Gawain found himself unable to explain what a "disk" is to Betty—after all, just the translation barrier was a challenge in itself. But fortunately, the maid didn’t dwell on this issue for long. She was always good at giving up on things she simply couldn’t understand and had a carefree nature.
Gawain watched as Betty poured half a pot of scalding hot tea onto the former Dragon God, using something that looked unmistakably like a rag to wipe the former deity for quite some time. The girl surely had no idea what an astonishing act she was mitting. All he could see was how much she enjoyed the process, with a happy smile always on her face, and it was apparent she had done this countless times before...
Even a blasphemer famous in history is reduced to just this in front of Betty.jpg.
After her busywork, Betty left the room—she still had a lot of work to do. Though she now has many other servants and attendants following her instructions, she was accustomed to a bustling pace of life and simply couldn’t stay idle.
Gawain watched Betty leave. Only after the door to the Hatching Room was closed did he shake his head and glance at the silently golden giant egg beside him: "You and Betty get along well... Do her reckless actions not offend you?"
"She possesses a pure heart... purer than almost all mortals I’ve encountered. I enjoy chatting with her; it reminds me of the deepest memories of the Dragonkin... a time when many things were simple," Enya said softly. "As for the so-called offense... it seems many people instinctively assume that ’gods’ care a lot about what mortals consider ’offense’, but this is actually a misconception. Most of the time, we don’t care what mortals are specifically doing. The incessant echoes of thought trends gradually drown out all our reason; we hope someone will talk to us, even if it means being a bit reckless... but the rules do not allow it.
"So I don’t feel offended by the little girl’s actions at all. I enjoy and cherish everything I’m experiencing now, including her tea and ’wiping’—because this sense of freedom is something the Dragonkin paid an enormous price to achieve."
Gawain couldn’t help but glance at Enya, who was contemplating her egg existence: "They were just fighting for their own freedom too—your survival, in fact, is a precautionary surprise to them."
Enya laughed, with a tone from the egg shell that sounded like a retired old cadre giving advice: "Don’t take things too seriously; sometimes being a bit muddleheaded is good."
Gawain opened his mouth but said nothing in the end, looking at the golden egg before him, feeling as if he was witnessing a soul finally freed after 1.87 million years of confinement.
When the cradle is overturned, it’s not just the children who are liberated...
...
At the peak of the mountain range in the extreme north, winds howled over snow-covered fortresses and courtyards, with the highest terrace of Dragonwatch Keep bathed in dawn light. Flags depicting the side profile of a dragon flapped around the terrace walls in the wind, and snow was swept up by the wind, floating over the ridges and walls, drifting down toward the city areas below the mountainside.
Large fire pans burned at the edge of the terrace, the invisible magical power in the crimson flames blocking the coldest winds. Merita Ponia and Duke Balogar stood together on the terrace, their eyes gazing at the forest with a hint of green at the foot of the mountains and the narrow patches of plains beyond.
"The farmland in the Sacred Dragon Kingdom is limited, and the climate here is not very suitable for large-scale agricultural production... Even with magical assistance, our grain production has always been barely sufficient, but there’s still too little surplus every year," Duke Balogar said gravely. "Originally, I was ready to buy grain from neighboring countries and expand our collection... We never expected the aid from the human world to arrive in such scale. The alliance solved not only our food supply issues but also brought ’hope’ itself..."
"It’s not just the human world, my lord," Melita lowered her eyelids with a solemn expression, "but also elves, dwarves, and beastmen... Every race participating in the alliance has provided some level of assistance, especially the gray elves, who have supplied a large amount of medicinal materials... one of Talronde’s most urgently needed resources."
Upon hearing Melita’s words, Duke Balogar fell into contemplation, then spoke thoughtfully: "But even with medications from the Loren Continent, only part of the problem can be solved... Not all traditional medicines are effective on modern dragons, especially since many members of the Dragonkin have been dependent on enhancers for too long. Our patriots suffering from the backlash of neural enhancers need more than just medication."
"His Majesty Gawain Cecil also considered this issue; I discussed it with him—a medical team using Holy Light Power from Cecil will be organized to assist in Talronde. Their main task is to handle situations where conventional medications are ineffective," Melita said. "According to our tests, ’Holy Light’ is effective on all mortal races and is extremely suitable for neurological treatment, mental healing, and toxin purification. This might have miraculous effects in solving the issue of enhancer addiction."
"Holy Light... the power of the Holy Light God," Duke Balogar’s expression grew serious. "I’ve heard of Cecil’s ’Holy Light Church Reformation’ and know about their White Knights and Armed Nuns... Although I’m not familiar with their technical details, it seems they’ve found a way to bypass the Holy Light God, allowing mortals to use Holy Light directly? You’ve been active in the human world for many years. In your opinion, is the route they’ve chosen reliable?"
Clearly, when it came to issues involving "gods," this ancient titan dragon, who had experienced all of the Dragonkin’s defied battles, appeared extremely cautious and sensitive.
"The reform of the Holy Light Church should be considered one of the earliest attempts by Cecil in the field of ’harmless deification.’ It can even be traced back to the most primitive ’defied Plan,’ and is considered a continuation of that plan, pointing to our newly established ’theocracy Authority Council.’ In fact, many of the ideas of the theocracy Council were accumulated and summarized from the experience of reforming the Holy Light Church; it’s a model His Majesty Gawain Cecil hopes to extract useful parts from and apply to the reform of other religions," Melita analyzed seriously. "Now, we can’t say whether this route is reliable—after all, it’s something in the verification stage. But at least from the current results, the Holy Light released by the machines and the Holy Light summoned by priests are indistinguishable, and the Holy Light God... has yet to show any reaction."
Balogar nodded: "No reaction is the best reaction. This either means the mortals’ ’blocking’ methods are effective, the machines have bypassed the god’s authority, or it means the god behind the Holy Light, as His Majesty Gawain Cecil said, is silently cooperating with our actions."
Melita acknowledged with a sound and then added, "Oh, regarding the part of the ’Talronde mercial Development’ plan I mentioned to you earlier concerning the Sacred Dragon Kingdom..."
"You’re referring to that large-scale... tourism development?" Duke Balogar couldn’t help but let out a smile. "Setting one of the gateways to Talronde in the Sacred Dragon Kingdom, weling travelers and arranging group sign-ups for adventurers... The Dragon Blood Council has already discussed this. We believe this will not only be beneficial to Talronde but also significantly benefit the kingdom’s economy—it’s already successfully approved."
"Ah, that’s truly good news," Melita said happily, "This way, the connection between Talronde and the Sacred Dragon Kingdom can bee even closer."
"Of course," The Grand Duke of Dragonblood smiled and nodded, then immediately furrowed his brows a bit, showing some concern. "This massive mercial plan is indeed astonishing, and even the Dragon Blood Council is amazed by His Majesty Gawain Cecil’s keen insights and unique vision. But to be honest... such a huge mercial activity, a brand-new industry model, won’t this really cause a divine power wave in the mercial realm? Especially after learning the truth about the War God at Winterhold Fort Battlefield, now my advisors are very worried that these plans will bring the god of trade... ’down’ again."
Merita’s expression immediately turned a bit dazed, clearly she hadn’t thought in this direction before. After a brief consideration, the blue dragon lady shook her head: "I’m not too worried, after all, according to the current monitoring situation of various religions by the Cecil side, the deity of trade’s emotions should be quite stable."
"The deity of trade’s emotions are stable..." Duke Balogar’s expression was slightly peculiar, "That’s really a description no one has ever thought of... but it’s quite suitable in the context of the theocracy Authority Council."
"The main reason for the War God’s uncontrolled descent was the great conceptual change in the domain of war, a widespread shock to ideas caused by the sudden onset of economic warfare affecting the lives of many ordinary people, which then affected the thoughts and the gods behind those thoughts," Merita continued, "According to analyses from Cecil and Typhon, this dramatic change of ideology mainly occurred in the ’clash of authority domains,’ whereas a new mercial model does not constitute such a shock to merce itself—it’s a deepening of a field, not a transformation from one domain to another."
As she said this, the blue dragon lady couldn’t help but scratch her head: "To be honest, I haven’t pletely figured this out either—they are on a path pletely different from Talronde, and my accumulated experience and knowledge are not suitable for dealing with their theories, but at least so far, I trust Gawain’s judgment. He has an astonishingly keen sense and transcendent vision in the domain of divinity."
Duke Balogar laughed: "You hold him in high regard."
"I initially didn’t expect a human to bring so much change to this world," Merita said frankly, "To be honest, I haven’t municated much with him. Seven hundred years ago, he was just a client of the Mithril Vault, but seven hundred years later... the ’surprises’ he brought to me in a few years surpass those I experienced in the human world over the past two thousand years bined."
"That’s how the change of eras is—long accumulation, then as if all erupted in an instant, every civilization season is like this. It’s abnormal to maintain ’stagnant water’ for over 1.8 million years like Talronde."
Duke Balogar spoke with a thoughtful expression, and at this moment, footsteps suddenly sounded from behind. The red-haired Dragonmarked Witch Asha Leyna appeared on the terrace: "Duke, Miss Envoy, we have received special munication from Cecil, internal line."
Balogar and Merita suddenly looked at each other, the latter subconsciously said in amazement: "What a coincidence, we were just talking about him..."
"We’ll go right away," Balogar nodded to Asha Leyna, already stepping towards the terrace exit, "The Emperor of Cecil wouldn’t casually make contact."
Soon, Merita and Balogar arrived in the munication room on the upper floor of Dragonwatch Keep. Amongst numerous messaging arrays and enhancement crystals, a Magic Web terminal, in stark contrast to the surroundings with its brand new and bright exterior, quietly rested on a platform, projecting a holographic image from the Cecil Imperial Capital. This device is part of the relationship promotion plan between the Sacred Dragon Kingdom and the Cecil Empire, an extension of Cecil’s "Magic Web prehensive Promotion Plan"—it remains on standby at all times, ensuring munication between the capitals of the two countries anytime, especially after the unexpected outbreak of the Typhon-Cecil war, which further emphasized the importance of this device.
Merita and Duke Balogar stood in front of the munication device, the room’s door closed behind them after irrelevant personnel left, only then did Balogar nod to Gawain on the screen: "Good day, His Majesty Gawain—what happened?"
Gawain on the screen seemed a bit hesitant at first, but he didn’t hesitate long: "Here’s the situation, regarding that dragon egg sent from Talronde..."
Merita immediately became nervous: "What happened to that dragon egg?"
"Remain calm, what I’m about to say isn’t bad news," Gawain said before answering, "What I’m going to say next may be shocking, but overall the situation is good—are you ready?"
"We are ready," Balogar took a deep breath, looking seriously at Gawain in the projection, "So what happened to that dragon egg?"
"...It spoke."
Merita & Balogar: "?"
"She says her name is Enya," Gawain cleared his throat, looking particularly serious, "Yes, it’s the ’Enya’ we know—Merita, help the Duke next to you, he’s starting to sway."
Merita quickly supported the visibly shocked Duke of Dragonblood. The Dragonblood Duke widened his eyes, staring at the munication device in front of him. After a long time, this ancient titan from the Ancient Era slightly calmed down, controlling the feeling of the world spinning around him. As he gently pushed Merita’s arm away, he tried to break the silence in a calm tone: "Are you saying... our former deity... He was hiding inside that egg, and now He’s awakened again..."
"No, you can now refer to Enya as ’she’, even address her by her name like I do. That’s what I wanted to say: Overall, this is good news—she’s no longer a deity and no longer has ideological ties with the Dragonkin. Her revival also corroborates my previous hypothesis that the divine nature and human nature of deities can be treated separately. You can relax now, Duke Balogar—the Dragonkin are free, indeed, there’s nothing to worry about."
Seeing that Gawain’s expression was not feigned, Balogar finally felt his breath even out, then he instinctively asked: "So... our deity she... after waking up, what did she say? No, I mean, is she... okay now?"
"She seems quite stable emotionally," Gawain said while glancing to the side, it seemed the former Dragon God was within his sight range now, "Oh, even better than stable, she’s quite pleased right now."
"What’s she doing?"
"Reading newspapers—and trying to make some drinks."
Balogar & Merita: "??"
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