398. City Hall
Chapter 398 – City Hall
It’s snowing.
The sunny weather didn’t seem to last long at all before another snowfall visited Frost, starting in the morning, the gloomy clouds seemed to accumulate over the city-state like lead, the disorderly cold wind blew through the streets without stopping, and as the time neared noon, snowflakes began to sprinkle down in a flurry of snowflakes, from the Upper City District to the Lower City District, from every tower to every ugly alley, the whole city-state was covered in a hazy, flurry of snowflakes. The entire city-state was covered in a hazy, flurry of snowflakes.
The sudden snowfall made the streets seem quieter.
The sound of a steaming car stopping broke the quietness of the snowy streets, a dark gray car stopped at the entrance of the city hall, the door opened, a black-clothed Agatha got down from the car, walking towards the tall and solemn building in front of her, with light gray as its main color.
She raised her head and looked at the towering main building of the city hall – this classical building inherited from the era of kingship still retains the majesty of the previous era, its towering columns, arches and continuous undulating roof structure looks imposing no matter what time of the year, although its name has changed from the “Court of Winter” to the present day, the name of the city hall has changed from the “Court of the King” to the “Court of the King”, the name of the city hall has changed to the present day. Although its name has changed from the “Court of the King” to the current “Town Hall”, its place in the city-state has never changed.
It still symbolizes one of the “Twin Poles of Authority” in the city-state, and together with the opposite Cathedral of Silence, it shelters the city of boiling gold – the building is a history book made of stone, and the powers and people that flow through it are just one line after another on the pages of the book, and the women are the only ones who can be found there. The building is a history book made of stone, the power and people in the building is just a line after line of text in the pages of the book, whether it is the Queen’s era or the current consulship, all will inevitably end up becoming a part of the history of the book to be turned over the record of ……
Agatha suddenly frowned and raised her hand to gently pinch the corner of her forehead.
She knew that she was lost in thought again, and like a sentimental poet, a lot of feelings came out – she has always been like this in the past two days, somehow can not help but think of some things, or is not reasonably distracted.
This is not a good phenomenon, as the gatekeeper of the city-state, one’s state of mind must be maintained at a high level of control, “lost in thought” is to be avoided as much as possible.
Agatha’s mental activity was interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming from the front door, and she looked up to see a senior secretary in a dark blue coat approaching her.
“Ms. Agatha,” the young man who served as the Consul’s assistant came to Agatha and bowed his head respectfully, “the Consul has been informed of your visit and is waiting for you in the dome office.”
“It’s good to dispense with the niceties,” Agatha nodded, “Lead the way.”
On the uppermost floor of the city hall, inside a large office with a round vaulted ceiling, Winston, the current consul of the Frost City State, was sitting behind a wide curved desk.
He was a tall man with a slightly blonde figure, wearing an imposing, bright blue jacket decorated with medals and ribbons; perhaps managing a declining city-state was too consuming, his hair had thinned to such a precarious point that he had to wear a curly wig to cover his scalp – when Agatha entered the domed office, this Mr. Consul was fiddling with an elaborate brass mechanism that sat on his desk.
The intricately constructed mechanism looked like a miniature model of some sort, with its tightly meshed gears and linkages as delicate as a work of art, and making occasional crisp rattles as Consul Winston fiddled with it.
“I didn’t realize that you would have time to fiddle with a model of a machine after such a busy schedule,” Agatha’s voice came from the front of the desk, “I thought that the recent situation in the city-state was enough to keep you busy.”
“This isn’t a model of a machine, this is the next generation of mine cart haulage mechanisms – capable of thirty percent power savings, and far more reliable and durable than its predecessor,” Consul Winston said with a serious look on his face as he looked up. “The city-state has one trouble after another, but we can’t stop living and growing because of it.”
Agatha was noncommittal.
Consul Mr. Winston was obsessed with machinery and engineering technology, he had served as a consul for twelve years, and most of his energy had been focused on supporting and promoting the Engineering Design Institute and the machinery manufacturing plants, this Consul Mr. Winston had ambitious ideas, and it seemed like he wanted to solve the city-state’s current predicaments through technological breakthroughs – including the upgrading and renovation of the old facilities upgrades and seeking new economic drivers, but how to say it ……
Let’s just say that the ideas are good, the confidence is high, and the efforts are considerable – but the reality is difficult.
“Technological advances will allow us to complete the renovation of the mining facilities at an acceptable cost, and new, more practical machines can be exported to other city-states – Frost cannot live forever on the selling of Boiling Gold as a path,” Winston noticed the The Gatekeeper’s mediocre response and couldn’t help but say more, “The Boiling Gold mines are the foundation of Frost’s survival, but the pillars formed by a single industry are just too weak ……” “I am not an official in the field of economics or technology.” Agatha had to politely remind.
“Oh, well, I overlooked that,” Winston lifted his hand and looked up at Agatha while placing the model of the machine on his desk to the side, “Let’s get down to business then, Ms. Agatha, it seems that you have something to say about the exploration work of the Second Waterway?”
“The exploration force has run into trouble under the connection shaft in the central second sector,” Agatha said bluntly, “That passageway is near the bottom of the Boiling Gold Mine, and there are traces of modification in some of the pipeline branches, but the gates leading to the next connecting section are blocked off! –I gave orders to the exploratory forces that the barriers in the second waterway could be broken by violent means, but my men report that they saw a lead seal and nameplate left by the Town Hall on the gate.”
“…… Lead seals and nameplates from City Hall?” Winston visibly froze, his surprised expression didn’t look fake, “Are you sure?”
Agatha observed the expression on the consul’s face for a long time before she said softly, “It looks like you know nothing about it.”
“That’s the second waterway that’s been abandoned for half a century – the last time it was put into use was during the era when the Frost Queen ruled the city-state!” Winston raised his hands, his expression looking a bit exaggerated, “Even if there were some kind of lead seals and nameplates down there, they would have to be left over from the Queen’s time, so how could there be anything left over from the City Hall – Ms. Agatha, is it hard to believe that you think I secretly blocked the gate there? What would be the point? Storing treasure deep underground?”
“…… You really have no reason to do that,” Agatha nodded gently, “If you really want to store any treasure, any place in the city-state is more reliable than the second waterway in its out-of-control state. ”
“I don’t want to hear you assume such things in a serious manner,” Winston waved his hand, but his expression had grown serious, “Doesn’t that nameplate have a date and the name of the person in charge on it or something? Proper nameplates are required to have that sort of thing on them, and you should be able to easily determine from that who actually locked the gate.”
“Unfortunately, all the writing is smudged and illegible, both the nameplate and the lead seal have suffered quite severe corrosion, and in fact even the gate has become extraordinarily fragile – we suspect that the acidic environment of the strata near the mine has led to an accelerated deterioration of the metal,” Agatha Shaking her head, “One can only be sure that the gate was indeed locked up by the Town Hall – there would have been no lead seals in that form of specification in the Queen’s time.”
Winster stood up, a slightly annoyed expression on his face as he paced back and forth behind his wide, curved desk, and after an indeterminate amount of time he stopped and grunted, “If that was really left by City Hall, it could only have been a long time ago – maybe even the first one after the Queen’s time ended or second City Hall ……”
“It looks like your predecessors didn’t pass on all the information to their successors.” Agatha said.
“It’s also possible that some of the information was lost and destroyed as a result of the chaos of the early days,” Winster waved his hand, “but regardless, the fact that there exists an area deep underground in the central area of the city that has been sealed off by order of the city hall, and that this area is also a part of the second waterway, this whole thing is very unusual …… Ms. Agatha, this matter must be investigated.”
“Of course, it’s my duty,” Agatha nodded, her expression relaxing a little, “Although I didn’t get the answers I wanted, it’s just as well to have your supportive attitude – the exploratory operation will continue I’ll try to figure out what’s behind that door as soon as I can, and any new developments on the part of the Church will be communicated to City Hall in a timely manner.”
“That’s best.” Winston nodded.
The atmosphere in the domed office relaxed slightly.
“I won’t intrude much then,” Agatha said, “there are still many things on the Second Waterway that I need to oversee personally.”
She said a polite goodbye to the Consul, then turned and left the domed office.
As the figure of the Gatekeeper disappeared into the room, leaving only the clatter of cane and heels tapping on the floor to fade away, Winston took a long moment to breathe a soft sigh of relief, followed by a somewhat puzzled frown.
“…… Lady Agatha didn’t use the ‘Grey Wind’ to hurry today ……” this slightly built middle-aged consul raised his head, looked at the direction Agatha left, and muttered in a low voice, “So is she also able to walk in and out of the doorway normally?”
(End of chapter)