「Several days later, Jamestown Royal Harbor was festooned with lanterns and streamers.」
The melodious sound of bagpipes from their Hastings Native Land filled the streets and alleys, and everywhere were the happy voices and laughter of the townspeople. The Governor's Mansion even allocated funds to all the bakeries in town to distribute soft and delicious white bread to all the civilians for free today. Merchant ships were exempt from port fees within the week, and the taverns offered beer and rum at half price. All Transcendents were allowed to enter the Governor's Mansion to partake in a feast, enjoying fine wine and food, and to view the circus performances of Hall Sequence magicians, clowns, and dancers. There was even going to be a Knight's tournament, with no restrictions on background; the victor would receive a Third-Rate Miracle as a reward. One benefit after another ignited the entire colonial city. This update is available on novel·fire.net
"Congratulations to Your Excellency the Governor, the Governor's Mansion welcomes a joyous occasion."
"Congratulations, General. Mr. Bill and Miss Tilly are a match made in heaven; there couldn't be a more perfect pair."
"Thank you, thank you..."
On the neatly trimmed lawn of the Governor's Mansion, the Newman brothers, Governor Jefferson Newman and Major General Elsie Newman, personally greeted the endless stream of guests. Both, however, looked quite thin, their eyes bloodshot, visibly not having slept well for days. The unsavory audit team from the Tax Inspection Bureau had put them under tremendous pressure. But outwardly, they couldn't let on any signs of a guilty conscience. The brothers even had to prepare quarters, carriages, and fine wine for the visiting tax officers, putting on a happy face as if welcoming "angels."
In this tense and oppressive atmosphere, they were approaching the prearranged engagement day for Bill and Tilly. At this moment, the faces of the two Newmans looked even more troubled than that of "Bill," who was forcing a smile while receiving the guests' blessings in the crowd. Moreover, from time to time, they would look up at the empty sky as if something there made them feel like they were sitting on pins and needles.
Suddenly, Major General Newman's gaze locked onto a figure in the crowd leisurely enjoying the food. He excused himself to the guests at his side, saying, "Excuse me, I must step away for a moment."
He walked briskly towards Byron, who was sitting in a corner eating and drinking alone. Byron had already seen Major General Newman and quickly invited him to sit down, slipping a piece of paper into his hand and saying, "Major General, your timing is perfect. Please ask your quartermaster to help me gather the supplies listed so I can take them with me when I leave Royal Harbor. I'm planning to fire up the furnace at the copper refinery as soon as it's built; I can't afford to delay the schedule."
The main business of the Torrent Fortress will definitely be large-scale steelmaking, but the associated copper ore shouldn't go to waste. Moreover, compared to steel smelting, the most primitive copper smelting using fire methods hardly has any barriers. One only needs to dig a large pit in the ground, lay wood charcoal or similar fuel at the bottom, then cover it with a layer of crushed copper ore to build the most primitive bowl furnace. When craftsmen elevate the furnace temperature to 1,084°C using bellows, the copper in the ore will melt away from the rock and then condense into granules. After cooling, they only need to remove the slag to find granular copper. The modern process, improved many times over, is not difficult either. In contrast, the advantage of cast iron is its low cost, not that its performance is superior to copper. Whether it's brass or bronze, although expensive, they are malleable, tough, durable, and unlikely to burst when used as the barrel of a gun. Once the armory is built, the first batch of produced weapons will definitely arm flagship vessels like the Golden Deer and Heavy Cruisers. Since the objective is set on acquiring Holy Relics, there's no need to worry about costs. We really own mines, so do we lack that paltry sum? Only glittering bronze cannons can match the Sacred Relics.
Major General Newman, already agitated, saw that Byron was still unconcerned about his own equipment, choked up, then shot him a glare and said in a low voice, "Mr. Sea Hunter, is this the time to discuss supply orders? With the situation so dire, how can you still have the luxury to sit here and eat? Ever since we were confined here by that damned thing, you promised you would find someone to deal with it even if you couldn't go yourself. Where is the progress I asked for?!"
Although extremely agitated, he still didn't dare to raise his voice at Byron. Uncomfortably tugging at his collar, it felt as if a sword was pressed against it; the slightest movement brought cold sweat streaming down his cheeks and neck. No, it wasn't just a feeling—a sharp sword was indeed suspended over everyone's heads!
"Don't worry, take a drink to calm your nerves," Byron said as he poured a glass of wine for the Major General. He silently activated the Storm Sigil Ring, a symbol of Hightins's sovereignty, and opened his Spirit Vision to look towards the sky. A silver Law Network covered the entire island. Above the Governor's Mansion, there hung an ethereal golden sword, as if suspended by a thin horsehair. The sword radiated a chilling light, its edge so sharp it seemed to pierce one's eyes with a single glance. The Sailing Logbook had already identified it: it was a pre-Zero-Level Sacred Relic, the Sword of Damocles!
"Before the Silver Era, an ancient King Dionysus, to indulge the greed of his favorite courtier Damocles and to teach him a lesson, entrusted his palace to him and granted him complete power to fulfill any desire. However, during a grand feast, Damocles looked up to see a sharp sword hanging from the ceiling directly above his seat, suspended only by a single horsehair, seemingly about to drop onto his head. This terrified him so much that he fled the scene in panic. At that moment, King Dionysus stepped forward and said, 'This sword is the symbol of danger that threatens the king at every moment; as for the king's happiness and pleasure, they are merely superficial.'"
This Sacred Relic has three symbolisms, as well as three effects:
"First, it symbolizes restraint and divine retribution.
Second, it symbolizes the ultimate in all authority and profit: divine right.
Third, it symbolizes the Divine Position and Authority of its possessor; it is a Sword of Divine Right with the power to slay kings at will."
However, it, along with a series of other powerful Sacred Relics like the True Cross, the Spear of Longinus, the Shroud, the Holy Grail, the Holy Prepuce, and so on, all disintegrated in the unknown calamity at the beginning of the era. Only an unknown number of incomplete fragments remained, scattered into the hands of different powers; not even the Church had the opportunity to reforge it. But just one of the fragments still possesses the mighty power to slay Mid-Sequence Transcendents. Combined with the Iron Laws of Sovereignty, such as when triggering the laws, it's like really holding a knife to one's throat. It's the kind where if the king wants a subject dead, the subject must die without question. The only drawback is that it's only effective internally, not externally. It is a weapon of mass destruction against subjects within one's own governance, but it's almost ineffective against outside forces. Only by being restored to its whole form can it gain the power to slay any king in the world.
And now, the one in possession of this Sacred Relic was not King Edward IV but Earl Warwick, the Kingmaker. Including other members of the York Party, no one knew he had such a treasure until after he successfully seized power, and then he brought it out. How very much alike was this new power figure of the Kingdom of Hightins to that Damocles of the past? Perhaps his code of conduct stemmed from the Mandate of Heaven represented by this Sacred Relic.
Plans cannot keep up with changes. A few days before I was supposed to depart, Warwick suddenly issued an order through the Law Network. He demanded that everyone in the Heitings Colony who had arrived with the Long-range Fleet last time remain in Royal Harbor and not leave. It was actually a form of detention, to prevent accidents. We were all caught unawares. The Newman family didn't have enough time to react, and their personal freedom was restricted. As long as that audit team arrives here and sees through those clearly fake accounts, the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads will thunderously fall, lopping off the head of any one of them. Neither Major General Newman's nor Governor Newman's proud status and their Third Order transcendent abilities will be of any effect. It has no necessary connection with whether that audit team has the capability to forcefully kill two Third Order individuals. Now, except for the Newman brothers themselves, who hold high office, and Byron, who has backdoor privileges, others don't even know that a Sword of Damocles is precisely hanging over their heads.
Byron could boldly speculate about what Warwick wanted to do. To him, the Newman brothers were nothing but minor characters. The Kingmaker had caused such a big commotion clearly not just to audit the accounts, oust the Newman brothers from the game, and consolidate his power, but also to conveniently investigate the Mad Hunt! Apart from those present at the scene in Trascope, all other passengers from the Long-range Fleet would have to undergo strict scrutiny. Without orders from above, the Newman family wouldn't have been so kind as to supply bread and wine for free and reward Transcendents with Miracles. It was all just to root out the Mad Hunt and the 'last Lancaster' that might be hiding in the crowd without alarming anyone.
This man, who has made such an enormous contribution to the York Family, is indeed an old fox; he disrupted our plans completely as soon as he made his move. Luckily, I still have a backup plan, or else this time it would have indeed been dangerous.
Compared to Byron's calm and collected demeanor, Major General Newman, his eyes bloodshot from days without proper sleep, growled at him, "I'm in no mood for drinking; start talking! You keep telling me not to worry, but it's been so many days with no news. Have your people gone or not? Did they take action against the audit team? Based on the timing, they should be leaving the First Circulation Zone any moment now. We are all in this together; if they really come, as the buyer in the embezzlement case, you certainly won't be able to escape either."
Seeing how Major General Newman couldn't keep his composure, Byron couldn't help but shake his head inwardly. Don't I know that if I let them reach port safely, everything I've painstakingly built will vanish in an instant? But one must remain calm in the face of major events. The more flustered one is, the more chaotic things become, making it easier for the enemy to find flaws. The Newman family is merely an upstart that seized the opportunity to cling to the York Family's coattails. They were only elevated to Earl a few months ago and possess none of the poise of a Great Noble. Truly a lost cause. They're still too green to scheme against an old fox like the Kingmaker, Warwick. Besides, what are mere fiscal auditors? When the King's Special Envoy arrives one day, I'll show you a real killing.
At that moment, he also detected a pair of eyes, clearly belonging to the Kingmaker, Earl Warwick, slowly emerging on the blade of the Sword of Damocles in the sky, indicating that Warwick had already focused his attention here. Byron knew the time was ripe; at this point, whatever happened within the fleet wouldn't be associated with him, the "confidant of York."
Smiling, he patted Major General Newman's shoulder and said, "Your Excellency, please pour me a glass of chilled grape wine. An artistic feast miles away is about to commence."
At this, Governor Jefferson Newman, also unaware of what was happening, still hurried over and, with a dark face, poured him a glass of grape wine, still cool and misty. Under their watchful eyes, Byron appeared to swirl his wine gently, though his consciousness had already boldly and instantly traveled to a place thousands of miles away.