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Nightrain City was formerly the capital of the Seventeen Nation New Moon Alliance, but it was now only a small border town in the Bardi Empire. However, the person in charge here was the Archduke Dragon Knight, Halent Winston, of the Bardi Empire.

Pretty much all mega-empires would have their very own ace military squadrons that had amassed countless years of history and service. The most famous military squadron of the Bardi Empire would be its dragon knight squadron.

The massive dragons were forever at the top of the food chain. They were also one of the few Gold-ranked species that existed in this world. A matured adult dragon, even at its weakest, would be the equivalent of any human at the Gold rank. Once a dragon learned some basic hunting techniques and magic spells, even the average Legend-ranked warrior would be helpless against these flying beasts.

After all, dragons knew how to fly, while ordinary warriors would be stuck on the ground, unable to do anything.

Dragon knight contracts were typically contracts between some strong warrior and a dragon as either master and servant or as equal status companions. Basically, the dragons would only give recognition to the strong, but that created an obvious paradox. The weak that needed the power of dragons were unable to obtain their recognition, while the strong that obtained the dragons’ recognition didn’t need the dragons’ power to begin with. Dragon knights hence became legends in their own right quite easily.

That was why even if once in a while, one or two weak humans managed to gain a dragon’s recognition through some coincidental fate or lucky occurrence, they were only exceptions to the norm. With the decrease in humanity’s average combat strength, dragon knights, which were considered the strongest of all aerial knights, grew fewer and fewer as well. It was already quite difficult for a strong country to maintain more than one or two dragon knights, and it was common for the dragons in question to be young, immature dragons hired with large amounts of money. The dragons’ actual power and will to fight would be questionable.

However, there was one country that had always remained an exception. In the Bardi Empire, the number of dragon knights had never fallen before fifty. Even the weakest dragon knight would be at the Gold rank. Yet it was incomprehensible why they were able to so easily obtain the dragons’ recognition.

Some people said that the Bardi Empire obtained a secret artifact from the Dragon Gods, while others said that they had a long-lasting contract with the dragon species. But no matter what the truth was, due to the existence of a large number of dragon knights, the skies would never belong to any of the Bardi Empire’s enemies. This was also one of the main reasons why the Auland Empire put so much into the development of floating combat airships—they treated the dragon knights as a potential enemy and threat.

Halent Winston was the subcommander of the dragon knight squadron (as the commander would always be a member of the royalty, so the current commander was Emperor Orloss). He was a famous warrior who was ranked in the top ten in all of Bardi as well as sixty-seventh in the “Eich’s Famous Warrior Rankings,” as the “Archduke Dragon Knight.”

In this current generation, the Bardi Empire possessed a total of seventy-two dragon knights. Only sixty out of the seventy-two would be sent out on campaigns, and these sixty were split up into twelve small teams of five each. Halent personally commanded five small teams, a total of twenty-five dragon knights.

Setting his personal status aside, his personal combat strength was similarly astonishing. And his dragon steed was the adult Blue Dragon, “Dark and Cloudy Windstorms” Sishusler, and was quite renowned amongst the dragons.

Halent reached the Legend rank as a warrior ten years ago and possessed a legendary artifact called the Thunder Horn. He had the astonishing military achievement of single-handedly slaying over one hundred griffin knights in a single battle, and he was a famed fierce warrior throughout all the lands.

One year ago, he quietly left the capital of the Bardi Empire and took all the dragon knights under his command to Nightrain City, which caused quite a commotion at the time.

As a former capital, Nightrain City was a classic example of a well-fortified city. But ever since Archduke Halent started living here, not only did he bring a large number of military personnel with him but he even personally invested a great amount of money and resources into the city’s fortifications. Numerous cannons and towers were constructed, while the city’s walls were reinforced many times over. At first, everyone here found it quite strange. After all, constructing a well-defended fort meant that there would be some type of enemy to defend against.

There were no other countries even close to Nightrain City. Halent’s actions seemed rather meaningless. However, after the “Port Victoria incident” occurred, since Nightrain City was close to Port Victoria as well as located on the only road to Port Victoria, everyone learned just what Archduke Halent had been on guard against—the undead.

While the Bardi nobles were still shocked at Archduke Halent’s decision to leave the capital and come here, he managed to completely eradicate all traces of bandits in the nearby vicinity in just the short time of less than one year. And due to the fact that huge dragons could constantly be seen in the skies above the city, Nightrain City received a new name—Dragonrain City.

The moment we arrived in Dragonrain City a sudden rainstorm blotted out the skies, making it more convenient for us to enter. Since that Archduke Halent was also from the capital, I was worried that we would run into him and he might see through Lilith’s disguise, so I had Carolyn and Lilith switch identities with each other, with Carolyn being herself and Lilith being the maid.

Now that Carolyn was playing the part of herself again, there was no more worry about authenticity. But if at all possible I didn’t want to have to meet this famous Archduke dragon knight. So, my plan was to enter Dragonrain City as inconspicuously as possible and obtain information first before deciding whether or not I should try meeting with this Archduke.

In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that it was on the only road to Port Victoria, I wouldn’t have even passed by this city if I could help it.

“Carolyn, what do you know about that Halent? Have you ever met him?”

“He… he’s… a bit scary.”

Carolyn, who was busy hugging her maid Lilith, took quite a while to answer my question, and her tone of voice contained an inexplicable amount of fear and anxiety. It was as if she was recalling something terrifying.

After finally hearing everything from her through all that stuttering, I learned the basic view that Bardi nobles had of Archduke Halent. He never participated in any noble parties, nor did he ever hold any social events. If he absolutely had to participate in some formal event, he would always join while wearing military attire. He was even daring to the point of wearing his sword in the presence of Emperor Orloss.

With losses were gains to be made elsewhere. Although he antagonized many nobles, he was deeply approved by the military leadership and civilian military officers. He was a powerful figure and representative of the military faction.

As for why Carolyn was so scared of him, it turned out to be because her father, who was a Duke equivalent to Duke Halent in rank at a time when he hadn’t been promoted to Archduke yet, had requested the then Duke Halent to teach swordsmanship to his daughter and son.

This was obviously supposed to be a way for nobles to establish closer relationships and friendly ties with each other. However, Halent took it at face value and strictly trained Carolyn and her younger brother as seriously as possible. He forced full military standards for their training, and the two siblings that were used to an idle lifestyle suffered terribly. Later, even when Carolyn’s father requested that Halent go easy on them, Halent still maintained his way of thinking.

“Go easy on them? Since they’re currently my subordinates, I can’t possibly allow them to be insufficient as military personnel. Even if Emperor Orloss himself requests me, my answer is still the same. You two, you only have two choices—complete the training tasks, or die!”

Halent had a seemingly soft and gentle voice that reverberated throughout the garden, but for some unknown reason, nobody in Carolyn’s family dared look at him directly. There was an invisible might about him that seemed like a huge dragon was surveilling its own territory.

“There’s no mistaking it—that’s draconic might.”

I came to a simple conclusion after hearing this description from Carolyn.

While the Bardi Empire’s dragon knights might be considered a mystery in the eyes of the general populace, there were plenty of things that were revealed about them after all these years if you knew where to look.

First of all, their dragon knights were basically hereditary in position, passed down between family members. Not only that, it could be learned from fighting with them that most of these dragon knights weren’t pure humans. Most of them had dragons’ blood in them, and they were the descendants of dragons.

Unlike the magically created dracons, dragon descendants were far stronger from the time of their birth. Most of them had a true dragon as an ancestor, and they were typically able to inherit part of dragons’ strength and natural talents, which made them quite difficult to deal with.

The fact that the Bardi Empire’s dragon knights were the descendants of dragons might be a secret to the general populace, but it was an open secret in the society of the strong. The real secret that remained unknown was how the Bardi Empire successfully kept the dragon descendants in their human country for so long, along with how these dragon descendants became dragon knights.

Of course, since dragon descendants possessed the blood of dragons, it would indeed be much easier for them to obtain the friendship of dragons. However, friendship was one thing, and having a dragon serve you was another. After all, would you allow a distant relative of yours to ride on you and command you as they pleased?

And if the dragon descendants married ordinary humans, the power of their bloodline would naturally dilute and decrease. It would only take a few generations for them to be no different from ordinary humans. Just how the Bardi Empire was able to maintain the dragon descendants’ bloodline for the past thousands of years was yet another mystery.

To be honest, when I heard all this, I wanted even less to meet with this Legend-ranked Archduke. After all, one of the most common natural talents to dragons was the Eye of Truth, which specialized in seeing through all sorts of illusions and disguises. It was impossible to fool, scam, or lie to Little Red. If we met a dragon descendant who possessed such an ability, all our secrets would likely be seen through immediately.

But, right now, I was in no mood to think about the secrets of the Bardi Empire’s dragon descendants. After all, if anyone had been struck by a heavy sword, sent flying, and become embedded in the city wall like me, I’m sure that they wouldn’t be able to think comfortably, either.

One minute ago, the city gate opened and a not-very-tall figure blocked our procession amid the torrential downpour. With large thrums, rain pounded and glanced off his cape, and his naturally curly blonde hair maintained its own uniqueness despite the rain. His golden eyes were glaring at me with a draconic might that would make any living creature tremble.

“Archduke Halent…”

When Carolyn muttered our visitor’s name out loud, I was still thinking of what lie to say when in the very next moment, he swung that heavy iron blade of his, which was the same height as him, right onto my body. I didn’t even have time to react yet when I was sent flying several dozen meters and embedded into the city wall.

“I said before that filthy undead are forbidden from entering my city. Those who dare to enter shall die!”

He spoke gently and softly, just like Caitlyn had told me in her story. However, not a single person would doubt his will to carry through what he just said.

Since he only attacked the lich in our party, perhaps that would leave room for negotiation, but someone had already lost control of himself as he transformed his killing intent into an actual threat.

“You dare to hit my father!”

Ah Dang, who had been slowly following our procession, had mostly been snoozing, but he suddenly flew into a furious rage. The next moment, his originally large body suddenly expanded to more than ten times in size. An Abomination taller than the city walls appeared in front of everyone.

It was now Halent’s turn to be astonished. There was no mistaking the aura of the strong, and the giant Abomination before him was definitely no ordinary Abomination. It pressured him far more than this Legend-ranked lich that he had just sent flying. Could the undead have some plot here?

But even though Ah Dang’s tremendous foot was about to stomp on Halent, Halent remained calm. He knew that his old partner wouldn’t allow him to be in danger.

*Smack!!*

Before Ah Dang was able to stomp down, something heavy crashed into him.

That heavy something was a Blue Dragon that descended from the sky. Thunderbolts were twirling around it, and the out-of-control thunder all around it made it seem all the more fearsome. A Blue Dragon on a rainy night would be at its strongest, as Blue Dragons were favored by wind and lightning.

“…Damn it, where did such a monster come from?”

But, the seemingly fierce huge dragon wasn’t actually having it easy. It already lost a piece of its flesh from where it touched Ah Dang, as it suffered due to the Abomination’s skin containing saws that could devour flesh and bone. Upon contact, Ah Dang’s skin had bitten off a piece of the Blue Dragon’s skin.

“Ah Dang—Ah Dang is going to eat you!”

The furious Ah Dang didn’t intend to hold back as he distorted his body once more and transformed into the most frightening nightmare of all, a gigantic dragonspider, the hunter of dragons. With just a single exchange of blows, the Elder Blue Dragon transformed into an insignificant existence that was viciously sent flying with a single swat.

However, the dragon knight Archduke remained calm. His battle horn attached to his waist was already at his mouth. Since the undead were openly declaring war on him, what came next wouldn’t be a small battle. Instead, it would be a battle between the undead and the dragon knights!

“Ah Dang! Retreat!”

As for me, I was absolutely furious. I didn’t care if he was an undead or a dragon knight. Since he hit my face, I was obviously going to hit back.

My mana went berserk and transformed into a black mist that twirled around me, with the power of death becoming my pitch-black shadow. That was my servant which would bring death for me, and I felt that I seemed really like the boss of a video game now that I was immersed in the darkness.

I hadn’t been so pitiful in receiving an attack in such a long time. The only part where I still maintained my sense of reason was to continue my pretense of being a lich and only fighting back with a lich’s magic.

“Roland, I think something’s wrong with this situation. Let’s stop for a moment and calm down!”

Harloys was warning me now, but did I really need this silly cat to remind me? It was apparent that something was wrong with the situation. Even though we secretly sneaked in, Halent immediately found and attacked us. Something was obviously wrong.

“I’m quite calm, and I shall calmly kill him… The ender of everything, the frigid winter shall arrive!”

Tremendous ice magic power was gathering on my arm, while my cyan soulfire transformed into pale white icy flames. I was always one who gave what I got back, so since Halent sliced me up as a way of greeting me, then it was only natural that he allowed me to use some combat magic to greet him in return.

“Is this your way of calming down? Do you calm down with your knee and not your brain!?”

Halent saw how the torrential rain in the sky instantly turned into snowflakes and wondered for the first time today if he should have just stayed home. Perhaps he came looking for the wrong person.