Why Not Build a Heaven?

"Though there are plenty of holes in it, as long as we spread this news, whether the other Mountain Folk believe it or not, they'll know I have draconic organs—this will dilute both my White Folk identity and my Imperial identity. Anyone who wants to accuse me of being an outsider will have to consider one possibility."

"What if my ancestors truly had even the slightest trace of Mountain Folk blood?"

Sitting in a high-backed chair at the conference table, Ian calmly explained his plan to his companions. "In truth, they can't possibly tell the difference—Mountain Folk sounds nice, but they're really just a group of Gold Folk and Iron Folk, with a small number of Red Folk and White Folk mixed in. There are even Demi-humans among them. At their core, they're simply humans whose ancestors received the Dragon God's protection. They have no bloodline difference from Imperials whatsoever."

"If anything, I, with dragon blood, am naturally closer to the 'Dragon God' than they are... Every Mountain Folk knows that, so they won't question it. At the very least, they won't insist on refuting me."

There were not many people gathered in the conference hall: still only Scott, Azure Tide, and Adalbert. For a long time to come, there would only be the four of them in this meeting room.

Two days after the victory, with the postwar reorganization complete, they began truly discussing the territory's future direction and strategy.

"So."

Adalbert was genuinely the model good child, and he seemed a little unclear on the situation. "Ian, you really do have dragon blood... How can you be sure that blood didn't come from the Dragon God?"

A good question. If Ian had not known how his Aether Crystal arm had appeared, he probably would have had no way