"Please come in, please come in."

Hickrad pushed open the door of the study and walked in with great strides.

"flame."

A small wisp of flame popped out from his fingertips and fell accurately into the fireplace beside the wall. The flames suddenly rose, and the heat waves flowed out of the fireplace, beginning to drive away the chills in the room.

Hickrad pulled a chair for everyone, and sat in a chair with hot coffee in his hand.

"Ah, it's much more comfortable," he let out a comfortable moan. Karen in front of him had spread his notepad, and the quill was already full of ink.

"Ha, it seems you can't wait!" Hickrad looked at the young clerk with a smile, "Okay, then let's start."

◇◇◇◇◇

Let me think about where to start... Well, compared to you, you all know how I met Sara, and the unfortunate things he encountered in his childhood and youth.

That was the time when I just had some impression of Salen. Before the incident happened, how wonderful our time in school was.

Until then, the series of unfortunate tragedies happened. When the news reached my ears, I was shocked. My inner intuition made me deny their statements as soon as possible.

I know Sarah, I know Sarah, he will definitely not be that kind of person, let alone Sarah is his closest person, how could he...?

I always thought that this incident left a deep shadow in Saren's heart, and I often felt that in his heart, Picch's status could be comparable to that mysterious Strad, or even higher.

I remember the gritted teeth when he mentioned Pichi before. I always felt that what Pichi and the Empire did made him and also led to his hatred for the people of the Empire.

This situation was not truly relieved until he killed Pichi himself. It was not until then that I felt that he began to integrate into this country. The smile on his face, which means that there were more smiles from the bottom of his heart.

His revenge on Pizzi is indeed a good story, but we won't tell you this today. Let's go back to the most turbulent time in Strand and back to the man at the center of the storm.

◇◇◇◇◇

"Ha! Hickrad, you're here!"

Rana's breathless voice pulled me out of my memories. I raised my head and saw him walking towards me with joy on his face.

"What's wrong, Rana," I joked, "you look so happy, you probably have more smiles on your face today than you have ever added up in your past life."

"Of course it's a good thing," Rana looked up at the moon above our heads, "Come with me," he waved to me, "Your old friend has already made peace with us, and the Nine Holy Spirit is on you will never believe what He has done!"

To be honest, I didn't listen to anything he said later, and the news about Sarah here made me excited.

"Sarah has arrived here? It's worthy of him," I exclaimed from the bottom of my heart. Rana had the least troops to him, but he had to face no fewer enemies than us. "How are their situation?"

"It's very good," Rana rubbed his hands happily. "The Imperial Army Center in the North District, the Dretir Commercial Center was uprooted by Salen, and all the surviving Imperial soldiers and opposition surrendered. The only drawback is that Dretir was severely destroyed, but reconstruction was not a matter of hard work."

"This is the Saren I know," I nodded, "strong execution and high efficiency."

"Okay, OK," Lana waved her hand in anger. "Stop your flattery. If you have anything to say, please see him in person."

I nodded, and Rana was exactly what I wanted to say.

I followed him all the way through the temporary camp I had just made until we arrived at the northernmost point of the camp.

As soon as I came in, I keenly felt that the atmosphere here was different from other places in the camp.

I saw soldiers talking quietly on the road, and from time to time they would look at the tent in the middle of this small camp.

"What's going on," I whispered Larana's sleeve, "they look different from the soldiers elsewhere."

"Don't you know?" Rana gave me a look of surprise, "This matter has spread in the military camp."

He said this, looked around and attached it to my ears, "I heard that Saren became a dragon man when he attacked Deletire. After only two breaths, the garrison in the commercial center was burned to his morale and all surrendered."

"I heard you were with him at that time, on Grey Kirishima Island. What I want to know is, is this true? Can he really become a dragon man?"

"Yes, Rana," I nodded seriously at him, and the figure of Saren, who turned into a dragon, appeared in my mind. "You better not take this as a legend or a joke. All the imperial soldiers who did so have paid their due price."

"Huh," Rana let out a long sigh, "Not betrayal of Saren is the most correct decision made by the guys in the council. I don't want to be his enemy."

"No one thinks, Rana, believe me, no one thinks."

He nodded, lifted the curtain of the tent, and a familiar figure sat beside the bed, his upper body naked, with many scars towards our backs.

His broken steel was placed on the table, and the sword also became famous in the empire with him from obscurity.

"Salon," Rana said with a smile, "see who I brought you?"

He turned his head when he heard this, and the short hair that had returned to its original color was as dazzling as flames.

I saw a smile on his young face, and his eyes narrowed into a slit, and his beautiful blue-gray eyes were also firmly covered by his eyelids.

His smile grew bigger and bigger, and finally turned into a grin, "Hill!" He called my nickname affectionately, stood up from the edge of the bed, and walked towards me with his arms open, "I'm so happy to see you here!"

"So too, my dear old guy!" I rushed up happily and hugged him with my back hand, "I heard you are killing all directions in the north!"

"There are always some fools from the empire who don't believe I have the blood of a dragon. They just learned the lesson they deserve."

He waved his hand indifferently, "What I'm in the north doesn't matter. I want to know more, what plans do we have next?"

He kept staring at Rana when he said this. I understood what he meant. Sephili didn't know where he was. Erin and the others also needed someone to take care of him. The chaos in Capofez could be calmed as soon as possible, which was what Saren most wanted to see.

"I understand what you mean, Saren," Lana pondered for a while, "Tarren told me about your situation. I have heard the name of Ms. Rose, and I am very sorry for her experience."

"As soon as Leclerc meets us, we will immediately start a military agreement and launch an attack."

He used his hand to compare the appearance of a long sword, and then slashed hard at the air. "Thanks to these three victories, we have successfully suppressed the joint army of the Imperial Army and the opposition to the eastern half of the commercial area. We only need to have one or two successful offensives, and they will be easily defeated by us."

"It's better you said, Rana," Saren frowned, a sign of his displeasure, and he never liked this inference without actual evidence, "Do you have information on the situation analysis?"

"Very good," Saren nodded, "I want to see these information, can I?"

"Of course it's okay," Rana nodded, "I'll send it to you later."

He looked at me and then at Saren, "I think you must have a lot to say," he said, "I will leave you some space."

"Thank you very much, Rana," I nodded gratefully to him, "I only talked to Saren for a short time, and then I went back to my own troops to report."

"Actually," Rana covered her mouth and coughed softly, "You don't need to report back to your original troops, Hill."

He took a step forward and looked at us radiantly, "In the previous battles, your fighting powers and Saren were verified, so I plan to have you form a special commando team responsible for dealing with the next most troublesome enemies."

"What? Are Salen and me?"

"Of course not," Rana shook her head, "I will pick out some elite warriors from Kalechi and form a unified organization with you."

"It's my honor," Saren owed slightly to Rana, "I won't let you down."

"It's also my honor," I obeyed Saren and owed slightly, "I'm looking forward to the future battle."

"Let's see you later, gentlemen." Rana nodded slightly at us, saluted and left the tent.

"Oh my God, Sarah," I grabbed Saren's shoulder after Rana left the tent, "I heard you showed a dragon shape in the attack?"

"Yes, Hill," Saren looked at me calmly and nodded, "actually, this is what I calculated from the beginning."

"You calculated it from the beginning?"

"Yes," Saren picked up the water cup on the table and drank a big mouthful of water. "In fact, Hill, I'm worried about the so-called high-ranking members of the parliament," he looked at me with some concern. "Even the vampire hunters, I dare not fully believe it. In fact, after going through so many things, I don't know who else I can trust except you."

I looked at his tired face and sighed slightly, and suddenly felt sad and sour in my heart. If I remember correctly, he was only less than eighteen years old this year.

Under eighteen years old, this is a very young age. What are most Empires and Stranders doing at this age? Either being an apprentice in a shop or workshop, or continuing to study in school, hoping to find a suitable position in the future.

Like Salen? I dare not say there is no at all, but I think there must be very few.

"Relax, old man," I tried my best to make my voice sound soft and gentle, "You are safe here. Maybe the political animals in the parliament don't know what morality is, nor what integrity is, but at least here, you're facing simple soldiers and noble officers."

"I understand, Hill," he sighed, "this is what I feel guilty about. I am plotting against them. I am becoming a dragon to increase my reputation among the army and among the citizens."

"I get it," I nodded. Saren's move is not too rare in politics. "You want to use this to increase your reputation until your reputation is so high that no one can shake it or can't shake it easily, right?"

"You are worthy of being from the imperial capital, Hill," Saren laughed, pointing at my nose and cursed, "At this point, you are as sharp as those political animals, yes, that's what I think. Think about it, they will not cause much rebound if they want to go back on an ordinary adventurer or hunter, but what if they are the heroes of Stran? What about the heroes of saving Capofez?"

"At this time, they have to consider what kind of waves will cause among the people after betraying you."

I followed the second half of his words, looked at him, and smiled tacitly.

Now that I understood what Saren's main goal was, my direction was clear, and in the following battle, I decided to find a way to continuously improve his reputation for him until he became famous throughout the Strand Republic.

◇◇◇◇◇

"Don't look at me like this," Hickrad took a sip of coffee and looked at the younger generation opposite him with a smile. "In the political circle of the imperial capital, this is just the most basic strategy."

He stirred the coffee in the cup with a spoon, and then gently tapped it on the edge of the cup, "I think Ms. Erin also has a deep understanding of this."

"Yes," Erin blew gracefully, then took a sip, "Maybe Empire and Strand are very different in ideological and technological levels, and even in national customs, but political, gentlemen, this thing is shared by the whole world."

"You have to get rid of the Kingdom of Valenlia," Cara continued half-jokingly, "that ghost place is different from other places!"

"There are Federations," Karen smiled and put down his quill and made his own additions, "It was more like a huge rune teacher school."

"Okay, the simple rest conversation ends here," Hickrad picked up a piece of sugar cube with his tweezers and put it in his coffee. "Let's continue our story, but things have just begun."

◇◇◇◇◇

Saren watched the vampire disappear from his sight. After a while, he put away his weapons, hummed a song, and walked back to the side of the official road along the way he came.

The horse was still waiting faithfully at the entrance of the village. After seeing Saren, he let out a sigh of relief, with a hint of dissatisfaction in the screams.

"I'm anxious, right, my dear horse," Saren smiled at him, jumped gently, and sat in the coachman's position. "This is my fault, my dear good horse, now, let's keep moving forward, drive!"

The reins made a crisp sound, and the horse made a cheerful neigh into the sky and continued to run forward.
Chapter completed!