Chapter 146: The Thunderbird

‘Right now, the most important thing is to solve the problem, but I don’t know if Knight Val has ever faced a situation like this before.’ George thought with a headache, rubbing his head. It was still unclear whether Knight Val understood the situation George was in! After all, they followed completely different paths.

‘It looks like I should call Isadoro over to ask him first! After all, no one knows the ins and outs of this better than the Thunderbird itself. But let me get myself back to my best state first. For Isadoro, the most important sacrifices are the Spiritual Qi formed by my mental power and my body. It seems impossible to feed him enough in my current state!’ Feeling that the timing was wrong, George lay back down on the bed, preparing to take a short nap. Since he was preparing for the upcoming ritual, ensuring sufficient physical strength and energy was necessary.

As for whether he would dream like before, George thought it probably wouldn’t happen tonight. He couldn’t quite say why, but he just had a feeling telling him that this wouldn’t happen again today. Even though it was just a feeling, George trusted his intuition more. In this world of idealism, following one’s feelings wasn’t a mistake. In fact, George had tried following his feelings during past times when he was unsure of how to choose. Later, he found that this approach had a pretty high success rate; otherwise, he wouldn’t be following his gut feelings when facing things he couldn’t judge easily right now.

In fact, just as George had felt, he did not fall into a dream during the more than an hour of sleep that followed. With that extra hour of sleep, when he woke up, George felt that the previous dream had absolutely no effect on him.

Actually, with George’s current physique, not sleeping for three days and three nights might not even affect his daily activities. Otherwise, during real war, there would be no way to get enough rest. You couldn’t just negotiate with the enemy, saying, “It’s too late, let’s all rest now. Let’s fight again once we’ve recovered our energy.”

Perhaps night battles were very rare before George traveled to this world. Ordinary soldiers back then were mostly blind at night due to malnutrition. Only one in a hundred troops could actually participate in night raids! That was why, although there were many classic battles involving night raids back then, this tactic was not common. Raising soldiers was far harder than training them!

However, the situation in this world was much more complex. Not only did some night-dwelling creatures have good night vision, but ordinary people’s night vision was also comparable to regular armies of the 20th century. If the enemy had enough manpower, it was not impossible for them to fight from morning to night in shifts, repeating the cycle. So, the ability to fight continuously became a necessary requirement.

But in fact, unless forced, George would absolutely ensure he got enough sleep for now. This was because he couldn’t yet find any other way to replace the rest that sleep provided. Sometimes, the most primitive methods are the best. To avoid any hidden dangers for his future life, George would never relax in this area. As the saying goes, a thousand-mile dam can be destroyed by a tiny ant hole; one must guard against small mistakes to prevent big disasters.

The daily routine of this day was mostly the same, but to make enough time for summoning the Essence Spirit, George sped up his handling of official business.

George waved the parchment in his hand and said, “Ives, take this report back and have the finance department verify it again. If possible, have them make a budget report for next month based on this. Bring it back together once it’s done.”

“Yes, my Lord!” The young messenger, Ives, took the document handed down from his superior and turned to leave the office.

Looking at the documents before him, George frowned, put his quill pen back into the inkwell, and spoke out: “Ives, tell Ketterwell to come over. There might be some problems with this plan.”

“Yes, my Lord!” Hearing the order, the other man turned and left quickly.

“My Lord, do you have any orders?” A man who hurriedly caught up asked cautiously. The middle-aged man was inevitably a bit chubby. Since his office was downstairs, his quick run and climb up the stairs made his speech slightly breathless.

“This dock construction plan still has several factors that need to be considered but haven’t been planned yet. It needs to be revised and supplemented.” Saying this, George pushed a document on the table to the farthest point in front of him.

Fortunately, although the middle-aged man in front had a belly, it didn’t affect his waist and abdominal function. After bending down slightly to pick up the document, the other man asked his question: “My Lord, which aspects have we not considered? We felt we were very serious and thorough when making this! I hope you can give us some guidance in this regard.”

“If it were usual, we could have just approved it directly. But for the next two years, the external environment might change significantly. So, some issues we didn’t need to consider before now need to be put on the agenda.” George paused slightly, unfolded another document in his hand, and continued: “Some things are better known by fewer people. After you hear this, you should know what to do.”

“I understand, my Lord. Nothing about today will be leaked from my mouth.” The man named Ketterwell immediately started showing his loyalty in front of George. He knew this was a good opportunity to impress his leader, and if he said the wrong thing, it might make the other party unhappy and affect his future work.

After reaching middle age, it was often hard to live only for oneself. At this stage, people usually had families to support. To put it simply, they had old parents above and young children below. Fortunately, in this world, most elderly people could cover their own living expenses; otherwise, the life pressure on the man in front of George would definitely be much greater.

At such times, to keep their jobs and ensure the stability of their existing lives without major changes, their personalities would become cautious, their thoughts would become conservative, and they would also become unwilling to take risks, hoping just to avoid mistakes.

If the other person were young, he would have been able to see some clues from George’s recent commands and some past plans that had never been made. Perhaps this would be reflected in this plan too. Why would he dare not propose a hypothesis even after George gave a reminder, waiting for the leader to speak it out clearly?

“According to intelligence, the situation in many countries on the Continent is somewhat unstable recently. After all, peace has lasted for quite some time, and some countries have long forgotten the pain war brought them. Although it is still unclear whether our Duchy of Nohan will be involved in the possible war, we must definitely be prepared.” While speaking, George played with a rectangular paperweight in his left hand.

“My Lord, will war really happen? Will our Bolerum Territory participate?” It seemed Ketterwell confirmed some doubts in his heart, and his voice became a bit trembling. At the same time, he felt his body go a bit weak. After all, few people wanted to encounter war, especially those middle-class people whose lives were already stable.

“In fact, the outbreak of war is just a matter of time; you don’t need to harbor any luck in this regard. This is caused by contradictions between nations and between nations and their people. From the current view, there is no good fundamental solution.” As George spoke, the cold sweat on Ketterwell’s head became more and more. Fortunately, just before the other party could not bear it, his tone changed. “However, some people are still working hard to prevent the outbreak of war. Although we cannot clear the hidden dangers, no one knows how long we can delay it. If we are lucky, we might be able to delay it for another ten years or so!”

George had lived in this world for so many years that he could now speak such half-true, half-false words without any preparation. Mixing truth and falsehood, emphasizing the light and ignoring the heavy, was to hide the truth while preventing others from exposing him.

After all, if he directly said that a war was very likely to break out in the next few years, it might cause what kind of panic if it got out! George dared not rely on everyone keeping it secret. Besides, even if he could lock his mouth tight, the preparations George had made for the war in this period and the long time ahead would not be able to hide from others. The people involved in this aspect were too numerous to strictly keep it secret. So, before this, releasing some smoke bombs and stirring up the water was also a passable strategy.

“If we could really wait until then, it would be great.” Saying this, Ketterwell gently patted his chest, and the vibration made his protruding belly shake up and down. “But will it really happen?”

“I’ve already told you not to harbor any luck. When the time comes, even if our Duchy of Nohan is not involved in the war, the refugees, bandits, and even defeated soldiers that follow will be enough to make our Territory suffer. And those evil creatures among the non-human races might take this opportunity to loot as well. So, we need to prepare for this response from now on.” While speaking, George clenched his right hand and gently tapped the desk in front of him.

Ketterwell showed a bitter face: “Does this plan need special measures to deal with sudden outbreaks of war?”

“Although there is no special news yet, we need to prepare for the worst. Otherwise, when problems arise, we might end up flustered. So, there needs to be a response plan for being attacked during construction, or a disposal plan for stopping work if war breaks out halfway through construction, etc. These aspects need to be considered properly. You can treat this as a self-training and improvement. Bring it to me after you finish. If it needs modification, we’ll talk about it then.” After saying this, George waved his hand to indicate the other person could leave.

The middle-aged fat man began to mourn the grass on his head that was already withering after turning around. In his view, those lovely little creatures would leave him one by one in the coming period, just like migratory birds flying south in late autumn.

After dealing with this one relatively troublesome matter, George did not even rest for a moment before falling back into busyness: “Ives, arrange for someone to send these contracts to the Temple of the Lord of Justice.”

“Yes! My Lord.”

“Ives, the content of this document still needs to be weighed. Tell them to improve it again.” With the sound of his words, a document was thrown into Ives’s arms.

“Yes! My Lord.” Immediately, the sound of the other person’s footsteps echoed again.

“Ives…”

“Yes! My Lord.”

Soon, George sent back all the matters that required a lot of his time to solve to the clerks to consider, discuss, and improve again. In short, using the excuse of training his subordinates’ abilities, George pushed one-third of the tasks that needed to be handled today to tomorrow and let the bureaucrats solve the remaining one-quarter on their own. Finally, before the lunch break, he was temporarily freed from the chaotic and busy official business.

Today’s lunch specially prepared rose lamb hearts. The lamb hearts were sliced, skewered, and grilled while dipped in rose salt water, repeatedly roasted over an open flame. Although fresh rose petals could not be found in autumn, finding dried rose petals as a kind of aromatic spice was still relatively easy.

At the same time, the staple food was changed to pine nut porridge. Originally, millet should have been used, but unfortunately, George couldn’t buy it in his current situation; he hadn’t even seen that thing.

This was a dietary regimen George learned before traveling to this world to help calm the mind. Although he didn’t know if it would still work in this world, he followed the principle that trying is better than not trying, so he still did it.

After a short lunch break, George placed a charcoal brazier in front of him. Besides the lit charcoal, a beast bone was also burning inside.

Then, George began to call out to its mother through the newly born Essence Spirit in his Sea of Consciousness. Although this description was a bit strange, in a sense, the Thunderbird Spirit that gave birth to this Essence Spirit seed was its mother. Although George still didn’t know whether the other party was male or female.

Even though, according to the previous transaction, that Thunderbird had cut off the connection with this Essence Spirit on a mental level, this was a requirement George proposed to ensure his own safety and the independence of the Essence Spirit. However, since this new Essence Spirit came from that party, calling through it would allow a response from the other side. Although other connections were gone, the function as a coordinate still existed. That was something the Thunderbird named Isadoro had explained specifically.

As for why specifically contact that previously cooperating Essence Spirit, couldn’t just finding any other one work? In fact, if it was just about asking questions, George could call any Thunderbird Spirit without much trouble.

Although all Thunderbird Spirits basically belonged to the absolutely Neutral Righteous Camp, as long as there were enough trading items to get the desired results, George’s previous contact seemed to have a tendency towards good, being a more talkative type. And since they had dealt with each other once, getting familiar with each other the second time should go more smoothly, right?

Not long after, a gender-neutral voice appeared in George’s mind: “Oh, it’s you, young man! Is there a problem? Or is there any transaction waiting for me?”

“This method of grafting Essence Spirits seems to have a little side effect.” George replied to the other party in his mind as well. With experience, George was completely familiar with this behavior.

“Side effect? How can there be a side effect? Don’t all the Druids use it just fine?” Isadoro exclaimed. If the other party had a face, it would definitely be very expressive right now.

“Oh! Do other people also use this kind of grafting Essence Spirit cultivation method?” George seemed to have discovered a new toy and became interested.

“Otherwise, I would have stopped you back then. If you died, my transaction would be ruined. We Thunderbird Spirits are not Devils; we can’t gain benefits from dead people.” The other party’s muttering was quite obvious.

Then George asked curiously: “What have those Druids learned using this method?”

“Of course, it’s the Transformation Art! Turning into a Thunderbird!” The voice said this absolutely matter-of-factly.

George was immediately startled: “Transform, Transformation Art? Isn’t it said that Druids’ Transformation Art can only turn them into non-magical animals and elemental life forms in nature?”

If this were a normal conversation with a human, George’s cultivation would never have led to such a situation. But in this kind of telepathic dialogue, everything was unfeigned.

“I have heard them talk about this. It seems to be a Secret Art exclusive to a few of their schools. Most other Druids do not have this ability. However, it is said that a school of Druids can transform into Dragons, but unfortunately, I haven’t seen it yet!” From the other party’s voice, it could be heard that he had a strong interest in Druids who could transform into Dragons.

George, realizing he had gone off-topic, immediately pulled the conversation back on track: “If that’s the case, why did I have strange dreams last night?”

“Strange dreams? What did you dream about?” The other party’s voice became much clearer.

“Look for yourself!” George began to recall the dream from last night. Through telepathic transmission, this allowed the other party to receive clear images.

After waiting a while, the other party sent an incredulous voice: “Impossible! Could it be the Chaos Great Peng?”