Seeing that the king was still deep in thought, Deke took a small step forward and said more earnestly, "Not all Spellcasters are as evil as the Holy See claims. We can develop medicines to treat wounded soldiers, use spells to improve farmland yields, and, just as we did this time, use magic to solve problems for the kingdom. We only hope Aldo can be like Cape Bay and Gabella, allowing Spellcasters to walk freely beneath the sun, no longer discriminated against or hunted down, and giving us the chance to use magic to do something for this world."
The warm chamber fell silent at once. Only the firewood in the hearth occasionally crackled. Rhodesney watched the hope in Deke's eyes and recalled the intelligence Earl Merlin had reported to him about Gabella's Fire Dragon Legion defeating the Holy See's war elephants.
For the first time, he seriously considered whether Aldo's attitude toward Spellcasters truly needed to change.
The king gazed into the distance through the window, as though he could see past layer upon layer of mountains to the land in Northwest Bay wrapped in steam and steel. Arda's armories, Lakeheart Town's assembly lines, and the endless stream of rifles and cannons they produced unfolded one after another in his mind like a series of vivid images.
He had to admit that the Royal New Army's current combat strength had practically been fed by Northwest Bay. Although Paul Greiman had supported Crystal Radiance in establishing the Westport Economic Zone, allowing civilian factories to take root there, and civilian equipment such as Textile Machines and Paper Mills had indeed improved the livelihoods of the people in the Royal Territory, Lakeheart Town clamped down hard whenever weapons manufacturing was involved. It only sold finished products and absolutely refused to disclose even