Chapter 337: Act 105 – Duke Toniger and the Young Lord (5) (First Update, where’s everyone’s support?)
Brendel opened the letter, the entire page was blank except for a watermark in the top right corner. He immediately understood its meaning, crumpled it into a ball, then a flicker of flame appeared on his fingers burning it into ashes.
The ash fluttered and fell.
Brendel looked up; Charles had brought him some good news—the Druids had returned. This news relieved some tension from Brendel, but it wasn’t enough to make him excited and rush over to see them immediately. Instead, he said to the new attendant beside him:
“Mago Duncan.”
“Yes,” the young man hesitated for a moment before realizing Brendel was speaking to him, “Is there something you need, my Lord?”
“Go fetch Tagib for me.”
“Tagib?”
“The leader of the cave-dwelling people, you know he’s currently within the city, in the castle.” Since entering a state of war, Brendel had summoned Tagib into the city.
However, this cave-dwelling chief was quite delighted, at least Grudin hadn’t treated him with such respect.
As for whether Brendel intended to use him as leverage, Tagib didn’t think about it much. From his perspective, they had already sworn to their gods, no human actions could surpass that.
“Give him a cloak, try to minimize others seeing him.” Brendel added.
The young man quickly nodded. “My Lord, where do you wish to meet him?”
Brendel paused to think, then leaned down and whispered something into his ear. The young man immediately nodded again, looked back at his lord to confirm there were no more instructions, then turned and ran into the snowstorm.
Brendel watched until the figure disappeared in the swirling snow, then gestured to the others:
“Let’s go elsewhere.”
Xi had only just registered what was happening, her mind unconsciously compared the young lord’s form with Makarolo, even with Aike.
But the red-haired girl quickly turned red and shook her head, softly inquiring: “Where are we going… Lord?”
Medisa chuckled at her.
“It’s a good place,” Brendel replied.
The snow was falling harder, soon a thin layer of white covered the streets. There weren’t many pedestrians, but the warm orange light from the buildings on the sides brought comfort.
Xi’s body had only just recovered, this was the first time she had gone out in a week. But the red-haired girl with long braids seemed to have returned to her past life—she held her spear of thunder, kept a distance behind, occasionally looking around with a distant gaze.
Medisa always showed great interest in the human world. She occasionally asked Brendel about things—what that was and what this was.
The three of them walked a while until they heard a tinkling sound ahead.
Medisa’s long pointed ears were the first to catch the sound, and upon recognizing that they were nearing Berun’s smithy.
There it was—Berun’s forge.
After Brendel purchased a batch of cold iron ore from Kewen and delivered the Eye Gems, the forge finally began operations. The place had originally been part of the Lord’s assets—or more accurately Grudin’s private property—it was originally Cold Fir’s blacksmith’s shop. After Berun bought the two adjoining houses, he expanded it further.
However, having space doesn’t mean things go smoothly. The old man had quite a challenge recruiting competent hands, most of whom were a mixed lot. For this, the master blacksmith from Erluin’s court complained to Brendel multiple times, saying he wasn’t adequately supporting his work.
Fortunately, after Julian brought the first batch of artisans, this situation improved significantly.
The artisans were Retao’s gift, since he viewed Min Tai as a possible front line for future wars, most of the capable people from the south moved to Cold Fir. Of course, partly it was a long-term strategy, but partly also perhaps to exhibit loyalty to this young Lord.
But regardless, it resolved his immediate crisis.
Although it was snowing heavily, the forge was bustling with activity. The golden red flames inside the furnace dyed the workshop an orange-red, standing in stark contrast to the cold white outside; the stark difference was evident even from afar—Brendel, even standing outside, felt the distinct difference between warmth and cold across that line of color.
“Lord?”
At that moment, a voice came. Berun happened to have just stepped out from among countless trivial matters. Managing these people, who felt clumsy in his eyes, drained his energy, yet when the old man finally managed to take a short break to rest, he saw the three people standing outside.
“Master Berun.” Brendel greeted him with a smile. He didn’t come out for a stroll or to gaze at the snowy scenery, but due to the news of the massed Parson’s forces, it became urgent to advance his plans.
“Is there something?” Berun asked, “Adult is here to inspect this old man’s work progress?”
“Not at all,” Brendel shook his head, “I just had an idea.”
“Idea?” Berun was slightly puzzled, but seeing the four people standing in the snow, he said, “Whatever the case, come in and talk. If you don’t mind the noise and dirt in this place—”
Brendel nodded and entered with Medisa, Xi, and the young man. Inside the forge, the first batch of armor and weapons were under forging. The young lord looked around—here, there were only bare-chested blacksmiths and apprentices rushing about, no one in robes was present—Charles’s people hadn’t arrived yet, indicating that these first forges were not White Lion armors.
“Haven’t started on the magic armors?” he asked.
“Lord, did I not say you’re not here to check my progress?” Berun couldn’t help but shake his head and bitterly smiled, “Too long away from the job, my hands are clumsy. The Eye Gems you sent are precious, and I can’t afford to waste them. I intend to practice first.”
The elder glanced around the workshop and sighed, “Anyway, these people still need to improve. They are far off.”
“You are too exacting,” Brendel replied. Before, Berun had worked in the Royal Forging Bureau of Erluin, widely regarded as the foremost master, his assistants now being renowned individuals in their own right. Naturally, these folks wouldn’t meet his standards.
Among them, the best skilled were still country smiths. Most had no experience with magical equipment, some had never even forged weapons.
Moreover, crafting armor is more complex than weapons, requiring both blacksmith skills and those of tailors and leatherworkers. There were artisans from these professions within the workshop, responsible for assembling the forged parts and completing the full set of armor.
The whole process was very slow, often requiring several hours or even the entire day to complete.
Berun looked at the large magical machinery at the center of the workshop and was concerned—it was an extremely old device, almost a product from twenty years ago—used to press chest and back plates into shape and etch magic arrays using magical rays.
However, these two ancient machines operated quite unstably, frequently malfunctioning.
“I used machines ten years ago that were better than these, their condition is worse than me, this old man.” Berun thought he’d never encountered a more difficult task, in such a backward corner like Toniger—he could hardly imagine that Erluin had such a place—it seemed a century or more behind what he knew.
Without magical power, inside the city was like a large garbage dump, outside was the wilderness, and agriculture was still in its most primitive stage.
In the era Berun was familiar with—almost ten years ago—in the wealthiest regions of Erluin, manors had already started using magic to nurture the growth of crops—fields were watched over by students from the Academy.
Elementalist apprentices could alter the weather locally by rearranging elements to suit crop growth.
But none of that was available here.
Elsewhere, large magical machines had long been employed in agriculture, although this revolution was only a small part of the changes in the past century—these techniques were learned by the Crusians from the Hazell Kingdom, then indirectly influenced Erluin.
These technological advancements even altered the Great Stag War, bringing the world-altering Second Holy War, but the progress of magical technology had indeed changed the world.
Of course.
Except in Toniger.
And indeed not just in Toniger; in Berun’s view, the entire Rendener region was a barbaric wilderness abandoned by history, it seemed all because it had an owner who disliked magic and thus remained excluded from civilization.
Of course this was the elder man’s bias. Brendel knew the weakness of the southern Erluin came from many reasons—not just Rendener, even the southern parts of Golan-Elsen and Karasu were pretty much the same.
The southern frontier of the kingdom had always been the edge of the entire civilized world, due to development timing, geographic location, or the invasion of magical beasts—multifaceted factors. Whether it was Buche, Bruglas or Toniger, these places compared to the interior of the kingdom were almost two different worlds.
“Make do, Master Berun,” Brendel shook his head, the two magical devices might seem like trash heaps in any other place in Erluin, but here they were treasures. When they found these two broken machines in Grudin’s warehouse, Antinna had planned to dismantle one for studying its magic conduction device, but was strongly stopped by Berun, the forging master.
This initial decision seemed to be wise in retrospect, at least these two machines helped him a great deal. No matter how old these ancient machines were, they were still better than the primitive manual production in Toniger.
Brendel dared not imagine the productivity level of Cold Fir, which was still stuck in something equivalent to Earth’s medieval times—to realize his plan here would need a very long time.
And time waits for no one—
…
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