Chapter 881 — Not a Bad Thing

"There is no need for such surprise," Gawain glanced at Hetty and said calmly. "Although the Inversion Array is ancient Gondor technology, it is only its concept that is advanced; the technology and manufacturing process themselves are not complex. And we use a great many devices incorporating the Inversion Array—some of them will sooner or later fall into Typhon's hands. Moreover, after the Upper Narrator incident, the Typhonians have also been harvesting the technology of the Evernighters. They will inevitably run into the problem that divine runes cannot be made compatible with other runes, and they will naturally realize that Cecil has already solved this problem. They will guess that some manner of 'conversion technology' lies behind it, and they will certainly begin researching it."

Here Gawain paused, then shook his head with a smile: "And finally—the world's clever people are not all in Cecil. Typhon has its own talent pool. And judged by accumulated depth, their talent may well be greater than ours."

"...But this is too fast," Hetty said, frowning, unable to accept it. "Even if the Inversion Array technology is simple in itself, the key is the concept... If a concept goes wrong, a project can be delayed for years. How could the Typhonians have pinpointed the crux so quickly, and even begun targeted... Ah! Damn it, it is those defecting bishops!"

Hetty suddenly understood something, a trace of anger faintly surfacing on her face: she thought of those Evernighter bishops who had chosen Typhon, and of the high-ranking figures in technical fields among them.

Their corresponding clearances had given those bishops access to a great mass of technical materials, and the chaos unavoidable in the Long Night Cult's early mass exodus had given those bishops—long inclined to defect to Typhon—the opportunity to probe for Cecil's intelligence through various channels. They might not learn core secrets, but technical people are always adept at deriving the deeper concepts of technology from external information. They might have guessed some of the principles behind Cecil's magic-net communications, and these things became the gifts those Evernighter bishops remaining in Typhon offered when they pledged allegiance to Rosen Augustus.

Gawain had naturally thought of these things too, but his attitude was calm, and he even still wore a smile: "No need to be so angry. This is a situation that should have been anticipated long ago.

"And the word 'defection' is not accurate either. Strictly speaking, it is the Evernighters who moved to Cecil along with the Radiant Church who 'defected.' For those who remained in Typhon... their actions might even be counted as 'turning from darkness to light.'"

"Ancestor," Hetty could not help looking at Gawain, "at a time like this you still have the mood to joke?"

"Is this such a desperate time?" Gawain shook his head. "Relax, Hetty. You are fine in every respect, but that overly tense attitude of yours needs adjusting—it will only make you more exhausted. We anticipated this situation long ago, back when the Long Night Cult split internally and the technical personnel flowed separately to Cecil and Typhon. With a great number of research talents and ready-made technical achievements in Typhon's hands, and with the latter being an old-established empire of deep foundations and abundant talent, a sudden technological breakthrough of this degree is only to be expected.

"On the other hand, the situation is not as grave as you imagine—though communications technology is indeed of enormous significance and could greatly enhance Typhon's overall strength, the distance a technology must travel from the laboratory to society... is very long indeed."

Hetty blinked and looked into Gawain's eyes.

Gawain nodded and said unhurriedly: "Our magic-net communications could be realized not merely by relying on the Evernighters' rune sets and a simple Inversion Array. It also involves a great deal of engineering, machining, materials science, and runic logic, as well as the institutional adaptation behind all of it and the countless interested parties interfering in related fields. Every one of these problems, laid before Typhon, is a formidable hurdle. To give just one example... Typhon once spent enormous manpower, material resources, and time building a communications system based on signal towers between its major cities and its various key military sites. Do you know what that means?"

Hetty's expression gradually turned thoughtful.

Without waiting for Hedy to answer, Gao Yang went on of his own accord: "It means hundreds upon hundreds of families have poured money into those relay towers. It means hundreds of thousands of merchants, nobles, and extraordinaries are carving up the profits of those towers. The chief administrators and operators of those towers are Typhon's Royal Arcanist Association—and arcanists are hardly some ethereal breed who dine on mist and dew. Magical research demands oceans of money to sustain. A Directorate report last year noted that nearly a third of the entire Royal Arcanist Association's annual income comes from the relay towers under their control..."

Hedy's brow furrowed slightly. "You mean..."

"The newer arcanonet communications technology is indeed more advanced than the relay towers, but until the Typhonians fully solve the cost problem, the gap between the two has not yet widened to the point where the former can wholly supplant the latter. Arcanonet communications work well, but the relay towers are already laid along every major route, and they are not unusable either... That is the greatest contradiction," Gao Rong laughed. "We took this land, abolished every privilege of the old nobility, and built the arcanonet from the ground up. We need not face such a contradiction. But Luoyan Augustus pursued 'peaceful transformation'—Typhon's national communications belong neither wholly to the royal house, nor wholly to the nobles, and still less wholly to those arcanists. It is a cake shared by all the powers. And that is a serious problem indeed."

The corner of Hedy's mouth twitched, and she said slowly, "Then it seems the great Emperor Luoyan will once again be watching with a headache as his parliament bickers beneath the Triple Spires."

But soon Hedy could not help shaking her head. "Yet no matter what Rong says, the Typhonians still hold a new technology in their grasp. Their bickering is only temporary; their progress is inevitable. And the Typhonians are no fools—Luoyan Augustus is a clever man besides. They know what truly matters."

"Yes, Typhon will progress," Gao Yan nodded. Then he paused briefly before speaking slowly. "But that is no bad thing either..."

...

Deep within the great cathedral of Frostgate, in the vast archive that housed countless precious tomes, the Grand Bishop Sevin Terry—clad in a simple white robe and wearing no crown or mitre—was pacing slowly among the towering, ancient bookshelves, while other custodians and attendants in plain short robes bustled about him, carefully taking inventory of the old scrolls, recording them, carrying them in and out, and dedicated scribes had set up tables in the open spaces between the shelves, engaged in the tense and busy work of registration, transcription, and classification.

To classify, organize, preserve, and restore ancient books is a long, complex, and difficult labor—one that tests patience to the utmost yet wins no renown. And that was precisely what Sevin Terry, once a progressive pastor of Frostgate, was doing here today: the work of organizing and restoring the church's collected books.

Since receiving the order from the Cecil family, he had labored at this task for two full years.