Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 430 - 429: The Cecil Clan’s "Battleship

Lady Ropenny Gran doesn’t have many people she can trust, the butler in front of her seems to be one of them.

"I am honored to serve my mistress."

The butler of Gran Castle bowed deeply in front of Gawain, courteous, respectful, yet dignified.

"Then serve your mistress once more," Gawain nodded slightly to the butler, "You need to go to Rocky Ridges Fortress..."

The butler maintained his bowed posture: "What do you want me to do?"

"Deliver a message, saying that Cecil’s army has already occupied Gran Territory..." Gawain said, then changed his tone halfway through, "By the way, how good is your acting?"

The butler raised his head and calmly said, "Eleven years ago, when those bandits broke into the castle, I was there. I hid the burned young master in a pile of wood and then leaned against the pile pretending to be a corpse — acted as a corpse under those bandits’ noses for an entire day and night."

The butler paused then, showing a confident smile on his face: "My acting is excellent."

...

Cecil Clan, Northern banks of White River.

Two large inland ships are moored in a newly constructed dockyard, scaffolding visible on the hulls and busy craftsmen all around indicate these two ships are undergoing intense modifications, while on a platform beside the dockyard, the sea demon Tiel is raising herself with her long tail to watch curiously the details of those ships.

She noticed these two ships were not newly built but modified on some basis. Their prototypes were not much different from the large cargo ships she usually saw on the White River, but those so-called "cargo ships" don’t count as anything impressive from the sea demons’ point of view. What she was interested in at the moment, were merely the modified and new structures on the ships.

She saw craftsmen using metallic sheathing and alloy frameworks to reinforce the key structures of the ships, and they drilled large holes on the decks to install various metal supports and pipes of unknown purpose. She also saw that the sails had been mostly removed, with the empty space used to install metal frames unfolded like wings, frames covered with human magic symbols.

This really is a strange modification, Tiel was filled with curiosity about it.

There was another person inspecting the ship modifications in the dockyard along with her — Sir Byron, whose face was filled with pride as he pointed to one of the ships, showing off to Tiel: "These two ships were seized when we bombarded the White River — at the time, almost all seized ships were damaged, only these two were preserved intact."

Tiel noticed the boasting expression on Sir Byron’s face, and looked curious: "Is this very impressive?"

"These are ships made in the Peibo Region, the place in the southern borders most well-versed in shipbuilding!" Sir Byron waved his arm, "The largest ships in the southern borders are all made by them! Don’t you think these two ships look impressive?"

"Haha... maybe," Tiel casually waved the tip of her tail, continuing to look curiously at those wing-like structures unfolding sideways on the ships, "I’m more curious about how Gawain is going to modify them though..."

"Let me take you on board to have a look," Byron recalled the leader’s command, knowing that the sea demon before him would be responsible for sending these "strange ships" northward as their "power source", so he was quite enthusiastic at the moment, "I’ll show you around and explain."

Upon boarding the ship, Tiel realized that the modifications Gawain undertook were even more sophisticated than she had imagined: She saw that large swaths of thin metal plates covered the ship’s deck, plates densely inscribed with magic symbols and connected to those unfolded wing structures, beneath the deck, many pipes, alloy skeletons, and magical mechanisms could also be seen. The ship’s exterior still appeared as a traditional inland cargo ship, but in essence, it had long transformed into some kind of magical construct. Such extensive modifications were clearly not completed in just one or two days, she couldn’t help but become curious: "Have you been modifying these ships ever since you dragged them back?"

"To be honest... we have been," Byron admitted without reservation, "After the bombardment of White River, the leader ordered these two most intact ships to undergo magical modification. Initially, he planned to mount a Magic Crystal Railgun onboard — for that, we specifically reinforced the deck and added many extra frameworks inside the ship, see over there — some small secondary guns have actually been installed already. However, now we need to replace the planned main gun with the ’Rainbow Light Device’, which is even larger and heavier than the largest Magic Crystal Railgun. Two main guns had to be reduced to one, and half of the secondary guns already mounted also needed to be removed to prevent the ship from sinking..."

Byron said while leading Tiel down to the lower deck, pointing out the modified parts around them as they went: "Fortunately, the Magic Web interface is universal, the energy of the Magic Crystal Railgun could be used for the Rainbow Light Device as well. Have you seen these Magic Web Units? Not just on the deck and this layer of the cabin, even the bottom layer of cabins has been covered with a layer, equivalent to embedding a small factory’s Magic Web into the belly of the ship, so it can provide energy for itself..."

Tiel followed Byron’s lead, her eyes wide with curiosity at the advanced magical structures crammed inside the belly of this "backward wooden ship", finally couldn’t help herself: "Why don’t you simply build a new ship? It would be so awkward having such advanced things stuffed into a ship so backward."

"...Our shipbuilding skills are inadequate," Byron spread his hands, expressing helplessness, "Shipbuilding is a skilled craft, the craftsmen most knowledgeable in shipbuilding in the entire southern borders are those in the Peibo Region, and the ships they make are those you see right here. For higher technology... the leader is researching, but it’s unknown when the results will come, and even if the results are out, building a new ship from scratch would take an unknown amount of time, the enemy at the Rocky Ridges Fortress won’t wait for us."

"Tsk..." Tiel clicked her tongue, seeming to want to say something, but in the end, she remained silent, merely poking a nearby wooden pillar with the tip of her tail.

Byron watched the reaction of the sea demon and secretly curled his lips, continuing, "Let me show you the bottom of the cabin—it’s an unfinished area."

The two arrived at the bottom of this "battleship," and under the light of the magic crystal lamps, Tiel saw a metal bracket clearly meant for some large equipment and some unconnected Magic Web Units. She couldn’t help but be curious, "What’s supposed to go here?"

"Power," Byron replied, "that’s an unsolved problem."

Upon hearing the word "power," Tiel remembered what Gawain had asked of her and nodded, "Oh—right, your leader wants me to help solve the power issue. He said these two ships can’t move on their own right now and need my assistance..."

"Yeah," Byron picked up the conversation, "you noticed we’ve removed the sails from the upper deck, right? That’s to install additional Magic Web and auxiliary magic symbol arrays. And because we’ve installed pumps and corresponding pipes, the space for rowers originally reserved has been squeezed out, so this ship can’t move using the traditional method. As a replacement, the leader designed a ’paddle’ driven by the Magic-Powered Engine, but as you can see—it’s not finished yet."

Sir Byron pointed to the empty spot meant for large equipment with a regretful expression, "Mr. Egg has been researching it for a long time, but there’s still no finished product."

Tiel frowned more and more as she listened and finally couldn’t resist poking a nearby piece of wood with the tip of her tail, "What kind of refit is this... In the end, the ship doesn’t even have power..."

Sir Byron waved his hand, "According to the plan, there will be, it’s just not installed yet!"

"Shouldn’t things like this be designed earlier!" Tiel put her hands on her hips, "Do you guys even understand shipbuilding?"

Hearing this, Byron sighed deeply, "Sigh, that’s why our shipbuilding technology can’t keep up—traditional riverboats can still be made by hiring expensive craftsmen, but who knows how to build these new Magic Guide Technology ships!"

"Tsk..." Tiel clicked her tongue again, seeming to want to say something but held back, poking the wood with her tail for a while before waving her hand, "Alright, I’ve seen enough, and I don’t understand your Magic Guide Technology... I’ll go back to sleep, just call me when we’re leaving."

With that, the sea demon swayed away from the cabin.

Byron turned to look at the empty "engine room" and couldn’t help muttering, "Why didn’t she pick up the conversation..."

Just after saying this, he heard footsteps coming from near the stairs. Looking up, he saw Sir Philip walking into the cabin.

"Has Miss Tiel left already?" the young knight asked curiously when he saw Byron standing alone in the cabin, "Did she tour our battleship?"

Byron nodded, "She took a look around. She seemed a bit interested in Magic Guide Technology but clearly wasn’t impressed with our ship."

"Oh, then she..."

"Don’t mention it, every time I don’t even have a chance to speak, she immediately drops the conversation, her caution is frightening," Byron said with frustration, "In that aspect, she’s really not like you—you pick up conversations better than her."

"Can you stop changing the subject every time," Philip frowned, then said, "Miss Tiel is a guest from another race, we can’t force her to help. Anyway, the leader only instructed to get her interested in Magic Guide Technology, the follow-up will naturally be arranged by the leader."

Thinking of Gawain’s expectations of Tiel and his obsession with "building new ships," Byron couldn’t help but sigh, "Thinking about asking such a lazy Miss Tiel to help long-term, the leader is truly setting himself an incredible goal... But come to think of it, why is he so obsessed with building new ships... Can’t the ships built by the craftsmen we’ve recruited from the Peibo Region be used?"

"The leader said that the land is just the cradle of humanity, and humans must eventually leave the cradle," Sir Philip said earnestly, "Even though I don’t quite understand what he means, all the evidence has proven that the leader’s judgments are almost never wrong. Since he says the new ships will be useful, then they must be."

"Alright then... I trust the leader’s judgment anyway," Byron said, then looked up at the later-added metal beam at the top of the cabin—a beam made of lightweight alloy, with hexagonally arranged magic symbols glowing faintly. This so-called "power spine" is the main artery of the ship, connecting the Magic Web Units of several decks and cabins to provide the vast energy needed by the Rainbow Light Device, "Whether the new ships are useful or not, I’m really looking forward to what these two ships will be used for."