Sword of Dawnbreaker

Andresha Wendell, dressed in warm yet light knight’s casual attire, traveled through the marketplace’s streets with only two attendants, the cold wind lifting the gray-white strands of her temples, causing her to slightly squint her eyes.

”Winter has arrived a bit early this year...” the Wolf General murmured, ”I wonder if the Green Forest Valley and Long Branch Manor areas are affected...”

One attendant responded immediately: ”The Imperial Granary has remained abundant over the years, cotton and textiles have been adequately supplied for the past two years, I believe except for the western areas near the polluted zone, all regions need not worry about how to survive the winter.”

Andresha said nothing, merely nodded, while before her, a small troop carrier bearing the Typhon Empire insignia rolled down the street, escorted by floating combat Mages. Inevitably, the shopkeepers along the street were slightly disturbed, subsequently attracting curious passersby who craned their necks, gesturing towards the departing troop carrier, while merchants resumed attracting customers, pitching peculiar goods arriving from both south and north.

This year’s winter indeed arrived earlier, even the temperatures during the same period this year are much lower than in previous years. However, in this town built upon the Winterwolf Fortress, half military, half civilian, it is bustling more than ever.

The increasingly stable peace between the two empires and expanding trade activities ultimately show their impact, regardless of whether the hawks are willing or not, cross-border merchants and goods are increasingly appearing in various places, forming the main theme of relations between the Cecil Clan and the Typhon Empire.

Even at the border’s critical location in Winterwolf Fortress, although the imperial soldiers always remained tense, they could not prevent the gradual prosperity of civilian commercial activities—after all, this too comes from Aldernon’s will.

And as the commander of Winterwolf Fortress, Andresha, although she did not anticipate all this, now she must accept it calmly.

”It’s a lot livelier here this year, General,” a retainer beside her remarked, ”And according to news from home, big cities like Aldernon and Talronde are quite different now—it’s said that companies invested by the Cecil Clan are bringing many new and wonderful things. Are you planning to go back and have a look this year?”

”I do not intend to use up my holiday this time,” Andresha said casually, then glanced at the retainer who had just spoken, ”are you interested in those new things from the Cecil Clan too?”

The retainer immediately showed an embarrassed and nervous expression: ”I... General, I don’t mean that...”

”It’s alright; the new things they’ve brought are indeed very appealing, and most of them are quite beneficial,” surprisingly, Andresha did not show any intent to blame; the Wolf General simply showed a thoughtful expression, ”I just regret... these things were not originally invented by us, the people of Typhon.”

She looked toward the marketplace; along the streets that were just renovated last year, new-style street lamps and magic web devices used for energy transmission were visible—all these technologies originated from the Cecil Clan. They were first brought to the Typhon borders by merchants and technology exchange delegates from Cecil, then brought here by local merchants and experts. These things are proof of the increasingly close ties between the two nations; some people feel joyous because of this, while others inevitably feel anxious.

As far as Andresha knows, those magic web devices used for transmitting energy are currently one of the things causing the most anxiety among domestic experts, because until now, one of the key raw materials for making those obelisks—the Holme Crystal Ore—remains tightly controlled by the Cecil Clan, despite the scholars of the Imperial Construction Association having successfully solved many of the technical challenges of the obelisk. However, as long as the source of Holme Crystal remains controlled by the Cecil Clan, Typhon’s magic web can never be completely autonomous, and the speed of the magic web’s deployment will be limited by the export quota of crystal ore set by the Cecil Clan, while Typhon...

Typhon is forced to spend a significant portion of its annual export profits to purchase those crystal ores—on this commodity, the Cecil Clan never offers any discounts.