Under the Red Dragon

Originally belonging to the Dragon Clan, the royal fortress representing the highest authority of the Golden Land now welcomed its caretaker. The Bronze Dragon, Arina, sat high upon one of the eight thrones, bearing the heaviest responsibility and pressure in history.

The spacious royal fortress hall stood with its eight thrones, the other seven empty, and the central throne vacant.

Nearly half a year had passed since most of the Dragon Clan's dragon lords entered their slumber, and the Bronze Dragon Arina had grown accustomed to her daily life of servitude in this palace.

As the Bronze Dragon Arina, acting as the governor in place of the Red Dragon Lord, oversaw all the political affairs of the Golden Land, she also took over Kalon's responsibilities, processing the many important matters sent to her daily.

Initially, the Bronze Dragon Arina had wanted to choose another location as her temporary governor's residence, but Kalon had granted her the authority to guard the royal fortress.

Kalon never hesitated to share his power with other dragon lords, which was one of the reasons why the Bronze Dragon Arina and the Copper Dragon Alfred could quickly integrate into the Dragon Clan, as it was the mark of a true king.

But Arina's initial pride and boastfulness had now turned into numbness.

"Hey, tell me," the Bronze Dragon Arina turned her head, looking at Charlize, the head maid and her capable assistant in handling political affairs, and asked curiously, "How could Kalon, as a Red Dragon, endure the loneliness and the restlessness in his blood, staying in this cage every day, dealing with these things that make a dragon's head ache?"

"Master's heart is as deep as the abyss, and his will is as hard as steel. How could I possibly guess Master's thoughts, Lady Arina?"

Charlize bowed slightly, answering respectfully.

The Bronze Dragon Arina curled her lips. She was tired of hearing the clever maid's praises of the Red Dragon. She took the documents to be processed from Charlize's hand and began to read them carefully.

This was a rough population statistic of the territory. According to Kalon's instructions before his slumber, the Bronze Dragon Arina needed to allocate and divert the population around three large cities to establish a smooth and connected network of towns.

Although the floating population of the Golden Land was enormous, the statistics showed that the permanent resident population was around 50,000. The Royal Capital topped the list with 150,000 permanent residents because it accommodated the original dependents and many relocated people.

Due to its remote location, Bay Stream City had only reached a total population of about 30,000 in recent years.

However, the largest number of people still lived outside these cities, reclaiming forests and fields. These residents spontaneously gathered into various villages, with an estimated population of nearly 300,000.

Thanks to the conquest of the Green Wilderness Plane, a large number of elves were added, providing a large labor force for the development of the territory.

Moreover, the union of elves with humans or other races was not as difficult as unions between elves. Although the birth rate was not as high as that of pure human unions, it was still much higher than that of the original elf race. In the past two years, a large number of mixed-blood elves had been born.

"Let's plan according to the scale of 50,000 people per city, 3,000 people per town, and 500 people per village. Let the officials and scholars determine the routes and town plans as soon as possible, and then submit them to me for review," the Bronze Dragon Arina threw the document in her hand to the maid Charlize, instructing her to mark it according to her instructions, and then took out another document to read.

"This machine that can convert so-called heat energy into kinetic energy and potential energy looks really good. It can use most things as output power, but now only those skilled dwarf craftsmen can manufacture it," the Bronze Dragon Arina said with emotion as she looked at the document, "If this thing can be manufactured and used on a large scale, I'm afraid Kalon's idea won't be far from being realized."

"But these officials are a bit inflexible," the Bronze Dragon Arina threw the document to the maid Charlize, who had just put down her pen, and said with dissatisfaction, "Let them advance on two routes at the same time. It's not like they are incompatible. If the forging technology is not enough, you can use magic rune technology to compensate."

"Tell those officials to vigorously recruit dwarf craftsmen, magic scholars, and related alchemical craftsmen, and establish a new research department under the original alchemy workshop to specialize in researching and improving the production of this steam-powered engine."

After the Dragon Clan territory opened trade routes to the various kingdoms and orc empires of the Northern Continent, the Dragon Clan territory had begun to form a huge trade network under the efforts of building merchant groups.

Especially the fine processing of minerals, after this steam engine can be successfully produced, it will bring huge wealth to the Dragon Clan territory.

It can also be used in the mining and construction industries. The construction of cities in the Dragon Clan territory mostly uses materials from the forest, partly because the territory has abundant wood resources.

On the other hand, it is also because quarrying and building cities and houses will bring huge pressure on human resources, which is somewhat not worth the loss, because the development of the Dragon Clan territory in other aspects needs more manpower.

The maid Charlize silently raised her sore wrist and continued to mark the document.

"Huh, the applications to form an elf archer regiment and a kobold and goblin rifle regiment should be submitted to the military department and finally reviewed by the Blue Dragon Akxz," the Bronze Dragon Arina said in surprise.

"According to the original process, all legion expansions and constructions need to be reviewed by the military department to determine the plan, and then reviewed and approved by the master," the head maid Charlize said silently.

"Oh, then approve it. Anyway, there are many brave warriors among those elves who are good at archery, and the creation of a rifle regiment is also conducive to supplementing the diversification of the legion's combat plan," the Bronze Dragon Arina had not finished speaking when she saw the figure of the juvenile Blue Dragon Akxz appear outside the gate of the royal fortress, walking heavily towards her.

"Our test has come, Arina," the juvenile Blue Dragon Akxz's size was also slowly increasing. Under the support of the territory, this blue dragon seemed to have begun to grow to some extent.

Faint lightning marks were born between his unicorn horns, turning into swirling patterns, making the blue dragon's somewhat discordant huge horns look like works of art.

"What happened, Akxz," the Bronze Dragon Arina jumped down from the black stone giant seat, which was her respect for this equally hardworking companion.

"The merchant station opened by the Dragon Clan merchant group in the Orc Kingdom was wiped out, but the human merchant groups loyal to the Dragon Clan still sent the news back," the Blue Dragon Akxz nodded to his companion. The two beast-of-burden dragons were more hardworking than the Copper Dragon Alfred and the law enforcement officer Nexon.

"The Orc Kingdom has determined that most of the Dragon Clan's dragon lords have entered their slumber. They feel that the opportunity has come, so they have formed an alliance with the Sahuagin in the deep sea, wanting to set foot on the Golden Land and turn it into their kingdom."

The Blue Dragon Akxz revealed his white fangs and sneered, "The orc tribes on the grassland have moved away in the past few years, getting farther and farther away from the Dragon Clan territory, but recently the kobold guards stationed at the lookout points on the grassland have reported that those orc tribes have also begun to stir."

"Although the Orc Kingdom's military strength has not yet been determined, judging from the mountain-like ships parked on the coast, the scale is at least no less than 50,000. The merchant group's scouts are trying their best to investigate."

The Bronze Dragon Arina's expression did not show the slightest panic. She said calmly, "It just so happens that the Dragon Clan territory lacks a founding battle to unite these scattered races and make them truly recognize their country,"

"Although I have some experience in governing the territory, I don't know much about war. I have to rely on you, Akxz!"

The Blue Dragon Akxz shrugged his shoulders, and his two wide wings danced like floating sails. He said with a smile, "I am good at fighting, not good at war, but Kalon said that we are rulers, we don't need to be perfect, we just need to learn how to employ those talents."

"So I came here to discuss with you about the need to convene a military conference to discuss how to deal with this matter."

"Then let's convene a military conference and see how the talents who serve us show their abilities!" The Bronze Dragon Arina also laughed, and the originally somewhat serious atmosphere became a little easier at this moment.

"Are you afraid, Akxz? Even dragons are in danger of falling in this kind of war," the Bronze Dragon Arina suddenly asked softly.

"Afraid, of course I'm afraid, but I'm not afraid of death, but afraid of not being able to protect the Dragon Clan, just like before," the Blue Dragon Akxz said word by word, "But this time, I will never back down!"