Chapter 1112 — Your Lord of Former Days

"You mean that enormous… tourism development?" Grand Duke Bayang'er could not help smiling. "Setting one of the gateways to Tarronde in the Holy Dragon Duchy, receiving travelers and adventurers who sign up in groups… The Blood Council has already discussed the matter, and we believe it benefits not only Tarronde but the Duchy's own economy as well—it has been approved."

"Ah, that is truly good news," Mei Heng said at once, delighted. "This way, the ties between Tarronde and the Holy Dragon Duchy can grow even closer."

"Naturally," the Dragon-Blooded Grand Duke nodded with a smile, but then his brows drew slightly together in a look of concern. "This vast commercial plan is indeed astonishing—even the Blood Council marvels at that Gao Yang Cecil's keen mind and singular vision. But truly… such an enormous commercial endeavor, an entirely new industrial model—will it not stir up turmoil in the divine sphere of the commercial world? Especially now that the truth of the God of War's descent on the Winterhold battlefield is known, my advisers are deeply worried that these plans will bring the God of Commerce down upon us again… 'bring him down.'"

Mei Heng's expression immediately went a little blank—clearly she had not considered the matter from that angle before. After a brief pause for thought, the blue dragon lady shook her head. "I am not especially worried, actually. Judging by Cecil's current monitoring of the various sects, the God of Commerce should be in a fairly stable mood."

"The God of Commerce is in a stable mood…" Grand Duke Bayang'er's expression turned somewhat strange. "That is a way of putting it no one has ever thought of before… Yet against the backdrop of the Divine Council, it actually fits rather well."

"The main cause of the God of War's loss of control and descent was a tremendous conceptual shift in the domain of war—the sudden impact on the lives of vast numbers of ordinary people when economic warfare began, producing a widespread shock to ideas, which in turn affected the currents of thought and the god behind them," Mei Heng continued. "According to the analysis Cecil and Typhon carried out afterward, this kind of violent shift in the currents of thought arises mainly from 'conflicts between domains of authority.' A new model of commerce does not constitute that sort of shock to commerce itself—it is a deepening within a domain, not the transformation of one domain into another."

At this the blue dragon lady could not help scratching her hair. "To be honest, I have not fully grasped it myself—they are walking a road utterly different from Tarronde's, and the experience and knowledge I have accumulated are not suited to handling their theories. But at least up to now, I fully endorse Gao Song's judgment. In the realm of the divine, he has a keen nose and a transcendent vision that astonish even dragons."

Grand Duke Bayang'er laughed. "You rate him very highly."

"I did not expect at first that a single human could bring this world so much change," Mei Heng said frankly. "To be honest, I have not spent long in conversation with him. Seven hundred years ago he was merely a client of the Mithril Vault, but seven hundred years later… the 'surprises' he has brought me within a few short years exceed the sum of all I felt in the human world across the previous two millennia."

"That is how the change of an age works—a long accumulation, and then it all bursts forth as though in a single instant. Every civilization is like this. A 'dead pool' like Tarronde, maintained for more than one million eight hundred thousand years—that is what is abnormal."

Grand Duke Bayang'er spoke with feeling, and just then the sound of footsteps came suddenly from behind. Asharena, the red-haired Dragon-Seal Witch, appeared on the terrace: "Grand Duke, and Envoy, a special communication has come in from Cecil—internal line."

Bayang'er and Mei Heng exchanged glances at once; the latter, startled, murmured almost involuntarily: "What a coincidence—we were just talking about him…"

"We will come at once," Bayang'er said, nodding to Asharena as he was already striding toward the terrace exit. "That Emperor of Cecil would not contact us over just anything."

Before long, Mei Heng and Bayang'er had arrived in the communications room on an upper level of Dragonrest Castle. Among the many transmission arrays and amplifying crystals, a Net terminal of a style utterly unlike its surroundings—its casing new and gleaming—sat quietly on a platform, projecting above it a holographic image from Cecil's imperial capital. This device was part of a program to promote relations between the Holy Dragon Duchy and the Cecil Empire, and an extension of Cecil's "Comprehensive Net Expansion Plan"—it stood ready at all times, ensuring the two capitals could communicate at any moment. Especially after the unexpected outbreak of the Typhon-Cecil War, its role had come to be valued by everyone all the more.

Mei Heng and Grand Duke Bayang'er came before the communications device, and the door of the room closed behind them. Only after irrelevant personnel had departed did Bayang'er nod to Gao Yan on the screen: "Good day, Emperor Gao Yang—what has happened?"

Gao Yang on the screen seemed to hesitate, at a loss for how to begin, but he did not waver long: "It is like this—regarding that dragon egg sent over from Tarronde…"

Mei Heng tensed at once: "What has happened to that dragon egg?"

"Stay calm, both of you. What I have to say is not bad news," Gao You said first, before answering. "What I am about to say may come as something of a shock, but on the whole the situation is good—are you ready?"

"We are ready," Bayang'er said, steadying his breath, watching Gao Yang in the projection with a stern face. "So what has happened to that dragon egg?"

"…It spoke."

Mei Heng and Bayang'er: "?"

"She says her name is Enya," Gao Yun coughed once, his expression exceptionally serious. "Yes, the very 'Enya' we know. Mei Heng—steady the Grand Duke beside you; his body has begun to sway."

Mei Heng hurriedly caught hold of the Dragonblood Grand Duke beside him, who looked profoundly shaken. The Grand Duke stared wide-eyed at the communication device before him, and it was a long while before this primeval dragon out of the ancient age managed to calm himself at all. Suppressing that sense of the world spinning under him, he gently pushed Mei Heng's arm aside and broke the silence in as even a tone as he could muster: "You are saying... our god of old... They were hidden inside that egg all along, and now They have awakened once more..."

"No — you may call Enya 'she' now, and you may even call her by name, as I do. This is what I mean to say: on the whole, it is good news. She is no longer a god, and no longer bound to dragonkind through the tide of thought. What is more, her resurrection confirms a guess I made long ago — that a god's divinity and a god's humanity can be dealt with separately. You may breathe easy, Grand Duke Bayangar — the dragons are free, truly free. There is nothing left to fear."

Bayangar studied Gao Cen's expression and saw no falsehood in it, and at last he felt his breathing come a little more evenly. Then, almost without thinking, he asked: "Then... our god, They... what did she say when she woke? No — what I mean is, is she... well, now?"

"She seems quite steady," Gao Cen said, glancing off to one side — it appeared that the former dragon god was within his line of sight at that moment. "Oh, better than steady. She is in excellent spirits just now."

"And what is she doing?"

"Reading the newspaper — and trying her hand at making drinks."

Bayangar and Mei Heng: "??"