Chapter 137: Horse Island Discovered by Mouse

"Treasure?"

Liszt was immediately excited.

He promptly summoned Kosto, who was waiting in the castle. "What kind of treasure?"

"My lord, it's the sailing route to an island. During the maiden voyage of the Flower Town, I discovered a cave not far from the dock, inside which there were human remains. After inspection, I found that they were a group of horse traders, trapped and died in the cave. Before their death, they left the location of the horse trading spot, which is on that very island!"

Horse traders?

Liszt quickly connected this to the Smoke Task—the trail of the Lyrical Dragon horses.

Abandoning his plans to further study Doussen's new magic, he immediately said, "Take me to the cave; I want to investigate it myself!" As he prepared to depart, he took the opportunity to summon the Smoke Task, discovering that it had undergone a change.

"Complete the task, reward: the trail of the Lyrical Dragon horses."

"Task: The monsters have been thoroughly exterminated, Flower Town has never been so safe. As the lord, it's time for a grand endeavor to achieve leapfrog development for Flower Town. What harm is there in destroying the environment? Please level the Thorns Forest. Reward: Mutated Thorns."

The monsters had been completely eradicated.

The Thorns Worm Chain Task also resumed.

Liszt felt that today was truly a festive day, only lacking the joyful chirping of magpies in the branches. Soon, he understood how the task had been completed—Squire Sean arrived at the castle with a dead Shadow Snake. This Shadow Snake had killed three serfs.

"The logging site was once chaotic, but under the suppression of Master Marcus, Advisor Gort, and others, the serfs returned to their logging work," Sean reported on the scene.

The burning bonfire did not scare away the Shadow Snake.

It launched successive attacks on three serfs, ultimately being killed by Marcus with an arrow. Following this, the serfs panicked, and although they were suppressed, their work efficiency inevitably suffered.

"Sean, convey to Master Marcus to continue strengthening the protection of the Logging Team." Although the monsters had been eradicated, Liszt could not explicitly inform others, so he could only continue to strengthen the protection. "Also, convey to Advisor Gort that for the deceased serfs, give one gold coin to each of their families."

At this moment, gold coins were the best form of consolation and the most effective way to motivate the serfs to work hard—more persuasive than any threats or words of encouragement.

"Yes, my lord!" Sean carried out his orders and departed.

Liszt donned his monster skin armor and helmet, accompanied by his personal male servant Thomas, as well as Rom Barrel—who, upon notification, came to serve as a squire—the lord could not leave without squires.

"My lord, actually, we can reach the cave by land, but it requires crossing the mountain ridge and climbing a steep cliff. Taking the Flower Town would be the most convenient."

Kosto bowed to Liszt and began directing the Flower Town to set sail.

Anchors up, oars rowing, sails raised.

Turning direction, they slowly sailed on the sea. Having experienced one voyage, the young sailors performed satisfactorily, greatly increasing their speed compared to before. It took only about twenty minutes to arrive near the cave. Lowering a canoe, Kosto led Liszt and the others into the cave.

The cave was damp, almost level with the high tide sea surface, so seawater would occasionally be pushed in by the waves.

However, deeper inside, it was dry.

It was afternoon now, the sunset had passed over the mountain ridge, and sunlight no longer shone in, making the cave somewhat dark. Thomas lit the candles he had prepared early, adding light to the cave.

"My lord, here are the remains of a small boat. Judging by its shape, it should be a tender carried by a large ship. Constantly washed by the sea, only a few boards remain," Kosto flipped over the wreckage of the small boat, which crumbled directly, scattering wood chips everywhere.

Then, he walked to several skeletons: "There are a total of three human remains. I checked them,

they are still relatively intact, not missing too many bones. They carried weapons, bone swords, the bones are quite hard, but not in the shape of knight swords, so they must have been a group of rats." Knights, as the name suggests, are warriors who ride horses.

Knights are the main force in war, the composition of armies, and the wars between lords are the charges of knights. However, not all those who cultivate Aura choose to become knights—knights are a product of the noble system, and there are still some people who choose to exist outside of the noble system.

These people are smugglers, marginal figures, and despicable classes.

They do not obey the management of lords, do not engage in production, are free and easy, and engage in industries that violate the noble system—stealing, robbing, smuggling, pimping, or accepting employment for assassinations, slave trading, and more.

These people are naturally called—rats.

But they call themselves—rangers.

"Rats, huh." Liszt was not moved much. He was no stranger to rats, as his collaboration with Levis in slave trading involved working with rats.

Nobles denounce and belittle these people as rats, but that does not prevent them from cooperating with rats. After all, many dirty deeds are unsuitable for nobles to carry out personally, so they need rats to step in. The pirates that frequented the Sapphire Grand Duchy also belonged to the rats—basically all disguised nobles.

Or rather,

rats are another face of nobles—ordinary people do not have enough nutrition to cultivate Aura, only nobles can raise rats.

Liszt believed that the Tulip Family also had their own rats.

As the second son of an Earl, he simply had no right to know.

"Are there any more items that reveal their identities preserved?" Liszt picked up a bone sword and asked.

This bone sword was likely forged from a monster's bones, with a relatively curved shape, distinctly different from the long and straight knight swords, more suitable for close-range combat.

Long-term corrosion by nature had long erased any traces of magic from the bone sword.

"Their clothes and bags have long decayed, the humidity here is too great, nothing can be preserved. Only these snake inscriptions carved on the cave walls have remained," Kosto pointed to the cave wall and said.

Thomas brought the candle closer.

Illuminating the snake inscriptions on the cave wall.

The snake inscriptions were blurred, divided into two major sections, only parts could be discerned.

"I am severely wounded, dying soon, Sweetheart is an insider… spy, the Green Light was sabotaged…, they took the horses, but they underestimated me, I killed them. I cannot escape…, the cliffs are steep, the message on the horse’s back, you can come."

"The stallions… island’s navigation chart… my family, tell Molly…, I love her—Casper Ironhand."

Among them, "□" represents individual snake characters that are unclear, while "…" signifies entire segments of snake text that are illegible.

By piecing together the clues, Liszt could roughly deduce what these two segments conveyed.

After a moment of contemplation, Liszt figured out the gist - there was a mole among the horse traders, seemingly named Swett, who had sunk the large ship in an attempt to abscond with the steeds. However, Nicasper counterattacked, though he sustained grave injuries. On his deathbed, he sent the horses away, binding a letter to one of their backs.

Then, he left behind a nautical chart.

Comparing this to the reward offered by the smoke mission, Liszt now understood: "It's clear as day that this pack of rats found the island where my Lyrical Dragon horses reside; they must be rats working for the Tulip Family... My Lyrical Dragon horse is the very steed that Casper dispatched!"

With this realization, his gaze couldn't help but drift towards the nautical chart etched beside the serpent script.

The engravings on the chart were profoundly deep, indicating that Casper had exerted considerable force while inscribing it. Even as the adjacent serpent script was nearly eroded beyond recognition, the nautical chart remained strikingly clear.