Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 939 - 938: Preparations for Departure and the Listening Project

To be honest, when he saw the writing emerging on the desktop, Gawain’s heart wasn’t as calm as he appeared—although he had mentioned earlier that the Goddess of Magic ought to thank him, he truly didn’t expect her to actually offer thanks...

So this is the ”personality” of the Goddess of Magic? It feels quite different from Amon or Nariteer Duvalt...

Even though a bunch of chaotic thoughts surfaced in his mind, he still managed to control his facial expressions well. After all, there were several other people in the room, and in such a setting, he needed to maintain a dignified persona.

”Ancestor,” Aunt Heidi noticed Gawain’s actions at the desk and couldn’t help but ask curiously, ”What happened... huh? What’s wrong with the table?”

Gawain glanced down at the desktop. The recently replaced desk had first been engraved with a thank you by the Goddess of Magic, then he casually wiped off a layer, leaving a large pit in the middle. As the emperor’s designated desk, it was now beyond use—he couldn’t help but feel a bit regretful about it: ”Just now... there was a mosquito.”

The three Grand Governors present were dumbfounded: ”...”

This explanation was clearly hard to believe, but since the ancestor/emperor said there was a mosquito... then there must have been a mosquito.

”Ahem, let’s deal with this table...” Gawain coughed twice, eager to end this awkward topic quickly, ”Yes, have this desk replaced.”

”Yes... Ancestor,” Aunt Heidi nodded and quickly concluded the current topic, albeit somewhat stiffly to align with Gawain’s hint, ”Then regarding your plan to go to Talronde...”

”This is precisely what I wanted to discuss,” Gawain promptly nodded, picking up on Aunt Heidi’s words, ”According to the prior agreement with the Talronde ’representatives,’ I should start moving after the ’divine funeral’ of the Goddess of Magic—of course, not immediately, we can still prepare, but it’s something already promised, so I don’t intend to delay overly.”

”Are you truly set on heading to that... mysterious Talronde?” Baldwin Franklin, though aware it was a settled matter, couldn’t help but ask again.

”No need to be so tense—Talronde is neither the Divine Realm nor hell; it’s merely another country situated on this planet,” Gawain said leisurely, ”The Dragonkin indeed are a mysterious race, but they are also a communicable civilization, and we can establish formal diplomatic relations with the Sacred Dragon Kingdom, so considering Talronde as a ’country’ is the correct mindset.”

Standing beside him, Victoria Wilder, with no change in expression, broke the silence: ”In the northern parts of the mountains, there have always been numerous legends about ’dragons.’ Though mostly nonsense, the legends themselves reflect a lot of information—dragons are a mysterious species but have factually always been active on the Loren Continent, always on the edges of human civilization’s view, with mysterious motives, of which we remain ignorant... Your journey to Talronde this time might help humanity understand what those dragons intend, but also be prepared for risks.”

”Certainly,” Gawain nodded slightly, then gazed into Victoria Wilder’s eyes, as transparent and indifferent as ice crystals, ”Concerning the trip to Talronde, the domestic affairs have essentially been arranged, and I trust you all to handle the routine state affairs during my temporary absence—and besides that... I have a special task for you.”

Victoria Wilder immediately straightened her body, a hint of seriousness appearing on her face: ”Please instruct.”

”No need to be so tense,” Gawain waved his hand, ”I merely hope you ensure that all the Magic Web Hub Towers in the northern regions are in optimal condition, and adjust all the Crystal Arrays on the north coast to listen with the highest sensitivity to signals from the direction of the north pole—and meanwhile, I will bring along the currently most advanced Magic Web Terminal to maintain contact with the north coast.”

”You plan to use this method to maintain contact with the Empire?” Victoria Wilder frowned slightly, ”Forgive me for being candid, but this should be infeasible, far beyond the current Magic Web Nexus communication range, and there is the high-intensity interference over the vast ocean, not to mention crossing a storm along the way...”

”I’m well aware,” Gawain interrupted, ”I’m using this opportunity to collect data on the Magic Web Nexus and the magic-pervasive interference over ocean areas, especially the latter. This part of data is valuable and urgently needed by us. The near-sea route from Northport to Moss Woods has already commenced trial operations, but data collection in the distant sea is progressing slowly, as our current technology struggles to gather magic parameters beyond the Violet Strait—it’s just that this time, the Dragonkin providing us a ’trailer ride.’”

”I see... I understand,” Victoria Wilder bowed her head, ”I will do as you instruct.”

”Good. As for maintaining communication with the homeland, you needn’t worry,” Gawain nodded, then continued, ”The Dragonkin possess technologies that can sustain communication across the Endless Sea. I will leave behind a ’Mithril Ring,’ which Aunt Heidi will guard, and use it in case of special circumstances to contact me.”

He then discussed with Aunt Heidi and the other three some details regarding preparations, which marked the last confirmation of domestic arrangements before departure. Once the discussion was concluded, Aunt Heidi exhaled slightly, shaking her head with a bit of helplessness: ”No matter how much preparation we make, I always feel this is a hasty journey...”

Gawain chuckled: ”Indeed it is hasty, but there aren’t too many things that unfold as we expect in this world.”

Aunt Heidi nodded helplessly, yet soon like an overly concerned lady butler, she asked, ”Then regarding the entourage for this trip... are you truly set on just bringing Amber and Veronica Moen?”

”Should I be taking a whole Imperial Guard unit to ’visit’?” Gawain looked at the clearly overly concerned Aunt Heidi with a dose of helplessness, ”I was invited to Talronde as a guest, not to attack the Dragon Kingdom nor venture into a dragon’s lair. Too many accompanying personnel would be of no use, so taking Amber and Veronica Moen along will suffice—Amber is clever and adept at investigating, whereas Veronica Moen is well-versed in matters concerning the gods, which is ideal for me.”

Aunt Heidi pondered for a moment, before finally bowing her head in agreement: ”Since this is your wish...”

”We can refrain from further discussing this,” Gawain waved his hand, then his expression turned serious, ”A report came from Sorinburg today, and I plan to discuss it with you all.”

”Sorinburg?” Aunt Heidi displayed a puzzled expression, yet almost instantly she realized and began to speculate, ”Is it regarding the mysterious signal previously intercepted?”

”That’s right - the mysterious signal,” Gawain said seriously, reaching for a sorted file nearby, ”Many scholars from cryptography and the textual field have studied it for a long time but have failed to find clues from those seemingly meaningless tremors. However, Beltira approached it differently—she seems to have discovered a kind of pattern within those tremors...”

As soon as he finished speaking, the three Grand Governors leaned in. Even Victoria, who usually had no expression, showed a hint of curiosity on her face. Clearly, it wasn’t just expert scholars who were intrigued by that mysterious signal.

Gawain didn’t keep them in suspense; he promptly unfolded the file and pulled out its most important page, placed it on the table, and pushed it towards Aunt Heidi and the others.

”What is this?” Baldwin Franklin asked, puzzled, staring at the paper’s contents. His gaze fixed on a bizarre drawing: a square composed of a series of small dots, with a short slanted line next to it that seemed unfinished—also made of small dots. Beside the drawing, in the blank spaces, were tremor wave diagrams, annotated with descriptions such as tremor cycle and types.

Not only Baldwin, but Aunt Heidi and Victoria were equally baffled upon seeing this.

”This is what Beltira ’restored’ from those signals—an incomplete drawing,” Gawain explained, briefly summarizing the ”technical approach” mentioned in the document. ”She directly converted those tremors into an image, using an interpretation rule no one had thought of before, considering the tremors and white noise as dots and blanks respectively, tracing them out according to the signal’s clock sequence...”

Beltira’s method was not actually complicated, and those present were all intelligent people skilled in mathematical and technical deduction (except Amber, who seemed lost in thought by the window), so Gawain’s simple explanation was enough for the three Grand Governors to fully understand the connection between the drawing and the mysterious signal.

Aunt Heidi couldn’t help but widen her eyes, staring at the drawing with disbelief: ”Is it... that simple? The essence of the signal is actually a picture?!”

”It’s quite unbelievable, but this might just be the truth,” Baldwin remarked pensively. ”Random testing couldn’t yield such an orderly image; the perfect form of this square indicates Beltira’s approach is correct—that there’s an image hidden in the signal, which is... indeed fascinating.”

”But what’s the significance of this image?” Aunt Heidi frowned. ”Who made something like this?”

”It’s obviously incomplete, with unfinished lines beside it. Beltira believes we’ve only received a tiny segment of the complete signal and thinks each time we’ve received the signal, it’s been different ’sections.’ Unfortunately, the previous two signals were either unclear or not recorded promptly, so the only sample she could analyze was from the 32nd of this month,” Gawain said casually. ”Based on the recorded and analyzed data, Beltira speculates the complete form of this drawing might be some kind of blueprint... of course, this speculation is merely a reference, with much subjective speculation involved.”

”Blueprint... although a subjective assumption, it’s quite an appealing idea,” Baldwin said, shaking his head. ”Regardless of what this thing truly is, it clearly originates from an intelligent being... Sending such a signal, the sender certainly has a purpose; they mean to convey some message to us... or any capable target capable of receiving and translating this information...”

”That’s my view as well,” Gawain stated, ”I believe this signal is likely being continuously ’broadcasted,’ persistently announcing this ’blueprint,’ and we only occasionally receive fragments of it, possibly because our Magic Web Crystal Array isn’t specifically designed to receive it—it’s all just coincidence.

”What I’m telling you is this: we must find a way to consistently reproduce such ’coincidence.’

”These signals are very unusual, and I’m sure you can feel that. Whether it’s for academic research or to eliminate risks to the Magic Web Communication system, we must investigate the secrets behind these signals. For this purpose, I’m planning to categorize the capture, tracking, and study of these signals as an official and long-term project, conducting planned, continuous listening within the range covered by the Magic Web.

”This project will be called the ’Listening’ Plan.

”As of now, we don’t know where to start, so I’ve asked Beltira to retrieve all operational parameters from the Sorin Main Hub when the signal was captured, along with data on weather, magnetic fields, and the magic-pervasive environment. There may be many ’coincidental factors’ that led to the Sorin Main Hub receiving the signal; it could be related to the orientation or combination mode of the crystal array at the time, it could be related to the Magic Web’s operational state in the Sorin Region at the time, or even related to the then-current weather and wind direction. Since we don’t know which data is useful, we can only record them all and try them all.

”Without affecting the Empire’s Magic Web daily operations, have available hubs and nodes adjust to operate as closely to ’Sorin Standard Parameters’ as possible and see if we can detect anything. Even if we find nothing then, at least we will have conducted an operational test of the entire Magic Web.”

Gawain spoke while looking at Victoria, who was listening intently.

”Victoria, the northern parts of the Dark Mountain Range is a key test area—because the first anomalous signal was received at Bitter Winter Castle. Although you only received it once, and the signal condition was poor, we still have reason to suspect Bitter Winter Castle’s environment might be just right for listening to this anomalous signal, so keep an eye on this matter.”

Victoria immediately took the order: ”Yes, your Majesty.”

Gawain nodded, exhaled, and let his gaze sweep across the three in front of the desk, then reached out, taking three identical copies from the desk drawer and placing them in front of Aunt Heidi and the others.

”Here are copies of the Sorinburg report, with more details on the ’Listening Plan’ and the compiled ’standard parameters’ by Beltira inside. Once you return, you can gather the technical personnel to examine them thoroughly. While I am temporarily away, you can begin preparing for this plan.”

”That’s it for today. If there’s nothing else, get busy with your respective duties.

”The main procedures for the ’God Burial’ have finished, but there are many follow-up tasks left before sunset; leave that to Aunt Heidi.”

The three Grand Governors took their leave, turning to depart, but as Victoria was about to step out the door, Gawain suddenly called after her.

”Victoria, wait a moment.”