Andesa looked at the monarch to whom she was loyal with a hint of consternation.

At first, she didn't hear anything wrong with Rosetta the Great—because almost any Typhonian nobleman who had been in control of the situation and understood the changes in the empire over the years could see that there was an inevitable war between Typhon and Ansu, but she soon realized that Rosetta meant more than that.

Gawain?? Cecil would eventually become an enemy of Typhon.

All the while, Rosetta?? Augustus saw Ansu as his prey, but now, among the prey, there was a hunter, an equally hungry hunter.

"Your Majesty, if that's the case, why do you want to cooperate with him?"

"There are many forms of war, and 'cooperation' is one of them," Rosetta said calmly, "and the benefits to be gained by the empire in this cooperation are too great, and the Cecilians have what we desperately need, but at the same time, we have what they desperately need...... We plotted against them, and they plotted against us. ”

Andesa lowered her head slightly, pondering the deep meaning of the emperor's words.

"The 'magic industry' created by the Cecils is changing the rules of society, and I can't see exactly what it will eventually become, but I can feel that the existing order, the order built on the land and farming, will soon be broken by factories and machines, and in this field, the Cecilians are already ahead of us, but they have their advantages, and we have ours," Rosetta continued, "Send this car back home, send it to the Imperial Industrial Association, and disassemble it into parts, no matter how much it costs, You have to figure out how it works. We can't make anything better than it for the time being, but at least we have to build something that can run like it.

In addition, Duke Ferdinand was informed, and the court advisers were summoned to count the production and demand of iron ore, magic materials, grain, and cotton throughout the country, and to plan the initial transportation routes.

"Organize scholars in mechanical and magic techniques to work and live together with road builders from now on, and prepare to become 'workers'. There is a high probability that the Cecil people will not allow our mages and scholars to participate in the technical aspects of building the 'railway', but it is impossible for them not to recruit workers.

"Draw up an order for me for the Duke of Severn to begin preparations for the 'bank'......

"Ordered the Council to assess the risk ...... all matters"

Risk...... The word flashed through Andelsa's mind, while memorizing every command of Rosetta the Great.

The giant sun was hidden behind the chaotic and dirty clouds, and the light leaking from the clouds gradually approached the western horizon, and the sky quickly dimmed, and the street lamps in the camp lit up one by one, and the bright magic crystal lamps released a constant brilliance, making this small camp like a lighthouse in the chaos, shining brightly, and reflecting the hazy and magnificent magnificent wall.

Rosetta?? Augustus returned to his palace, where he sat quietly in a high-backed chair, with reports and materials on factories, roads, and cotton production spread out in front of him.

As the night wore on, the emperor glanced at the light outside the window, then leaned back slightly in his chair, closed his eyes, and rested briefly.

The boundless darkness, the darkness that was so peaceful that it seemed to envelop his senses and spirit for a moment.

Rosetta?? Augustus opened his eyes, and he saw himself in a magnificent and splendid palace.

The palace is of great beauty, with towering columns and a spectacular dome, with all the walls and roofs depicted with elaborate paintings and colourful patterns, and narrow windows with a strong Typhon-style spire inlaid on the walls on either side, and the crystal glass of the windows is also intricately patterned.

A large hall appears in front of Rosetta, which seems to hold a thousand people for a ball—but in reality, the entire palace is empty.

An indescribable dead silence hung over the splendid and empty building, with no attendants, no guards, no human figures, only a faint, dusk-like light shining through the high narrow windows, casting shadows of light and dark in the palace halls.

Rosetta looked at the uninhabited palace in his dreams with an indifferent expression, and after a short pause, he stepped forward.

The moment he took his step, countless low, indistinct, and unknown whispers and murmurs suddenly came from all directions.

The ubiquitous sound was mixed with small overlapping conversations and laughter, as if mixed with suppressed cries and screams, as if this empty palace was suddenly full of people, and those unseen visitors or occupants were coming and going in the empty corridors and halls, in Rosetta?? Augustus was talking, laughing, swearing, and crying—but Rosetta walked silently forward, as if ignoring all the distractions of the sounds.

Finally, a clear whisper appeared in the chaotic whispers and murmurs, and it reached Emperor Typhon's ears hoarse and low: "...... Yes...... Here you go again...... I don't know how to give in......"

Rosetta continued to walk forward, and as he walked, the wide hall shattered silently, and a long, deep corridor appeared in front of him, which also had narrow windows on both sides, through which the evening light poured on the opposite wall, and between the light and shadow, portraits could be seen hanging silently on the wall.

Rosetta saw his brother, his father, and his uncle......

Everyone who has inherited the blood of the Augustan family and has left this world hangs quietly here, looking at himself with indifferent eyes through the cold oil painting.

The closest to him was his eldest son, who died young.

The young man frozen in the frame looked at Rosetta and suddenly said, "Father...... Don't you stop to take a break? ”

Rosetta didn't stop and continued to walk forward.

That low whisper sounded again: "On both sides of this road, there is death, and at the end of this road, there is also death......"

Rosetta gradually walked deeper into the corridor, the surrounding light had dimmed, the portraits on both sides began to grow older, more faded, more indifferent and detached, and the Augustans from the older ages looked at Emperor Typhon as if full of malice as if they were walking in the corridor, and the low whisper continued to sound:

“…… Why don't you stop and take a break, you don't have to challenge this impossible task......

"How painful is the truth...... It's better to leave it behind, sometimes, it's a blessing for mortals to live in ignorance......

"The Augustans before you, they were as stubborn as you, but what did they do? None of them succeeded, they were crazy, they were all crazy...... You shouldn't see it, but since you have seen it, you might as well accept the curse......"

At the end of the hallway, all the maddening whispers and murmurs vanished without a trace, and Rosetta silently looked up at the portraits hanging at the end of the hallway.

That was the beginning of the surname "Augustus" as the ruler of Typhon, the beginning of this ancient family - the Augustus, who had disappeared over time in the collapse of the ancient Gondor Empire, and even if there were names, they had not been able to leave an image in this "palace".

In the faint light of shadows, Rosetta saw several portraits: Roland?? Augustus, Bertomund?? Augustus, Talia?? Augustus ......

At the end of these side-by-side portraits, he sees Bertila?? Augustus's position, however, in the center of the dark frame, seemed to be shrouded in a condensed shadow, completely obscuring the face of the sage who had been active seven hundred years ago.

Rosetta looked at the portrait calmly for a moment, then withdrew her gaze and broke the silence for the first time: "Bertilla?? Is Augustus really alive? ”

In the depths of the empty palace, no voice answered his question.

Rosetta seemed to have anticipated this outcome, and he just smiled mockingly and turned in the direction he came.

The whisper rang out again: "Why aren't you crazy yet?" ”

Rosetta's footsteps paused slightly, and his voice was low: "We have more resilience than you can imagine. ”

The palace began to shake violently, as if the dream was coming to an end.

Rosetta looked up as the long and deep corridor continued to crumble and fall brick and stone pieces, and in the darkness behind him, the low whisper turned into a distant sigh: "Alas......"

There seemed to be endless regret and helplessness in that sigh, which was very different from the crazy and malicious whispers that preceded it.

The last supporting structure of the entire palace also completely disintegrated after this sigh, and turned into nothingness.

After the walls collapsed completely, the scene outside the palace also came into Rosetta's eyes, and he saw a city, a city that was rapidly crumbling in the collapse of the sky, countless towers and towering walls disintegrating in violent shaking, the earth cracked with terrifying gaps, and an entire city was swallowed up by the earth almost in an instant, and in the midst of the falling things, in the depths of the earth, the last sight he saw was a transparent dome with indescribable starlight polymers floating in the dome......

……

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, day and night alternate, and the stars circulate.

The ancient constellations looked at the world with solemnity and indifference like the gods, watching the passage of time, watching the busyness of mortals.

The Frost Constellation crossed the highest point of the Celestial Dome, and the cold winter began to release the last of its power in the last month of the season, with the cold wind howling and the earth frozen.

With the support of construction machinery and other advanced technologies, the "sub-tower" in charge of Cecil Pinnacle was completed one month ahead of schedule, and a series of "purification devices" that spread from the sub-tower to the north were also capped.

The technical exchange between the Silver Empire and the Duchy of Cecil is finally on the right track, after the initial run-in and small project tests, the elven magister in the south of the continent and the human magic researchers in the north of the continent have established a preliminary tacit understanding, the Duchy of Cecil and the Silver Empire have set up more signal relay towers and augmentation devices in the area under their control, and in a more stable and efficient communication environment, the researchers of the two races have crossed the entire continent, A series of technical exchange and cooperation projects have been initiated in telecommunications.

In Ansu 738, on the 35th day of the cold month, Gawain received a communication from Hetty.

"The envoy sent by Typhon has arrived in Cecil," the Grand Archon of the Duchy, with his long hair tied up, reported earnestly in the holographic projection, "according to your orders, they will be arranged to visit the operation of the eastern line of the magic train the next day. ”

"They've finally arrived...... But it's understandable, after all, it's such an important project, Rosetta?? Augustus and his think tank don't know how many times it took to make a final decision," Gawain sat behind his desk, and outside the window came the sound of the horn of a heavy transport vehicle: a batch of rock, soil, and monster specimens collected in the wasteland had just been loaded into a truck and ready to be sent to the research department in Cecil City, "How is the Duchy doing?" ”

"Everything is stable, the last group of exiled knights in the northern region have surrendered, and all the magic monitoring and sensing devices in the border areas and key urban areas have been laid and activated, according to the plan, the next step is to spread the sensing devices to the villages and towns."

Gawain breathed a sigh of relief.

At this point, the current stage of social security in the Principality of Cecil has finally been completed.

The so-called "magic monitoring and sensing device" is a special facility led by Carmel and set up by the government affairs department, its idea comes from the ancient Gondor Empire, and its technology is the product of the combination of contemporary "magic detection spells" and magic network communication technology, its biggest function is to perceive all spell casting behaviors within the range, and send back the alarm at the first time, and the "supervisors" of the security department of the government affairs department can see the location of the node that issued the alarm from the city sand table, so as to quickly lock the unauthorized spell activity.

Of course, this system is not designed to prohibit the transcendents from casting spells - as long as they carry a special "caster permit", relying on the rune array in the permit, the transcendents can cast spells normally, this permit must be handled from the government department, and it must also be subject to regular inspections, rune updates and qualification assessments, so that the transcendents in Cecil must be registered - this system encountered some resistance at the beginning, but due to the fruitful results of the unification war, Almost ninety percent of the transcendents in the entire southern realm were already under the control of the principality, and there were not many transcendents themselves who did not accept the jurisdiction, and it was finally successfully implemented.

The system has been in place since the middle of last year, and now it is finally coming to scale.

Effective management of all transcendents sounds like a thing of its time, but it's not at all advanced.

Not to mention the Gondor Empire a thousand years ago, Typhon, just outside the borders, had already achieved the registration and professional management of the transcendents many years ago, as evidenced by their special team of "engineering mages".

The Typhonians used a large number of mage towers and a large number of royal mages loyal to the empire to register and induce transcendents in most of the city areas, and set up a large number of training facilities to create more loyal and obedient "full-time spellcasters" to the empire's orders.

Ansu was already a lagging behind in this regard, so Gawain had to compensate for the latecomer disadvantage with more advanced technology and a more advanced system, at least within the principality, where he had to achieve more effective control over the transcendental.

Of course, there must still be loopholes in those facilities and systems, and there will always be people who exploit loopholes who will find a way to hide the fluctuation of mana, and high-level or legendary-level transcendents may also use their own strong strength to shield the monitoring of magic sensing devices, cracking and anti-cracking, monitoring and anti-monitoring, the confrontation in this regard will never end, but in any case, as long as the new management method can have a role, the southern border can be safer - at the very least, those who try to infiltrate, Cultists who want to sneak in and perform evil rituals anytime and anywhere are not so easy to sneak in now.

From now on, cultists operating in the South, whether they are Sleepers or all things are doomed, will face the situation of being handcuffed to radiators by law enforcement officers for chanting a spell.

……

Hanging up the communication, Hetty stretched her back vigorously, moving her slightly sore neck.

Outside the window, the cold wind was howling, and the snow of the previous two days was still pressing on the roofs of several buildings, and the crystal clear ice hung from the window, showing the cold outside.

A slight warm air flow flows along the ventilation ducts and blows out from the air circulation openings on both sides of the office, maintaining a comfortable temperature in the office, which is still comfortably sleepy even in this cold weather.

In fact, Rebecca had fallen asleep on the couch next to her.

Hetty glanced helplessly at her niece, who was sleeping soundly, and couldn't help but shake her head.

“…… That's why I came to chat with my ancestors...... I fell asleep before the communication was connected......"

She muttered a few words, but didn't wake Rebecca up, and didn't really want to blame anything.

She knew that Rebecca had been very tired lately - in order to communicate with the Silver Empire's technology, in order to organize and prepare for that series of new projects, this simple-minded girl had not had a good rest for half a month.

This kid needs a good night's sleep.

Hetty found a blanket from the side and covered Rebecca with a gentle movement, which made her can't help but think of the latter's childhood-this girl who has never been restless has always been a master of kicking quilts, even if two maids are arranged to watch them specially, they often can't keep up with Rebecca's speed of kicking quilts......

As if sensing something, Rebecca, who was lying on the sofa, arched slightly and muttered indistinctly, "...... Ancestors...... I'll figure it out...... Elven Rune ......"

Muttering, she suddenly smirked in her sleep, as if she had been complimented in her dreams.

Hetty couldn't help but smile as she watched Rebecca's movements, and then she stood up and swept her gaze over the calendar hanging on the wall not far away.

Cold Moon, 35th.

In 25 days, the winter season is over.