Chapter 342 — Hope
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 3
The Month of Revival had come.
The long, cold winter of the northern continent had at last reluctantly loosened its grip on the land. Though its lingering power was still formidable, the gradually warming temperatures and the several consecutive days of warm sunshine stirred a sense of hope in people's hearts. At least in the Cecil Territory, the word "hope" was no longer an elegant phrase that the upper classes bandied about over tea; it was something even the common folk could look forward to—something real and tangible.
A child was born, on these days when the earth had just begun to revive.
In the "West District Factory Apartments" completed only this winter, a young new father was somewhat clumsily entertaining the neighbors and friends who had come to visit. The small parlor was crowded with guests bearing gifts. Though the only refreshments on offer were pale tea and coarse pastries, the guests clearly did not mind. Few could have imagined that these people, only a few months ago, had been a group of homeless, mutually unacquainted refugees of the wilderness.
They had wandered the wilds, settled in the Cecil Territory, gotten to know each other at the buffer camps, grown familiar while building their houses, and finally become friends at the factories. For those who had endured those homeless, wandering days, the fact that one of their number had become a father in a warm home was a matter of extraordinary significance.
And just then, someone among those standing at the door suddenly shouted: "The lord is here!"
The people were astonished—but the lord had truly come. That tall figure soon appeared at the doorway, and everyone found the figure familiar.
Gaoyang quickly spotted the young new father in the crowd. That look of being steeped in joy was impossible to conceal. He strode forward and reached out to stop the man, who in his alarm was about to bow: "Today is the day you brought hope to this land. There is no need for formalities. Are mother and child well?"
"Y-yes... yes, my lord..." The young man was visibly nervous, yet excited with joy. He stammered and rubbed his hands together. "All well, all well..."
Gaoyang smiled warmly. "May I see the child?"
"Of course, of course..."
The newborn and the young mother were both in the quiet inner room, undisturbed. Though there were many visitors, only a few had gone in to see them. Gaoyang was surely the most special of today's visitors.
Thanks to the spread of the new arcane network, the system of using magic power to drive heaters and then channeling heat through conduits to warm an entire building was now standard in newly built homes across the territory. This apartment block, completed in winter, was no exception. And a warm, constant-temperature home was the key guarantee of the mother and child's safety—otherwise, giving birth in winter would have been a life-or-death ordeal every commoner mother had to face.
In the warm inner room, Gaoyang saw the swaddled infant.
It was a healthy boy, wrinkled, his eyes not yet able to open, sleeping peacefully at that moment.
An apothecary's apprentice was here caring for the postpartum woman and the infant. This was no wandering folk witch or "quack" who could only fool people—this was one of the apprentices personally trained by Piyun. Though none of Piyun's apprentices had yet become a true druid, at least in the fields of pharmaceutics, internal medicine, and surgery—which did not require magical talent—these apprentices were professionals.
Looking at the swaddled infant, Gaoyang smiled.
This was the first newborn in the territory. Nearly a year into the territory's construction, the first baby had been born here—and that was not strange in the least.