Your Majesty's money, why don't you engrave my name on it?

This position could buy him some time, as long as—

As soon as the dragon finger landed on the ground, he took out the materials he needed for casting the spell from the dimensional props beside him. However, just as he opened his mouth to chant the first syllable, he looked up and saw a flaxen-haired young girl standing opposite him.

The bard cheered, leaped up, and swung his mater, striking Fidel with all his might on the forehead. Amidst the deafening roar of thunder, everyone heard Miss Daisy's declaration of victory:

"Congratulations, you win first prize!"

Chapter 201 Reluctant to give in to each other

"Is this... a magic item?"

The vibration in her hand and the thunder wave triggered by the matte indicated that Daisy had indeed hit Fidel, but the caster turned into a cloud of mist in an instant and disappeared into the air, leaving only his admiration for the instrument.

"He ran away!" Daisy stared with her eyes wide open, trying to find the other party in the night, but found nothing. Even the druid's demon fire could not mark his position again - it seemed that the dragon finger had really run away.

"It was the same last time," the red dragonborn who had reached the edge of the road sighed regretfully, "but last time he defeated us all and left."

"We can talk about this later," Bella walked over quickly. "There are still quite a few lackeys left. What are you going to do with them?"

"They're just idiots," Jinman tutted. "Let them be. Coming this far to commit crimes, they'll die in the wilderness sooner or later."

"I don't think that's what she meant, Big Sister..." Frost Skeleton, with white scales, reminded in a low voice, motioning for Cinder Crown to look to the other side, "They're almost done killing them..."

"Alas?!"

Cinder Crown turned in shock. Sure enough, Reslaufer and the unknown beast were slaughtering everyone, no matter if they were dragonborn or human. When the last dragonborn finally jumped off the edge of the road, which was too far for them, and thought they had finally escaped, the mercenary's large hand grabbed her collar from behind and dragged her back to the pile of dead.

"This... there's no need to kill them all!" The red dragonborn couldn't help but yelled, "We didn't come here to—"

"What you're doing is none of my business," Reslaufer casually tossed the severed Dragonborn arm to Black Claw, who was already waiting to catch it. "Instead, you should explain who these people are and what your relationship is to them."

"You'd better show some respect, uncle!" Cinder Crown bared her teeth. The Dragonborn had reached the size and development level of a ten-year-old human child at the age of three, and reached adulthood at the age of fifteen. At fourteen and a half years old, she saw that Reslaufer was indeed an uncle. "Based on what you just did, I can roast you to charcoal with dragon flames!"

"Want to try?" Reslaufer, always a threat, perked up immediately. "At this distance, I can chop off all four of your dragon heads and skin your skulls to use as bowls."

"You can start chanting or breathing now, but if you lose the bet, everyone's life will be at stake—don't you want to try?"

"Don't—big sister," the usually taciturn green dragonborn suddenly spoke up before Cindercrown could completely explode, "We're all in this together. Let's not fight among ourselves, okay?"

This green dragonborn speaks softly and appears to be the youngest.

"Brother, brother, calm down and don't hurt the relationship," Edward hurriedly came forward to smooth things over. "We could have fought side by side just now, right? There was really no need, haha..."

"Black Dragonborn..." Cinder Crown snorted coldly as he looked at Edward. "You did fight alongside us just now, and that acid arrow was very accurate. But he wasn't—you've been lying in ambush nearby, waiting for us both to be defeated, right?"

"Then I can just wait until one of you is injured and the other is dead, little thing." Leslaufer tilted his head, and Black Claw suddenly appeared behind the Red Dragonborn like a ghost. "Of course, it's not too late now."

"Uncle Leslaufer, leave this to me." Just as the man and the dragon were on the verge of a fight, Angelita came quickly from behind and broke the stalemate. Upon seeing her, both Daisy and Bella breathed a sigh of relief.

If they had to fight, they could only stand on Reslaufer's side, but if asked whether they wanted to fight, of course they didn't.

Angelita's presence was indeed a great help.

"Who are you?" The Red Dragonborn looked at the girl in front of him with a bad face. "I didn't even see you just now!"

"These are my followers. Do you need any further explanation?" Angelita responded coldly. "Let someone else come. Either we can calmly figure out the whole story, or let Uncle Reslaufer handle this matter. He can handle most problems."

Use the method of solving problems for people.

"Hello, young lady. I am Aissasino Frostbane," the White Dragonborn said, putting his arm around their eldest sister's shoulders. After a moment, Cindercrown reluctantly gave up his position, and the White Dragonborn took over. "Among the 'Spellscale Four', I am the second oldest in terms of age. If you wish, I will be responsible for the negotiations."

"Very good, my convoy is still behind, let's talk here for now."

The situation calmed down temporarily, and Black Claw reluctantly put away his desire to attack. The feeling of hunger after the intense exercise surged into his brain, and the dinosaur immediately ran to the side of a dragon's corpse. After tearing off its clothes with his claws, he began to feast on it.

The taste is still authentic, as if its ancestors have been eating similar food for millions of years.

"Can you let your monsters eat something else?" Cinder Crown lowered her prominent brows to show her disgust and dissatisfaction. "Even if they have gone astray, they are still my people! You can't let your pets eat them in front of us!"

"Go, go down there and gnaw on it," Leslaufer patted the base of Blackclaw's tail. The Deinonychus glared at Cindercrown unhappily and hopped off the road, dragging his dinner with him. "Is that all right? There's so much to do."

"you--"

Leslaufer ignored this guy. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the low-profile green dragonborn circling around him, trying to approach the ruins of the carriage left by Fidel. So he walked over and opened the carriage door before her.

The smell of blood and decay hit him in the face, but at the same time, Reslaufer also smelled some special smells, like... stars?

"You smell it, right? It's the scent of Dancing Star Dill," the Green Dragonborn cautiously squeezed past Reslaufer, examining the various traces inside the carriage. "It's similar to what we saw last time, the ritual and materials are roughly the same. Fidel needs more than just a 'messenger,' just as the Dardan Julian clan needs more than just 'a piece' of land under the sun."

"Xiaoyi, what's the point of talking to this guy? He's like the chosen one of the God of Slaughter, and his mind can't hold anything else!" The annoying voice of Jinmian appeared in Leslaufer's ears again.

"If you want to know, we can explain it," the fast-talking blue dragonborn came over. "Xiaoyi, explain it to this gentleman. He should be able to understand. I saw the spirit beside him."

Chapter 202: Signs of Prophecy

"Shaman?" Upon hearing this, Reslaufer couldn't help but look at the blue dragonborn twice.

"Priest, Vlassis Flash, you can just call me Flash. Xiaoyi's full name is Tokoqinlin Poison Wing, and the big sister is Abilez Cinder Crown. She is the biggest and strongest." Flash introduced her companions as quickly as possible, as if she would die if she let out a breath.

"Sister Jin has a bad temper, but she's a nice person. Don't bother with her. We're not adults yet." "I'm already an adult!" "Forty-one days away!"

Forty-one days, Leslaufer roughly calculated, and it seemed to be about the same time as Angritta, except that the Dragonborn became an adult at the age of fifteen.

"Which deity do you worship, Tiamat?"

"No, no, I... I believe in a being that might not be considered a true god to other races. It's called the Statue Dragon and Desert Doom, Emullis. My ancestors may have had the honor of serving it or its echo. The reward for this work is now evident in my bloodline."

"And that Fidel may have had a similar experience, except that the one he served wasn't his ancestor, but himself, and the one he served wasn't as powerful. Even so, it didn't affect his current arrogance and the power he gained from dragon blood," Poison Wing whispered, "even though he was once a devout believer in the God of Roads and Travelers."

"Now he has abandoned his faith, but I don't know what kind of conspiracy and trickery he used to still use that power. Creating the 'Messenger' is one of them." The Green Dragonborn spoke very fluently when talking about this matter. "Using many materials including Star Dancing Dill, combined with rituals, a section of broken road cut from an intact road, and cleansed corpses placed in specific locations - this last part we believe was caused by his loss of faith - he finally summoned a huge golem that can be driven and acted on its own. It is the Messenger."

"Although a Messenger is a golem, it's not specialized in combat. Its most dangerous aspect is that it can transform itself into a stable passage between illusion and reality. Anything permitted by its master, no matter how, can travel back and forth between the two sides of the passage until the Messenger collapses over time or is destroyed by external forces," Shimmering Stone explained. "Can you imagine? If he creates enough Messengers, he and the Dardanjullien clan can travel back and forth to fight anywhere! The enemy might just receive a letter declaring war, and the next second, the army will be right in front of them!"

Leslaufer could certainly understand how powerful this force was, so he had to figure out another question: "How many messengers does he have now?"

"One, this one isn't complete," Poison Wing explained quickly. "The courier has very strict requirements for breaking the circuit. They have to do with length, width, completeness, and even the duration of use. We couldn't stop him last time, but we can be sure that was his first time using it."

The mercenary rubbed his chin. "In that case... will the courier still be able to move after the tunnel is built?"

"If he can, why would he continue? Use your brain, uncle—Ahhh!" Before Cinder Crown finished her words, Leslaufer had already flashed to her side and lifted up the Dragonborn who was a head taller than Angritta. "Put me down! Put me down! I bit you!"

"If you can't speak, you can pretend to be mute. No one will ask where your tongue is." Leslough snorted and threw her to the ground. "Anything else? I heard the 'ancient prophecy' twice. What is that?"

"You've been lying in ambush nearby for quite some time!"

"That was something from a long, long time ago. Most dragonborn don't believe it," Shimmering Stone shrugged. "A long time ago, the world was once a world of dragons and giants. After they left the stage, a powerful red dragon once announced that they would eventually return, but so much time has passed that not even the tip of their tail can be seen."

"Besides, for us Dragonborn, even if the dragons really come back, what will happen? Will we continue to be slaves? I don't want to do that at all."

"But there are always those who miss us, like the Dardanjulien clan and Dragonfinger Fidel," Cinder Crown muttered, rubbing his sore butt. "But it's really no big deal. The dragons have long since disappeared. The elders in the clan even speculate that they left our world long ago."

Not really. Leslaufer thought to himself that not long ago, he had seen a sleeping green dragon with his own eyes. It was like a nightmare.

——If the dragon was awake, nightmare would not be enough to describe it.

"So the point is, there are indeed some signs now, right?" The mercenary looked at the three young Dragonborn. "There shouldn't be too many Dragonborn, right? And now there are four spellcasters at once, and one of them has powers connected to a real dragon."

He looked at Shimmering Stone, and the blue dragon took a step back. "Not just one of them, but all of them—the arcane powers of the four of us all come from dragon blood. Is the black dragonborn in your team similar to this?"

Leslough nodded noncommittally. He couldn't possibly reveal Edward's true identity to these strange dragonborns.

"Sister Shan and I are a little different," Du Yi smiled slightly. "Sister Shan can perform some divine arts, and my strength actually comes from my own research..."

"But that would cost a lot of money, and right now it's still not as good as the power in my bloodline."

A team of adventurers composed entirely of Dragonborn, spellcasters of dragon blood. Even Reslaufer, a man of great experience, couldn't help but be secretly surprised. How low could the probability of such a group coming together be? Even with the close ties between Dragonborn!

But scarcity is just that, scarcity. Reslaufer was quick to point out their flaws: "You need teammates who can protect your spellcasting, or more precisely, a cannon fodder who can buy you time. Spellcasters can be incredibly powerful, but they're also incredibly fragile."

Cindercrown responded to this comment with a laugh. "You want to join us, uncle? Forget it! We are the 'Spellscale Four'! Only spellcasters can join our group! We would rather your black dragonborn companion come to us than you—by the way, I'll go invite him now!"

"Don't mind it," Shining Stone said apologetically to Reslaufer, watching Jinmai running away in a hurry, "Sister Jin..."

"Your powers match your own scale bloodline, so are your names also coincidental?" Reslaufer waved his hand and changed the subject. "Ember Crown, Frost Corpse..."

"Oh, that's not the case. This is something we all gave it to ourselves after our team was formed. Isn't it neat?"

Chapter 203 The Five Magical Scale Friends

"I've made up my mind! From now on, I, Eslide Fenmaw, will be a member of the Spellscale Five and go on adventures together!"

When the subsequent convoy arrived, Edward was excitedly announcing his new life plan - he was twelve and a half years old, and among the other four dragonborn he was not even the youngest. He was three months older than Poisonwing!

Is there any opportunity more exciting for a boy than to sneak into a group of girls?!

But Reslaufer always felt that Edward's focus was most likely not on the girl, but on the "Dragonborn". After all, this kid had so many transformation disguises to choose from, but he chose to become a black dragonborn that most ordinary people were afraid of. The reason for this choice was really puzzling.

"Don't forget your own business," Leslaufer had to remind the young man. "I don't mind taking the commission for free, but if you take risks with them, we won't go to the City of the Fallen."

"Commission?" Reslaufer had originally intended to discuss this with Edward in private, but Cinder Crown's ears were too sharp, and he immediately came up to him. "Xionuma, what did you commission him to do?"

"Uh... going to Qingzun City to take care of some personal business." Edward felt the scales on his back rubbing against the fabric of his clothes anxiously. He needed to force himself to come up with an excuse. If his true identity was exposed before his new life even began, his life would probably be over.

"Ah, Sister Jin, I just mentioned to you that I was adopted by humans. Now that I've sneaked out so far, I have to go home and explain the situation to them."

"Your parents?" Jin Mian showed an expression of sudden enlightenment. "I understand. Why don't we go together? Fidel's conspiracy was thwarted once, and he won't take any new actions for a while. We still have some time."

"I thought you should chase him for seven or eight hundred miles, not giving him any chance to commit crimes again," Leslaufer suddenly thought of the paladin named Patrick. "...Oh, I forgot. You can't defeat him yet, so you can only cause trouble for him."

Cinder Crown immediately glared at Leslaufer: "Although what you said is true, could you please stop talking!"

"Xiao Nu, tell us about your parents. We grew up in the Wilderness Clan, so life in Qing Zun City must be very different."

"It's indeed very different," Philip came over at some point. After realizing that the other four Dragonborn except Black were all female, he couldn't help but mutter sourly, "To raise a child who steals other people's ancestral graves, they must be extraordinary parents."

Edward immediately had an idea and added, "Ah, yes, yes, my parents don't like the attention of many people. You know, it's due to work, so Sister Jin..."

Philip, you are such a genius at doing bad things with good intentions and good things with bad intentions!

"...I understand. We will of course respect you and your family." Jinmian and the others discussed it and began to comfort Edward, occasionally saying a few aphorisms such as "Although we cannot decide the past, we can at least decide the future."

"This brat." Leslaufer couldn't help but sneer and turned away.

"What, are you jealous?" Daisy came up to him in a mean way and poked the armor plate on Leslaufer's waist with her elbow. "It's okay, it's okay. You also have me, Bella, and Annie by your side. But Bella either devotes herself to nature or to Eldas. As for me, I still want to go to Waterdeep to take a look. It's a check-in holy place, and there might be my dream lover there. As for-"

"Annie is almost an adult. Although the age difference between you two is quite large, I've heard of cases where a man married a woman who was 72 and a woman who was 27. Your age difference is nothing..."

When Leslaufer stopped and began to look down at her, the bard shrank his neck and decisively chose to admit his mistake: "I was just talking nonsense, just talking nonsense, Old Lei, don't do this, I, I'm scared."

"What are you doing? I'm just curious. What's going on in your head?" Leslaufer shook his head. "As for that guy... what's so good about that colorful little dragon man?"

"Then you don't understand. In my hometown, there's a guy next door who's into this. He's a real guy," Daisy curled her lips. "But compared to that, I'm more curious. Is he really only twelve and a half? I thought he should be more mature..."

"He's only twelve and a half," Leslough said confidently, looking at Edward, who was now immersed in the gentle embrace of claws, scales, and claws. He recalled the boy's true appearance and said, "He's thirteen or fourteen at most."

Daisy didn't know Edward's true identity, so she took Reslaufer's judgment as his observation of the Black Dragonborn. "You can judge that..."

"Uncle Reslaufer," Angelita's voice interrupted their casual conversation. "Uncle Reslaufer, Miss Frostbone has already told me about the situation here. Do you want to hear it?"

"It has nothing to do with us, so don't worry about it," Leslough shook his head slightly. "It's getting late, let's find a place far away to rest. Tomorrow we can burn these bodies and put an end to this matter here."

The Dragon Finger and the clans that collaborated with it should be targeting the Kingdom of Latour at the moment. They had no further connection to the Kingdom except to avenge their anger. Leslaufer had no intention of following Patrick's example and going about his business as a hero.

And ultimately, the mercenaries didn't quite believe a single clan and a powerful spellcaster could rely on so-called "couriers" and decapitation tactics to seize an entire kingdom. The king had so many earls, and the earls had barons, and then there was the church. How many people could a single Dragonborn clan possibly have? They wouldn't be afraid of succumbing to so much land.

However, if they really did this, the lives of the dragonborn in West Inassus and even the surrounding areas would probably not be easy.

After dinner, Reslaufer leaned back in his carriage, calculating the time it would take to finish the deal with Angelita, and wondering if there would be a chance to do some business in the future wars between dragonborn, humans, and other races.

This kind of war will certainly not be like the bluffing and bluffing between the nobles of the empire. Real sword-fighting and massacre will probably become the mainstream. If this is the case...

"Old Lei..." Vondar, who was resting in the same carriage with Reslaufer, suddenly opened his eyes, a faint light shining in the darkness. "Your eyes are a little scary."

"Just take a rest, Vondar. This has nothing to do with you."

Chapter 204 Missing Persons

The four young dragonborn who had recently joined the caravan brought much amusement to the journey. Angrita also found playmates her own age. However, the cultural differences between humans and dragonborn, Imperials, and Western Inassans were significant, and within just a few days, the caravan was in turmoil.

Leslaufer and other adults could only be thankful that Angelita was fifteen or sixteen instead of five or six. Otherwise, if the little girl came running to them with tears and snot, crying, "That red-scaled sister bit me," they would have no idea how to respond.

This can't be a death sentence.

"Embercrown has a bad temper, gets easily provoked and easily upset; Frostskull appears reliable, but actually has a million tricks up her sleeve; Glintstone's thoughts are faster than her words, and even the others often can't keep up; Venomwing... Honestly, I haven't had much interaction with her. She's so passionate about magic that Swampmaw could spend half a day studying her over just a few tricks."

Inside the train car, Angelita counted on her fingers, summarizing the characteristics of each of her new friends. "It's a miracle they even got together at all. And the most amazing thing is, they're led by Cinder Crown—it seems like they were simply arranged in order of age, with no consideration for anything else."

"Doesn't sound easy to get along with?"

"Luckily, I was taught how to deal with this since I was little," Angelita said, raising her cheeks slightly complacently. "The more advanced technique is how to make people I don't like, and who don't like me, do things my way. Unfortunately, I probably won't have the chance to learn it."