Chapter 1227: The Deep Blue Webway Surveillance Plan

Belsethia seemed indifferent to Gawain’s appraisal. She simply tilted her head back, gazing up at the star-studded night sky and the faint glow lingering near the clouds at the horizon—an afterglow cast by the city’s countless lights piercing through the darkness. The sheer volume of artificial illumination kept most of the city bustling as if it were still daytime, to the point that even the stars above seemed dimmed in comparison.

In the Silver Queen’s memory, it had been centuries since she’d seen such a dazzling display of lights in the human world.

“I’m leaving in two days,” she said suddenly after a brief silence, turning to Gawain. “It’s already decided.”

“Moving up your schedule?” Gawain raised an eyebrow. “I thought you planned to stay longer—there’s still a lot you haven’t seen at Project 115 and the ‘Gate’ initiative.”

“I know,” Belsethia smiled faintly. “But I’ve been away from the Silver Empire too long. The matter with Sage Azmor and the other Druids is settled, but those cultists won’t just vanish on their own. Every day I’m away from the court gives those troublemakers more reason to act out. And now, they’re nearly all making their moves. I have to return and finally close this three-thousand-year-old mess.”

Gawain glanced at the elven queen beside him. Her serene face, bathed in starlight, betrayed none of the fierce resolve burning deep within her eyes—an icy determination like the northern winds. Such resolve was necessary for the Silver Empire’s current state, yet Gawain couldn’t help but remind her, “Do you still remember the promise you made to Sage Azmor?”

“…Of course I do,” Belsethia sighed softly. “Those who truly follow the ancient Druidic path—well, let’s say they’re the moderate faction among the cultists—Azmor did put me in a difficult position. But since I gave my word, I intend to keep it. After all, it was a vow made before the gods themselves.

“This is also why I’m returning early. I’ve been gone too long. Each day I’m away, more people grow restless. Even the moderates can’t always hold back. If they start acting out like the others… I won’t have any excuse to let them slide.”

“If you’ve thought it through, then I won’t press further,” Gawain said, rising from the bench and extending his hand. “I wish you a safe journey—and success in what you must do.”

“Few things I’ve done over the centuries have gone smoothly,” Belsethia replied with a smile as she took his hand and stood, “but in the end, everything succeeds. Still, thank you for your blessing, Uncle Gawain.”

Gawain nodded, then suddenly seemed to recall something. “Oh, and don’t forget what I mentioned about the Deep Blue Webway. Enya has provided a method to locate and monitor the webway rifts. With the Star Seers’ capabilities, it should be feasible. I hope you can organize a team to find the Deep Blue Webway rifts within the Silver Empire soon—we need more surveillance data.”

“Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten,” Belsethia smiled and nodded. “I sent the relevant information to Master Verania yesterday. She said it’s no problem. If all goes well, she should have the entire monitoring team assembled before I return.”

With that, she nodded to Gawain once more, then turned toward two high-ranking handmaidens waiting nearby. Before leaving, she waved lightly, then disappeared behind the hedge at the end of the garden path.

Only after Belsethia’s figure vanished did Gawain lower his gaze to a nearby bush beside the bench. Under the dim glow of a streetlamp, he clearly saw a beautifully patterned tail tip poking out from the foliage. From behind the bush came faint, rhythmic snoring sounds.

Gawain stepped forward and gave the tail tip a gentle kick. “Hey, wake up. How long have you been sleeping here? It’s about time to get up… If you don’t, I’ll sprinkle some Yugson spice liquor on you!”

Before he finished, a startled voice came from behind the bush. The deep-sea worm-like creature flopped upright, waving its hands frantically. “No, no, I’m awake! Just taking a nap… Don’t mention that spice liquor—using that stuff is like pouring boiling water on me.”

Gawain ignored the grumbling and gave the creature a strange look, scanning it up and down several times before finally asking, “I’m curious—don’t you usually not need to breathe? How come you snore when you sleep?”

The creature straightened its back, expression serious. “You humans have a saying, right? ‘Even a false life requires a serious attitude.’ I’m taking it seriously. I’ve taken on a land-dweller’s form, so I have to simulate it fully. Besides, your head maid—”

“Betty?” Gawain raised an eyebrow in surprise. “What does she have to do with this?”

“Every time she sees me not breathing, she thinks I’m dead and pokes my belly with a mop to check,” the creature said, waving its hands as if recalling a nightmare. “Sometimes she even squats there for half an hour, poking patiently until I wake up.”

A vivid image sprang to Gawain’s mind, twisting his expression into something odd. He muttered, “That’s mostly because you die so often…”

The creature heard the muttering but waved it off casually. “Has the elven queen already left? I thought you two would talk for a long time.”

“Look at how long you’ve been asleep,” Gawain sighed helplessly, then his expression grew serious. “Enough of that. It’s rare to see you this alert. I have something to discuss.”

“With me?” The creature wagged its tail tip, nodding its head side to side as if trying to stay awake. “If it’s about ship technology, I’ve already handed that over to Cassandra. Her team at the North Harbor is handling everything well…”

Gawain shook his head gravely. “No, it’s about monitoring the Deep Blue Webway—or rather, detecting anomalies.”

“The Deep Blue… Oh, that thing you’ve been talking about lately? The one behind the Deep Blue Well?” The creature quickly caught on. Despite spending most of her time asleep, she’d overheard Gawain, Enya, Rebecca, and Amber discussing the Deep Blue Webway recently. “Aren’t you already organizing manpower and resources to monitor it? Why bring me in?”

“Not long ago, I received news from Talrond,” Gawain said solemnly. “After detecting signs of abnormal magical surges in the Deep Blue Webway, the dragons intensified surveillance on its tributaries. During monitoring, they found evidence that some webway branches crossing into the Elemental World are ‘shifting’—small but continuous changes. Coupled with earlier clues—elemental creatures escaping from rifts showing traces of Deep Blue corruption—we now suspect these fluctuations may be destabilizing the Elemental World’s balance.”

“The Elemental World… I see,” the creature nodded knowingly. “You want us sea witches to help check the Deep Blue tributaries in the water element domain?”

“The Deep Blue Webway lies deep beneath our world, mainly flowing between the material and immaterial planes. For beings like us, who live in the material realm, directly ‘seeing’ the webway is difficult without complex technical aids. Surveillance points have many blind spots. If an enemy familiar with the webway and possessing special technology is manipulating these planetary energy flows, they could easily evade our material-world monitoring. Our surveillance is riddled with gaps,” Gawain explained, his tone grave, causing the creature’s expression to darken as well. “This has troubled me for a long time—until the dragons’ recent discovery reminded me.

“The rules in the Elemental World differ from ours. Everything there exists in an extreme state of purity. Energy flows leave traces that are hard to conceal. Camouflage techniques effective in the material world don’t work well there. Unfortunately, dragons are still material beings. Even if they force their way into the Elemental Realm, they can’t perceive its subtle changes like elemental creatures can. But if we had eyes truly belonging to elemental beings…”

“I get it,” the sea witch nodded. “We are elemental by nature, and lately, we’ve gained the ability to sense magic. We could serve as those ‘eyes.’” She looked at Gawain with some puzzlement. “But from what you’re saying, you strongly suspect someone is deliberately manipulating the anomalies in the Deep Blue Webway? I thought Lady Enya said it might be a natural phenomenon…”

“The fluctuations from two million years ago probably were natural,” Gawain frowned, shaking his head. “But the current situation is different. I don’t have direct proof, but just this evening, Veronica shared some findings. She found that all the tributaries connecting to the Deep Blue Well in the ruins of Gondor appear perfectly normal. That raised her suspicions. You know, the dragons have concrete evidence of abnormal fluctuations, and Melita’s dragon egg hatched a hatchling corrupted by Deep Blue magic. With such a massive impact, how could Veronica’s data be flawless everywhere?

“So I suspect someone is deliberately covering their tracks. Their technology is advanced enough to fool the ancient Gondorian monitoring systems, but they clearly don’t realize the current state of the world beyond the Great Wall—mortal nations have formed alliances, even distant dragon realms share intelligence with the lands of Loren. This alliance’s information network spans half the planet. In such a vast web of communication, their sophisticated disguises are starting to unravel.”

As he spoke, Gawain shook his head with a mix of frustration and resignation. He didn’t say it outright, but the identities of those stirring trouble behind the scenes were becoming painfully clear.

How should I put it… Truly, the “Blame Everything on Me” club lives up to its name—even in death, they still take the fall.

“No wonder you’re so tense about this… yeah, it does sound pretty serious,” Tyr’s tail tip flicked back and forth in midair as she wore a thoughtful expression. “Hmm… I don’t mind helping you out, but about this matter…”

Gawain immediately asked, “Is there a problem?”

Tyr thought for a moment, then waved her hand dismissively. “Well, it’s really just a minor issue—we are water elementals, but honestly, we don’t get along very well with the local water elementals. Still, it’s nothing too serious. I’m confident the Queen can handle it. I’ll report this up the chain, and based on my guess, there’s over a ninety percent chance she’ll agree.”

Gawain’s face remained calm, but inside he breathed a huge sigh of relief. At the same time, he felt deeply grateful—elemental realms are a strange, cold place for humans living in the material world. It’s rare to find stable, trustworthy allies among those high-level elementals with their odd, aloof, and exclusionary personalities. That’s why the fact that the Empire of Cecil managed to forge a connection with the sea sprites was especially fortunate. These allies from the deep sea might have some quirks… but they were reliable.

He even thought that the bucket Pea had thrown into the well back then deserved a place in the history books.

As he reflected on all this, Gawain couldn’t help but feel a bit uncertain about the sea sprites’ straightforward and enthusiastic attitude. He said, “Please convey my sincerest thanks to your Queen—your help has been invaluable to us, and I won’t forget this friendship…”

“Oh, don’t say that,” Tyr interrupted, shrinking her neck and waving her hands. “You suddenly getting all serious like this makes me feel kind of weird… We sea sprites don’t have all the complicated rules and formalities you humans do. Our way of judging things is simple—you’re a good group of friends, interesting and trustworthy, so we’re happy to interact with you more. That’s all there is to it.

“Over the past million years, there have been more than one species trying to deal with the sea sprites. Some were as interesting as you, others not so much. We’ve always been warm to the interesting ones, and for those we weren’t interested in… well, until they went extinct, we never bothered with them.

“Don’t be surprised—that’s just how our kind is. Maybe it’s an elemental trait?”

Tyr smiled faintly, then suddenly grew serious again. “And strictly speaking, this matter isn’t unrelated to us either… The Deep Blue Network—if that thing really is a massive system running through the entire planet, then if it goes down, no species living here will escape. Our ship still isn’t fixed yet.”

(End of chapter)