95 – The Thorns Sprite Worm's Longing

“Old Phil, cut your finger, I need you to smear a bit of your blood on this bottle.” Said Liszt with a tone that left no leeway. Philip was already dead and it was not know how many indigenous people of the Dodo Island still remained; the old leathersmith before him was one of them.

As for whether the other was of the ‘Sunprogeny' bloodline, he did not know.

He could only try it.

Although the old leathersmith didn't understand what was going on, but he had to follow the sir lord's instructions. Using a needle, he p.r.i.c.ked his finger, squeezed out a bit of blood, and then smeared it on the gorgeous, gold-colored bottle.

Liszt had already released Magic Eyes and fixing his gaze on the metallic message in a bottle.

When the blood came into contact with the metal bottle, his pupils suddenly expanded and his spiraling irises shrunk. What he saw was incredible. It appeared that the metallic bottle was stirred by the blood. Faint magic power gushed out of the bottle and spread along the decorative designs carved into it, quickly outlining a sun, a big tree, a bow and arrow, a string instrument, a bear and an eagle.

A design of a man emerged from the bottle, lifted the bow and arrow, and then shot at the sun.

A design of a woman emerged from the bottle, lifted the string instrument, and then played it gently under the big tree.

The eagle landed on the man's shoulder, the bear snuggled against the woman. The magic power outlining the designs made them come to life.

Before long, with the arrow sticking out of it, the sun dropped and gave way to a well. Next, a fountain gushed out of the well and flowed towards the mouth of the bottle.

POP! There was a brittle sound.

The designs formed by magic power dissipated without leaving any visible traces of magic power on the metallic bottle. The mouth of the bottle, which had no cracks, unexpectedly cracked open. Liszt pulled gently and the bottle cap came off. He shook the metallic bottle and a small scroll dropped out of it.

It turned out to be a very delicate, light, and thin piece of paper when Liszt unfold it.

On the piece of paper, there were a series of little drawings of people. No, to be accurate, there were a series of Sunscripts. Liszt had an impression of these little drawings of people, but he was not clear about what they meant.

Although he was eager to unravel this mystery, yet on the surface, he appeared unperturbed. He rolled the piece of paper up and then looked at the old leathersmith: “Old Phil, are you a relative of Philip?”

“I might, Sir Lord, but I'm not sure. According to Philip, we all were exiled sinners.”

In fact, they should be relatives.

Looking at the old leathersmith's stooped figure as well as his aged face, Liszt felt that although he had completed the last smoke mission on his terms, but at least he should give the old leathersmith a son, or at least help help him forge a father and son agreement with Jesse. Whether it was because of moral reasons or the mission's a.s.sistance, it seemed like he should help him.

“Old Phil, what do you think of Jesse?”

“Jessie is a very good child. He always comes to help me with things like drawing water, sweeping the floor… Thanks to him, the leathersmith shop feels much better.”

“Jessie is an orphan, you know that, right?”

“I know.”

“Have you ever thought about forming a father and son agreement between the two of you?”

“What, this…” The old leathersmith clearly became a bit alarmed, “Jesse is a servant of the castle, while I am just an old leathersmith. He has better conditions there. I don't want to drag him down. Sir Lord, Jesse is a sensible child, he likes to work in the castle and is hard working. I will tell him not to visit me anymore so as to not interfere with his work.”

The other thought that his relations.h.i.+p with Jesse bothered the sir lord.

“You misunderstood. My intention was not rebuke Jesse, but was just a suggestion.” Liszt suddenly felt that doing this himself disagreed a bit with his aristocratic status – a lord should not care about trivial matters of commoners.

He got up to leave the leathersmith shop and said: “Decide it among yourselves. I will let Mr. Carter preside over it.”

If you cannot succeed, then just give a suggestion.

After returning to the castle, he mentioned it to Carter, and then directly put this trifling matter out of his head and threw himself into translating the message in a bottle's note.

In contrast to the [Diary of Philip Sunprogeny], he had to find out the meaning of the little drawings of people one by one.

Before long, the note was translated.

“The tower was toppled, the tree city went up in flames, the XX died, and the Children of the Sun rose into the sky along with the flames. Children wandering outside, you are free.”

The ‘XX' was a set of Sunscripts that had no corresponding translation in the diary. Moreover, their style was more abstract. Although Liszt couldn't make out their meaning, but he could roughly guess that they should stand for the land of the Children of the Sun, a state, or a continent.

In other words, the message in a bottle brought bad news.

“Which state's aristocrats would call themselves the Children of the Sun?” Liszt had read many knight novels, more than one hundred at least, but none mentioned anything related to the Children of the Sun.

While caressing the piece of paper in his hands, he suddenly felt that this state was probably not a state on the continent, “The paper on the continent is thick bast paper made of leather, which is difficult to preserve and is not convenient to write on. But the piece of paper in my hand does not seem to be made of leather. It is very light and thin. At present, technology capable of producing such paper has yet to appear on the continent.”

And besides, apart from the continent, the Sapphire Grand Duchy was the first state established out in the sea.

Following this train of thought, a possibility came to mind: “Could it be that the Children of the Sun are not from the continent, but from the other side of the Azure Waves Sea?”

The Flower Town's East Coast faced the Azure Waves Sea and the Azure Waves Sea faced the legendary Devil Sea, which no man could sail.

The legend was not really credible. 

If this world was also a planet, then taking the Earth as a reference, the so-called Devil Sea might just be a bigger sea, an ocean. A continent might be on the other side of the ocean.

Continents were separated by uncrossable oceans. Therefore, there really might a continent on the other side and there might be humans living on it.

“Well, there is too little information to make a judgement. But for the time being, I can just a.s.sume that there is a continent on the other side and there are people known as the Children of the Sun.” Liszt decided to no longer follow this train of thought, “As far as I'm concerned, I'm currently incapable of unraveling this mystery.”

He put the metallic message in a bottle inside the gem s.p.a.ce. However, he didn't cover it with the bottle cap in order to avoid the pain of having to open it again.

The light, thin piece of paper as well as the [Diary of Philip Sunprogeny] were also put inside the gem s.p.a.ce.

“Now, I should s.h.i.+ft my focus to the thorns sprite worm!”

The eight-year-old thorns sprite worm was not willing to die of old age in solitude, it wanted to struggle and defy its destiny. Liszt could sense that the thorns sprite worm was indeed somewhat different from the other sprite worms.

He went to the worm house, which was being taken care of by Carter, where he saw the thorns sprite worm soundly asleep inside a box – sprite worms could sleep twenty four hours a day.

With the indistinct spiritual connection, Liszt could sense his sprite worms at all times.

“Little fellow, I can sense your body getting weaker, but I can also sense that you crave for evolution. Although I know that the chances of your evolution are slim, but I am still willing to do my best to help you. And that is not for the sake of the magic ingredient thorns, nor is it for the sake of completing the smoke mission.” Thought Liszt aloud as he gently stroked the ash-gray thorns sprite worm.

The thorns sprite worm seemed to sense Liszt's arrival. It opened its small, sesame-seed-sized eyes and turned its head to look at Liszt.

Among the seven sprite worms, this one was the ugliest one, with its color being duller, its body being more slander, and its skin being harder. As a rule, sprite worms born from shrubs, trees, and other woody plants looked cruder than sprite worms born from herbaceous plants.

Although the sprite worm's black eyes were inscrutable, but Liszt could sense that the thorns sprite worm was intimate and docile towards him.

“I have already told Gort to stop the settlements from supplying their compost to their fields. So long as your worm stalk can absorb the nutrients, it will supplied with compost.”