Sword of Dawn

Page 186

"...Citizens, I am honored and proud to tell you that the Rock Fortress has been captured by the brave and loyal Cecil Combat Corps, and the remnants of the rebellious nobles hiding in the fortress have also been captured...

"...the land is safe, at least for now.

"Citizens, this honor belongs to every Cecilian—not just the Cecilians by the Whitewater River, but also you who are gathered in front of the holographic projection at this moment, including those who cannot come to the party, but are still in your respective Others who work hard in your jobs, including everyone who lives in the land of the southern border, whether you are farmers, mercenaries, merchants, knights, officials, serfs, or even slaves, no matter where you used to come from, now , you will all share this glory, you are the cornerstone and pillar of the Principality of Cecil, your hard work and wisdom will make this land stronger and greater...

"But safety is not eternal. There are still enemies eyeing us, the rebellious eastern border that is trying to overthrow the kingdom, the second royal family that was exempted by the Duke of the Kingdom, Typhon outside the border of the kingdom, and the evil hidden in the shadows. Christians, even within our principality... our enemies will always be there.

"Let us remain vigilant and ready to meet these threats, and let us remain strong and never fear these challenges...

"And until the challenge comes, before the peace is broken, citizens, build and enjoy this great age - what I promise you will stand, the settlers will get the land, the hard-working serfs will get Freedom and property of their own, those who join the factory will be rewarded according to their hard work, and those who are active in childbearing, active in learning, enlisting in the army, farming and doing business will also have their own rewards.

"And I will be proud of you."

The picture and sound ended, but the silence in the square continued for a long time. It wasn't until several minutes later that it was unknown who was the first to cheer in the crowd, followed by the second and third cheers stand up.

Then the whole square cheered.

However, in fact, more than half of the people are just cheering along. They haven't fully understood what happened before them, nor have they fully understood the meaning of every word the lord said before. The atmosphere of the society is wrapped in a certain blind enthusiasm for conformity, but what does it matter?

For commoners who hardly have any entertainment, and have seen and come into contact with very little news in their lives, they saw incredible magical miracles today, saw the lord appearing in the giant projection, heard the lord's speech, Hearing the news of the victory on the front line, I was even greatly encouraged myself-of course it deserves cheers!

So people cheered, whether they understood it or not, they all cheered together, and in this cheering, they really felt a little bit of pride, although these people who once belonged to the Earl of Horsman hadn't touched it yet. The complete concept of "glory to work" and "strive to build a new era", but the lord has said it, to be proud of them... that is very honorable.

In the center of the square, where the political officials were standing, a young female political official couldn’t help being moved after hearing the cheers resounding throughout the square and seeing the collective enthusiasm of so many people, she said to herself Get up: "Is this what the lord said... the power of the people?"

"No, it's just blind people," said Daedalus, the mayor of Hossman City, shaking his head, "In the words of Mentor Hetty, it's 'inspired by the atmosphere and words easily, not Thinking people', they are still far from the truly awakened citizens who rely on their own consciousness to work enthusiastically, and that is the real 'Cecil citizen'."

"Blindly agitating..." The young female political officer was a little surprised, but she was obviously one of the apprentices who had been taught by Heidi, so she quickly nodded thoughtfully, "That's right... everything here is still there. In its infancy…”

"It doesn't matter, even the people who are temporarily aroused by enthusiasm are good, at least they are better than the stagnant pool of life before them," Daedalus said softly, "The lord once said another sentence, that is, 'low-efficiency labor is better than labor. No labor’. A place like Horsman is different from Cecil’s frontier. The people here are much less stressed and have their own way of life. Therefore, if you want them to burst out with enthusiasm for construction, Sometimes you need some 'incentive' like that. We don't need it to work long-term - just temporarily."

The two government officials finished their conversation, and the cheers and drum noise in the square gradually weakened. Daedalus stepped forward, and with the help of the magic of amplification, his voice resounded through the square:

"Citizens of Hossman City, what you saw just now are images and pictures transmitted by a large magic network communicator. In the next month, we will set up the same public address devices in three other places in the city. ...

"In addition, the 'civilian communication point' for ordinary people will also be opened in the near future. Regarding the use of magic net communicators, you can wait for the soldiers to explain and read, or read the relevant content on bulletin boards and newspapers by yourself.

"Let us thank everyone who has worked hard in the magic network communication project, and thank its inventors and builders."

……

Cecil City, in the temporary "Broadcast Hall" built in the Institute of Magic Technology.

The first broadcast of the magic net communication era was over, but to be honest, at the beginning of its birth, Gawain never thought that its first broadcast would be his own "speech".

Frankly, what he said was not what he most wanted to say.

But he is more aware that what he speaks is the most effective in this period.

Propaganda should take into account the audience, the audience's worldview, and their ability to understand and think. In this semi-test and semi-official broadcast, the coverage of the magic network communication is the Hossman area in the west and the Panshi-Ka in the north. The Lore-Kant line extends eastward to Glenland. Although the coverage area is far from reaching the entire southern border, it is still quite a large area. Within this range, 90.00% of the audience have just become Resident of Cecil.

Unlike the people in Cecil City, these "new citizens" have not received modern general education, have not been in contact with the society of the magic industry, and do not even know a few words. What they can understand is still the old The order under the rule of the nobles at that time, if you tell them something that is too advanced and advanced, not only will they not understand, they may even start to question the new lord.

Therefore, it is better to encourage and agitate, at least let these "new citizens" have a little motivation to build a new life.

Gao Wen left the platform where he was speaking, and Rebecca, who was guarding a pile of flickering rune substrates not far away to monitor the situation, immediately came up to him: "Master Ancestor! You were so imposing just now. !"

Gao Wen rubbed Rebecca's hair casually: "How is the signal situation everywhere?"

"The feedback has come back, only the signal quality near the Rock Fortress is very poor. It is suspected that the relay tower temporarily installed during the war is not effective, or the magic turbulence generated after the collapse of the Rock Fortress's big magic shield is still affecting the local magic field. , I have already informed the Valde Knight in the fortress to send a group of magic technicians to collect the data of the nearby magic field, and I will study it when I come back. Other than that, the signals in other places are very good.”

"Okay," Gawain nodded in satisfaction, then looked at Kamel who was floating not far away, "Kammel, thank you for your hard work this time."

Thanks to the ancient arcane master who worked overtime to adjust the entire magic network communication network, and led a group of technicians in the Magic Technology Research Institute to rush out a primitive "broadcasting hall", Gawain and Rebecca returned This very time-sensitive broadcast can only be carried out as soon as possible after arriving in the territory.

"This is my duty," Kamel bent slightly, and then looked at the magic communication terminal in the center of the hall, his tone full of emotion, "Signal broadcast... I never thought I would see it again in this era." it……"

"Not only can you see it, but you can see it everywhere in the near future." Gawain laughed. He was not satisfied with turning such a useful magic network communication system into a simple "lord's speech amplification" Now that the idea of ​​"global broadcasting" has been proved through experiments to be feasible, then he will use this set of gadgets to realize many good things he has come into contact with in his previous life.

Although the current communication devices are still very primitive, and the traditional audio-visual recording spells have not yet achieved mass production in the magic industry, but perhaps he can already consider building a "radio (magic) television network" in some areas of the southern border...

Of course, it may be too early for this idea to appear. After all, even the Magic Network Communication Bureau in the Government Affairs Office has just established a framework. However, since the material technology has been realized, Gao Wen believes that it is only a matter of time before the normalized and practical information broadcasting in the territory is realized.

While Gawain, Rebecca, and Kamel gathered in the Institute of Magic Technology to study communicators enthusiastically, Nicholas Egg finally completed a new work in the Institute of Mechanical Engineering located in the east of the city.

A cylinder with a smooth surface and a large number of runes engraved on the side floated in front of him.

"Oh my god...it's over..." There was a happy buzz inside the iron ball star, "The new alloy material is not so difficult to deal with..."

Chapter 0448 New Order Completed

In the lord's mansion of Cecil City, a silver-white metal ball with a diameter of 1.3 meters and a pleasant funny smile on its surface hit the gate of the lord's mansion with moderate force, and behind the metal ball, there was still a floating A metal box less than one meter long.

After two impacts, the door opened from the inside, and Betty in a maid dress appeared at the door. The little maid blinked and looked at the iron ball star outside the door, with a trace of surprise on her face: "Mr. Egg? You coming?"

Although this iron ball star seldom leaves his "mechanical throne", Betty is often driven around the city by Rebecca in various areas. The most frequent visits are several factories and research facilities, so she is naturally familiar with it. I saw "Mr. Egg" in front of me.

"Is the lord here?" There was a pleasant buzzing sound from within the silver-white metal ball, "or Miss Rebecca is also fine - I have something good to show them!"

Betty blinked and reacted for a second: "The lord and the lady are not here. They have gone to the Institute of Magic Technology, but they should be back soon."

Nicholas floated his chubby body up and down: "That's fine, I'll go in and wait."

The weird "Mr. Egg" is a master of mechanical technology in the territory, and a "person" that the lord values ​​very much. Betty still knows this, so she directly took Mr. Egg to the second place of the mansion according to Gao Wen's previous instructions. In the study upstairs.

As the mechanical director of the territory, Nicholas Dan actually rarely leaves the Mechanical Research Institute, let alone the industrial area in the east of the city, but this does not mean that he does not understand what happened in the territory. Afterwards, he saw the map of the southern border hanging on the wall of the study room for the first time, and noticed that Cecil's logo had been pasted on the upper half of the map at the position marked as Rock Fortress.

"At least I can sleep soundly this way," said a low buzzing sound from inside the metal ball, "So many shells are finally not in vain."

The little maid, Betty, stood in the corner of the study, but she didn't know much about the lord's war, and she wasn't interested in it. What's going on in my head.

Nicholas waited in the study for a while, feeling a little bored, so he couldn't help talking to Betty: "Speaking of it, little girl, are you literate?"

Betty suddenly woke up from her mind-wandering state. She was startled, and then nodded a little uncertainly: "I know...although I don't recognize everything."

After saying this, the little maid seemed to have finally gotten into the mood, and belatedly realized that she hadn't entertained the guests yet, so she quickly picked up her big teapot from the side and walked towards Nicholas' Egg. , while the latter continued on his own: "Oh, just know the characters, you just need to know, then you usually read... Hey wait, what are you doing with the teapot?"

Nicholas "looked" at Betty with a funny face (he really didn't have any other expressions to use), and then saw the stupid little maid speak seriously: "Mr. Dan, would you like some black tea?"

Nicholas was stunned for a moment: "...you didn't realize that I have no mouth?!"

Betty seemed to have just carefully looked at the structure of the iron ball star in front of him, and went around twice as if looking for an opening to pour tea into. After finding that he couldn't find it, he stretched out his voice, "Huh——" : "Eh... really not!"

"Nonsense, it's not like you don't know that my face is painted on," Nicholas shook his body and continued the topic just now, "Then if you can read, can you read newspapers?"

"Newspaper...you can understand it, and you can usually read it," Betty nodded, with a look of joy on her face, "The lord also gave me a set of stationery, including scissors and glue—he also taught me how to write newspapers like Cut out the content and make it into a book!"

After saying this, Betty walked around the Nicholas egg again: "...Mr. Egg, you really can't drink tea."

Nicholas couldn't understand why this little maid was so obsessed with drinking tea for the guests, but he was really worried that this stupid girl would insist on drilling a hole in himself to pour tea in, so he patiently explained: "I and You are different, I usually don’t need to eat or drink... Or, my way of eating is different from yours..."

Betty finally stopped wandering around, and looked at the metal ball in front of her with wide eyes curiously: "How does Mr. Egg usually eat?"

Nicholas said casually: "Oh, usually it is absorbed by the body surface..."

As soon as he said this, he realized that the little maid next to him might have misunderstood it, because the girl was looking up and down at his chubby body while shaking the big teapot in her hand, her face was full of enthusiasm, he saw Xiang hurriedly said: "Hey, put away the thoughts in your head - the body surface absorption I said does not include asking you to water me!"

A somewhat disappointed expression suddenly appeared on Betty's face: "...Oh."

A question mark popped out of Nicholas' egg: "By the way, why are you so obsessed with serving tea to the guests?"

Betty showed her trademark sluggish expression again, and after reacting for two seconds, she suddenly said: "Sister Ginny said, she said that the most important thing for a maid in charge of receiving guests is to pour new tea for guests in time..."

"Ginny..." Nicholas recalled for a moment and realized that he had never heard of this name before, "Have you recruited a new maid at the Lord's Mansion?"

Betty shook her head loudly: "No, Sister Ginny was a maid in the previous castle. She was in charge of entertaining guests and she was the best among us."

After she finished speaking, she paused, as if she was recalling something, and then said: "Sometimes she would secretly bring the leftover snacks from the guests to the kitchen and give them to us..."

"The castle before..." Nicholas muttered in a low voice, and he understood what was going on.

He noticed that Betty's mood was sinking, and realized that he had said something stupid earlier to bring up this stupid topic.

However, he doesn't know how to comfort a human being—this kind of upright creature with overly complex thinking and emotions has too many incomprehensible characteristics, which are far less simple and easy to understand than metal and machinery. He can only learn from what he heard before. What humans often say to each other to comfort each other, said dryly: "Don't be sad, everything will be fine."

"I'm not sad, I'm better now." Betty shook her head, as if she had regained her energy. "Mrs. Vincent said that life is the happiest thing."

Nicholas egg floated quietly beside Betty, once again realizing that humans really are a very complicated and very interesting creature.

And soon, the most complicated and interesting human being he'd ever known arrived.

Gawain pushed open the door of the study, and as soon as he entered the room, he saw Betty holding a teapot and a big metal ball standing beside Betty, he showed a smile: "Nicholas, I heard you brought a 'good thing' to give I read?"

Immediately behind Gao Wen, Rebecca poked her head out again, and Rebecca squeezed into the study: "I'm coming, I'm coming—Mr. Egg, what did you get out of it?! The engine for the car or the engine for the boat?" bearings?"

In the entire "Cecile R&D and production system", the most closely related to Nicholas Egg's machinery manufacturing institute is the Magic Technology Research Institute managed by Rebecca. Some blueprints that have completed theoretical verification are entrusted to the Mechanical Research Institute for implementation, and such orders usually exceed the processing capabilities of ordinary "mechanical bachelors", and are usually handled by Nicholas Egg himself. Under normal circumstances, Nicholas Egg will always Holding a few orders from Rebecca.

So when I heard that Nicholas had brought "good things" to the Lord's Mansion, it wasn't Gawain who was most excited, but Rebecca.

On the other side, after greeting Nicholas Dan, Gao Wen looked at Betty who was holding a teapot, and he couldn't help showing a smile when he saw the teapot in the other's hand: "You didn't force our master craftsman to drink it?" Tea?"

"Mr. Egg has no mouth," Betty shook her head, "he can't drink."

"...you," Gawain shook his head helplessly, and rubbed the little girl's hair, "Go back and rest."

Betty left the room, and Nicholas Egg came to Rebecca, and put the metal box that had been floating near him on the ground: "Those two things are almost done, but what I brought today is Finished product from another order."

The lock on the metal box opened automatically, and the lid popped up, and a metal roller device about [-] centimeters long, with rune interfaces visible at both ends, and a silver-white surface with subtle lines faintly floated out of it.

A proud voice sounded from within the Nicholas egg: "It's not easy to realize its function—although the principle and structural diagram are very clear, it is not easy to master the proper ratio of Mithril alloy. Make it work stably. Miss Rebecca, accept your order."

"This..." Rebecca looked at the metal roller in surprise, "You finally succeeded!?"

After seeing the shape of the metal roller, Gawain vaguely guessed what it was, but he still turned to Rebecca for confirmation: "This is—"

"This is the most important structure in the new printing machine you mentioned earlier!" Rebecca smiled brightly. In order to design this thing, the Institute of Magic Technology spent a lot of effort, "I call it the The 'Arcane Transfer Cylinder', with this, the fast plate making, easy editing, continuous printing, reusable printing press you asked for was created."

"Arcane transfer cylinder?" Gawain did not expect that Rebecca would follow his habit and create a new term for students. He repeated the word and became curious about the metal cylinder in front of him, "Can you demonstrate it now?" What? How does it work?"

"It still needs an input unit to work, but if you just want to see what it looks like after it starts up, you can just inject magic power into this part..." Rebecca said while putting her hand on the metal circle One end of the barrel, "Carefully pour some magic power into it, and give the symbols for the test to... Hey ancestors, what are you doing..."

Gao Wen didn't wait for the girl to "inject magic power" and pulled her handcuff aside: "Let me do it—don't blow up the house again."

After finishing speaking, he stopped responding to Rebecca's sulking appearance, but put his hand on one end of the metal device under the guidance of Nicholas Dan.

Some weak magic power was carefully poured into the metal cylinder.

Just a moment later, rows and rows of neatly arranged lines and symbols emitting faint blue light appeared on the surface of the silver-white metal cylinder.

Chapter 0449 Rebecca's Intelligence (Really)

This so-called "arcane transfer cylinder" was very different from the printing press cylinder that Gawain imagined.

In fact, apart from a somewhat similar outline, the entire working principle and how to use it never appeared in his imagination.

This is another product that was born out of the "magic technology route" rooted in this world.

He quietly looked at the blue lines emerging from the surface of the silver-white alloy cylinder in front of him, and realized that these lines should be a built-in "standard layout" specially used to detect whether the device is normal. He also felt obvious heat when he touched the color lines.

This heating phenomenon should be the key to its ability to print.

"Tell me about its working mechanism," Gawain looked at Rebecca. Although Nicholas Egg brought this device, Rebecca was the one who placed the order. She must be the one who knows all the technical mysteries of this device. , "How does it work?"

Rebecca had a little pride on her face: "Ancestor, do you still remember those 'detection posts' I first set up in the magic net?"

"Detection pile?" Gao Wen was stunned for a moment, but he quickly realized, "Oh, I remembered, it used the property of Mithril that will temporarily heat up and turn black after being infused with arcane energy..."

"That's it!" Rebecca nodded happily, "I'd like to mention someone here—an arcanist named Cohen among the group of mages that Santis brought over from the capital. What he discovered—he thought about the special properties of mithril under the influence of arcane energy, and then we finally found the right train of thought."

While talking, Rebecca pointed to the silver-white surface of the transfer device: "The shell of this thing has two layers, and the inner layer is a very fine copper grid, which is used to transmit magic power and act as the skeleton of the entire device. The outer layer is actually a coating. We use Mithril and other metals to make an alloy, add other auxiliary materials to make a 'paint', and then cover it evenly on the outside of the copper shell, forming what you see Layer silvery white.

"You should know that the surface of the most primitive 'detection pile' is covered with pure mithril, but there are many problems with pure mithril. Every piece of mithril will change, so there is no way to make a plate, and the whole piece is black.

"Secondly, the response of Mithril to arcane energy is lagging. This is because it is a very special magical material, and its ability to retain and dissipate magic power is exactly the same. When it is continuously injected with magic power, Its magic power storage and dissipation speed are balanced, so that the appearance does not seem to change. Only when the energy is terminated, it will generate heat and discoloration due to the breakdown of the energy balance. If this kind of "lag" is used in plate making In fact, it will make the editing process slow and cumbersome, so we have to find a way to make Mithril's response to arcane energy more sensitive and timely.

"In addition, there is another problem with pure Mithril that it turns black when its properties change, so it is easy to mix with the ink of the printing machine, and even if there is a malfunction, it is not easy to see at a glance, so we considered Mithril is used as the main material, and other magic-guiding materials are used to adjust the properties of Mithril and add new characteristics to it.

"We added inert white copper to the alloy to reduce the efficiency of Mithril's magic, so that it can only change in the parts directly irradiated by arcane energy. We also used blue crystal steel to affect the magic power of Mithril. Speed, so that it will change immediately as long as it is irradiated by arcane energy. We also added crystal dust to the final coating material, so that the coating will emit blue light instead of turning black after being irradiated by arcane energy... this Part of the work was done with the help of Mr. Egg."

The Nicholas egg floating on the side floated slightly: "This part of the work took most of the time-it is not easy to find a suitable coating formula. If the coating activity is too low, it will be difficult to absorb it after being irradiated by arcane energy. If the activity is too high, the layout on the coating will be blurred. And the final coating formula is far more than simple as mithril, cupronickel, blue crystal steel, and crystal dust. There are many other auxiliary materials used to achieve The purpose of adhesion, curing, and stability, fortunately, I am relatively good at this aspect, if this work is handed over to ordinary technicians, I am afraid they will not be able to test the formula until a long time later.”

All the research and development work involving "materials" is always the most difficult, and often it is related to luck. The king's mage named Keen set his mind on Mithril, which has saved a lot of testing for the entire project It took time, but in the end Nicholas Egg took a lot of effort to research the final coating, which is enough to show the hardships of the research work.

Gao Wen breathed a little: "So its basic principle is to use arcane energy to form a picture to irradiate this layer of coating, let the irradiated part of the coating surface heat up to form a 'layout', and then use this heated 'layout' to to print?"

"That's right!" Rebecca said with open hands, gesticulating, "We've already found the ink, so we mixed charcoal ink with giant wood gum to make an ink plate. Giant wood gum is usually solid, and only It will melt a little bit when it is heated, and it will re-solidify quickly as long as the heat is gone. We can put the ink plate at the bottom, put the paper in the middle, put the arcane transfer tube on top, and the transfer tube After heating, 'swipe' on the paper for a while, and the words and patterns are printed!"

"What about the arcane source used to irradiate the coating?" Gao Wen didn't have any doubts about the "ink plate" mentioned by Rebecca. have to come.According to the principle described by Rebecca, the plate-making method of this arcane transfer cylinder is completely different from the traditional printing method. It produces patterns through the irradiation of magical energy, which means that it must have a matching one that can emit The "illuminated end" of the accurate image is the job.

For a while, he didn't think about how the illuminating terminal was realized, but judging by Rebecca's appearance, this function must have been realized.

Rebecca really grinned: "My lord ancestor, have you forgotten the crystal on the magic net communicator?"

Gao Wen was stunned, and suddenly realized one thing: the magic net communicator that has been realized so far, the "holographic projection" produced by it is actually a traditional illusion spell in essence, and the image produced by this spell... The effect of magic.