Chapter 51 — The Ore Arrives
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 3
Hedy and Philip immediately went to meet him. Gao Yang waved a hand to cut short their bows; he nodded first to Hedy, then looked at the young knight. "Thank you for your hard work. Well done—not a single one lost. Let the soldiers and settlers rest a while; after lunch all labor forces are to assemble in the clearing at the center of the camp, and Hedy will tell them the work rules here. Soldiers, militia included, assemble west of the camp—Sir Byron will hand out some new equipment."
Then he looked at Hedy. "For the newcomers' first day, no need to split them into work teams yet. There are too many new rules; they won't remember them all at once."
Hedy nodded in assent, while Sir Philip looked somewhat puzzled. "New equipment? What new equipment?"
Gao Yang looked at him and revealed a faintly mysterious smile. "Definitely good stuff."
Only when he actually laid eyes on the new equipment did Sir Philip have to marvel that his earlier expectations for "good stuff" had been far too low.
He had assumed it would be at most a batch of brand-new blades and armor, with a hand crossbow for each man at the very most—but who could have imagined it would be a complete standardized set of "transcendent armament"?!
Enchanted blades, enchanted armor, and military crystals from the ancient empire!
The longswords bearing "Keen Edge" flickered with cold white light; the half-plate inscribed with "Elemental Ward Incantation" and "Featherfall" shimmered with a faint gray radiance in the sun. The rank-and-file soldiers, with little learning to their names, might never in their lives have seen what an enchanted weapon looked like, but they still realized at once what manner of thing they were now wearing, and every one of them was beside himself with excitement.
What left Sir Philip even more astonished was that even the militia got a set each... Did these things cost nothing?
"They're all old antiques, the older the worse they keep—no point hoarding them; better to bring them all out and turn them into combat strength," Gao Rong said with a chuckle. "Honestly, there could have been more, but plenty are damaged beyond use, or their magic has drained so badly they're empty shells. It does pain me a little."
"Transcendent armament... every piece is priceless," Sir Philip said, stammering slightly. "These things... in the old days you couldn't find even a few sets of enchanted gear in the whole of the Cecil Territory!"
Amber stood nearby with her arms crossed. "Look at you, acting like you've never seen anything—seven-hundred-year-old grandpa, is it so strange to have a bit of private savings stashed away? Whose grandfather doesn't tuck a few silver coins under the bed boards... Ow ow ow, that hurts, that hurts!"
Gao Yang grabbed Amber by the ear and dragged her aside, while she flailed and hollered at the top of her lungs. "Let go! Let go! Haven't you heard elf ears are super sensitive! Let go!"
So at a time like this the disgrace of elvenkind remembered that half-blood lineage of hers, did she?
And Sir Philip, watching Amber being hauled off by the ear, straightened his chest with a face full of earnest pride. "Our family has worshiped Kell, god of warriors and knights, for generations—we never keep our wealth beneath our bodies!"
Gao Yang glanced at the young man with some surprise, thinking to himself, no wonder the fellow clung so strictly to the knight's creed, to the point of seeming excessively rigid and hidebound compared to his peers—turns out he was a believer after all... Far better than a certain someone who claimed to follow the Goddess of the Night but improvised her prayers fresh every single time.
"With these things... even if we run into those 'Aberrants' from before, it'll be much easier," Sir Philip said, still marveling over the new equipment. Then he suddenly spoke up. "By the way, we can give the patterns to the craftsmen in Tanzan Town—even if it costs a bit more..."