“I know of no such thing!”
“Was there an arrangement with the dragon from the Council? Is that not it!?”
“…Their appearance is completely different from what I had heard. The description from the ministry of foreign affairs should not be wrong.”
“No, the biggest problem is that the thing was allowed to get this far! The Emperor is here! What are all the palace guards doing?”
Dragons could be said to be the mightiest beings in the world, with powerful bodies wrapped in sturdy scales, a lifespan far exceeding those of human beings, as well as all manner of special abilities and magic. Of course, there were exceptions as well, and some dragons had been slain by adventurers in the past, but there were just as many cases in the past where cities and even countries had been destroyed by the flames of wrathful dragons. One such city in the south had been destroyed just twenty years ago.
For such a being to appear in the middle of the imperial palace, it was a dire emergency.
Just as Jircniv gulped while looking over the dragon, two small figures descended from the dragon’s back.
If one squinted their eyes, they could see that they were children tanned by the sun.
“They seem to be dark elves.”
Fluder calmly uttered the race of those two children.
“Paradyne! That dragon, where is it from? And where did these two come from?”
“That dragon was something even I didn’t know about...”
Naturally, the same went for the two people who had disembarked, and the dragon that had landed in the courtyard was soon surrounded by a ring of knights. Although the knights were the pride of the Empire, in the face of a dragon they did not seem very reliable. As was to be expected of the strongest living creature in the world.
Among the knights, a man holding a shield on each arm came forward.
“Oi, oi. He’s the one going out? Well, it can’t be helped… although losing him is definitely going to be a waste.”
The person who moved forward was one of the Four Imperial Knights, the ‘Immovable’ Nazami Enec.
Nazami was one of the Empire’s most powerful warriors, and in terms of defense he was considered to be the strongest among the Four Knights. But even as a warrior who could resist many types of attacks, he still looked too small and insignificant in comparison to a dragon. Those were the words spoken by “Lightning” Baziwood Peshmel, as though confirming his comrade’s death, and nobody could deny them.
“Your Majesty, please retreat!”
“Tell me then, where can we retreat to? Where would we be safe?”
In response to the minister's proposal, Jircniv snorted.
“But your Majesty!”
“I know what you all want to say. But abandoning the palace will make me a laughing stock. Even if the opponent is a dragon, which doesn’t seem to be from the Agrando Republic, and if it is making such a move knowing that I won’t escape…… then that dragon may be as intelligent as I heard them to be, it seems to know the political situation of the Empire very well.”
Although Jircniv kept the nobles on a tight leash, that was only possible with the help of the knight orders. If news spread that he had fled the capital because of a dragon, the nobles might think that Jircniv’s military power was weak, and thus band together in revolt. Although he would not lose to an unruly mob, the Empire’s national power would fall drastically.