Dark King

Dudian smoothly closed the door as they went into Old Fulin's room. Dudian sat down on chair and looked at him.: "Attendance of two masters in the banquet should make the others aware of our consortium's existance. From today on we would no longer be a small consortium in their eyes but a threat with a great potential. The original balance of power will be destablized because of us. It is not a good thing for us but neither a bad thing. In any case, we will have to take other consortium into consideration a lot from now on."

Old Fulin nodded.: "I'm aware of that. They will pressure us but we have only you to rely on. However if you become a master in the 'Temple of Elements' then we will have a strong foundation. At least we will be able to win over one or two allies. The future of our consortium will be fixed. As long as no major event happens we won't be suppressed."

Dudian's eyes lit up.: "I believe we will encounter trouble sooner than we expect. But it does not matter. You take care of your health. I will have something in my mind!"

Old Fulin nodded.: "I will."

"You should sleep early." Dudian got up and shut the windows to isolate the cold wind.: "I have some stuff to solve out so I'll go back." He turned away and left the room. In the corridor he looked at another room, however he recovered his eyes and went downstairs. He took the carriage and went back to his castle.

In the blink of an eye two days passed.

After the banquet in St. Peters everything was as usual in commercial district. Only the group of high-level nobles knew what had happened in the there. At the same time there were small waves set off in the art scene.

"Oak ..."

"If I love you -"

The beautiful poem was chanted everywhere. The servants often heard the young ladies and young gentleman read the poem in the castles. Even the ordinary people in the commercial district were aware of the poem. Some brave boys would boldly recite this poem to their beloved for confession.

In addition to the eloquent poem its structure and content was analyzed by well-known poets. Some couldn't find the meaning of the phrases 'trumpet creeper' and the 'spring rain'. Some said that it was very strange as they had heard only of 'disaster rains'. One poet even evaluate the phrases as 'randomly fabricated' words and accused that original writer knew nothing about poems.

The day after the poem was spread classical poet, master Taize made evaluation and analysis of the poem. According to him 'trumpet creeper' was a flow which had been extinct for a long time. The word 'spring' in the phrase 'spring rain' belonged to a season which didn't occur anymore after the great disaster. The writer of the poem according to master Taize had great knowledge of the history.

All the people realized after the analysis of the master Taize that these two unfamiliar terms had such a far-reaching origin. Moreover author of the poem was a well learned man who would use such words to describe the feelings.

There were some poets who asked questions and comments about the poem but the arguments were more vague and objective. Noone was willing to negatively criticize the poem after it was confirmed that those phrases had such an origin. No one wall willing to be in an awkward position.

Dudian didn't expect that his reputation would quickly increase in poet and aristocratic circle because of the poem.

"Even the rain... even the sun ..." Jenny was sitting close to the window as she read the verse from the letter in her hand. Her eyes moistened and large tears began to fall down. The tears slided down her cheeks and soaked the paper.

The warm sun shone from the window . There was apigeon standing on the windowsill. It was combing its own soft feathers. A reel was tied to its legs. 'Sarah Mel' was engraved on the reel.

...

...

In the blink of an eye half a month passed.

"Divine mission -"

"Improve 'snake crossbow'!"

At the beginning of the new month Dudian also received a task from the 'Temple of Elements'. 'Snake crossbow' was invented in year 263. Its origin was dating back for forty years. Snake crossbow has to be improved in few areas. The pulling system had to be eased up. The new version should take wind's velocity into account so that it would be difficult for enemy to track... ... "

Dudian carefully read the content of the task. He gradually understoof what kind of a crossbow they wanted to create. In general they wanted a crossbow with a more innovative structure. According to the requirements it didn't have to be complicated crossbow. However, according to Dudian there was no need to make any improvements on 'snake crossbow'. If he wanted to make it flexible then the arrows strengths would be much lower compared to an ordinary crossbow. Although it would be seemingly advanced and easy to use but in fact it would not bring any advantages. The idea to begin with was wrongly positioned.

The arrow is all about shooting to kill. Its speed and strength had to enhanced up. Why would someone care if the enemy could see where it came from? As long as the enemy couldn't escape and died then it would successfully do its job. Improving the snake crossbow wasn't going to bring up any of these affects. The architects were sitting and engaging in research in the Temple. Most of them would never personally experience a battle so their views and perception of weapons didn't cover in-depth knowledge about their practical use.

Because of this, naturally the development of the products may bring 'easy to use' ability but won't have real effect in the battle.

Dudian noted down this as his first task. He wasn't only concerned about the factions in the Temple but he knew that other consortia will pay close attention to him too. So he was going to do his best.

He put away the drawings and looked at the snake crossbow. He wasn't going to modift the finished product but would directly produce his own. He directly went back to his research room and began to make another crossbow.

In the blink of an eye half day passed.

Dudian came out of his research room in the afternoon. There were two crossbows on his shoulders as he went to the mission center.

"Dean?" As he was outside the castle he saw Barnard calling out to him. There were roll of drawings in Bernards hand. He was surprised to see Dudian with two crossbows.: "What you been up to? "