Chapter 1074 — The Silver Empress
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
Rebecca nodded as she listened, but in the end her gaze returned to the distant Messenger Hall: "I still want to go over and take a look—even if I can't use it, I can observe how your transmission devices operate. They say your transmission towers can send a signal clearly over a hundred kilometers without any relay, a distance far exceeding our arcane-net hubs... I'm especially curious how you manage it."
"Of course," Suoyou nodded at once. "I have been authorized to open the technical details of the transmission facilities to you—this too is part of the technical exchange between the Silver Empire and the Cecil Empire. If you're interested, I can send other messengers to take you to visit that hall right now."
Rebecca grew excited at once: "Great, great! Then let's go now, right now!"
Suoyou laughed, and at some point she must have given a signal, for two young elven messengers came over from not far off and saluted them; Suoyou nodded slightly to them: "Take Her Highness the Princess to tour the transmission facilities—everything may be shown to her except the section connected to the armory."
The two elves answered in unison: "Yes, High Messenger!"
Rebecca left cheerfully with the messengers, while Gao Yang turned a curious gaze on Suoyou: "Why is the transmission device connected to an armory?"
"Because our transmission system is also the monitoring system of the Sentinel Towers. Though the channels are safely separated internally, the infrastructure is linked together," Suoyou explained. "Every monitoring station or border sentry post has an armory, storing large numbers of colossus golems and arcane orbs attuned to the Great Wall that can be activated at any time. That way, if something goes badly wrong at the Great Wall, the outpost can not only relay the alarm at once but also organize a first wave of counterattack—and even if the situation spirals entirely out of control, if the high-intensity radiation in the Wasteland instantly kills every elf in the outpost, so long as the outpost's communication system still runs, the general command in the Radiant Dome far behind can still remotely activate those armaments, and the automatically operating colossus golems can buy the rear some time."
Gao Yang listened quietly to Suoyou's account, and only after a long while did he sigh: "Seven hundred years, and the elves are still so vigilant about that Wasteland."
"Because the collapse of the Gondo Empire is still something that happened within a single generation for us, and the Great Wall had trouble again just two years ago—all the more reason we cannot afford not to be vigilant."
"I suppose so... Seven hundred years. It takes you nearly six hundred years just to go from infancy to adulthood," Gao Yang said, shaking his head. "But then again, I don't recall anything about an armory... these things must have been built during the years I was 'asleep,' no?"
"Yes, this system was built at the behest of Her Majesty the Silver Empress Belantia—Her Majesty believed that since the radiation levels in the Wasteland showed no sign of declining and the number of wandering aberrations had not markedly decreased, the Gondo Wasteland would not, as some scholars once thought, purify itself with the passage of time. To strengthen the defenses, she ordered this system built. That was roughly three centuries ago."
"Belantia, is it..." Gao Yang repeated the name under his breath, then suddenly smiled. "You've come over so suddenly now—it must be to relay a message from your Empress, no?"
"...It seems nothing escapes your eyes," Suoyou let out a breath and bowed slightly. "To His Majesty Gao Yang Cecil: the Silver Empress Belantia Morningstar wishes to invite you to afternoon tea, in the small garden of the Oak Hall—may I ask whether you are willing to go?"