Sword of Dawnbreaker

His gaze once more passed over Belsetia’s composed, elegant script, while his thoughts seemed to cross the boundless wasteland and fall upon the Elf Kingdom at the other end of the continent. He thought of what Aunt Heidi had just described; in the silver elves’ three-thousand-year ”journey of faith-seeking”... he faintly sensed many points that might connect to the mysteries of the gods.

After a brief bout of contemplation, he set the elves’ matter aside in his heart and began to consider another line of concern—Talronde.

Ever since last night’s ”insomnia,” that silhouette streaking through space had been lingering in his mind. Though the thing he’d seen was bizarrely shaped—modified to the point that no trace of its original form could be seen—Gawain had still, from its general outline, discerned a hint of a ”dragon’s” shape. And it was this small thread of a clue that had, since early morning today, kept him constantly turning over Talronde’s situation in his thoughts.

Following this line of thought, he thought of the Sacred Dragon Kingdom, and subconsciously asked, ”The Sacred Dragon Kingdom should have received our invitation long ago... Has that Grand Duke of Dragonblood given any response?”

”I was just about to tell you about that,” Aunt Heidi said immediately. ”The reply from the Sacred Dragon Kingdom has arrived as well, but... I find it a little strange.”

Gawain frowned. ”Strange?”

”There’s no word from Duke Balogar himself. The letter was sent in the name of the Dragon Blood Council and Sir Golosh Hickel,” Aunt Heidi pulled a document from the desk and handed it to Gawain. ”Their wording is very polite, but they state that they cannot attend the meeting in the Revival Month—because they are busy dealing with some ’special domestic circumstances’. Of course, they did not mention any details.”

Gawain took the document, opened it, and quickly skimmed through it. Its content was basically exactly what Aunt Heidi had said. It was a perfectly worded official letter, courteously expressing refusal and apologies, while revealing nothing of the real internal situation in the Sacred Dragon Kingdom—there was nothing more to see.

”Amber,” after thinking for a moment, Gawain turned his head and spoke to the air beside him, ”do we have corresponding intelligence?”

As soon as his voice fell, the Director of Intelligence surfaced out of the air. The half-elf girl jumped to the floor and spoke quickly, ”We don’t have many agents infiltrated into the Sacred Dragon Kingdom, but we’ve still received some useful information: Duke Balogar has not appeared in public for several days in a row, and Dragonwatch Keep, the capital of the Sacred Dragon Kingdom, has recently been under martial law. Rumor has it that the Grand Duke of Dragonblood’s health has suddenly deteriorated and he is unable to appear in public, and there are also rumors that he has already left the duchy, but in any case, the Dragon Blood Council and the Court Officials of the duchy don’t seem to be panicking. They have the situation under control, and the Sacred Dragon Kingdom appears calm throughout—only the Grand Duke is gone.

”Oh right, there’s one more piece of news: it’s said that the residents living around Dragonwatch Keep once saw a gigantic silver dragon circling over the mountains and flying straight toward the north. Local traveling merchants mostly think this is just a rumor, but I suspect... it’s directly connected to the Grand Duke of Dragonblood suddenly going missing.”

The intelligence was very fragmentary, but the conclusion seemed ready to present itself.

Only that conclusion was still not enough for anyone to deduce the true situation in Talronde.

Gawain frowned, speculating about what exactly had happened in the distant north, and just then, a special Magic Web Terminal beside Aunt Heidi’s desk suddenly chimed.

Everyone in the room fixed their gaze at once on the machine that had started to emit sound and light.

This was the special direct line of the Grand Chancellor of the Empire—it would only sound when some major incident occurred along the borders, or when one of the other two Grand Governors needed to establish an emergency link with the imperial capital.

”Put it through.” Gawain spoke to Aunt Heidi as he walked toward the desk.

Aunt Heidi quickly connected the communication terminal. Along with the flicker and stabilization of a holographic projection, the figure of Victoria Wilder appeared before Gawain and Aunt Heidi.