The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

This chapter is an additional update rewarded by the Alliance Hierarch "Dusk's Battle Song," temporarily one update, with another eleven to follow. Speaking of which, it seems the warlord set up three accounts, all becoming Alliance Hierarchs...

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The task had failed.

The Smoke Mission, which had always gone smoothly, met with failure for the first time. From the moment Liszt had discovered the Smoke Mission, he had pondered what changes would occur if a mission failed.

But fearing an unpredictable outcome, he had always strived to complete the task or change it. Moreover, the tasks' rewards were so rich that he couldn't bear to let them fail. Even this time, as the Tulip Bug evolved, Liszt still did not wish for failure.

Yet failure came, and he stared at the Smoke Serpent Script that was beginning to transform, unblinking.

Waiting for the latest change.

Slowly.

The twisted smoke began to form new Serpent Script: "Task: When good fortune is spent, misfortune will take its place. It is impossible to stay completely dry when walking by the river's edge, but you must learn to grow in adversity, like a storm petrel bracing the tempest. Please defeat the Bats in the Dark Night. Reward: Bloody Mary."

"Hmm?"

"Still a task?"

"Good fortune is spent, misfortune takes its place?" Liszt felt astonished; he had considered that the Smoke Mission might drift away from him, or cause backlash and serious injury, but he didn't expect it would just shift from "good fortune" to "misfortune" and then instruct him to conquer the bats in the dark night.

The task, once completed, still offered a reward, essentially unchanged.

He felt somewhat disillusioned but also inexplicably relieved—the form of the Smoke Mission pleased him, and he did not want it to change.

Immediately.

His attention focused on the task at hand: "What are these Bats in the Dark Night, and what is Bloody Mary? I seem to have heard of Bloody Mary, a kind of cocktail? I remember it appears in a number of movies, this cocktail called Bloody Mary. Are they sending me a new cocktail recipe?"

Bloody Mary was already understood to be a cocktail.

As for the Bats in the Dark Night, Liszt still could not quite understand whether it referred to a kind of magical beast that was a bat or a vampire?

In knight novels, there are stories involving vampires, a special kind of human that can turn into bats. Specters, liches, and nixies have all proven to exist, so he believed in the absolute existence of vampires—in Curtis Truth's notes, "vampires" were mentioned alongside magicians.

It seemed that, like druids, vampires were a sort of special caster.

"So, could it be that a vampire carries the Bloody Mary cocktail recipe with them and they want me to take them down to get the recipe?" Liszt wasn't nervous; he was no longer the ignorant Wu Xia A Meng. As a Half-Step Dragon Knight, unless a Dragon Knight came to kill him, he feared no challenges.

"When will the Bats in the Dark Night come?"

He waited until the late night but did not encounter the Bats in the Dark Night. The Eye of Magic patrolled the surroundings, and he even roamed around riding the Landwalker bird Loki, still finding no traces of the suspicious Dark Night Bats.

His sleep that night was not sound.

However, by the time he led the Knight Order to depart for Tulip Castle at dawn the next day, he still hadn't encountered the Bats in the Dark Night. He no longer waited, perhaps the Bats in the Dark Night would attack him on the road—as for attacking his domain, Liszt could only hope that Paris, Chris, and Ach could stop them.

He had already instructed Butler Carter that if the domain encountered any danger, to immediately escort the elves to the seaside Castle and to keep blowing the horn he had specifically placed there. By then, Ach, hearing the horn's sound, would protect the elves. He believed that elves hiding in the water could survive safely.

Protecting the elves was equivalent to protecting the majority of his domain.

…

Coral City Port, the fleet set sail.

Liszt did not accompany the Earl aboard the Tulip Family's largest three-masted sailboat, the Tulip; instead, he stayed on his own ship, Sunset, enjoying the comfort of the constant temperature air conditioning. Until they reached Bull Hoof City, there was still no activity from the Smoke Mission, and the Bats in the Dark Night had not revealed their whereabouts.

"I've talked with Ach; if vampires or the like attack the territory, she will quickly come to inform me after ensuring the safety of the elves... With Ach's speed and strength, there should be nothing in the great sea that poses a danger. She should have come to tell me by now... It should be fine."

It is a four-day journey from Black Horse Island to Bull Hoof City, and with Ach's speed, she could arrive in half a day.

Even traveling from Black Horse Island to the mainland would not take a full day.

So, Liszt was not concerned about his territory since Ach had not appeared.

The port of Iron Hoof City was bustling with activity, with almost all the nobles of the Grand Duchy participating in the Pioneer Mandate. The fleets of the Nobles were packed tightly, jamming the entire port full. The Earl was going to attend a meeting, and because Liszt did not have many acquaintances among the Nobles, he simply wandered around the vicinity of Bull Hoof City.

And soon after, he heard that in the trade market of Bull Hoof City, there was an elf bug trade—it was a rare occasion when domestic nobles gathered, and naturally, he did not want to waste the opportunity.

Liszt, who was feeling bored, would not miss it either.

He put on a mask and attached a characteristic dried Tulip blossom to his chest to ward off the stink of Bull Hoof City, leading his servants into the market.

"Viscount Liszt, it is indeed you." As Liszt was strolling through the market, someone greeted him. When he turned his head, he saw it was Jobs Glaux, the son of the Earl of Moonlight City, Jonas Glaux.

"Sir Jobs, are you also browsing the market?"

"Yes, I am looking to see if there is any trade for elf bugs." Jobs was very keen on socializing and immediately introduced several young people with him to Liszt, all of whom were scions of the Blue Blood Alliance.

Unlike the Feudal Nobles, the scions of the Blue Blood Alliance would generally go into battle as adults. Although the mortality rate was high, they ascended in ranks much faster than Feudal Nobles. Essentially, their resources were either bestowed by the Grand Duke or plundered from the battlefield.

The proceeds from the management of their fiefs were a very small percentage.

Inherently, the Blue Blood Alliance and the Feudal Nobles did not share a social circle, and young nobles seldom interacted with each other; but as the youngest Sky Knight in the country, Liszt was very impressive. The young Nobles following Jobs greeted him courteously.

Liszt returned the greeting politely without appearing arrogant or overly enthusiastic.

After the greetings were exchanged,

they chatted briefly and then dispersed, without more interaction. Liszt continued to search for elf bugs in the market, but the worthwhile ones were too few. When he finally saw a Barley Bug that had not been contracted, the seller insisted on a price of four thousand five hundred Gold Coins and refused to budge.

Paying four thousand five hundred Gold Coins for a Barley Bug was foolish; even elf bugs that could cultivate Magic Potions might not be worth that price.

Liszt did not insist.

He did not have Magic Potions related to barley, and buying it would be a significant loss. Moreover, the death of the Tulip Bug had made him aware that not all his elf bugs were guaranteed to evolve successfully just because he had acquired the Smoke Mission—he even decided to abandon his stimulation plan for Jela.
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The evolution from a Little Minor Elf to a Greater Elf also had a high chance of failure—although it would not result in death like the Tulip Bug, a severe vitality loss and reduced lifespan were certain.

So, he hoped to let nature take its course.

He no longer thought about interfering with the elves' evolution, only providing pheromones or the like as much as possible to help them increase their chances of evolving successfully.

...

That night, he followed the Earl to attend a banquet hosted by the First Prince.

At the banquet, once again, as the youngest Sky Knight in the country, he was heavily praised by everyone. Despite his best efforts to avoid it, he ended up drunk, and with the help of his servants, he returned to Sunset and fell into a deep sleep.