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Chapter 8 Offering Loyalty to the Dragon Daughter
"What dragon's daughter? I can't fake that!" In the backyard of the mansion, Dia grabbed Renn's arm in a frantic manner and cried out, "I'll be hanged and left to dry at the bottom of the Scale Temple!"

"Quiet." Ryan calmly reached out his right hand and pinched her lips shut.

Dia, embarrassed and angry, slapped his hand away.

"Whether you are the daughter of the dragon or not is not important," Renn said calmly. "What is important is that, to the nobles of Dragon Valley City, you can be the daughter of the dragon even if you are not."

"What do you mean?" Dia asked, puzzled, her big eyes shining with a clear light.

"This answer will require two months' worth of maids in exchange," Renn stated.

"Hmph, I'll figure it out myself." Dia was slightly scared and showed a sullen expression.

The maid's contract has been over a year long. If you keep asking, you'll be selling yourself. Stop right now.

She massaged Rein's shoulders and back, and rubbed his temples in the backyard, while Lord Agor Salichye sat in the front hall, receiving the visiting nobles of Dragon Valley City.

The Salichye family has ruled Dragon Valley for hundreds of years, but it is rare for them to summon all their vassals. Therefore, the lizardman nobles all looked serious, knowing that something big was about to happen.

Agor did not disappoint them. After everyone had arrived, he succinctly gave his instructions:

"The Faher family of the human empire recently escorted a human woman to my residence, claiming she is the daughter of a true dragon."

The lizardman nobles exchanged glances, and soon a few of them couldn't help but chuckle.

Agor looked at them with a gentle expression until they realized the atmosphere was awkward and awkwardly stopped smiling.

"Is it funny?" Agor asked calmly. "Your Excellency Baleran, what are you laughing at?"

The nobleman who was named quickly defended himself, saying:

“Lord Agor, I am not mocking you. It’s just that the daughter of the true dragon is also the savior, and she will only descend into the world when the end of the world comes. The Faher family you mentioned probably does not understand our lizard people’s faith and culture, which is why they made such a joke.”

“You’re right,” Agor said calmly. “Whether the other party is the daughter of a true dragon is something that needs to be carefully considered.”

"If not, then the Fahre family has insulted our faith and must pay the price; but if so, what should we do?"

The lizardman nobles exchanged glances, gradually losing their nonchalance and mockery, and began to ponder.

Lord Agor wouldn't go to the trouble of summoning all his vassals just because a fraudster claims to be the daughter of a true dragon. Let's reverse our thinking: since everyone has been summoned here, the other party must indeed be the daughter of a true dragon.

It has to be. Otherwise, what's the point of everyone coming here?
If you think along these lines, the answer becomes quite obvious.

Lizardmen were also known as "sub-dragons" in ancient times because they believed themselves to be offspring of a branch that inherited a thin bloodline of dragons, the so-called "sub-dragon race".

As for the Dragon Daughter, she is a direct descendant of the true dragon bloodline. Therefore, any lizardman who worships the dragon ancestor will spontaneously support the Dragon Daughter under her banner.

In other words, as long as the nobles can make full use of the Dragon Daughter's influence, they can naturally wrest back the power of discourse from the shamanic order.

Whether the Dragon Daughter is real or not is unimportant; what matters is how many lizardmen in Dragon Valley City will believe she is real.

As long as enough people believe, she is the daughter of a true dragon.

“If she is the daughter of a true dragon, we will certainly pledge our allegiance to her.” The nobles, having grasped the crux of the matter, expressed their stance one after another. “But what if the shamanic order denies her identity as the daughter of a dragon?”

“How can you deny it?” Agor asked the crowd in return.

"For example, is there any ritual that can identify the bloodline of a true dragon..."

“That would be an insult to the daughter of the true dragon!” Agor said firmly. “If the shamanic order were to use rituals to confirm your noble bloodline, would you obediently cooperate?”

"This is an insult!" The lizardman nobles bared their long snouts, revealing mouthfuls of sharp teeth. "How dare those shamans question and interrogate the bloodline of our nobility!"

"The Daughter of the True Dragon will not tolerate any offense!" Agor declared fiercely. "Anyone who attempts to insult the bloodline of the True Dragon will be an irreconcilable enemy of the Salichye family! Whether it be the Shaman Order or the Fahel family!"

Now even the most clueless guest understood what Agor was up to.

Acknowledge the Dragon's Daughter, uphold her, eliminate any enemies who question her identity, and ensure her name is deeply ingrained in the hearts of Dragon Valley City… If any of these steps fail, shift all blame to the Faher family: we were merely too devout in our faith in the Dragon's Daughter, and were deceived by cunning humans. This task would be extremely risky for any nobleman to undertake, as it would be tantamount to directly confronting the Shamanic Order.

However, if all the nobles band together and hide behind the humans, cheering them on, even if they lose, they can be exempt from punishment because of the sheer number of people involved. They can simply push the humans out to appease the shamanic group's anger.

Having thought this through, the lizardman nobles had few more doubts and unanimously demanded to see the daughter of the true dragon as soon as possible and kneel down to offer their loyalty to her.

Seeing that the nobles had reached a consensus, Agor clapped his hands in satisfaction and instructed the butler to bring out Rein and Dia from the backyard.

As soon as Dia arrived at the front hall, she saw the lizardman nobles seemingly competing with each other, taking turns to put on a dramatic performance.

Some covered their faces and wept bitterly, claiming that they were so moved by seeing the true face of the emperor that they could not contain their emotions.

Some immediately drew their swords and propped them up on the ground, declaring themselves to be the dragon's daughter's sword, ready to cut through thorns and brambles for her until their deaths.

Some even knelt down, pulled off their scarves to wipe Dia's shoes, and humbly called themselves "the loyal servants of the Dragon Daughter," which disgusted Dia so much that she could only hide behind Rein.

In contrast, Rennes' social etiquette was clearly much more mature.

He hypocritically exchanged pleasantries with the lizardman nobles, telling lies that none of them believed. In just a few words, he could become very friendly with them, which amazed Dia and made her secretly click her tongue in amazement.

Agor, holding a wine glass, watched with a smile.

He was naturally pleased with Renn's efforts to win over these nobles, because the nobles needed Renn to stand in front of them and confront the shamanic order's wrath.

Therefore, Raine must stand in the center of the stage, next to the Dragon Maiden, while the nobles should remain quietly in the background as inconspicuous supporting characters.

Of course, the Dragon Daughter is just a young girl who hasn't reached adulthood. If she wants to rule Dragon Valley City in the future, she will have to rely on these lizardman nobles; a human cannot take away their power.

Seeing that Renn had finished his conversation with the nobles and turned his gaze towards them, Agor raised his wine glass at the opportune moment and said:
"I propose we drink this cup together for the Dragon Daughter! May she live a long life!"

"May she live a long life!" The nobles also raised their glasses in unison.

Raine handed a goblet filled with mead to Dia, who hurriedly took it, held it up with both hands, and awkwardly thanked the lizardman nobles for their support and affection.

The collective act of raising a glass to drink is like a kind of religious initiation ritual, making everyone look at each other with increasingly kind and friendly eyes.

From now on, we are all members of the Dragon Maiden's great ship!

As Dia listened to the nobles' constant flattery, a strong urge suddenly arose in her heart: she wanted to loudly proclaim the news of the "White Walkers' impending arrival" and, as the daughter of the dragon, demand that the nobles immediately mobilize for war.

However, as Raine had said, even if these nobles truly believed the White Walkers were coming, they would only consider their own safety.

After a long internal struggle, Dia decided to trust Rein and suppressed the urge to warn the nobles present.

The onboarding process is over; all that's left is to eat, drink, and bond.

In this Western fantasy world, nobles control the vast majority of wealth, knowledge, and power, so maintaining good relations with each other is of paramount importance.

Even though Renn was of a different race and had a vastly different culture, as long as both sides were willing to befriend each other, communication gaps were no problem, and they quickly became "good friends" who could talk about anything.

As Renn was chatting with several lizardman nobles, he suddenly heard someone beside him say:
"...I'm really unlucky. There are only so few people in the territory to begin with, and several more went missing yesterday."

“Missing?” Renn looked at the sighing nobleman.

“Yes.” The other person was just complaining casually, not expecting that Renn would be interested in this. “Yesterday, some of my people went fishing downstream of the Saint River and didn’t come back last night. I guess they were eaten by anacondas.”

Dia's face paled slightly. Raine listened without changing his expression, then smiled and said:
"It's the anaconda's mating season, isn't it? To reproduce and lay eggs, they hunt large numbers of prey to replenish their nutrition. If I were you, I would have the people retreat to Dragon Valley City to avoid losing even more manpower in the future."

“Then I’ll be at a huge loss,” the other party said with a laugh. “If we let them retreat to Dragon Valley City, who will provide them with food and lodging? They won’t work, and they won’t pay taxes. Am I supposed to support them for nothing? I’d rather they die!”

Dia's heart sank instantly. Raine gave her a meaningful look and said with a smile:

"That's true."

(End of this chapter)