Chapter 350 (1/2)

Hao Ren and his group spent half the day doing nothing in their guest room. Even though they had marched across the Gnarled Grove the previous night, none of them were regular beings, hence they were not exhausted by the journey. A short rest was all they needed to recover and they soon started to busy themselves.

Y’zaks and Wuyue had no interest in running about, so they stayed in their rooms to nap. Vivian took the free time to knit a scarf for Hao Ren using Lily’s shed fur. Becky was still fantasising about how she would soon be a filthy rich noble and she walked around her room in that dazed state. It took a while before Becky got on Wuyue’s nerves and she piped down after the siren started to complain. Lily as always was ever capable of finding something to do. After a short while in her room, she ran out to play. Nobody knew where she went, but she was lugging a whole bag of food items when she got back. She started yapping happily as she saw Hao Ren, “Mr. Landlord! Mr. Landlord! I brought us some good stuff to eat! There’s a market on the southwest side of the town!”

Hao Ren was busy going through some old tomes and his table was a mess with all kinds of scrolls as well as books. It was tough work trying to research these old, foreign tomes. Even with the translation plug-in helping him, it took a lot of concentration to even remotely understand the arcane language used. Deep in concentration, he did not even lift his head when Lily called him. “I know, I know. You and your food. Just don’t get a stomach ache.”

Lily did not think too much of it and happily stuffed a sweet pastry into Hao Ren’s mouth. “Eat! Eat! Say, Mr. Landlord, what are you looking at?”

Hao Ren pointed towards the scrolls and tomes on the table. “Books about Dragonspine Ridge, and the chronicles of the Beinz region.”

Lily flipped over a few books. “Oh, they are. Where did you get them?”

“Borrowed them from the monks. There’s a library in the church.” It was only then that Hao Ren lifted his head. “These are all books open to the public. I just told them that I was a magician interested in history and legends. Then, they just got me the whole stack…. Oh, this pastry is pretty good.”

Lily then joyfully stuffed another piece into his mouth. “Right? Right? I have exquisite taste you know! Say, Mr. Landlord, what did you manage to get out of all this?”

Hao Ren gobbled down the pastry and grabbed Lily’s tail to wipe his mouth. “Nothing special so far. The legends behind Dragonspine Ridge are the same; an ambitious mage emperor twisting nature to his fancy and the mountains were cursed with the mage emperor’s hatred. The power of the goddess in the Beinz Blood Lake has been thwarting the curse for 10 millenniums. The well-known legends are all somewhat like this, but some less popular stories are just as interesting. Some say that Dragonspine Ridge and the Blood Lake are the same thing. Some say that the Gnarled Grove is a seal for a different creation by the mage emperor. Some even say that the mage emperor did not die and is simply entombed in ice under the mountains. Once the mountain collapses, he will resurrect and renew his reign of terror. While these stories don’t contradict the doctrine of the Disciples of Glory, the unease they bring is enough for all of them to be labelled as baseless, thus bringing them under control…”

As he said this, he lifted the big tome in his hand. “Like this one here. It pretty much consists of baseless claims from head to tail without much details to boot.”

Lily just uttered a long, “Ooooooh.

“Oh… this could explain the stuff that’s been happening lately. Almost everyone’s on edge. I even heard on the streets that a couple of reinforcements have already been sent, and the threat of the rock monster is still present. Even with more numbers it’s still a stalemate.”

As the two chatted, the the shouting of men and the neighing of horses could be heard from the window. It seemed like something happened on the main road in town. Hao Ren pushed the window open and saw a group of lightly armoured soldiers as well as a group of mages on the street. There was no tolling of bells, so it was not an attack. Hao Ren knew Lily had just returned from a trip outside and he took the opportunity to ask her, “What’s the ruckus about?”

Lily popped her head out of the window under Hao Ren’s arms as she tried to get a good view. “Seems like the patrol unit of the royal knights has just returned Oh yeah, oh yeah! I met my kind on the street. There was a female werewolf. She’s a vanguard who’s part of the royal knights. We talked for a bit. She looked so good in her armour!”

Hao Ren muttered to himself about this husky was able to really ignore her actual husky origins and call pure-blooded werewolves her kin. But, he knew that her fangs were sharp and he did not dare voice it out. He was not surprised that Lily ran into her kin though. The Plane of Dreams was the home of unusual creatures; vampires, werewolves and the like were all common races there. While it was harder to tell a vampire apart from your usual man, some of the werewolves in town had their wolf ears out in full view. The only thing was, the Kingdom of Holletta was a nation of man, and most unusual creatures were either migrants, or descendants of scholars who had stayed behind. Having an unusual creature in the army was even more uncommon, so Lily was naturally happy that she ran into one of her kind amongst the royal knights.