46. Building Castles on the Moon
(3000 words)
A month later, Leon and Roswiser headed to the border territory between humans and dragons to exchange intelligence with their Master and Rebecca.
This time, unlike the previous occasions, Leon brought some paper and pens, and even a Shadow Stone to record his conversation with the Master.
He was quite sure that this intelligence exchange would be packed with information.
After all, there was the Heartguard Dragon Scale incident and the resurrection of Old Constantine—talk about a mess the Empire stirred up.
And Leon’s counterattack was no small feat either; it was enough to make the Empire think twice.
With such a heated clash between the two sides, Leon believed that the Empire would soon make an even bigger ruckus.
And once they made their move, there would be murmurs among the people.
Leon needed to figure out the Empire’s next plan or at least its general direction so he could be prepared ahead of time.
After all, Constantine’s surprise attack on the Red Dragon Holy Temple had completely caught Leon off-guard.
If he and Roswiser hadn’t gone to visit Isar back then, regardless of the Empire’s intentions behind the attack, they might have ended up with the dragons’ treasures by now.
So he had to tweak his strategy; he couldn’t always be a step behind the Empire.
Otherwise, sooner or later, he would make a big mistake.
A few hours later, Leon and Roswiser arrived at the mountain cave.
As they walked through the waterfall and ventured inside, before they could take more than a few steps, they heard a familiar voice.
“Hey Captain, you’re still alive! I was beginning to think you got sucked into some space rift again~”
A girl with twin ponytails perched on an old wooden table, raising a shapely leg to rest it on the edge of the table, with a handgun strapped to the outside of her thigh.
However, Leon didn’t reply to Rebecca’s greeting.
Instead, he marched up to her, grabbed her by the collar as if she were a small dog, and lifted her off the ground.
“What are you doing, Captain! Let’s just talk it out!” Rebecca struggled for a moment, but with her feet dangling in mid-air, she had no power to resist.
Leon held Rebecca up with one hand and placed his other hand on his hip, staring her down in silence.
Rebecca looked up at him.
From that clueless expression of his, it seemed she had inadvertently upset him somehow, so he definitely wouldn’t let her off the hook easily.
But wait!
They only meet every three months!
Last time went fine; why was he ready to take her life this time?
She hadn’t done anything wrong, right?
Rebecca gulped and turned her head to look at Taige, hoping for some backup.
“Old Man, Old Man, your apprentice wants to beat me up! Aren’t you going to do anything?”
Taige, sitting across from them polishing his katana, replied without looking up, “You can beat her, but don’t scare her too much; we still need her to drive the carriage back.”
“Is my only value driving the carriage, Old Man?!”
Taige pretended to think for a moment, then nodded seriously, “Yes.”
“Ahhh!!”
Rebecca glanced back at the silver-haired beauty behind Leon, “Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, save me! Your husband is about to get violent! That look in his eyes is just like when he was dragon-slaying, sister-in-law!”
“Baby, you’re not a dragon, so relax, he won’t slay you.”
Rebecca: ?
Alright, so much for outside help.
In the end, she had to rely on herself.
Rebecca looked back at Leon, hesitating for a moment before speaking in a somewhat courageous tone, “Before you sort me out, I’d like to know the reason. Is that okay, Captain?”
“It’s because you told Roswiser about my embarrassing past, right?”
“…” Rebecca finally clicked, “Sister-in-law, you backstabbed me!!”
Roswiser blinked, about to explain, but Leon jumped in first.
“It’s got nothing to do with her; she didn’t say anything.”
After a pause, Leon mumbled, “She just nagged me about the graduation ball for a whole week…”
Rebecca blinked her pretty big eyes, “What?”
“Nothing much. The things that happened back in school were known only to you and Martin, and since Martin hasn’t met Roswiser, it just so happens that when you were off alone with her for so long last time, so… easy character relationship deduction!”
“Captain, I swear everything I said was just to help you and sister-in-law understand each other better. You believe me, right?”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You have to believe me, Captain! Why don’t you believe me?!”
After throwing out a few theatrics, Leon peeked at Roswiser to see she was calm, then leaned in closer to Rebecca’s ear and whispered, “What else did you tell her last time?”
Rebecca’s mind raced as she searched through her memories.
Finally, she shook her head, “I just told her you can’t swim.”
Can’t swim.
Oh… that’s fine, as long as it doesn’t give that Mother Dragon a reason to get jealous.
“Anything else?”
“That’s it, Captain, I swear.” She raised three fingers, looking very sincere.
“I’ll trust you just this once.”
With that, Leon set Rebecca down.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, the crazy girl quickly dashed over to Roswiser, hopping up and down while looking up at her, as if ready to complain.
Roswiser, however, wore a maternal smile, looking at Rebecca with the kind of eyes reserved for a little baby being adorable.
Leon shook his head with a chuckle and walked over to sit across from Taige.
Taige was done polishing his sword and sheathed it.
“Kid, it seems you’ve riled up the Empire.”
Master got straight to the point.
“How come?”
Leon had a hunch about what his Master was referring to.
It was about the time Constantine attacked the Red Dragon Holy Temple, and he blew up the Heartguard Dragon Scale that had been stitched onto that super zombie dragon.
Of course, Leon’s explosion spell wasn’t very refined, so he couldn’t choose which scale to blow up selectively.
Once he activated the explosive spell, it was a “family reunion in the sky” situation.
This story tells us: it’s a lot harder to parallel-wire light bulbs than to wire them in series (just kidding).
“About two months ago, one night, there was a sudden explosion at some royal place in the Empire. Rebecca and I rushed over as soon as we heard.”
“According to the Royal Sorcery Council folks, it was the laboratory storing the Heartguard Dragon Scales that blew up, and all the scales inside were completely destroyed, not a single one left.”
“I thought some martial hero couldn’t bear the Empire’s corruption and darkness and decided to blow up the lab as a protest.”
“But afterwards, I noticed the Empire didn’t put out any wanted notices for anyone, which means they knew who blew up the scales, and that person wasn’t even in the Empire.”
Saying that, Master looked at his apprentice across the table, “So, the person who dared to shake the Empire’s foundations is you, right?”
Leon scratched his head, “Actually… I was forced into it.”
Upon hearing this, Master frowned, “Why is it that since you turned twenty, everything seems to be forced upon you?”
“Eh?”
“Forced marriage, forced to have kids, forced to have a second child, and now even blowing up the Empire’s treasures is forced.” Master counted on his fingers, listing Leon’s bright yet abstract twenty-four years of life.
Leon chuckled and then briefly explained to Master about Constantine’s resurrection and him blowing up the Heartguard Dragon Scale.
Master nodded thoughtfully when finished.
“Careless yet detailed; it’s indeed your style.”
Leon’s smile froze, and he immediately retorted, “Wh-what do you mean careless yet detailed? I’m always very detailed, okay!”
“Does your wife know about this?”
“Of course she—wait, we’re talking about battle style, not other things, right?”
Master waved his hand with a chuckle before getting serious. “In any case, this explosion you caused has dealt considerable damage to the Empire. All those years they accumulated Heartguard Dragon Scales have gone to waste; it’s truly self-inflicted.”
Listening to Master’s words, Leon noticed something intriguing.
“Master, when you say ‘the Empire’s Heartguard Dragon Scales accumulated over the years’? Does that mean they started collecting dragon scales a long time ago?”
Leon only learned about the Empire recovering Heartguard Dragon Scales when he traveled twenty years into the future through a space rift.
But Master said the Empire had begun doing this long ago.
So how did Master know?
The old man paused for a moment, thought it over, and nodded. “Yeah, probably about thirty years ago, I noticed the Empire starting to snatch certain things from the Dragon Race. Just didn’t realize back then that it was actually Heartguard Dragon Scales.”
“Then some… events happened that forced me to leave the Dragon Slayer Army. Since then, I’ve rarely paid attention to the Empire’s movements.”
Leon straightened up, “What kind of… events?”
“Those things have nothing to do with what we’re talking about now, Leon.”
Master’s response was brief.
The implication being not to pry further.
Leon picked up on Master’s intention and didn’t ask any more.
In fact, he had noticed for quite a while that there were many things Master hadn’t told him.
From Master’s reaction, it seemed like he didn’t intend to keep secrets from Leon; it was just that the time wasn’t right yet.
Leon didn’t know when the right time would come, but until then, he chose to trust Master.
“So what’s the Empire’s plan now that they’ve lost the Heartguard Dragon Scales?” Leon asked.
“Well, shortly after the explosion at the Heartguard Dragon Scale laboratory, large caravans started coming in and out of the Empire often.”
Master said, “Rebecca and I observed closely; those carriages were pulling magically reinforced iron cages, and inside were all high-risk Dangerous Species.”
“Dangerous Species?”
“Yes. The Empire usually hunts some Dangerous Species that are harmful to humans, but the frequency and efficiency haven’t been as high as during this recent period.”
“And they mostly bring these Dangerous Species in at night, deliberately avoiding crowds.”
“That’s quite suspicious, isn’t it?”
Leon nodded in agreement, “Definitely suspicious. According to the Empire’s usual style, after every victory or successful elimination of Dangerous Species, they always spread the word to bolster public support. But quietly gathering so many Dangerous Species… they wouldn’t still be after Constantine, would they…”
Master frowned, “Are you saying that even after losing the Heartguard Dragon Scales, the Empire still plans to continue researching monsters like Constantine?”
“Exactly. That’s just their style, isn’t it?”
The kid made a valid point.
Others won’t turn back until they hit a wall.
The Empire, however, will hit the same wall twice to check if it’s made of concrete or bricks.
But Taige had a vague feeling that if the Empire continued to research these fusion monsters… it might backfire.
After all, those guys always chased after powers they couldn’t control…
