The Light Green Gem Dragon was still lying unconscious on Dodo Island. What dragon was Eagle Kingdom's candidate dragon rider supposed to ride?
"They were probably afraid that losing a dragon would throw the kingdom into turmoil, so they deliberately released false news. And considering that Eagle Kingdom clearly knew it was no match for Sapphire's fleet, yet still sent a large number of ships to sea, it seems they weren't harassing trade routes at all—they were secretly searching for the Light Green Gem Dragon?"
Liszt quickly understood.
Because Eagle Kingdom had promptly released the false news, the situation had not completely fallen apart. After all, though the dragon rider had died, the dragon remained. That meant their combat strength had not suffered too much of a loss.
A dragon rider was certainly far stronger than a single dragon, but not to the extent of utterly crushing one. Otherwise, dragon riders would have long since been slaughtering dragons everywhere, and evil dragons could never have survived.
Strictly speaking, the knight among a dragon rider relied more on the dragon's power to cultivate.
Within the dragon rider system, the knight was the leader, but the dragon embodied the actual combat power. Even dragon battle aura secret manuals had to rely on a dragon to unleash them. Without a knight's assistance, a dragon could probably display only seventy percent of its strength; with a knight's assistance, it could display one hundred and ten percent.
"Carlo had originally guarded the frontier bordering Blast Furnace Kingdom. Now that Eagle Kingdom is falsely claiming the Light Green Gem Dragon is still around, and with the two royal families having intermarried before, they've managed to stabilize Blast Furnace Kingdom... Iron Ridge Kingdom likely won't have an opportunity to join forces with Blast Furnace Kingdom and attack