As Heti listened to Gawain describe the current situation, the furrow between her brows finally began to ease. As the Empire's Grand Chancellor, she knew about these matters as well, but perhaps because of her experiences during the family's decline, or perhaps simply because of her nature, she could never be as optimistic as her ancestor in many situations. Yet she understood one thing: the state of the world would not change in the slightest depending on whether she was optimistic or not. Only the efforts people made could change it.
"You don't need to worry too much about Project 115," Gawain said, glancing at Heti with a smile as he reassured his "descendant." "Rebecca and her support team are handling the technical and coordination matters. That girl may be a little scatterbrained in other respects, but in her own field, she surpasses everyone else. Neither you nor I could do a better job than she can. Give her all the support she needs—if she needs people, give her people; if she needs money, give her money. The project requires enormous investment, but the vast revenue from the Circumcontinental Route and the trade railway network is enough to support these plans."
"I understand, Ancestor," Heti said solemnly, nodding. "I'll make the necessary arrangements."
"Mm," Gawain replied. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he added, "Oh, right. The matter I asked you to investigate last time, concerning the Violet Kingdom—have you found anything?"
"To determine the Violet Kingdom's full influence on the magical systems of the human nations over the past six hundred years... that's an enormous and complicated undertaking," Heti said, looking somewhat embarrassed. "Especially since we need to find every spell originating from Violet among the disorderly, obscure, and unsystematic magical texts of the old era. The statistics will