"What? The guardian of Blue Dragon City?" The lord of Kate City, Earl Spboyin, hurried toward the city gate. Usually extremely concerned with his image, he had not even had time to put on his shoes before running to the carriage.
A year ago, Blue Dragon City had announced that it was strengthening its defenses and begun collecting supplies from every city in the south, claiming that it needed to maintain a large army to defend against the terrifying evil creatures in the northern forest. For the sake of peace, everyone had silently contributed vast amounts of supplies under the threat of the powerful troops of the Great Clans.
In other words, over the past year, Blue Dragon City had effectively replaced the imperial capital as the recipient of everyone's tributes. Two months ago, there had even been rumors that Blue Dragon City planned to rebuild the Knight Academy and recruit outstanding youths for training. It looked very much as if they intended to rebuild the empire.
After this news came out, some nobles secretly discussed it, but most had no objections. As long as they could continue maintaining the dignified lives of southern nobles, they did not really care who was in charge. Of course... some ambitious ones were wondering whether they could get involved as well, proposing to rebuild the grand academy and allow the southern mages and scholars to participate in government and political affairs.
They had all still been testing one another and making compromises. How had the guardian suddenly come to his own territory?
Spboyin felt increasingly uneasy. He remembered that he had never suggested participating in government or political affairs. Of course, the main reason was that it would be useless even if he did. The Odoran Family did not have a single mage!