The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Liszt got excited as soon as he heard it.

He immediately called over Kostor, who was waiting in the castle, “What kind of treasure is it?”

“Lord Landlord, it’s a sailing route to an island. During the trial voyage of the Fresh Flower Vessel, I discovered a cave not far from the dock, which contained human skeletons. Upon examination, it was found that they were horse traders who had become trapped in the cave and died. Before their deaths, they left the location of their horse trading—it’s on that island!”

Horse traders?

Liszt quickly associated this with the Smoke Mission—the tracks of the Li Dragon Horse Herd.

He abandoned his plans to continue researching the new magic cast by Douson and immediately said, “Take me to the cave, I want to investigate personally!” As he prepared to depart, he took the opportunity to summon the Smoke Mission and discovered that it had undergone changes.

“Mission completed, reward: tracks of the Li Dragon Horse Herd.”

“Mission: The Magical Beasts have been completely exterminated, Fresh Flower Town has never been safer. As the landlord, it is time to make a big move for Fresh Flower Town to achieve leapfrog development, what does it matter if the environment is destroyed, please level the Thorn Forest. Reward: Mutated Thorn variant.”

The Magical Beasts were completely exterminated.

The Thorn Bug chain mission also resumed.

Liszt felt that today was truly a day of celebration, only lacking magpies chattering on the branches. And soon enough, he understood how the mission was completed—Retainer Knight Sean, bringing a dead Shadow Snake to the castle. The Shadow Snake had killed three serfs.

“The lumberjack site was in chaos for a while, but under the suppression of Teacher Marcus, Consultant Gao Ertai and other nobles, the serfs were put back to work in lumbering,” Sean reported the scene at that time.

The burning bonfires did not scare the Shadow Snake away.

It attacked three serfs in succession and was ultimately killed by Marcus with a bow and arrow. Afterwards, the serfs were thrown into panic, and although they were suppressed, their work efficiency inevitably wavered.

“Sean, tell Teacher Marcus to continue to strengthen the protection of the lumberjack team.” Although the Magical Beasts had been exterminated, Liszt could not clearly tell others, so he could only continue to reinforce protection, “Also, tell Consultant Gao Ertai to give ten silver coins to each family of the deceased serfs.”

At that moment, silver coins were the best way to console them and the best way to encourage the serfs to work hard—they were more persuasive than any threat or words of encouragement.

“Yes, my lord,” Sean took the order and left.

Liszt put on his Magical Beast Leather Helmet and armor, accompanied by his personal servant Thomas and Rom Barrel, who had been notified to come as a retainer—after all, the landlord could not go out without retainers.

“Lord Landlord, actually you can also reach the cave by land, but it requires crossing over mountains and climbing a steep cliff. Taking the Fresh Flower Vessel is the most convenient option,” Kostor said as he bowed to Liszt, starting to command the launch of the Fresh Flower Vessel.

Raising the anchor, rowing, hoisting the sails.

Changing direction, they sailed slowly on the sea. With the experience of a previous voyage, the young sailors performed quite well. They greatly increased their previous travel speed, reaching the vicinity of the cave in about twenty minutes. They put down a canoe, and Kostor led Liszt and the others into the cave.

The cave was very damp, almost level with the rising tide of the sea surface, so it was occasionally pushed in by the seawater.

But deeper inside, it was dry.

It was now the afternoon, with the sun already behind the mountains, so the light no longer shone inside, making the cave seem somewhat dark. Thomas lit the prepared wax candle lanterns early, adding brightness to the cave.

“Lord Landlord, here’s the wreckage of a small boat. Looking at its design, it seems to be a tender carried by a large ship. Washed repeatedly by the seawater, only a little bit of the wood is left,” Kostor said, as he turned the boat wreck over, and the wreck fell apart, scattering the wood chips on the ground.

Then, he walked to a few skeletons: “Three sets of human skeletons in total. I’ve checked them, and they are relatively intact, without losing too many bones. They had weapons with them, bone swords. The bones are very hard, but not in the shape of a Knight’s Sword, so they should be a group of rats.”

Knights, as the name implies, were mounted warriors.

Knights were the main force in warfare, a component of the army; wars between landlords were essentially charges between knights. However, not all who practiced Dou Qi chose to become a knight—knighthood was a product of the nobility system, and there were still some who chose to remain outside this system.

These people were smugglers, outcasts, members of a despicable class.

They did not obey the rule of the landlords, did not engage in production, were free and loose, and took part in professions that went against the nobility system—thieving, robbery, smuggling, pimping, or accepting employment for assassination, slave trading, and so on.

These people were naturally referred to as—rats.

But they called themselves—rangers.

“Rats, huh.” Liszt wasn’t particularly moved; he was no stranger to rats, as he often had to work with them when he and Levis were involved in slave trading.

The nobility reviled and belittled these people as rats, but that didn’t stop them from cooperating with rats. After all, there were many dirty deeds that nobles couldn’t undertake personally, so they needed the rats to do it for them. The pirates that roamed the Duchy of Sapphire were also considered rats—essentially disguised nobles.

Or one could say.

Rats were just another skin of the nobles—ordinary people couldn’t afford the nutrition needed to practice Dou Qi, only nobles could breed rats.

Liszt believed that the Tulip Family also had their own rats.

Being the second son of an earl, he simply wasn’t privy to that information.

“Is there anything else preserved that shows their identity?” Liszt picked up a bone sword and asked.

This bone sword should have been forged from the skeleton of a magical beast, with a more curved shape, vastly different from the long, straight knight’s sword, and was more suitable for close-quarter combat.

Due to long-term natural corrosion, the bone sword no longer had any traces of magic power.

“Their clothes and bundles have all rotted away. The moisture here is too great; nothing could be preserved. Only these serpent scripts etched into the cave walls have survived,” Kostor pointed to the walls of the cave and said.

Thomas brought the candle lantern up close.

Illuminated the serpent script on the cave wall.

The script was blurred, divided into two major segments, with only parts recognizable.

“I am heavily injured, close to death, Sweet… as a traitor… a mole, the Green Light… attempted to scuttle… they took away the galloper, but he underestimated me… I killed him. Can’t make it out of here… cliffs are too steep, the horse… the message on its back, you might still come in time.”

“Galloper… Island… nautical chart… my family, tell Morrie, I love her Casper of the Iron… .”

The? represents the individual serpent characters that are unclear, while the “…” indicates entire segments of the script that are illegible.

With some guessing and deduction, one could barely make out the content of these two passages.

After pondering momentarily, Liszt understood the gist—there was a mole among the horse merchants, seemingly called Sweet, who scuttled a large ship intending to take the gallopers. Casper turned the tables and killed him, but Casper got severely injured, and before dying, he sent the horse away with a tied message on its back.

Then he left a nautical chart.

Considering the rewards from the Smoke Mission, Liszt realized, “Clearly, these rats discovered the island where the Li Dragon Horse Herd lived. They must have been rats working for the Tulip Family… My Li Dragon Horse is that galloper sent away by Casper!”

With this realization, his gaze couldn’t help but turn to the nautical chart next to the serpent script.

The carvings on the nautical chart were very deep, obviously, Casper had applied a great deal of force while inscribing it. Even as the serpent script nearby was nearly eroded beyond recognition, the nautical chart remained clear.