Chapter 606: Hand-drawn Map

After inspecting the castle, nothing of note was found.

The assets of the Clearwater Sword Saint, Yevich Shui Huasheng, were disappointingly meager, hardly befitting a sword saint of his stature. The supplies stored in Snowpear Castle couldn’t even compare to the wealth of Boulder Castle or Beer Castle, which Liszt found downright pitiful.

Of course.

He wasn’t so enraged as to actually destroy the spirit herbs. Warfare among knights was a nobleman’s sport, and though there were no written rules dictating how war must be conducted, much like how nations on Earth signed the Geneva Conventions to protect civilians and war victims, the knightly system had its own code of honor.

The ideals of chivalry and knightly virtues differed in how nations promoted them, but broadly speaking, they revolved around loyalty, fearlessness, courage, honesty, justice, protecting territories, and competing for glory.

Unwritten but strictly followed rules included prohibitions against killing prisoners, allowing knights to be ransomed with gold, harming spirit bugs, massacring civilians, traitors being despised, and ensuring the purity of noble bloodlines among wives and heirs.

Once, the king of the Kingdom of Steel Ridge dispatched his army to storm a duke’s court after learning of the duke’s penchant for slaughtering civilians. The result was the duke’s title being stripped, though the duchy itself was not abolished—instead, the duke’s younger brother was made the new duke.

Of course, the real reason was probably the duke’s conflict with the kingdom rather than his cruelty toward civilians. But the slaughter of commoners provided the perfect pretext for military action.

Liszt likewise adhered to these rules.

He had no intention of breaking them.

After all, destroying the spirit herbs would drain the spirit bugs’ vitality, affecting their final yield. Even transplantation wouldn’t work—if the spirit bugs were separated from their herbs for too long, the herbs would wither, and though the spirit bugs could nurture new herbs, they too would suffer greatly, often leading to their early death.

Resources must be preserved. If the Sapphire Duchy wanted every land reclamation decree to plunder sufficient resources, it couldn’t recklessly deplete assets like spirit bugs.

Otherwise, after a few land reclamation decrees, the coastal hinterlands might no longer have nobles willing to cultivate them.

In fact, with the continuous encroachment of the pioneering decrees, several frequently raided coastal hinterlands of the Kingdom of the Eagle have given rise to many non-productive nobles. These nobles secretly support mercenary groups, engaging in the trade of serfs and various smuggling activities to evade public moral scrutiny.

As for the civilians in those towns, they are generally spared from the ravages of war. Unfortunately, even if the knights refrain from devastation, the mercenaries still come to plunder.

It’s easy to imagine that without the protection of Snowpear Castle, Frostpear City would soon face mercenary raids as well.

But these were not issues Liszt was willing to concern himself with.

Standing on the second floor of the castle, he gazed at the grapevines in the rear garden, still lamenting Yevich’s escape: "It seems many castles have secret tunnels. I should also build one in Thorn Castle... a tunnel leading to the sea—firstly for easier meetings with Acheronides, and secondly for a quick escape into the ocean."

Once in the sea, with the Rainbow Whale Rosi providing him air, even a dragon knight couldn’t reach him—except for water dragon knights, since water dragons, being elemental creatures, might allow their riders to breathe underwater.

While musing, a wisp of distorted smoke appeared before him once more.

"Mission complete. Reward: a hand-drawn map of the ruins."

With Yevich gone and the three great magicians captured, the mission's success was inevitable. Moreover, Liszt was certain the map was in the possession of these magicians—he could retrieve it at will. The battle merits belonged to the count, the supplies to him, and evidently, the map of the ruins was his as well.

He turned his attention to the next task.

Counting up, this was already the one hundred and twenty-sixth mission: "Mission: The fleeing Yevich Shui Huasheng, harboring resentment, may be waiting for you in the next city, eager to plunder the resources of Impact River Plain. A great battle is inevitable—capture or kill Yevich. Reward: one Iron Knight."

The mission content held no surprises, following a predictable progression.

What surprised him was the reward: "An Iron Knight? So, does this mean Yevich is fleeing to Steel Fort City, where there's an Iron Knight?" Steel Fort City was the next target of the Coral Island Knights.

The Iron Knight is a type of knight who practices a special mana cultivation method, capable of forging various legendary weapons.

Weapons like the Crimson Blood Sword, Skycleaver Greatsword, and Swift Shadow Bow are all crafted by Iron Knights—while great magicians create magic artifacts such as gemstone pendants, amplification bracelets, and the Wind Calming Pearl. Iron Knights, on the other hand, forge gemstone weapons, mithril armor, spirit weapons, and even dragon-bone weapons.

Magic artifacts created by great magicians rely on magic arrays to activate the inherent magic power of materials, producing unique effects and power.

Weapons forged by Iron Knights, however, fuse materials with the weapon itself through special forging techniques, making them suitable for knights to infuse mana and resonate with the material's innate magic power, releasing devastating power.

Magic artifacts can be activated as long as there is magic power, regardless of whether it's mana or magic. Gemstone weapons, spirit weapons, and the like require mana to unleash their power—otherwise, they remain ineffective.

Training an Iron Knight consumes vast resources.

Typically, only major nobles select exceptionally talented young knights from their territories to train as Iron Knights. Many Iron Knights are themselves descendants of great nobles. The Bull Marquis’s grandson became an Iron Knight at a young age, which led Liszt to conclude that he possessed extraordinary talent.

"I hope this Iron Knight can provide me with the training methods for Iron Knights. A single Iron Knight alone isn’t particularly valuable—what truly matters is the structured training methods he possesses."

...

Back in the castle.

The Count had finished interrogating the three great magicians.

Lars Truth, Silar Truth, and Dulaka Truth—these were the names of the three great magicians. Though all were magicians from the Kingdom of the Eagle, they hailed from different regions. Half a year ago, they had converged on the same stall during a magician’s assembly.

The seller was an ordinary magician, offering a badly deteriorated, incomplete relic map for sale.

Lars explained deadpan, "It was a Moon Speech map. After our appraisal, we determined it was a relic of the Moon Empire, pointing to a lost civilization. All three of us wanted the map, and none were willing to give it up, so we decided to study it together..."

Silar added, "The map was incomplete. The magician told us he had excavated it from the ruins of an ancient mage tower. So, we spent all our savings to excavate the tower ruins..."

From the ruins, they failed to find the missing parts of the map.

However, based on clues left in the ruins, they managed to reconstruct the incomplete map and sketch a rough version, which pointed to a place called Roaring Estuary.

"According to our research, during the Moon Empire era, most of the Roaring Estuary was actually part of the sea. The lost civilization indicated by the map belonged to a mysterious race that lived in the ocean. The Moon Empire had trade relations with this race, so we came here hoping to find them."

"A race from the sea?"

Liszt arched a brow, suddenly realizing, "Could they be referring to the sirens?"