We traveled through time together, but I'm the only dragon? The others are all beautiful girls?

“Akaglion, he is... absolutely, absolutely, absolutely not someone who would harbor any... 'malice' towards me.”

Her words showed a slight, almost imperceptible hesitation in the word "malice," due to Akalion—well, that shouldn't count.

"Lily——"

Morgan was about to say something, but the moment he saw Artoria's clear emerald eyes, he chose to back down.

She could only direct her pent-up anger at the silent dragon.

"Remember this, you dragon of unknown origin. If you dare abandon my Artoria, I will—"

“A true dragon would never abandon his treasure.”

Akalion interrupted her threat, glancing at Luminous beside him, then at Artoria, and solemnly declared:

"Moreover, she is 'my' soul."

"..."

Morgan gritted her teeth. She could clearly sense that the dragon's words contained genuine sincerity.

And that's exactly what she hates most.

There was no other way but to take advantage of Artoria's vulnerability after her breakup—specifically, to become her true, confidante older sister.

Morgan could sense that there was always an insurmountable barrier between her and Artoria. Even though she was the real older sister, Artoria always seemed more like Kay's sister with that repulsive mouth.

It must be Meryl who's behind this!

"Cough cough!"

Artoria coughed twice, abruptly interrupting the tense atmosphere that had once again arisen between Morgan and Akalion.

"Ying, how many supplies did you bring this time?"

“Due to the time constraints, I wasn’t able to purchase too much. But it’s about enough for 50,000 people to last for about six months.” Ying stretched out her palm and quickly calculated with her fingers. “The remaining food will take another two months to be fully gathered. The total reserves… are about enough for 600,000 people to last for six months. Mondstadt’s food production is, overall, a surplus.”

The same applies to the resources of Liyue. The two regions of Qingce Village and Qiaoying Village alone are sufficient to meet the daily needs of the entire Liyue Seven Stars.

In the real Teyvat continent, Liyue has far more than just these two large agricultural regions.

It can be basically concluded that the food supply of the entire Teyvat region mainly relies on Liyue, and only secondarily on Mondstadt.

Considering dietary habits, Mondstadt's food is more suitable. Although Liyue also produces wheat, it is mostly used to make steamed buns, dumplings, noodles, fried dough sticks, pancakes, etc., and bread is rare.

"Six hundred thousand..."

Sir Hector fell into deep thought.

The population of all Britain that had not yet fallen into the hands of King Vortigern was around this number.

Combined with the agricultural projects left by the Roman Empire—although most of them were located in the areas occupied by the kings, those in Cornwall were not bad either.

This aid from another world is enough to keep the people of Britain going for a very, very long time.

As long as... as long as Artoria truly becomes queen.

After the prophesied "Red Dragon" defeats the Anglo-Saxon "White Dragon".

Good days will surely come.

Not only Sir Hector, but many Britons also hoped for this after the court sage Mary made this prophecy.

Volume 1 Snowfield Dragon Lord: 49. Conversation with Morgan

But they often don't know that.

The cost of an era is far more than this.

For the ever-flowing torrent of "human reason," which aims to reclaim all mystery from the past, ancient Britain is a remnant of the "Age of Gods" that must be swept away.

As for the "Age of Gods," a twilight era nearing its end, the people of ancient Britain possessed an overwhelmingly strong bloodline belonging to "human reason."

This resulted in the ancient Britons being an alien species that could not be reconciled with either era.

In the many parallel universes of this planet, on numerous record tapes, the fate of the ancient Britons was already predetermined—annihilation, annihilation, annihilation!

For Artoria, there was no pain more severe or cruel than this.

This is equivalent to watching yourself being slowly tortured, feeling your flesh and blood being peeled away, feeling your soul decaying, until you finally face that inevitable nothingness.

But she was completely helpless.

The food provided by Ying was merely a stopgap measure, like straw used to cover flames when fighting a fire.

It can temporarily suppress the raging flames, but it cannot truly solve the problem of the still burning source of the fire.

This raging fire will eventually reignite, and its power will surpass that of the past, turning everything Artoria cherishes into ashes.

"Artoria, you're getting stuck on this again."

Ying put down her work of directing the militia to move food and came to Artoria. She reached out and gently cupped the Knight King's melancholy face, playfully poking her almost never-appearing dimples with her fingertips.

"Come on, smile! Look, aren't we all in our positions, doing what we can to keep things moving steadily and positively?"

Seeing Artoria looking at the militiamen at work, Ying waved vigorously at the black figure in the distant sky carrying a huge basket. The black figure's tail twitched in response.

"Stop thinking about that distant future. Even if the world is destined to end, we will still live in the 'present'!"

"Besides, you still have 'us'!"

"—"

Upon hearing this, Artoria managed to force a smile.

The word "barely" finally faded from her face when she saw Akalion flying through the sky with a powerful yet strangely clumsy air.

In fact, Akalion was doing everything he could to protect the food in the basket from spilling.

Although the basket itself was incredibly sturdy, and Morgan himself had applied magic to stabilize it, the problem was that gaps still existed within the enormous basket. With just a little force, the smaller loaves of bread could easily slip out.

His bio-force field, at present, can only cover an area of ​​four meters around him.

However, this enormous wooden basket, which was "kindly provided" by Morgan, is a full ten meters tall.

He strongly suspected that Morgan deliberately made the basket so huge just to make things difficult for him.

He wouldn't have done something so stupid if it weren't for Artoria.

Having transmigrated to Eldra, as the lord of Ansershion, his job was nothing more than mining and transportation. And now, after transmigrating again, why is he still doing the same thing?

"Ah, you smiled!"

A genuine, bright smile appeared on Ying's face. Artoria's perpetually serious expression, however, couldn't truly lift anyone's spirits.

"Wait a minute, I'm going to tell Akalion! Guess how he'll 'punish' you?"

"fluorescent!"

Artoria's cheeks flushed slightly. The golden ahoge on her head swayed from side to side.

Ying, she... she wouldn't really go and tell Akalion, would she?

"Heh heh! Look how nervous you are." Ying put her hands on her hips, a smug, devilish smile on her face. "Even if Akalion finds out, there won't be any 'punishment'. After all, it's 'me'."

She stepped forward and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Sometimes, don't trust your 'intuition' too much. After all, it's something that comes from 'this planet'."

In the Type-Moon universe, dragons are the highest-level manifestation of planetary will or region. Therefore, their power originates from the planet itself.

“…It’s not that easy.” Artoria’s ahoge (cowlick) drooped down somewhat listlessly. “How can you change a habit of more than ten years just like that?”

“Right now, the Dark Space can’t allow anyone other than ‘me’ to move around. Perhaps, it won’t be in the distant future either.” She sighed softly. “Even if it were, how many entirely new ‘me’s’ would be needed to join?”

"And how much time is left until that destined 'sword-drawing ceremony'?"

“Ying, although you and Eleanor were both imprisoned and your experiences were incredibly tragic, once you are out—it will be like dragons swimming in the vast ocean.”

"...Then let's wait."

Ying watched as Akalion's figure, which had already turned into a tiny black dot and quickly disappeared at the edge of the twilight horizon, turned back and smiled.

"Wait and hope."

“...You’re not Edmond Dantès.”

Artoria couldn't help but complain. Her ahoge (cowlick) seemed to agree with its owner, gently poking it in the direction of Ying.

"But, is this statement correct in this context?"

Ying turned her gaze back to the horizon, which was dyed red by the setting sun, and quietly waited for Akalion's return.

Artoria's gaze also met the horizon. Akalion was simply replenishing the necessary supplies for the nearby villages that were on the verge of collapse due to famine.

Given his speed, this should have been an easy task.

Moreover, those villages are not far apart.

The only problem was the huge wooden basket that Morgan had kindly provided.

Constrained by the technology of the time—after the Romans abandoned the province called Britannia, all technology in the region suffered an irreversible and severe regression.

The most obvious example is the water conservancy facilities that no one knows how to repair anymore.

This directly led to a sharp decline in food production, while the population remained at the level during the Roman Empire. As a result, famine, like an inescapable curse, would frequently befall this land.

At this time, the twilight of the Age of Gods quietly arrived.

Multiple factors, coming together like countless nooses, strangled Britain, leaving it in a state of prolonged famine.

Even so, if King Vortigern had not chosen to ally with the Anglo-Saxons, those barbarians from Central Europe would have been no match for these remnants of the Age of Gods.

After all, as inhabitants of the Age of Gods, their physical specifications were superior to those of humans after the establishment of the foundation of human reason. The increasingly thinning [True Ether] in the air alone was enough to cause ordinary humans of the Human Reason to die in droves.

Otherwise, how could those barbarians have failed to capture even a single British border position without the king's intervention?

"Forehead!"

Just as Artoria was lamenting the future of Britain, Ying's voice suddenly rang out.

"Your sister is here."

Morgan wore a pure white, elegant long dress with a witch-like style.

That posture made Ying feel that it was extremely similar to Ash's first spirit origin, who was the savior in another timeline.

However, she wasn't wearing glasses, which was a little disappointing.

"Then I'll continue to direct them to work."

"No need, you can stay."

Morgan gave Ying a warm, approachable smile.

"The next part of the conversation is about Akalion."

"Akalyon?"

Artoria's golden ahoge (cowlick) suddenly stood on end. She looked at Morgan, a sense of foreboding rising in her heart.

"Has something happened again?"

“As the true ‘master’ of this island, I can clearly feel that the longer Akalion stays on this land, the ‘Age of Gods’ is returning at an incredible speed—no, not ‘returning,’” Morgan’s azure eyes gleamed slightly, appearing particularly unsettling in the deep twilight, “but rather… ‘growing.’ The entire island’s ‘texture’ has gained an extra ‘vitality’ as a result.”

She paused, then declared in an almost divine tone:

"With him here, the divine age of Britain, no—the 'mystery' of this planet—will never perish."

"...This seems a bit exaggerated, doesn't it?"

Ying looked at Morgan in front of her and felt a little strange. Akalion was only a young dragon that had hatched two months ago, and had not even reached the stage of a juvenile dragon.

"At first, I also thought it was just my imagination."

Morgan didn't care about Ying's doubts, because she herself found it incredible.

For a great witch of the age of gods like her, Akalion is indeed dangerous, but not insurmountable.

"But the island's total amount of mystery has just stopped disappearing and has begun to slowly increase. With each breath Akalion takes, the total amount of mystery increases by one point."

This is merely the effect of Akalion's passive interaction with this world.

"Unfortunately, Akalion and you can only stay for a maximum of seven days."

As he spoke, Morgan looked at Ying with a regretful expression and asked: