The Proud Black Dragon

Katrana Prestor’s father had been a minor lord, and she had not originally been a noble of the Stormwind Kingdom. But as the northern regions of the entire Eastern Kingdoms descended into chaos, with more than half of the Seven Kingdoms of humanity destroyed or severely damaged, many humans migrated south to the Stormwind Kingdom or to Theramore in Kalimdor.

Katrana Prestor had come to the Stormwind Kingdom in the same way. Because of some of her father’s actions, Katrana had earned considerable prestige among Stormwind’s nobility, allowing her to smoothly enter the kingdom’s ruling class after coming of age.

That was only the public information. The truth was that Lord Prestor was actually Neltharion, the black dragon known as the Earth-Warder, one of Azeroth’s Five Dragon Aspects.

During the War of the Ancients, Neltharion had been driven mad by the whispers of the Old God N’Zoth. He had changed from a guardian dragon into a Worldbreaker who regarded destruction as his greatest pleasure, renaming himself Deathwing.

Although Neltharion wished to destroy everything, he was an arrogant dragon. He did not merely wish to prove that his life form, strength, and everything else stood at the pinnacle of all living creatures; he even wanted to prove that the inferior species known as humans would be utterly crushed by him in intellect as well. That was why he had not chosen a simple, brutal method to destroy humanity. Instead, he had toyed with schemes, hoping to make humans destroy themselves.

That was what he had thought, and what he had done. But an accident later forced him to suspend his various plans. After he left the human kingdoms, his daughter Onyxia continued her father’s great work, remaining in the Stormwind Kingdom and painstakingly plotting to destroy this human nation.

At present, the Stormwind Kingdom had already fallen into an unprecedented crisis, yet the nobles within the country remained indifferent. They even believed the lie that everything in Stormwind was fine, willingly surrendering most of their power before spending their days indulging in pleasure.

Even Bolvar Fordragon, the current regent, had enormous trust in this Countess. To Yinsen, that trust was utterly baffling. More than once, he had privately mocked the Grand Duke for clearly harboring some improper intentions and ignoring the responsibilities he ought to bear.

In short, Katrana Prestor was currently the most powerful person in the Stormwind Kingdom. Her words carried more weight than even Regent Bolvar’s. If they could get in contact with that female dragon, perhaps Yinsen could achieve his goal quite easily.

But!

"Do you think Katrana Prestor would be willing to cooperate with us?"

Yinsen did not believe that black dragon would be willing to work with them at all. Setting aside matters of values, positions, or Yinsen’s personal wishes, did Katrana Prestor truly care about the hand of friendship they offered?

If they really made that choice, what awaited them would most likely be Onyxia taking a deep breath and then blasting them to death with a single breath—literally blasting them to death.

Before Loki could explain his reasons, Yinsen raised a hand and cut him off.

"You might not understand Katrana Prestor’s situation."

"A black dragon? What could there possibly be that I don’t know?"

Katrana Prestor’s true form was a female black dragon. She manipulated politics in Stormwind City, playing the entire Stormwind Kingdom in the palm of her hand. Loki knew that much.

As for Neltharion and that family’s obsession with destroying the world, Loki knew nothing. With their intelligence being completely unequal, it was perfectly understandable that he would choose the person currently in power.

But Yinsen knew the truth. That family was simply difficult to communicate with. Although Neltharion had retained his sanity after going mad, his values had been completely overturned and reshaped. His arrogance and contempt for every race other than dragons had been infinitely amplified, then perfectly passed down to his children.

In Onyxia’s eyes, humans were merely toys. She had no need to join forces with anyone. Even relying only on herself, without using overwhelming force, she could destroy the Stormwind Kingdom.

In fact, she had done an excellent job so far. Unless something unexpected happened, the Stormwind Kingdom’s collapse was almost inevitable. Of its territories, only Elwynn Forest was barely still peaceful; all other regions had long since fallen out of control.

In another ten years, Elwynn Forest would also descend into enormous turmoil. Even if the people of the Stormwind Kingdom woke up by then, there would be nothing they could do. The last powerful human kingdom would crumble apart under the Black Dragon Princess’s manipulation.

"I’m not human. I’m one of the gods of Asgard."

"Mm-hmm. A god from another world. Do you think the dragons here would acknowledge your identity as a god?" This world had no Norse Mythology. In those dragons’ eyes, Loki was merely a somewhat stronger mage—and still a human mage.

That nearly drove Loki mad. Other than picking up a weapon and letting those ignorant reptiles witness the power of a northern god, he could not think of any way to refute that point.

"As the person who currently holds all authority over the Stormwind Kingdom, we can’t directly engage her in armed conflict either, because Stormwind’s military is her best shield."

The Countess did not even need to act personally. The Stormwind Kingdom might have been rotten, but that applied to its noble ruling class, not its armed forces. Even Bolvar himself, who had spent so much time around the Countess, was no weakling. If they delayed Yinsen’s group even slightly, an endless stream of Stormwind soldiers would surround them like a tide.

"Even if we defeated the Countess and exposed her true identity, do you think those shameless nobles would acknowledge what we did? They might even try to silence us to hide the fact that they’re a bunch of idiots."

"Humans truly are filthy!"

"In that dragon’s eyes, you’re human too!"

By then, everyone understood. No matter what, they had to rescue King Varian Wrynn. The King’s character was trustworthy, and if they rescued him and then exposed the Black Dragon Princess’s conspiracy, Varian would absolutely give Yinsen whatever reward he wanted.

At the same time, Varian and Windsor possessed tremendous prestige within the Stormwind Kingdom’s military. With those two supporting them, Stormwind’s formidable armed forces would not turn against them. That idiot Bolvar would not dare give such an order in front of his own King.

Although Bolvar would later do many things beneficial to the entire world, that did not stop Yinsen from treating the Grand Duke as a politician with improper intentions and a thoroughly rotten heart at this moment. His actions over the past years made it impossible for Yinsen to place even the slightest trust in him.

"So we’re back where we started. The best choice is still to find Varian Wrynn." Logan’s words brought this discussion to a close. There was no longer any dispute. Their target was set; all that remained was to figure out how to proceed.

"If Windsor is still alive, he should be easier to find."

The former Marshal of the Stormwind Kingdom was imprisoned in Shadowforge City’s prison, the city of the Dark Iron Dwarves. They only needed to go to Blackrock Depths, enter Shadowforge City, find the prison, and rescue him.

The Dark Iron Dwarves’ city was a tough nut to crack for many people, but Yinsen’s group was not among them.

After packing their luggage, the group left Goldshire that very day and set out along the road they had traveled on their way there.

To reach the Burning Steppes, they needed to follow the road east, then enter the Redridge Mountains and continue along the main road to Lakeshire. After resting there, they would head north. Once they crossed the Redridge Mountains, they would reach the Burning Steppes.

There was little danger along the way. The main issue was that the journey was not short.

This was not a game. Crossing Elwynn Forest on foot might take very little time in a game, but that was impossible in this real world. Even Yinsen did not know how long it would take them. If it took too long, he might need to consider a Reserve Plan.

Traveling was rather boring, so they often chatted about topics that came to mind. Logan, for instance, suddenly brought up the physical abilities of humans in this world.

"I saw the armor those soldiers wore in Goldshire. Even while wearing that full-body heavy armor, they could move flexibly in all sorts of ways and run at a perfectly normal speed. The people in this world are several times stronger physically than ordinary people on Earth."

On Earth, similar heavy armor often required the help of two or even more attendants to put on. Afterwards, even mounting a horse required assistance.

Without a warhorse, an ordinary person wearing such heavy armor would struggle even to move, much less run. Even knights who had undergone harsh training wore such equipment only in battle.

But here, those soldiers were fully armed even during routine patrols. Their armor was almost always on their bodies, as if carrying dozens of pounds of weight did not exist to them.

Yinsen had previously believed that, since this Azeroth was not a game world, Warriors could not use some sort of energy like rage as they did in games. Now he suddenly realized that Warriors had always relied on their own powerful physical strength. In this world, Warriors were probably people with exceptional natural gifts in physical ability.

"Too bad that’s a talent. It can’t be learned."

Ordinary people in Azeroth might not differ much physically from people on Earth, but those capable of becoming Warriors were definitely far stronger. Perhaps those famous, powerful Warriors were no less physically capable than an enhanced Captain America.

As Yinsen silently used Captain America as a point of reference, he suddenly sensed a subtle magical fluctuation coming from Loki. The God of Mischief’s expression immediately turned extremely grim.