To the west of Cecil City, where the vast jungle of forests and plants provided a steady supply of building materials and industrial raw materials—and even food—to the north of Cecil, next to the Whitewater River, the village of Frost Forest is bustling with the rising sun.

It is a new, but well-ordered village, with neatly arranged wooden houses shrouded in cooking smoke, concrete and masonry "new houses" dotted between them, and wide concrete roads connecting the main buildings of the village, which are so clean and tidy that, thanks to frequent cleaning and strict sanitation regimes, are completely free from the stool that is common on the roads of other parts of the era.

All these characteristics are the embodiment of the "Cecil Order".

Buddy, a lumberjack, went out into the early morning sun, carrying with him the heat that had accumulated after a hot meal at home, which helped him withstand the cold spring wind in the forest, and the man who had cut down trees all his life walked out into the street, wiped his nose, which was slightly itchy in the cold wind, and walked towards the newspaper desk.

As he crossed the street, he glanced at the houses on both sides, a place that had vaguely come to mind from the previous year.

He remembered that when Cecil's eight hundred refugees first arrived on the land, it was a humble logging camp - dozens of lumberjacks and a small group of soldiers arrived here with axes and swords, set up tents and fenced in, the original camp was not as big as the square in the center of the village today, but now in less than a year it has become a village, and it is a beautiful and large village - the tents have become lumberjacks' huts, and the lumberjacks' huts have expanded and multiplied into streets. Supplies from the city were sent here in a steady stream, just as the timber cut here was sent to the city, cement appeared, shops appeared, and the village turned into a logging camp even got a name - the lord himself named it Frost Forest Village.

If he hadn't experienced it himself, Buddy couldn't believe it was happening right under his nose.

More lumberjacks appeared on the streets, and Buddy greeted his friends, and everyone walked forward together, laughing and laughing, and on the way, someone suddenly sighed: "This place has changed so much." ”

"Well, after all, we're not idle in the winter," laughed a bearded lumberjack, "and we've even built the bell tower." ”

"I don't know what's changed in the city lately," Buddy muttered, "it's changing faster than we have here." ”

"The last time I went into the city, I saw a new house being built on the west side of the city, and I said that there were two thousand more people in the buffer camp who got that...... Oh, citizenship," said the lumberjack who spoke first, "but I haven't been in town lately......

There are convenient roads and rivers between Frost Forest Village and Cecil City, but in fact, the loggers here do not often enter the city - since it has become a fixed settlement here, and various village facilities have been established, Frost Forest Village has gradually had the ability to sustain itself, and the workers who came here have become settled villagers, because they have a large number of work tasks, and there is nothing to do when they enter the city on weekdays, the people of Frost Forest Village generally enter the city once or twice a month, and they are interested in the changes that have occurred in Cecil City, Often, they relied on the occasional arrivals to describe the return of the city, or to hear from the convoy guards who carried supplies between the village and the city.

During the chat, everyone's conversation gradually turned to speculating about the changes in the city, and guessing whether the lord had come up with something new, but they didn't talk for too long, and the check-in desk had already arrived.

Buddy wiped his nose and looked at the shack at the check-in desk, according to the workflow, he had to pick up his tools after reporting here, and then followed the foreman to the designated area in the woods to start work, but today it seemed that something was happening at the check-in place - he saw many people gathered in the small clearing in front of the check-in desk, and even his own foreman was standing there.

Buddy and a few lumberjacks approached curiously, and found that the convoy carrying supplies had arrived—although Frost Forest Village had become a village, it was only a new village after all, and a lot of cloth, wine, and other things still had to be brought from the city, and basically at least one such convoy would come from the city every week.

It's a good thing for the convoy to enter the village, but it's a little strange for everyone to gather - the convoy has to stay here all day to unload and hand over the villagers' personal orders.

Buddy was puzzled when he saw his foreman squeezing out of the crowd with a smile on his face, and in his hand he was clutching a few large sheets of paper full of words and pictures, which smelled of ink.

"Boss," Buddy hurried over, "what good has the convoy brought?" ”

"Oh, Buddy," said the foreman, who was clearly in a good mood and in a bit of ostentation, waved the paper in his hand and exclaimed, "look at the newspaper! Something new from town! ”

"Newspapers?" Buddy was stunned for a moment, the convoy really brought something new, and it was the same as every time - as long as it was something new from the city, it must have never been heard of, "You mean these pieces of paper?" This...... What is it for? ”

"Commoners can buy a book," the foreman glanced at Buddy, his eyes and tone filled with pride—though he had only bought the newspaper a little earlier than the others, but he was very angry, "there are so many things written on it, even the recent changes in the city." ”

"Where?" When Buddy heard this, he immediately leaned forward, "What is it...... What are you writing about? ”

"Here, the 'Cypress Street' community in Xicheng District has been built, and the new immigrants who have obtained citizenship are relocating, and here, it is said that the price of wheat and fur has been reduced recently, because the trade route with Glenn Ling has been opened, and here-obediently, is the Holy Light Church in the Holy Spirit Plains crazy...... They've all started burning other people's churches? ”

The foreman pointed to the sections of the newspaper, and as he spoke, he showed a surprised expression on his face, and then looked at the news carefully by himself, Buddy stared at it with wide eyes, but suddenly felt a wave of frustration-

He couldn't read it......

He knew the words, but only a few of them, and at most he could spell his name, age and address, and read the tables on the badge, and that was the result of a few days of night school - there was a night school in the village last year, and a teacher from the city came to teach everyone five days a week, and Buddy went a few times, but he didn't listen to it at all!

He looked at the newspaper printed with words and couldn't help but feel annoyed.

The foreman was reading the newspaper intently, not paying any attention to Buddy's chagrin, and he laughed out loud when he saw half of it—it seemed to have some funny jokes or funny stories in the paper, but for Buddy, it was all out of nowhere.

Even if the newspaper is said to be only a few copper plates.

He knew that he could not ask the foreman to read the newspaper to him, even if the foreman usually had a good relationship with everyone, such a request was unrealistic.

Several familiar workers squeezed out of the crowd, and Buddy raised his eyelids to see that one of them was also holding a newspaper in his hand, and was walking away to separate the newspaper in his hand and hand it to the others.

They may have bought a copy together—although a newspaper is as cheap as a few copper plates, it is probably not "worthwhile" for many lumberjacks who have just had some money to spare, but they are curious about the contents of the newspaper and are likely to buy it together. Anyway, a newspaper contains several copies, and these people can take turns reading them after breaking them up.

Buddy looked at the men with a little envy, and muttered to himself—all poor men who were born as coolies and worked with axes and saws, now walked with their backs straightened like scholars, and rolled up newspapers and tucked them under their arms as if they were holding a book, which was really ......

That's decent......

Buddy touched his pocket, gritted his teeth, and turned his head in the direction of the convoy.

The foreman was finishing reading something at this time, and when he looked up and saw Buddy's actions, he couldn't help but cry out curiously in the back: "Why are you going?" It's time for a name! ”

"I'll buy a newspaper!"

"Can you take a look?"

Buddy didn't look back: "I'll buy it back and study it slowly - it's a big deal to wait for Mr. Bernard to come and ask him for advice!" ”

"Mr. Bernard" is the teacher who was sent to Frost Forest Village to give a lecture, a second-level clerk who works in the government affairs hall.

Looking at Buddy, who seemed to be angry when he walked, the foreman shrugged his shoulders and looked down at the newspaper in his hand again.

He muttered to himself, "I'll have to put it away when I go back, and save a few more sticky pieces...... I already have a book at home. ”

……

Plains of the Holy Spirit, in front of the Rock Fortress, Wright? Aviken looked up at the ancient fortress that stood in the southernmost part of the Plains of the Holy Spirit.

The black walls of the fortress glowed in the sunlight in a faint grid-like glow, the copper poured into the cracks of the bricks of the walls was glowing, and the builders of the rock fortress melted the copper and mixed it with pure gold and copper, a magical alloy that absorbed the magic from the sun when it hits the sun and slowly released it throughout the day and night, making the entire wall extremely strong, and this magnificent and strong fortress was the product of the civil strife of the foggy moon a hundred years ago.

It stands between the mountains on the border between the southern border and the plain of the Whitsunday, controlling the path from the south to the plain of the Whitsunday, and even the Dolgon River, which connects the north and south, flows through the pass on the side of the fortress - it is a great irony that symbolizes the complete blockade of the entire southern region of the kingdom - and for a full century after the inauguration of this fortress, the southern border became a land of deliberate exile, and the Second Dynasty feared that the ancient and large Cecil family would return and shake the royal family. The weakening of the southern frontier was accompanied by the construction of the fortress, as if to make the Rock Fortress the new "southern frontier" of the kingdom, and to throw the survivors of the Cecil family to the wasteland in the south.

This immensely fortified fortress was built to defend the founding families of the kingdom.

However, in the past century, the Cecil family has never crossed this barrier, they have silently borne the cost of the defeat of the civil strife in the Foggy Moon, silently accepted the separation and suppression of the royal family, and it was not until last year, after the resurrection of the ancestor of Cecil, that the members of the family crossed the Rock Fortress to the plain of the Holy Spirit for the first time.

Wright looked up at the black walls of the Rock Fortress, his mind consuming the history of the fortress and his brief time in the impossibly frontier lands of the South, before he withdrew his gaze, straightened his old priest's robes, and strode towards the level.