Achieved

Everything had gone exactly as Gawain had expected.

News from the south would make the king and nobles nervous, and with the warning raised by an ancient man returned from the dead, that nervousness might rise to the level of mild panic—but no further.

Those who had never experienced the Magic Tide and could not imagine it would not react too strongly to mere verbal reports. Even if Gawain brought swords and armor corroded by Elemental Power as evidence, it would be impossible to make them respond at a higher level.

After all, while "abnormal natural phenomena" capable of causing swords and armor to be corrupted by magic were rare, they did exist. They could not serve as ironclad proof that the Magic Tide was about to return. In fact, even Gawain himself was only making bold conjectures based on the information in his memories. He did not dare pound his chest and declare that the end of the world was coming.

Francis II's response was not wrong. He could not place the entire kingdom under Combat Readiness because of these sudden reports. Even if he wished to, the bloated and backward noble feudal system would not allow it. And even if the Magic Tide truly was coming, putting the entire nation on war footing now would be unwise—the monsters in the south and the Magic Surge were merely omens, not even the vanguard of the Magic Tide. The true Magic Tide might not arrive for months, or even years later, if it came at all. Before then, all would remain calm.

Demanding nationwide Combat Readiness when everything was calm and no evidence could be found might have been possible for the Moen Family at the height of its power, but the present Second Dynasty... no longer possessed such influence.

Francis II could not even command the Duke of the Eastern Territory.

A resurrected Founding Grand Duke might carry immense prestige, but trying to use that prestige to interfere with the kingdom's current order was wishful thinking. Gawain understood this clearly. His right to speak here was really nothing more than a flower scepter—brilliant and ornate, yet utterly powerless. The Cecil Family's foundation was gone. They had no land, no people, no troops, no generals; they had even borrowed the travel expenses needed to reach the royal capital. To the ever-pragmatic noble circles, this was an extremely awkward situation.

So Gawain stopped Rebecca, who still wanted to speak, and looked toward the king across from him. "We have delivered the news and issued our warning. As for the specific response afterward, that is your responsibility."

"We will certainly take your warning seriously," Duchess Victoria Wilde said coolly. "All investigations will begin immediately after this meeting ends, and you will receive the news at the earliest opportunity."

"An investigation... that is all we can do," Gawain nodded, then changed the subject. "That matter ends here. Now, let us discuss the Cecil Family's private affairs."

This time, the atmosphere truly became tense in an instant.

"Relax. Do not look as though your ancestor has climbed out of his coffin to demand that all the paper money burned for him over the years be redeemed," Gawain said with a smile, waving his hand—then he realized no one understood his dark joke...

This is fucking awkward.

"I know what happened one hundred years ago. Frankly speaking, I would quite like to kill that unfilial descendant myself," Gawain said, his face twitching as he went straight to the point. "So I have no intention of reopening that case. I have come only to reclaim some things that should belong to me personally."

Francis II and the several dukes exchanged looks, and each of their faces showed varying degrees of relief. Gawain had brought up the earth-shaking events of one hundred years ago himself, which genuinely eased their minds. After all, whoever first opened their mouth on such a sensitive subject would face enough psychological pressure to send their blood pressure through the roof. The living ancestor before them was considerate enough to spare his descendants that burden, which was truly a relief.

But after breathing that sigh of relief, they immediately tensed up again. What exactly were the things that belonged personally to Gawain Cecil?

Everything belonged to the lord—such were the rules of the nobility. Everything that had once belonged to the Cecil Family, including its fief, vassals, title, and all else, had been Gawain Cecil's personal property. Which of them was he referring to?

Everyone subtly tensed their muscles when no one was looking. Only Francis II remained calm as he glanced at Gawain and gave a faint, imperceptible nod.

"Do not be nervous. Most of my possessions in life were passed down to my descendants. That unfilial descendant squandered them, and I cannot forcibly demand them back," Gawain said with a smile. "What I mean is the portion that could not be inherited, such as... my Pioneer Rights."

The great nobles and advisers looked at one another, and these learned, well-bred gentlemen and ladies immediately thought of the ancient and sacred Pioneer Decree.

It was a glorious monument to the Second Expansion, proof of humanity's struggle for survival in desperate times, and a solemn declaration of mortal resolve before nature. Even today, it remained part of the foundational codes of the four great nations—a decree that would likely never again have the chance to take effect, yet one no one dared propose abolishing.

The original version of the Pioneer Decree had even been engraved separately upon a platinum tablet and enshrined in the halls of every human nation.

But they had kept it as a memorial! To show off to future generations! To prove their lineage was legitimate!

Why the hell was it suddenly going to take effect again?!

Yet beneath their shock, every face concealed a trace of sincere relief. That slight change in expression did not escape Gawain's eyes.

So he relaxed as well and began discussing the Permanent Pioneer Right with those present.

Gawain believed this matter would not be too difficult.

Compared with a living ancestor returned to the world demanding the redemption of paper money burned for him, along with the return of the vast lands he had possessed seven hundred years ago—lands nearly a state within a state—a mere Permanent Pioneer Right was nothing. The latter sounded intimidating, but it would not affect anyone present's personal interests. And so long as their interests were unaffected, every noble, including the king himself, would be quite easy to reason with.

And this was the result Gawain had deliberately engineered.

He had been high-profile throughout the journey, spreading all sorts of news. When entering the royal capital, he had even deliberately brought out the banner from seven hundred years ago, presenting himself as aggressive and menacing. This was meant to guide everyone's thinking—to make them believe this living ancestor had come to overturn the verdict on the Cecil Family and reclaim all its former lands. Everyone would therefore formulate their response based on that assumption and prepare to argue tooth and nail to preserve their current interests.

Yet Gawain's true goal was only the Permanent Pioneer Right.

The difference was roughly like going out to buy a watch with an original price of eight hundred and sixty thousand, only to find it cost twenty-five after the discount—it felt like the bargain of a lifetime.

You could not even help suspecting the watch was fake.

But even if the twenty-five-dollar watch was fake, the ancestor was real. If all he really wanted was a Permanent Pioneer Right... what else was there to say?

Fine, fine, take it, take it. Hurry up and take Your Grace's Pioneer Rights to reclaim some wilderness. Just do not come back.

If Gawain had not laid all that groundwork beforehand and had proposed the Permanent Pioneer Right from the start, things might not have gone so smoothly. The greedy nature of the nobles would have made them try to shave off a portion even in this matter. But with so much preparation, discussing Pioneer Rights now became far easier.

The king and dukes present reached a unanimous conclusion with little discussion: the Pioneer Rights themselves ought to be recognized. Even if they did not wish to recognize them, they had to, because Ansu had not been the only nation to sign the Pioneer Rights. In fact, the four great human nations of that era, as well as the various races and countries bordering them, had all acknowledged the decree and promised it would remain permanently effective. Among these "joint witnesses" were the elves of the Silver Empire in the Far South of the continent...

Those mystical elves who were especially good at living a very long time.

Those fellows, with average lifespans exceeding three thousand years and an extreme devotion to rigor and honesty, were famously stubborn. That was precisely why the elves had been made one of the witnesses when the Permanent Pioneer Decree was signed: to make the decree appear more solemn and more credible, the monarchs of the four nations had even prepared an Elven-language copy for the Silver Empire to safeguard.

Everyone knew the first generation of Expansion Knights could not possibly live forever, yet humanity had insisted on writing a decree marked "permanent" and making a long-lived race its witness. Perhaps that was simply one of humanity's quirks...

In any case, the elven representative had carried the copy back to her country while muttering, "Humans really are strange." Then the elven queen had happily stamped it. In the blink of an eye, seven hundred years had passed, and the elven queen, who had been a young girl newly ascended to the throne at the time, was now... still the elven queen...

She remembered that stamp she had placed with perfect clarity. Try refusing to acknowledge it.

At any rate, Gawain had mentioned that if Ansu refused to recognize his Pioneer Rights, he would take his entire family halfway across the continent and seek refuge in the Silver Empire. There was still plenty of undeveloped land around the elven forests, and he knew quite a few elves. They would surely get along well with the Cecil Family...

If their own Founding Grand Duke was squeezed out of his homeland, unable to remain there, and had to drag his entire family to live in trees on the territory of another race, how could they show their faces afterward?

Thus, everyone present agreed that the Pioneer Rights should be preserved, but exactly where Gawain would pioneer... that required further discussion.

"There is not a single stretch of habitable wilderness left within the kingdom. Every inch of land has an owner," Aiden Alfred, the king's chancellor, stood up. This steady man was Francis II's right-hand man and knew the state of the entire kingdom inside and out. "Outside the kingdom, there is little wilderness in the border regions adjoining other countries. What wilderness there is consists of lifeless deadlands—for example, the buffer zone of the Gondor Wasteland. Your Grace the Duke, where do you intend to pioneer?"

Gawain waved his hand. "Bring me a map."

The map was presented, and Gawain could not help frowning slightly after looking at it.

Even though this world possessed convenient magic, with auxiliary abilities such as Eagle Eye Technique, forest sensing, and surveying spells capable of helping people draw maps, the map before him was still unbearably crude. There were even serious problems with its scale.

Compared to the "satellite view" in his mind, it was little more than a doodle.

Perhaps magic's excessive convenience had instead hindered the development of many things?

As he thought this, Gawain completed a comparison with the accurate map in his mind. Then he pointed to a region on the crude map. "I will begin here."

It was a mountain range bordering the Gondor Wasteland and the Typhon frontier.

The Dark Mountains.