Chapter 568 — The Meeting

Xuanyao City, inside the lord's manor.

Gao Yang sat behind the broad desk, Hetty standing quietly at his side, and before the two of them a crisp holographic projection hovered above the arcane-net terminal in the study.

A sweetly smiling girl stood at the center of the projection; on the table before her rested an odd device shaped like a low side table, propped up on four legs with a flat surface on top, and on that surface a frying pan of hot oil in which cutlets and slices of bread sizzled cheerfully.

From somewhere off-screen a cheerful voice-over rang out: "...the Arcane Heating Plate, the finest replacement for the traditional stove — no firewood, no open flame, cutting your cooking costs and sparing you all the trouble of cleaning... Kode HomeServe Company, always at your service. Magic, for a more convenient life..."

The short video ended in moments. Hetty waited until the picture switched back to the previous program before breaking the silence with a note of admiration. "That was the latest advertisement from Kode HomeServe. Ancestor, you truly were not mistaken back then — that merchant, Kode... he really does have a gift other people lack... Ancestor? Ancestor, what's wrong?"

Gao Yang was still staring fixedly at the image on the holographic projection, and even after the program ended his gaze had not shifted; an odd expression lingered on his face. This was so unlike him that Hetty grew deeply uneasy, and it was only after she had called his name three times in a row that Gao Yang started as though waking from a dream. "Ah — I was woolgathering."

"Ancestor, are you... truly all right?" Hetty could not help asking with concern, for the look on Gao Yang's face just now had been nothing like his usual self. On that countenance, always so composed and commanding, she thought she had glimpsed a trace of... sorrow.

Yet it was not sorrow either, for mingled into it were unmistakable gladness and joy.

"I'm fine, only a little moved..." Gao Yang saw Hetty's anxious expression and smiled to reassure her. "Seeing things like this spring up among the common folk on their own, I feel that all my pushing has not been in vain after all."

Bringing advanced ideas and magitech into this age was no easy task; Gao Yang had known that from the very start. But what he had always feared was never the "difficulty" of the process. What he feared most was that all his promotion and construction would be "a one-way pile-up," that this society truly lacked any foundation for change, that it was not ready to face a new era — magitech seemed to advance at breakneck speed, the Duchy of Cecil seemed to be rising swiftly, yet he had never once dared let out his breath, for he dreaded that one day, should he, the so-called "guide," fall, the development of this land would grind to a halt, or even... slide backwards.

Even now he could not be entirely certain whether the Duchy of Cecil would keep developing after his sudden collapse, but of one thing at least he was sure: this pool of stagnant water had begun to flow.

Or perhaps it had never been stagnant at all. Even in the darkest, most oppressive of the Middle Ages, deep within that pool... there had always been a small band of people waiting for the age when the waters would move.

Composing himself, Gao Yang suddenly felt that his earlier worries had been rather arrogant, and he could not help shaking his head in self-mockery. "Hetty, don't you think... that I'm a bit full of myself?"

"Full of yourself? How could you think that?" Hetty's eyes went wide with surprise. "Your greatness is acknowledged by history, and your achievements stand solidly upon this land. Compared with those achievements, I would say you are ordinarily far too modest... A run-of-the-mill baron will carve his dull little life into stone, yet you have refused to this day to let anyone make a statue of you."

"Let's not speak of that," Gao Yang waved a hand. "Apart from this Kode HomeServe Company, are there other similar technical ventures rising among the common folk?"

"Very few. Most people have only just adapted to the shifting situation in the Duchy; people like Kode, who can react quickly and spot a business opportunity in magitech, are exceedingly rare. But not entirely absent — also in the Karol region, a merchant has used general-purpose rune plates to devise a new method of making ice, and in the Hossman region, several craftsmen have pooled their resources to open a workshop; they are trying to improve the existing magic-powered water pumps to suit Hossman's lower water table. Beyond that... there is nothing."

"As long as there is something... as long as there is something..." Gao Yang nodded repeatedly.

Social development would naturally bring certain things into being. As magitech spread outward, as the academies in every region kept popularizing knowledge among the people, and as the upper strata of society came ever more into contact with the latest magitech devices, clever minds were bound to grow active — and given sufficient expected returns, driven by profit, those active minds would seek these new fields out of their own accord, even strive to master them. In that process, the wealthier merchants and the educated with some technical grounding would be the greatest driving force.

They would seize the earliest dividends of technology and policy, and in Gao Yang's view, they deserved them.

At this stage, true magitech still lay in "official" hands — those of the Magitech Research Institute, the Rune Research Institute, the Machinery Works, and the various design bureaus — but Gao Yang had never restricted the spread of non-military, non-classified technology and knowledge. Civilian magitech terminals were sold openly; in the academies and night schools of every region, the general-purpose rune plates used for "literacy campaigns" were open to the public; and folk "technical companies" like Kode HomeServe had grown from that small foundation.

"These things must be encouraged — not only encouraged, but publicized," Gao Yang said with a smile. "We support the common folk's own research into and improvement of magitech; so long as it accords with the law, it must be supported and rewarded. Spontaneous popular interest is the key to the spread and development of technology... It seems the 'patent' system will have to be perfected quickly as well."

"Patents? Is that the thing you mentioned before, for managing all kinds of technical achievements?" Hetty blinked. "I understand. I'll have a draft ready as soon as possible."

"Mm," Gao Yang nodded, then glanced up at the mechanical clock on the wall. "Speaking of which... those elves should be arriving soon, shouldn't they?"

"Two hours ago the Tanzan Nexus Tower sent a sighting report. At the flight speed of a giant eagle, they should be here very soon," Hetty nodded. "Will you prepare to receive them?"

"Let's prepare," Gao Yang said, rising to his feet. "Those are important guests."

Hetty sighed. "The royal house has truly declined — to think that such an important envoy must depend on another race."

Gao Yang glanced at her. "And otherwise? Let them wrangle with the Eastern Marchers for another half month over who is better qualified to contact the Southern Marches, and the delegation likely wouldn't even be able to leave by winter."

The elves had come.

Huge and imposing gray-black giant eagles swept across the sky like racing storm clouds, winging in from the northwest; shrill pipes and ringing horns sounded from the watchtowers on the city wall, bright banners ran from the northwest corner of the wall all the way to the administrative district at the city's heart, and on the broad plaza before the "Autumn Palace" beside the lord's manor, Cecil soldiers in gleaming armor had long been waiting.