The Dragon Girl shook her head against my back, then wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her whole body close. "Dragon Envoy, I feel so helpless. What should I do? I want to help my brother, but I don't want to anger you. I'm truly torn."

I laughed. "Didn't I tell you I'd help? Don't you believe my word?"

The Dragon Girl sighed. "I do believe you, but without troops, how can the Dragon Envoy help my brother quell the rebels? To use words from your world: 'Even the cleverest housewife can't cook without rice.' No matter how capable the Dragon Envoy is, how can one suppress a rebellion without usable soldiers?"

I realized she had a point. Where had those two fat men and the tiger gone? If I could find them, hehe... forget just one Haas, I could flatten ten of them. Right now, I needed to protect the Princess, look after Irina, and figure out how to deal with Kang Hui, who seemed to have endless doubles. When would I have time to lead an army to fight? Heh, besides, I didn't have any troops to lead now anyway.

The Dragon Girl nestled against me for less than half a minute. "Let me down quickly. I need to explain to Captain Haas. We can't fall out with him now. Why is it every time something happens, you put me on your back?"

As I set the Dragon Girl down, I replied, "I'm used to it."

At that moment, a large contingent of guards rushed into the dining hall under Haas's command. The Dragon Girl held up a hand with authority and began speaking with Haas. Haas's expression gradually softened, but being kicked on his rear end, he was naturally displeased, so I had no choice but to step forward and bow in apology.

I secretly clenched my laser sword, thinking, You old bastard, I’ll bow to you now and wish you an early ascension to immortality. That pig's hand dared to touch the Princess, who bears the shadow of my many wives. I will eventually chop it off.

The prehistoric man’s character turned out to be quite forthright. My bow, combined with the Dragon Girl's explanation, managed to smooth things over. Who actually came out ahead? Logically, Haas suffered a great loss by letting me kick him, but the Dragon Girl was almost pulled into his arms and narrowly avoided being grabbed on her **. Even though there was no actual physical contact, I felt I had taken the greater loss overall. I must get that back later.

The atmosphere that followed was decidedly less friendly. Haas's guards glared daggers at me, and I met their stares without backing down. Meanwhile, the other two were slowly eating and chatting. We just stood there, glaring at each other, until they were thoroughly satisfied with their food and drink.

Following our agreed-upon plan, the Dragon Girl then requested that Haas allow us to tour his Starship. Unexpectedly, Haas proved quite generous and immediately arranged for a shuttlecraft to take us to the shipyard.

Irina did not accompany us; it was just the four of us remaining. However, the shuttlecraft was packed with Haas's guards; it seemed Haas was still wary of me.

The shuttlecraft traveled a great distance, eventually entering a vast mountain range. I couldn't identify this range in relation to any place six millennia later. From the air, the terrain looked drastically different from what it would be in six thousand years. Perhaps such monumental changes—the seas turning into mulberry fields—had already occurred.

Entering the embrace of the mountains, the shuttlecraft landed on a landing pad in a basin. This basin was strange: surrounded by peaks, yet in its very center stood a colossal mountain. Because the basin was so immense, once the shuttlecraft landed, we could only see the central peak before us; the distance was just a flat plain, and the earth and stone beneath our feet were distinctly different from elsewhere.

I quietly asked the Dragon Girl, "This place stretches as far as the eye can see. Where is the ship? Based on the population you mentioned, it should be enormous."

The Dragon Girl smiled. "Haven't you seen it yet? It's right before your eyes. You tell me, is it big or not?"

"'Right before my eyes?'" I looked around quizzically. Besides this massive peak, there was nothing. Could it be... could that mountain be the Haas Clan's starship!

Seeing me staring at the peak, the Dragon Girl explained, "This main peak is just the command module. The entire mountain range we saw from the shuttlecraft—that is the starship!"

Damn! How big was this single peak? I thought it was bigger than ten Kyoto cities combined, and this was only the command module! The entire mountain range we saw moments ago had no discernible end. What was the ship's true size? My God, if they said the ship was the size of the moon, I'd believe it.

Shortly after we stopped, a stone gate opened at the base of the peak, and several electric trams emerged. Haas boarded first, and we followed closely behind. I asked the Dragon Girl, "By the way, why don't you manufacture vehicles? Wouldn't ground transport be much more convenient than walking or riding horses?"

The Dragon Girl explained, "To build vehicles, you first need roads, right? But have you seen many roads suitable for vehicles on our journey so far? We brought back many vehicles from Earth aboard the ten starships, but none could adapt to Earth's surface conditions; they are unusable. Building roads requires a massive population and machinery. Heh, we are barely holding onto our lives now, where would we find the energy to build roads? Furthermore, manufacturing heavy machinery requires a solid heavy industry base, needing support from metallurgy, casting, and many other technologies. Which one of those do we possess? Missing even one is impossible, and we are missing far too many."

I nodded repeatedly. This backward prehistoric civilization couldn't even afford to build a proper road! Yet, they could fly shuttles through the sky. Who would believe such a contradiction?

Past the stone gate were several successive sealed metal doors, along with equipment used for space travel like sterilization chambers and decompression locks. Following a wide tunnel, we arrived directly at the center of the giant peak. What we saw now was no longer a mountain peak, but a command module so vast it defied description. How big was it? I had seen the Hope, and I had seen the starship I was building, but compared to this command module, they were vastly inferior.

Then I calmed myself. Their ship used an entire mountain range as its main structure; I hadn't even seen the larger sections yet. It was like a country bumpkin visiting the city. Thinking this, I contentedly followed the Dragon Girl, listening to Haas’s introductions as we circled the command module in the electric tram.

The Dragon Girl only requested to visit the starship at my urging. In reality, her family possessed one of their own, so she was not unfamiliar with its contents. Due to the sheer area, we only saw a small fraction before beginning our return journey. According to Haas, when this starship was fully operational, shuttles could fly in and out freely; the tunnels inside were interconnected, allowing the shuttles unimpeded passage. But because of years of neglect, the propulsion systems had failed, and most automatic doors were sealed shut, forcing entry and exit only through this semi-automatic hatchway.

On the way back, the Dragon Girl explained to me that the massive array of nuclear reactors on the ship had long been shut down. There were only a few Helium-3 reactors remaining on Earth, built by the first wave of settlers. Because later scientists died from not adapting to Earth's environment, humanity no longer had the capability to build new nuclear reactors. If this state of war continued, they might not even be able to maintain the existing nuclear power plants.

I asked the Dragon Girl, "Where do you get your Helium-3 raw material?"

The Dragon Girl replied, "The entire outer surface of the ship is made of it. This was an idea conceived by the 'Water' people—using energy resources to form the ship's hull, which greatly reduces the storage space needed for carrying fuel."

"Are all ten of your starships like this?"

The Dragon Girl shook her head. "They vary greatly, all built according to the topography of their landing zones. Some are shaped like mountains, some are flat, and some resemble rolling hills."

Our conversation attracted Haas's attention. Since he couldn't understand our language, he naturally grew suspicious seeing the Dragon Girl and me whispering. It took quite a bit of explanation from the Dragon Girl to placate Haas. Soon after returning to Yanshan, the Dragon Girl bid farewell to Captain Haas and temporarily returned to her makeshift quarters to rest.