Chapter 743: Unexpected Passion

The Bardi Empire’s capital city had a long and ancient history.

Looking down at the city from above, compared to the last time that I was here almost a decade ago, this city was now several times larger than last time.

No, to be more accurate, the capital city had added several new districts with different functions, along with several new satellite cities.

The most obvious part was the wide-open northern part of the capital city. This location had previously been a mountain range.

The mountain cliffs had been completely hollowed out. Super long palaces had been constructed on top. Dragons were often sighted flying in and out from these palaces. This was Bardi Dragon City, which had only been established recently.

Underneath the Bardi Dragon City was a new arena constructed out of white stone. Knights were dueling each other in this arena in order to improve their skills, as well as to show off their prowess to the dragons.

Thanks to the Bardi Emperor and the Dragon City leaders’ combined efforts, as well as due to pressure from the outside, the dragons had slowly abandoned their past pride, and no longer viewed fighting together alongside human knights as something so humiliating.

And nowadays, neither the knight nor the dragon needed to be of high level to pose a threat. Due to the invention of countless new equipment, many young dragons would choose to pair with a knight who had such new equipment. In fact, most dragons viewed such knights as nothing more than operators of the newest equipment.

Three years ago, due to the invention of the newest magical cannon, Scorpion 2, along with the invention of mid-sized mana batteries, dragons were now commonly equipped with multiple heavy magic cannons. They were truly becoming the rulers of the sky.

These dragons already had a new nickname, and it even seemed that they could become a new standard troop type—magic armor dragons.

The new district in the capital’s west was a place for technicians, engineers, and mages to live.

Even though the Bardi Empire had a long tradition of using dragon knights as their ace troop type, the Bardi Empire actually unhesitatingly focused on developing magical engineering after it noticed how important this new technology was.

The Bardi Empire invested a tremendous amount of resources, wealth, personnel, and equipment into developing magical engineering. Most importantly of all, Bardi had enough of a large population so that plenty of people were willing to learn how to use all of the newly imported magical engineering equipment as well as learn the concepts of magical engineering from teachers invited to come over. The Bardi Empire was well on its way to becoming ever more powerful under Dragon Knight Emperor Halent’s leadership.

Actually, all of this was quite easy to understand. Halent had simply paid lots of money to us as we were allies in order to purchase our technology and hire talented individuals. He then issued an order that the scholars in his kingdom change to studying magical engineering, followed by investing in the researchers who showed potential. Even if results might not be immediate, the researchers would be more than happy to voluntarily study in such a research environment. This would then cause new talent to be interested in the magical engineering profession due to the available benefits. The Bardi Empire would then benefit from such a policy in 10 or 20 years down the road.

But unlike Auland, which also focused heavily on developing magical engineering, Bardi focused more on developing smaller magical equipment as well as practical equipment for warfare, while Auland focused more on developing heavy ships and tanks.

The only thing their research had in common was the focus on practical combat.

Magical engineering engines, portable mid-sized mana batteries, practical heavy artillery and cannons, magically engineered armor, and so on were viewed by other countries as unimportant technologies, but Bardi and Auland viewed them as tremendously important research.

About the magic armor dragons that I’d mentioned earlier, they would typically carry large or mid-sized mana batteries to act as mobile mana storage. They would also usually be wearing several hundred pieces of magic armor equipment, combined with anywhere from four to 20 of the newest magic cannons. They were armed to the teeth. It was far too easy for them to fight five enemies of the same power level alone.

This was a secret weapon that had only shown itself recently in the past few months while fighting against the undead army in Bardi. These magic armor dragons had achieved astonishing combat results and attracted countless attention.

Only then did the world discover that the Bardi Empire, which was thought of as slow and traditional, had actually advanced very far with the new technology of magical engineering.

According to Emperor Halent’s New Year’s speech that he gave this year, magic armor dragons was now even a new standardized troop type that could be mass-produced. Currently, there were 312 magic armor dragons in all of Bardi.

Magic armor dragons had excellent defense, attack power, and ability to fight extremely long battles. The dragons’ stats had been massively buffed by magical engineering technology.

The magic armor’s defenses neutralized all ordinary liches’ attack spells. The dragons’ powerful physical bodies along with overwhelming magic cannon attack power allowed them to rule the skies and slaughter as they pleased.

Practical combat also proved just how scary and powerful dragons were after being combined with magical engineering.

The fairies assessed this new troop type to be Legend rank in strength. This meant that this was a frightening squadron with all members having Legend rank or above in combat strength. On paper, this would already be the strongest squadron in the entire world.

Of course, there were downsides as well. A tremendous amount of resources and money would have to be spent on this new troop type. It was said that Emperor Halent was already so poor that he had begun selling off his personal items and was eating plain food.

Also, most of the dragons who wore all the magic armor and magic cannons were younger dragons. Older dragons, especially Immemorial Dragons and older, would still rely on their physical bodies for true power. Moreover, magical engineering technology still wasn’t of much use in fights against top-level individuals.

Additionally, the magic armor dragons were rather slow due to wearing far too much heavy equipment, even if they would also be assisted by floating engines. In fact, if the floating engines were turned off or were damaged… it was likely that the magic armor dragons would fall out of the sky.

“No, that wouldn’t happen. It’s in our guidebooks. In such a situation, just immediately take off all the equipment and throw it to the ground. Emperor Halent said that ‘If the equipment is destroyed, we can make more, but humans and dragons are irreplaceable’.”

Right when I entered Bardi’s borders, two of the newest magic armor dragons arrived with a diplomat, who must have overheard me accidentally saying my own thoughts out loud. It was evident that Bardi had known beforehand of my arrival.

This diplomat was a middle-aged man named Stere Zhou. He had previously acted as Bardi’s ambassador to the Mist Kingdom, so I had met him before. Halent had indeed put thought into this by sending him to meet me.

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Bardi’s method tossing away all the valuable equipment and preserving humans and dragons first was in a way yet more proof of how rich the Bardi Empire really was.

The cost of making one full set of equipment and magic cannons for a magic armor dragon would be more than enough to create two small combat airships for the Mist Alliance.

Maybe this was the difference in strength between a large country and a small country. A small country with the same technology would only be able to gain a temporary advantage for a short period of time. The small country might not even be able to afford to create some of the most advanced technology. Meanwhile, the big country would standardize the most advanced technology’s production and then think about selling off their older and outdated products.

The “Progress” airship’s engine still hadn’t been fixed, so the airship had been unable to fly as high as the clouds. From the airship’s current height, it was quite easy to see what was below quite clearly. The two young magic armor dragons and their similarly young knight riders were flying to the left and right of the airship, respectively, while looking at us with curiosity.

“…It seems that these dragon knights aren’t dragon descendants?” I asked casually, which actually caused Stere to break out in a cold sweat. In a way, I supposed that I was asking for military intelligence here.

He was hesitating because he didn’t know if he would be allowed to tell me or not. However, there was someone else who could easily make this decision.

“Yes, you’re right. With the Holy War raging on like this, even the dragons who are older than ancient artifacts have understood the situation clearly. They’ve realized that protecting their own species’ descendants and status is more important than their dragon pride.”

This thick and booming voice belonged to a middle-aged man who wore a heavy blue cape, heavy armor, and a crown.

He walked over and directly gave me an overly passionate embrace, while everyone else around him kneeled in deference.

“Long time no see, Your Highness Roland. Welcome back to the Bardi Empire. I hope that you’ve brought me good news this time.”

This man was Halent Milan, formerly known as the Dragon Knight Archduke, now known as the Dragon Knight Emperor of Bardi.

Compared to nine years ago, he was slightly taller now. He also intentionally grew a beard—maybe to make himself seem more mature—but I could tell that his physical body actually appeared even younger now.

Tremendous power was contained within Halent’s physically body. If I closed my eyes and used my soul vision instead, I’d see only a powerful dragon in front of me. It seemed that Halent was currently now more dragon than human.

Still, this was within expectations. The dragons had many secret techniques for improving dragon bloodline density. Halent would have no reason to refuse power.

Compared to the previous shy youth that he’d been, Halent’s expression now seemed rather exaggerated.

“Oh, whoops, you’ve already brought good news for me. One week ago, as a human, you managed to defeat a Chaos Main God, achieving incredibly glory. Come, let us all celebrate this glorious victory together for the hero of humanity!” Halent said to himself. He then excitedly started applauding me, causing the other commoners in the area to follow suit.

I then received a round of thunderous applause and cheering. All that was missing was the music.

I was always naturally suspicious of those who would suddenly act friendly and praise me for no apparent reason. This overwhelmingly passionate welcome only made me feel goosebumps and suspicion.

“This is just propaganda, propaganda,” Halent whispered to me so that only I could hear. He then pulled on my hand and had me wave to all the Bardi citizens.

I then noticed that the “Progress” airship had already docked in Bardi’s airship port. An enormous welcoming crowd was waiting below. In the distance, I could even see young dragons waving banners with red lettered slogans.

“Warmly celebrating the eighth year of the Bardi Empire’s friendship with the Mist Alliance!”

“Welcoming His Highness Roland of the Mist Alliance to come share his knowledge!”

“Celebrating His Highness Roland’s return after defeating the Chaos Main God!”

The welcoming crowd, flowers, ceremonial cannons, and even military band were all present. The only slightly strange part was how the “Progress” airship was almost completely ruined. Still, due to the magic armor dragons’ escort, this actually made us seem even more impressive, just as if we were heroic warriors who had just returned from the battlefield.

Halent kept forcing me to wave my hand at the crowd. The cheers from below were incredibly loud, reaching even up to the clouds.

What I noted was that none of this appeared to be intentionally arranged at all. The cheers were all truly heartfelt.

Many thoughts flashed in my mind at this moment, causing my expression to stiffen for a second. I then instantly realized that this was inappropriate, so I immediately changed to using my standard Holy Knight smile as I waved at the crowd.

And then… I was buried by the welcoming crowd.

Among all the chaos, I faintly heard some rather concerning words, such as “reinforcements”, “frontline”, and so on. I then felt like I understood what was going on.

30 minutes later, we finally made our way out of the overly friendly crowd. I asked my question before any of us could even take some time to drink any water.

“Halent, you actually needed to make my arrival into political propaganda to raise everyone’s morale? Has Bardi’s situation deteriorated to such an extent?”

Halent’s stiff smile transformed into a bitter smile when he heard my question.

He furrowed his eyebrows and gently massaged his forehead as a way to try and relax himself.

“As expected, nothing gets past you. Yes, you’re right. The situation is awful. Major trouble has occurred on the frontlines. We lost our battle there. We lost terribly. The Undead Emperors are 10 times harder to deal with than expected when they get serious!”