48

Carl VII felt threatened by the Cronos family’s excessive expansion of power with William Cronos backing them. The imperial family had also secretly pressured the Mudria Wizard Tower and obtained a swordsman who could use Aura Beam after two decades of hard work. Still, there was no guarantee that he would win over William Cronos. Over the past thirty years, the Duke Cronos family has constantly expanded its power. Almost half of the imperial aristocrats were openly on the side of Duke Cronos, so the Emperor was making every effort to keep him in check.

Hearing the inside story of Duke Cronos’ dragon hunt, Count Henderson was surprised by the abilities of the Imperial Intelligence Department as well as Duke Cronos’ ambition. Suppose the Duke nurtured many more swordsmen who could use Aura Beam. In that case, he might rebel against the Emperor or he could consolidate his power to declare an independent country.

“So, I decided to intervene in Duke Cronos’ dragon hunt.”

Count Henderson glanced at the Emperor’s face, cringing at his words. The young Emperor looked determined.

“As you may already know, the dragon hunt is impossible only with Knights. The support of seven-circle Wizards and six-circle mages is essential for it. No matter how well you drive the dragon into a corner, it will be of no use if it flies away. Therefore, you need the support of sorcerers using magic to delay the dragon’s flight. The owner of the Icarus Wizard Tower, Sirius, informed me that his sorcerers would participate in Duke Cronos’ dragon hunt. He will dispatch Regulus, the seven-circle Wizard, and twenty mages for the hunt. After the hunt, the Wizard Tower will take all the magic books and magic reagents found in the dragon’s lair. Denebola, another seven-circle Wizard, has decided to join your Southern Expeditionary Army as a war mage. Sirius will dispatch a considerable number of mages with him. Why don’t you meet Denebola before your departure to coordinate your schedule and the list of the war mages who will take part in the Southern Expedition?”

Count Henderson had many questions, but he just listened to the Emperor. He was well aware that the Emperor had yet to get to the point.

“A few days ago, I met the Duke of Cronos and told him that I will also be involved in the dragon hunt. I want you to take care of this job before you go south.”

Contrary to Count Henderson’s expectations, the Emperor put both crucial missions in his charge. It was time for Count Henderson to ask questions.

“Do you want me to deprive Duke Cronos of the Dragon Heart?”

“No, I don’t. William Cronos may be in on it, so I can’t force you to carry out such an unreasonable mission. What I demanded from Duke Cronos in exchange for participating in the dragon hunt was not the Dragon Heart but the treasure in the dragon’s lair. Regardless of whether Duke Cronos will succeed in winning Dragon Heart or not, I can’t stand by and let him take over the dragon’s treasures and harvest more power. You just have to check whether they obtain the Dragon Heart or not and then bring the dragon’s treasure.”

“Do you think Duke Cronos will fail to win the Dragon Heart?”

“According to what I’ve researched in all the imperial libraries, there have been a few successful dragon hunts in imperial history, but there was only one successful case of obtaining a Dragon Heart. When dragons are completely cornered and ready to die, they release all the manna collected in their Dragon Heart at once and send it back to nature. Cronos may be prepared for it, but it won’t be easy to stop the dragon from dismantling its Dragon Heart. I have gathered some materials that might help you, so take them when you leave. You have to hurry since Duke Cronos will hunt the dragon in fifteen days.”

When Count Henderson came out of the Emperor’s private garden, the young eunuch handed him the materials related to the dragon hunt. Count Henderson analyzed them meticulously In his wagon while going to the Black Bear Order’s headquarters. Duke Cronos’ target dragon lair was located at the border between the Icarus Empire and the Scandia Kingdom, where the Polermone Mountains met the Pleo Mountains. The two mountains were originally one long mountain range, but they called the part on the imperial side Polermone and the part in the Scandia Kingdom’s territory Pleo. Of the two mountains, the most rugged range was the area where the dragon lair was located. Due to this rough terrain, the border between the two countries had been considered an insurmountable natural barrier for a long time.

The hunting target that Duke Cronos has determined using his family’s entire intelligence force was a relatively young dragon about three thousand years old, raising a hatchling about two hundred and seventy years old. Duke Cronos judged that if his dragon hunters took the hatchling hostage, the dragon would not escape easily, even if they attacked it severely. Usually, when a dragon’s hatchling started to fly by itself at about three hundred years old, it was recognized as a dragon and became independent. Until then, dragon’s hatchlings were fully protected by their parent and educated to develop as a dragon. Dragons had no gender distinction since they were hermaphrodites. Sometimes they mated with other dragons to give birth, but in many cases self-fertilized.

The gold dragon with the properties of wind, set by Duke Cronos as his target, would be an easier target for humans to deal with than red dragons with the attribute of fire or the blue dragon with lightning. Dragons, estimated to have a lifespan of about ten thousand years, grew little by little until death. Although humans did not dare to hunt dragons over four thousand years old, considered as Ultimate Creatures, some young dragons have been hunted by humans, though rarely. The dragons hunted by humans were very young dragons under the age of two thousand years, and there was no record of hunting older dragons in imperial history. After reading through the materials, Count Henderson called his deputy, Paul, who was riding a horse, to get on his wagon. Having handed the materials over to Paul, Count Henderson said,

“You don’t have to take part in the dragon hunt, so just skim through the materials. I will take only the Knights of the Black Bear Order on the dragon hunt. Ordinary soldiers will not be helpful; only the casualties will increase. After I leave, you wait for the three thousand Central Army soldiers to be ready. After they are ready, visit the estates with them starting from the northeastern regions to the southeastern areas, checking the number of troops called from each estate. And then lead them to the Henderson County. I’ll join you as soon as the dragon hunt is over.”

Knight Commander Arthur was on standby after gathering all members of the Black Bear Order at their headquarters. In Icarus, the number of Knights in one Order was set at thirty, while some other countries did not have a fixed number. So, there were various numbers of Knights in their Order, ranging from twenty to fifty. In the past, unskilled Knights had sometimes entered the Order through connections or even using bribes. But in recent years, such cases are rarely seen since existing Knights in the Order no longer tolerated incompetent Knights who joined through the wrong path as the treatment of Knights belonging to the Order improved significantly. As the role of the Knight Orders in wars grew, the salaries of Knights belonging to the regular Orders increased several times compared to decades before. Since, in some cases, under the guise of sparring, existing Knights maimed those who entered the Knight Order by expediency or even killed them, few tried to enter an Order using underhanded methods these days. In the event of vacancies in a Kight Order, only those Knights recognized for their sword skills after sparring with three of the existing Knights were accepted. In the case of the three Imperial Orders, which many advanced Knights wanted to enter, there was a reserve list of about ten Knights in preparation for vacancies.

The Knight Commander Arthur welcomed Count Henderson, who entered his room with his deputy Paul.

“It’s an honor to participate in a war with you again.”

The Black Bear Order had fought two wars in the army under the command of Count Henderson. The thirty-six-year-old relatively young Knight Commander, Arthur, appreciated Count Henderson’s command of his troops. Hence, Arthur welcomed that the Emperor appointed Count Henderson as the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Expeditionary army.

“I look forward to your outstanding contribution to the Southern Expedition. I will be putting my trust in you once more. Well, there’s one thing we need to do before we leave for the south. Did you get a message from the palace?”

“I just got it. But, a dragon hunt out of the blue, isn’t it too risky before an imminent war?”

“Our mission is to acquire the treasure in the dragon lair. The Cronos’ Knights and sorcerers from the Wizard Tower will take charge of the dragon hunt, so don’t be too aggressive and be careful not to cause any casualties to your Knights. If any casualties occur to the Black Bear Order, the mainstay of the Southern Expeditionary Army, even before the opening of the war, would be in big trouble.”