The Gaze Turned Toward the Sea

What had opened the Holy Dragon Duchy's stubborn gates?

Gawain was indeed very curious about that.

The Holy Dragon Duchy lay at the extreme north of the continent. Half its territory consisted of frozen mountains and ridges, with little fertile land, and its living conditions were exceptionally harsh for ordinary humans. Yet this nation, which had always called itself a "duchy," could make even Ansu at the height of its power deeply wary. Half the reason the northern Mountain Corps had been established was to guard against that duchy amid the frozen mountains. There was naturally a reason for that.

The Holy Dragon Duchy's people called themselves dragonkin, and the higher-ranking the noble, the more they claimed to possess pure dragon blood. Outsiders did not entirely believe this, for the Holy Dragon Duchy rarely dealt with other countries, and no one had ever seen these "dragonkin" display the power of dragons. But there was at least one thing everyone could be certain of: the people of the Holy Dragon Duchy were definitely not ordinary humans. Though they looked much like humans, their children could run bare-chested through the subzero mountains of the far north, chasing Monsters all over the slopes. That was clearly not average human physical ability...

And now Gawain had obtained proof from Maggie: the Holy Dragon Duchy's so-called dragonkin identity was real. At least, their upper-class citizens truly were dragons—merely dragons with Genetic Defects, somewhat weaker than ordinary dragons.

A nation founded by dragonkin, even if it was small, would be exceptionally formidable in battle.

And aside from their powerful combat strength, the Holy Dragon Duchy's mountains also concealed the finest Magical Metal veins in the Northern Continent. The small amount of metal ingots flowing out of the Holy Dragon Duchy were highly sought after among the