It had been a month since Natan left the Sonnenberg forest and headed north in search of the assassin family. The Sonnenbergs were the only family to ever receive direct confirmation from the family itself regarding where they lived. Other great houses could only make educated guesses, even though several of them were almost certain they knew the location. However, they also knew better than to appear uninvited before a family that had successfully remained hidden for centuries.
After the Dutch merchant house fell, bringing the Dutch Golden Age to an end, the great houses did what they always did whenever one of their peers collapsed. They immediately secured and searched the family's libraries, hoping to recover valuable knowledge before it disappeared forever. To their surprise, they found no references whatsoever to the assassin family. That complete absence of information only strengthened their suspicion that the family had survived and had deliberately erased every trace of itself from history.
The few individuals who might have been able to confirm the truth refused to answer any questions. At the time, those people were also far from being in a cooperative mood, as they had just carried out a bloody campaign of vengeance across Europe. Unsurprisingly, no one wished to provoke them further by demanding explanations. Instead, the great houses quietly accepted that some mysteries were better left untouched.
Most of the great houses suspected that the assassin family lived on a small island roughly thirty kilometers from the Wadden Sea. The island was surrounded by dangerous tidal currents that constantly shifted with the changing sea, making navigation incredibly hazardous. To make matters even worse, thick fog covered the island for most of the year, reducing visibility to almost nothing. Very few captains were willing to risk sailing through such waters, making the island an almost perfect hiding place.
That isolation was precisely why the assassin family had chosen the location centuries ago. The Sonnenbergs had originally presented them with several possible places to settle after they fled Persia, but this island had been by far the safest option. The Sonnenbergs already knew how to navigate the reefs and dangerous currents surrounding it, allowing them to travel safely with small handcrafted boats. As a result, the assassin family could maintain contact with trusted allies while remaining effectively invisible to the outside world.
The reason the assassin family eventually became indebted to the old Dutch merchant house was surprisingly simple. One day, the merchants secretly followed one of the family's boats back to the island and discovered its location. Rather than exposing them immediately, the merchants used that knowledge as leverage, forcing the assassins into a reluctant alliance. Faced with the choice between cooperation or extinction, the family reluctantly accepted the arrangement.
Naturally, the assassin family never allowed such a mistake to happen again. After that incident, they completely redesigned every aspect of their security procedures, ensuring that no outsider would ever be able to follow them home a second time. Every route was changed, every precaution was strengthened, and every weakness was eliminated. The secrecy that surrounded them only became even more legendary afterward.
As for what happened after the Dutch merchant house itself eventually fell, the answer was obvious to anyone familiar with history. Everyone connected to the original betrayal quietly disappeared without a trace. Entire bloodlines vanished almost overnight, and one coastal village simply ceased to exist. Officially, no explanation was ever found, but among the great houses, everyone understood exactly what had happened.
While these old secrets remained buried beneath layers of history, the rest of Europe focused entirely on rebuilding civilization. Shipyards sprang to life in every major city as governments and companies rushed to construct vessels capable of restoring trade. Water transport was simply the fastest and cheapest solution available after the Expansion. Compared to rebuilding roads through forests and swamps, launching ships into existing rivers and coastlines required far fewer resources.
Constructing a functional shipping network required surprisingly little compared to rebuilding an entire road system. Cities already possessed ports, docks, warehouses, and many of the remaining industrial facilities needed to support maritime trade. Modern machinery still functioned inside cities, allowing production to continue at impressive speeds. As a result, the only major expense was building the ships themselves.
Road construction, on the other hand, presented an entirely different challenge. Before workers could even think about paving roads, they first needed to clear forests, remove enormous rocks, drain wetlands, and stabilize unstable ground. Even though the major routes connecting cities had already been opened, enormous stretches of wilderness still separated civilization. Every kilometer demanded tremendous manpower and careful planning.
The scale of those projects was almost unimaginable. Conservative estimates suggested that well over one hundred million people were involved in road construction across Europe in one way or another. Some cleared forests, others transported timber, while engineers designed bridges and drainage systems. Every nation poured vast resources into reconnecting the continent as quickly as possible.
Agriculture faced similar difficulties. Even after farmland had been cleared, people still needed months before the first harvest could be gathered. Crops simply could not appear overnight, regardless of how desperately humanity needed food. Until those harvests arrived, governments had little choice but to rely on trade transported by rivers and coastlines. Ships therefore became the backbone of Europe's economic recovery.
Recognizing this reality, the European Union launched a massive initiative to remap every navigable waterway across the continent. Sailors who discovered dangerous reefs, changing currents, or previously unknown rivers received generous financial rewards if their findings could be verified. The program quickly attracted thousands of explorers eager to profit while helping rebuild Europe. Before long, the maritime industry entered an unprecedented boom.
The rapid expansion of shipbuilding was further accelerated by the emergence of professions granted by Gaia. Aspiring shipwrights suddenly received detailed knowledge about hull construction, balance, woodworking, and countless other specialized techniques. Skills that had once required decades of apprenticeship now had solid foundations from the very beginning. Although mastery still demanded experience, productivity increased dramatically almost overnight.
Naturally, the single largest customer became the European Navy. Although the military possessed its own shipyards, they simply could not produce vessels quickly enough to meet demand. To compensate, the navy contracted private companies throughout Europe to supplement production. Unfortunately for many ordinary shipbuilders, the bidding process quickly became dominated by the great houses.
The great houses secured nearly every major contract through a remarkably simple strategy. Rather than merely promising quality ships, they presented complete historical blueprints recovered from their ancient libraries. Those designs had already proven themselves through centuries of practical use, giving the navy enormous confidence in their reliability. After careful review, military engineers enthusiastically approved the partnership.
Their decision was also influenced by Herman's earlier criticism. After enduring a rather unpleasant meeting with the Marshal of Europe, few department heads wished to waste additional time arguing over obvious solutions. The Navy immediately pushed the approved designs into full-scale production. Everyone wanted results before Herman had another reason to summon them.
Fortunately, the gamble paid off almost immediately. Barely two weeks after production began, the first completed vessels slid into the water with excellent performance reviews. Once the manufacturing process stabilized, new ships rolled out of the shipyards at an astonishing pace. Production lines that had once struggled to complete individual vessels suddenly produced them continuously.
The speed increase was not solely due to better organization. Under Gaia's system, individual craftsmen could develop skills that directly improved the quality of their work. Something as simple as properly fastening wooden planks or accurately carving support beams could noticeably strengthen the finished ship. As a result, experienced workers became incredibly valuable, since every improvement translated directly into better vessels.
The great houses immediately recognized the long-term implications. If they could scale production before other nations caught up, they would effectively become Europe's primary suppliers of ships and naval equipment. That position would grant them tremendous economic influence during humanity's reconstruction. It was an opportunity they had no intention of wasting.
Their confidence proved entirely justified. Ancient blueprints continued emerging from forgotten archives, each one demonstrating engineering techniques that historians believed had been lost forever. Naval architects eagerly studied every document, often describing them as priceless cultural treasures rather than ordinary construction plans. Some experts even argued that the recovered manuscripts deserved recognition as world heritage artifacts due to their immense historical and technological value.
As Europe's shipyards expanded day after day, the balance of power slowly shifted toward those who controlled knowledge rather than merely resources. Ancient families who had quietly preserved centuries of craftsmanship suddenly found themselves at the center of humanity's recovery. Their libraries had become just as valuable as gold mines, and perhaps even more important than armies. In a world rebuilt by mana and forgotten history, knowledge had once again become civilization's greatest weapon.