Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1084: Chapter 1083: The Changing of an Era

Gawain knew that even though he had already reached a consensus with Rosetta here, there were still countless details regarding how to formulate various specifications during the reconstruction of the continental route, how to distribute route profits, how to ensure the safety of ship passage, and laying the foundation for future international maritime law that needed to be gradually negotiated. Moreover, at least on paper, the agreement must also ensure "equal opportunities" for Typhon and other countries once their maritime technology developed. The subsequent negotiation process might last a long time, and even after this 112th meeting, there would be multiple rounds of meetings awaiting the diplomatic personnel of both parties (and possibly other parties that might join in the future).

After all, this was a historic event that could change the continent’s situation. Even if the Cecil would have overwhelming dominance in terms of discourse rights on the continental route, Gawain must afford every participant sufficient respect and dignity—otherwise, this would contradict the political stance he had always advocated.

But no matter how the later negotiations proceed or how details are adjusted, the major direction of this matter has already been set and will not change again—this is the significance of the closed-door meeting.

After finally nodding, Rosetta seemed to unload a heavy burden or crossed a difficult challenge, letting out a gentle breath, the muscles by his cheeks relaxing.

Gawain and Amber both thought he might experience at least a moment of depression and disappointment, but surprisingly, Rosetta just breathed out like this, his gaze still bright, filled with an unquenchable confidence as if he had already found the next target to strive for—a target perhaps even more challenging than any he faced domestically, yet it inspired him with even greater fighting spirit.

"We will all usher in a better era, won’t we?" he looked at Gawain, the deepness in his eyes revealing a glimmer of light.

"Of course, we are sitting here not to drive our countries backward," Gawain smiled slightly, picking up a wine glass from the coffee table and toasting towards Rosetta, "Shall we toast to our tomorrow?"

Rosetta raised his wine glass too, and with the crisp sound of clinking glasses, the economic structure of the Loren continent for the next few decades was completed and preliminarily distributed.

Before putting down the glass, Rosetta said again: "Since this matter has been settled, the Cecil’s Army stationed at Winterwolf Fortress..."

Gawain laughed: "The soldiers will return home before the end of spring, and many families need reunion—my engineering troops can put in some extra effort. Perhaps we can even restore the trade route around Winterwolf Fortress before the Fire Moon arrives."

"...Restarting the trade route could stimulate the local economy, and several towns to the south of Winterwolf Fortress might flourish commercially," Rosetta said slowly, "In these warm days... shouldn’t our soldiers of Typhon also go home?"

"Of course, the same will happen before the end of spring." Gawain responded more readily—in fact, he never intended to hold Andresha, currently recuperating in the Sorin Region, or those captured soldiers of Typhon as hostages. He didn’t plan to use these "chips" for anything, even though he once intended to gain advantage from Typhon’s mass production of Transcendents. But with the continuous breakthroughs in artificial nerve core technology, with the applications of "wet mainframes" and "servo cerebral brains" promoting auxiliary casting, the Cecil had found another breakthrough point for mass-producing Transcendents, and he no longer needed any "hostages."

In this situation, rather than using "hostages" to exchange for interests that are no longer important, it is better to take advantage of this to reinforce his reputation within the "alliance," enhancing the persuasiveness of the "community with a shared future" and gaining some positive international image—not to mention, he was also very much looking forward to see how much profit Rosetta’s promised "commercially prosperous place" could bring.

Following that, they finalized the disposition plans for many matters in the post-war period—the details still needed diplomats and think tanks from both sides to discuss in detail, but the major direction was already decided in this reception room. As time gradually advanced, the originally rising morning sun also climbed into the sky, finally bringing the topic of the aftermath of this war to a close.

Gawain exhaled a breath and looked toward Rosetta, who was sitting opposite him, and brought up another matter: "Today I came here because there’s another thing I want to tell you."

"Another thing?" A hint of doubt flashed across Rosetta’s face, "About what?"

Gawain casually picked up a Sorin Tree Fruit, observing its smooth red surface under the sunlight, and slowly said, "Talronde—do you know this name?"

"Talronde..." Rosetta’s face immediately displayed a thoughtful expression, and he slowly nodded, "Not long ago, this was completely unknown to me, but recently I’ve heard quite a bit of information related to it. Half of which comes from newspapers you have publicly distributed—it is the realm of dragons, in the distant north, on the other side of the Eternal Storm, right?"

"Yes," Gawain nodded, "Of course, now the Eternal Storm has disappeared, and what’s left between us and the Dragon Kingdom is just a vast ocean."

"...The realm of dragons, I once thought it was just a legend, everyone thought it was just a legend, although we all knew dragons truly existed, many stories depicted them as creatures residing in the Otherworld, like elemental creatures or ethereal beings," there was a hint of emotion in Rosetta’s tone, "Who would’ve thought that beyond the Loren Continent, there would be a civilization established by dragons?"

Gawain quietly glanced at Rosetta, deliberately pausing for two seconds before slowly breaking the silence: "Yes, this civilization truly exists, and not only does it truly exist—they will also become a member of the alliance."

The room fell silent momentarily, even someone as composed as Rosetta was taken aback at this moment, and Matilda sitting next to him couldn’t conceal her shocked expression either, staring blankly for a long time until Gawain broke the silence and both of them came back to their senses.

"It seems you’re both quite surprised." Gawain said with a smile.

"What did you just say?" Rosetta looked at Gawain with wide eyes, unable to hide the surprise in his voice, "You said... you even invited the dragons to this conference? Those true dragons?!"

"Yes," Gawain nodded, "Although the Cecil has already publicly revealed the true existence of dragons in the media, their participation in the alliance meeting is still confidential, so it’s normal for you not to know—I intentionally controlled this information. In short, the dragons will appear at the alliance meeting and join us with the status of a mortal realm, which I believe will greatly promote the progress of the meeting."

By this time, Rosetta had already recovered from his astonishment, calming down, and seemed thoughtful: "Indeed, if dragons descended from the sky and announced their willingness to join the alliance, representatives harboring suspicion and hesitation about the alliance would undoubtedly be greatly shocked. I can’t imagine anyone raising objections under such circumstances; they might not even remain calm enough to think... this truly is an unexpected card."

He couldn’t help but lift his head to look at Gawain again, showing a bit of curiosity: "Who else knows about this matter?"

"Silver Empress Belsetia as a witness and recorder, and an ambassador from the Sacred Dragon Kingdom in the north—no one else," Gawain said, "The former is considered the host of the meeting, naturally knowing the list of all representatives, the latter has a close relationship with the dragons."

"...Dragonborn, I still remember how shocked I was when frontline reports said there were dragons in Cecil’s air force, even after we found out those ’dragons’ were actually ’Dragonborn’ from the north, the shock didn’t lessen much," Rosetta shook his head with a complex expression, his tone filled with apparent emotion, "Never thought that in such a short period, I would be shocked to meet true dragons... but why did you tell me this?"

"Because Talronde now needs assistance," Gawain said solemnly, "and I plan to establish a long-running Food Committee as a foundation for mutual support and watchfulness among the members of the Alliance. For this, I need more powerful support, and Typhon is the strongest voice in the south and east of the continent."

"...Talronde needs assistance?" Emperor Rosetta increasingly felt the topic was racing towards a legendary story, almost becoming incomprehensible to him, "Are you talking about those legendary dragons? Dragons that can single-handedly destroy human city-states? Have they come to the Loren Continent for aid?"

"It’s a long story," Gawain sighed softly, "but first, please don’t think of them as vile creatures who have come to the human world seeking help only after encountering a crisis. What happened in Talronde is more tragic than anything you or I have ever experienced, and it all began some 1.87 million years ago..."

Rosetta silently got up, picked up the red wine from the coffee table, and personally poured a glass for Gawain, before pouring one for himself too—judging from the other party’s expression, he had already determined that this story might be very, very long.

...

Betty returned to the room where the golden dragon egg was placed. The dragon egg, called "Enya," was still quietly standing on its grooved pedestal, with the near-noonday sun splendidly shining in, spreading over the walls and floor, causing the faint halo around the golden egg to seem even brighter—creating a very serene and peaceful atmosphere in the room, making the already pleasant maid feel even happier.

"Good morning, Lady Enya!" Betty energetically approached the golden egg, bowing politely and happily greeting, "Ah, are you reading the newspaper?"

She saw a newspaper floating in mid-air in front of the golden egg. The well-printed paper shimmered slightly in the sunlight, held up by some invisible force, floating at a forty-five-degree angle in front of the egg. At that moment, the newspaper just turned a page, making a pleasing sound as the paper rustled in the air.

"Good morning, Betty," came a gentle voice from the egg, "yes, I am reading the newspaper—the one you hurriedly brought me this morning."

"Ah, I was a bit busy this morning and didn’t have a good chat with you..." Betty scratched her head, a bit embarrassed, then her eyes lit up as she looked at Enya and the newspaper floating in the air, "How is it? Do you find the things in the newspaper interesting?"

"Very interesting—and very useful," Enya said with a smile, "I can learn about what’s happening in your kingdom, and understand the perspectives and mentalities many of you hold towards this world... and I can hardly remember how many years it has been since I last saw such primitive media. These quaint printings carry a vibrant feeling, and I like that."

Betty thought for a moment and couldn’t help but say, "You always say things that sound so profound... I feel like I can’t quite understand them."

"Ah, really... my apologies, I have always been accustomed to speaking this way," Enya’s voice contained an apology, "Expressing my emotions frankly and accurately is very difficult for me, and considering the listener’s ability to comprehend during that process is even harder, so I will be more mindful in the future."

Betty heard this and quickly waved her hands, "You don’t have to apologize like that, I’m already slow at understanding things, I’ve gotten used to it! And knowing you’re happy now makes me happy too!"

The voice inside the eggshell went quiet for a moment, then sounded a bit curious: "Betty, you always seem cheerful."

"Yes," Betty smiled brightly in the sunshine, "because good things keep happening."

"Good things keep happening... that’s wonderful," Enya seemed moved, but quickly set aside what she was thinking, her voice lightening up, "Could you tell me more about this city? Your stories seem more interesting than the newspaper ones."

"Of course I can!" Betty nodded eagerly, but before starting her "storytelling," she first pulled out a white soft cloth from beside her, and as she walked towards the egg, she said, "But I need to wipe your eggshell first—I can talk while I wipe~"

Enya’s tone instantly became a bit odd: "...actually, I don’t think it needs wiping, but if you find it enjoyable, then go ahead."

Soon, the sound of the "squeak squeak" of the cloth wiping the eggshell echoed in the room. Alongside this sound, Betty began enthusiastically telling Enya about everything in Cecil Castle—all that had transpired from nothing to something, as she saw it.

...

At the same time, in the deepest space of the defied Fortress, in the "courtyard" located in the shadow realm, Amoen, the Giant Stag clothed in a sacred white glow, lay quietly on the ground composed of shattered boulders, massive metal beams, and crystal fragments.

This towering sacred creature like a small mountain was opening its eyes at this moment, its crystalline eyes infused with white light fixating on an object placed not far in front of it—that was a large Magic Web Terminal, its alloy-made precision base inlaid with high-quality Projection Crystal, within which dim glimmers flowed.

This device had yet to be activated, and not far from it were a Magic Obelisk for signal enhancement and transmission, an additional magical network supply matrix, as well as some other magic devices with various functions.

Not far from the Giant Stag Amoen was a vast shadow—this was a tall, clock-tower-like, beautiful lady whose lower body was comprised of illusory magical clouds. She was squatting beside, glancing between the unactivated large Magic Web Terminal and the motionless Giant Stag, and finally couldn’t resist speaking up after several attempts, "Need help?"

"No," the former God of Nature immediately refused, "I can manage on my own."

"You’ve been tampering with it for a long time now—truthfully, all it takes to activate it is..."

"No, I can manage on my own!"