Because of Ying's report, Joshua quickly learned about Munster's arrival.
"Strange thing, you want to see me for something? But doesn't there already be a teleportation network in the North? He can use magic to notify me in the imperial capital. There is no need to ask for a meeting on the spot."
He said to himself with some doubts, the soldier didn't care about such a trivial matter. He stopped what he was doing and went to the living room downstairs to meet this old acquaintance.
After a while of greetings, he received the good news that Munster had traveled all the way from the imperial capital.
It was a commendation order from the royal family.
"This is?"
Raising his eyebrows, Joshua curiously picked up the medal with the sun emblem, representing the imperial family. He glanced sideways at the middle-aged prosecutor who had a vicissitudes of life and was drinking tea, waiting for the other party's explanation.
"Because it involves some confidential matters and cannot be made public, the royal family did not send a special envoy to grant you this honor."
But it was obvious that Munster had misunderstood what Joshua meant. He put down his tea cup and began to explain other things in detail: "The Northland is really far away from the imperial capital, and not many people know you. I am very interested in the earl." Your Majesty, you are quite familiar with it, so while your Majesty gave me the task of patrolling the north and the north of the empire, he also asked me to give these to you."
Having said this, he looked at the warrior with admiration: "This is the first time I have seen the expressions of the high-level mages in the Royal Mage Association. It felt like a traveler in the desert who had been short of water for a week. The expression on their face when they saw the oasis, Lord Earl, what exactly did you send them?"
"I asked you why you weren't teleported here. It turned out that you were on the way during a patrol... What are you sending? That's not what I asked. I asked what kind of medal this is."
After repeating his words and thinking for a while, Joshua guessed the reason. He touched his chin and said with some hesitation: "Could it be the mad dragon mist that was sent last time? Speaking of which, I haven’t heard anything about the follow-up of the Abyss derivatives, but looking at it now, all the rewards are combined and delivered.”
The bottled black mist he found in the dragon's nest last time was confirmed by system testing to be the high-purity Mad Dragon Virus, and it had an obvious tendency to chaos. Any creature infected by it - any creature, not just dragons - would Become mad and gradually transform into Chaos Familiar.
Although the success rate of conversion is very low, even less than one in a thousand, even going berserk is dangerous enough. Joshua knew that he did not have the ability to handle this thing, so he simply borrowed Brandon's relationship and sent him away. Join the Royal Mage Association and let the group of mages who almost always live in the laboratory try to find a way to crack it.
Joshua didn't have any high expectations at first. After all, he had never heard of anything like the Mad Dragon Vaccine in his previous life, but now based on the rewards he received, it seemed that it might not have been successfully developed.
"The original body of Mad Dragon Disease? So that's the case. This makes sense."
On the sidelines, Munster suddenly understood, and then he began to explain to Joshua the origin of the badge in his hand.
"The imperial royal family uses the sun as its coat of arms, and the medal you are holding now is called the Dawn Emblem. It is the highest level of honorary proof that a noble can get. It represents that you have made indelible contributions to the entire empire."
When he said this, Munster even saluted the emblem. He said to Joshua with emotion: "Perhaps you don't know, Mr. Joshua, the items you sent are for the Royal Mage Association." This is a great inspiration. As far as I know, they have developed a finished potion through this, which can make various types of earth dragons commonly used by dragon caravans immune to mad dragon disease. If it is a relatively mild degree of madness, , and can even be lifted directly.”
Sure enough, countermeasures were developed. The soldier nodded slightly. This is indeed good news. With this medicine that can suppress the dragon disease, at least you don't have to worry about the pets or livestock around you suddenly going crazy and rioting, especially the earth dragons. At this time, flying dragons The airship has not yet been successfully developed, and the dragon caravan is the main artery of the empire's trade. If the caravan is paralyzed, apart from other things, where will the Northland import fruits, grains and other specialties from other places
"Today, the empire is fully prepared to guard against dragon disasters. It will never be like the Far Southern Kingdom that was raided and lost most of the important port cities along the coast."
Munster continued, looking very excited: "Furthermore, a few days ago, the Morlai Palace received envoys from the elves and the royal family of the Far South. They seemed to be in urgent need of our medicine..."
When he got here, the middle-aged prosecutor suddenly fell silent. He shrugged and indicated that this was a confidential matter. However, without Munster, Joshua could guess that the empire must be ruthless in this matter. It cost a lot of money, otherwise, the emperor would not be so happy that he would even take a medal with him.
No wonder, how could he get the emblem of the morning sun, which is known as the highest honor, after just doing a small amount of work? The reasons are all here.
Next, there was nothing to say. Munster said that he would go to inspect the other three of the four territories in the North, and Joshua also sent him out of the lord's mansion and watched him disappear at the corner of the street.
Before leaving, the prosecutor did not forget to remind the soldiers to remember to attend the celebration banquet in the imperial capital in early April. As a celebration day for the complete eradication of the orcs, it might become an annual festival, even in the East and West. The two dukes of the land will go to celebrate that day. In fact, basically the entire empire's top officials will go to the imperial capital. If you don't want to become a weirdo who doesn't fit in, it's better to go.
Of course, Joshua will not forget this. He will definitely go to the imperial capital. There has been peace in the territory recently, and the old dwarf has temporarily returned to Black Steel Town. The design of the improved version of the magic armor has been finalized. He planned to produce a hundred or so sets for the dwarves digging tunnels to use first to see the effect.
Paladin Loranda is also dedicated to exploring the Great Ajax volcano, and has completely become a person who has escaped from low-level tastes. It is impossible for Joshua to call him back.
There was no paladin to spar with him, and no old dwarf to study magic technology with him. Joshua could only do nothing and be very idle every day. As for the dragon disaster, it wanted to spread from other places to the dragon nest that had been wiped out. Northland will take at least half a year, so there is no need to consider it at all. Now, in addition to participating in the celebration banquet, he also plans to experience the prestigious World of Warcraft auction in the imperial capital, buy a few gold-level monsters, and complete some extreme tasks. Intentional trial mission.
As for the Dawn Emblem... Joshua is not a true aristocrat at heart. He doesn't care much about these so-called glory, and even from a system perspective, this emblem only adds to insignificant aspects such as prestige and charm. , for a warrior, since it is impossible to change his negative twenty charm back to a positive number, it is quite useless. After thinking about it, Joshua put it in his collection room, letting it keep company with the Twin Snake Rings of Fire and the strange [Fragment of Burning Steel].
Back in the study, Joshua continued to deal with official duties. He had been watching the information on the Far South Kingdom's handling of the dragon disaster, and he would naturally continue now.
Because he had Claire as a comrade in his previous life, Joshua was very concerned about the information from the Far South. Although in his previous life, the elves relied on the defense of their forest fortress and did not suffer much losses in the Dragon Calamity, this time It does not mean that they are really safe. In fact, the warriors know that many small and medium-sized elven villages and towns have been attacked and slaughtered by the crazy dragons. In front of the crazy dragon species, there is no difference between humans and elves.
After confirming that the Wind Song clan where the Elf Druid belonged was a large elven community, the warrior felt relieved a lot. He began to pay attention to the information about the Far South Kingdom. In his previous life, he personally participated in it, but now he is watching from the sidelines. perspective.
—Starfall 833, March 12th, Ruhr City, the last coastal city of the Far South Kingdom, was turned into ashes by raging fire. No grass was left wherever the dragons passed, and countless wild beasts were driven away by the power of the dragons. There was even a small wave of beasts rushing northward.
Fortunately, most of the people in the occupied areas have been evacuated urgently and their lives have been saved. However, millions of people have left their homes. They need a huge amount of food, shelter and various materials, even for those who have always been wealthy. The Far South Kingdom is also unable to bear it. In several cities around Nanling where refugees gather, local riots have occurred due to lack of food. Such riots are gradually spreading under the deliberate instigation of some rioters.
For a country, compared to the terrifying dragon disaster, the turbulent people's hearts are more terrifying.
And Joshua knew that this was just the beginning.
The dragon disaster in the previous life not only brought about war, it also completely shattered the trust of some lower-class people in the higher-ups of the Far South Kingdom. With countless people displaced from their homes, the vast majority of people who lacked food and clothing would not After seriously thinking about the cause of the disaster and understanding the kingdom's difficulties, they would only blindly blame the inaction of the higher-ups, which also laid the groundwork for the subsequent split.
News of the fall of Ruhr City reached the Far Southern Capital on the same day. Fortunately, the Far Southern Kingdom's army has also been reorganized. A coalition of nobles from all over the country and the central government has set out from Boddington Fortress and actively annihilated several armies. The flying dragon cluster headed towards the refugee gathering place in Nanling, but this could not reverse the bad situation and could only maintain the defense line.
On the 13th, traces of several groups of iron-scaled dragons were discovered in the Forest of Silence. This was originally a very docile omnivorous primal dragon known for its hard scales, but after turning violent, they became violent. It was completely transformed into a killing machine. Not a single living creature was left in its path, and even the trees were eaten away. Although they were wiped out by the elves the next day, they also caused great losses.
On the 15th, the business alliance in the south was also attacked by a swarm of dragons. They did not expect that the scale of the dragon disaster was so large. They suffered a lot of losses in the early stage. Several coastal trading cities were attacked by a swarm of sea sword dragons. , hundreds of merchant ships sank on the route they had traveled thousands of times, and the envoys of the Far Southern Royal Family also returned from the north.
On the 19th, the first large-scale battle between the kingdom's coalition forces and the dragons took place on the Granma Plains. Because of the Black Tide, the human army had rich experience in dealing with this large beast. With the help of the fortress built on the spot and the use of madness, Using the Dragon Resistant Earth Dragon as a containment, the coalition forces destroyed tens of thousands of flying dragons at a very small cost.
On the 22nd, based on several large cities in the central part, the Far Southern Kingdom established an iron barrel-like defense line, completely separating the occupied area and the safe area. The war temporarily fell into a stable stage, and the kingdom's senior officials began to Go all out to eliminate the instigation of violence hidden among the refugees.
But the rioters who were obviously followers of Chaos were well hidden, and the clearing failed to return. Seeing this, Joshua couldn't help but frown.
The entire dragon disaster can be said to be a conspiracy of Chaos believers. They just wanted to meet the conditions for the evil god to come, so they spent hundreds of years preparing for it. They even planned to incite refugees to undermine the stability of the rear. In the eyes of the warriors, The cleaning efforts of the Far South Kingdom are really not enough. They pay too much attention to the dragons and not much attention to the refugees.
It is now the year 833, March 27th, and the new round of battle reports has not yet been sent, but history is still moving forward. Now, not only in the Far South, but also in various parts of the mainland, dragon disasters of varying intensity have broken out, even in The same is true for the Northern Empire on the other side of the world. Only the Northland, where the dragon nests have been wiped out, is still peaceful. Although there are occasional wild beasts and dragons that appear in groups, they are not in large groups.
But now, it's just the calm before the storm.
Joshua turned his head and looked at the huge world map behind him, focusing his gaze on the south.
War has arrived.
(End of chapter)