Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 601 - 600: Trade Demand

Gawain did not lay out too much groundwork; once the conversation naturally progressed to the economic and trade realm, he straightforwardly put forth his proposal—in this regard, he believed that excessive obfuscation and guidance would seem deliberate, making it appear that he had too many ulterior motives behind the trade proposal. Based on his current impressions of Emperor Rosetta Augustus, he thought the other party would prefer this direct form of communication.

Emperor Rosetta indeed showed a hint of interest—of course, this expression wasn’t very obvious on his otherwise stoic face: "Trade... I’ve indeed thought about such matters. Typhon and Anzu are neighboring countries, each with unique outputs; ideally, they should complement each other. I once considered opening a trade route between the two nations, but didn’t get the chance to implement this idea."

Although there has been a long-standing standoff between Anzu and Typhon, small-scale civilian trade activities have not been prohibited. There are often itinerant merchant activities near the borders, but the "trade route" mentioned by Rosetta certainly does not refer to those small-scale transactions maintained by traveling merchants or civilian caravans... Has he already started contemplating large-scale trade with Anzu? He just hasn’t had the chance to initiate it?

In a fleeting moment of contemplation, Gawain combined information provided by Daniel to grasp some aspects of Typhon’s situation. It appears that "machine production" has begun to take shape in Typhon and is starting to show power, with increasingly more industrial products being transported from factories to the market. Emperor Rosetta Augustus has already realized that these industrial products need a larger market... Is he considering Anzu as a target for dumping goods?

If I hadn’t met him this time, Rosetta’s dumping target might have been the East, which is currently in a state of war and might indeed accept Typhon’s provision of "cheap supplies" due to a shortage of resources, ensuring frontline supply in the short term. However, this could destroy its own production order in the long run, and Prince Edmund and Silas Loland are highly likely to adopt a strategy similar to the "southern trade," exchanging resources or even mining rights for Typhon’s industrial products...

Familiar tactics indeed.

Gawain smiled, glancing at Emperor Rosetta Augustus. In this ambitious empire ruler’s face, he seemed to see a bit of his own reflection.

"The Cecil Clan has always been welcoming to friends," he said cheerfully, "We might consider establishing a trade route between the Cecil Principality and Typhon first—I won’t hide the fact that the newborn Cecil Principality currently has many shortages, magic-conducting materials, ore, timber, oh, and of course, a large amount of textiles... On the other hand, we have some uniquely distinctive magic creations but have struggled to find a market for them."

Emperor Rosetta Augustus did not immediately express his opinion; he first pondered for a few seconds before slowly saying, "It seems like trade is indeed beneficial for both parties, but you’re aware that the south of Anzu and Typhon do not directly border each other..."

Gawain pinched his chin, showing a contemplative gesture, and after a minute or two, spoke while pondering, "We have set up a mine in the White Sand Dunes area and are planning to build a new road leading directly to the southern borders. I can negotiate with the Duke of the East; he shouldn’t mind if I slightly extend the road farther east. Or, we could open a new route at the foot of the Dark Mountain Range that is farther south, connecting Cecil and Typhon directly along that mountain range."

Although the south of Anzu doesn’t directly border Typhon, they’re not far apart. The southeastern corner of the southern borders even extends close enough to Typhon, separated by just a short mountain path. Otherwise, Soldrin’s "Typhon Special Delegation" wouldn’t have so easily infiltrated near Cecil.

Emperor Rosetta seriously pondered over Gawain’s proposal—even though both he and Gawain intuitively understand the final outcome, he still seriously thought for two minutes and cautiously said, "This indeed seems feasible; however... I first need to know what Cecil has that we need."

Gawain maintained his smile. He knew full well that the best scenario for this emperor is that Typhon needs nothing—he only needs to export industrial products to Anzu or specifically to Cecil, while the latter uses its reserve of gold and silver or mineral resources in exchange. In this process, Typhon doesn’t need to purchase any additional products from Cecil.

Nevertheless, although Gawain is prepared to allow Typhon to "dump" industrial products on him, he still wants to control the issue of outflowing gold and silver reserves wherever possible.

"Magic creations, such as various types of alchemical potions, processed man-made crystals, and... magic power-driven transportation vehicles."

It’s quite evident that when Rosetta heard the words "magic power-driven transportation vehicles," his pupils slightly contracted.

Gawain did not miss this detail.

"The transportation vehicles you mentioned... do they refer to those things you arrived in?" Rosetta indeed focused his attention on those vehicles. "They are indeed quite astonishing. I’ve long heard there exists a marvelous technology known as ’magic-conducting machinery’ in Cecil; are those vehicles products of magic-conducting machinery?"

Gawain nodded modestly, thinking to himself that not only has the other party heard of magic-conducting machinery, but he has also imitated it, successfully replicating it, and industrially mass-produced it.

"Those vehicles are indeed the ’transportation vehicles’ I mentioned, but they are just part of it. We have even larger, more efficient transportation technology," Gawain said while glancing around, "If you don’t mind, I can demonstrate it to you right here."

Rosetta’s eyebrows slightly rose, showing interest, then he raised his hand to signal the band playing music not far away to stop: "I’m very much looking forward to it. What does it look like?"

Gawain smiled, having prepared in advance, signaling his subordinate to bring forward a small Magic Web Terminal—without enabling the communication function, the Typhon attendees would probably perceive the oddly shaped machine as a piece of Projection Crystal embedded in a peculiar base, which isn’t particularly rare in high society.

Gawain adjusted the Magic Web Terminal, then directly activated a stored video segment within it.

A clear holographic projection appeared in the air: a giant steel serpent lay prostrate on artificial tracks, ready to accelerate with thousands of tons of cargo or more. A loud whistle sounded through the screen, and the advancing serpent suddenly revealed a startling power.

This was precisely the broadcast image sent from the Cecil Homeland a few days ago!

The footage was short, less than thirty seconds, because Gawain had erased the latter part of the image—after the train had accelerated for a while, an advertisement for the "Cecil Railway Transport Company" should appear, and at this stage, Gawain did not want the Typhon people to know too much aside from the Magic Train.

The hall fell silent for a moment, with nearly everyone staring wide-eyed.

A pair of eyes fell on the holographic projection, on the now motionless image of the train, and the whistle at the end of the video seemed to linger in their minds, giving rise to countless questions and conjectures in everyone, even Emperor Rosetta Augustus, who kept his gaze on the screen for over a minute—ultimately, he was the first to regain his composure and return to normalcy. He looked seriously at Gawain: "What is this thing?"

"The Magic Train, you can think of it as an extraordinarily large, extraordinarily powerful vehicle, though its technology is far more complex," Gawain explained, "For us, it’s also considered a new technology."

"Are you willing to sell it?" Rosetta seemed to find it unbelievable, he looked once more at the astonishing "Magic Vehicles" on the screen, a hint of complexity in his gaze, but mostly confusion, "Why?"

Just a glance at the image, and the Typhon emperor could perceive the immense significance of such a vehicle, as well as its potential role in passenger transport, freight, military, and several other fields. He could not believe that Gawain, who created such a magical item (or in the words of the Cecil Clan, a magic-conducting creation), would be unaware of this, so he instinctively felt a trace of caution and suspicion.

Gawain spread his hands, his tone seemingly with a hint of helplessness: "As I just said, the newly-formed Cecil Principality... has many shortages."

Having technology but being unable to convert it into wealth in the short term? Developing "Mage" leading to significant gaps in the livelihood field? Or have they encountered a fatal financial crisis...

Emperor Rosetta Augustus instantly began recalling the intelligence he had gathered through various channels, speculating on the current plight of the Cecil Principality, and ultimately concluded that the reason might lie in the latter two points.

Since its establishment, the Cecil Principality had been engaging in continuous and large-scale construction, expanding cities, relocating populations, consuming a vast amount of manpower and material resources for development, all of which occurred right after it experienced a war of integration!

If there hadn’t been a crisis in the economy and basic materials, a legendary hero like Gawain Cecil wouldn’t possibly take the initiative to come and discuss "trade" with him.

"If you’re willing to sell, then of course we... are very interested," Rosetta said with one last trace of caution, "But from what I observe, this colossal thing... seems to have an accompanying ’road’? What exactly are you planning to ’sell’?"

"That’s right, it requires laying a fundamental roadway known as an ’energy track,’ or colloquially, a ’railway’ for it to operate, and there needs to be supporting maintenance and control technology, and the train transportation itself is not easy," Gawain nodded, "We will take care of the entire set of work in this regard. First, we can build a road on the Cecil-Typhon trade line to deliver the train body and technical staff to Typhon. Subsequently, we will help you build roads and stations—this will be according to your requirements. The price of the train body is fixed, but in terms of the road..."

Gawain glanced at Rosetta, and under the deep gaze of the other, he refrained from uttering "we’ll help you build railways for free."

This would trigger the other’s vigilance, as well as that of the entire think-tank behind them, there is a saying in Anzu: "Bread that is picked up often has poison," and he believed Rosetta knew this too.

If it were just a few parts given for free, that would be manageable, but if it’s something that looks expensive enough to bankrupt an ordinary noble at a glance, that’s too suspicious.

"We’re willing to offer the greatest discount, but after all, its costs are high—I have a plan: if Typhon can provide the raw materials needed for building the railway, we can only charge for the dispatch of technical personnel and a part of the ’technical cooperation fee,’ which won’t exceed the labor cost needed for the railroad construction, and will be separately calculated based on the actual railway length."

After a longer period of contemplation, Rosetta nodded slightly: "Another form of ’cost price,’ it sounds like a fair and generous plan."

Then he shifted the topic slightly: "But there’s one point—I don’t know enough about the ’Magic Train’ you mentioned, nor the magical vehicles you’ve brought. I can’t make a decision based solely on a first glance impression."

"A reasonable concern," Gawain smiled, "I will provide more information and welcome you to send someone to have a look at the Magic Train’s operation in person. As for those ’Magic Vehicles’... should we successfully reach a trade agreement, I am willing, in my personal capacity, to gift you a vehicle as a gesture of goodwill."

"You are indeed a knight among knights; such generosity and integrity are moving," Rosetta said solemnly, then as if casually, added, "So... if this trade agreement is reached, is it a transaction between Typhon and Anzu, or between Typhon and Cecil?"

Gawain quietly looked at Emperor Rosetta Augustus for a moment, the corners of his mouth gradually curling up.

"It is the friendship between Typhon and Cecil.

"I cannot, and do not intend to, represent Anzu."