Chapter 639: Grow Up Quickly

Liszt was unaware that he now had a nephew. He knew the due date of Gloria Goldenwheat's pregnancy but hadn't noticed it had already passed.

After the banquet ended, he headed to the seaside villa once more and finally met Acheronides.

"Brother!"

Acheronides already knew Liszt had returned from Pyke, so she wasn’t surprised but was overjoyed. However, not being the clingy type, she smiled with restraint. Ever since immersing herself in the world of magic and truth, she had grown much quieter.

The sea of knowledge always left her enchanted. Perhaps the hustle and bustle of the world seemed lively and exciting to ordinary people, but in her eyes, it was merely superficial noise.

Except for Liszt.

She often pictured his smile in her mind. "Brother's smile is truly lovely."

At that moment, Liszt opened his arms, and Acheronides dove into them, getting a strong whiff of liquor but also the familiar, comforting scent that always soothed her.

"Acheronides, how have you been this past month?"

"Everything's been fine... It's just that the magic plants are growing so slowly. Druidic magic isn’t speeding their growth, and shape-shifting magic hasn’t made much progress either... Leo’s temper has also gotten worse. He doesn’t like the fish I catch for him—he wants beef instead. But I can’t get any beef for him."

"Don’t worry, I’ll handle Leo." Liszt twirled a strand of Acheronides’ azure-blue hair between his fingers and brought it to his nose, catching a faint fragrance. "I heard from Pyke that you and Rose have been searching for spirit bugs recently?"

"Mm-hmm. I’ve made some new discoveries in my magic research and wanted to study the birth of spirits more closely. But after searching many sea areas, I couldn’t find any spirit bugs in the process of being born... Oh, right, Brother! A week ago, on the way to Dodo Island, I found a new spirit bug!"

"Really? Did you form a contract with it?"

"No, I was waiting for you to do it."

"Perfect timing—I'll head to Dodo Island tomorrow and contract that spirit bug while I'm at it." After chatting with Acheronides for a while, Liszt handed her two magic books. "This one was recorded by my new vampire follower, and this one was co-authored by three Great Magicians. Take them for reference."

"Ah, a vampire?"

"You’ll understand after reading this book." Liszt didn’t elaborate further—everything was explained in the tome on blood magic. He then took out a beautiful piece of amber. "Since you're researching the birth of spirits, I'll give you this spirit bug amber. You can study it slowly."

The spirit bug amber had been excavated from the rocky beach of Bloomsbury. Aside from offering some inspiration for Cris Truth's promotion to Great Magician, no other uses were found.

So, he gave it to Acheronides to study, hoping she might uncover something new.

After Acheronides accepted the spirit bug amber, Liszt handed her a hand-drawn ruin map. "This map was reconstructed by three Great Magicians based on a fragmented original. It seems to lead to an unknown race that lived in the sea—their civilization has declined, leaving only ruins behind."

"A race from the sea?"

"I suspect it might be the sirens."

"But I am a siren too, and I am a child of the sea, born and raised in a seashell, living solo in the sea. Though I've sensed other sirens a few times, I don’t much feel like talking to them... Sirens probably don’t have a civilization, right?"

"You make a good point, but I can't think of any other intelligent sea-dwelling races." Liszt shook his head.

From the knight novels and magic books he'd read, the only intelligent sea creatures mentioned were sirens and mermaids. Sometimes he wondered if sirens and mermaids were actually the same species, just mistakenly perceived as two different beings. After all, humans spotting either at sea probably couldn't tell the difference.

But these speculations weren't important.

Liszt smiled. "The three Great Magicians have already narrowed down the location of the ruins. Once we find the time to explore them together, we’ll learn what this unknown race was and what goodies they left."

"Mm-hmm."

"You should turn in early."

"Are you heading back already, brother?"

"Yeah, I'm heading back." Liszt stood up and looked at Acheronides' petite frame once more, sighing involuntarily, "I really wish you could grow up faster."

A faint blush seemed to flash across Acheronides' face, fleeting as it was. She also sighed softly, "I wish I could grow up faster too."

...

Early the next morning, Liszt headed straight to Dodo Island with Acheronides.

Along the way, they found a spirit bug—a familiar purple laver spirit bug. Acheronides had previously contracted a purple laver spirit bug as well. However, the territory was short-handed. Just planting and harvesting giant kelp already occupied a large number of fishermen, making seaweed farming impossible, let alone purple laver.

For now, they had to put it on hold.

Once a new batch of serfs arrived, more fishermen could be trained to handle coastal farming.

Coastal aquaculture and shallow-water fishing were priority projects for the territory, eventually transitioning to offshore aquaculture and deep-sea fishing to maximize the ocean's bounty.

"But why do I no longer feel much excitement about contracting spirit bugs?" Riding Rainbow Whale Rosi through the underwater currents, Liszt noticed how calm he felt.

From hearing about spirit bugs to contracting them, he'd never felt particularly excited. It seemed that ever since acquiring nine spirit bugs from the pioneering decree, discovering wild spirit bugs no longer seemed important. One good haul from war could surpass years of farming profits in the territory—no wonder it changed everything.

"No wonder the Sapphire Duchy's pioneering decree attracts so many knights every year. There’s a reason for it."

Even someone favored by fate, finding spirit bugs left and right, hungered for war's spoils. Imagine how knights with poor harvests must feel. A single raid could sustain them for years—why not take the chance? If the glory of knighthood favored them, they might loot their way to a noble title.

"Put simply, I’ve grown too accustomed to feasts and lost my taste for plain vegetables..."

By the time they reached Dodo Island, it was already afternoon.

Acheronides usually fed Leo once every five days, and during the scheduled time, Leo would wait by the shore. But this wasn’t feeding time. Liszt, however, didn't care. He climbed straight to the volcano’s crater and yelled into the sulfurous crater, "Leo, wake up! Time for beef!"

After a few calls,

The churning magma in the crater suddenly erupted, sending a pillar of flames into the sky that coalesced into a red-and-black-scaled Fire Dragon—none other than Fire Drake Leo.

"Oho!"

Leo circled once in the sky before swooping down to land before Liszt.

His size had noticeably grown again, and as he touched down, he narrowed his eyes to scrutinize Liszt, blowing a stream of fiery breath from his nostrils.

His demeanor gave Liszt the impression that he was looking down on him.

Frowning slightly, Liszt responded in a calm tone, "What’s wrong, Leo? Don’t recognize me? Or... do you not want beef anymore?"

The word "beef" instantly made Leo freeze.

Then, with obvious reluctance, he lowered his head and gave a pleading whine: "Oho."