Chapter 186 — After the Onset of Winter
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The affair in the Kant domain had finally, for the time being, drawn to a close—and it seemed to be the last ripple in a year full of troubles. With the arrival of the Frostmonth, all things in the southern borderlands entered their dormancy as the temperature fell, and this much-afflicted land was at last quiet.
But the bustling construction of the Cecil domain had only just begun. As all manner of basic machinery and equipment and every kind of workshop were rapidly completed, the great influx of new population swarming into this land discovered that even in the bitter winter they had plenty of work to do. Of course, what greeted them was not only winter labor, but hot meals served in the factory canteens, winter clothing tailored specially for the workers, and a charcoal subsidy for every household.
For the poor who in years past, once winter came, could only huddle over a pittance of stored grain and endure at home, counting the basket of food to reckon how long until winter would end—this was a life of comfort beyond their imagining. Compared with that, the extra bit of work seemed utterly trivial.
In Gao Song's words, only when the winter construction plan was smoothly under way could the domain's development be considered truly on track.
One broad, sturdy four-wheeled carriage after another rolled along the gravel road, the wheels creaking and groaning beneath them. Withered yellow leaves lay strewn along both sides of the road, and everywhere the eye fell there were only bare-branched deciduous maples and giant trees. Such desolate scenery could not help but dampen a traveler's spirits—yet in Joan's heart there was only a warm and steady strength.
Before the harshest frosts descended, she and her younger brother had found the last settlement in the mountain forests.
She stood upon the lead carriage and rose to look back at the entire convoy behind her: seven carriages bearing forty-six gaunt, sallow, homeless folk, while the drivers were all powerful warriors clad in strange enchanted armor and equipped with magitech weaponry. These Cecil combat soldiers strictly obeyed their lord's command, taking it as their duty under all circumstances to protect her and her brother, to protect the refugees in the convoy. Whether they met wild beasts or bandits on the road, not one commoner had been harmed; and in ordinary days, there had never once been a case of soldiers bullying civilians.
This had astonished her beyond measure at first, but by now it had become commonplace.
This was truly an incredible troop—and they were bound for an even more incredible place.
She had never believed any noble would sincerely shelter commoners, still less imagined that homeless folk could receive help without charge on unfamiliar land—but what she had least of all expected was that she herself would serve as an "envoy" and "representative," to bring about and realize this process. Over the past several dozen days, she and her brother had traveled all across the mountain forests and wild plains north of the Whitewater River and south of the Kant domain. Moving in concert with several other teams, under the protection of the mighty Cecil soldiers, they found one after another refugee settlement on the verge of collapse, then brought those kinsfolk struggling on the edge of life and death to a safe place. The whole process was like a dream.
Joan looked to the last carriage. Tom had risen from within it and was now waving his arm at her with all his might, flourishing the flag in his hand and gesturing in that peculiar posture of his that meant "all normal." That posture was his own invention, and he had also devised a whole host of "long-distance commands" with different meanings, relaying messages through the ranks by waving flags and flashing lights. He was plainly delighted with it, and deeply proud.