Chapter 528 — Another Deal
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 5
It was an enormous expense.
But it was worth it.
Victoria studied the one-handed sword in her grip—a gift from Gao Yang after the contract had been formally signed. It was nearly identical to every blade she had seen at the side of a Cecil soldier; the only difference was that the Cecil family crest had been scraped from the hilt and replaced with the crest of House Wilder of the North.
It was excellent work, with stern lines and scrupulous engraving, its surface all but free of flaws. As a mass-produced piece of equipment it was finer even than the weapons carried by the royal knights, and here were thousands upon thousands of swords identical to it, every one of them without the slightest deviation.
That sense of uniformity gave Victoria a feeling of "power."
These could not be the finest weapons Cecil had, for no one but a fool would haul out his most guarded reserves for coin unless he had no other choice—but they were at least better than what the royal army now carried, and that was enough.
Watching the Northern Duchess stand there lost in thought over the sword in her hands, Gao Yang found memories surfacing unbidden in his mind—memories of Gao Yang Cecil—and he thought of Snow Wilder, the first Grand Duke of the North, that powerful mage who on his last visit to the South had talked with Gao Yang Cecil through the whole night.
The system of the Four Duchies had by then been established, and the central kingdom and the four grand duchies were striving together to build Anseth. Yet that Northern Duke had asked a question that seemed strange at the time: what if one day the kingdom's greatest threat was no longer the magic tides beyond, but the guardian dukes of the Four Marches themselves?
Snow Wilder had been devoted to the study of history, above all the aristocratic history of the Gondor Empire, and perhaps he had glimpsed some hidden peril in the Four Duchies system that circumstances had forced upon them. Unfortunately, Gao Yang Cecil of that year had no answer to give him—three days later, Gao Yang Cecil died on the battlefield.
Gao Yang came back to himself, looked at Victoria, and asked, as though casually: "Do you think Anseth's crisis will end when the civil war ends?"
"If we win, it will," Victoria raised her head and spoke as though stating a fact. "Wells Moyne is the rightful heir to the throne. So long as the royal army can defeat the eastern rebels, the nobles of Anseth will inevitably unite again; and so long as the nobles unite again, Anseth will be whole once more, and the crisis will resolve itself."
"...I see," Gao Yan nodded. "Then let us return to the city first."
Victoria blinked, a trace of bewilderment hidden beneath her placid features. She had vaguely sensed a flicker of disappointment in Gao Yang's minute expression, then decided it might have been an illusion. Seeing that he had already set off, she did not press the question, but hurried two steps to the magic-carriage and pointed at it. "Duke Cecil, this thing you call a magic-carriage... do you sell them too?"
Gao Yang halted and glanced at her with some surprise, then smiled faintly. "Sooner or later we will. But not now—we cannot build enough of them yet. Half a year at the earliest. And if you wish to buy one, then once you are back you had best repair the Royal Road first."
Victoria bowed her head deeply. "I will. Roads are the lifeblood of the kingdom. When the snows melt, my first task will be to rebuild the Royal Road."
After returning to the lord's manor, Victoria soon took her leave; she had to go back to the Autumn Palace and reckon precisely how much coin the royal army could now produce to buy arms. Gao Yang did not linger at the manor either. He quickly boarded the magic-carriage waiting at the gate and ordered the attendant driving it to make for the merchants' quarter.