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After some time, Vaan completed his small analysis of the Holy Knight Empire\'s army.

From the weakest soldier to the strongest commander present within their camp, they all used a single weapon. Besides the sword, they did not wield any other weapon.

As such, it was safe to assume they were all sword masters that only fought with their swords.

Considering they also wore quality armor, the magic of Senior Witches wouldn\'t stand a chance of defeating the empire\'s soldiers. Even the magic of High Witches would have limited effect.

"The Kingdom of Black Rose doesn\'t stand a chance against the Holy Knight Empire in a direct confrontation..." Vaan concluded.

If powerhouses like him, the dragons, and Transcendent Henrietta were excluded from the war between the two countries, the Holy Knight Empire would win without a doubt.

"As expected of a super country with access to the rest of Pangea. In terms of magic engineering, the Kingdom of Black Rose is lagging far behind compared to the Holy Knight Empire…" Vaan muttered.

It wasn\'t hard to see why the Holy Knight Empire didn\'t fall under the rule of witches.

In front of such quality armor and weapon, it was too difficult for witches to possess any advantage with their magic.

Furthermore, witches were vulnerable once they exhausted their magic. On the other hand, aura users only needed to consider their stamina, which could recover with rest faster than witches did with their mana.

"There wouldn\'t be a large disparity between the two countries if the Kingdom of Black Rose also had access to the knowledge shared by the rest of Pangea," Vaan thought.

Considering the seven witch kingdoms were defenders of humanity, the Holy Knight Empire was contemptible for failing to offer even the minimum level of support.

From this, it became apparent that the Holy Knight Empire always had intentions to swallow the seven witch kingdoms.

Its desire for power was insatiable.

Unfortunately for the Holy Knight Empire, they had no idea there was a group with far more advanced knowledge than the collective whole of Pangea hidden within the Kingdom of Black Rose, the Red Dragon Clan.

"Supreme Leader, our clan has a lot of idle dragons. We can make use of them to produce quality equipment, weapons, and magic tools for the Kingdom of Black Rose to level the playing field," Zodreg suggested.

"What coincidence," Vaan smiled and said, "I was thinking the same thing. Otherwise, the Kingdom of Black Rose won\'t stand a chance in this war."

If he genuinely wanted to avoid the war, all he needed to do was locate Transcendent Henrietta and free her from captivity.

That would halt the Holy Knight Empire\'s plans for the Kingdom of Black Rose if they had even the slightest wariness of Transcendent Henrietta\'s strength.

However, if that happened, Transcendent Henrietta would wage war on the Kingdom of Verdant Woods and give the Holy Knight Empire a chance to swoop in and swallow both countries when they are exhausted from fighting each other.

At the same time, he might not have the chance to play around with the kingdom and swallow it for himself.

Either way, Vaan thought the war was necessary for humanity\'s growth. After all, humans thrive on conflicts. And there was no better place to train strong witches than the battlefield.

\'Peaceful times create weak people, while strong people create peaceful times,\' Vaan mused thoughtfully.

Si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war.

…

While studying the Holy Knight Empire\'s border regions, Vaan and Zodreg ended up on a secret tour through the northern quarter of their whole country.

Seeing the more developed parts of the Holy Knight Empire helped Vaan gain a better grasp of its strength.

Nevertheless, they eventually had to turn back to make other arrangements since they were strained for time. If they weren\'t short on time, they would have explored the whole country and then gone on to see the other neighboring countries as well.

Vaan and Zodreg took a spatial gate to save time on their return trip.

Considering the amount of time they had spent scouting the southern borders, Vaan briefly stopped by Sunpeak Town to check on the situation.

After he confirmed nothing big happened during his absence, he headed into the Red Goblin Mountains and had Zodreg send him to the Red Dragon Clan via a spatial gate.

Since Vaan did not use the black cube, First Peak wasn\'t notified of his arrival. Even so, the dragon still felt his presence.

At the same time, Vaan noticed a quarrel was going on over at Seventh Peak\'s training field. Thus, he quickly made his way over to check it out.

"What\'s going on here?" Vaan enquired upon his arrival.

The fourth dragon lord, Pedyssin, paused her argument with the seventh dragon lord, Kemun, and turned to him with surprise.

"W-Welcome back, Supreme Leader," Pedyssin greeted before saying, "It\'s nothing serious—No, actually, it is. I was criticizing Lord Kemun here for slacking in training the young elites of his peak."

"He\'s been doing nothing besides sleeping all day!" Pedyssin stated with a grumpy look.

"Haiz, Lord Pedyssin is falsely accusing me, Supreme Leader," Kemun said unconvincingly as he lay on his platform and yawned lazily. "I don\'t chase perfection and glory like her. I have already taught the young ones everything I know."

"Thus, it\'s up to them how they practice what I taught them. They only need to bother me when they have doubts. And it\'s not like I\'ve been doing nothing. I was busy chasing my dreams. Where are dreams found, you ask? In my sleep, obviously. So yeah, I\'ve been sleeping all day…"

"Ahem, jokes aside," Kemun coughed after seeing Pedyssin\'s intensifying glare and said tiredly, "I really wasn\'t idling here, Supreme Leader. I was simulating the Formless Dragon Exercise in my mind."

"After all, I physically practice it while I am also supervising the young ones. Can\'t you see how mentally exhausted I am?"

"Bullshit! I don\'t believe you!" Pedyssin accused him.

After some back and forward talk between the fourth and seventh dragon lords, Vaan grasped the situation.

It wasn\'t much different from a lover\'s quarrel.

After all, the other dragon lords didn\'t bother interfering as they did not want to get involved in their charade.

Nevertheless, it was also true that the two dragon lords were wasting time bickering over nothing.

"You can easily clear the misunderstanding if you just demonstrate a higher mastery of the Formless Dragon Exercise, Lord Kemun," Vaan casually suggested.