novelraw Chapter 433: The Royal City, Reactions from Various Nations
Chapter 433: The Royal City, Reactions from Various Nations
Chapter 433: The Capital, Reactions of the Nations 4
The echoes of the nation-founding declaration still reverberated through the valley.
Leaders of the dragon clans and the heads of the various followers had already received orders and were rushing to every corner of the wilderness.
At the same time, the news of the founding seemed to sprout invisible wings, spreading with their movements and words at unprecedented speed to every stretch of the Ser Wilderness, to every settlement.
Moreover, its influence did not stop at the wilderness.
The southern nations, which had long kept a wary eye on the northern wastes, immediately picked up and confirmed this earth-shaking news through their intelligence networks.
The Lord of Molten Iron officially announced to the world that he would establish his own kingdom in the Ser Wilderness,
- the nation would be named "Aola", and a grand nation-founding ceremony would be held soon.
Aola Kingdom would be the official name recorded in history.
Of course, some intelligent beings, based on the ruler’s traits and background, preferred to call it the "Molten Iron Kingdom," the "Ignas Dragon Court," or the "Burning Steel Kingdom," and so on.Almost at the same moment the news was confirmed,
the Lothrian Kingdom, which had ties with the Ignas Dragon Cluster, was first to issue an official statement.
It explicitly stated recognition of Aola Kingdom’s sovereignty over the Ser Wilderness, acknowledged its legitimacy as an independent kingdom, and announced, with great fanfare, that it would dispatch a high-level envoy to attend the nation-founding ceremony personally, bringing solemn gifts and blessings for its birth.
That announcement instantly caused an uproar among the southern nations.
Few states had expected that Lothrian, one of the regional powers, would respond so quickly and decisively, and with such a positive attitude.
The signal this sent was unmistakable.
Lothrian’s move was not a spur-of-the-moment reaction; it meant that contact had been made with Aola’s ruler long ago, and that deep strategic cooperation or an alliance had likely already been struck.
After that,
the southern nations reacted in different ways, producing ripples of varied intensity.
A few vassal states or close allies that historically followed Lothrian’s lead almost without hesitation announced their support in quick succession, recognizing Aola Kingdom’s sovereignty.
But most duchies and kingdoms adopted a more cautious, wait-and-see posture.
They refrained from issuing any official statements, choosing instead to internally evaluate and quietly weigh the potential gains and long-term consequences of a northern dragon kingdom’s birth.
The founding of a wilderness kingdom is a double-edged sword for the southern nations.
Both benefits and risks are starkly apparent.
First, on the plus side, the most direct benefit would be stabilized order.
Although the vast Ser Wilderness contains rich mineral deposits, magical materials, and abundant beasts, its harsh environment, fragmented power structures, brutal magical beasts, and bandit clans make it rife with danger and hard to fully pacify.
Trade and resource extraction in the wilderness have always been fraught with uncertainty and extreme risk.
Caravans often had to hire heavily armed escorts several times the usual size and still faced the possibility of disastrous losses or total annihilation.
If a unified authority with even a modicum of power could establish itself and be willing to impose basic order, regulate trade, and crack down on raiding,
then that would be an enormous boon to the southern nations’ trade efficiency.
Previously, dealing with the wilderness meant negotiating with numerous petty lords, clans with varying customs, or monster warlords, which drove up communication costs and inefficiency.
Now they would only need to conduct diplomacy and trade negotiations with a single unified kingdom.
This would greatly simplify matters.
Trade routes between the nations and the wilderness could become safer and more reliable, significantly lowering the cost and risk of commerce, thereby stimulating bilateral economic activity and growth.
At the same time, specialties from the wilderness, rare minerals, and high-grade magical beast materials might be supplied more stably, in greater quantities, and with more consistent quality to meet demand.
Most importantly:
From a strategic security perspective, an orderly kingdom is generally easier to manage and restrain than countless chaotic, independent barbarian clans.
If Aola could effectively control the creatures within its borders, curb their predatory tendencies, and refrain from wanton external expansion,
then the raids and harassment that the southern nations’ northern frontiers had long endured might be significantly reduced.
However, to rulers and strategists, the downsides and risks are equally obvious,
and in some respects even more pronounced.
Previously, the nations could exploit the wilderness’s internal chaos, fragmentation, and competition—playing factions against each other or inciting internal strife—to gain high strategic returns and resources at relatively low cost.
Now the situation is completely different.
Once the nascent wilderness kingdom completes the integration and monopoly of all internal resources, the power to set prices, allocate supplies, and dominate trade in all key resources will firmly rest in Aola’s hands.
If the southern nations want to access those resources, they will have to curry favor with Aola,
and very likely pay far higher prices than before.
This will undoubtedly shock their economies, particularly industries that heavily depend on specific wilderness resources.
Additionally, a loose, chaotic wilderness that eats itself is no real threat, but a centralized kingdom ruled by a powerful red iron dragon is a different story.
It may attract other nonhuman races by its magnetism, and even draw human elites who are dissatisfied or exiled, thereby weakening the southern nations’ talent pools and influence to some degree.
More frightening is the kingdom’s potential for cohesion and military power.
After founding the nation, this potential could grow exponentially and create a formidable military power.
Moreover, in the minds of most intelligent beings, a powerful evil dragon founding a nation carries an almost innate expansionist instinct.
Who can guarantee that the Lord of Molten Iron will not set his sights on the wealthier south?
The emergence of this kingdom means an unprecedented potential adversary has appeared along the northern borders, requiring constant vigilance and greater defensive expenditures.
For Garoth, the wilderness kingdom represents brand-new opportunities and challenges.
For the southern nations, it is also a major event that forces them to reassess regional dynamics and adjust diplomatic strategies.
How to deal with a northern power ruled by a Legendary dragon—
to cooperate, contain, isolate, or engage—will become one of the most heated topics within royal courts for some time to come.
Thus, more attention, overt and covert, focused on this ancient, desolate realm, watching the newborn kingdom with close scrutiny.
An invisible storm was quietly brewing.
While external currents churned and undercurrents surged, atop the Dragonback Mountains, the red iron dragon stood like a majestic peak.
He lowered his calm eyes and gazed down on the boundless expanse before the range, the Broadly Fertile Plain.
There, a city of unprecedented scale was rising from the earth at a near-visible rate, carving out a grand and magnificent shape.
That would be the core of his future kingdom, the capital of Aola.
Even from the high peak, the muffled din below could still be heard. Those were his countless followers and subjects, feverishly turning his will and blueprint into reality.
Countless small yet tenacious figures worked like ants along the border between plain and mountain.
Massive ogres shouted hearty, rhythmic chants as they swung huge stone hammers, the size of beams, tamping down the foundations of main roads and important structures with thunderous blows.
Groups of centaur warriors had become the best draft animals, Ironhoof’s hooves beating like drums as they hauled heavy wagons of giant granite slabs or logs in orderly procession to the city’s various construction sites.
Agile lizardfolk artisans darted across the planned street grid with complex blueprints in hand, their keen eyes scanning every detail to ensure construction precisely matched the city plans.
On the outer radius, the majestic walls encircling the capital were being erected segment by segment,
like the spine of a growing dragon.
Led by Grand Artificer Scott, the alchemists worked with focused energy, manipulating various models of engineering golems to tirelessly shape tall, sturdy walls, while a cadre of casters followed to carefully inscribe protective, reinforcing, and warning runes on completed wall sections.
From what was already visible, the city’s planning showed clear hierarchical layers.
From the outer walls inward, buildings grew larger and more refined the closer they approached the Dragonback Mountains, indicating that those inner zones would be the most prosperous and central.
On the steep cliff faces of the Dragonback Mountains facing the plain, a very different scene unfolded.
This was the true domain of the dragons.
Numerous followers skilled in climbing and construction were carving and adorning dragon nest palaces for their king, for their dragon brood, and for future dragons who might arrive or pledge fealty.
These were not simple natural caves but magnificent structures built into the mountain itself.
Climbing and stonework-adept lizardfolk erected massive scaffolding on near-vertical cliffs, chiseling the rock to form grand arches, open-air platforms wide enough for dragons to move freely, and vast corridors to ensure comfortable access for the giants.
Tamed magical creatures that could spit acid or flame were assigned to grind and polish the inner rock walls until they shone like mirrors, or to smelt and gild specific ores as decorative yet practical reinforcements on key structures.
Some dragon nests had already taken shape and revealed their outlines.
They were not uniform; designs were tailored to the intended occupants’ type, tastes, and attributes.
Some nests were inlaid with huge heat-absorbing ores and kept at elevated temperatures for heat-loving dragons; others had intricate water channel systems to draw melted snow or mountain streams into internal pools for water-loving or aquatic dragons; still others cultivated glowing moss and magical flora on broad terraces to create tranquil, vibrant habitats.
The most magnificent nest, unsurprisingly, occupied the peak with the best view overlooking the plain.
That was the palace prepared for Garoth.
Its scale was staggering, hollowing out nearly half a mountain.
On its gilded inner walls, the most experienced lizardfolk sculptors carved the Lord of Molten Iron’s rise from weakness to power, his legendary conquests and the shocking scenes of tearing through one strong enemy after another, silently proclaiming the ruler’s authority.
Below the palace, on slightly lower mountain terraces,
a number of slightly smaller yet still grand primary nests were arranged for kin like Samantha and Sorog, and for important guest dragons such as Alberto and Nasha.
At this moment, the mountains and plain under construction resembled a giant beehive.
Dust billowed, spell lights flashed, and the engines of golems roared in an upwelling chorus, forming a savage, primeval, yet burgeoning and glorious tableau.
Garoth watched everything in silence.
The city’s clamour, the clinking of dragon nests being hewn, the calls of his followers—all these blended into a grand, stirring symphony in his ears, a hymn played for him alone.
He could clearly feel a new force taking shape and growing on this land.
This force would assist him, enabling him to grow stronger at a speed surpassing before.
"Aola Kingdom..."
The red iron dragon murmured the name he had chosen, his eyes reflecting the fiery construction below and the far-reaching stretches of the wilderness.
A gust of mountain wind swept across the cliff.
Iron dragon Sorog circled once in the sky, observed the progress below carefully, then folded his wings and landed steadily beside Garoth.
Sorog had been in a constant state of high excitement recently, throwing himself into overseeing every aspect of the capital’s construction and had been exhausted by the workload; this was a rare break.
"The capital’s construction is progressing rapidly. At this rate, the main structures should be basically finished before the nation-founding ceremony, with some spare time left for detail work," Sorog reported roughly on the city’s construction status.
With tireless labor from alchemical golems, efficient magical assistance from casters, and the massive strength of countless sturdy followers gathered together...
the speed of building a city far exceeded what ordinary human states could imagine.
The city’s contours changed almost day by day.
Garoth showed no surprise and nodded lightly. "Good."
At that, Sorog’s face showed a trace of hesitation; he stepped closer and lowered his voice. "We’re using 'Aola' as the nation’s name... the name is grand and profound, truly excellent."
"But might it be too ostentatious?"
After the initial excitement over the name, the mature and composed iron dragon began to consider its potential downsides more deeply.
Any intelligent being familiar with dragon history, upon hearing that a dragon-founded realm would be named 'Aola,' would perceive the massive ambition it hinted at and could respond with heightened vigilance, even hostility.
Garoth’s expression remained unchanged, as if he had long considered this matter.
"Sorog, since our youth we have been cautious and restrained, quietly developing step by step to reach where we are today."
His gaze was sharp, his voice steady and deliberate as he continued, "Now that the kingdom will be established, caution and steadiness remain essential, but on that foundation we should appropriately reveal our edge and demonstrate our strength and resolve."
"Otherwise, if others judge us weak and easy to bully, troubles and tests will come in waves."
"At the same time, naming it Aola will constantly remind us not to become complacent over present achievements."
"Our dragonkind once had even greater glory."
"We should take that as our standard and keep forging forward to restore the dragons’ greatness."
Sorog listened, eyes reflecting sudden understanding and admiration.
He sincerely praised, "I knew it. You didn’t pick that name on a whim—there must be profound considerations and intent behind it."
Garoth maintained his composed posture and nodded slightly.
Yet, deep within he felt a twinge of unease.
He had indeed given the kingdom’s name considerable thought.
However, at the time he decided, he had just formed unprecedented dual Domains and unlocked twelve Legendary Characteristics; the flush of that massive success left him a little restless and elated.
It was under that spirited state that he finalized the kingdom’s name.
Now, thinking back calmly, the name was indeed somewhat bold and likely to draw excess attention.
But there was no arrow to be loosed backward; having announced it to the world, there was no need to change it, and Sorog’s concerns were not entirely without merit.
While the name would attract scrutiny and caution, it could also bring other advantages.
In essence, everything carries both advantages and disadvantages; the key is how rulers use wisdom and strength to expand benefits while effectively reducing or eliminating drawbacks step by step.