Chapter 95 — Virodai
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The camp's administrators had all been summoned to discuss the road ahead in Gao Song's tent.
Amber sat rather restlessly in the seat beside Rebecca, squirming every so often to glance around, as though searching at any moment for a chance to slip out. Once she realized Gao Yang had no intention whatsoever of letting her go, she could not hold back a mutter: "Look, if you want to hold a meeting, hold a meeting—why drag me into it? I don't understand any of what you're talking about."
"I'm keeping you in sight mainly to stop you from going out and wreaking havoc on other people," Gao Yang said, then ignored the grimace Amber flashed the next instant and went straight to the point. "I've called you all here because I want to make one thing clear first: the crisis is not over."
Rebecca's eyes flew wide, and she stared blankly at Gao Yang: "Huh? Didn't we already drive those monsters back?"
"That's exactly the point," Gao Yang said with a shake of his head. "We drove them back once. Does that mean they'll never come again?"
Everyone at the scene exchanged glances, and Norris the farmer, summoned to a gathering like this for the first time, instinctively shrank back his neck. It was not Gao Song's words that had frightened him—in fact, he had not caught a word of what Gao Yang had just said. The honest old peasant simply felt utterly out of place here in his present station; every person around him was someone he would have had to look up to in the old days, and now they were all seated together with him, which made him extraordinarily nervous.
Hammer, sitting beside him, was doing rather well by contrast. Though the blacksmith was of common birth as well, years of responsibility for smelting iron and steel for the lord had given him a great deal of experience dealing with nobles, and at this moment he appeared perfectly composed.
Hedy noticed Norris's nervousness, but said nothing of it; instead she picked up Gao Song's thread: "My ancestor, did you not already confirm the integrity of the Great Wall? Its self-repair capacity..."
"It has indeed repaired itself, but I'm not certain it won't break again," Gao Dai said. "Everyone, let us be clear on one thing: we have just resolved one crisis, but this is in no way a thorough or reassuring victory. The Great Wall is no creation of the gods. Even if it is a miracle, it is a miracle from seven hundred years ago. The monsters that wandered out of the Gondo Wasteland this time are proof enough that this wall is not omnipotent. The wall is aging now, so we must prepare for the possibility that it will fail again."
Amber pinched her chin and muttered: "Then let's just run away..."
"Run where?" Gao Yang glanced at the half-elf. "If the Great Wall collapses, the corruption will spread across the entire continent. And besides—do you think everyone is like you, able to dash hundreds of kilometers at the first sign of trouble and survive in any random nook or cranny?"
Then he waved a hand. "I'm reminding you only because I don't want you growing too lax in your vigilance—not because that Great Wall, which has stood for seven centuries, is about to come down. I confirmed last time that it is still operating normally on the whole. The breach should be only a 'small problem.' Given the original design drawings and the durability of elven craft, there should be no possibility of total collapse for at least a few decades, so there's no need for excessive alarm."