Chương 132: Chapter 131: Dragon Customs and the Gold Import Tariff

Three days at sea, The Sovereign finally entered Aureum waters. Hundreds of crystal and black basalt islands hovered a few dozen meters above the water, connected by enormous suspension bridges strung on chains of silver. The Sovereign, the hundred-fifty-meter magitech warship, slowed as it entered the main channel, Evelyn's steam engines settling into a smooth, quiet rumble as the bow cut through the water. CRACK! The armored deck shuddered once.

A Gold Dragon, over a hundred meters long, scales gleaming like beaten gold leaf, dropped down from the clouds and landed on the bow. No roar. No fire. No overwhelming pressure. The dragon shifted, shrinking down into the form of a middle-aged man with golden horns, dressed in a severe black silk suit. He pulled a hardbound, three-hundred-page file out of his spatial ring and held it out to Lucian.

"Customs, Ancient Dragon Empire. Please present: entry declaration, cargo manifest, declaration of valuables carried, and pay the ten-silver docking fee." Lucian, who'd been dozing on a folding deck chair, snapped his eyes open. He sat up straight and eyed the three-hundred-page file.

"Customs? You dragons run a customs office?" The dragon inspector adjusted his monocle and pulled out a quill.

"We are a civilization of commerce and law. May I ask — how much gold are you carrying on this voyage?" Lucian leaned back in his chair, voice level.

"Define 'carrying.'" Sylvia, standing nearby, cleared her throat.

"Lucian." He didn't look at her, eyes still on the inspector.

"Define 'gold.'" Sylvia's voice sharpened.

"Lucian."

"If the gold in question is stored inside a spatial ring, but the storage coordinates of that ring aren't technically within the Dragon Empire's maritime jurisdiction—" Sylvia snatched the file straight out of the inspector's hands and popped open the inkwell.

"I'll handle the declaration myself." Lucian turned to look at her. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it"I pay you twenty-four gold a month to defend me on the legal front." Sylvia dipped the pen, not looking up.

"I'm defending you from your own mouth." The real problem was that Lucian's spatial ring carried one hundred thousand registered S-rank industrial energy crystals, while The Sovereign's bonded hold carried enough reserve bullion to distort any local balance sheet. Declare the full inventory, and the Dragon Empire's anti-money-laundering office would label them a market-manipulation risk. Fudge the numbers, and Sylvia was adamant that counted as international customs fraud. Ting! The Unified System V2.

0 panel appeared: [LOCAL TRADE DATA RECEIVED] Public gold reserve disclosure: Incomplete Import tariff schedule: 417 pages Highest tax bracket (500%): "Products manufactured from foreign dragon bone" [TARGET COMBAT POWER ASSESSMENT:] Status: [INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR ANALYSIS] Lucian read the last line and nodded slightly.

"Good. Finally, something in this world that respects personal privacy." He glanced sideways: Astra sat on top of a cargo hatch, slurping down a bowl of dragon-bone chili soup with a spoon. Lucian knocked the spoon out of her hand.

"Put that soup away right now. Five hundred percent tariff on that." Astra scrambled to hide the bowl behind her back. Eleanor stepped out onto the deck from the command cabin, dressed in her white-and-gold diplomatic gown. She pulled out a scroll of royal correspondence sealed with Emperor Alaric's red wax and handed it to the dragon inspector, courteous and composed.

"I'm Eleanor de Solaris, Head of the Royal Diplomatic Delegation. This is our full official trade authorization." She pulled the three-hundred-page declaration toward herself and glanced at Lucian.

"You handle the cost calculations. I'll handle making sure neither side opens fire in the first ten minutes." Lucian shrugged.

"Efficient division of labor." Ten minutes later, The Sovereign officially docked at Aureum Dragon Harbor. The sight of the harbor stopped Lucian dead on the deck. There were no giant dragons sleeping on piles of gold, like something out of a fairy tale. What stretched out in front of him was a bustling trading floor spanning millions of square meters: hundreds of dragons in half-human form — golden horns, tailored suits — signing futures contracts for deep-sea ore, grain, and energy with quill pens.

Towers of gold bars stacked like mountains sat inside open vaults, not for hoarding — used as Reserve Collateral backing the global maritime credit system. Lucian looked at the futures board for ore prices and nodded slightly.

"I'm starting to like this civilization." Thud. Thud. Two directors of the Dragon Empire's central publishing house came sprinting up to the edge of the dock in silk robes, holding up a stack of certified bank notes with both hands.

"Greetings, Young Master Vance! We've heard the name 'Cultural Disaster' for years! Please, sell us the exclusive publishing rights to Nameless Knight Volume 4 before pirated translations destroy the moral order of the Dragon Empire!" Before Lucian could even take the money, the Time Crystal in his coat pocket suddenly began shaking violently, giving off a searing heat.

It was resonating hard with an ancient structure standing on the eastern point of the harbor — Lighthouse Zero, the Dragon Empire's oldest black-bronze lighthouse, built before the fall of the World Tower. Evelyn grabbed her magitech tablet and ran straight for the base of the lighthouse. She wiped away the moss caked over the metal control panel at its base and pressed a magnifying lens to the glowing characters underneath. She froze. The screwdriver in her hand slipped from her fingers.

It wasn't Ancient Spirit Script. It wasn't Ancient Demon Script. It wasn't magical script of any kind. It was network addressing commands and standard IP address formatting — straight out of Earth's information technology. WHRRM! The top of Lighthouse Zero suddenly burst into a brilliant column of blue light, shooting straight up into the atmosphere.

A holographic screen appeared against the stone wall: [ROUTE TABLE RESTORED] [UNRESOLVED ENDPOINT DETECTED: SECTOR 00 — EARTH] [GATEWAY STATUS: AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED] Sea wind tore at Evelyn's black hair. She stood frozen on the dock, then spun around to face Lucian, voice shaking.

"Lucian... Earth."