Chapter 775 — The Northern Plan
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
While Firum stood there in a daze, Victoria was also studying this golden-haired young man who looked to be about the same age as her nephew.
So young, and yet he had created something as inconceivable as a "magic-shadow play."
It was no technological invention but an innovation at the level of ideas, and the duchess could not help but sigh inwardly: before these new things, it was the young who truly possessed creative power. Compared with the previous generation, they could adapt to this new age far more quickly.
She was not so old herself, but she was, after all, an elder, and having been tempered for so many years in the upper circles of the nobility, she sometimes felt that her own mindset was no longer young.
If this Firum's character proved trustworthy as well... then Fendil's finding such a friend was no bad thing. As for the disparity in rank and status... the Arcane Vein Sect itself had declared its intention to reform its ancestral rules, so it was better to go with the tide.
All these tangled thoughts passed in a single flicker of an instant, and Victoria's expression did not change in the slightest. To outsiders she remained that cold-faced duchess, and she gave Firum only a measured nod: "A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Firum."
"I... I'm very pleased too, and honored," Firum hastily bowed his head. "Fendil often speaks of you."
"Oh?" A trace of curiosity entered Victoria's tone. "And how does he speak of me?"
"He says you..." In his nervousness Firum was about to blurt it out on instinct, but he had barely gotten a few words out when he caught the look Fendil was casting him from the side—a look that said, we are friends, we have never quarreled, today we are partners besides, what is the authority of a mere aunt compared to this?—and at once his following words were polished: "He says you are full of majesty, stern yet commanding of respect, the Ice and Snow Duchess whom the mountains of the North hold in awe."
"That is not the sort of thing he would say, but I thank you for the compliment all the same," Victoria said with a nod, then drew her gaze back and turned to Gaoyang. "Your Majesty, forgive me for taking up your time."
"Not at all. I am glad to see my subjects enjoying themselves together," Gaoyang said, politely conveying his satisfaction at the spectacle, a smile on his face. "Besides, since you have arrived today, it happens that we may discuss a few matters."
As he spoke he rose to his feet and gave a slight nod to Firum and the others, who still had their heads lowered. "I shall leave this place to you young people. The screenings to come are equally important. I wish you all success."
Several voices rang out at once: "Yes, Your Majesty!"
……
Leaving the theater that had been temporarily converted for the magic-shadow play, Gaoyang took Victoria directly into a magic-drive carriage waiting at the theater's rear gate; the others Victoria had brought along were assigned to other vehicles.
Beyond the carriage windows the capital's streets receded steadily. Among the half-classical, half-modern buildings rising and falling at irregular heights, citizens in warm winter clothing and children running and playing could be seen everywhere, while decorative banners and draperies fluttered in the wind.
"I hear that after you reached Boulder City, you came the rest of the way by train?" In the rear seat of the magic-drive carriage, Gaoyang glanced at the "Ice and Snow Duchess" sitting opposite and remarked offhandedly.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Victoria said with a slight nod. "It was a whim of mine. I wanted to experience the sensation of riding a train for myself, and to see with my own eyes how the train—and the entire railway system behind it—actually operates."
"And how did you find it?"