Chapter 788 - 787: Evidence Beside Patty

Patty was very happy about "Uncle Gawain’s" arrival.

She hadn’t seen Uncle Gawain for a long time and hadn’t heard him tell stories about the founding period, Gondor’s time, or other fantastic ideas.

Even though she was nearly fifteen this year, and even if among the usual aristocratic children, kids her age had already started appearing in social settings and learning to handle family affairs, in the eyes of outsiders, she was still a child. Her appearance seemed younger than her peers, and in terms of knowledge, she was far behind other aristocratic children of her age.

Years of severe illness had caused her to miss almost her entire childhood, and Patty only resumed her educational training this year. Many of her questions seemed not quite age-appropriate in Gawain’s view.

But on the other hand, the special experience made Patty more mature in mind than her peers. Perhaps because she lost the ability to move freely and completely relied on others for survival, she was always keen on detecting the emotional changes of those around her.

"Uncle Gawain, are you a bit unhappy?" She noticed a subtle emotional change in Gawain’s speech and promptly stopped her incessant questions, asking cautiously.

Gawain was taken aback for a moment, his gaze falling on the little girl in front of him.

She could now sit well in the wheelchair, and tilt her head by her own power. Her big eyes were looking intently this way, filled with curiosity and a hint of concern.

"No, I’m not unhappy," Gawain shook his head with a smile after a moment, "I just suddenly remembered something else and got distracted for a moment."

"Getting distracted isn’t good," Patty said very seriously, "but you’re an adult, and adults usually have many things to think about, right?"

"I do have quite a lot of usual matters, but I can still take some time to tell you a story." Gawain said with a smile, while already partitioning a part of his attention to quietly activate a secret port capable of connecting to the inner network. After so much time of familiarization, he had long been able to control the power from the Eternal Sleepers at will, and even without fully immersing his consciousness in the network, he could use his special permissions to call network resources for some covert operations.

After establishing a connection between his superficial consciousness and the network, he looked at Patty again.

Patty was still Patty. Her face hadn’t changed into Selina Gerfen’s, nor did an additional figure appear beside her.

But Gawain was able to confirm that Selina was indeed "here," closely connected to Patty in some mysterious way.

Because beside Patty’s small wheelchair, hanging silently in mid-air unseen by normal eyes, was a portable lamp.

...

Patty needed ample sleep every day to repair her depleted spirit and further enhance the effects of "limb regeneration," and before seeing Gawain, she had watched magic shadow dramas for more than two hours and listened to many stories he told. It was soon time for her afternoon nap.

Gawain watched the maid escort Patty to the adjoining room, gently placing the little girl in a specially made immersion capsule. After confirming Patty had fallen quietly asleep, he left the room and went to the castle’s reception room to meet Lady Ropeney waiting there.

Lady rose from the high-backed chair, bowing in respect to Gawain: "Your Majesty, thank you for your care towards Patty, she will certainly be very happy today."

"Her health has improved a lot, which also reassures me," Gawain nodded, speaking as he sat in a chair near the window, "I see Patty was using the immersion capsule for rest—has she been using it all this time?"

"Yes," Lady Ropeney nodded, "she’s been using it for about a month now."

"Any adverse reactions? Is she used to using it?"

These questions sounded like normal concerns, and the lady didn’t find anything amiss: "No, the immersion capsule works very well. The technical personnel you sent were very diligent. They stayed here for four days, ensuring there were no abnormalities in Patty’s usage before they left, and they also left the technical data of the immersion capsule with the local mage technician. As for Patty... she wasn’t used to it at first but only because she wasn’t comfortable with a new bed. Now she’s quite accustomed to it."

She’s been using the immersion capsule all this time...

Gawain rubbed his chin and asked, "Where’s the Eternal Sleeper coronet previously?"

"I put it in the castle’s basement with some other extraordinary collections," Lady answered, "because I don’t plan to use it anymore, I’m considering whether to seal it in some way—after all, it’s related to the Eternal Sleepers."

Being cautious was a habit for this lady.

But when dealing with the Eternal Sleepers, this level of caution didn’t seem nearly enough.

"You don’t need to consider sealing it; I’m preparing to take that coronet," Gawain said. "For... research."

Lady Ropeney’s gaze changed slightly. Although Gawain’s tone and demeanor didn’t indicate anything unusual, the mother’s intuition suddenly kicked in. She stared closely into Gawain’s eyes: "Your Majesty... is there a problem with that coronet? Patty..."

"Don’t get overly anxious," Gawain immediately waved his hand, "just technical research. As for Patty, she’s doing well."

Lady Ropeney then showed a relieved expression: "That’s good. Sorry, I tend to be overly tense when it comes to Patty..."

The Lady has left. As the Governor of the Gran Region, she has a lot of official duties to handle. Gawain returned to the room prepared specifically for him, closed the door, and saw a little figure poking its head out from the shadows near the curtains.

After confirming that there was no one else around, Amber boldly jumped out of the shadow realm, smiling at Gawain: "According to the information, that Lady Ropeney is a person who doesn’t easily trust others, yet she trusts you a lot—when you said Patty was okay, she really relaxed and went back to work."

"I just don’t want her to bear unnecessary pressure, after all, things haven’t been clarified yet," Gawain said casually, "and we also need to avoid alerting the target."

"Alerting the target? That’s an interesting term, I’ve noted it down," Amber’s eyes lit up, expertly adding the new term to her private collection of "Holy Gibberish of Emperor Gawain Cecil," then gave Gawain a curious look, "Speaking of which, is there really something wrong with Patty?"

Gawain pondered for a moment and said in a low voice, "In the mental visual field, there’s a portable lamp beside her."

"...Whoa."

"But the situation is still better than I anticipated," Gawain continued, "Selena Gerfen has not possessed Patty’s soul, and there are no signs of damage in the latter. They may coexist peacefully, perhaps even Patty herself doesn’t know there’s something unusual about her..."

Amber stared wide-eyed: "You see a portable lamp and you’re still so optimistic, what kind of ’bad situation’ did you predict before?"

"In the worst-case scenario... Patty is Selena Gerfen," Gawain glanced at Amber, "Before we even knew Patty, before Patty came into contact with the Coronet, she was already dead, and in the years that followed, it was Selena occupying that shell."

Amber imagined that scene and suddenly shivered: "...Whoa!"

Gawain successfully scared the daring half-elf, feeling slightly pleased, "It’s quite horrifying, isn’t it? When it comes to the horrors of the mind, the Eternal Sleepers are indeed a notch above the Oblivion Association..."

"It’s not that," Amber waved her hand, "I just find it terrifying that a woman over seven hundred years old pretends to be a little girl in her teens, calling you Uncle Gawain upon meeting, and calling a young woman in her twenties ’mom’ for several years. Truly worthy of the Eternal Sleepers..."

Gawain: "..."

Realizing that continuing this conversation with this disgrace to the elves was self-destructive, he decisively ended the topic and got back on track: "We still can’t determine the connection between Patty and Selena. To avoid alerting the target and to control the situation on the side of the Eternal Sleepers, we can’t take any direct actions in Gran—we can only maintain the most peripheral surveillance."

Amber patted her chest: "I understand, this is my specialty."

Then she noticed the thoughtful look on Gawain’s face and couldn’t help but ask, "What’s wrong? Is there something else?"

"I’m wondering... just how much of our activities have been exposed to Selena Gerfen, and why she has remained silent till now," Gawain gently exhaled, shaking his head with a wry smile, "Patty now uses Cecil-manufactured Immersion Capsules to sleep, and our Magic Web Communication technology is not a secret, it has already been widely promoted in Gran. A senior Eternal Sleeper could easily see traces of the mental network technology from our Magic Web Communications... If Selena Gerfen is indeed hidden deep within Patty’s consciousness, she would be able to see all this through the ’host’s’ eyes... Even if this evidence is not enough to directly prove that the ’Outland Wanderers’ can invade the mental network, it should be enough to raise the Eternal Sleepers’ alertness and attention... Yet Selena Gerfen has done nothing, and many of the plans Daniel and I made haven’t been put to use yet."

"Hiss... The quieter such an oddly silent person is, the more cautious people should be," Amber bared her teeth, "Any destruction has countermeasures and remedies, but what’s terrifying is someone who says nothing."

She paused, then shook her head: "But on the other hand, as long as we develop Magic Web Communication technology, there’s no way the Eternal Sleepers wouldn’t notice it. When things develop to a certain extent, they’re bound to surface, which is an inevitability after the scale expands. In this confrontation, ’we hide everything, they see nothing’ is only a lower stage, ’we disclose everything, they see it but can do nothing about it’ is the higher stage—now, it’s time to prepare to end the first stage."

Gawain watched Amber, who was speaking eloquently, until it made her uncomfortable, and she twisted her neck: "What, what are you looking at me for?"

"Nothing, just felt what you said made some sense," Gawain smiled lightly and said casually, "Indeed, our own mental network technology is gradually maturing, on the side of the Eternal Sleepers... they will certainly notice it. And thinking back carefully, when I initially approached Patty, I considered that Selena often interacted with her in the dream city, so I’ve never revealed anything related to ’Outland Wanderers’ in front of Patty. At most, Selena Gerfen can use Patty’s eyes to see our technological development in Magic Web Communication."

"I’m just curious about one thing now. When Patty uses the Immersion Capsule, she only uses it to sleep and no longer connects to the Eternal Sleepers’ mental network. This is to prevent exposing our ’network invasion’ actions, and since Patty no longer enters the mental network, then Selena... how does she maintain her connection to the mental network while ’beside’ Patty?"

Amber scratched her head.

The question raised by Gawain was also something she couldn’t figure out.

...

At the foot of the snow-covered Eastern Border Mountains, flickering Wind Shields isolated the wind and snow from the wilderness, while the charged rails beneath the shield extended across the land, gradually disappearing into the distant snowstorm depths.

The wheels rolled, the machinery played the melody of steel, and a Magic Train bearing the emblem of the Cecil Empire roared along the charged rails encased in shields, racing across the land like a steel serpent.

Unknown mountains retreated to one side of the train, while the grass and fences near the rails blurred into one continuous line as they swiftly receded.

Outside, it was a howling winter; inside the train, it was warm and cozy. Traveling over a wilderness in the belly of a steel behemoth was indeed a wonderful experience.

Matilda Augustus sat upright in the spacious and comfortable train seat, her gaze passing through the crystal glass inset in the sidewall of the carriage, looking out at the foreign landscape, a slight smile on her lips.

A strange nation indeed...

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