Chapter 414 A Dragon Sister Falls from the Sky
Another week passed.
The outskirts of Demacia's capital.
Two familiar figures dressed as civilian rangers were flying towards the royal capital from the azure blue sky in the east.
"Jarven, it's time for us to land." Garen reminded in a deep voice.
"Yes." Prince Jarvan nodded secretly.
He knew how much of a stir it would cause if people saw them flying in the sky near the royal capital in Demacia, where magic was strictly prohibited.
So the two of them tried their best to avoid the sight of passers-by and carefully landed in an uninhabited wilderness in the far suburbs of Xiongdu.
"Where's my face?" Garen touched the simulated mask on his face a little uncomfortable.
"Go back and change." Jiawen also had a strange face at this time, looking like an ordinary young man.
This disguise mask is not high-tech. In Demacia, where magic is forbidden, intelligence personnel can only use this prop to make up for the lack of disguise skills. So it is not difficult for them to change their faces.
Garen and Jarvan changed their appearance and dressed up as civilian rangers. The reason was very simple.
The purpose of their trip this time was to conduct a secret visit.
"Eldred is really amazing."
Recalling the experience of this trip, Prince Jarvan couldn't help but sigh deeply.
"This guy just used his connections to spread the news among the noble circles in the eastern part of the kingdom that 'the envoys from Xiongdu are going to the eastern part to check the logistics and military affairs'..."
"So many towns in the East Territory, so many granaries, silver vaults, and barracks were attacked by the 'Dragon' without any warning."
"Oh, this 'devil dragon' is really ruthless—"
"The two dragons burned to death several thousand registered soldiers in less than half a month. They burned them all to ashes and no bones were left. Not even a corpse was found after they died."
"Damn it! Do you think we are fools?" Thinking of what he saw and heard along the way during this incognito visit, Prince Jarvan couldn't help but be disappointed.
"This is all the kingdom's money! It's the blood and sweat of the people!"
"Ahem, calm down..." Galen tried to calm his brother.
This incognito experience obviously gave Prince Jarvan a deeper understanding of the true situation in Demacia.
But he had imagined the situation to be bad enough before he set out, but he didn't expect it to be this bad.
So facing this absurd and cruel reality, Prince Jarvan still finds it difficult to accept it.
"Actually, this is normal." Garen was mentally prepared: "After all, you know, Noxus is to our east."
"The East has always been the front line of Demacia's war against the Empire, and the kingdom's various resources have naturally been gathered in the East. This war has been fought intermittently for hundreds of years, so..."
So many resources and so much time are enough to form a terrifyingly large interest group.
Therefore , it is normal for this situation to occur in the Eastern Territory .
They don't really think the royal family are fools, but they are using the "magic dragon" to create some excuses to give everyone a suitable way out.
If you are sensible, don't check the accounts too carefully.
It’s best not to check.
Otherwise, the Eastern Legion, as the absolute main force of the Demacia Kingdom that has been in direct confrontation and exchanges with Noxus for many years, there is no telling what it might do if it is pushed into a corner.
"Although the Crown Guard family has great prestige in the army, if it involves issues such as core interests..." Garen spread his hands helplessly.
The name of your royal family of Jarvan doesn't work there, so how can you expect the Crown Guard family to suppress those people from the East who have been operating there for hundreds of years?
"..." Prince Jarvan was speechless.
"Will other places be better?" He rubbed his eyes and asked tiredly.
"Uh..." Galen looked a little embarrassed.
He said: "Well, Jarvan, actually... this kind of problem only occurs in the East."
"Because the East Territory has always been the front line of the kingdom's war preparations, many towns are managed by officials directly appointed by the East Territory Corps and the central government of Xiongdu, so there is a sufficiently complete bureaucracy and administrative system there, which is why problems like today have arisen."
"And the rest of Demacia... ahem." Garen pointed at himself and said, "With us here, it won't be the bureaucrats' turn to make money."
The rest of Demacia was basically divided among nobles like the Crownguard family.
These nobles, both big and small, are the legal local emperors. Where is the niche for corrupt officials and powerful local celebrities?
The money originally belongs to the nobles, why would they be greedy?
Prince Jarvan: “…”
Tired , mentally exhausted. Demacia is hundreds of years old, like an old man with a terminal illness.
If you open any wound on it, the stench that comes out of it will make you cry.
What's the point of being a king in a place like this?
"Not bad." Prince Jarvan couldn't help but deepen his belief as a leader.
This broken house is really beyond repair. It's better to tear it down and start over.
"Yeah." Galen agreed.
"But..." He brought the topic back to the present: "What we should consider most now is not how to deal with the Eastern Legion. These people are just like the nobles of Demacia. Sooner or later, they will be cleared out by the wind of change."
"What we need to face now is Eldred and his army of demon hunters."
"President Levi has told us to win this war of public opinion and not let the people of Demacia panic about magic. However, as of now..."
In the war of public opinion, they are completely at a disadvantage.
Faced with the "dragon crisis" created by Eldred, the series of cultural propaganda methods thought of by Jarvan, Garen and Lux did not gain any advantage at all.
After all, compared to the comic stories read on paper, the people of Demacia are more worried about the so-called dragon that may descend on their heads at any time.
The "Magic Dragon" itself is just an introduction. The most important thing is:
"Our control over the grassroots is far behind Eldred." Galen sighed helplessly.
Demacia is a feudal kingdom, and the royal power only extends to the cities at most. Below that is the world ruled by local nobles.
The influence of the Crown Guard family does extend to villages and towns, but its scope is limited to Mithril City, their own fiefdom.
But the Demon Hunter Corps is different.
They are active on the grassroots level in Demacia every day, hunting down mages all over the country.
Silas was just a farm boy from a remote village, but after he revealed his talent as a demon-contaminated person, his illiterate poor peasant parents were able to contact the demon hunters in the first place and arrest him and put him in jail.
From this example, we can see how terrifying the influence of the Demon Seekers is at the grassroots level in Demacia.
"Big cities are fine. But some small towns, especially those controlled by the nobles of the Anti-Demon Sect... the propagandists we send out are often found and detained by the Demon Hunters as soon as they arrive."
"But the bards of the Demon Seekers can reach every village and town in Demacia in the shortest possible time and spread their stories that exaggerate the atmosphere of demon terror to the people."
How can you fight a war of public opinion if no one can hear your voice?
"Yes..." Prince Jarvan sighed softly.
"The truth told by the survivors is that only one dragon attacked them. And the other dragon present at the time even risked its life to protect humans..."
But no one believes this truth.
After all, news of the dragon's invasion continued to arrive.
The Demacians, who already hated magical creatures and were infected by panic, simply did not believe that the dragon would protect humans.
Coupled with the malicious propaganda of the Demon Seekers, "Now all of Demacia believes that the dragons were summoned by the so-called 'extreme demon-tainted groups that colluded with the Noxian Empire.'"
"As news of the dragon's invasion continues to spread, this rumor continues to deepen and spread. But we are completely powerless to stop it..."
He could see the current difficulties and he could also think of ways to deal with the problems:
"We still have to find those two dragons as soon as possible!"
The lack of grassroots propaganda capabilities cannot be made up in a short period of time.
But they can start with the key point of this series of events:
Since people were worried about the news of the dragon's invasion, the Demon Hunters had the fertile ground for spreading rumors.
As long as they can execute the dragon in public, it should be able to alleviate the panic of the Demacians to a certain extent and prevent this irrational and tense atmosphere from spreading endlessly.
"Slay the dragon?" Garen thought for a moment. "Indeed, as long as we can publicly kill the evil dragon and then make it clear that we will not send envoys to check the accounts and appease the emotions of the Eastern Territory Army, then what will happen next..."
"This farce of the dragon's invasion should now come to an end."
The idea is correct.
"But the problem is..." Garen frowned, "How are we going to find those two dragons?"
"This..." Jarvan was also silent.
Demacia is so big, who knows where those two dragons are hiding?
Furthermore, according to their investigations over the past few days, the news of "devil dragon burning warehouses" and "devil dragon slaughtering camps" reported from various parts of the eastern border of the kingdom in the past two weeks were basically all false.
The real dragon only appeared in the Lenwall Fortress on the first day.
Since then, the two dragons have not appeared for two weeks.
It is hard to say whether they are still alive or in Demacia.
How could they find it?
"Hey, Jarvan." Garen raised his square face with thick eyebrows and big eyes and said, "What do you think, should we..."
"Why not just find two dragons, drag them to the streets of Xiongdu and chop them up?"
"Huh?" Jarvan was slightly stunned.
"You think..." He just listened to his good brother's analysis: "Besides the survivors of the Lunwall Fortress, who else knows what the two dragons look like?"
"The Demon Hunters can create a fake dragon invasion, and we can also stage a fake dragon execution!"
"Anyway, the common people just want to hear the news that the dragon was killed..."
"Whether the one killed was the dragon or the dragon's substitute, it doesn't seem to be that important, right?"
"Uh..." Prince Jarvan was very hesitant.
Cheating and deceiving the masses is somewhat in conflict with his moral values.
And... does this count as a violation of the Leader's discipline?
"Ahem, President Levi also said that leaders cannot have moral cleanliness." Garen said in a deep voice with a big square face: "Sometimes, we leaders also need to pay attention to methods and ways of working, and we have to make flexible changes according to the actual situation."
"This... seems to be right." Prince Jarvan was gradually led aboard by his good brothers.
Indeed, panic is spreading in Demacia and public opinion is surging.
It is no big deal to let the Demon Hunter Corps gain the upper hand for a while.
If, as President Levi warned, this large-scale collective panic brings something unclean to Demacia... then things will be troublesome.
Just finding two dragons and killing them to calm the storm as soon as possible might be an option that would benefit both the country and the people.
"But this dragon is not that easy to find, right?" Prince Jarvan asked again with concern.
Elemental dragons are extremely rare "super endangered protected animals" in Runeland today.
Now all of Demacia knows that the dragon that attacked Renwall Fortress was extremely large.
If they just caught two "dwarf" dragons that were more than ten meters long to make up the numbers, they would probably end up making things worse due to the suspicion of the Demon Hunters.
"If this matter is exposed, the royal family's credibility will be completely lost." Prince Jarvan said worriedly.
"It doesn't matter." Galen said, "I heard that the Science and Equipment Department is researching something called 'Alchemical Tech Dragon', which looks similar to an elemental dragon."
"Let's get support from Zaun on both sides, and just deceive the citizens of Xiongdu."
"Will this... really work?" Prince Jarvan became even more worried after hearing this bold suggestion.
Garen spread his hands and said, "This is the best option. Unless you can find two real elemental dragons."
Prince Jarvan was silent.
Indeed, he couldn't come up with a better solution.
Helplessly, he could only look up at the sky and sigh, "Yes."
"It would be great if two elemental dragons could fall from the sky."
As soon as the voice fell:
"boom--"
There was a terrifying sound in the air, like a meteorite falling to the ground.
Jarvan and Garen looked in the direction of the sound and saw a giant fire dragon with its scales peeling off, flesh torn, and blood dripping, flying precariously from the east, and then...
With a loud bang, it fell to the ground.
The giant dragon smashed a huge pit in front of them, then its wings retracted, its head drooped, and it collapsed on the ground in the pit.
It was so weak and feeble that even the light in its eyes seemed to be disappearing.
"???!" Jarvan and Garen were stunned for several seconds before they reacted.
Then, they looked at each other.
"Dead?" Garen reached for the big knife at his waist.
In order to hide his identity, he did not carry his iconic sword with him during this "incognito visit".
But in his hand, an ordinary long sword was enough to cut off the dragon head from a corpse.
So Garen picked up his sword, jumped out of the bushes, and planned to take the dragon head for free.
"Wait." Jiawen's heart moved.
He tried his best to feel the air flow, to feel the faint breath mixed in the howling mountain wind: "It still has a breath."
"Maybe we can save it."
