"Casius"

In front of the tall and heavy iron gate, Olivia looked at the magnificent palace where she had lived for a long time and called out in a low voice.

The guards at the door recognized Olivia, who had lived in the palace, so they did not stop her, but since they had not received any orders, they did not open the door.

"You should be able to hear it."

Olivia muttered quietly.

She had witnessed the Red Dragon's "power" in the empire, which shocked her, and knew that the other party must have known of her arrival.

Sure enough, a familiar voice appeared and echoed outside the palace.

"Let her in."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

With a dull sound, the heavy door slowly opened, allowing Olivia to see the scene inside the palace.

“The palace.”

"I haven't been back for a long time."

Looking at the familiar garden and palace, Olivia's blue-gray eyes flickered.

For nearly a year, she moved to Istalia, disguised herself as a human, and became a councilor of the kingdom through her own efforts.

But this place is the "cage" that imprisoned her.

Although she only stayed there for a few months, which was just a brief moment compared to her nearly 100 years of life, the experience was truly unforgettable for her.

But she did not feel unbearable when looking back. Instead, she felt inexplicably close to it, even nostalgic.

Does she still harbor resentment and hatred in her heart?
Maybe.

Even Olivia herself found it difficult to explain what a complicated emotion this was, not to mention that she would have to make a request to the red dragon later.

Thinking of this, Olivia couldn't help but hold the documents in her hands tightly, and her steps became a little hurried.

Walking along the road to the main hall, the palace gate carved with a dragon head was opened.

What comes into view is the red dragon lying on the somewhat narrow throne, with its large swept-back horns, broad wings, and light golden vertical pupils. The huge dragon body almost fills up half of the palace, which is extremely visually impactful.

Strong, majestic, dignified, and - perfect.

These words entered Olivia's mind almost subconsciously, making her feel as if she saw the platinum statue of Bahamut in the clan's dragon nest.

What's even more terrifying is that the opponent's body length has reached forty meters. Even the elders of the Melward clan are far from being so huge.

"He's gotten stronger."

Olivia thought so.

This also means that the gap between herself and the other party is getting bigger and bigger. Although she doesn't know why, she feels inexplicably lost.

It took Olivia a long time to come back to her senses, her blue-gray vertical pupils flickering with complex emotions.

She opened her mouth and whispered, "Long time no see, Cassius."

"Long time no see, Councillor Olivia. You have been making quite a stir in the imperial political arena recently."

Grayish-white smoke overflowed from Cassius' mouth. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and a half-smile appeared on his dragon face.

Olivia was slightly surprised: "Do you know what I did?"

Cassius replied: "Of course, as an ordinary member of the House of Commons, I refuted the proposal supported by Duke Doro in person, which also caused a conflict between the military and the government."

"Tsk tsk, you really have great abilities. Do you know what the people of the empire call you? The Flower of Justice."

He actually knew?
She thought that as the emperor of the empire, he would not care about such trivial matters, let alone an ordinary proposal, but Cassius said the thing accurately.

You know, according to some rumors in the empire, His Majesty Cassius has been sleeping all the time.

Could it be that he has been secretly watching me?

For some reason, Olivia felt a little excited, and an imperceptible satisfaction appeared on her pretty face, which turned red.

Cassius tilted his head and asked, "So that's why you came to the palace?"

"Ah."

Olivia nodded slightly, but she hesitated for a moment and continued, "But it's not just this."

"Oh? Then let's talk about the proposal first."

Cassius waved his claws lightly, and the document in Olivia's arms floated up, and flames projected the words out.

Lines of beautiful small characters were suspended in the air, quite neatly arranged.

"This is."

Olivia's eyes suddenly widened, and a hint of surprise flashed in her pupils.

As a mage, she had never seen such delicate and effortless control over the element of fire in her life.

Even the legendary wizard Trafarano of the Arcane Hermitage did not have such powerful elemental control abilities.

In just a moment, Cassius finished reading the proposal.

He smiled and shook his head, saying, "It's a good proposal, but it's a bit too idealistic and difficult to actually implement."

"why?"

Olivia was a little unconvinced.

"You should have read those scholars' theory of social security, right?"

Cassius had also read this book, which was written by Gugus Golov, a well-known scholar in the empire. It incorporated many theories of modern social sciences brought by players.

Olivia replied: "Well, that's a good book and very valuable reference."

Cassius said: "What he said does make some sense, but have you ever thought that such high welfare will also send a bad signal to people: Is it the same whether they work hard or not?"

"Excessive use will lead to obvious drawbacks: first, it will easily lead to rent-seeking; second, it will distort market signals."

"The Empire is a country that is developing rapidly. For it, production enthusiasm is very important. A plan like yours that is out of touch with reality will only dampen people's enthusiasm."

Cassius spoke in great detail.

In his eyes, compared to the hopeless white dragon, the silver dragon from Melward seemed more suitable to be a ruler.

In Cassius' plan, with the expansion of territory and the increase of the races under his command, the Burning Empire should not become an evil force, but a diverse empire that embraces all.

Pure goodness and evil are not enough to describe this complex country.

The Silver Dragon is undoubtedly a good banner representing the "orderly and good" camp, and can greatly help improve the image of the empire.

By then, maybe there will be a two-party system, with one party playing the good guy and the other playing the bad guy, to whitewash this empire that was built on killing and plunder into a glorious and majestic "ideal country."

Now it seems that this silver dragon is quite easy to deceive, at least she can't see the essence of the empire. For example, the author of "Social Security Theory" Gugus seems to have seen something.

Olivia listened very carefully. She nodded repeatedly and used magic to record from time to time.

Somehow, she seemed to be back to the night when she discussed and exchanged ideas with "Angel".
The image of the knowledgeable young golden dragon and the seemingly unrelated huge red dragon in front of her gradually overlapped in her mind.
It was clearly just a false disguise, but it left a deep impression on her.

"Okay, that's pretty much it."

Cassius yawned, gently shook his huge wings, and exhaled a puff of sulfur-smelling white smoke.
"Okay, I understand. I'll make some changes when I get back and show it to you another day."

Olivia nodded, picked up the documents that fell to the ground, and said seriously.

Cassius looked down at the silver-haired girl: "Olivia, do you have anything else to say?"

Suddenly, her eyes flickered.

"."

Olivia hugged the documents in her hand tightly and tucked her silver hair behind her ears.

She lowered her head and remained silent for a long time before she slowly raised her head and looked directly into the red dragon's light golden, oppressive pupils.

"Casius, I don't think your empire should develop in this way." Cassius was stunned for a moment, then asked with interest: "What do you mean by 'this way'?"

"I have always believed that you are not the kind of evil dragon who would exchange other people's lives for money."

Olivia and Cassius looked at each other from a distance. She bit her lips lightly, her tone a little heavy.

"But my people in the south told me that the Burning Empire is dumping terrible weapons that can be used by ordinary people on a large scale to the crumbling Fadlan Empire."

"Mortals from Cassander, Thrace, and the Seleucid Kingdom used weapons sold by the Burning Empire to kill each other, causing terrible casualties. It is said that the entire Central Plains was stained red with blood, and the Holy City was reduced to ruins."

"I am glad to see the Empire flourish, but—"

Olivia gritted her teeth and paused for a moment.

"I don't want to see this kind of development nourished and watered by the blood of the Fadran people."

"So please stop, Cassius, and ask the Empire to stop selling those extremely cruel and sinful weapons. That's what I want to say most."

Kaixiu immediately shook his head and laughed.

This is truly a standard "Silver Dragon-style speech".

After Olivia opened her mouth, Cassius could guess what she was going to say next - just like last time she begged him to stop conquering the North.

Despite her experience, this silver dragon is still naive and dreamy, like most of her kind.

She always thought that words could change others, but she didn't realize that she was the one who was changed more deeply.

Cassius did not give a direct answer, but just stretched out a claw finger under Olivia's gaze.

"Shh-"

The invisible force field energy controlled the knife on the weapon rack to fly from a distance and hover in front of the red dragon, the blade flashing with cold light.

Cassius smiled and asked, "Do you say this knife is evil?"

Olivia frowned and shook her head slightly.

She sensed a familiar smell, and it seemed that the red dragon was trying to convince her with sweet words again.

"What if I tell you that this knife belongs to a brutal bandit who has killed more than a hundred innocent civilians with it?"

Olivia pondered for a moment and answered uncertainly, "So it is evil?"

Cassius shook his tail and shook his head in denial: "No, the knife itself is not wrong. The one who wields the knife is always wrong."

"."

Olivia was silent again.

What the other party said seemed to make sense.

Cassius continued, "Just like the war in the Fadlan Empire - you got one thing wrong. It wasn't because we sold weapons that the war broke out, but because the war broke out that we sold weapons."

"Even if I don't intervene, the three princes will still fight for the position of Emperor Fadlan, causing countless innocent casualties."

Having said that, the Red Dragon sighed quite "sincerely".

"I deeply regret this, but since we have to fight anyway, why don't I use this opportunity to earn some gold coins and improve the lives of the people of the empire?"

"You have also seen that over the years, the vigorous development of the military industry has brought a large number of jobs to the empire and also brought in considerable income. I don't know how many people in the empire have been saved from starvation because of the development of the military industry."

"As the emperor of the Burning Empire, I am powerless to quell the war in Fadlan, but I am capable of providing food and clothing for the people of the empire."

Finally, Cassius concluded calmly and logically:
"So - the weapons are innocent, the guilty ones are the ones who pull the trigger. War is evil, but selling weapons is a first-class good deed!"

After saying this, Cassius looked calm and at ease, and quietly looked at the words [Wiggleman +1] on the panel.

His face was already red, and no matter how much he lied, it couldn't get any redder.

What's more, in a sense, he was not lying.

Despite selling arms to both sides and making huge profits from the war, he forcibly described it as a good deed that he did out of necessity and out of concern for the people of the empire.

However, if we can see the essence through the phenomenon, we will discover the empire’s “sinful” capital accumulation.

Olivia fell silent again. She was thinking about how to find the loopholes in the other party's words, but she couldn't come up with a solution for a long time.

After holding it in for a long time, she blurted out with a red face: "You are making excuses."

But she didn't seem to have any reason.

The red dragon is always like this. Every time he can easily deal with her doubts and even convince her.

And she herself seemed to be gradually changed by the other party
Cassius spread out his claws and said helplessly: "When the imperial researchers first created these weapons, they only wanted to guard against foreign enemies and protect national security."

"What sin can there be in this?"

"but."

Olivia was a little speechless. She looked into Cassius's eyes, which seemed to be smiling but not smiling, and said to herself, "I will convince you."

Cassius slowly stood up from his throne and looked down at Olivia.

"The war between humans is very complicated. It cannot be simply summarized as good or evil, and it is not something you silver dragons can get involved in."

"I believe your elders have warned you not to get involved in disputes among humans."

"Um"

Olivia lowered her eyes and responded softly.

Cassius's expression suddenly became serious: "There is one thing that I need your help with."

"what's up?"

Olivia was curious.

This red dragon has always been omnipotent and even dares to refuse the invitation of gods. How could it need her help?
Cassius said in a heavy tone: "In one year, the Abyss Demons will invade the Great Wasteland of Anzeta and launch a full-scale attack on the Empire. We hope to get the help of the Melward Clan."

In fact, the empire has the ability to deal with the demon invasion independently, but for Cassius, this is a good opportunity to build bridges with the good camp and improve the image of the empire.

And Olivia, who becomes an imperial senator, may be able to become that bridge of communication.

"Abyssal invasion?"

Olivia's expression suddenly became extremely solemn.

You should know that the last invasion of the abyss occurred four hundred years ago. The "Undead Lord" Orcus led his army of undead and demons to descend on the main material plane, setting off a natural disaster that swept the world and caused great suffering to all living things on the continent of Feanso.

The forces of many good camps, including the Church of Amaunator, the Church of the Moon, the Kingdom of Fadlan, the Silver Dragon Clan, the Harper Alliance, etc., united together and paid the lives of countless people to end this disaster.

Cassius suddenly paused and said, "You just don't know your grandfather?"

Olivia knew that Cassius was talking about Oszedro's defeat and serious injuries, which was a shame for the entire Myhrvold.

In the eyes of the majority of silver dragons, the reputation of this alien dragon, Cassius, is definitely not good.

"Although my grandfather is a bit stubborn, he will never make mistakes when it comes to matters concerning world order."

Olivia barely hesitated for long before speaking seriously.

"If this is true, I will return to the Melward clan and ask them to contact various forces and provide all possible support in the fight against the demons."

Cassius nodded slightly: "Okay, then I will wait for good news."

For him, the good camp is the best of this.

When facing truly evil enemies, you can use them as free thugs without even having to pay much.

Therefore, pure kindness and pure evil are both extremely unprofitable.

The empire can only gain the greatest benefits by jumping back and forth on the vague dividing line between good and evil.

Cassius understood this well.

——Seeking monthly ticket——(End of this chapter)