Chapter 778: Golden Fleece

The arrival of the Bellows family did not come with any immediate tasks to assign, so Liszt decided to house them for a few years while he searched for an archipelago to establish a nation, with plans to strategize later.

He then arranged for members of the Bellows family to assume roles at the Knight Academy, working alongside Alvin Eaglesword to oversee the training of Iron Knights. The future demand for Iron Knights in the nation would be immense, ensuring endless demand for their skills. Moreover, each Iron Knight trained would count toward military merit.

Thus, the Iron Knights of the Bellows family were quite willing to teach.

Soon after.

Liszt granted an audience to Kenley Truth and her companions. Kenley, now thirty-six and unmarried, had become a great magician at the age of twenty-two. As a member of the Elephant Mage lineage, which had passed down magic through generations, she commanded respect in the magical circles of the Kingdom of the Eagle and had once studied under the court's great magician.

However, she did not remain in court service but instead returned to her family's fiefdom to continue her magical research.

She later organized a gathering of mages called the "Elephant Assembly." Upon hearing that a living incarnation of truth had emerged in the Sapphire Duchy, she felt compelled to seek out the Archmage. After her brother brought back confirmation, she gathered the willing mages of the Elephant Assembly and led them here.

Liszt met these mages but said little, directly deferring them to Cris Truth for arrangements.

As the vice president of the Magic Guild, Cris oversaw the guild's daily operations, strictly enforcing the guild’s statutes as dictated by Liszt.

"The right to study under the great Archmage must be earned. Only by joining the Magic Guild, abiding by its rules and the laws of the territory, may you continue your magical research here... If you are unwilling, you may leave. If you are willing, dissolve the Elephant Assembly at once and submit your membership applications."

Kenley promptly declared, "The Elephant Assembly was merely a gathering for mages to exchange knowledge. Now that we have arrived at the Flame Territory, the Elephant Assembly ceases to exist. I alone formally apply to join the Magic Guild."

The other mages also expressed their desire to apply for membership.

Liszt did not involve himself in the subsequent arrangements. During this period, several great magicians had come to pay homage, and Cris had managed them all in an orderly fashion.

Of course, among them might be informants ("rats") from rival nations, but Liszt was not concerned.

The territory was closely monitored by blood servants—vampires who served as Liszt's hidden eyes. If any mage was found engaging in espionage, they would be swiftly disposed of. The disappearance of a few mages in the Flame Territory would raise no suspicions against Liszt.

...

With the arrival of the Bellows family's Iron Knights and the mages of the Elephant Assembly, the reward from the previous task—"a new clue about the Supreme Dragon Beast"—was obtained.

Liszt specifically sent people to inquire with these two groups. The Iron Knight family knew nothing about Supreme Dragon Beast clues, dismissing "lesser dragons" as myth. However, among the mages of the Elephant Assembly, Kenley Truth had studied lesser dragons extensively and knew a wealth of knowledge about them.

During her exchanges with Cris, this information was compiled into a report for Liszt.

The lesser dragons Kenley knew of included the Phoenix, the Great White Ox, the Unicorn, the Thestral, the Hippogriff, and the Golden Goat—six in total. She had even seen the Golden Goat with her own eyes.

"The Golden Goat is a massive goat covered in golden fleece, with dragon-like horns on its head. Its wool is extremely precious—earth-aligned knights who wear it gain powerful enhancements, much like how the Phoenix Feather empowered fire-aligned knights."

Undoubtedly, the Golden Goat was an earth-attribute Supreme Dragon Beast. The royal family of the Iron Ridge raised a herd of them, and the shed golden fleece was often bestowed by the king as a prized reward to knights.

Beyond that, the royal family had once hunted a Phoenix, obtaining many Phoenix Feathers. A certain ducal family that had produced a Dragon Knight raised Hippogriffs, creatures resembling a fusion of horse and eagle, rumored to cover a thousand miles daily. Thestrals were lesser dragons only visible to those who had witnessed death. The nature of the Great White Ox was unclear, but the throne of King Osborn of the Iron Ridge was draped in its hide.

Then there was the Unicorn, a creature of myth, yet well-documented.

The vassal state of the Iron Ridge, the Rose Duchy, had once sought to marry a princess (the duke's daughter) to the feeble-minded youngest son of the king two generations prior. However, the princess escaped the knights' encirclement on a Unicorn and vanished into the forests—an event confirmed by the monarchs of both nations.

All six of these lesser dragons were confirmed to exist.

Of course, there were many other legendary lesser dragons yet to be verified.

Such as Cerberus, the three-headed hound guarding the Land of Exile; the Hydra, the sea monster of the Devil's Sea; the Chimera, a beast with the heads of a goat, lion, and serpent; Fenrir, the giant wolf of the snow and ice lands; Jörmungandr, the world serpent that bites its own tail; the Nemean Lion, an invincible beast...

And Ladon, the dragon that guarded the golden apples of legend—a flightless earth dragon.

In addition, there are legends that record three dragon-like powerful lesser dragons: the sea monster Leviathan, the land beast Behemoth, and the sky creature Ziz.

Of course.

While most legends have a basis in reality—for example, the prototype of the phoenix is the Flame Dragonbird, which, though a lesser dragon, isn't as magical as the legendary phoenix—tales like Behemoth, Leviathan, and Ziz are likely complete nonsense. Dragons remain the pinnacle of power.

"In the Pegasus Great Forest along the kingdom's eastern coast, advanced dragon beasts called pegasi are sparsely distributed. These white pegasi are strikingly beautiful, attracting many knights to the forest in hopes of capturing them. Some knights claim to have spotted a pegasus with a single horn among the herds, remarkably majestic, likely a unicorn."

The clue about the Supreme Dragon Beast that Kenli revealed was roughly this: "Unfortunately, pegasi themselves are powerful and incredibly fast, making them difficult to capture, while the unicorn vanished into the forest after just a glance... Many knights witnessed this, prompting King Osborn to personally dispatch knights to hunt for it, but they failed to find the unicorn."

...

"Pegasus Great Forest."

Liszt noted the name and prepared to send blood servants who speak serpent tongue to investigate the forest, charting its paths before personally searching for the unicorn when time permitted.

Whether in folklore or knights' accounts, the unicorn symbolizes purity. Many swear that only chaste, beautiful, innocent, and kind maidens can gain a unicorn's trust.

However, based on his analysis of the phoenix legend, Liszt understood that all lesser dragons are exaggerated in tales—these Supreme Dragon Beasts are merely particularly special magical beasts. The unicorn should be no exception. Its appearance among pegasi suggests it may be a pegasus with dragon blood.

Its most notable feature is its incredible speed, so capturing it would require setting traps, since chasing it would be pointless.

"Yet, according to Kenli's account, a princess of the Rose Duchy once rode a unicorn to escape an encirclement by knights. How did she tame it? Could it truly be, as described, that unicorns are particularly sensitive to maidens?"

After some thought, he shook his head. "It shouldn't be."

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