Let's start over, Your Majesty.

Chapter 159 The True Form of the Dragon King
December 2, the Solago Canal Governor's Palace.

Governor Lute stood on high ground, holding a telescope, watching the fiery red sunset slowly sink below the horizon, leaving only a sliver of its afterglow on the surface of the canal.

Lute glanced at the time; it was 6:34 PM. If all went according to plan, the Surna fleet, carrying the heart of Alaska, would enter the canal at 8 PM.

Their attack is expected to begin an hour earlier.

What he had to do was intercept them here, no matter the cost.

The sorcerers sent by the kingdom have assembled and all kinds of spells are ready, just waiting for their attack.

He has taken control of the Frederick family's sacred artifact. If nothing unexpected happens, Surna will first try to destroy it, while Frederick's group will try to seize it.

So he was all set and just waiting for them to arrive so he could catch them all in one fell swoop.

He put down the binoculars and returned to his office.

There was already someone inside. It was an old man wearing gold ornaments on his head, with several large gemstone rings on his fingers, which looked like withered tree branches. He was slowly sipping a cup of tea.

"Elder Kaden, I'm really sorry to trouble you this time," Lute said with a smile.

Kaden gave a low hum, put down his teacup, and glanced at Lute with his cloudy eyes.

“If Enred hadn’t come to plead for me personally, saying that this matter concerned the fate of the kingdom, I wouldn’t have gotten involved in such a thing.” His tone was somewhat irritated.

“Yes, yes, we are all working hard for the kingdom and making contributions,” Lute said with a smile.

In reality, he knew very well that the old man was willing to take on this task because many people were about to die here, and these dead vengeful spirits were crucial to a spell research project he was conducting. With the help of these vengeful spirits, he might be able to break through to the Brave level and enter the Hero level this time.

He had been stuck here for a long time. This kind of research that required a lot of lives was really beyond his capabilities. How could he reasonably kill tens of thousands of people without war?

This was an opportunity, and Enled had promised him that even if not that many people died in the conflict, he would allow him to use some minor tricks, just a little bit more. In the conflict, how many people died was just a number; after all, these weren't Finn's people.

"You said before that the head of the Frederick family is also here?" Kaden said slowly.

“They arrived yesterday. They’re probably planning to break ties with us now. However, I’m currently in control of the relic, and Surna’s group also wants to eliminate them. In this situation, they’re caught between two fires,” Lute said.

"Moreover, we now have you in charge, and Evil Spirit Number Three is also in our hands. Even if that family head is some kind of pure-blooded dragon, he is no match for us," he said with great confidence.

Currently, Kaden possesses the strength of a high-level warrior, coupled with a high-grade magic artifact and the specially approved Evil Spirit No. 3. This is also their home turf, so it's hard to imagine how the other side can possibly win.

"Don't assume that dragons are the same as those orcs, especially since they possess the power of hybrids,"

However, faced with Lute's arrogant attitude, Kaden coldly snorted, his tone carrying a hint of disdain.

As a magic scholar and alchemist, he didn't have the racial prejudices that Enled and his group had. In his eyes, regardless of race, all races were valuable alchemical materials or experimental subjects.

Moreover, those were the only pure-blooded dragons in the world possessing the bloodline of the Dragon King.

Another reason he was willing to come here was that if he could take this opportunity to kill the dragon, he might be able to obtain a part of the Dragon King's corpse. Even a dragon that had transformed into a human was an alchemical material that countless alchemists dreamed of.

They might take a large portion, but as long as he gets half, he's making a profit.

Especially the dragon horns. If he could cut off those horns and take them back to study, the dragon race's powerful strength would surely be bestowed upon him.

Thinking of this, an excited smile appeared on his face, which looked like withered tree bark.

"Hey, this should be the last bag, right?" a crew member said breathlessly, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Don't worry, this is the last bag. Let's do a final check, and if everything's okay, we can head back," the second mate said, scribbling in his notebook.

"Sigh, but can you believe it? Suddenly they want us to haul over ten more boxes of empty crystalline coal, and they insist on piling it all up here." The crew member shook his head and said, "This stuff is hard to burn, and ridiculously expensive. Why is the company stockpiling this stuff?" "Why do you care so much? Aren't you being paid?" the second mate said irritably. "You can't predict the decisions of the company's higher-ups. Just do your job, why worry about so much?"

"Okay, okay, I've finished my work and I'm going back to rest. Damn it, I was thinking of going to port today to have some fun, but now I can't even straighten my back."

He grumbled as he walked out of the warehouse bearing the Hayworth Motors logo. It was an independent warehouse belonging to Hayworth by the canal, which originally served little purpose. However, a few days ago, they received orders from their parent company to purchase sixteen boxes of empty crystal coal and stockpile them in the warehouse, without being told what their intended use was.

The crew member rubbed his back and walked out of the warehouse, only to find that something had dripped onto his head.

"It's raining?"

He looked up at the sky, which had just been covered with fiery clouds, but now it was filled with dark clouds and flashes of lightning, looking like a storm was about to break.

"Tsk, looks like we'll have to postpone it again tomorrow. Tonight won't be easy on the ship," he said irritably.

At that very moment, radio broadcasts on both sides of the strait suddenly blared out, playing fast-paced yet quite exciting jazz music.

He was a rough man who couldn't understand music, but he could still feel that his heartbeat quickened the moment the music started.

"Damn it! Are the people at the signal station asleep?! What are they doing?! Send men to take it back immediately!" Lute roared angrily.
He had given orders this morning to maintain complete silence and to stop broadcasting, so the sudden music playing now is clearly unplanned.

If it wasn't one of their people who did it, then it could only be either Surna or Fetri.
Lute's face darkened as he listened to the urgent music coming from outside, not quite understanding what the other party wanted to do.

“Be careful, this is probably preparation before the spell begins,” Kaden said, standing on the balcony and looking at the dense clouds in the sky.

Some spells require certain prerequisites before they can be activated, and even high-level sorcerers cannot fully discern what those prerequisites are.

Lute has already sent people to the broadcasting station to investigate and has notified all reserve troops to be ready to go to war at any time.

Just then, Kaden, who was gazing at the dark clouds in the sky, seemed to notice something and squinted.

"The technique is hidden above the clouds."

"What?" Lute exclaimed.

"They hid the spell in the clouds, using the clouds as cover. Hmph, what a low-level tactic," Kaden said disdainfully.

“Elder Kaden, shall we now?” Lute awaited a reply.

"Keep an eye on their ranks on the ground; leave the matters in the heavens to this old man."

Kaden said in a deep voice, then waved his hand, his robes billowing, and with a flight spell, he took off into the air and flew towards the dark clouds.

The wind whistled in his ears, and thick clouds enveloped him, obscuring part of his vision, but his detection spells were still effective.

In just over ten seconds, he had already reached the top of the dark clouds, searching for the hidden spell he had just discovered.

But at that moment, he suddenly sensed a powerful energy rushing toward him.

He quickly pulled himself up, and a ring emitted a faint light, sweeping away the surrounding dark clouds with a fierce gust of wind, exposing the pursuer.

He then froze in place.

It was a rather enormous figure, like a small mountain, flapping its broad wings amidst the pitch-black clouds, revealing its near-perfect body, which came from the top of the food chain.

That was a dragon! A dragon whose entire body was covered in black scales!

To Kaden's astonishment, the magical light released by the black dragon completely engulfed him.

(End of this chapter)