The month of summer already had passed by. It was fall. The temperature was slowly beginning to get colder. The temperature of this world is different from earth. In a world where everything single matter is influenced by mana, the weather of this world is harsher than on Earth. No human on the earth can adapt to this world's harsh weather. But the animals, plants, humans, and other races had no problem with this weather. As being born in a world with mana, every people regardless of whether they are a cultivator or not has a stronger body compared to humans from the earth.
That being said, it does not mean that ordinary humans can bear the extreme cold of the winter. The winter was also called a month of nightmares by ordinary people. Every year hundreds of thousands of people died just from the harsh cold winter. Under Aditya's rule, the first two winter seasons were especially hard for ordinary people. At that time the food prices had gone through the roof. For ordinary people affording three times, a meal was nearly impossible.
During winter seasons, in order to maintain the body temperature, the body uses more energy than in other seasons. Thus, the food requirement for the people also increases. But with very high food prices, it was not impossible for many families to afford food.
For the people, it was either do or die situation. They had two choices. It was either leave the Istarin Kingdom and settle down in some other neighboring Kingdoms or stay in the Istarin Kingdom which was their birthplace and starve to death. This is why during winter times almost 70 to 90 % of the ordinary people leave the Istarin kingdom. After winter passes some people decide to return back to their homeland while some decide to continue living in neighboring Kingdoms.
But this year, the situation of the Istarin Kingdom has completely changed. The food prices have down gone, making it possible for ordinary people to afford three meals per day. The king has introduced new reforms and plans which reduced the unemployment percentage to less than 10%. This all happened within the span of 2 months.
Nowadays the people of the Istarin Kingdom wake up with a sense of peace. They no longer have to worry about feeding their children. The Istarin Kingdom which previously was an undesirable place to live had become a golden paradise for ordinary people.
The crime rate and the corruption in the Kingdom were way lower compared to other neighboring Kingdoms. This made it an ideal place for ordinary people to settle down. Merchants from various other kingdoms started coming to the Istarin kingdom. Overall, the condition of the Kingdom has significantly improved.
Of course, not everyone was happy with this improvement. Those people wanted nothing but to see the Istarin Kingdom get burned to ash.
After flying for more than 14 hours, the Dragon King finally returned to this Kingdom. Flying above the Azure city, Aditya looked at the changes that has taken place. The size of the city has expanded by almost 2 times. The city now had almost one hundred and fifty thousand people calling it home. Right now the whole Azure city was divided into 4 wards or zones. They were known as the Eastern Zone, northern zone, southern zone, and western zone. The King's Castle, the troop's training ground, and other important offices were built at the center of the city.
"It looks like Watson has finished constructing the moat." 25 meters thick and 30 meters deep moat surrounded the entire Azure City. Aditya built this moat to prevent enemies from easily entering the city.
Huge 15 meters tall and 5 meters thick walls were made from thick stones. The walls were strong enough to withstand attacks from 2nd-order cultivators and from low-grade siege weapons which is used by almost all of the neighboring Kingdoms.
There were more than 2,500 soldiers actively patrolling the whole city. While another 2,500 soldiers were guarding the city walls. The Azure city had four big gates, each gate was located in one ward or zone.
"I can sense the presence of some powerful adventurers in the city." After breaking through 3rd-order and also evolving his bloodline to divine rank, Aditya's senses have improved by almost 10 times. Without even using his mana his natural senses were strong enough to cover the entire city.
"I guess the decision to let Alicia open a branch office of her guild in the Kingdom also had a role in increasing this Kingdom's economy." Because of the guild branch, thousands of new jobs were created. Because of the increase in adventurers, new inns, new taverns, restaurants, new public baths, new clothing shops, and many other kinds of shops were created.
"But the city is still lacking in its defense." After visiting Apogale city, Aditya realized how far and how undeveloped his and other Kingdoms in the Eastern region were. For example, all the cities in the northwestern region had city defensive barriers covering entire cities like a dome that stopped any intruder from entering the city.
But These kinds of barriers did not exist in this region. This meant that anyone can easily sneak inside the city. For example, Aditya unlike other cultivators can fly using his wings. He can enter any city by flying. But with a mana barrier covering the entire city, no one would be able to enter the city from the sky.
While flying 50 meters above the sky, Aditya noticed that new roads were being constructed outside the city. The plan was to make roads to connect Vrane City, Zraka city, High Tide Harbor City, and Azure city. These roads were going to be made through the mountain ranges. After this project is completed, it will make transportation between these four cities even faster.
"It looks like Watson has been doing well in my absence." Before Aditya left, he had shared his future plans with Watson. In his absence, Watson has been continuing to complete those projects that were going to transform the Istarin Kingdom.
"I will have to find myself a prime minister." Watson was not the Prime minister of this Kingdom. Aditya did not find time to look for a person with enough capabilities to handle the role of his prime minister.
Aditya landed in the garden of his castle. In these 16 days of absence, the whole broken and old palace has been transformed into a new, luxurious-looking royal palace.
As soon as Aditya landed, a figure moved at its full speed and appeared in front of Aditya.
The person then placed one knee on the ground and welcomed his King's return. "Welcome back, Your Majesty." Watson's had almost become unrecognizable. He now looked even younger than before. Those few wrinkles on his face and his white hair rather gave him a unique handsomeness. Compared to Walter, Watson now looked like someone who had returned back to their prime.
"Watson, you know there is no need for you to kneel when we're alone." Aditya already had said those words many times. But Watson never changed.
Watson stood up from with ground and looked at Aditya with a happy smile. He was extremely happy about the fact that Aditya had managed to reach beginner 3rd-order. When Aditya left, he was mid-2nd-order. In just 16 days Aditya managed to break through 3rd-order which again showed how terrifying his cultivation speed was.
"Congratulations on breaking through 3rd-order, your Majesty."
"When we're alone just call me young master." Aditya felt when the people close to him called him Majesty, they were creating a distance from him.
"Watson, it looks like you also have become more powerful." Aditya senses the changes in Watson and his other draconian bodies when he reached Azure city.
"Your Majesty, I am sure by now you already know of this. I have managed to evolve into a Dragon." Watson was Aditya's dragonian. When his bloodline evolved, the golden drop of blood that had merged with Watson's body also evolved.
There were two types of dragons in this world. Dragons were a being that can be classified as magical animals and also as humans. The wild Dragons were pure magical animals. Wild dragons do not have the power to transform into a human. But when a magical animal reached the 5th order, that magical animal will obtain the power to transform into a human. There was also a second type of dragon-like Aditya that are born in their human form and are able to transform into dragons.
But the second type of dragon cannot exist without the first type. When two dragons mate after reaching the 5th order, the dragon child will be born with the natural ability to transform into a dragon and a human. However, there are some special cases. Among Wild dragons, there is some dragon who has a special bloodline.
When two 5th-order Wild dragons possess special bloodline mates, the child born will have the special dragon bloodline. But in certain extreme unfortunate cases, the child born between two dragons won't be able to activate the dragon bloodline in them. This means that the child cannot transform into a dragon either. This is what happened with Aditya. He could not activate his dragon bloodline even after reaching the age of 12.
Watson has become a dragon in a third and the most special way. A divine dragon has the power to turn humans into dragons. So all of Aditya's dragonians also evolved into dragons on the day when his bloodline evolved.
Though Watson and others do not possess any special dragon bloodline. But Aditya is sure that compared to Dragonians, those who have evolved from dragonians to become a dragon are more stronger and powerful.
"Let's head inside the Castle. Tell me about the events that took place in my absence." Watson as he began following Aditya. It was already late night, almost everyone in the Castle had gone to sleep so no one sensed Aditya's presence.
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