Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1068: Chapter 1067: The Envoys from Talronde

When Melita and her companions swiftly crossed the land of the Plains of the Holy Spirits, surrounded (forcibly) by death metal, far away in the southern borders within Cecil Castle, Gawain had long since learned of the impending visit of this special envoy.

The news initially came from Northport. The sea demons returning to the mainland were the first to reestablish contact with the Empire’s neural network and brought intelligence of the dragon visit, which was then formally confirmed by Victoria Wilder, the Duke of the North.

After learning from the briefings about the bizarre experiences of Cassandra’s exploration team over the past days, even the well-informed Gawain was not without surprise.

In the study of the Cecil Palace, Gawain was placing down his pen after reviewing some documents. He looked up at Tiel, who was napping in the corner of the room, and couldn’t help but ask, "Do you sea demons have some issues with your sense of direction... to some extent?"

Tiel lazily moved her tail, groggily lifting one eyelid, "That’s prejudice... We sea demons are natural travelers. Occasionally there’s poor direction sense, that’s extremely rare—how many sea demons do you even know in total..."

"...I can understand poor direction sense, but no matter what, swimming all the way past the stormy sea region directly to Talronde is a bit exaggerated," Gawain shook his head, sighing, "And swimming in the wrong direction to the human world... that goes beyond a mere issue of direction doesn’t it?"

Tiel gave a big yawn, seemingly done with her third or fourth nap of the day. She shook her head, using her tail to prop up her upper body, and relying on her length advantage, snaked past a bookshelf to peer at the map on the other side. Her gaze swept over the ocean and land at the edge of the map, "Isn’t it a good thing? I swam in the wrong direction and established contact with Antawen for you; Cassandra swam in the wrong direction and unexpectedly brought news from Talronde... So we should be flexible in our thinking, sometimes trying a path unknown might bring unexpected gains..."

Listening to this, Gawain couldn’t help but give the deep-sea lazy fish a glance, "Though there’s little logic in what you say, your way of making a mess of things is admittedly quite compelling."

Then, without waiting for Tiel’s response, he shook his head, thoughtfully examining the "Known World Map", which was not quite complete. "Speaking of which... it’s truly unimaginable the astonishing changes that occurred in Talronde over the brief period of a little over a month... Frankly, even I could not have anticipated things to develop this way."

"In reality, those who can genuinely feel and understand this great transformation are very few. For the majority, even if they know of the Dragon Kingdom’s matters, they take it as dinner conversation—Talronde is too far, nearly like a world beyond the sky. Even though it represents the highest wave in the tides of the era, how can those tiny droplets feel the entire ocean churning?" Tiel flicked her tail tip, speaking with a seriousness Gawain had never seen from her before, "But you are different; you stand at the center of this turning point, so your feelings will inevitably differ from ordinary people’s."

Gawain looked at Tiel in surprise. After several seconds, he couldn’t help but say, "It’s rare to hear such deep words from you."

"Because thinking about these things is tiring, I prefer to spend my excess energy on sleeping," Tiel shrugged, "But that doesn’t mean I can’t think of them—I have lived for a long time, you probably often forget that fact, and during such a lengthy period, even if I spent ninety percent of the time asleep, the remaining ten percent would still be enough to watch an entire season’s worth of civilization’s historical changes."

Gawain curiously looked at her, "...Why so sentimental today?"

"...This morning, I received a message through the Spirit Song from a friend in Antawen: After applying the arcane energy devices to the reactor, we finally managed to light the Core Fusion Tower... Though it was only a spark, it was something we hadn’t accomplished in a million years," Tiel said, smiling, "Though restoring energy supplies, let alone fixing the spacecraft, remains a distant dream, my sisters are already greatly inspired. Now, a previously unheard-of whisper has appeared in the song of the sea demons, saying ’the turning point is coming’..."

Gawain repeated Tiel’s words instinctively, "The turning point is coming..."

"Yes, you often say such things, but for sea demons, this phrase holds extraordinarily special significance," Tiel spoke slowly, "The land races often say ’the era has changed’—each season of civilization says this many times, with every technical advancement, every change in power—you seem to change eras every few hundred years. But for sea demons, our era hasn’t changed in over a million years; for the dragons... it’s roughly the same."

Gawain quietly regarded Tiel, taking a long sigh afterward, "No wonder you suddenly have so many reflections after hearing about Talronde."

"Who knows... maybe it’s just having enough sleep to entertain random thoughts," Tiel said, stretching mightily, her tail, creased and stiff from sleep, unfurling throughout the room, "But aside from this, Cassandra and the emissaries from Talronde should be just about to arrive... I recall hearing news of their entry from Rocky Ridges Fortress about two hours ago."

Gawain nodded, "Preparations in the city are complete; by timing they should be almost..."

Before he could finish his words, the Magic Web Terminal at the desk suddenly lit up with a buzzing sound. Upon connection, Soldrin’s figure emerged within the holographic projection, "Your Majesty, the dragon squad has crossed the Kant Region, they are here."

"Good!" Gawain flashed a faint smile, "We can now put on the grand reception for our guests."

...

The dragon herd passed through the clouds, skimmed across the sky, and saw the rolling hills and magnificent mountains and rivers of the southern borders reflecting in Melita’s enormous eyes. She finally saw the river silently flowing in the northern parts of the Dark Mountain Range and the acclaimed magical industrial city, built across the river, within the human world. As those high towers, gleaming under the sun, and floating crystals came into view, her spirits lifted.

But what truly lifted her spirits was the cessation of the near unbearably noisy "music" on her back—though even now, recalling Cassandra’s moment of singing still made her wings tremble...

At that moment, she almost got carried away by Cassandra’s voice, and only her strong willpower prevented an aviation accident, but had that "music" persisted a bit longer... it would have been risky.

Absorbed in her wandering thoughts, Melita heard the voice of the deep-sea witch from her back, "Ohoh—I’ve seen it I’ve seen it! That’s Cecil Castle? I’ve never seen it in person before, just caught a glimpse on human Magic Web programs..."

"This time, you can explore to your heart’s content," Melita responded absentmindedly, "That city has many incredible places, and I believe even long-lived races will find plenty of points of interest there."

Cassandra appeared curious, "Oh? Such as?"

"Such as..." Melita opened her mouth but found herself at a loss for words, taking a moment to gather her scattered thoughts, "Cecil’s rice to feed dragons..."

Cassandra finally sensed that the emotion of this blue dragon seemed somewhat unusual, as if the closer they got to Cecil, the more nervous she seemed to become, prompting Cassandra’s curiosity: "What’s wrong with you? You seem strange."

"It’s nothing," Melita shook her head, fully collecting her thoughts, "I was just reminded of the last time I left this city. Back then, I never thought I would return in my current role and form... and Gawain Cecil probably didn’t expect what happened after that either."

For a moment, Cassandra said nothing, seemingly unsure of what to say, but soon she broke the silence again, "Ah! Something seems to have taken off over there—are they welcoming us?"

Melita looked up into the distance, and almost simultaneously, her kin following behind and beside her also lifted their heads. In the gradually descending sunset, they saw the scene above the distant city—

They saw the city’s lights turning on layer by layer from the outskirts to the center. In the gradually dimming twilight, the artificial lights guided the way forward like a starry brilliance falling to the earth. Several flying devices with twinkling lights soared into the sky from the city’s center, these were flying machines with an inverted conical structure and dragon wing design. After a moment, two directional lights rose near the mechanical bridge of the White River, while the flying machines hovering mid-air dispersed to either side—their undercarriages were fitted with large crystal devices, which gradually filled with a hazy glow under the ground lights, and then suddenly, a colossal holographic projection, towering a hundred meters high, appeared above the city.

The holographic projection wasn’t complicated, merely displaying two words in dragon language and the common human language: Welcome, friend.

Melita gazed in astonishment at the sight in the sky, momentarily forgetting to speak, while the dragon herd around her was equally stunned—they hadn’t anticipated such an earnest welcome in the human kingdom, nor expected to see the script of their homeland at a place so far from Talronde.

Instinctively, Melita blinked, wanting to record the scene before her, but she then remembered that the Omega network was offline, and most of the implants within her had lost functionality or been removed—she shook her head, feeling quite regretful about it. Almost at the same time, the lights from the ground began to change:

As the dragon herd entered the skies above the city, layers of lights on the surface started partially going out or dimming, while others grew brighter, outlining clear lines and arrows on the increasingly darkening land. The flying devices producing the holographic projection buzzed closer, circling near the dragon herd, casting simple light signals.

This was the landing guidance assistance provided by the humans.

Melita paused, then noticed out of the corner of her eye that one of the flying machines approached her. Sensing the fluctuations of a communication spell, she instinctively connected and heard the transmitted message from that machine: "Welcome to Cecil Castle—this is the commander of the Dragonborn Special Operations Squad, Sujina. We will provide navigation services for you next."

Melita hesitated for a moment before reacting, "Dragonborn... you are Dragonborn?"

"Yes," the voice from the communication spell seemed to carry a hint of a smile, "but here, I’m just a soldier on a mission. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Dragon from Talronde."

"I... It’s a pleasure to meet you too," Melita said, unexpectedly finding herself a bit flustered, "Anyway... thank you for your help, Miss Sujina."

The flying machines collectively lowered their altitude, and behind them, the small dragon group of seven mighty dragons also slowed down, heading towards the city’s landing site.

Inside the city, countless pairs of eyes gazed at the sky, all the permitted gathering places were filled with swaying figures, and as the dragon herd officially appeared in the twilight sky, exclamations of awe arose one after another throughout each district.

The ever-knowledgeable Cecil Clan once again gained insight that would be difficult for other nations to replicate today: they witnessed firsthand the entrance of pureblood dragons from beyond human civilization into a human city for the first time in a herd, and unlike what the stories of bards depicted—these dragons were not the "evil dragons" coming to plunder treasures and land, but ambassadors representing another civilized nation, forging friendships with humans.

Of course, the Cecil Clan had seen dragons before, even at the imperial capital where Dragonborn exchange students frequently practiced flying with Wings of Steel, and precisely because of this, the city’s citizens only exclaimed in surprise upon seeing the dragons, without any greater commotion. However, the "pureblood great dragons" from Talronde were vastly different from the Dragonborn they usually saw—any normal human observer could tell that the dragons flying over the city at this moment had more massive bodies, more majestic postures, and more robust wings.

That was the true dragon.

Gawain stood in front of the city’s largest "Pioneer Square", standing on a high platform watching the dragon herd gradually close in. By now, twilight was nearing its end, and those rulers of the skies, as if they had flown out from a legendary tale, were thus coated with a layer of pale golden light and shadow. They came from the northern horizon and, under the guidance of navigation lights and escort squads, steadily approached the square, then descended one by one.

Around the square, reporters and photographers from various newspapers and Magic Web broadcast programs were swiftly busy, doing their utmost to capture every detail of the dragons’ arrival. The fortunate citizens present at the first scene to witness this event had already begun waving their flags, and both adults and children were engulfed in a mix of excitement and nervousness.

Gawain took a deep breath, then opened his eyes wide to carefully search for a familiar figure among the dragon herd, and after a few scans, he finally saw that somewhat familiar figure.

The blue dragon landed, its posture rough but fairly stable, and almost the moment it steadied, this dragon also turned its head and met Gawain’s eyes.

She nodded in the direction of the high platform.