Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

The Winged Knights had memorized the surrounding desert landscape after searching for an entire day, yet they couldn’t locate the dragon’s corpse. This was highly unreasonable, as if some unpredictable changes had occurred. What to do?

Half of the Winged Knights were already gone. The remaining half, due to intense flight activities, suffered irreversible damage to the Wind Element Magic Array on their wings. The Winged Knight corps was basically a waste.

The losses were immense. Was everything they had achieved going to be in vain? Iron Leyce, like a gambler on his last legs, considered every possible move, willing to stake everything, in an attempt to turn the tables. He planned to seek aid from his family to dispatch more manpower for the search.

However, since just recently, the Magic Communicator he used to contact his family wouldn’t receive any signal, he didn’t know whether the device was out of range or was turned off on the other end. Surely, it must have been turned off. Might it require a change of Demon Crystal?

A Magic Communicator could receive signals across dimensions. Replacing a Demon Crystal wouldn’t require turning the device off. What on earth had happened? Iron Leyce had a ominous feeling.

Iron Leyce’s encampment was still being set up when the Rose Badge carriage was ready. The carriage was full of amenities and even included a thermostatic Magic Array, bathroom facilities, and a folding space; the interior was far larger than it appeared.

Great Magician Xiehed stepped out of the carriage onto a carpet that his attendants had laid out. He looked complexly at Iron Leyce’s bustling servants and bodyguards and muttered, “Vulgar.”

The attendant who had just finished setting up the tea and chairs was shooed away impatiently when he attempted to assist Xiehed. Xiehed grumbled internally: a coarse, graceless creature with no style at all. So infuriating.

Clearly, he envied the indulgence of nobility that Iron Leyce seemed to possess. The only consolation was probably that his own carriage was more practical.

Slightly disgruntled, he sat back at the table, took a sip of milk tea, only to spit it out: “Bastards, are you trying to scorch me to death?!”

An attendant ran over anxiously only to be scolded and slapped, leaving the attendant without choice but to retreat.

The temperature of the milk tea was indeed at Xiehed’s request. He liked to adjust the milk tea’s temperature on his own. He deemed it elegant to have one’s fingers stir milk tea slowly while the surface formed a bit of ice that then melted into the hot milk tea, bringing it to an agreeable temperature. This added to a Mage’s air of beauty and romance that’s why tea was always served boiling hot.

But there was nothing anyone else could do about it. The boss’s word was law. A slap to the face was trivial, as long as he didn’t have to suffer for longer.

Having been slightly scalded by the milk tea, Xiehed had lost all mood. He simply drew the coldness from his finger, stirred it into the hot milk tea to cool it down quickly, gulped the tea down, and turned to gaze at Iron Leyce’s carriage.

He had watched all the Winged Knights’ endeavors throughout the day. The situation was grim, and he, too, was anxious. Although the dragon-hunting plan was set by Iron Leyce, he also had expended much effort and even helped rally the Oasis Sand People.

The agreement between him and Iron Leyce was: the dragon’s corpse and the prestige of the Dragon Slayer would belong to Iron Leyce; dragon heart, horns, eyes, scales, and other items with magic effects, would belong to him. Now that he couldn’t find the dragon’s corpse, he had nothing to gain.

At that moment, a ring on his hand endowed with communication abilities started flickering, the light was faint and the frequency was low, about a few seconds per flicker.

Xiehed immediately clutched his hand, turning the side of the ring that was flickering towards his palm without anyone noticing.

He abruptly stood up and returned to his carriage. Despite his sudden movement, his followers found it reasonable because Xiehed often acted this way, going back without a word. At such times, one should never clear the table and chairs. Otherwise, he would be in a rage if he came back and found them gone.

Once back in his carriage, Xiehed closed the door, activated the Defensive Array and soundproof Boundary, then turned on the Magic Communicator inside the carriage, and respectfully said, “Master, you were looking for me?”

His tone was courteous, starkly contrasting his arrogant demeanor in front of his followers.

“Hmm.” From the communicator came a nasal ‘hmm’, then an impatient voice, “Are you associating with Iron Leyce from the Potter family?”

If they heard the tone, everyone would know whom Xiehed learned his speech habits from.

“Yes, Master. Is there a problem?” Xiehed hurriedly asked.

“You went on a dragon hunt? And you’re currently in the desert?” The impatient voice asked with a more irritated tone.

Xiehed had a bad feeling and quickly replied, “Yes.”

“Did you touch the Giant Dragon?”

“No, I didn’t lay a finger on the Giant Dragon. I only assisted the sand thieves in a fight against the Oasis Sand People.”

“Good. Remember, this trip of yours is a recreational visit to the desert. You encountered sand thieves attacking the Oasis Sand People, helped to resist, and then witnessed Iron Leyce killing the Giant Dragon. So you acted righteously, killing Iron Leyce. Unfortunately, you were unable to save the Giant Dragon. Did you understand?”

“Well…” Xiehed tried to say something uncertainly, but the impatient voice on the other end cut him off, “Kill Iron Leyce and bring back his head, or you can just die out there. The Tower of Roses must disassociate from any suspicion of dragon-slaying, do you understand?”