Chapter 386: Gawain’s Preparations for War
As the fires erupted within Longwind Fortress, Gawain was just about to end his satellite link.
Though the image was blurry, he could confirm that the border negotiations had concluded. Judging by the fact that neither side had resorted to violence, even if the talks hadn’t succeeded, at least they hadn’t escalated into a full-scale war. So once the king returned to Longwind Fortress, Gawain had planned to temporarily shift his focus away from that region.
Then the flames rose.
The fire was blazing inside the fortress. From the satellite feed, there was no sign of any external attack. The fire spread through the western district but never crossed beyond it—it looked fierce, yet somehow deliberately contained.
Something was wrong.
Gawain immediately made the call. He adjusted the satellite’s zoom, but no matter how he tweaked it, the aged lens and the smoke obscured any clear view of what was happening below. One thing was certain: tonight, something earth-shattering was about to unfold.
Without hesitation, he summoned Heddy, who hadn’t yet gone to bed, and called in knights Byron and Philip, who were preparing to rest.
Seeing Gawain’s grim expression, Heddy was startled. She stifled a yawn and looked at him curiously. “Ancestor, why summon us so late? Has something serious happened?”
Gawain hesitated briefly. Explaining the source of his information was tricky, but after a moment’s pause, he spoke decisively: “There’s trouble at Longwind Fortress. I suspect King Francis II is in grave—possibly mortal—danger.”
“What?!” Byron’s jaw nearly dropped. The middle-aged knight’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Lord, your information is reliable… Wait, how do you even know this?!”
Longwind Fortress was a thousand miles away. News couldn’t have traveled this fast to Cecil. Yet Gawain spoke as if he had just witnessed the danger firsthand.
“A special intelligence channel,” Gawain said coolly, shooting Byron a look that said, “I’m your ancestor, so I know everything.” He brushed aside the details. “In any case, we must prepare for the king’s possible death—and even Prince Edmund’s.”
The shocking news left the three knights speechless. Philip instinctively pressed a hand to his chest and murmured the name of the war god: “War God Kael… what is about to happen tonight…”
“If the king dies on the eastern border… Ansu will surely face war,” Heddy’s mind raced through the possibilities. “The key question is what this has to do with the Typhon people…”
Before she could finish, the study’s window suddenly slid open, letting in a cold night breeze. Amber leapt lightly from the windowsill to stand before Gawain, panting heavily—clearly having rushed back at top speed.
In fact, to sprint all the way from the southernmost edge of the Defiant Fortress back to the lord’s manor, Amber had pushed her shadow powers to the brink for the first time in her life. By constantly shifting between the Shadow Realm and the real world, she covered what would normally be a day and a half’s journey in just half an hour.
Amber hadn’t expected to find Heddy and the others in Gawain’s study. She had opened her mouth to shout her news but swallowed it back. Noticing Gawain’s serious, questioning look, she finally spoke: “The king is dead! Prince Edmund has killed his father!”
Earlier, Byron had been stunned by Gawain’s source of information. Now it was Gawain’s turn to be shocked by Amber’s. He stared at the half-elf in disbelief. “How do you know this?”
Could it be that this “shame of all things” had her own synchronized orbital satellite?
Amber took a few deep breaths to steady herself, then struggled to explain. What she had witnessed was so bizarre: traveling through an ancient spatial rift in the Shadow Realm, arriving inside Longwind Fortress, seeing the king killed by an old man with Prince Edmund standing by as an accomplice. Then she was discovered and forced to flee, only to be pursued by the same old man. But Solderin and Tyr had been waiting in the Shadow Experiment Field and had blasted the old man with four explosive shots. Now Tyr had him tied up like a ball.
“Wait, what?” Gawain was dumbfounded by Amber’s rapid-fire account. Then it hit him. “Hold on—you brought someone back? Alive?”
“Yes! That’s why I came to get you to come see for yourself!” Amber slapped her forehead. “You better hurry—the old man’s tied up, but Tyr’s posture is a bit scary. I’m afraid that… that sea caterpillar monster might eat him!”
Gawain wanted to shout, “What on earth is going on tonight?!” but to maintain his ancestral dignity, he swallowed all his complaints and nodded solemnly. “I’m on my way.”
He then turned to Heddy and the others. “Heddy, immediately prepare the wartime status roster. I’ll try to return by noon tomorrow. Before then, gather the heads of commerce, agriculture, and industry in the territory for an emergency meeting. Byron, Philip, put the First Combat Battalion on the highest alert, ready to escalate to wartime status at any moment. Philip, you’ll head to Kant tomorrow to deliver orders to the Walder Perich knights. The Second Battalion must strengthen defenses, especially watching for any unusual activity among the northern nobles. Report immediately if anything happens.”
The northern part of Kant was Carol’s domain, the main gateway to the Holy Spirit Plains, and a buffer between the kingdom’s heartland and the southern territories. Given the fire inside Longwind Fortress and Amber’s intelligence, Gawain suspected this was a terrifying palace coup—potentially more dangerous than the Fog Moon Rebellion. All the kingdom’s nobles might be dragged into chaos. Though he believed the southern border might not be immediately engulfed, he had to prepare for threats from the Holy Spirit Plains.
Another reason was to keep the newly formed Second Battalion busy, preventing any trouble from knights who had just pledged loyalty or former Kant soldiers still adjusting to Cecil’s military system.
As Gawain rose to leave, Heddy couldn’t help but ask, “Should we find something for Rebecca to do? After all, she is a Cecil…”
Rebecca was the sole heir of the Cecil family. Though she lacked skill in governance or military matters, Heddy’s traditional noble mindset felt she should be involved.
Gawain gave Heddy a long look. “Let Rebecca rest well. Tomorrow she’ll go to the Arcane Technology Research Institute as usual to continue developing vehicle chassis or printing machines. What she’s doing is just as important as preparing for war.”
He added, “Heddy, times have changed. A person’s role should be based on ability, not bloodline.”
With that, Gawain left the manor with Amber.
…
Inside the Shadow Experiment Field, Solderin and his soldiers kept watch around the pool, while the sea witch Tyr maintained her terrifying, alert “sea demon” form. Her many tentacles controlled Clement’s movements.
In truth, even without being bound by tentacles, Clement was too weak to resist or escape.
Four explosive shots were no joke. After the forced life extension from echinoderm magic and life conversion wore off, Clement’s unprecedented weakness nearly killed him. If Tyr hadn’t noticed her “prey” was dying, Clement would already be dead.
“Listen, you better not die on me,” Tyr said, repeatedly slapping Clement’s face with a tentacle to keep him conscious. The sea witch’s voice was full of concern. “If you die in my hands, I’ll never get my hands on those ‘little cookies’ Gawain’s got stored…”
Apparently, the sea witch still hadn’t given up on the “Natural God” corpse in Gawain’s possession.
Solderin watched Tyr’s strange interactions with the prisoner—her precise healing magic keeping him barely alive, her tentacles communicating with him in an eerie way—and couldn’t help but ask, “Don’t you think your current form is terrifying enough to scare someone to death?”
Tyr looked down at her scaled upper body and her grotesque, tentacled lower half, puzzled. “Nope. All my sisters can do this.”
Solderin muttered, “What kind of aesthetics do sea witches have…”
“Whoever can shapeshift the most is the prettiest,” Tyr replied matter-of-factly. “We all change forms anyway. Our normal looks are just whatever grows out.”
Gawain arrived at the scene amid this bizarre atmosphere.
The moment he entered the Shadow Experiment Field, he saw the massive, oddly shaped Tyr occupying the entire pool, her tentacles writhing like an octopus on steroids.
His first thought was whether he needed to do a sanity check…
“Don’t stare at her tentacles,” Amber warned from behind him. “A few of those patterned ones are really weird. If you look too long, they’ll mess with your mind, and you’ll turn into a super cheerful, optimistic, energetic person—for at least two hours…”
Gawain: “??? What kind of nonsense is this?!”
(End of chapter)