Beneath the Red Dragon

Northern Territory, Lukepas Duchy in the South.

Today’s weather is truly delightful, and the early summer climate is gradually raising the temperatures across the Northern Continent.

In the capital city of Tirol, the Duke’s Castle in Lukepas Duchy boasts an architectural style as ancient and graceful as its nobility, luxurious yet ostentatious in its elegance.

The castle, occupying the highest terrain in Tirol City, stands aloof, overlooking the mundane mortal world.

The tall and thick castle walls shield the prying eyes of the city’s common folk and serf slaves.

The Iron Armor Guards patrolling outside the castle walls also keep out adventurously spirited wanderers and so-called ’heroes’.

This grand castle governs all mortals within Lukepas Duchy; seldom have many set foot in this ancient fortress.

Yet today, luxurious carriages travel incessantly towards the castle on the avenue, with soldiers of the castle guards lined all the way down the mountain, maintaining strict security.

For a noble banquet and meeting is taking place within these castle walls.

The luxurious carriages heading towards the Duke’s Castle, although spacious and tall, bear dark hues akin to the elegantly somber art adored by the nobility.

In the open, they rule over all life, while in secret, they manipulate everything.

Only those seasoned scholars adept in heraldry can discern the true origins of these lofty guests from the secretive emblems painted on the carriages.

Among them is the Radiant Duchy, once founded by the descendants of a high-ranking member of a certain Divine Spirit Church, whose origins are no secret to most of the Northern nobility.

However, thanks to an ancestor’s status in a certain Divine Spirit Church, the Radiant Duchy, located in the mid-southern part of the Northern Territory, still maintains close ties with several powerful kingdoms on the Central Continent.

Moreover, it’s said that the Duke’s Scepter of the Radiant Duchy, even when the gods offer no response, possesses mighty authority, serving as the national treasure and proof of the duke’s succession.

There is also the Rose Duchy, a name so simple, named after the roses within the territory as both the duchy’s name and its spiritual symbol, yet its strength should not be underestimated.

Many mortals are unaware, but take, for instance, the fully armed, armored knights, human-horse clad in iron armor.

Hundredsaligned are few in the eyes of mortals, but a quadrilateral formation of forty armored knights covers more ground than several hundred people.

And when one hundred armored knights charge, the pressure is many times greater than the simultaneous charge of several thousand ordinary people.

The saying goes, ’a thousand men spread across the earth and sky; ten thousand men advance, endless and boundless.’

This describes not a common crowd clustering but the terrifying pressure and awe of a legion-sized formation.

And a single armored knight soldier requires at least two regular warhorses and at least three auxiliary militia or laborers.

The auxiliary militia accompanying these armored knight soldiers are also referred to as knight reserves.

In crucial moments on the battlefield, deploying a thousand such armored knights can easily decide the outcome of a war involving tens of thousands.

And the Rose Knight Order of Rose Duchy, officially recorded, has two thousand knights, all heavy armor knights, human-horse clad.

If this knight order were to be mobilized, it would require at least four thousand strong warhorses, six thousand auxiliary militia, and supplies for twenty thousand personnel.

This is just a portion of the Rose Duchy’s elite strength, giving a sense of the tremendous power behind such a seemingly ordinary name.

There is also the Nyaras Duchy, another powerful duchy.

And the Marino Duchy, bordering the southernmost territory of the Hobis Empire; even though the Hobis Imperial Monarch, Charal Sesha, possesses mighty strength and spirit, he has not attempted to invade or eradicate this former adversarial duchy.

Though such actions would stir a united and disruptive response from the entire Southern Noble Alliance, thus demonstrating Marino Duchy’s formidable strength.

Besides these powerful duchies, representatives of many medium and small noble factions have also arrived.

The emblem of the Modir family, once escorting a Giant Dragon to the Golden Empire, is also seen here, not suggesting Modir has betrayed the friendship with the Golden Empire.

Although Modir maintains amicable economic trade relations with the Golden Empire, the conduct of nobles, passed down for millennia, is thus; dual allegiances are a regular maneuver, their decisions based solely on benefit.

This banquet nearly encompasses most major and minor Northern nobility, even the southernmost Rose City of the Northern Continent sent its representatives and decision-making envoys.

And an envoy from the Hobis Empire is also conspicuously among them.

Although in just a single night, within a few hours, the situation in the Northern Golden Empire underwent some special changes amidst chaotic upheaval, the transmission of news has time constraints and limitations.

These gathered noble forces are merely proceeding according to their previous plans by coming here.

The daily candle consumption in this grand castle suffices to provide a comfortable living for an ordinary family of three for an entire year.

The exquisite carpets laid throughout the castle’s corridors are luxuries that ordinary people could not afford even after years of saving.

The magnificent screens, precious furniture, and the gold and silver tableware at the banquet, all engraved with the emblem of the Tafuri Clan of Lukepas Duchy’s Duke, are of unimaginable elegance and luxury for ordinary people.