The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Only after entering the cabin did he realize why there was such a concentration of magic power here—it was because the entire cabin’s walls were densely carved with magic runes.

In the square cabin, there was nothing but a simple square table and a stool. On the table lay a book, a box of ink, and a goose feather quill dipped in the ink.

The green magic runes flickered continuously, creating a mysterious and magical atmosphere.

“Woof woof!”

After Douson squeezed into the cabin, he rushed toward a wall and barked aggressively. Following Douson’s gaze, Liszt looked at the wall and saw another pale face emerge, suddenly screaming a piercing, “Damn it!”

“Go to hell!” Liszt raised the Crimson Blood Sword and stabbed forward, bursting the pale face.

But on another wall, among the gaps of the magic runes, another pale face appeared, its features blurred, accompanied by a piercing noise: “Curtis, you madman!”

“Shut up!”

Liszt wanted to strike with another sword, to destroy whatever thing that might be, whether a ghost or a specter, but he suddenly stopped—these things didn’t seem to possess any harmful power, so he might as well listen to what they had to say.

He decided not to kill it.

After shouting that sentence, the face dispersed.

Then, on the third wall, another pale face appeared, shrieking sharply, “They’re coming after us!”

Following that, on the fourth wall, a pale face emerged and screamed, “Grand Magician, save us!”

“So, these are similar to messages left behind by the crew before their demise?” Liszt took a deep breath, walked to the edge of the table in the center of the cabin, raised the Crimson Blood Sword, and touched the book on the table.

The book didn’t seem to be really there, because its outline, too, was outlined by magic power.

At that moment, the pale face on the first wall, which should have been destroyed, reappeared and screamed, “Mom, I want to go home!”

“Woof woof!” Douson barked in response.

Liszt paid no attention.

When the longsword touched the book, he distinctly felt something solid, and it didn’t trigger any traps or mechanisms.

This reassured him enough to pick up the book with his hand.

It was thick and heavy, the cover inscribed with”To Prince Annuette—The Truth of Curtis”. After a single glance, he tried to place the magic book into the Gemstone Space.

It went in easily; this was a real book, not some phantasm conjured by the Ghost Ship, something between reality and illusion.

Of course, it was also possible that it really was a book between reality and illusion, but its presence was fixed by the special properties of the Gemstone Space, allowing it to continue existing within.

Just then, another pale face appeared on a wall, shouting, “Loyalty to Prince Annuette!”

“Prince Annuette?” Liszt continued his task undisturbed, packing the ink, quill, table, and stool into the Gemstone Space. “If I’m not mistaken, Prince Annuette belongs to the Sapphire Family? The prince who hasn’t taken the seat of the Grand Duke?”

The name of the Sapphire Family starts with an “A” as a tribute to their ancestor.

The first generation Grand Duke was Dragon Knight Anderson Sapphire, the second was Ambrose Sapphire, the third was Andite Sapphire, the fourth was Ancheck Sapphire, and the current, fifth-generation Grand Duke Andrew Sapphire. This was common knowledge among the nobles.

If a noble doesn’t even know the recent Grand Dukes, that noble is definitely unqualified.

“There is no Grand Duke named Annuette.”

As he pondered,

Another pale face appeared, shrieking, “We’re done for, it’s Andite’s fleet!”

“Hmm?”

Liszt’s heart skipped a beat; Andite was the name of the third generation Grand Duke!

On one hand were shouts of allegiance to Prince Annuette; on the other, screams as Andite’s fleet closed in. With these clues, the answer hidden in the mist seemed ready to emerge. Prince Annuette must be a member of the Sapphire Family vying for the position of Grand Duke, likely a close sibling of Grand Duke Andite himself.

Considering that Marquis Cohen was executed for his participation in a court coup, it became evident that he probably supported Prince Annuette.

In the end, it was Andite who prevailed.

“Well, now that I know this court secret, what should I do next?” Liszt looked at the empty cabin and then at the dense array of Magic Runes on the wall, pondering quietly.

Pallid faces kept appearing on the wall.

Repeating various screams.

“They’re chasing us!”

“Damn it!”

“We’re done for, it’s Andite’s fleet!”

“I swear my loyalty to Prince Annuette!”

“Mom, I want to go home.”

“Grand Magician, save us!”

“Curtis, you madman!”

“No!”

The piercing screams irritated Liszt, and he didn’t have the luxury of time to ponder deeply. The longer he delayed here, the more people above might die… all turning on each other, just like the son of Captain Molodo, who had encountered the Ghost Ship – in the end, only two sailors returned alive.

“Forget it!”

Liszt sheathed the Crimson Blood Sword at his waist and pulled out a Fine Steel Battle Axe from the Gemstone Space. Then he aimed it at the cabin wall and swung down hard with the axe.

Thud! Bang!

Wood splinters flew from the wall, and the Magic Runes were shattered and sent flying. Douson tried to chase after the Magic Runes, only to see them pass through its body and fly back to the wall. Even the pieces of wood split by the axe began to vanish gradually, and the wall started to heal itself.

“Hmm?”

Liszt didn’t buy it and swung two more axe chops, splitting a large plank of wood that fell to the ground. As he watched the plank seem to disappear gradually and new wood emerge faintly on the wall, he had an idea. He picked up the plank from the ground and threw it into the Gemstone Space.

The next moment.

The phantom of the new wooden plank on the wall dissipated, unable to restore itself, and the Magic Runes that should have been inscribed on the plank lost their medium and hung silently in the cabin.

Liszt smiled, “It’s working!”

He proceeded to swing the axe relentlessly, breaking down the wall, throwing each chopped plank into the Gemstone Space: “I don’t care what the Ghost Ship is about, I’m going to dismantle all four walls inscribed with Magic Runes and see how you’re going to play ghost!”

As he demolished the wall, he gasped for air – this was tough work: “If tearing down the four walls isn’t enough, I’ll wager all my one hundred and sixty pounds today and take apart the whole Ghost Ship!”

Clang.

Clang.

Amid the cheering and barking of Douson and the continuous appearance and disappearance of pale screaming faces, Liszt forcefully used an axe to bring down all four walls of the cabin, stuffing each plank into the Gemstone Space. Only the supporting outer columns of the wall remained, teetering on the brink of collapse.

The Magic Runes all fell from the planks and hovered in mid-air.

When Liszt took away the last plank, the Magic Runes seemed to trigger a chain reaction. They began to rotate rapidly, and under Liszt’s astonished gaze, they scattered, reformed, and transformed into a female Magician cloaked in a Magic Cloak.

Beneath the hood, two green pupils stared coldly at Liszt.