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Chapter 39: The Dark Mountains

The development of a civilization came with its own rules, but was also fraught with uncertainty. Sometimes, an explosive breakthrough in technological innovation could advance a civilization to greater heights, but in most cases—especially in cases where feudal ignorance was overwhelmingly dominant—the development of a civilization could stagnate for hundreds of years.

In a world where supernatural forces existed, class mobility was highly restricted, which would only exacerbate the effects of the calamity it had experienced.

The existence of supernatural powers awarded many conveniences to the people beyond their time. However, at the same time, such powers had also shackled the development of this world’s civilization. It allowed the upper classes to live easy, comfortable lives, but ensured total dominion over the majority of “normal people” who had no powers of their own. Due to the scarcity and arbitrary nature of “magical talent”, it was difficult for society to develop upon it as a driving force. And because it did not add value to the masses, the lucky few whose magical gifts manifested would only become new aristocrats and would not, and did not have the power to change the fates of the majority.

Supernatural powers did not belong to “normal people”, and this was a rule that was taken for granted.

Therefore, this made society’s progress move at a snail’s pace, for on the one hand, the normal people, who made up the majority of the population, had no power to change their current circumstances, and on the other hand, the upper class, who enjoyed the convenience of superpowers, simply did not see the need for social progress. In fact, even the commoners did not think societal progress necessary—they just prayed that one day, they would wake up with magical talent.

In a world where frost arrows existed, who would think of inventing refrigerators and air-conditioning?

However, frost arrows were just frost arrows. They could not make eating ice cream on a hot summer’s day happen, nor for doctors to preserve serums and create vaccines anytime, anywhere.

This was the case in this day and age anyway.

Gawain was quite certain that this was wrong. Having supernatural powers should not become a limiter on societal progress, and this place should not be forever trapped in the Middle Ages. The so-called “magic” was after all only a form of energy utilization, and its flexible and convenient nature should become the driving force of development, not a shackle— except none of this was something that could be solved right now.

He stressed the importance of his understanding and the synthesis of statistics to Heidi and Rebecca in more detail, as well as other points to take note of when drawing up the forms. Of course, since they had never collected such statistics, and that the uneducated masses were also unlikely to provide their family names and ages, he thus relaxed the requirements of the forms, only requiring them to gather the information of the craftsmen, while the commoners need only register their names.

Everything else had to wait until the new territory was built.

No one had ever collected the statistics of the commoners, for to the aristocrats, the lives of commoners had no value—not even as cannon fodder in war. The only role of the civilians was to be a free labour source that churned out agricultural products. Because no one recognised the value of a “human”, no one recognised the need to register population data.

It came as a comfort that Rebecca, who was clueless about every other thing, was good at this. She understood Gawain’s intentions quickly, and dashed off to collect statistics with a group of people enthusiastically.

Considering her previous decree that allowed serfs to become free citizens through military service, this “incompetent” Viscountess was not really without merit.

Perhaps with the proper education, she could be tricked into human resources management. (Yeah right!)

Fortunately, the population they had to census was less than nine hundred, and Knight Phillip had also already taken note of the survivors after they had settled down in Tanzan Town. With the help of Heidi, Rebecca was able to organize the requested information in a timely manner.

After receiving the statistics, Gawain decided to divide the team into two groups and head for their “new home”.

The first was the advance party. Consisting of him, Rebecca and Heidi as its leaders, the party included half of Knight Byron’s soldiers and militia, as well as key craftsmen and a hundred labourers. They were to set up a temporary camp at their destination, identify water sources and other conditions, and lay out precautionary measures against wild animal attacks.

The majority of the commoners would then follow, escorted by Knight Phillip.

It would be unwise to barge into a barren region with more than eight hundred people, even if there were no elderly or sick amongst them (they were unable to escape). However, it was safer for the ineffectual commoners to follow behind the advance party.

No amount of preparation was enough to break in barren land, but the first step to doing so was always necessary. After as much planning and delegating as they could do, Gawain and his party finally left Tanzan Town and advanced south towards the Dark Mountains.

They marched along the flatter banks of the tributaries of the White River, with the knights and leaders in front to lead the way. The soldiers flanked both sides of the party as guards, and the skilled craftsmen, along with their supplies and tools, were wedged in the middle, well protected.

On horseback, Heidi looked back at the not quite large party, and suddenly remarked profoundly, “We seem to have become pioneers too…”

“We are pioneers,” Gawain looked at her as he smiled and said.

Heidi blinked. “I meant the great pioneering of seven hundred years ago…”

Gawain shrugged. “Isn’t that me?”

“…Right,” Heidi responded.

“Be confident,” Gawain encouraged as he looked at the woman, who seemed to be worried about the future. “Every step into the unknown is a great journey, be it the second expedition seven hundred years ago, or the first ever crusade as told in the legends, or what we are about to do today—they’re all equally exceptional. We will not only be building a new home; we might even be establishing a new era.”

Heidi looked a little blankly at Gawain before nodding. She could not really understand what he meant by “establishing a new era”, but since these were the words spoken by the legendary heroic ancestor, that must constitute something great and glorious.

Beside them, Amber started to clap loudly. The lady thief had a simple mindset. Now that Gawain was the boss, then whatever the boss said was right, so it would not be wrong to just clap along no matter whether she understood it or not…

The closer they got to the dark mountains, the more desolate the landscape became. The signs of human civilization were clearly waning in this southern land.

Before the pioneering enthusiasm had petered out, the descendants of the first pioneering knights had built small settlements in this wilderness with sword and fire and planned to expand their territory towards the wastelands of Gondor. However, the Dark Wave disrupted all that when the dark, primordial forces eroded the boundaries of their civilization. With the constant spawning of demons and the worsening natural environment, the settlements grew difficult to sustain. In the end, chaos broke out in the fog and the southern forces retreated, causing the hardiest remaining pioneering villages to fall.

Even now, all traces of civilization had already been swallowed up by savage counterattacks. Only beasts and demons remained between the ruined settlements and the primeval mountains.

Even though the magic had died down and the dark Dark Wave confined to the Gondor wastelands, the humans seemed to be satisfied with their current civilized territories to the point where it was not in the Anzu Kingdom’s plans to redevelop the Cecil’s land now, in the wake of their decline in the southern borders.

The party of horses and carriages continued their journey across rugged potholes in silence. Even though Gawain’s encouragement to Heidi was working, the rest of the party still seemed uneasy. No one knew what could come of this march into the wilderness, even if it was led by the great pioneer of seven hundred years ago—and as for the craftsmen found amongst the commoners and serfs, it was not so much as pride that drove them on, as it was the habitual obedience to their rulers and the indifference towards their lives that tugged their footsteps along.

Thus, the party journeyed on along the riverbank, before stopping in a clearing three days later.

This clearing lay closely adjacent to the dark mountains. In fact, it was nestled between the river and the mountains, a narrow plain. Here, the tributaries of the White River relaxed, their speeds slowed as they flowed gently through the northern side of the dark mountains and straight into the Typhon Empire.

Upwards in the southern direction lay the grand, yet terrific, sight of the dark mountains.

Gawain ascended a large boulder by the riverbank and surveyed the surrounding scenery, comparing this with the satellite view he had in his memories. He saw a forest growing to the south of the plains, which were mostly hardwoods such as black cedar and giantwood, and could be used as a valuable source of timber for the early years of their establishment. In the east, the mountains jutted out a little, and if Gawain’s memory served him right, there should be hematite deposits there.

Besides hematite, there were several other mineral deposits nearby—the dark mountains were a treasure trove of raw materials.

Though the pioneers, led by Gawain Cecil and Charlie I, had not stopped at the dark mountains, they still did some basic surveillance and exploration along the way. Thus, Gawain knew all about the untapped resources along the way they had discovered as they traveled through.

Since the Anzu royal family had given up on these, he was glad to take them.

After observing the terrain, Gawain jumped off the stone and said to Heidi, “Set up camp here and put up all the tents we brought. Get the soldiers to guard the lumberjacks, and get the lumberjacks to go into the forest to gather timber—but don’t let them venture too deep into the forest as a precaution against wild animal attacks. There’s no need to worry about the demons; the dark mountains aren’t as scary as you think they are, because the effects of the dark Dark Wave has long faded away, and you’ll only encounter demons if you’re in close proximity where magic is focused. With the exception of the lumberjacks, the rest of the laborers are to stay and help set up camp. Rebecca, Byron, Amber, you’ll come with me.”

Heidi paused for a moment, “Ancestor, where are you going…”

“I’m going to reclaim my inheritance.”