Dragon Feast

After the wind and snow swept across the mountain path, and the outline of the Mountain Forest was separated by mountains and ridges, the appearance of Rhino Horn Mountain came into view.

The ground beneath their feet was uneven. At the edge of this "Big Bowl," there was only one road that allowed horse-drawn carriages to slowly descend the mountain. Normally, it was deserted, but in recent days, it had become a bustling thoroughfare.

"It's the end of May, and it's still snowing in the Frozen Earth Territory. The cold in the Northlands is truly unbearable."

Fidel complained that he had felt a colder than ever before since crossing the Haton Baronial Territory.

The cold wind and snow made people uncomfortable.

"This place is definitely not fit for humans, which is why a monster has appeared here."

Behind Fidel was a magnificent carriage, a luxurious vehicle only the most powerful nobles were entitled to. The one speaking inside was Fidel's father, Count Soron.

The count looked at the Rhino Horn Mountain, which stood alone in the middle of this "Big Bowl," and his mind was in turmoil.

This was his first time in the Frozen Earth Territory, and given his status as a high-ranking nobleman, he shouldn't have been here.

But... who can blame him when Ryan has a large amount of dragon blood in his hands?

Count Soron was furious. The invitations Ryan had given him were made with ink ground from dragon's blood. He was well aware of Ryan's extravagance.

With his dragon blood, Ryan had essentially seized Count Soron's Achilles' heel.

Do you know why I brought you along?

Count Soron looked at Fidel, his middle-aged eldest son and heir.

"Father."

Fidel respectfully sought his advice.

"If nothing unexpected happens, it will be very difficult for us to wrest control and say over the Northwind Province from him before I die. There are too many things in the nobles' territories that are closely related to Ryan."

"I brought you here so that you could see clearly that I have already lost my chance, so that you might be able to bring the Soron Family back to its peak in the future."

"If you can't, you can teach your son. The blood of Sauron is no less than that of Clayton bloodline. The ancient blood of this land flows in our veins. We are born noble."

"Therefore, you must see this clearly and carry on Sauron's bloodline."

"Let our bloodline be great once again."

"Father!"

Fidel's face was covered in tears; the responsibility and hope of passing on the torch filled him with immense excitement.

"As a nobleman, you shouldn't be so agitated; you should remain composed."

Count Soron gave a disgruntled snort.

"I'm not dead yet, what's there to cry about?"

Fidel did not stop. Of course, it was not only because of his father's admonition, but also because the mature man could vaguely hear in his father's tone that he was telling him about the decline of the Sauron bloodline.

There was a time when a great nobleman had to travel to a Baron's territory for a meeting.

This event signifies that the Soron Family has lost its former glory, and their power in the Northwind region has suffered a Waterloo.

Looking at the numerous noble carriages around him, Fidel felt a little better and calmed down. However, the tears he had shed earlier seemed to have taken away more of his body heat, and he caught a chill when the wind blew.

If nobles are talented, most will not choose the arduous path of knighthood, but will instead choose the path of Mages who can become powerful while lying down like lords.

Rhino Horn Mountain is overcrowded.

The mountain was not very big to begin with, and with a castle at the top, there was no room left for a third of Rhino Horn Mountain.

The Baron's castle was not large, so the nobles could only live according to their Noble Title. The lower- Noble Title nobles were forced to live in the stone houses at the foot of Rhino Horn Mountain.

It's not that crowded here; less than half of the space is occupied by stone houses with owners.

Baron Hatton, as Baron Ryan's good friend, could only live in the stone house.

"It's surprisingly clean here."

Baron Hatton and Lynn were both somewhat surprised, especially Lynn. He had visited the Frozen Earth Territory more than once but had never paid attention to these stone houses. However, now it seemed that although they were small, they were complete in every way. The entrance door was full of ancient charm, which was said to have been brought back by Baron Ryan from an ancient noble legacy in Otherworld.

To this day, Baron Ryan's rise to power through Otherworld is within everyone's imagination.

The exterior doesn't reveal much, but inside, even the bedding is filled with the rich charm of antiquity. Antiquity represents preciousness, heritage, and the glory of inheritance—this is a consensus among the nobility.

Therefore, the ancient objects in this stone house seem to be more valuable than those in some noble castles.

As for fresh things, they are pure wealth. Every carpet underfoot comes from the fur of powerful prey hunted in the Frozen Earth Territory, with the people of Gam contributing the most.

"Father, what does Baron Ryan wish to discuss with us?"

"I heard he just returned from the south. Could it be related to His Majesty the Emperor?"

The nobles still held the emperor in high esteem and were loyal to Imperial Noble, as they were born to be the emperor's followers and subjects.

"Maybe."

Baron Hatton remained noncommittal. Although he was bad at everything, his keen political acumen was a talent Baron Hatton was proud of.

He felt that Ryan was just trying to show off.

"I heard that the Count Winter has also come, along with his second son, but after all, the latter is the heir to the Count Winter's Noble Title."

"It seems Baron Ryan has struck some kind of deal with Count Winter? That Earl is starting to abandon Meyers."

Lynn's words made Haton shake his head.

"It hasn't been completely abandoned. Meyers still wields considerable influence in the Northwind Province. There's the marriage alliance and the Marquis of Northwind. The former represents benefits, while the latter signifies absolute power granted by the Empire, something Ryan can't take away."

"If it's a war against the South, there's no reason for Ryan not to invite that Marquis's Mother."

Haton looked up at Rhino Horn Mountain, where it was brightly lit, and at that moment he felt a pang of envy for the lonely mountain peak exposed to the wind and snow.

Who would have thought that this Frozen Earth Territory would have such a glorious day?

The banquet began in the evening.

This was just the beginning of the nobles' lively celebration. The brightly lit castle was only occupied by servants, while the nobles sang loudly. If this were a noble banquet from hundreds of years ago, it might have already started with a lot of things that were not suitable for children.

Even without those vulgar paintings, the banquet was still just as exciting. What were the thoughts of both men and women beyond that? Of course, it was about showing off in front of others.

Thanks to the confrontation between the empire and the Church, the nobles themselves were the first to be changed under the power of the Royal Authority and the divine right.

They possess extraordinary power.

At the banquet, every nobleman and noblewoman was familiar with the extraordinary.

The nobles walking along the knight's path, wielding their noble swords, swaggered about like Peacock spreading their tails, occasionally throwing flirtatious glances at the women around them, trying to leave some lasting impression.

If nobles who walk the path of chivalry strive to make themselves glamorous and flamboyant.

So, the nobles, who were Mages, turned around and wielded their magic as crudely as barbarians.

The simplest one is Mage's Hand, the first spell that any Mages must master and become proficient in. Nobles used Mage's Hand to arm wrestle.

The move was so simple, yet it could make nobles fall to the ground and yell and scream without any grace.

"Where could you have seen such a scene a hundred years ago?"

Count Soron, the only "old man" at the banquet, lamented that the pressure from the Church used to be too great, to the point that knights had to report to the authorities, Mages were treated like rats in the street, and nobles had no other exciting activities but to procreate.

Now, with this dazzling magic, this magnificent swordsmanship, and this unrestrained noise, both men and women are unleashing more of their true nature.

As Ryan listened to Count Soron recount history, he couldn't help but chuckle. If there were a suitable ancient sage in this world, perhaps he could come up with adjectives describing the collapse of morality and the resulting devastation, and use them to restrain the nobles.

"In this light, the Church's defeat was not unjustified. They suppressed mortals to an extreme degree; even nobles were required to go to church to pray every Sunday."

Ryan said with a smile that the nobles were unwilling to talk about the nobles of the past because, in the eyes of the nobles of today, what kind of lives did those nobles of the past lead?

What delicacies could our ancestors have enjoyed? When it comes to enjoyment, we have to look to these new generation of nobles.

The slaves and commoners below had already been exploited and oppressed enough, and the Church had even pushed the nobles to the opposite side.

The success of an empire was inevitable.

"The Church's failure was not only due to this, but also to their own corruption, those priests who managed the faith of the noble territories in place of Dawn... heh heh."

Count Soron gave a cold laugh. As an old man, he didn't want to recall those lewd and violent histories. The clergy of the Church had long since decayed. When the sunlight shone on them, it could make them scream in agony, turning them to Ash like Demons.

But they hid in the place least likely to be exposed to sunlight, right under the nose of Dawn — the Church.

"Those clergy did not allow nobles to enjoy themselves too much, and even the right to the first night was taken away by the priests. In the past, that was the only place where nobles could have fun."

"And then?"

Ryan was curious; he had heard of such things. If he didn't find it impossible to lay a hand on those disheveled, muddy women covered in lice, he would have considered becoming a tyrant.

In this world, apart from nobles at the level of Mages, ordinary nobles are not clean, let alone ordinary people.

Aren't those priests afraid of it rotting?

"Later, the war burned all the priest's sins to Ash."

"During those decades when the Empire declared war on the Church, hehe, who knows how many people secretly supported the Empire? Otherwise, how could the Empire, which didn't even have many Extraordinary Legion back then, possibly be a match for the Church?"

"The War of the Deities Across Planes has drawn too many believers from the Church, but it remains powerful. The Empire is only able to resist the Church because of the support of nobles who fled from the the North to the south in the South lands."

"Those Pope knew that nobles from outside the empire were secretly helping them. In those few decades, the Path of Dawn opened six times, and each time it resulted in rivers of blood."

"The price was that over several decades, three Pope were born. The nobles' revenge finally alarmed the bishops of the Church. They began to recognize the changes in the nobility and started to transfer power."

"The current balance has been achieved."

"Every time the Path of Dawn breaks, many people die."

Count Soron's gaze fell upon certain figures at the noisy banquet.

Ryan looked over and saw Brendan Ignazio, whom he had met before. He was surrounded by a group of people, who were probably of ancient South blood.

They seemed to gasp in surprise as they looked at the seemingly still-living meat displayed on the damaged porcelain plate.

"Dragon meat?"

Brendan's exclamation quickly aroused the curiosity and astonishment of the other nobles, and in an instant, a large number of nobles began to gather around the food that they had not even glanced at when they entered.

The food was not refined at all, and some nobles had previously muttered under their breath that Baron Ryan did not have a single good cook.

But now...

Hearing these sounds, Count Soron also turned his gaze to the not-so-exquisite food in front of him, and then turned to look at Ryan.

"It took a lot of effort to obtain the Dragons's leg meat. If we had a larger plate, we could have given you the whole dragon leg."

Count Soron swallowed hard, wanting to say that he didn't need the plate and that he could just put it on the ground for him.

Dragons meat—simple words, yet an unbelievable truth, a legend...

There are so many legends about it; eating a bite can supposedly prolong life and so on.

As a result, a large number of nobles began to flock to the food. The food from the Otherworld included not only dragon meat but also Magical Beast meat. While eating, the nobles even exclaimed that the glowing mushrooms tasted better than dragon meat because they reminded them of their kind great-grandmother.

"That stuff is for drinking with hot water, Viscount Walter, you'd better go get some sleep."

Ryan smiled, maintaining his composure as he looked at Viscount Walter was pulling him along, laughing and crying as he talked on and on.

"No, I won't sleep. Who can sleep on this cold mountain? Baron Ryan, I'm not saying you're no match for Meyers, but even if you're no match for Meyers, Walter will still be your best brother."

"Meyers even tried to buy the mines from us. He actually thought he could buy out the mines belonging to Iron Mountain County through a marriage alliance. Damn it, I've already lost one of my sons, they won't make me compromise!"

"Ryan..."

Viscount Walter's eyes seemed to have a seven-colored snail shell as he casually lay down on the ground and started snoring.

It must have been quite tiring traveling all the way here, crossing mountains and valleys to reach the Frozen Earth Territory.

"The Fluorescent Mushroom taste best when soaked in water. It's not glowing, it's bubbles. I'm sure you won't be disappointed."

As he spoke, Ryan raised the crystal glass in front of him and drank the purple sparkling water inside in one gulp. The pungent bubbles rolled around, and the familiar feeling made him wonder if the first thing to happen in another world was also the discovery of these glowing mushrooms.

"It tastes even better with ice."

Ryan grabbed an ice cube from the side and threw it into a glass of water. Avril picked up an iron kettle and poured water, but it wasn't boiling water; it was dragon's blood.

This time, even his Sky Knight physique couldn't suppress the stimulation from the Fluorescent Mushroom. The moment he opened his mouth to burp, a burst of blazing flame, like the breath of Dragons, swept over the heads of all the nobles.

"The power of the Dragon Heart is truly immense."

Ryan's strong, pounding heartbeat sent shivers down the nobles' spines. They glanced back at the fiery serpent that had appeared in the dark sky outside the castle, still feeling lingering fear.

"Sorry everyone, I recently ate the heart of a Legendary Dragons, and I'm having some trouble suppressing it."

"I believe everyone has experienced the deliciousness of Dragons meat, which is irreplaceable by any other dessert. Just like dragon blood, it is not bloody at all, but rather incredibly sweet."

As soon as Ryan finished speaking, maids came in carrying iron kettles, offering the nobles the legendary treatment reserved for heroes: dragon's blood wine.

"Today is our Dragon Feast!"

"Even Dragons will become a delicacy on the tables of our Northwind Province!"

"This place belongs to us!"

Ryan cheered as if he were drunk. As the dragon blood went down his throat, the nobles, stimulated by the bubbles from the Fluorescent Mushroom, began to echo Ryan's cheers.

On Rhino Horn Mountain, above the castle, a blazing phantom of a fire dragon appeared, letting out a deafening roar.

The Dragon Feast gave all the nobles a sense of belonging, subconsciously recognizing the other nobles around them. It seemed that only those who participated in the Dragon Feast were qualified to be compared with them.

"From now on, there will be a grand feast of dragon's blood every year, where we, the nobles of the Northwind, will be reborn by drinking dragon's blood!!!"

"The scorching dragon blood, paired with the ice and snow of the Northlands, is even more intoxicating!"

(End of this chapter)