Blue-Eyes White Dragon: Adopted by the King of Knights [96]

The Kingdom of the Enlightened Dragon, Enlightened Dragon City.

By the time Artoria began preparing her campaign against the Dragon Witch, this grandly designed city was only halfway complete.

“Hurry up! These stones must reach the western quarter before nightfall!”

“Why are you so slow? Was yesterday's meat wasted on you?”

“Elizabeth wants the plaza converted into a stage? What's she thinking?! Tell her if she wants a stage, she can build it herself! Don't disrupt my plans!”

“Kiyohime wants a kitchen dedicated solely to barbecue? Hmm... that's acceptable. Assign five—no, ten extra workers for her.”

“And the little dragon’s room—I already told you! It must be big, and it must be warm! The little dragon likes sleeping by the fireplace, understand?!”

“What to do with the leftover materials...? Why are you bothering me with something so trivial? Use your heads!”

“……”

Jeanne Alter strode through every corner of the city, her presence akin to a lioness patrolling her domain—majestic and domineering; yet at the same time, like a construction foreman tirelessly overseeing every site, constantly worried about everything.

Speaking of leadership styles, she and Artoria were complete opposites.

Both building a city, Artoria would personally work at the frontline.

When their king appeared among the hardest workers, the citizens felt no choice but to follow fearlessly through all hardship.

Jeanne Alter’s method was far simpler and more brutish—she’d only issue commands from on high, supplying ample resources. The actual work was left to those horses and oxen…no, those Dragon Servants to perform.

Such a ruling style sounded ruthless at first.

But unintentionally, she had unlocked the most effective way to rule this special species—the dragonkind.

The weak submitted to the strong; those with inferior bloodlines bowed to those of higher status. The dragon society was even stricter and more clearly stratified than human society.

Within this strictly hierarchical nation, Jeanne Alter even modeled her government structure after the Church's organization:

Enlighteners—equivalent to priests of the Church.

They were the basic-level leaders, required to possess at least partial intelligence, capable of acting independently without direct commands. According to Dr. Roman’s assessment, these dragonkin had already transcended the lowest tier of Dead Apostles, evolving towards becoming Shiki (corpse demons).

High Oracle—equivalent to bishops of the Church.

Mid-level leaders, these were beings who had regained full consciousness, along with unique powers granted by their draconic transformation. They corresponded to mid-level Dead Apostles—on the mystic side, they would be considered genuine vampires.

Cardinals of Enlightenment—equivalent to cardinal bishops of the Church.

Top-level leaders, they possessed exceptional decisiveness and immense power, rivaling even Servants in sheer physical strength. Yet precisely because of this, they were exceedingly rare—only two had awakened to this stage thus far.

“Those two might even qualify as candidates for the Twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors,” Dr. Roman had noted, clearly well-versed in magecraft.

But there was one evaluation he’d omitted.

In theory, those two dragonkin could never become part of the Twenty-seven Ancestors.

Because above them already existed a true Ancestor, ranked extremely high, potentially among the top ten—or even top five—ruling firmly over them:

Jeanne d’Arc Alter.

Born from the shadow of Saint Jeanne, this originally false existence gradually came to experience the joy of “creation” and “growth” through building her city.

And as the city approached completion, her false life found genuine purpose and grounding in this world.

She became increasingly “complete,” more akin to a true human being than a mere vengeance-driven machine.

“But fortunately…”

“She hasn’t reached that final step yet.”

In Chaldea’s control room, Dr. Roman sipped his coffee, his eyes complicated as he watched the Dragon Witch directing her dragonkin to build the city.

He was deeply conflicted.

Bearing the responsibility of saving humanity, he didn’t want Jeanne Alter to reach that final stage, because it would cause significant trouble.

Yet as a human, he sincerely wished she could reach that step—for it represented the ultimate beauty of life itself.

“Perhaps this is precisely why Ritsuka chose to support her,” Roman murmured thoughtfully.

“Not out of pity or sympathy…but simply because she wants to see this avenger, Jeanne Alter, experience the genuine joy of living as a human being.”

Suddenly, Romani Archaman jolted upright, struck by realization.

—So that child had discovered this all along, and that's why she'd chosen to stay?

He praised the girl's wisdom internally.

Surely only someone like her could be chosen by fate to become humanity’s true savior, right?

However, when the satisfied Dr. Roman tried contacting Ritsuka to inform her that he'd finally realized her intentions and encouraged her to keep going—

“Huh?”

“What did I figure out? I don’t remember figuring anything out?”

“Oh right, Doctor, we've run out of potato chips here. Could you send more chips and drinks over?”

“I'm so close—I can really feel it! Just a bit more, and I’ll successfully win over that white dragon!”

Fujimaru Ritsuka stared intently at the small white dragon lounging in the distance with Fou, leisurely enjoying their snacks together.

Her expression was one of mysterious significance, as though to say, "I don't quite know what's happening either, but I'm definitely doing something major."

“My instincts tell me that white dragon is hiding a huge secret.”

“And Fou, too. Haven’t you noticed? Ever since coming to this world, Fou’s been circling around that dragon constantly, completely uninterested in any pretty girls anymore.”

“They're whispering together all day. They must be plotting something unspeakable… Da Vinci-chan, when can you invent a translation device for animal speech?”

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T/N: hehe protag sense

This is a fan translation of 综漫：青眼幼龙，被骑士王捡到了 by 歌冰丽月. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!