Red dragon: in charge of natural disasters

"Casius"

In front of the tall and heavy iron gate, Olivia looked at the magnificent palace where she had lived for a long time and called in a low voice.

The guards guarding the door recognized Olivia who had lived in the palace, so they did not stop her, but they did not open the door because they had not received an order.

"You should be able to hear it."

Olivia muttered softly.

She had seen the "authority" of the red dragon in the empire that shocked her, and knew that the other party must have known about her arrival.

Sure enough, a familiar voice appeared and echoed outside the palace.

"Let her in."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Accompanied by a dull sound, the heavy door slowly opened, and Olivia was able to see the scene inside the palace.

"Palace."

"I haven't been back for a long time."

Looking at the familiar garden and palace, Olivia's blue-gray eyes flickered.

In the past year, she moved to Istalia, disguised as a human, and became a member of the kingdom through her own efforts.

But this is the "cage" that imprisons her.

Although she only stayed there for a few months, which was only a short moment compared to her nearly 100 years of life, the experience was truly unforgettable.

But she did not feel unbearable to look back, but rather felt inexplicably kind and even nostalgic.

Was she still harboring resentment and hatred in her heart?

Maybe.

Even Olivia herself could hardly explain what kind of complex emotion this was, not to mention that she would have to make a request to the red dragon later.

Thinking of this, Olivia could not help but hold the documents in her hand tightly, and her steps became a little hurried.

Following the road to the main hall, the palace door with a dragon head carved on it also opened.

What came into view was the red dragon lying on the somewhat narrow throne, with its large horns swept back, wide wings, and pale golden vertical pupils. The huge dragon body almost filled up half of the palace, which was extremely visually impactful.

Strong, majestic, noble, and - perfect.

These words almost subconsciously entered Olivia's mind, making her feel as if she saw the platinum statue of Bahamut in the clan dragon's nest.

What's more terrifying is that the opponent's body length has reached 40 meters. Even the elders of the Melward clan are far from being so huge.

"He has become more powerful."

Olivia thought so.

This also means that the gap between her and the opponent is getting bigger and bigger. Although she doesn't know why, she feels inexplicably lost.

After a long time, Olivia came back to her senses. The blue-gray vertical pupils flickered, surging with complex emotions.

She opened her mouth and whispered: "Long time no see, Cassius."

"Long time no see, Senator Olivia, you have made a lot of noise in the imperial political arena recently."

Gray-white smoke overflowed from Cassius's mouth, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised, and the dragon face showed a smile.

Olivia was slightly surprised: "Do you know what I did?"

Casius replied: "Of course, as an ordinary member of the House of Commons, I refuted the proposal supported by Duke Doro in person, and it also caused a conflict between the military and the government."

"Tsk tsk, you are really capable. Do you know how the people of the empire call you? The Flower of Justice."

He actually knew?

She thought that the other party, as the emperor of the empire, would not care about these trivial matters, let alone an ordinary proposal, but Casius accurately said that thing.

You know, in some rumors in the empire, His Majesty Casius has been sleeping all the time.

Has he been paying attention to her secretly?

For some reason, Olivia felt a little excited, and a hint of imperceptible satisfaction appeared on her pretty face, and it became flushed.

Cassius tilted his head and asked, "So you came to the palace for this?"

"Yes."

Olivia nodded gently, but she hesitated for a moment and continued, "But it's not just this."

"Oh? Let's talk about the proposal first."

Casius waved his claws gently, and the documents in Olivia's arms floated up, and the flames projected the words.

Lines of beautiful small words floated in the air, quite neatly.

"This is."

Olivia's eyes widened suddenly, and a flash of surprise flashed in her pupils.

As a mage, she had never seen such a delicate and easy control of the fire element in her life.

Even the legendary mage Trafranallo of the Arcane Hermitage did not have such a powerful elemental control ability.

In just a moment, Cassius finished browsing the proposal.

He smiled and shook his head, saying, "It's a good proposal, but it's a bit too idealistic and difficult to implement."

"Why?"

Olivia was a little unconvinced.

"You should have read the Social Security Theory written by those scholars, right?"

Casius had also read this book, which was written by Gugus Golov, a well-known scholar in the Empire. It incorporates many modern social science theories brought by players.

Olivia replied: "Well, it's a good book, very valuable for reference."

Casius said: "What he said does make sense, but have you ever thought that this kind of high welfare will also send bad signals to people: Is it the same whether you work hard or not?"

"Excessive use will have obvious disadvantages: one is that it is easy to lead to rent-seeking; the other is to distort market signals"

"The Empire is a country that is developing rapidly. For it, the enthusiasm for production is very important. A plan like yours that is out of touch with reality will only dampen people's enthusiasm."

Casius spoke in great detail.

In his eyes, compared to the hopeless white dragon, the silver dragon from Melward seems to be more suitable to be a ruler.

In Casius's plan, with the expansion of territory and the increase of races under his command, the Burning Empire should not become an evil camp force, but a multi-ethnic empire that embraces all.

Pure kindness and evil are not enough to describe this complex country.

And the silver dragon is undoubtedly a good flag representing the "orderly good" camp, which can bring considerable help to improve the image of the empire.

At that time, maybe there will be a two-party system, one playing the white face and the other playing the black face, whitewashing this empire that started with killing and plunder into a glorious and majestic "ideal country".

Now it seems that this silver dragon is quite easy to deceive, at least she can't see the essence of the empire. For example, the author of "Social Security Theory" Gugs seems to have seen something.

Olivia listened very seriously, nodded repeatedly, and recorded with magic from time to time.

For some reason, she seemed to have returned to the night when she discussed and exchanged with "Angel".

The figure of the knowledgeable young golden dragon and the seemingly unrelated huge red dragon in front of her gradually overlapped in her mind.

It was obviously just a false disguise, but it made her remember it deeply.

"Okay, that's about it."

Casius yawned, gently shook his huge wings, and blew out a puff of sulfur-smelling white smoke.

"Well, I know, I will make some changes after I go back and bring it to you another day."

Olivia nodded, put away the documents that fell to the ground, and said seriously.

Casius looked down at the silver-haired girl: "Olivia, do you have anything else to say?"

Suddenly, her eyes trembled.

"."

Olivia hugged the documents in her hand tightly and pulled her silver hair behind her ears.

She lowered her head and remained silent for a long time before slowly raising her head and looking directly into the red dragon's light golden, oppressive pupils.

"Cassius, I don't think your empire should develop in this way."

Cassius was stunned for a moment, then asked with interest: "What do you mean by 'this way'?"

"I always thought that you are not the kind of evil dragon who would exchange other people's lives for money."

Olivia looked at Cassius from a distance, she bit her lips lightly, and her tone was a little heavy.

"But my people in the south told me that the Burning Empire is dumping terrible weapons that can be used by ordinary people on a large scale to the disintegrating Fadlan Empire."

"The mortals of Cassander, Thrace, and the Seleucid Kingdom killed each other with weapons sold by the Burning Empire, causing terrible casualties. It is said that the entire central plains were stained with blood, and the holy city was reduced to ruins."

"I am very happy to see the empire flourishing, but-"

Olivia bit her silver teeth lightly and paused.

"I don't want to see this kind of development nourished and watered by the blood of the Fadlan people."

"So please stop, Cassius, and let the empire stop selling those extremely cruel and sinful weapons. This is what I want to say most."

Cassius shook his head and laughed.

This is really a standard "Silver Dragon-style speech".

After Olivia opened her mouth, Cassius could guess what she would say next-just like begging him to stop conquering the North last time.

Despite her rich experience, this silver dragon is still naive and full of fantasy, like most of her kind.

She always thought that words could change others, but she didn't realize that she was the one who was changed more deeply.

Cassius did not give a direct answer, but stretched out a claw finger under Olivia's gaze.

"Shua——"

The invisible force field energy controlled the knife on the weapon rack to fly from a distance, suspended in front of the red dragon, and the blade flashed with cold light.

Cassius smiled and asked, "Do you say this knife is sinful?"

Olivia frowned slightly and shook her head gently.

She sensed a familiar smell, and the red dragon seemed to be trying to convince her with sweet words again.

"What if I tell you that this knife belongs to a brutal bandit who has killed more than a hundred innocent civilians with it?"

Olivia pondered for a moment, and answered uncertainly: "Then it is evil?"

Casius shook his tail and shook his head to deny: "No, the knife itself is not wrong, the one who wields the knife is always wrong."

"."

Olivia was silent again.

What the other party said seemed to make sense.

Casius' words continued: "Just like the war in the Fadlan Empire - you got one thing wrong, it was not our sale of weapons that caused the war to break out, but the outbreak of the war that caused us to sell weapons."

"Even if I don't intervene, the three princes will still fight for the position of the Fadlan Emperor, causing countless innocent casualties."

At this point, the red dragon sighed quite "sincerely".

"I deeply regret this, but since we have to fight anyway, why don't I take this opportunity to earn some gold coins and improve the lives of the people of the empire?"

"You have also seen that the booming military industry has brought a large number of jobs and considerable income to the empire over the years. I don't know how many people in the empire have been saved from hunger because of the development of the military industry."

"As the emperor of the Burning Empire, I can't do anything to quell the war in Fadlan, but I have the ability to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people of the empire."

Finally, Cassius concluded in a calm tone:

"So - weapons are innocent, and the guilty ones are the ones who pull the trigger. War is evil, but selling weapons is a first-class good deed!"

After saying this, Cassius looked calm and at ease, quietly looking at the words [Warrior +1] on the panel.

His face was originally red, and no matter how much he lied, it couldn't get redder.

What's more, to a certain extent, he didn't lie.

Although he sold arms to both ends and made a lot of money from the war, he said it was a good deed that he had to do out of concern for the people of the empire.

However, if you can see the essence through the phenomenon, you will find the capital accumulation of the empire's "evil".

Olivia fell silent again. She was thinking about how to find the loopholes in the other party's words, but she didn't come up with a countermeasure for a long time.

After holding it in for a long time, she blushed and uttered a sentence: "You are quibbling."

But she seemed to have no reason.

This red dragon is always like this. Every time he can easily deal with her doubts, or even convince her.

And she herself seems to be gradually changed by the other party.

Cassius spread his claws and said quite "helplessly": "When the researchers of the empire first created these weapons, they were just to guard against foreign enemies and protect national security."

"What kind of sin can this be?"

"But."

Olivia was a little speechless. She looked at Cassius's smiling eyes and said to herself: "I will convince you."

Cassius slowly stood up from the throne and looked down at Olivia.

"The war between humans is very complicated. It cannot be simply summarized as good or evil, and it is not something you silver dragons can get involved in."

"I believe your elders have also warned you not to get involved in the disputes among humans."

"Yeah"

Olivia lowered her eyes and responded softly.

Casius's expression suddenly became a little serious: "There is indeed one thing that needs your help."

"What is it?"

Olivia was a little curious.

This red dragon has always been omnipotent. Even if it dares to refuse the invitation of the gods, it actually needs her help?

Casius said in a heavy tone: "In a year, the abyss demons will invade the Anzeta Wasteland and launch a full-scale attack on the empire. We hope to get the help of the Melward clan."

In fact, the empire has the ability to deal with the demon invasion independently, but for Casius, this is a good opportunity to build a bridge with the good camp and improve the image of the empire.

And Olivia, who has become an imperial senator, may become that bridge of communication.

"Abyss invasion?"

Olivia's expression suddenly became extremely solemn.

You should know that the last invasion of the abyss occurred four hundred years ago. The "Undead Lord" Orcus led his undead and demon army to the main material plane, setting off a natural disaster that swept the world and caused great suffering to the people on the continent of Fianso.

The forces of the Amaunata Church, the Moon God Church, the Kingdom of Fadlan, the Silver Dragon Clan, the Harpist Alliance and other good camps united and paid the lives of countless benevolent people to end this disaster.

Cassius suddenly paused: "I just don't know your grandfather?"

Olivia knew that Cassius was talking about the defeat and serious injuries of Osedro, which was a shame for the entire Melward.

In the eyes of the majority of silver dragons, the reputation of Cassius, a foreign dragon, was definitely not good.

"Although my grandfather is a little stubborn, he will never make mistakes in matters related to world order."

Olivia said seriously without hesitation.

"If the situation is true, I will return to the Melward clan and ask them to contact various forces to provide support to the best of their ability to fight against the demons."

Casius nodded slightly: "Okay, then I will wait for good news."

For him, the good camp is the best in this regard.

When facing a truly evil enemy, you can pull them in as free thugs, and you don't even have to pay much.

So, pure goodness and evil are extremely unprofitable.

The empire can only gain the greatest benefits by jumping back and forth on the vague dividing line between goodness and evil.

Casius is well aware of this.

——Seeking monthly tickets——(End of this chapter)