Chapter 625 — The Relief Plan
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
"I see... a giant dragon..." Gao Yang trailed off, nodding slightly. "So the Wilde family has established contact with your kind..."
"I serve Victoria by my own will," the black dragon said at once, with a touch of curiosity. "You... do not seem surprised when facing a dragon?"
"I have dealt with dragons before," Gao Yang said casually, then took the opportunity to ask, "But the dragons I have met seem somewhat different from you. Forgive my asking—if you find it offensive or taboo, you need not answer—are you a young dragon?"
He remembered that this black-haired maid's human form had appeared quite mature, which was why he was especially curious about her dragon form; and this was a good opportunity to learn about dragons, and since the other party had need of him at this moment, she surely would not turn on him over one simple question.
He noticed that Maggie showed a moment's hesitation before this question, and within that hesitation there perhaps lurked tension and irritation, as though this simple question had touched upon a domain she did not wish to answer; but she spoke anyway, her tone somewhat hesitant: "It is... an illness..."
"Very well, I understand," Gao Yang vaguely guessed the situation and cut in at once. "Forgive me, madam, the fault was mine for asking."
Then he glanced at Maggie's current form and changed the subject: "Madam, can you take human form? It might make our conversation more convenient."
The black dragon lowered her neck slightly: "I can—please step back a little."
Several commanders, including Gao You, along with Amber and the others who had come out to watch the spectacle, immediately fell back. At the center of the clearing, the black dragon flexed its wings and tail, and with a surge of powerful magic and a sudden whirlwind, its entire body was enveloped in a writhing curtain of light—
Watching that curtain of light contract and shift, Gao Yang could not help but recall a saying: most transformation spells in this world originate with the dragon race...
Black-haired and black-eyed, dressed in a maid's gown with two longswords hanging at her waist, Maggie stepped out from the light.
Among the crowd, Amber could not resist muttering to Philip: "You know, I've always wondered—when these transformation types shift shape, where exactly do their clothes and belongings go..."
The young and forthright knight was clearly not quite attuned to the rhythm of this head of intelligence, and froze for a moment: "...Why does your mind work in such strange directions?"
"Thank you most sincerely for your aid," said Maggie in her human form, coming before Gao Yang and bowing deeply—but then she could not help asking, "When will your army..."
"My legion's main force will reach the war zone by evening, and we can launch the attack overnight—but before that, we must devise an effective plan of assault," Gao Yang cut off the dragon in human shape, raising a hand toward the barracks nearby that served as headquarters. "Please come with me. I need to understand the situation in the north first."
Maggie followed Gao Yang and several Cecil officers into the command post, where the first thing she saw was an exquisitely detailed map hung upon the wooden wall of the barracks.
On that finely wrought map she saw the Giantwood Pass marked with numerous tactical symbols, crisscrossing arrows, lines indicating enemy positions and the division of the war zones, and one after another numbers and shorthand marks that even she could not decipher.
Though nominally only a maid, Maggie grasped in an instant what this map meant: it meant the Cecilians' mastery of the battlefield, a manner of waging war that no one had ever achieved before!
For a moment she even wanted to turn her head away, for the information laid out on that map was simply too much—enough to tip the balance of the war—but she quickly realized that Gao Yang had brought her here precisely to see this map.