137 – The Horse Island Found by Rats

“A treasure?” Liszt became excited when he heard ‘treasure. He immediately summoned Kosto, who was waiting in the castle: “What is the treasure?”

“Sir Lord, it's a nautical chart to an island. When I took the Flower for a test sailing, I discovered a cave with human skeletons not far away from the dock site. After inspection, I found out that these remains belonged to horse-dealing rats, who got trapped in the cave and died. Before dying, they left behind information about the place where they got the horses from, which was an island!”

Horse dealers? Liszt quickly made the a.s.sociation with the smoke mission – Blackdragon Horses' trail.

He didn't continue to study Tremblingwoods' new magic, saying at once: “Take me to the cave, I want to personally investigate it!” During the preparation for the departure, he took the opportunity to summon the smoke mission, and found out that the smoke mission had already changed.

“Mission completed. Reward: Blackdragon Horses' trail.”

“Mission: with magic beasts completely cleared, the Flower Town has never been safer. As the lord, it's time to go all out. In order for the Flower Town to do a leapfrog development, don't mind the destruction of the environment. Please flatten the thorns woods. Reward: a variant type of thorns.”

The magic beasts were completely cleared and the thorns sprite worm chain mission was re-connected.

Liszt felt that today was a really joyous day. The only thing missing was a goose honking high. Before long, he understood how the mission was completed. The retainer knight Sean brought a dead Shadow Snake, which killed 3 serfs, to the castle.

“The logging site was in chaos at first, but under the suppression from Teacher Marcus, Adviser Gort, and the other Sirs, the serfs went back to logging.” Reported Sean.

The bonfire didn't scare the Shadow Snake away. It sneak attacked three serfs in a row before eventually being shot dead by Marcus. Although the chaos was suppressed, but the efficiency of the panicked serfs dropped inevitably.

“Sean, tell Teacher Marcus to strengthen the logging team's protection.” Although the magic beasts were completely cleared, but Liszt couldn't tell others that, and could only strengthen the protection, “In addition, tell Adviser Gort to bestow 10 silver coins upon the families of the dead serfs.”

At such a time, silver coins were the best way to comfort and the best way to stimulate the serf's working spirit. Compared to threats, positive reinforcement was more efficient.

“Yes, Sir!” Replied Sean before taking his leave.

Wearing his magic beast leather armor, Liszt took the gentleman's valet Thomas and Röhm Weinfa.s.s, who was notified to come serve as a retainer. When going out, a lord had to be accompanied by a retainer.

“Sir Lord, in fact, we could also reach the cave by land, but then we would have to cross the ridge and climb down a steep wall. It's much more convenient to take the Flower.”

Kos...o...b..wed toward Liszt in salute and then began to give orders to set sail – weigh anchor, paddle, raise sails.

After changing directions, the s.h.i.+p slowly sailed on the sea. Having made a trip already, the youngster apprentice sailors' performance could be considered as acceptable. The s.h.i.+p's sailing speed had also increased greatly. It took them only about 20 minutes to reach the cave. After lowering the canoe, Kosto took Liszt and the others into the cave.

The cave was very moist. It was almost level with the rising tide, which was why it had water pushed inside by the waves from time to time.

But further inside, the place was dry.

It was in the afternoon, the sun had already crossed the ridge, so the sun rays could no longer enter the cave, leaving the cave a bit dim. Thomas ignited a lamp, which was prepared early on, to brighten the cave.

“Sir Lord, the boat wreckage is over there. Look at its shape, it should be a shuttle boat carried on a large s.h.i.+p. After being constantly eroded by seawater, only a bit of wood is left.” Kosto turned over the boat wreckage. The wreckage broke, scattering wood chips.

Next, he went to beside a few white bones: “There's a total of three human skeletons here. I checked them already and they're still in good shape, they haven't lost too many bones. They carry weapons, bone swords to be precise, and the bones are rather hard. They should have been rats as they don't carry knight swords.”

Knights, as the name implied, were horse-riding warriors.

Knights const.i.tuted the main fighting strength of an army. Whenever there was a conflict between lords, knights would charge at one another. However, not everyone who practiced qi chose to become a knight. Knights were the product of the aristocratic system. Some people chose not to a.s.sociate themselves with the aristocratic system.

These people were smugglers, outcasts, and other sc.u.m.

They didn't comply with the management of the lords. They were idle, unruly, and engaged in dealings that went against the aristocratic system – theft, robbery, smuggling, pimping, or being hired to carry out a.s.sa.s.sinations, slavery trades, and the like.

These people were naturally called ‘rats'. They, however, called themselves ‘knight-errants'.

“Rats?” Liszt was unfazed. He was no stranger to rats. In his cooperation with Levis regarding the slave trade, cooperating with rats was unavoidable.

The aristocracy denounced and degraded people such as rats, yet that didn't prevent them from cooperating with rats. After all, in order not to have to dirty their own hands with sordid affairs, aristocrats needed rats to step in. The pirates roaming the Sapphire Grand Duchy were also regarded as rats, yet they were basically disguised aristocrats.

In other words, rats were another facet of the aristocracy. Ordinary people couldn't afford so the many resources necessary to cultivate qi. Therefore, only aristocrats could raise rats.

Liszt believed that the Tulip Family also had its rats.

As a non-heir son of the count, he had no right to know.

“Are there any other things that betray their ident.i.ty?” Liszt picked up a bone sword and asked.

This bone sword should be forged from a magic beast's bone. It was fairly curved. It wasn't as long as a knight sword, it was more suited for close quarters combat.

After the long-term corrosion of nature, the bone sword no longer had any traces of magic power.

“Their clothes and parcels have long since decayed. It's very humid inside, so they didn't got preserved. Only these Serpentines carved in the wall were preserved.” Kosto pointed at a wall of the cave and said.

With the lamp in hand, Thomas approached the wall, and illuminated the Serpentines.

The Serpentines were already indistinct. They were divided into two pa.s.sages, which were partially recognizable.

“I □ seriously injured. I □ dying. Swed □ traitor… Greenlight  □ □ sunk □. □ □ take horses □. But □ underestimated me. □ killed □ □. □ can't get out □ □ □. □ steep □ □. □ letter… horse's back. Find me.”

“Ho□ □ □ island □ nautical chart… my family. Tell Molly □ I love her – Caspar Iron□.”

Among them, ‘□' stood for a single indistinct Serpentine and ‘…' stood for an entire section of indistinct Serpentines.

The content of the two pa.s.sages could barely be guessed.

After pondering for a moment, Liszt roughly understood what the pa.s.sages meant. There was a traitor among the horse dealers, who seemed to be called Swed. He sunk the s.h.i.+p and wanted to take the horses. As a result, he was killed by Caspar. But Caspar was seriously injured. Prior to his death, he sent a horse, which had a letter tied to its back, away.

Then, he left the nautical chart behind.

Given the smoke mission reward, Liszt came to a realization: “Obviously, the group of rats found the island were the Blackdragon Horses dwelt. They should have been rats working for the Tulip Family… My Blackdragon should be the horse sent away by Caspar!”

At this point, his gaze couldn't help but turn to the nautical chart next to the Serpentines.

The nautical chart was rather deeply carved into the wall. Clearly, Caspar exerted himself greatly when carving the chart. Even though the Serpentines beside the chart were quickly eroded and became indistinct, but the nautical chart was still clear.