The night sky was clear this evening, with the moon bright and the stars sparse.
However, the north wind today was also incredibly piercing.
The biting wind felt as if it were alive, relentlessly seeking gaps in his clothes to crawl inside.
It made people shiver uncontrollably.
'Whoosh...'
Another gust of north wind blew across the flat plains outside Brilliant City, where there were no buildings to obstruct the freezing gale.
The heavy cloak draped over Augus's shoulders snapped and fluttered violently in the wind.
He could not help but suck in a breath of cold air and exhale a cloud of white mist, clasping his hands together and blowing into his palms.
'Hiss... huff...'
They had been sitting here for nearly an hour.
Augus and Lola were both nearly frozen into blocks of ice by the biting north wind.
Yet, neither Brilliant City nor Dragon City seemed to have noticed anything unusual so far.
No one had come from Brilliant City, and no knights from Dragon City could be seen flying over.
This left the two of them at a loss for what to do.
Lola, holding the hand warmer, looked at Augus as he trembled from the cold and instinctively reached out to hand it to him.
"Use this for now. Your health isn't the best; don't let the cold break you."
"I-I-I'm fine. You... you keep it."
Augus was so cold he could barely speak clearly. Every time he opened his mouth, his teeth chattered uncontrollably with a rhythmic clicking sound.
It appeared that Augus was truly at his limit; if he stayed out here much longer, he would certainly fall ill.
After a moment of hesitation, Lola stood up, took Augus's hand, and placed the hand warmer into his palm.
Inside this hand warmer was a finely crafted fire element mana stone, a type of mana stone that could provide warmth for a long duration.
The most important feature was that the temperature of the hand warmer was adjustable to a certain extent.
Of course, to avoid burns from excessive heat, there was a maximum temperature limit.
She opened the cover, adjusted the temperature to its highest setting, and then looked at Augus's face.
"You use it. At the very least, I should be more resistant to the cold than you."
Feeling the warmth radiating from his palm, Augus felt as if his body had recovered a significant amount of heat in that instant.
His entire being felt much better almost immediately.
After thinking it over, he did not return the hand warmer to Lola.
It seemed his physical constitution might truly be inferior even to Lola's!
Perhaps he really should find a doctor to prescribe some medicine and get his body back in order.
After all, he was a descendant of a fallen noble family, and now, he was the only branch left that had achieved any success.
Regardless, the legacy of the family rested on his shoulders. If he didn't even have the physical strength, how could he pass on his lineage in the future?
It would be a true embarrassment if he ended up dying in bed due to a lack of stamina.
"Th-thank you."
Nodding while still shivering, Augus gripped the hand warmer with both hands. As he felt the warmth spread from his palms to his limbs, even his frozen feet began to regain some sensation.
It had to be said, this era did have some useful inventions.
It was just that mana technology seemed to have branched off in a strange direction to some degree.
Lola nodded, not dwelling on the matter, and instead turned her gaze toward the direction of Dragon City.
She looked back and asked a question.
"Augus, did you ever anticipate this situation?"
Augus's face was somewhat pale. He pressed the hand warmer against his cheek to warm his frozen lips before shaking his head.
"No. I didn't expect those people to be so foolish. Perhaps they were lured to New City by the carriage, or perhaps they simply aren't blocking us up ahead."
However, Lola shook her head. She glanced at Augus and then turned back toward Dragon City.
"But I suspect they might simply be unwilling to search for us in this freezing weather. Therefore, they are likely still blocking the path in front of Dragon City."
"Hmm? How could that be?"
Augus instinctively asked back, but he immediately understood Lola's meaning.
Among the nobility, there were many who were incredibly indolent; many were nothing more than parasites.
These nobles could not withstand even the slightest bit of hardship.
Forget about making them come out in the freezing cold to find someone; even getting them to step out of bed would likely be an issue.
If this operation was truly being executed by certain nobles, then such a thing might actually happen.
If that were the case, he truly had those foolish nobles to thank.
But then he thought, it seemed he was also a member of those foolish nobles.
Though his family had fallen on hard times, he had ultimately relied on his family's heritage to gain his current knowledge.
If he turned around and insulted them now, wouldn't he be insulting his own ancestors as well?
At that thought, Augus's mouth twitched slightly.
"Now, we can only wait for our people to deliver the message to Dragon City. If no news gets through at all, I'm afraid we really will freeze to death here."
Augus, having recovered much of his body heat, looked up to scan the north.
From his position, he could only faintly see a shadow of Dragon City.
But the view was not clear.
If the Dragon Knight Corps of Dragon City was patrolling according to their normal schedule, there should have been someone on patrol tonight.
If that were the case, surely someone should have spotted them by now!
But so far, nothing had been discovered. Could something have happened at Dragon City?
Just as he was thinking this, a faint dragon roar echoed from the distance.
Augus's gaze instinctively followed the roar as he looked up into the darkness of the sky.
In that darkness, small black dots could be faintly seen racing toward them from afar.
"They're here."
Augus seemed to be talking to himself, yet also informing Lola.
Lola nodded, a slight smile appearing on her face.
Seeing the Dragon Knight Corps was basically proof that the two of them were safe.
As her highness's trusted aides, Lola valued her own life quite highly as long as it didn't involve a life-or-death crisis for her highness.
After all, her highness had to rule such a massive country, so she needed people by her side who were smart enough and valued her.
And such talent was not easy to find in the current Kingdom of the Moon.
Her highness's previous policies had already offended almost all of the nobility.
Recently, although the Recruitment Order notice was still posted, very few people had come forward to apply.
One must not forget that this era was, after all, the era of the nobility.
Nearly ninety-nine point nine percent of talent was under the names of the nobles.
And when these talented individuals saw her highness targeting the nobility so aggressively, they would absolutely never come to serve her.
This incident also seemed to expose her highness's impatience.
Lola carefully considered it; at the current rate of training, it would take at least seven or eight years for the next wave of administrative talent to emerge. Even for those commoner officials who changed careers halfway, it would take three to five years to adapt and properly take control of those official positions.
And this was exactly why the current Kingdom of the Moon could not do without the nobility.
"Augus, looking at it now, her highness's strategy seems a bit too hasty. Sigh... perhaps as her right-hand aides, we should persuade her highness to stop pushing the nobles so hard for the time being. Otherwise, the country will truly run out of usable talent."
A bit of color returned to Augus's face. Hearing Lola's words, he lowered his head in thought for a moment.
"Once this crisis passes, her highness's path forward will essentially be paved. Although her highness is impatient, I think she also understands one thing."
"Wiping out the nobility in a single stroke is nearly impossible for the current Kingdom of the Moon."
"And precisely because of this, wasn't that Decree of Distribution of Grace her highness wanted to implement last time also held back? If that had truly been issued, I'm afraid this rebellion would be even more violent than it is now."
"You're right. Her highness should know these things."
Lola nodded. Her highness's loathing for the nobility could be seen in many aspects, but on the other hand, it was also clear that her highness was still very wary of them.
At the same time, because the nobility held a monopoly on talent, the current Kingdom of the Moon was unable to leave them behind.
This contradiction was a problem her highness had yet to resolve.
"So, how do you think we should speak to her highness?"
Lola glanced at the Dragon Knight Corps in the distance. They had clearly spotted the two of them and were beginning a slow descent from high altitude. As they drew closer, Lola could even almost see the face of the knight in the lead.
In fact, even without looking at the knight's face, she could guess who had come.
After all, that skysoar dragon, which was clearly a size larger than the others, was obviously Mr. Momo.
And the only person who could ride Mr. Momo was Lancelot.
"Well, I think after this incident, her highness should realize that now is not the best time. When the time comes, we just need to select some talent from among the nobles for her highness to pick out and manage Final City and Seaview City. Those nobles will then know that her highness does not yet intend to eradicate them entirely."
Lola nodded, hesitating for a moment before managing to force out a difficult question.
"But what if her highness insists on exterminating all the nobles this time?"
Hearing this, Augus's brow instantly furrowed. He thought for a long time as Mr. Momo landed on the ground and Lancelot dismounted from the skysoar dragon's back to stand before them.
Yet, he still had no answer.
Clearly, Augus could not think of any good way to stop her highness.
Given the current situation, her highness indeed had the right to directly exterminate those nobles.
After all, this rebellion was far too massive, and not just within the Kingdom of the Moon.
It wasn't even limited to human nations.
With the scale of the current rebellion, whether this happened in a human kingdom or a nation of another race, it was something that would make anyone holding sovereign power tremble with fear!
This matter was too big—so big that once her highness was victorious, the nobles of other countries would have no excuse to protect the nobles within the Kingdom of the Moon.
If her highness truly intended to wipe them out root and branch, no one could stop her.
Whether in terms of the moral high ground or military strength, her highness held the absolute advantage.
And this kind of absolute advantage could easily lead to blind arrogance.
"My lords, please forgive my late arrival. Please mount the dragons; we will head to Dragon City to rest first."
After dismounting, Lancelot did not notice their conversation and spoke directly.
Lola nodded, glanced at Augus who was still lost in thought, and was the first to step onto Mr. Momo's back.
Augus snapped out of it after a moment and then followed her up.
Lancelot walked beside the two of them, his gaze scanning the surroundings from time to time, remaining alert for any movement.
As an outsider who had recently joined and was once an apostate knight, Lancelot was very clear about his own situation.
Currently, he was being heavily relied upon by her highness, yet he had almost nothing he could offer in return to her.
And this time, he wanted to repay her highness, but it seemed that everything was not within his grasp.
He hadn't even noticed immediately when these two right-hand aides were in danger.
He could let that go.
Even without any major achievements, protecting these two could at least count as some hard-earned credit.
But if any problem occurred at a time like this, he might not have any credit at all, only a dereliction of duty.
Therefore, after receiving the news, he had personally led the troops to intercept them as quickly as possible.
He had been so worried along the way, fearing that something might have happened to the two of them.
Fortunately, by the time he arrived, these two were completely unharmed, which allowed him to breathe a great sigh of relief.
The most important thing now was to protect these two first, and then look into the issues within the city.
If anything else happened to these two most important people, he, as the Commander of the Dragon Knight Corps, should resign.
"My lords, we shall head to Dragon City first."
"We appreciate the trouble, Commander Lancelot."
Lola had a smile on her face. Although the man before her was a latecomer, in terms of strength, he was highly regarded by her highness, which was why he was able to command the Dragon Knight Corps.
But strictly speaking, the Dragon Knight Corps had always been under Ligeia's control.
This man only possessed wartime command; on ordinary days, he had almost no authority to control the Dragon Knight Corps.
After all, the most important part of the Dragon Knight Corps was not the knights, but the dragons!
Aside from Ligeia and her highness, it was difficult for anyone else to directly command those skysoar dragons.
Given the current situation, Ligeia was essentially the unofficial commander of the Dragon Knight Corps.
And this Lancelot was the public combat commander.
This was also why her highness felt comfortable entrusting the Dragon Knight Corps to an outsider like Lancelot.
Yes, regardless of how powerful Lancelot was, he was still an outsider.
He was not yet fully trusted by her highness; otherwise, Ligeia wouldn't have been kept stationed at Dragon City.
Ligeia was not just someone who studied the dragon race.
Her fields of study were much more comprehensive; most importantly, her highness valued agriculture the most, and those things required Ligeia's help.
Yet so far, Ligeia had been busy with the affairs of Dragon City, and her highness had seemingly never mentioned those things.
"Where is Lady Ligeia? Why didn't she come?"
Seeing that Ligeia was not among this group of the Dragon Knight Corps, Lola instinctively asked a question.
Lancelot helped Augus onto the dragon's back, leaped up himself, and pulled the reins before turning back to answer.
"Lady Ligeia is currently trying to find a way to contact her highness."
Rate on N.U.
