On the outskirts of Beifeng Castle, there is the Iron Dragon Wing Palace.
Olivia stood outside the gate, looking very excited, like a praised child.
"Cassius, I have convinced the elders of the clan, and they agreed to send manpower to give it to us."
"Sorry, madam, Your Majesty will not accept an audience now."
Captain Ekmon of the Tiefling Guard stretched out his spear and stopped the familiar lady.
Aikmon has experienced the red dragon's sleep once and understands how dangerous the situation inside is.
His Majesty's "waking up anger" alone is enough to bring disastrous consequences to mortal beings.
"But."
Olivia's brows suddenly furrowed slightly, showing unconcealable disappointment.
In order to persuade the silver dragon elders in her clan to help this former enemy, she spent a lot of time arguing.
It was not until the great elder Oszedro, who was still recovering from his injuries, spoke in person that they accepted Olivia's request and decided to send forces to assist the Ember Empire.
"As long as the demon can be defeated, I am willing to form an alliance with the evil dragon."
These are his exact words.
For this ancient silver dragon who respects order, creatures of pure chaos such as abyss demons will always be their enemy.
While Olivia was thinking, a familiar voice came from behind her.
"Ms. Olivia, Your Majesty has fallen asleep."
Olivia turned her head and looked at the huge figure with a somewhat surprised expression.
"Your Excellency Trump?"
The Ogre Archmage bowed slightly and said politely: "But His Majesty told me in advance that he is grateful for everything you have done for the empire."
Trump stretched out his staff, and a portal leading to the Imperial Council Hall appeared in front of Olivia.
"His Majesty believes that your contribution has been sufficient. He hopes that you can enter the Imperial Senate and discuss cooperation matters in detail with the ministers.
In addition, His Majesty has reviewed your latest plan and expressed his approval, but some changes are needed in the specific implementation. ”
"Thank you."
Olivia's face showed a hint of joy.
The Imperial Senate, which is the real authority, has the power to draft various policy bills.
Entering the Senate is equivalent to truly entering the upper echelons of the Ember Empire.
Olivia believes that she will use her persistence to bring a better future to this country - and also bring changes towards order and kindness to Cassius.
But in fact, this is not only Cassius's "reward" to Olivia, but also his attempt to check and balance the evil forces at the top of the empire.
"Ms. Olivia, please come with me."
Trump leaned slightly and made a standard "please" gesture - but this kind of etiquette seemed a bit ridiculous when it appeared on an ogre.
"Okay."
But before stepping into the portal, Olivia turned her head and stared at the familiar palace.
After hesitating for a moment, she asked softly: "His Majesty Cassius, will he sleep for a long time?"
Olivia's worry is not unreasonable. For mortal beings, a dragon's sleep may last their entire life.
For a "special" dragon like Cassius, even the silver dragon doesn't know how long the other party will sleep.
ten years?
Thirty years?
Or fifty years?
She didn't know why she cared about how long an "enemy" slept, but this was undoubtedly an important issue for Silver Dragon.
Trump said in a deep voice: "Ms. Olivia, please don't worry, His Majesty said that he will wake up in a year."
"Is it so fast?"
Olivia breathed a sigh of relief, and the expression on her face became more relaxed. Everything seemed to be developing in line with her expectations.
Silver Dragon is about to enter the decision-making level of the empire and try his best to bring order and kindness to the empire.
She looked at the palace again and pushed her long silver hair behind her ears. For some reason, there was a hint of expectation in her blue-gray eyes.
"Have sweet dreams, Cassius."
Olivia said in an imperceptible voice, and then stepped into the portal leading to the Imperial Council Hall.
The cold wind is blowing in the Anzeta Wilderness, the snow in the north is gradually melting, and another few months have passed by in a hurry, and now it is almost March.
In fact, in the first period of time after the Starfallers left, the empire lost a lot of its vitality for development.
Without those tireless and crazy guys, many factories are experiencing a shortage of manpower, many products are unsaleable, and the development of technology has slowed down.
But soon, the chief minister of the empire launched many policies such as the "Imperial Security Act", "Economic Boost Strategy", and "Foreign Trade Regulations" to improve the treatment of workers, expand foreign export channels, and find a broader market for the empire.
After all, the Ember Empire is still a growing country, and the departure of players has only had a limited impact. Moreover, the war in the south is still going on, and orders for ordnance continue to flow.
Without the help of players, although the speed of the empire's development has slowed down slightly compared to before, the industrial scale is still gradually expanding, and the people of the empire are becoming richer and richer visibly.
More and more Anzetta people are coming to the city from the countryside to pursue the so-called "empire dream", hoping to become the rich and dragon-blooded nobles advertised.
For the vast majority of workers in the empire, the departure of the Starfallen has made their lives a little better - at least those employers cannot offer low prices arbitrarily.
In terms of external expansion, the Burning Ember Empire has also achieved considerable results.
Earl Jesse Swan led the Southern Continent advance team to establish a firm foothold in the Catpa region, establishing an indestructible fortress and firmly controlling this land in the hands of the empire.
Not only that, Tahan City has also become a post station for the Empire's Southern Continent Group. Caravans are constantly stationed in it to carry out trade, and the city has become quite prosperous.
They even extended their tentacles to Thrace in the south, built fortresses on the border between the empire and the Thracian kingdom, and often sent out scouts to explore.
But Thrace was suffering from the war in the south and dared not speak out in anger against the empire's temptation.
The empire's conquest of the fire elemental plane is also progressing smoothly.
The fire elemental plane empire army led by Count Serkan also controls the two former efreet cities of Pig Iron and Black Iron, and has tens of thousands of fire elemental creatures under his command: salamanders, fire dwarves, lava dragons and even efreet cities. Become a subject of the empire.
Not only that, he also achieved indirect colonization of the Brass Fortress.
Although the Brass Fortress is still nominally the territory of the fire dwarves, it has actually become an outpost of the empire in the elemental plane of fire.
Most of those diligent fire dwarves are working for the dragon-blood nobles and big businessmen from the empire, but these are so-called "free employment."
Subsequently, the war between the Djinn Empire and the Holy Flame Legion intensified. The Empire took the opportunity to sell arms on both sides and made a lot of money.
They also sent troops to occupy a fire djinn city that was captured and abandoned by the Holy Flame Legion, and named it "New Northwind Castle" - Count Serkan is a pure Northwind Castle man.
As for the Underdark, the war in the Ember Empire has caused drow, gray dwarves, swamp bears, deep gnomes and other natives of the underground world to tremble.
The city occupied by the Shadow Dragonborn drow, Black Wing, was mercilessly destroyed by Count Hart and his army of skeletons, and all the Penumbra Dragonborn drow in the city were slaughtered.
The empire's skeletal army of green-footed dragons and snakes swept across like a torrent, making the underground world tremble.
Coupled with the rumors of the "World-Burning Dragon", the destruction of Dragon Cinema, and the death of Mortyfield, it is logical that the Ember Empire has become an existence that must not be messed with in the eyes of underground residents.
Another imperial count, Zaiko, signed a loose treaty with the gray dwarves who took the initiative to seek refuge, gave them fairly generous treatment, and spread this news throughout the Underdark.
The Upper Dark Region is originally close to the surface and has large-scale contact with surface races, not limited to trade, raids and conquests.
Soon, several surrounding city-states expressed nominal surrender to the empire, including the underground dwarves of Seko Rock City, the gray dwarves of Hoanshor, and the ratmen of the underground kingdom
Even the drow in Mosolea City sent envoys, hoping to reach temporary peace with the empire.
Even these evil and ambitious drow do not want to rashly provoke an empire with undead legions and red dragons.
In this way, with the combination of grace and power, the Empire's Underdark advance army occupied a large area of land and became an emerging force that continued to expand in the Upper Dark region.
Gradually, not only the continent of Fianso, nor the material plane, the name of the Ember Empire gradually spread throughout the entire world of Erezegai.
However, in the eyes of residents in different regions, the image of the Ember Empire varies.
That's the country of guns and cannons, that's a remote place where the north wind blows, that's an empire full of monsters, that's the hometown of some nasty material guys
Of course, they have one thing in common - they are empires ruled by powerful dragons. (End of chapter)