The summer wind swirled between the city’s buildings, and the clear, open sky seemed both high and distant. Amber was leaning against the outside ledge of the clock tower, eyeing the deep-sea guest beside her with curiosity. "I heard you’re not natives of this world—what do the Mages call it again... ’guests from a foreign place’. Your entire race are guests from a foreign place?"

"That’s no secret, at least we sea demons have never concealed it. We openly tell every race or civilization that deals with us, but civilizations on land are short-lived, they can hardly pass down things that are too ancient, and we only interact with land civilizations in the most occasional of eras, so you land scholars always find us overly mysterious, even a bit dangerous."

Tiel spoke unhurriedly, the tip of her tail unconsciously twirling circles in midair, looking relaxed and carefree.

"We are indeed not natives of this planet, but we came to this planet many, many years ago... To put it bluntly, we ’outsiders’ have already lived on this planet longer than most of the so‑called ’locals’ on land, but that doesn’t mean much to us sea demons.

"We come from a place very, very far away. In fact, even we ourselves don’t know how far our home planet is from here—we fell into this world in the Ancient Era along with a crashed spaceship, and far too many strange and bizarre phenomena occurred during that disastrous voyage. Some of our scholars who survived from that age still live to this day, and they still haven’t figured out the root cause of those phenomena, nor can they find where our home planet lies.

"Telling you all this... does it feel a bit too far removed?"

Tiel suddenly stopped, glanced at Amber, and her face seemed a little embarrassed.

"Honestly, it’s pretty hard to wrap my head around... but not to the point of being completely incomprehensible." Amber blinked. "I know Mages have always been obsessed with the starry sky, from ancient times till now, but I’ve never heard of any powerful Mage who could actually ’throw’ themselves beyond this planet. Even the most advanced flight spells have limits—supposedly the higher you go, the more chaotic and dangerous the magic-pervasive environment becomes. Rebecca’s side is trying to build a flying machine that can go very, very high; I heard the idea is to see whether the logic of Magic Guide Technology can break through the limits of flight spells, to take a look at what the world under our feet really looks like..."

As she spoke, she couldn’t help but size Tiel up and down, her tone tinged with disbelief. "You said you arrived in this world aboard a ’spaceship’ that crashed, so at the very least your existence proves that there really are other worlds out there in the starry sky, and that there also exists—or at least once existed—technology capable of traveling through the stars?"

"Of course it exists. Other worlds exist, and so does the technology to reach them." Tiel smiled, but soon reined in her smile and couldn’t help letting out a sigh. "Unfortunately, after all these years, we’ve neither managed to repair the spaceship, nor have we seen any other race in this world successfully leave this planet... The second point is especially strange. It’s as if there’s an invisible great barrier around this planet. That barrier has never blocked anyone, yet everyone dies before touching it."

Amber’s pointed ears twitched reflexively, and her expression became a little subtle. "All this... have you talked about it with the old... His Majesty as well?"

"Of course. His curiosity is even stronger than yours," Tiel said casually. "Long before you took an interest, he’d already asked me about everything concerning the sea demons."

"...Then would you mind telling me what your ’spaceship’ looks like?" Amber asked, her face full of curiosity. "What makes it fly?"

"I’m afraid that would be of no reference value at all to your technical system—and I only know the general idea myself, after all I’m not a professional technical worker."

"That’s fine, I’m just curious anyway—of course, if you don’t want to talk about it, forget it..."

Tiel glanced at Amber and saw real curiosity flickering in those big amber-colored eyes. She couldn’t help but smile, stretching lazily and speaking in a languid tone. "Alright then, I just woke up and slept my fill, and there’s still a while before my next nap... If you’ve got nothing better to do, I’ll tell you about how we live on Antawen."

...

Kamel floated into the assembly workshop, and the sounds of machinery running and personnel responding to commands immediately came at him from all directions.

He looked into the distance and saw a large crowd busily working around a massive piece of equipment. The device had a long acceleration rail—and from the interfaces at both ends of the rail, it was clear that more acceleration structures were waiting to be connected. A large number of Magic Capacitors and overload devices were fixed around the rail, and a heap of bewilderingly complex apparatuses were being connected one by one to the main body of the machine.

A slightly balding middle-aged man was directing the staff on site. His face was serious and focused, and the last surviving ring of hair on his head was soaked with sweat, gleaming under the lights along with his scalp. But he clearly paid no attention to such trivial details: the work before him was very important, enough to make a balding man temporarily forget about his hair issues.

Kamel drifted in that direction and only greeted him once the other man noticed him. "Marin, how are things going?"

Marin Leslie bowed to Kamel, then raised his hand and pointed at the acceleration device beside them. "As you can see, our previous design has been scrapped. The meltdown of the continuous acceleration rails was a major problem, and we’re redesigning the balance scheme between the rails. Things are going very smoothly this time—perhaps in a few days we’ll be able to conduct the next acceleration test."

Kamel nodded slightly.

The middle-aged man before him, named Marin Leslie, bore an aristocratic surname, and in fact he did come from an aristocratic family—the Governor of Tanzan City, Viscount Leslie, was his uncle. But as a member of the aristocratic class, Marin clearly preferred to deal with knowledge and technology.

As a senior member of the Magic Guide Technology Research Institute, both experienced and capable, he led a secondary team, and their current task was to figure out how to get the "Extreme Acceleration Device" working.

This device was a key link in the "high-speed flying machine project". It had been initiated by the Minister of the Magical Technology Department, Rebecca, and entrusted to Marin and his technical team to complete in detail.

This was how many projects at the Magic Guide Technology Research Institute now operated—as the top person in charge of the Magical Technology Department, Rebecca’s time and energy were limited. No matter how many brilliant ideas she had, there were only so many things she could personally keep an eye on at once. So as research projects became increasingly complex and numerous, and as technical personnel were gradually filled out, she began to split many programs among various secondary laboratories or independent task groups. By now, almost all of the more basic or shorter-term R&D tasks were being handled by veteran researchers like Marin leading their own teams (with the corresponding honors and rewards naturally going to these teams), while the projects Rebecca and Kamel personally oversaw actually accounted for less than a fifth of all research tasks under the Magical Technology Department.

That one fifth contained the truly long-term, cutting-edge work.

In addition to that, Kamel and Rebecca also made regular inspection tours of each project group to check on the progress of their tasks—just like today.

"Princess Rebecca is in a remote meeting with the technical exchange representatives from the Silver Empire. She’ll come over as soon as the meeting is finished," Kamel said casually to Marin Leslie while keeping an eye on the work of the technicians on site. "I’ve read your report from the last time you activated the acceleration device. Even though the device melted down on the spot, according to the records left by the monitoring Array, the accelerated body should have been infinitely close to the ’Missile Limit’ before it lost power?"

"But it still failed to break through," Marin said with regret, shaking his head. "And afterward, we also found very serious elemental erosion damage on the surface of the accelerated body. This was most likely caused by the waste energy in the rails not being released in time—at extremely high speed, many developments exceeded our expectations. There are still many things that need adjustment and improvement."

"Take it slowly," Kamel’s voice was low and steady, carrying a reassuring vibration. "Success always needs this kind of failure after failure to accumulate." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Listening to the trustworthy words of this Master Mage from the Ancient Era, Marin nodded solemnly. Then he wiped the sweat from his forehead—when his hand touched his smooth, bare scalp, he seemed dejected for a split second, but he quickly pulled himself together and once again threw himself into the calibration and assembly work of the acceleration device.

...

Gawain put down the documents he had been reviewing and moved his slightly stiff shoulders. Then he let out a long breath and walked to the window.

The sunlight outside was just right, and the bustling prosperity of the city spread out before his eyes.

Everything was finally on the right track. A rare period of stable development was approaching the Cecil Clan—along with the establishment of a series of diplomatic relationships, the smooth advance of overseas commercial activities, and the gradual recognition of the new name "Cecil Clan" by neighboring countries, more and more merchants, students, and sojourners were coming here from afar, and the merchants and envoys of the Cecil Clan were also slowly spreading toward the tribal country of Augari, the northern states, and even the Typhon Empire.

Magic Guide Technology had broken the barriers built by the old production order and massively freed up productivity from the land. What followed was commercial prosperity and the circulation of "people," and all of this brought cultural exchange as well as the inevitable impact on relations between countries. Lands that had once been distant and unfamiliar would shed their mysterious aura as commodities flowed in, and the foreigners who arrived with those goods further broadened people’s horizons—whether people were willing or not, the walls between nations and nations, races and races, civilizations and civilizations were being shaken. The seemingly idyllic and peaceful, yet in truth isolated and closed-off, pastoral state of the past was being challenged.

The commoners in the heartland of the Cecil Clan had begun to come into contact with gray elves, with the Red Valley People, with dwarves, beastmen, and even fairies, and in the homelands of those races, more and more human beings were appearing as well. Of course, all this was still only a beginning; the exchanges were limited in scope. But without doubt, this was exactly the situation Gawain wished to see.

If possible, he hoped this period of stable development could last longer.

A gentle knocking suddenly sounded at the study door, interrupting Gawain’s train of thought. He heard Betty’s voice from outside: "Your Majesty! There’s a visitor!"

Compared with a few years ago, the little maid’s voice now sounded much more mature and steady, but it was only her voice that had become mature and steady; when it came to wording, Betty still carried, every now and then, a hint of rashness and a lack of "solemnity."

Gawain smiled, turned, and let Betty in, speaking offhandedly as he did so: "There shouldn’t be any visitors scheduled for today—what kind of person is it?"

Wearing the Royal Head Maid dress and having grown a little taller than a few years ago, Betty thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "It’s a guest you said could be specially announced, Miss Melita Ponia, and the... other lady who came last time!"

Obviously, she had already forgotten the "other lady’s" name—but after a few years of growing up, she at least no longer shouted the words "I forgot" so self-righteously.

"Melita Ponia and Nuoletta? The two of them together?" Betty’s poor memory did not stop Gawain from extracting the useful information. After learning that the two high-ranking agents of the Mithril Vault had come together to visit, he subconsciously furrowed his brow. "And they’re coming to the door on their own initiative..."

He then put aside the faint doubt in his heart for the moment and nodded slightly to Betty. "Let them in first."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Betty gave a deep bow, then trotted away. Not long after, Gawain heard two steady sets of footsteps coming from the corridor outside.

A moment later, Melita Ponia and Nuoletta appeared together before Gawain.

"We’re very sorry to disturb you so abruptly," Melita Ponia stepped forward first and spoke with her usual polite demeanor. "I hope this hasn’t caused you any inconvenience."

"It’s fine, I always welcome friends," Gawain nodded. "I just didn’t expect two high-ranking agents of the Mithril Vault to visit at the same time... Have you brought something with you?"

He suddenly noticed that Nuoletta was holding a large, rather heavy-looking box in her hand and could not help asking curiously.

The two agents had shown up together, and they had brought such a large box. This made him vaguely sense an unusual signal.

Moreover... whether it was an illusion or not, he could sense a faintly familiar aura from that tightly sealed box, which looked as though it had been forged from some high-grade magic materials.

"Then we’ll keep it brief," Nuoletta stepped forward and set the box on the floor. "The first task of our visit this time is to return something to you—something you lost many years ago."

As she spoke, she activated the locking mechanism on the case. With a light clicking sound, the lid of the box, forged from precious Mage metal, rose open automatically, revealing what lay within.

A shield, weathered by the vicissitudes of time and covered in scars.