Hearing Gwen's words, Victoria nodded slightly while Duke Bodwin raised his eyebrows. "Do I need to leave?"
"It doesn't matter." Gwen took a glass of red wine from the tray of a passing waiter and turned back to look at Victoria. "It's about the dragon."
"That is indeed just a rumor," Victoria said faintly, as cold as the northern wind. If it was someone who did not know her, they might even find her unapproachable. "I have sent people to investigate. That day, except for a drunkard, no one saw the so-called giant dragon."
"I'm not talking about that one time, but the past hundreds of years in the north." Gwen looked into the eyes of the duchess. "Since my death, how many rumors about the Giant Dragon have there been in the north?"
Victoria raised her eyebrows slightly while Duke Bodwin glanced at her curiously. "If that's the case … the so-called 'Giant Dragon Appears' story seems to be a 'specialty' of the north?"
"There are occasional stories about the Giant Dragon in the north, and there are even some small groups of people who worship the Giant Dragon, but it's basically superstition of the mountain people," Victoria shook her head. "There are many mountains in the north, and there are often snowstorms in the mountains. The mountain people regard the snowstorm as the roar of the dragon. The north is bordered by the Holy Dragon Dukedom. The people of that country claim to be the descendants of the Giant Dragon and regard the dragon as their official religion. The mountain people are greatly influenced by them, and it's inevitable that there will be some strange stories. But in fact, the Weald family has lived in the north for 700 years, and until now, they have never seen a real dragon in the sky. Those stories are just myths."
"But now a real dragon has appeared, and it flew past me right in front of my eyes," Gwen said faintly.
"If there is a dragon, I will inform you immediately," Victoria said faintly and seemed to smile. "I thought you were going to invite me for a dance."
"I think I'll pass. I'm not good at this. Besides, it's been 700 years. I don't know what modern dance looks like." Gwen shook his head with a smile and waved his hand. "You guys go about your business. It's not comfortable to chat with a 700-year-old living fossil. I'll just watch by myself."
The two dukes' expressions froze (Victoria's had always been the same). Usually, they would say this to other juniors or nobles during gatherings. This was the first time someone had said it to them. It was as if they had returned to their childhood …
And yet, he couldn't refute it …
Watching the two dukes leave, Gawain sighed inwardly.
As expected, it was not that easy. When he heard the Duke of the Northern Region mention the rumor of the Giant Dragon, he thought it was an important clue.
The dragons had left the continent for so long that there were no recorded sightings of the Giant Dragon for nearly a thousand years. Those powerful creatures were almost mythical to most of the intelligent races on the continent. But for Gwen, who had been hanging in the sky for thousands of years, the Giant Dragon was no stranger.
After seeing the Giant Dragon, he sorted out his memory and counted all the images of the Giant Dragon. After browsing through them, he found that basically all the dragons came from the north.
Regardless of whether the time span was thousands or tens of thousands of years, regardless of whether the dragons came to the continent alone or in a group, they would first cross the mountains in the north and then enter the hinterland of the continent. And every time the dragons appeared, they seemed to have a clear purpose — they would go straight to the depths of the continent, and after doing something, they would quickly leave, completely without any intention of sightseeing.
Unfortunately, Gwen's vision was limited when he was in the sky. He could only see part of the continent and a small amount of coastline in the south. He was not even sure how far the northernmost part of the continent extended, so he could not guess whether the Giant Dragon came from behind the mountains in the north or from another continent farther across the sea.
But he had a feeling that the Giant Dragon would appear again.
Gwen and his party did not stay in the Captical for too long. They left on the third day.
It would take some time to raise the aid promised by the king. Food and materials could not be transported by land, or half of the food would be eaten by people and horses on the way. If they were transported by river, they would have to wait until the water level of the Dorgon River in the Plains of the Sacred Spirit rose in half a month. It would also take time to form a team of 100 craftsmen and apprentices. They had to wait for the various associations to elect the unlucky ones who did not fit in, had no influence, or had offended others. Then they would choose the most unlucky ones to register. This was also a time-consuming process. It was already a miracle that these people could leave before the food was loaded.
Gwen could not afford to wait. He finally got the right to explore the Captical, and there were a lot of plans in his mind waiting to be implemented. After getting a lot of documents provided by the king, he could not wait to leave the Captical.
When they arrived, they took their time and wandered around, but when they returned, they sped up, wishing they could just fly back. At this time, Gawain sincerely envied the "Teleportation Spell" that he had read in many fantasy novels. How nice would it be if there was a Teleportation Spell? He could just open the door and go home. Why would he have to go through so much trouble?
Unfortunately, on the Roland Continent, although spells did exist, they were not as convenient as in the stories. The use of magic by various races basically stopped at the level of making a big fireball to hit people or compressing a piece of arcane energy to cover people's faces. Spells such as teleportation and spatial storage were not unrecorded, but they were basically close to legends. For example, the legends said that the original elves, who had long disappeared in the long river of history, mastered the technology of spatial teleportation. Some people also said that the Draconic Magic, the source of many spells in the world, had a description of spatial magic.
Unfortunately, no one had seen the real thing.
On the other hand, the Duke of the Northern Territory, Victoria Wilde, had now returned to her castle in the Northern Territory, Winter Fort Academy.
The Duke who guarded the four territories of the kingdom could not leave her territory for a long time. Although the situation in the North was more stable than in the East, there could not be no one to take charge of the overall situation. So after the first meeting with Gwen Cecil, Victoria Wilde immediately left the White Silver Fort and took the fastest griffin to return to her territory first.
Throwing the thick and warm silver fox cloak to the servant, Victoria quickly walked into the depths of the castle.
She sat down in her office. A black-haired, black-eyed, ordinary-looking woman came forward and put a cup of hot tea on her table. Then, she came behind her and skillfully squeezed the Duchess' shoulder.
"You look tired." The woman spoke. Her voice was low and reassuring.
"The founding Duke has really come back to life, the legendary Gwen Cecil," Victoria whispered. "He looks exactly the same, and the Sword of the Pioneer is exactly the same. I boldly used the spell to detect lies, and what he said turned out to be true."
The woman who looked like a maid refuted Victoria. "A brilliant charlatan can avoid the detection of lies, and even if the spell works, it may not always be so reliable. There's always a probability problem with magic. You can't rely too much on it."
Victoria shook her head. "Margie, I still have my intuition."
"Intuition …" The woman called Margie pondered for a moment. "Then what are you going to do?"
"The resurrected hero seems to have no intention of intervening in the current power system of the kingdom. He just took away his permanent right to explore," Victoria told her the Captical experience with an indifferent expression. "What I care about is his attitude toward the king. I thought the founding Duke would attach great importance to the orthodox bloodline of the Moen Family, and even oppose the current royal family on this issue. But he actually publicly recognized Francis II as the heir of the founding emperor … This is unexpected."
"They should have contacted each other privately." Margie paused her massage. "You're careless."
"Careless." Victoria frowned. "And now, His Majesty the King is probably even more difficult to control …"
"Are you going to …"
"No." Victoria shook her head. "The Wilde Family wants the everlasting prosperity of the Ansu, not power."
"So you're not going to do anything." Margie continued to massage. "You're too soft."
"I don't like the way my father did things. It's no longer suitable for this era." As Victoria spoke, she involuntarily raised her eyes and looked at the wall opposite the room.
On that wall hung the family emblem of the Wilde Family, as well as five portraits of the founding emperor, Charles I, and the four pioneers, the Knight. These portraits could be said to be the standard of every noble family in the Ansu.
Next to the portraits of the ancestors of the Wilde Family was a portrait of Gwen Cecil. The mighty man in armor and holding the Sword of the Pioneer looked into the distance with his eyes that had experienced the vicissitudes of life, as if he could see through time and space and see the distant future. This association reminded Victoria of his resurrection after 700 years, and she could not help but tremble slightly.
"Vicki?" Margie's voice came from behind.
"Put away the portrait of Duke Cecil," Victoria Wilde said faintly. "It's not appropriate to hang it up."
"Put it away? Can I? "
"… He told me himself that he's not used to being hung on the wall when he's still alive." Victoria's voice had a trace of fatigue. "He's an elder and a good friend of the ancestors. I can't ignore his words."
"Okay." Margie nodded helplessly and walked to the opposite side to put away the portrait.
At this time, Victoria spoke again. "By the way, Margie, you're from the mountains, right?"
"Yes."
"Then do you know … the story of the dragon? What do you think of them? "
The black-haired, black-eyed woman had her back to Victoria. She was silent for a moment and shook her head. "Just some boring legends."
"But a dragon really did appear in the southern territory of Cecil."
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