In the third week of the Moon of Resurrection, dragonborn from the northern kingdoms entered the city of Cecil.
This is the first time that the dragon descendants have visited a human country in an official and open form since the second pioneering and the establishment of a country in the four borders of the mainland by human beings.
The imperial flag with blue background and gold pattern is flying in the wind on the top of the towers, colorful ribbons are fluttering among the streets and alleys, the sound of horns is heard from the direction of the north bank, and the large magic projections in the streets and alleys are rebroadcasting the dragon descendants in real time In the scene of entering the city, there are excited children running around on the side of the road, scrambling for the falling ribbons and flower petals, while the citizens gather on several streets that are allowed to watch the ceremonies, watching with full curiosity those who sit The envoys in the convertible magic car headed towards the palace along the Pioneer Avenue.
Elite steel rangers in black light armor rode horses to guard both sides of the convoy, with ceremonial spears pointing high into the sky, separating the enthusiastic crowd and maintaining order.
Sir Golosh sat in the second magic car with Azarena, looking at this human city full of vigor and vitality, and where incredible "magic technology" can be seen everywhere, he couldn't help showing a smile on his face. A trace of surprise came: "This place is much more prosperous than I imagined."
"...It's a bit beyond my imagination," Azalena waved to a child who was cheering for her by the side of the road, and at the same time whispered calmly, "You must not believe that I left twenty years ago. What was it like here when it was here... Back then there were no humans living at the foot of the Dark Mountains..."
"...I'm starting to worry about one thing now," Sir Golosh frowned slightly, with a strange tone, "I'm worried about whether the experience you accumulated during your travels in the human world can be useful in this new human empire... "
Azalena turned her head slightly and glanced at Sir Golosh: "Your Excellency, please don't question my ability as a consultant—although human society is changing rapidly, many habitual and etiquette things will not change within twenty years. Yes, and while there are a lot of new things in this city, it’s not completely beyond my… ”
Just as the Dragonmark Witch was halfway through her words, she was suddenly interrupted by a screaming sound mixed with humming from high above. She and Sir Gorosh raised their heads in surprise, and saw In the sun, on the clear and cloudless sky, more than a dozen strange machines that look like steel cones with wings are flying from west to east in a neat triangular formation.
Under those buzzing machines floated a shimmering ring device, and there were strange structures reminiscent of dragon wings extending from both sides. They were obviously some kind of man-made objects, and their flying posture was stable and their coordination was skillful. It was all breathtaking. When this wonderful "flying queue" was about to reach directly above the mission, several of the aircraft suddenly opened some kind of magic device hanging below, accompanied by streaks of streamers interweaving in the sky, Sir Golosh A huge magic projection appeared in Azalena's field of vision—
On the magic projection, words of welcome were written in two characters, the common language of humans and the dragon-born script. They floated over the city, and their scale exceeded the illusion fireworks that any mage could create.
The magic projections should be similar to the "magic network broadcasting device" seen on the street. The Cecils installed them on the aircraft, and the effect was surprisingly shocking.
It took Sir Gorosh a while to look back, and he glanced at Azarena beside him: "Ms. Azarena, is this thing beyond your imagination?"
"...I really didn't think about this..."
"Humans have actually created this kind of flying device... and it seems that it can still be mass-produced," Sir Golosh couldn't help but looked up again, "Is this also 'magic technology'?"
"It seems that our gains here will be far beyond imagination," Azalena said softly, "and I don't know if you have noticed, Sir Gorosh, the 'wings' extending from both sides of the aircraft... the shape is very close to that of a dragon. wing."
"I've noticed." Sir Gorosh nodded. For some reason, his daughter who had been away from home for many years suddenly appeared in his mind.
Maggie...should be in this city, I don't know how she will react...to her arrival.
As he thought about it, Sir Gorosh's expression inevitably became complicated.
…
"The No. 1 unit completed the projection task. After 20 seconds, the projection was turned off, and it was ready to cruise back. The rest of the crew kept following."
"No. 2 machine understands." "No. 3 machine understands." "No. 4 machine..."
The wingman’s response kept coming from the communication device. Maggie, who was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat of the captain’s plane, breathed a sigh of relief, but she couldn’t help looking through the transparent observation window at the bottom, looking at the passenger who was driving across the street at a constant speed. Regiment convoy.
The first batch of dragoon cavalry cadets, Air Force Commander Jin Na sat next to the driver's seat. This young girl from the Griffin Knight family took a deep breath, calming down her nervous emotions. It was the first time she performed such a special The task made her face flush slightly with excitement. After confirming that the task had been roughly completed without any mistakes, she turned her head to look at Maggie: "Miss Maggie, you have worked hard this time too... Miss Maggie? What do you have? Are you uncomfortable?"
"Ah? Ah, no, it's nothing." Maggie came to her senses immediately, and quickly waved her hand. "I thought about something."
"It's rare," Jin Na said, shaking her head, "that you would lose your mind while performing a mission."
Maggie showed a slightly stiff smile, and the peripheral vision from the corner of her eyes swept across the obliquely lower observation window again, her complexion unavoidably complicated.
In the morning when I was preparing for the flight, I found out that there was actually my father in the envoy team this time, but in fact, such information should have been sent to His Majesty's case many days ago, and the news was suppressed for so long before I told myself... It was inevitable that Maggie wondered if His Majesty was playing a wicked joke on herself.
But Maggie quickly shook her head vigorously, throwing this unreliable thought out of her mind—His Majesty Gawain Cecil is a majestic and wise man, and he shoulders the burden of the entire empire. It's a bad idea, the reason why no one came to tell me the details of the mission in advance is either because of the need for confidentiality, or because His Majesty is usually too busy to pay attention to these details.
Miss Dragonborn who ran away from home quickly convinced herself, and continued to worry about what might happen next.
…
The place to entertain the envoys is still in the banquet hall of the Qiu Palace.
After finishing a sightseeing tour from Pioneer Avenue to the Autumn Palace, Sir Gorosh finally saw the rulers of the newborn human empire—Gowin and Hetty and several government affairs officials in a brightly lit and magnificent hall. The high-ranking officials stood in front of the steps in the banquet hall of the Autumn Palace, watching the dragon descendants in foreign costumes coming in front of them. When the attendant in charge of issuing the announcement read the name of the envoy aloud, that person looked quite serious. Accompanied by a red-haired woman, the middle-aged man came forward and handed over a letter from Grand Duke Balogar himself.
"I salute you, His Majesty the Emperor of Cecil, I salute you, knight of knights, pioneer of pioneers... the founder of the old country of Anzu and the new country of Cecil," Sir Golosh looked in front of him The "pioneer" who has legendary stories in the human world, and even created the miracle of resurrection from the dead, did not show the slightest bit of excessive curiosity or prying eyes. He spoke with a solemn expression, and said the opening remarks in line with the etiquette norms, a long list of titles With the standard rhetoric, "I bring the ruler of the extreme northern mountains, the guardian of the dragonborn kingdom, the lord of rocks and ice... Greetings from His Majesty Baloger, the powerful and wise Dragon Blood Grand Duke, and the holy The friendly wishes of the Dragon Principality."
"Welcome to Cecil." Gawain's response was much simpler and more straightforward. "Cecil and the Principality of Shenglong have always been friendly neighbors. We will always welcome visitors from the extreme northern mountains."
At the same time, he was a little surprised—it’s been a long time since he heard such a standard opening speech with a long list of honorary titles and flattering words. The sentence is surprisingly human-like.
It seems that in the far north, many dragonborn's impressions of humans are still in the past Ansu era.
—In order to prevent conflicts in etiquette culture, and to ensure the norms of the ritual process, the messengers had already familiarized themselves with some of Cecil's etiquette norms at Cold Winter Castle in the northern border before coming to Cecil City, and in With the help of Victoria, she got used to the interview process in advance, but although the process was rehearsed in advance, the audience words of the messengers were drawn up by the Holy Dragon Principality (Duchess Victoria only confirmed that there were no taboos in these words).
But now, some of the words in these rather classic sentences even made Gao Wen feel a little bit dumbfounded.
Of course, he was still calm and indifferent on the surface, without revealing anything.
After submitting the credentials, completing the necessary audience ceremonies, introducing each other, and going through all the agreed procedures, Gao Wen did not let the guests from afar go through more red tape, but directly entered the main part of Cecil's hospitality. Segment—announcing the feast to begin.
When the dazzling food was displayed in front of the guests, the hall reverberated with brisk and melodious melody, and the attendants began to guide the guests to their seats, Sir Golosh approached Azalena, and couldn't help whispering: "Although the I have learned a little bit, but the etiquette rules of the 'Cecil Empire' seem to be much simpler than I imagined... It seems that it is not as complicated as the human kingdom mentioned in the information. "
Azarena turned her head slightly and glanced at Sir Gorosh: "Then do you like simple procedures, or cumbersome rules?"
Sir Golosh smiled slightly when he heard the words: "Personally, of course I prefer this-simple and straightforward communication is more to my taste."
Azarena smiled, but said nothing more.
In her impression, humans like to use complicated etiquette and rules to show their "orthodoxy" and "inheritance". This is very different from Dragonborn. It is mostly a kind of respect for tradition and "obedience" to ancient admonitions, while human beings' insistence on etiquette and rules is an unnecessary "external decoration" in the eyes of dragon descendants, rather than having any practical significance. It's more like wearing decorative feathers on the body, etiquette for the sake of etiquette, and rules for the sake of rules.
It is precisely because of this cognition that dragonborn have been prejudiced against the human world for a long time: in their view, human beings, a short-lived race, pursue too much "orthodoxy" and "inheritance". ", but it seems nondescript.
Azarena never thought that in the past twenty years, human beings have changed in this respect.
In her mind, a young and heroic but carefree mercenary leader appeared, and then this figure turned into a general with a neglected beard and medals and ribbons on his body.
It was only twenty years.
Humans... what an interesting creature.
The banquet has begun.
After entering the session of free activities and communication, the guests began to walk around the banquet, take food and chat with each other. Sir Gorosh would naturally contact the Emperor Cecil first, and Azalena took three points Curiosity wandered around the hall.
Her "consultant" will play a role in analyzing the data later, but at this moment she is very free.
In the process of eating various human delicacies, known or unknown, and casually chatting with people passing by, a small figure suddenly ran by nearby.
It was a girl in a light yellow long dress who looked immature, holding a large plate full of food in her hand, with a happy smile on her face, and was happily running from a long table full of food to Another table.
Azalena frowned subconsciously—a child
She was curious about why a child appeared here, but soon realized that it should be a child of a member of the royal family or a high-ranking empire. People's "atmosphere" is very different, but Azarena couldn't help laughing.
But at this moment, she saw that the cheerful girl's feet slipped suddenly, as if she lost her balance while running, and she was about to fall to the ground in embarrassment.
Azarena raised her finger slightly calmly, and an invisible force lifted the girl's body, allowing her to quickly regain her footing.
This was just a casual help, and no one should have noticed. Azalena shook her head with a smile, and was about to turn around and walk away, but she didn't expect the girl in the light yellow dress to look over immediately. And come this way.
This child has a keen sense of magic!
As soon as Azarena felt such amazement in her heart, the girl had already walked in front of her. She bowed politely, without opening her mouth, but a slightly mechanical voice came from somewhere behind her neck: "Thank you~ ma'am~~"
"You don't have to be polite," Azalena looked at the girl in front of her in surprise, she was sure she didn't see the child open her mouth just now, "You... are you talking?"
"Yeah! But I speak with 'it'~!" The girl said happily while turning around, showing the strange metal device on the back of her neck, which looked like a squashed silver-white spine, It was fitting obediently to the back of the girl's neck, "This is called a nerve thorn. By the way, ma'am, are you a dragonborn? I heard that we are entertaining guests here today. They are guests from the Holy Dragon Principality. I know a woman named Maggie. My sister, she is also a dragonborn... Oh, by the way, I haven't introduced myself yet, my name is Pea... "
Azarena: "...?!"