The Defeated Dragon

“Keep your chins up!” Marcus' bellows constantly rang in the woods at the edge of the Thorns Ridge. From time to time, his bellows were accompanied by the crisp sounds from the horse whip in his hand.

The thirty youngsters, with wooden sticks in their hands, nervously patrolled every corner of the woods.

They could hear the cries of various birds and beasts, among which even the cries of magic beasts might be included. After staying in this place for more than a quarter of an hour, the youngsters, who grew up with stories about scary magic beasts, felt chills down their necks, feeling as if a magic beast could bite at their necks at any time.

Tony was such a fearful youngster.

His legs shivered ever so slightly as he tightly grasped the wooden stick in his hands and leaned against a big tree. Last winter, he had nightmares for several days in a row after a Windblade Wolf attacked the wheat settlement and ate two serfs. Now that he recalling those nightmares, he could not help but to pray.

“Don't eat me…”

He kept looking at the grownups cutting trees, as if only by doing so could he get a sense of security.

Suddenly.

A thud echoed above his head. At an unknown point in time, Marcus appeared next to him atop his horse and whipped the tree trunk, sending some tree bark flying.

“Tony, I told you to look in the direction of the woods and not to look at the loggers working!”

“Right, right, Mr. Marcus.”

“Show that you're a true man. Don't let me down, let alone Sir Lord.” Said Marcus coldly.

Tony hurriedly replied in a loud voice: “Right, I will not let Mr. Marcus down, let alone Sir Lord!”

Marcus went somewhere else.

Tony heaved a long sigh of relief once he saw the other leave. He was quite afraid of this cold-faced and heavy-handed Earth Knight. During the previous several days of selections, he had endured not a small amount of whippings from the other.

Marcus didn't pull any punches, leaving b.l.o.o.d.y laceration with each whip.

If it was not for the chance to become a retainer knight and get a better destiny, he would not want to face Marcus, let alone come to this place to confront magic beasts.

What he didn't know was that Marcus was shaking his head as he left.

The Earth Knight had already rejected him as a knight. If he could not meet his inner fears head on and could not overcome the pressure exerted on him by the environment, then he had no potential. In his view, commoners could only become aristocrats through a baptism of blood and fire. Those not prepared, had better to return home early and farm in peace.

So as to void the battlefield strewn with corpses.

While roaming through the woods, in addition to monitoring them, Marcus also inspected the youngsters. After an uneventful morning, he had already drafted 12 candidates.

Thus at noon.

He reported the results of his selection to Liszt: “Sir, the following twelve youngsters shall be your new retainer knights: Philip Wool, Xavier Oxdung, Jacob Footsole, York Baldman, Wayne Haystack, Zakkary Littlefinger, York Schumacher, Ivon Handkerchief, Sean Redface, Tracy Hunchback, Myron Pantscrotch, Theodore Rottensocks.”

“Xavier Oxdung, he might be the younger brother of the servingman Jim Oxdung. York Baldman and York Schumacher have identical names. Lets call one Big York and the other Little York… Then, inform their households that from now on, the twelve youngsters are to withdraw from agricultural production; they will be supported by the castle.”

“Yes.”

With the results of the knight squad selection in, Liszt found some time at noon and summoned the smoke mission.

Sure enough, the mission had been completed and updated.

“Mission completed. Reward: a Wind Peregrine Falcon on the verge of hatching.”

“Mission: apart from message bottles, there still might be unexpected, pleasant surprises drifting in the sea. Currently, there is a sailboat drifting towards the East Coast. Please find and rescue the drifting sailboat that had met with misfortune. Reward: an increase in population.”

“Hmm?”

Liszt did not pay attention to the Wind Peregrine Falcon reward.

Because he next saw ‘population'. Lack of population was currently the Flower Town's most pressing issue. The town had altogether less than two thousand people, which could not compare to the larger villages from his birth place. With a lack in population, lords were restricted in the implementation of their plans. Thus, what Liszt thirsted the most for was population.

“The increase in population reward is related to the sailboat met with misfortune, in other words, a ship carrying people is about to drift to the East Coast?” After his train of thought reached this point, Liszt hurriedly called for Gort.

“Liszt, do you have any instructions?”

“I suddenly thought of the oyster settlement's fishermen facing the sea. There are a tone of sea monster in the sea, which makes it very dangerous. This issue has to be taken seriously.”

“Sea monsters… should not go to the sh.o.r.e, right?” Said Gort with some disapproval.

Sea monsters were indeed quite dangerous, often attacking ships, yet they rarely went to the sh.o.r.e since they would be left to die once the tide was low.

As he had an ulterior motive, Liszt didn't let up: “No bit of danger can be neglected. Immediately inform the patrol to focus on the East Coast. They are to report any changes to me. Let them do so for a while. If there are really no sea monsters coming ash.o.r.e, then readjust the focus of the patrol.”

“Very well, I will go notify the patrol.”

Only after Gort left had Liszt the mind to concern himself with the mission reward – the Wind Peregrine Falcon's egg.

He had heard of the Wind Peregrine Falcon, a low-ranked, falcon-type magic beast. It commonly appeared near the seaside and fed on fish from the sea. Because it was a relatively small creature, it rarely a.s.saulted humans. Although, relatively speaking, it did not posed much danger, but that did not meant that it was weak. On the contrary, its fighting strength was quite outstanding.

The magic it released – Windblades.

Was the same as the magic released by the Windblade Wolf. However, as a falcon-type creature, with its natural advantage of flight, it could shoot the windblades from nearly any direction.

In other words, it could use kiting to attack its opponents from a safe distance.

“So, where is my Wind Peregrine Falcon?” Liszt turned his attention to the big tree being felled as he braced himself, “Would it hide in some big tree about to be cut down?”

If there really was a Wind Peregrine Falcon, then it would definitely pose a great threat.

He hurriedly called Marcus: “We cannot just pay attention to ground beasts and should also pay attention to flying beasts in the woods. There may be flying magic beasts.”

Marcus took bow and arrow from his back and grasped them in his hands before saying with a firm gaze: “Sir, flying magic beasts are weaker than ground magic beasts! My arrows are ready for them at a moment's time!”

Confidence surged inside Liszt.

“I was going to learn archery from you, yet I never had the time for it.”

“Sir can learn from me at any time.”

“Hmm, once this is over, I want to learn archery.” Liszt made up his mind. He had to learn archery as long-ranged offensive was in line with his disposition of tackling enemies from a distance.

Melee offensive was too crude and a had high probability of leading to injuries.

As someone who arrived into this world as a lord, he should enjoy life and not endure hardship.

In the afternoon, Liszt kept looking at trees, hoping to spot the tree with his reward. However, as the sun was setting to the west, Gort had rushed over with unexpected news: “Monkeys are a.s.saulting a bird at a fragrant coconut tree in the oyster settlement.”