Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1172: Chapter 1171: Suspicious Clues

Listening to what Gawain said about the current situation, Aunt Heidi’s brows, which never seemed to relax much, finally eased a little—actually, as the Empire’s Grand Governor, she was aware of these matters. However, maybe due to her life experiences during the family’s decline or perhaps due to her natural disposition, she often couldn’t adopt the same optimism as her ancestral founder. But one thing she understood: the world’s situation itself wouldn’t change a bit because of her optimism or lack thereof. The only thing that could change these situations was human effort.

"You don’t need to worry too much about Project 115," Gawain glanced at Aunt Heidi and smiled to reassure his "descendant," "the technical and management aspects are handled by Rebecca and her assistant team. That girl might be a bit jumpy in other aspects, but only in her area of expertise does she excel beyond others, and neither of us can do better than her. Give her ample support. Ask for people, give her people; ask for money, give her money—even though this project is a massive investment, we now have enormous income from the continental route and trade rail network to support us in completing these plans."

"I understand, ancestor," Aunt Heidi nodded earnestly, "I’ll make proper arrangements on my side."

"Hmm," Gawain responded, and then as if suddenly remembering something, "By the way, last time I asked you to investigate matters related to the Violet Kingdom, have you found anything?"

"To determine the entire influence of the Violet Kingdom on the magic systems of human kingdoms over the past six hundred years... it’s a very vast and complex systematic task," Aunt Heidi looked a bit embarrassed, "especially since it involves finding all magic spell origins related to the Violet from those chaotic and obscure unsystematic magical tomes from the old era—this may take quite a long time to compile. Sorry, ancestor, the progress on this is currently rather slow..."

At this point, she paused and then continued: "However, although there’s not much overall progress, while compiling those early materials, I did come across some... potential suspicious points."

"Potential suspicious points?" Gawain frowned, "What did you find?"

"Communication spell, Violet Array Drawing Rules, Gravity Control spell, and three sculpturing spells in the arcane realm... these are some spells initially submitted by the Royal Magic Advisors clearly originating from the Violet System," Aunt Heidi said as she drew a well-organized report from a file cabinet under the desk and pushed it towards Gawain, "These spells share a common feature: they have black box structures, or they are entirely ’black box magic’ themselves."

Gawain took the file but hadn’t looked at it yet and couldn’t help raising an eyebrow at Heidi’s words.

"Black box..." He stood in front of Heidi’s desk, rapidly flipping through the file in his hand, seeing it mentioned several more common traditional spells, including their approximate introduction times from the Violet System to the Loren System and the evolution of the spell moulds. Since the specific tracing work was still early days, most of the information in the file was vague with words like "estimate, speculate, tentative." Nonetheless, from these brief materials, Gawain could still see some quite clear clues.

These spells were introduced to the Loren Continent at different times, but they all subsequently saw widespread use and dissemination; their spell moulds were profound and complex, with no clear theoretical explanation for a long period, causing Loren’s mages to merely "copy" these spells without alteration to achieve effects. Consequently, across centuries, the foundational models of these spells had almost no change, except for some detail optimizations. They were introduced to Loren through various means, including mages learning from the south in the Violet and those "apprentices" returning from studying at the City of Thousand Towers...

Indeed, when these spells were commonly distributed and everyone was used to them, they seemed entirely unproblematic. But when deliberately summarized and searched for "suspicious points," certain clues emerged.

"The spell moulds cannot be analyzed, the constructors do not know their principles and can only infuse magic power to achieve effects, unable to reform or disassemble their rune structures, media materials, or energy flows—these types of spells are collectively referred to as ’black box magic.’ Before rune logic was widely applied, ’black boxes’ almost filled our magical system," as Gawain pondered, Heidi’s voice came from the side, "Of course, some of these black boxes originally belong to the human magic system, especially parts related to the lost ancient Gondor Magic System. But another part..."

"The other part originates from the Violet System, correct?" Gawain raised his eyes from the document, looking at Aunt Heidi solemnly, "Are there any exceptions among the ancient magic we’ve confirmed originate from the Violet Kingdom?"

"No exceptions, at least for those spells we can trace accurately now—either they are entirely black boxes or their critical structures are black boxes," Aunt Heidi shook her head, "However..."

"However what?"

"However, quite a few of these ’black boxes’ are now history," Aunt Heidi’s expression turned somewhat peculiar and it was unclear whether she was relieved or lamenting, "Although traditional mage systems can’t dismantle these black boxes, the advent of rune logic has unlocked many ’black boxes’ from the old era. This includes the classic spells mentioned in the report you hold—communication spell, anti-gravity magic, most of the magic in the arcane sculpturing field. These have all become subjects that can be calculated with formulas and explained by the ’segmental decomposition method’ in Jenni’s Rune Research Center, with some even entering ’basic knowledge’ curriculums in elementary education classes."

Gawain paused briefly, unsure of his feelings, but soon he reined in his thoughts and shifted his focus back to the Violet Kingdom: "These black boxes... do you think they were deliberately spread by the Violet mages?"

"Are you suspecting that over the past six hundred years, the Violet Kingdom has intentionally created such ’hidden risks’ in the human magic system on the Loren Continent?" Aunt Heidi furrowed her brows again, expression growing serious, "Actually... when I first obtained this data, I had similar thoughts. After all, it’s really hard not to be suspicious when so many spells originating from the Violet Kingdom have black box elements without exception, plus there’s their curious ’apprentice inheritance rules,’ those mysterious wandering magicians, and especially that fog-enshrouded City of Thousand Towers..."

Aunt Heidi spoke in a heavy voice, but eventually shook her head, "But these are not conclusive evidence. Especially not when placed in the context of ’classical magic rules.’

"Classical magic rules, huh... internal core sealing, actively setting up knowledge barriers to form and maintain isolated ’secret inheritances’ with pride, looking down upon or even suppressing attempts to analyze traditional magic," Gawain, though a knight by birth, was no stranger to magical common sense. At this moment, he spoke while sighing involuntarily, "Indeed. The black boxes in the magic realm aren’t necessarily out of malice. More likely it’s to maintain the traditional mage echelon’s monopoly on knowledge. Moreover, the Violet Kingdom is a ’nation.’ It’s quite reasonable for them to block certain core technologies while teaching magic knowledge to the Loren Continent. Even the magical devices we sell to other countries have their fair share of ’proprietary confidentiality.’"

"The greatest suspicion about the Violet Kingdom is that they’ve gone too far — and not only for the entire six hundred years but also in a very secretive manner, which inevitably leads people to speculate," Aunt Heidi nodded. "After all, although the ancient magical devices we sell externally contain ’core secrets’, we’ve always openly admitted it, and patent protection laws are no secret at all."

Gawain made a sound of agreement and briefly lowered his head in contemplation. He pondered over the potential hidden risks behind these "black boxes" and the possible intentions of the Violet Kingdom, before raising his head again and speaking thoughtfully, "Regardless... we are now gradually uncovering the technical principles behind these black boxes; this direction is correct. No matter the purpose behind the Violet Kingdom’s creation of these black boxes, holding the knowledge in our hands will not be wrong."

"There are still many black boxes within the traditional magic system. Since these things have once again come into view and aroused our vigilance, it is necessary to do something targeted... Aunt Heidi, continue to compile and trace those traditional spell models related to the Violet Kingdom, locate them as quickly as possible, and immediately send them to the Rune Research Center, letting Jenni organize personnel for targeted decryption. This might be a long-term project, and if necessary, a permanent office can be set up in the corresponding technical departments."

Aunt Heidi immediately lowered her head, "Yes, forefather."

"Decryption is one aspect," Gawain continued, "Currently, traditional magic is still a crucial part of societal production activities — among those mages using traditional spells, and in remote areas where Mage Guide Technology is not yet developed, old-style spell moulds still dominate. From a practical standpoint, we cannot simply ban these things all at once... so we must let the propaganda follow suit."

"Explain the existence of ’black box technology’, and organize authoritative experts and scholars to publicize the limitations and inefficiencies of black box spells in the media. Publicize the advantages of the new type of spell moulds, optimized by the Empire Rune Research Center, in terms of energy utilization rate, learning difficulty, etc., so that mages may hesitate a bit more when using these ’outdated spells’, leading them to accept new things faster."

"Additionally, seize this opportunity to gather assistance from all sectors of society. Encourage spellcasters to actively report the ’black box spells’ they know. Announce rewards to scholars who love numerical logic and rune logic across the country, encouraging the cracking of black box spells. Those who make outstanding contributions can not only receive financial rewards but also medals issued by the Empire. Their names might even be permanently engraved on the memorial wall of the imperial capital — for many mages and scholars, this kind of honor is more attractive than money."

"We’ve been trying to change the views of traditional spellcasters, turning ’analyzing classical spells’ from a despised act into an honorable, nation-contributing endeavor. These efforts have shown some results in the past two years, and now we need to go further. We must not only encourage and commend those who actively break with tradition and analyze old-style magic, but also portray the stubborn groups who stick to outdated black box spells as ’ignorant’ in our propaganda — because that is indeed the truth."

Aunt Heidi nodded as she listened. After Gawain finished speaking, she couldn’t help but ask, "Then regarding the Violet Kingdom over there, in terms of propaganda..."

Gawain immediately shook his head, "At this stage, do not publicize any opposition to the Violet Kingdom because first, we have no evidence, and secondly, we are not clear about the intentions of the Violet Kingdom — especially since the alliance was just established not long ago, we are still trying to establish further communications with the Violet Kingdom. Disseminating opposition now is even less necessary."

He then smiled and spread his hands, "Besides, there’s no benefit — so just strengthen the propaganda in the magic field. After all, black boxes aren’t found only in the magic knowledge passed down by Violet; there are still many Historical Black Boxes in our human magic system."

Aunt Heidi seemed to understand and slowly nodded, "I understand."

"However, even though we do not plan to take opposing actions against the Violet Kingdom at the moment, we still need to maintain vigilance and investigation," Gawain said again. "That hermit kingdom to the north... whether or not they truly pose a ’hidden danger’, the way they conduct themselves and the influence they’ve had on the Loren Continent over these six hundred years is really too alarming. I’ll have Amber continue to look into the internal situation of Violet, while you continue to collect and sort those historical documents. Moreover, inform Victoria to focus on monitoring the northern parts — those Violet mages mainly operate in the north... Since they’re under our watch, they should adhere to the Cecil Clan’s rules."

Aunt Heidi diligently noted down each task assigned by Gawain. When she noticed her forefather still had a contemplative expression, she couldn’t help but ask, "Is there anything else you need to instruct?"

Gawain raised his head from his thoughts, his words suggestive, "...I’ve been thinking about who might understand that mysterious ’kingdom of mages’ better than we do."

Aunt Heidi seemed to guess something, "You mean..."

"Who else understands mages better than their gods?" Gawain crossed his arms and said in a deep voice, "Even if that is a reticent goddess who has remained aloof for thousands of years..."

Aunt Heidi’s eyes widened slightly. After a moment of surprise, she gently inhaled, "Goddess of Magic, Milmina... This is indeed a bold breakthrough point, but the risks cannot be underestimated, right? After all, the Goddess of Magic’s situation is different from that of Dragon God Enya. The latter has completely ’disconnected’ and can impart much information, whereas the Goddess of Magic chose a softer way to escape. Her divinity and connection to the mortal world have not yet been fully severed. If she speaks of matters related to the Violet Kingdom... could it not possibly re-establish her connection with the mortal world?"

"It’s worth a try," Gawain was quite open to the idea, "If there is something she can’t answer, she can maintain silence. Of course, asking questions alone contains certain risks when it comes to divinity, so we need to be prepared with Anti-Divine Barrier protection at the scene, and the questioning techniques need to be well-handled — fortunately, I do have some experience in this area."

As he spoke, he thought of Melita Ponia, who had once discussed those taboo subjects with him, bolstering his confidence even more.

In this area, he indeed had quite some experience.