In addition to these followers, there were also some Solun Giant Dragons wearing robes carefully observing the descending Regas among the crowd.
On the back of the Regas dragon was a strange human-made artifact that looked like a weapon. Although this made the dragons a little tense, in the end, they did not take action nor did they voice any questions. After all, it was perfectly normal for Regas to come here with a weapon.
After landing, Regas transformed into human form and quickly locked onto those Solun Giant Dragons that also took on human forms.
“You guys!”
Regas stepped forward enthusiastically to greet them and began to introduce himself.
“I am Regas, the giant dragon of M Continent that you speak of, and I am now an envoy of the Empire.”
Then, Regas performed a not-so-standard gesture of courtesy.
The older-looking dragons exchanged glances, seemingly unsure how to respond to Regas’s overly friendly demeanor. Finally, a very young-looking woman stepped forward and said, “Welcome, Regas. I am one of the representatives of the Dragon Church in Solun, Margaret.”
Just as Regas was about to greet her warmly, Margaret interrupted him and began introducing the members of the Dragon Church, steering the conversation back on track.
“So, Your Excellency Regas, are those rumors true? Did the Solun Dragon Group indeed suffer a defeat in M Continent?”
“Of course.”
Regas proudly placed his hands on his hips.
“I even shot down two giant dragons at that time.”
Upon hearing this slightly arrogant remark, the dragons’ expressions twitched, but Regas seemed oblivious to it.
“This is impossible. The Dragon Group heading to M Continent is not only cautious but also among the strongest in our ranks. How could they easily be defeated?”
An older dragon clearly found this answer unacceptable.
“So what?”
Regas’s tone suddenly turned cold, and the sunny and cheerful young man just disappeared, replaced by a blue beast.
With vertical pupils, Regas turned and stared closely at the old dragon, speaking in a tone laced with a hint of threat, “What I said is indeed not the truth, because the truth may be harder for you to accept than you think. The white light that fell from the sky destroyed everything and extinguished all the ambitions of the Solun Dragon Group.”
“Ignorance and stupidity are not factors that hinder development.”
Stepping forward, Regas said to the group of human-like dragons, “Arrogance is.”
For some reason, when these dragons saw Regas take a step forward, they all hesitantly stepped back a little.
“And there is another truth that you may find even harder to accept.”
Regas pulled out several photographs from his chest, showing scenes of the dragon form of Margaret lying on a bed of gold coins in a cave.
“Everyone, would you like to join our Sparkling Gold Alliance?”
Regas transformed back into that cheerful giant dragon and, without knowing where he had pulled it from, produced a gold shield coin. With a crisp sound, the coin soared into the air, attracting everyone’s attention, and this coin far surpassed the so-called gold coins on the Solun Continent in both color and sound. Under the sunlight, it shone brilliantly.
A group of dragons could only stare at the private photo of Margaret… and swallow hard at the gold coins, none could resist such temptation.
At this moment, Margaret coughed lightly, pulling everyone’s gaze back, saying, “We didn’t invite you here to discuss this.”
Margaret looked at the other dragons whose attention was completely captured by the gold coin flipping in Regas’s hand and sighed, “So we want to know what the attitude of your M Continent towards the Solun Dragon Group is.”
Regas pocketed the gold coin and retorted, “What about you? What are the Solun Dragon Group planning next?”
At this moment, Regas’s gaze became profoundly serious as he continued, “Actually, the Solun Dragon Group is quite chaotic internally because they cannot confirm the authenticity of the information, right?”
Seeing that she had been seen through, Margaret no longer hid it and said, “That’s right. Some elders in the internal group do not believe in the defeat, and even if they do, they think that M Continent will settle old scores together as a reckoning, so they are even preparing for war more actively.”
Margaret shook her head and sighed, “In such a situation, the dragons of Solun do not have any special feelings towards M Continent. We wish to establish normal relations with M Continent, and even want to return to M Continent, but we do not know what that empire on the other side of the sea really is. Many people are wavering.”
After Margaret’s detailed explanation, Regas understood that one faction of dragons, fearing retaliation, was prepared to fight to the last breath or use this to threaten the Empire, while another faction hoped for normalization of relations. However, due to their lack of influence and unclear understanding of the Empire, most dragons were wavering between the two factions, not knowing how strong the Empire truly was.
“This is simple.”
Regas tossed the coin into Margaret’s hand and said, “Just in time, there are people planning to return soon, and although I am unable to assist in escorting them, you can follow that returning convoy to see what kind of place that empire on M Continent is. It won’t be too late to make a decision then.”
…
Lind was currently playing with the dragon token.
Not long ago, Margaret had said it was impossible to dismantle this thing with the technology level of Graywhite Territory, yet now, analyzing the dragon token had already been put on the agenda.
Of course, this was with the consent of the dragons. Although Lind had directly asked, the dragons couldn’t really explain much about it, just as transforming into human form was as simple as breathing for them.
How would you teach a creature that doesn’t breathe to breathe through its nose? That would be impossible. Even if it could be taught, you would have to research how breathing works yourself.
There was still a long way to go in studying the dragons.
Lind inherited the original Cape round table meeting system and advanced it further; in addition to regular audiences with the officials from the Imperial City, officials from various regions also needed to regularly report via communication devices.
However, because the foreign war had ended and what remained were some internal adjustments, life was very calm, with nothing major occurring. This also allowed Lind and Lena time to engage in other matters.
For instance, preparing for pregnancy. Previously, due to the unstable situation, and being young, they had not yet had children. However, for professionals, wanting a child is quite simple; this was not an issue. Mainly because if there were no heirs, the hearts of the people in the Empire would always be unsettled, even though Lind was still young.
There was also the need to carefully investigate the disappearance case of Lena’s father.
The disappearance had occurred too conveniently, and because too much time had passed, he was presumed dead. This process seemed too natural, making it hard not to suspect it was the work of Augustus III. Therefore, Lind specifically called for the archives left by the Augustus royal family, which frightened the Augustuses quite a bit.
Lena’s father did not suddenly disappear; after carefully reviewing the files, there were indeed traces of Augustus III’s assassination plan targeting the heir in the Northern Border.
At that time, Augustus III indeed had an assassination plan against Lena’s father, Connor Lars, because Connor Lars had sensed something at that time, forcing Augustus III to take some risky moves to eliminate Connor Lars. However, the plan failed that night when the Shadow Guards were misled by something thrown by Connor Lars, allowing him to escape.
After Connor’s escape, Augustus III stationed a large number of Shadow Guards at the Lars residence and the Northern Border’s pass. Should Connor turn back to relay information, he would immediately be captured by the Shadow Guards. However, Connor seemed to have vanished without a trace, even Augustus III did not know where Connor had gone.
Lind carefully read the sorted materials and looked at the maps from that time. Connor likely was assassinated after attending a ball on the outskirts of some royal capital and then went missing. Neither the Lars family, nor Augustus III’s stationed Shadow Guards in the royal capital and Northern Border found Connor.
Perhaps the truth of the matter was quite simple. Lena’s father may have headed south at that time. Considering the level of martial law during the medieval period, if Lena’s father had any sneaking artifact on him, it would have been very easy to blend into an adventurer group or merchant caravan, passing through the territories of those nobles.
Although the nobles are quite sensitive to the population increase in their territories, one can tell just by looking at that group of bards; the nobles back then hardly scrutinized passing adventurers and merchants.
Lind speculates that Lena’s father anticipated that returning directly to the Northern Border would mean being followed by Shadow Guards, so he planned to take a long detour, but encountered an accident along the way, leading to his disappearance. Given Augustus III’s and the Lars family’s search efforts, Lind even reasonably suspects that Lena’s father might no longer be in the country due to some unforeseen circumstances.
Not knowing the details, Lind could only obtain a portrait of his father-in-law from the Lars family and distribute it to his subordinates, using national power to search for a person. He even sent a copy to Isha, who was far away in An Zhu. At that time, relations between Cape and An Zhu were not so tense, and it was impossible to disclose the insider information to An Zhu for help in finding a person. However, now Lind had begun to gradually take control of An Zhu; it was worth a try—what if?
