From June through August, over the course of two whole months, the repercussions of the dragon-slaying war not only failed to subside, but instead grew ever more intense, sweeping across the three kingdoms in the northeastern corner of the Legendary Continent and even drawing the attention of the surrounding Yellow Stone Plain Kingdom and Falling Leaf Kingdom to the situation within the Three Kingdom Alliance.
Within the Eagle Kingdom, noble solidarity had already collapsed. Faced with the Flame Kingdom's not particularly formidable knight orders, they crumbled at the first touch and retreated a thousand miles.
Large numbers of nobles chose to surrender, while those who stubbornly resisted had all their wealth confiscated.
During this period, the Eagle Kingdom's four vassal states—the Pink Gem Grand Duchy, Copper Grand Duchy, Golden Emerald Grand Duchy, and Deep Red Gem Grand Duchy—all abandoned the Eagle Kingdom and began discussing a change of allegiance with the Flame Kingdom. Of them, the Deep Red Gem Grand Duchy adopted the humblest posture.
There was no other reason: its Grand Duke had been captured, and so had its dragon. The Grand Duchy no longer had any foundation for existence.
"Too many matters have needed handling over these past two months, especially the negotiations with the Eagle Kingdom's many nobles. They have consumed an enormous amount of my energy. Even as a Domain Knight now, I still feel physically exhausted." In the study of a castle, the Duke of Tulip Island—Leewilliam—rubbed his forehead.
"Father, you are the Foreign Cabinet's Prime Minister. You can delegate some of the negotiations to other ministers and simply coordinate the accession of the various Grand Duchies."
Liszt stood before the castle's floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the sunset scenery in the distance.
The wheat had ripened, its golden stalks bent low. Serfs harvested it in