Chapter 349 Granary
While waiting, the giant white dragon first came over to sniff Cole carefully. The boy was so frightened that he dared not move. The dragon sneezed violently several times because of the smell of mineral dust on his body, and turned its head away with disinterest.
Then it began to bite the professor's collar, trying to separate him from the dirty, smelly little human cub. The professor, whose neck and shoulder blades were encircled by the dragon, narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, reached out and touched the feathers on Ezra's neck, and asked in Natalin, "Do you hate coal spirits?"
The dragon, whose feathers he touched, wanted to bare its teeth at him reflexively, but after seeing the serious gray eyes, it wilted again. It had to mutter a few times indistinctly as if turning a blind eye, and began to chew the professor's hair gently.
The professor's scalp ached slightly, and he felt like he was being plucked by a horse and his head was full of dragon saliva: "..."
No wonder the Savior doesn't allow screaming chickens in his home near his hair.
As soon as Azuka returned, the dragon spat out his hair with a spitting sound, pretending to be nonchalant, tilting his head back and looking left and right. The dragon rider's mouth twitched slightly, and he raised his hand to give the dragon a good slap on the nose.
"I've disabled the communications devices on those people and sent a message to Greven. I've also scouted the entire area near the mines and found nothing unusual." He ignored Azra's cries of pain and said expressionlessly to the professor in Natalin, "And please don't spoil it too much. Next time, just hit it on the nose—use all your strength. Dragons are very tough creatures."
The dragon, having discovered that the black-haired human only picked up its feathers or occasionally drew a tube of blood, had already become arrogant in front of its master's partner. What's more, the other party didn't beat it, but carefully combed its feathers and cleaned its quills. Apart from the scary look when it was touched, it was much kinder than its sometimes extremely cruel master.
"...This is your dragon's saliva. Why are you so disgusted? I'll wash it off later." Seeing the man frown and carefully wipe the kid's hair in front of him, the professor leaned back uncomfortably, his face stiff, and emphasized in Natalin, "Besides, we've already kissed each other. The diversity of the reptile's oral microbiome is probably not as great as that of humans."
Azra, standing by, was bewildered, half understanding what was being said, but still eager to lash out at someone, sharing the same hatred and a common enemy—that's right! People dislike dragons! People are bad!
Cole stood aside, somewhat timidly watching the two men exchange a few words in a language they couldn't understand. They seemed to be on good terms. The dragon, on the other hand, muttered indignantly, seemingly displeased with being called in as a temporary bodyguard.
Azuka stared at his old enemy for a moment, then suddenly gave a tolerant and helpless smile: "Then we can deal with it when we get to Crescent Castle."
"Let's go."
He picked up the little devil casually and put him on the dragon's neck amidst the little devil's brief scream. The dragon immediately widened its eyes and wanted to protest, but silently lowered its head when the dragon knight glanced at it with a warning smile.
...Never mind, I'd been groped and crawled on by those little brats in Port Morris before. They're just cubs, not something I can't tolerate.
…
Cole lay on the dragon's back, hugging the dragon's neck tightly. His little face was pale, but his eyes were surprisingly bright.
His fear was completely suppressed by an unprecedented sense of novelty and shock. He briefly forgot the terrible experiences in the dark and cold mine. This was like the craziest dream, or a story only told by a bard: the handsome and powerful dragon rider and his knowledgeable companion, the soaring dragon, the valley passing by at a rapid speed...
"There!" Cole suddenly whispered, "I saw the cave where Leo and I sneaked out to play!"
The professor looked over at the sound and narrowed his eyes calmly. But he said nothing more, and the dragon just continued to fly along the winding valley.
Soon, the outline of Crescent Fort's granary became completely clear. A solid, thick rammed earth wall surrounded the entire granary area, and behind it, a towering, pointed tower was faintly visible. The wall was decorated with battlements and patrol paths, and patrols moved regularly between the battlements. Stone watchtowers stood at the four corners of the wall, and on top of the towers, reflective metal components were faintly visible—probably some kind of observation mirror, or the core of a small defensive formation.
Obviously, Marquis Ravel did not relax the defense of the rear.
"Are you the child of the Crescent Castle's outer city guard?" the professor suddenly asked.
Coles eyes widened in surprise: "Yes, how did you know?"
...It's simple. With such tight security, it's obviously impossible for ordinary civilian children to "sneak out to play" easily.
"My eldest brother and dad are both on patrol, and mom is in the laundry." The child obviously trusted them very much. He counted on his fingers and told him like he knew everything: "Leo's mom also works in the laundry, and his dad died of illness..."
When talking about his dead partner, his mood visibly dropped.
"Cole, can you promise me something?" Azuka interrupted him gently: "Just keep it a little secret between the three of us."
"Of course!" The boy, who had grown to admire him more and more along the way, immediately stammered and agreed, "You saved my life. Not just one thing, I'll do ten things for you!"
"We don't need ten things." The Dragon Knight laughed dumbly, then continued to fool the child without changing his expression. "Everything about dragons is a little secret between the three of us. We can't tell anyone else. Can Cole do that?"
A slightly melancholic, almost heartbreaking expression appeared on that beautiful face: "Otherwise, many bad people will try to take the dragon away from me, and then I will never see it again."
Cole immediately patted his chest and promised, completely immersed in nervousness and excitement. He didn't notice that as soon as the words fell, a soft glimmer of light quietly fell on his back, ensuring that he really couldn't "tell anyone else."
The dragon dropped them off and flew away. The child's little mind couldn't understand why no one noticed the dragon, nor did anyone doubt the two strangers following him. He only wanted to go home.
When Cole's mother saw her son who had been missing for three days and three nights, she immediately rushed over screaming. She first slapped him hard, then hugged her little son tightly. Her thin shoulders kept shaking, and she kept muttering "God bless you" incoherently. Her face was covered with snot and tears, and she almost fainted from crying.
The guards' small shanty was a scene of chaos, completely ignoring the professor and his companions. Nestled against the imposing, sturdy granary walls, it felt like a forgotten corner of the world, its low, rambling huts crammed together. Chickens and ducks roamed everywhere, and the ground was covered in sewage, coal dust, and feces. A few wooden buckets lined the public well, and the children who came to draw water, mostly sallow and skinny, wearing old, ill-fitting clothes, huddled together, watched the commotion unfolding in Cole's home with fear and curiosity.
Leo's mother also rushed over after hearing the news. When she saw that her only son did not come back with her, the poor woman suddenly collapsed silently on the ground, her lips trembling, but she could not make a sound.
The neighbor women tried to help her up, but she was as limp as a dead body and as heavy as an anchor dropped into the sea. She just looked at the Cole family with empty eyes, silently shedding tears.
Soon, Cole's older brother, Ryan, arrived. He was a patrol captain, enjoying privileges such as being able to take shifts. Cole's father, however, still had to finish his patrol duties. He was a tall, handsome young man, dressed in a slightly worn but clean patrol uniform. He seemed to hold considerable authority in the area, and the chattering crowd immediately made way for him, and Cole's mother's sobs subsided a little.
He first pulled his younger brother, who was crying with red and swollen slap marks on his face, out of his mother's arms, carefully pinched his dirty arms and calves, and only breathed a sigh of relief after making sure that there were no broken bones.
"What happened?" He looked at his brother seriously. "Are you hurt? Where's Leo?"
Cole sobbed and shook his head, narrating intermittently: "In the mine, in the mine... there were bad guys, they took Leo and me away... Leo, he died... Woo..."
Upon hearing this, Leo's mother immediately let out a mad and shrill cry.
Ryan's expression became serious. He stopped his brother from continuing. He first asked someone to help Leo's mother into the house. Then he looked around vigilantly. When he saw the two people standing in the corner, his pupils shrank and his fingers subconsciously touched the hilt of the sword at his waist.
——He was completely unaware of the existence of these two people.
Even though they weren't dressed in fancy clothes, the two men still looked out of place in this filthy, chaotic shantytown. One of them had a cloak covering his face, while the other looked ordinary, but his gray eyes were inexplicably hard to look into.
"Who are you?" Ryan stared at him warily and asked unceremoniously. Because of the People's Army, the higher-ups had been particularly nervous recently, and they were asked to be extra vigilant against outsiders.
"I'm a traveling pharmacist." The professor stepped forward and calmly introduced himself. "This is the mercenary I hired."
His identity as a pharmacist could explain why he appeared in the deep mountains and forests, while his identity as a mercenary could explain why he didn't die - he directly applied Miss Carleton's experience.
Cole nervously grabbed Ryan's sleeve and stammered, "Brother, they saved me and sent me home. They are not bad people..."
Ryan was stunned, but his expression softened a lot.
"I'm sorry, the situation around here has been very tense recently, so I had to be more cautious," he said, removing his hand from the hilt of the sword and explaining awkwardly, "Thank you for saving my brother."
The black-haired young man shook his head as if he didn't care much: "It's okay, we just want to find a place to stay temporarily and rest for a few days."
Cole's mother naturally warmly invited them to stay at her home for a while, and when people heard that he was a pharmacist, they couldn't help but gather around him.
Ordinary people couldn't afford expensive potions, even for families like Cole's, who already had a fairly good income. After discovering that the other party could indeed recite the scientific names of potions and herbs, the wariness and suspicion in Ryan's eyes finally dissipated a little.
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