Equipment Printing School Mage
Page 296
"It may be the most important step in returning Halruaa to Faerun."
Having said that, Emiya glanced at the empty Halua and shook her head: "But that should be the ultimate goal."
"Perhaps, we should restore Halrua's function first? At least, we should have the strength to face the dragon head-on."
Having said that, Emiya couldn't help but sigh.
The Church of Mystra, the Knights of the Secret Fire, the conflict between Halayach and Haligad, the need to rebuild a large number of airships...
There is still a lot of work to do on this trip.
"...That's a mature and prudent view," Tachi said. "In today's Halrua, there's an organization that can connect all Halrua people."
"Please advise?"
"The Knights of the Secret Fire," Tachi sighed. "It was once the knight order of the Goddess of Magic. But today, its paladins have gradually passed away, and the Knights have thrived. The paladins believe that in this time of hardship, it's time for them to strive for strength. So, they recruit followers known as the Goddess's Hands, use their former warhorses as mounts, and travel throughout Halrua. In the past few decades, when transportation was cut off, the Knights of the Secret Fire served as a nexus of supplies, information, and even affection across Halrua."
"If you want to restore the vitality of Halruaa's nearly one thousand towns, large and small, they are your best guides."
The Survivors of the Thirteenth Plague (I)
The next morning, the same sunlight passed through the turquoise sky of Abel and fell on Emilia's shoulders.
At this level, they certainly wouldn't stay in any hotel - four of their team were mages above the seventh ring, so of course they would stay in the Magic Duncan mansion.
The elders of Halrua are effectively the heads of their respective regions. Although over a hundred elders gathered at Halayach last night, they were only there for the elders' meeting. There are no more than a dozen elders who actually reside permanently at Halayach. As of today, only ten remain.
Although the elders were very grateful for the arrival of Emiya and others, and said all the nice things before parting, almost every one of them hinted at one thing: whether they could go to the Goddess Hand of the Secret Fire Knight to travel in Halayah or even Halrua.
They have urgent matters to attend to.
Emiya understood this perfectly: these elderly men, generally over a hundred years old, had been forced to cast spells while shackled for over eighty years. Now that the shackles were broken, they were probably all dying to live in their own laboratories, refusing to leave until they had broken through to the ninth or even tenth ring.
The arcane is an art. These Halruaans wouldn't dare cast a spell they hadn't cast in over eighty years.
In other words, the Weave has been restored, but the mages haven't.
Naif, the only one who was willing, also hoped to do another thing - to take Havelfont to visit the wizard tower where her teacher had lived, to commemorate their common teacher, the former wizard king Zarason.
Emiya naturally didn't mind this. Their journey in Halrua couldn't be rushed, as laying the magic net each time consumed a large amount of Yin and Metatron's physical strength—and this kind of physical consumption was obviously not something that divine magic could solve.
It is not difficult to find the headquarters of the Secret Fire Knights in Halayach.
Most of the buildings here are in disrepair and poorly maintained. Perhaps the residents here have tried, as there are very few people here.
"If magic in Halayach had become so widespread that nearly half of the population could perform a trick, then this problem might indeed arise," Mars mused. "Magic tricks are quick and convenient for cleaning. And as a trick, they don't consume much energy—perhaps not many people in Halayach back then had ever touched a real cleaning tool."
In this case, the tall buildings with people coming and going in the early morning appear quite eye-catching.
This place once seemed to be a towering fortress. However, its original function as a military fortress seems to have been abandoned. The walls and gates were demolished at some unknown time, and a network of roads connected the fortress to various areas of Halayach and even Halrua.
Even from a considerable distance away from the fortress, Emya could see a large amount of mail and supplies piled up in the open space. Although it was still early morning, a surprising number of people and even carts were already entering and exiting the fortress. As they approached the fortress, a rider greeted their guide, Eliser.
Emiad said that the headquarters of the Secret Fire Knights was very different from what he had expected.
If it weren't for the star emblem of Mystara still hanging high above the castle inside, he would have thought he had walked into a post office.
"Hmm..." Eliser, who had been quite cheerful yesterday, felt a little embarrassed when he saw the fortress appear before him - especially when facing Mars, a genuine Mystra Paladin. "...Excuse me, that unofficial-looking building complex is now the headquarters of the Knights of the Secret Fire."
Majestic, majestic, solemn, sacred——
The Knights of the Secret Fire are the organization to which all paladins in the Church of Mystra theoretically belong. Their headquarters should be commensurate with their status.
You know, the Secret Fire Knights had hundreds of paladins in their heyday. Even if this number can't be compared with churches like the Three Pillars of Justice that produce a lot of paladins, it is still a considerable number.
Now, the headquarters of the Secret Fire Knights has become a place where countless people come and go, and it has changed from a holy place to a service department.
Before Emiya and the others got too close, the increasingly fierce quarreling sounds came over.
An elder, dressed in unusually solemn attire, was standing next to a silver-haired half-elf woman, wearing plate armor, carrying a shield, and with a face already covered in wrinkles.
However, the topic of the debate between these two old men, who may be over 300 years old in total, is not so solemn.
"I can't believe you came all the way here on this busy morning just to squeeze the life out of our carriage with this kind of garbage!"
"The word 'garbage' is a bit too much!" the elder said with dissatisfaction. "At most, the words written on it are rubbish. The quality of the paper, ink, and printing press is perfect!"
"My Lady!" the half-elf knight was furious, picking up the heavy box. "A pile of paper covered in garbage! And you even used a printing press?! If you simply wanted to attack your political enemies, couldn't you just use short message magic?"
The elder snorted coldly, "Of course. It's a shame that after mocking that idiot for a dozen sentences, he never replied again."
"I don't care about the outcome of your argument!" The half-elf was so angry that he wanted to smash the box in the elder's face. "Since the argument is over, why send it?"
"The argument isn't over yet. He hasn't admitted that his theory of time is bankrupt!"
"Okay, okay." The half-elf knight patted his forehead and took a deep breath. "Let's put it another way. Even if you want to argue, why send a full box? We have ordinary envelopes."
"Of course not an ordinary envelope." The elder chuckled. "He'd definitely burn it. Only a whole box would make him curious enough to open it. And he'd doubt it. I couldn't possibly be so bored as to fill an entire box with the same sarcastic remarks—and yet I actually wrote thousands of words and copied them a hundred times!"
"Then I'll be frank." The half-elf knight was no longer angry. "Even if you, as an elder of the Council of Elders, have the right to request that we deliver your letter first, your letter still has to wait in line."
She glanced at the documents in her hand and said with regret, "And it will take at least half a month."
"Why!?" the elder was furious.
"Because you're too late!" the half-elf sneered. "You only delivered the letter this morning, but last night while I was resting, the idiots at the Goddess' Hand had already received forty or fifty similar letters! These letters are like a geographical census of Halrua, sent to every corner of Halrua. If you're only here to deliver it now, it will take a month."
"Those guys!" The elder had clearly underestimated his colleagues' limits. He could only take back his item with a helpless look on his face. "Then I'd better use item teleportation to smash his mage tower directly."
The elder was clearly in a hurry, teleporting away without waiting for Emya and the others to speak. Meanwhile, the half-elf knight, upon noticing Emya and the others, tilted his head in confusion, then suddenly realized what was going on. He quickly stepped forward and extended his hand enthusiastically, "I presume you are the messengers from Toril... Beautiful lady, are you Metatron, the goddess's attendant?"
Metatron nodded. Eliser stepped forward and proudly declared, "Please allow me to introduce you! This lady is the current leader of the Knights of the Secret Fire, Paladin Fieri Godric! She is responsible for both Halayach's defense and logistics. Although she isn't a mage or priest and thus cannot join the Council of Elders, in today's Halruaa, there are no more powerful figures than her... Ouch!"
Before she could finish her words, the paladin slapped her in the face: "Power, power! Your head is full of nonsense!"
Paladin.
Mars was startled, then recalled a moment and stepped forward immediately. "Ms. Fieri! Hello, I am Mars from Candlekeep, a Knight of the Secret Fire of Mystra, and I have been serving for nearly ten years. On behalf of my teacher, Apodel Adrian, I would like to greet everyone at the Secret Fire Knights headquarters and bring his gifts."
"……ha."
This simple sentence caused the elderly holy warrior's expression to change several times.
She was delighted to meet a fellow paladin and was surprised and delighted to hear the name of the Son of Bhaal.
And all of this turned into sighs when I heard [you all].
"Sir Apodale..." She shook her head and corrected Mars' words, "There are no more of you."
Mars' pupils shrank, and he asked with a little sadness: "What do you mean?"
Fieri didn't seem sad at all, and simply replied, "It's literally what it says... Actually, you should be able to guess it. Even without priests, the Church can still have believers. But the Knights Templar are different. Without new paladins, the number of people holding the holy emblem in prayer is destined to decrease day by day. And there's actually no particularly sad story here: the vast majority of the Knights Templar members are human. Over eighty years ago, they were a group of young humans in their twenties, full of passion. Eighty years later, one by one, they fell asleep silently in the Knights Templar's chairs or in their own beds. In the end, I, a half-elf, was the only one still active in the Knights Templar. That's all. As a paladin, this ending is already perfect, so there's no need to show such an expression."
She turned around, pointed at the goddess' hands loading various items onto the truck, and said, "Furthermore, these young people simply can't become paladins, but their virtue, piety, and courage are enough to warm my heart, so I don't feel lonely either. I'm the only paladin left in the Secret Fire Knights. This isn't a tragedy, it's simply a fact."
The Survivors of the Fourteenth Arcane Plague (Part 2)
death.
Emiya sighed quietly.
In the recent ups and downs of his life, his understanding of the word was more limited to the cost and consequences of fighting.
Now, having come to Halrua, which had been isolated from the world for more than eighty years, he realized that death was such an equal and ruthless guest.
Whether you are a mage or a paladin, an ordinary person or someone high and mighty, they are all the same in the face of death.
Death is the common end of life, no matter what journey we have taken in between.
Even creatures like the Chosen of Mystra, which have almost infinite lifespans, have already died by more than half by now.
However, although Emilia was rarely sentimental, Fieri seemed to be genuinely unconcerned. The old paladin's idle chatter had already brought up the scene when she had just taken the oath - Apodel happened to be in Halayach at the time, leading the group of paladins to take the oath. She was still very young at the time and fell in love with old Apodel at first sight. As a result, after the oath was over, she took the opportunity to hug the equally young paladin.
Naturally, her actions earned her an angry glare from the Apodel mage's female companion.
"—It's all in the past." Fieri treated it as a joke from her youth. "After so many years, his great-grandson should be almost a grandfather, right?"
The corner of Mars' eye twitched.
The woman who was glaring at her at the time... was actually Apodale's biological sister and wife.
At the same time, because of their blood relationship, the couple has not had children yet... It's better not to tell others about this kind of thing.
He could only say cryptically, "...Shouldn't your identity as the teacher be revealed to Halrua as well? He's very cautious about his offspring and his partner."
Apodael's identity as the son of Bhaal is a well-known fact. However, Imoen's identity is still quite secretive, and only those who are interested can find out the truth.
"Ouch..." Fei'eli finally woke up from her dream and slapped her forehead exaggeratedly, "What was going through my mind at that time..."
At this point, the female paladin finally remembered the main topic: "Okay, okay, I've digressed enough - are you here for a visit? The Secret Fire Knights no longer need my constant monitoring, so can I spare some time?"
"There are two things," Metatron said. "First, it's about the new Secret Fire Knight."
"Of course this is a problem." Fieri was quite relaxed at the moment. She had also missed the shocking night of Halrua last night, and the news was quite delayed, so she did not understand what the tall angel meant at the first time.
Seeing that her superior hadn't reacted at all, Eliser was so anxious that she almost jumped up and down: "...No, Captain! This is the one that our Goddess' Hand has always wanted..."
"?" Fieri was stunned for a moment. "Are you talking about becoming a regular employee? But I've said it many times, just being a guide won't do..."
At this moment, she finally caught sight of the faint silver fire on Metatron's body and woke up as if from a dream: "...Oh my God, I am so old! Do you have the right to promote these young volunteers to become paladins!?"
Metatron corrected him, "To be more precise, it's about opening that door for them—whether they want to step through it, and how far they want to go, is ultimately up to them. Paladins are different from other professions; they must proceed with extreme caution."
"...!" Fieri's emotions suddenly soared. She clenched her trembling hands, "...I can actually see this day."
The young girl with the Goddess' Hand suddenly said excitedly: "Then am I..."
"—No," the female paladin said unhappily. "Miss Elise, you only joined the Order of the Secret Fire last year. Even if I restart the paladin oath, you definitely won't be able to make it to the first round of trials."
"...Oh." Elise suddenly became dejected.
At this time, it was Mars who spoke: "Actually, taking the oath is not that simple. Before I officially took office, my teacher also warned me that this path would be full of hardships. He asked me to complete a rather difficult task and warned me that although this task was extremely dangerous, it could be accomplished in one go. The path of a paladin is long and arduous, and this trial is only the simplest step."
The old paladin shrugged. "Perhaps this is the tradition of the Mystra paladins. My inaugural mission was to leap down from Mount Taras and retrieve a fragment of a mural that had accidentally fallen off. I successfully recovered most of the fragments of the mural in the mountains and forests and pieced them back together, allowing me to take up my position."
"Huh? Huh?!" Eliser cried out in fear. "Jumping off a cliff is such a terrifying thing, why do you make it sound so light?"
"Because I was already a level 1 mage before becoming a paladin, I can't be killed by Feather Fall. The real difficulty lies in surviving in the wilderness and finding fragments." Having said this, Fieri couldn't help but sigh, then raised her eyes and smiled. "From what I know about Uncle Steel Blade, if Halayach has really restored the magic network, he's probably capturing people all over Halayach right now, taking those who were previously judged to be lacking in talent back to train again."
"Relearning the arcane arts? I'm already nineteen!" Eliser couldn't help but exclaim, "Being taken back to elementary school to learn again is too much!"
"For the former priests of Mystra..." the old paladin shrugged. "There are only two kinds of people who haven't learned the arcane arts: the unfortunate ones who simply have no talent, and the scoundrels who don't study hard. He was helpless for the past eighty years, but now..."
Although he was old, the old paladin, who was actually several decades younger than the dwarf, was full of gloating. "—You will see the true face of this former bishop of the church."
The fact that one-ninth of the population possessed wizard-level abilities was almost legendary to the new generation of Halruaans.
"Then what will our trial be?" Eliser thought for a moment, his eyes suddenly lighting up. "Leading these people on a tour of Halrua? Sir Mars, what was your trial back then? Perhaps I could use it as a reference?"
Mars raised one arm expressionlessly, puffing out his iron tower-like strong arm: "Defeat a bear alone"
"...It's a bit difficult." Eliser muttered, "I'm only familiar with the terrain. If I'm fully armed and add some traps..."
However, Mars finished the rest: "Searching alone, facing the challenge head-on, without armor, with bare hands."
"...Is this murder?" Eliser looked at the extremely young Mars in shock. "You can even complete such an outrageous task?"
"Trials vary from person to person." Fieri smiled. "I won't assign you tasks you can't complete, even if they're easy for others."
In other words, when Apodel assigned this task, he had unparalleled confidence in Mars's bravery.
Judging from the results, Apodel has a good vision.
"Alright, Miss Elise, even if you schedule a trial, you won't be included in the first batch. Trials for paladin squires require dedicated supervision throughout the entire process, and the Secret Fire Knights don't have that many right now. Get back to work!" The female paladin dismissed her overly familiar subordinate, her expression becoming serious. "...Everyone, please follow me. Let's discuss our next topic in a private setting."
Finally, the conversation took place in her own office. After Metatron cast various spells to protect against detection, Fieri Godric finally breathed a sigh of relief and said seriously, "Do you want to go to the area controlled by Haligard in the south?"
"More than that," Yin said, "Laying the magic net requires traveling across the entire territory of Halruaa."
"...So, have the elders given us any instructions?"
"...No...?" This question made Emilia a little confused.
Even if there were internal disputes within Halruaa, what would that have to do with a bunch of outsiders like us? Could they still keep the Demonic Network out?
Their team was clearly overwhelmed with mages, but the closest thing to a traditional mage was an elven illusionist who had just arrived on the material plane. Before Haverfont, all the mages on the team were eccentrics.
silver……
Emiya felt that Yin was far beyond the scope of the concept of a mage.
However, Fieri's reaction was far beyond their expectations.
"Those guys just let it go in one ear and out the other. They only think about recovering their magic power all day long and forget everything else!" She slammed the table angrily and asked, "Have the elders ever mentioned why the number of members of the Elders' Council is so small now?"
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