Chapter 676 — The Legacy

The dragon in human form radiated a certain indefinable pressure; after question upon question, her attitude was plainly no longer mere "inquiry." Gao Yang bore up under that pressure and raised his head to meet her gaze. After a moment, he broke the silence. "Wiltshire's choice commands admiration... but frankly, when the time comes, I fear I will not be as free and easy as he was.

"I am a stubborn and somewhat selfish man—at least compared with Wiltshire. And if the day you speak of truly arrives, I fear I will already have rotted to the bone.

"So I most likely will not 'step down' from the throne. I will grip my imperial power tight, refuse to admit my failure, and actively organize forces to put down the rebellion—because by then, I will most likely have forgotten the days of the frontier and the rise of the Southern Region, forgotten these very words I speak to you today.

"At that moment, in my eyes, every rebel will be a traitor and a usurper.

"And if that day truly comes... may the rebel army have stout ships and powerful guns."

At an extremely close distance, Mei Heng stared into Gao Song's eyes for a long while.

Then she suddenly straightened up and returned to a normal distance, and the ever-graceful agent laughed aloud.

There was not the slightest mockery in that laughter—only sheer delight.

"Humans truly are a fascinating species. Your selfishness and your selflessness are both extreme to a astonishing degree," Mei Heng said at last, having gotten her laughter under control, though her eyes remained curved. "Since you have put it that far, it seems there is nothing more to confirm. Only, I am curious about one thing... a matter that more or less concerns the 'fate of the nation'—handing it to the Mithril Treasury, to the dragon race, truly does not trouble you? You truly do not find it rash?"

As she spoke, she picked up the manuscripts from the desk and waved them in the air. "What if we made it public ahead of time? What if we tampered with it? We are dragons—in your human eyes, an alien race... Is your trust in us not perhaps a little excessive?"

"If the dragon race truly wished to destroy the present Cecil Empire, would we need to scheme over manuscripts?" Gao Yang glanced at her. "And if in the future you mean to use them for something... frankly, the power of these manuscripts is not so great as all that. What I have been able to summarize is nothing but shallow and superficial content. One day, someone in this world will see more clearly and think further than I; they will have no need of any 'guidance from ancient manuscripts.' In the end, these things are nothing more than my accounting to myself."

"It seems you have already thought this through thoroughly," Mei Heng breathed out. "Very well, then. I will take on this commission. But one thing I must remind you: the contents of these manuscripts—no one can understand them now."

Gao Yun gave a slight nod. "I know. That is precisely why I must entrust them to you for safekeeping—because they have come too early, perhaps even a generation too early. And what I must do is continue to spread education, continue to transform this society. If I am to grow old and die like an ordinary man, then I hope that at least in my lifetime, I can make people able to understand it..."

The room fell quiet for a time, and after several seconds of silence, Mei Heng suddenly spoke. "Now I know how to price this particular commission."

"Oh?" Gao Yang looked up at her, then cracked a joke. "I hope it's not some outrageous price. The Empire's finances aren't exactly flush at the moment."

"Then let your promise just now be the price," Mei Heng said. "Go advance your commoners' education, complete your reform plan. If your promise is fulfilled, the Mithril Vault will honor its word as well. And if you fail... these manuscripts will never see the light of day."

Gao Yang rubbed his chin. "That sounds like a losing deal to me."

"No. The Mithril Vault never makes a losing deal." Mei Heng smiled as she said it.

She paused a moment, then went on. "If there's nothing else, I shall take my leave. This is a rather large commission—it warrants a trip back to Tarronde on my part."

"There's one thing I'd like to ask about," Gao You said before the other could depart. "You know the origin of that enormous skull at today's ceremony, don't you?"

"Of course. I witnessed it with my own eyes. And I've also seen the propaganda you've been spreading lately."

"There will be more propaganda to come. Everyone will learn the origin of that skull, and the plan behind the Finality of All Things," Gao Dai said. "Naturally, we'll be careful to control the pace, to keep it from striking too violently and throwing society into chaos. What I want to ask is this: doing so... does it help us escape the Black Pit?"

Mei Heng fell silent for a moment. In that silence, faint scales suddenly surfaced on her cheeks and arms, her eyes in an instant transformed into golden vertical slits, and the aura of dragonkind spilled out unchecked, making the lamps in the room flicker bright and dim. And within her shadow, as though some indescribable thing were struggling to overflow, the body of this dragon in human form trembled slightly, as if in agony against some will that had suddenly descended upon her. And just as Gao Yang was about to call a halt, she finally held on with difficulty at some critical threshold, and gave a slight nod. "Yes."

"Then..."

Mei Heng clenched her teeth. "Ask again... and it costs extra..."

"No, that's enough," Gao Yang waved a hand. "I've already gotten what I wanted."

The alien power that had descended upon Mei Heng receded swiftly. The dragon in human form staggered, then nodded to Gao Yan, drew a deep breath, and left the room.

A moment later, in the images transmitted from the surveillance satellite, Gao Yang saw a blue dragon rise from the top of Silverhold and fly north.

"Watching" the trajectory of the great dragon's departure, Gao Yang could not help but feel a touch of curiosity. He was not curious why no one in the castle had noticed a dragon flying overhead—after all, spells like the "Bent-Light Field" could be mastered even by humans, so for a great dragon it must be no difficulty at all. What he was curious about was...

A creature that size, with a form hardly suited to aerodynamics, whose wings looked to offer only limited lift—just how did it fly so fast?

Surely it couldn't be riding on the magic of friendship...

He shook his head, tossing those far-fetched associations aside, shifted his shoulders slightly, and leaned back in his chair.

"The Black Pit, is it...

"So the problem really does lie with the gods."