A grand welcome dinner was held in the Lord's Palace, the first time a banquet of this scale had been held since the construction of this large building.

Gawain was not a man who liked banquets, and Hetty and Rebecca, although they were from an orthodox aristocratic background, were not very enthusiastic about banquets (mainly because of poverty, of course), but even if they had no interest in banquets, they knew the necessity of such activities in the upper class of society—a well-prepared banquet often had multiple political and economic and even military meanings, both to highlight the economic power of the host and to complete deals that might require sword negotiations elsewhere in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. This is undoubtedly quite a bargain.

Gawain still hasn't built himself a "castle" in the traditional aristocratic way, he still prefers a house that is comfortable enough to live in, so even if the territory has developed, he has only added and expanded part of the lord's mansion, and planned an area around the courtyard for the construction of outbuildings—eventually the lord's mansion will probably become a building between a castle and a palace, And this is undoubtedly a very new thing for the Duchess and Princess Highnesses from the north.

In the main hall where the dinner was held, musicians from the Leslie region were playing cosy and pleasant music, and after a few short dance music, the guests began to eat at the huge tables on either side of the main hall, and the men and women in rich gowns—including members of the royal legacy—the surviving and qualified "new nobles" from the south, as well as important officials of the Duchy of Cecil and their relatives—moved through the banquet hall like a light snowflake. came to Gawain.

"How does it feel?" Gawain looked at the Duchess of the North in front of him and raised the wine glass in his hand, "This place should be very different from the environment you are familiar with. ”

"There are few nobles, and there are more powerful officials, which is indeed very different from the aristocratic banquets in the north, and there are many fewer rules here."

"The red tape is depressing, we didn't pay much attention to it back then—in my opinion, the young people who are looking for classical aristocratic etiquette should try our Cecil's buffet dinner, and the real classics must be learned from me, an ancient."

“…… It makes sense," the Duchess paused for a moment, revealing a somewhat stiff smile, and then she looked around, at the neat and bright hall and the large floor-to-ceiling windows in the distance, and couldn't help but sigh, "Your 'castle' is more impressive than this banquet...... I've never seen a castle in this form, and you didn't seem to have designed it as a fortress...... Didn't put a barracks in the courtyard either? ”

Gawain smiled: "Barracks? My regiment could not fit into the courtyard of the castle, and the old castle was damp and cold, and the fireplace had to be lit in every room to barely accommodate people, which seemed to me not at all as comfortable as such a house—I was a seven-hundred-year-old man. ”

"Then there is probably no healthier 'old man' in this world than you," said Victoria, who was not a good joker, but had to be flexible in the face of a funny and humorous elder, "I noticed that there is no fireplace here - this castle is heated by magic?" ”

"The heat source is a fire elemental circle located underground, relying on a set of copper heat exchangers to transfer heat throughout the building, and there are mezzanines in those walls, and metal pipes and brick paths are buried in them," Gawain explained, "Not only here, but most of the buildings in this city have similar facilities, and there will be a large heat source station in the block, and its heat can heat the whole block, which I designed." ”

Victoria's eyes widened slightly: "You mean...... Is everyone's home in this city as warm as it is here? ”

Gawain nodded: "Of course, and in fact some of the new buildings are warmer than here - the heat exchanger installed in this house is the first generation, and the plumbing design is not as good as the later ones, and I am preparing to replace it next year." ”

Victoria didn't pay attention to Gawain's words, she just showed a look of incredulity: "...... Build something like this throughout the territory...... It's not easy, is it? ”

"It's a bit difficult, but it's good that we have magic technology," Gawain said with a smile, looking into the duchess's eyes and watching every change in the other party's expression, "And if we plan to centrally heat the entire neighborhood in a uniform manner, we will actually have to consume less - don't you think it's better than every household burning wood and charcoal, and freezing people to death every winter?" ”

The Duchess did not speak for a moment.

Cecil City, a city that has risen rapidly in the "barren land", is incredibly advanced.

The city reminded her of the City of a Thousand Towers, where she had lived for a long time in her youth to study magic - the mage capital in the Violet Kingdom was just as advanced, and the ubiquitous magical power made the whole city continue to operate as if it were alive, but when compared to it, Cecil City and the City of a Thousand Towers were so different.

This newly rising city may be less rich than the City of a Thousand Towers, and it lacks some magnificent buildings that have suffered from the vicissitudes of life, but its advanced points have penetrated deeper into all aspects, and even penetrated into every civilian.

This is the power of magic technology? What the hell is magic technology?

After a brief silence, she finally spoke: "Ever since I set foot on this land, I've been thinking about what magic technology really is. I thought the walls of the Rock Fortress were magical, I thought the cars were magic, I thought the street lamps in this city and the heating of this house were magic, I thought it was a kind of magic, some kind of new, convenient spell...... But now it seems to be more complicated and novel than I thought. ”

Gawain didn't say anything, he just nodded and let the duchess continue.

After a brief muse, Victoria? Wilde spoke again: "Magic Technique - it's for ordinary people, right?" ”

"Ordinary people can really take control of it and benefit from it."

Victoria took a deep breath.

She didn't ask Gawain about the principle of this technology, this childish question would only make her seem abrupt and shallow, she didn't ask Gawain if she knew what it meant to put the power of magic in the hands of ordinary people, she didn't believe that the promoters of this technology would not think of this, she just thought about it silently, and then seemed to turn the topic in another direction: "You just relied on it to arm your army, and then defeated the coalition of more than forty nobles in the south?" ”

Gawain smiled, and Rebecca's voice came from the side: "They took the initiative to call!" ”

Victoria turned her head and saw that the heir of Cecil was standing next to her with a cake, her eyes were wide open, there was a little cream on the corner of her mouth, and her face was full of energy, but the next second the girl exclaimed: "Wow - my aunt said she wouldn't let me interject casually today......"

"It's okay, we're just talking," Victoria nodded to Rebecca, "You're beautiful today, Marquis Rebecca." ”

Rebecca suddenly reacted when she heard the other party greet her, the girl who had never failed the etiquette class because she had defeated all the etiquette teachers, hurriedly put the cake aside, and tried to salute according to the little thing she had learned from memory: "Hello, Duchess Wild, you are also very ...... today Ay? ”

She finally reacted to what the other party had called her just now.

Gawain, however, just stood aside with a smile on his face, watching quietly like an outsider who had mastered everything in advance.

"Female ...... Marquis? Rebecca glared and pointed to her nose as she asked the Duchess, "You're talking about me?" ”

"Isn't that right? According to Ansu's law, the first heir to a noble nobility who has reached an adult will automatically inherit a title one level lower than his father's generation until he officially inherits the title," Victoria said, looking at Rebecca, but it was clearly not just for Rebecca, "Gawain? Duke Cecil had carved out lands worthy of his title in the south, and the Cecil's rightful rights were restored as agreed in the Silver Fort that day. ”

Her gaze finally fell on Gawain, who only nodded faintly, indicating that the matter was known.

The expression on the duchess's face did not change, but she sighed slightly in her heart.

Just like Wales back then? Moen's words—what has already fallen into the hands of the other party is not a gift, and for such an ancestor-level figure who does not care about the attitude of the Second Dynasty at all, the "recognition" from Saint-Sunil is worthless.

Rebecca, on the other hand, was a little confused - she knew about the "agreement in the Silver Castle" mentioned by Victoria, because she followed when she concluded this agreement, when her ancestor asked for back the permanent right to open up seven hundred years ago from Francis II, and the Second Dynasty also announced that it recognized the title of Duke of the old ancestor, but added a restriction on top of it: Gawain? Cecil's title of duke will be a permanent personal honour only, and will not be hereditary until he is able to use his rights to open up a minimum amount of land worthy of the ducal title during his lifetime, and the title and related powers of the Cecil family can be restored......

At that time, the big people in Silver Castle seemed to think that it was impossible for the Ancestor to carve out a duke from the wasteland in his lifetime.

In fact, the old ancestor did not carve out a duke from the wasteland - he killed all the nobles in the south, which is completely different from what he said at the beginning......

Rebecca, the new Marquis Cecil, blinked her cute eyes, and she was pulling a formula through her brain, which was good at dealing with machines and fireballs, trying to figure out the difference between "the Borderlands that you took after killing people" and "the real Borderlands in the wasteland", but before she could figure it out, she saw that her ancestor had already continued to chat with the Duchess with a natural demeanor: the ancestor didn't seem surprised at all, and the Duchess didn't mention the slightest detail of the covenant that day... …

Rebecca thought about it, and suddenly felt that politics was really powerful, it turned out that everyone could be shameless......

In front of Gawain, Victoria was raising his glass slightly: "Now that the situation in the kingdom is turbulent, there is a powerful guardian duke guarding the southern border, and everyone in the Silver Castle is much more relieved." ”

Gawain also raised his wine glass and smiled: "That's really good - it seems that my outdated old man is quite popular." ”

The two guardian dukes greeted each other, clinked glasses in a friendly manner, said polite words, and turned their hearts to the completely opposite thoughts, leaving the most perfect angle of the photo for the reporters carrying the magic net terminal on the side of the hall.

Gawain then prepared to leave—as the host of the dinner, he had more than one guest to entertain.

Him and Victoria? Wilde still has a lot to talk about, but he's not in a hurry, and the really important things are to be discussed after this banquet.

Looking at her own ancestor who turned to leave, Rebecca waved her hand: "Ancestor, can I eat a few more cakes today?" ”

Gawain didn't look back: "Just don't eat it." ”

"Hey! I know! ”

A moment later, Rebecca had another plate of cake in her hand, and the new Marquise smiled and boasted to Victoria, "You should try this—Bauer?" Mr. Said's cake was as good as the meat he roasted. ”

It's really carefree.

Victoria? Wilde looked at Rebecca, at the girl who had already rubbed cream on her face and didn't behave like a marquis at all, and couldn't help but shake her head.

"Don't you eat it?"

"No, I'm just a little envious of you."