Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 332 - 331: Investiture Document

"Uncle? Uncle, why aren’t you speaking again? Are you daydreaming?"

Gawain’s mind wandered off to the clouds, but a crisp voice beside him interrupted. He turned to see Patty standing next to him, looking up at him with wide eyes full of curiosity.

"Just remembered something," Gawain said casually, then smiled and shook his head. "By the way, that Sister Selena who usually takes care of you, how did you meet her?"

He knew this was probably the most dangerous question he’d asked today.

The so-called "Sister Selena" was almost certainly Selena Gerfen from back then. Given Patty’s cheerful personality and her relationship with "Sister Selena," there’s a good chance she would mention him to Selena Gerfen, mentioning the "strange questions" he asked. Would Selena Gerfen then suspect something? Would she realize there’s an unknown Eternal Sleeper taking interest in her?

After quickly weighing the risks, Gawain decided it was acceptable.

His identity hadn’t been exposed; he was currently a completely normal Eternal Sleeper active in the psychic network, so Selena Gerfen had no reason to be particularly wary or attentive towards him. A completely normal Eternal Sleeper occasionally asking Patty about how she knows an important person in the church isn’t that odd.

And even if Selena Gerfen did pay attention to him and wanted to investigate, there was nothing to worry about—currently, the psychic network hadn’t developed mature address tracking and user management technology. Even at the highest church levels, they could only lock onto nearby followers through very primitive methods like searching for brainwave signals, so Selena Gerfen couldn’t possibly locate Gawain.

If the Eternal Sleepers ever established a mature address tracking and user management system... then Gawain would have nothing to worry about because he designed it himself, leaving backdoors everywhere...

So, after a serious evaluation, he asked the question with an apparently relaxed tone.

Patty, not thinking much of it, happily replied, "When I first came here, it was Sister Selena who took care of me! She said she’s my ’guide’!"

Gawain furrowed his brows, "Guide? Guide where?"

"I’m not really sure," Patty shook her head. "Sister Selena said I have a very special talent, so someone needs to teach me so that I can become a useful person in the future... but she hasn’t really taught me anything."

A very special talent? The Eternal Sleepers brought this little girl into the network because they valued some kind of skill she possessed?

So this Patty was indeed not a typical Eternal Sleeper follower...

Gawain then asked the little girl a few more questions, like how she first entered the network and who introduced or guided her, but Patty seemed quite confused about those—almost like she couldn’t recall how she initially entered the network at all.

Either her memory had been tampered with, or she was guided into the network by someone or some people without her knowing.

Either way, Gawain thought it best not to press further: if Patty’s memory had indeed been tampered with by the Eternal Sleepers, the more he asked, the more likely he’d arouse suspicion.

After bidding farewell to Patty, Gawain left the Eternal Sleepers’ psychic network.

Upon opening his eyes, he... well, this time he didn’t have Amber’s face right in front of him.

Instead, he saw the faces of Rebecca and Amber.

The sudden awakening of the "ancestor" startled Rebecca, and the little roe deer essence jumped two meters back in shock, exclaiming, "Wow! Ancestor’s awake!"

Seeing Rebecca’s startled state, Gawain’s first reaction was to quickly retract his hand from the table—because he remembered how the last time he suddenly awakened and startled Rebecca, the girl’s reaction was a memorable "Ancestor Rest in Peace" technique...

He then realized something was off, glanced at Rebecca, and then at Amber, who was shrinking back, trying to pretend she had already entered shadow walk sneak mode: "What are you two up to?"

Amber was about to quickly make up an excuse to brush over the situation, but the earnest and straightforward Rebecca spoke first: "Amber said she wanted to draw circles on your face to see if you’d wake up—I didn’t think it would work since you seemed to be sleeping so soundly."

"Amber!"

As soon as Gawain called out a name, the half-elf girl instantly turned into a streak of black light and darted towards the nearest window. But this time she didn’t manage to escape smoothly: Gawain had long mastered this girl’s few emergency escape habits, and before she could reach the window sill, Gawain reached out skillfully and grabbed her by the ankle, pulling her back: "I asked you to keep an eye on things, is this how you do it? Tell me, have you ever..."

"No, no, absolutely not!" Amber balanced herself in mid-air in a way that looked like a risky acrobatic stunt, and then hopped on one leg trying to pull her ankle out of Gawain’s grasp, "This is absolutely the first time I’ve had such a bold idea..."

Before she finished speaking, Rebecca straightforwardly derailed her: "She said she thinks about it every time, just never dared to try it..."

"If you can’t speak properly, then don’t speak!" Amber glared at Rebecca, "I shouldn’t have talked so much with you! Haven’t you ever gotten beaten up because of your big mouth?"

Before Rebecca could respond, Gawain already answered for her: "You’re underestimating her—I’ve heard from Aunt Heidi that she’s been beaten up more times than you’ve stolen wallets."

After saying this, Gawain finally let go of Amber’s ankle, allowing the half-elf to hop away to the side. Then he turned to Rebecca: "You didn’t just come over to learn how to get yourself killed with Amber, did you?"

Rebecca seemed to finally remember the important business she had to deal with, so she quickly patted her forehead: "Oh right! A letter was delivered to the territory, it was a gryphon messenger... No, actually, it was a messenger riding a gryphon who brought it over, and he had the King’s emblem..."

"Messenger from St. Soniel City?" Gawain raised an eyebrow, "And he came riding a gryphon?"

Gryphon messengers are not the usual "couriers". In this era of severe limitations in communication technology and poor road transportation conditions, a gryphon messenger capable of crossing national borders within a few days is considered the most convenient means of information transfer that various nations can manage. Usually, only the King, Prince, Duke, and a small number of extremely wealthy or uniquely positioned aristocratic figures and organizations can afford such costly "messengers", and they only use these messengers for very urgent or specially significant messages.

So it didn’t take long for Gawain to guess what message the messenger was carrying.

He nodded: "The messenger should be gone by now, right?"

"How did you know, ancestor? The messenger indeed left hastily after delivering the letter—I actually wanted to call more people to see the spectacle, a gryphon, I’ve only seen them a few times..."

Gawain looked somewhat helplessly at his many-layer great-granddaughter, who was struggling in every aristocratic discipline, and shook his head, saying: "Of course he had to leave quickly because recently, Francis II’s gryphon messengers have been very busy. In fact, if it weren’t for my big name, he probably wouldn’t even send his gryphon messengers to this place at all—where’s the letter?"

"I have it," Rebecca immediately pulled out a case marked with the faint gold Moen Royal Family emblem. One end of the case was still sealed with wax, "I wanted to peek inside, but Sir Philip said that such letters shouldn’t be snooped upon and I must deliver it to you personally..."

Seeing the look of deep resentment on Rebecca’s face, Gawain could guess how much effort this girl had put into not peeking until now. He smiled as he took the case, then opened it in front of Amber and Rebecca.

Inside the case was a scroll made of exquisite parchment, wrapped with a band woven from threads of faint gold and light purple—clearly, this wasn’t just a mere letter.

It was a formal document from the royal family.

Gawain unfolded the scroll, casually glanced over it, then tossed it to Rebecca: "Read it through, then put it in the collection room, don’t lose it."

Rebecca promptly read through the contents of the scroll, then dumbfoundedly raised her head: "Ancestor, this means you’re now the rightful leader of Kant territory, lawfully? And the King also gave you a large tract of royal estate east of Kant territory?!"

The contents of the scroll were just as Gawain suspected, a royal decree of enfeoffment—or put another way, a document of royal "compromise" and "recognition" of the fact that Gawain was now ruling Kant territory.

Upon hearing the nature of the document, Amber couldn’t help but eagerly move over: "Let me see, let me see, this is the first time I’ve seen a real enfeoffment document... Wow! The buckle of this band is actually gold!?"

"Is there a need to be so surprised?" Gawain looked at the two girls before him with some amusement, "As long as Francis II isn’t senile, this document would eventually be sent to me—Kant is just a viscount’s territory, for my duke title, it’s just a small gift, the King had no reason to be stingy. As for that royal estate... it’s just a small token."

He slightly shook his head: "I just didn’t expect it to be sent ahead of time—and delivered urgently by gryphon messengers. I originally thought the related enfeoffment document would be sent to the Cecil Clan after spring, but now it seems... changes in the situation have made the King feel a sense of urgency."

"Changes in the situation?" Rebecca blinked with some confusion, "Do you mean the situation between Typhon and Anzu? How is it related to the enfeoffment document?"

"Of course, it’s related," Gawain chuckled, "The war between Typhon and Anzu is likely to be postponed, and then the rulers of the two countries must consider restarting diplomatic activities—it’s highly likely that the King will personally step into negotiations, but the control exerted by the Second Dynasty over Anzu is not as strong as that of the First Dynasty. So to ensure domestic stability during the upcoming negotiation period, Francis II must soothe, or to put it another way, pander to the domestic aristocrats in advance. Whether they’re pro-war or pro-peace, he must communicate and touch base with them, and as for someone like me who’s neither pro-war nor pro-peace, he still needs to give some consideration—because I’m from the ancestor faction, and the King is constantly worried that I, as this ancient forebear, might suddenly jump out and criticize him."