the news, only just beginning to spread within Ansuth, of the founding of an empire—but by Luo Yan's reckoning, by this day and hour, "Ansuth" was likely already a thing of the past.

Even if that Gao Yang Cecil had not yet been formally crowned, by now he should already have completed his control over Holy Suniel and finished consolidating and suppressing the nobles of the old kingdom.

The violent upheaval on that ancient land had exceeded this Typhon ruler's estimates, and had also caused a slight hesitancy in his judgment of the situation.

The end of Ansuth's royal power seemed, in itself, to be good news. The most chaotic and feeble state a nation could be in was when its ruler had fallen. If there were no other variables, a civil war combined with the shock of the Crystal Clusters' calamity destroying Ansuth's ruling bloc in one blow would absolutely be a once-in-a-millennium opportunity for Typhon. But the problem lay precisely in this "variable"—Ansuth's royal power had not collapsed and disintegrated; rather, after the siege of Holy Suniel was lifted, it had come to a peaceful end and, under Gao Yang Cecil's leadership, undergone a smooth transition.

That meant the chaos the nation would have to face had already been reduced to a minimum, and that both those handing over power and those receiving it had made every preparation. Gao Yang Cecil was no fool; he would never have undertaken something so enormous without first making ready.

As ruler of the Typhon Empire and the man who had spent nearly twenty years implementing the New Policies, Rowan Augustus of course knew what the word "empire" meant. Setting aside the conditions required to proclaim an empire, judging purely by how it operated, the greatest differences between an empire and a kingdom were a higher concentration of power, greater efficiency in operation and execution, a more stable order, and a greater capacity to accept and apply new things. And all of this pointed to one fact: that ancient, rotten nation was about to tear itself free of the mire.

To this day, every piece of intelligence arriving from Ansul carried with it something that left Rowan Augustus deeply uneasy: that nation had not suffered wounds severe enough during the earlier civil war and the Crystal Cluster War. On the contrary, the power rising in the Southern Region had far exceeded Typhon's estimates. That power had seized control of the situation before the disaster on the Holy Spirit Plain could spread, preserving Ansul's vitality.

Perhaps that was precisely why Gao Yang Cecil dared to restructure the nation after a war... but it was also possible this was mere bluster...

Rowan Augustus leaned back in his broad seat, rapidly assembling in his mind all the reports that had come in over the recent period, but all at once he frowned slightly and turned his gaze toward the window not far away.

Two identical nightingales were perched outside the window, tapping their beaks again and again against the crystal glass of the pane.

Noticing Rowan's gaze, the two nightingales raised their heads and quietly met the eyes of the ruler of Typhon.

After a long while, Rowan finally showed a smile utterly devoid of warmth and said casually, "For people who have been utterly crushed, you certainly possess remarkable courage."

"Accidents are inevitable in experiments." One of the nightingales spread its wings slightly, and its clear voice pierced through the window into the study.

"Failures are inevitable in projects." The other nightingale spoke as well.

"Your notions of accident and failure are certainly novel," Rowan said coldly, "but I regret to say I have no further interest in your peculiar ideas."

With that he raised his hand, preparing to summon the royal mages to seize tonight's uninvited guests, but before he could, the two nightingales spoke in unison: "Then might you be interested in hearing a historical tale about the Gondor Empire?"

Rowan frowned, and with a casual wave of his hand the window opened wide enough to admit a gap.

The two nightingales flew into the room one after the other, and as their wings quivered, a pale green radiance blazed out of empty air and coalesced into the figures of the twin elves.

Rowan Augustus regarded the two identically featured elves with cold indifference: "What is it you wish to say?"

"Have you ever heard of the Defiance Plan?"