The Defeated Dragon

When they woke up, they had arrived  in Flower Town port.

The siren A Qi woke up from the shell, stretched herself, and then quietly opened the shell. “Liszt, are we here?”

“We’re here, let me show you my castle first.”

“Castle … where the lords live … I have heard that there are many princes and princesses living in castles and beautiful … so lovely.”

When she heard that Liszt was taking her to the castle, A Qi was embarrassed but excited. Liszt has no idea what kind of stories A Qi had heard about castles before. Perhaps it was like what the commoners like best, the poignant and touching love between the prince and the princess.

“There are no princes or princesses in my castle, only I, the Lord, the servants, maids, and many sprites and mischievous thorny sprite Ella.”

“Sprites….. beautiful, I’ve seen it … long, long ago, by the sea.”

“Which sea?” Liszt’s eyes lit up and asked.

“I don’t know, it should be far away … I was pursued by Rymitta and I came here … I have forgotten … where that is..”

Too bad.

If the siren A Qi can provide the exact location, Liszt would definitely sail to catch those sprites. There are many wild sprites in this world, but their numbers are extremely small. After all, it needs too many pheromones to evolve from being a sprite insect to a sprite.

It is quite difficult for the sprites to collect enough pheromones by themselves alone, and on top of that, there are other difficulties to overcome to complete the evolution.

—————-

The dock workers have already started unloading.

Costo came to ask Liszt how to carry the large shell.

“Let me think for a moment, Captain Costo, you wait a moment.” Liszt sent Costo away and asked the siren again, “A Qi, can your shell be made smaller?  It’s too big, not suitable to move around using the carriage. “

“Ah, A Qi can’t … The shell was here when A Qi was born … It’s so big, it has always protected A Qi … from being eaten by sea monsters.”

A Qi has the ability to control the flow of water. She can let the shell roam in the sea, but on land, the shell cannot move at all.

As for A Qi herself, she could not leave the shell until she had grown her own feet.

She and the special seawater in the shell are fused together, just like how when the sprite worm has not yet matured and would later on fall off from the worm grass.

“Then I shall order the people to tear down the carriage to carry the shell. When you visit my castle, I’ll think of some way to put you in place and not be threatened by Rymitta. “

When she opened the shell, the siren A Qi smiled sweetly. “Well … thank Liszt.”

Liszt bowed gracefully. “It is my honor to protect the beautiful A Qi.”

Liszt then turned around and left.

He immediately ordered his subordinates to dismantle the expensive carriage and only keep the carriage platform. In this way, a large shell with a diameter of three meters can be placed on the platform and be fixed with a rope.

Liszt rode on Tremblingwoods  and personally escorted the big shell to the castle along the gravel road under the curious eyes of the officials such as Gort who came to see the situation.

“Go on with your work and don’t bother looking around. It’s just a big shell one could pick up from the sea that is the same as those before.” Liszt reprimanded Gort and others who were too curious.

He then let people put the shell in the castle hall.

Now a new problem has arisen. The shells had a diameter of 3 meters. It was very light in weight since the sea water inside and the siren A Qi do not weigh a lot. They may only be as heavy as two or three people, but the shell was too large to be moved into the second floor of the castle.

“Alas, I ignored many problems before, and my mind has become paste … It might be a little hard to keep A Qi in the castle. My castle is too small.”

If this was Tulip Castle, it would have been fairly easy to prepare a special room for the siren upstairs.

However, the castle in Flower Town was just a nameless small castle with only two floors in total. The corridors and hallways were very narrow and the big shell cannot pass through at all.

Liszt was on the ground floor,on the same floor as the servants and Liszt was even more reluctant.

It was selfishness that caused him to lose his mind and wanted to monopolize the beauty of A Qi. Of course, A Qi really needed to be kept a secret. He waited for a moment for him to calm down and to regain a little clarity of mind.

He let Carter leave the hall with the servants first,then he knocked on the shell.

When the shell opened, A Qi looked carefully at the halls of the castle with curiosity. “Liszt, this is the castle … what a beautiful castle, A Qi has reached the castle of mankind.”

“Actually, the upper floor is more beautiful. That’s where I live. This floor is where the servants live. But the corridor is very narrow, and I can’t send you up.”

“Oh.”

A Qi let out an expression of regret.

Lister could not bear it, and suddenly an idea flashed through his mind. “Or I could build a two-story wooden house outside the castle, and you will live on it. I will break the wall between the wooden house and the castle, so that I can visit the second floor … Yes, the decision has been made.”

As a proactive kind of person, Liszt did not hesitate to call Isaiah and give his orders.

He pointed to the worm room facing the north side of the castle. “Isaiah, you will immediately arrange the workers to build a two-story wooden house in this area which would then be connected to the castle.”

“My Lord, do you want to raise the seashell on the wooden house?” Isaiah asked curiously, it was difficult to ignore such a big shell.

“Yes, this is a very interesting shell. I think there are pearls in it.  I would have to take a look at it first.”

“Shouldn’t the shell be kept in the water?”

“It will drift away if it is kept in the water. I still need to do some research. Don’t ask any more questions and do what I tell you to do.” The advantage of noble lords is that they are uncompromising. As soon as Liszt makes a decision, his subordinates will faithfully implement even the most exotic decisions.

Isaiah bowed .”As you wish.”

During the construction period, the shell was parked in the hall and was never opened. Only when Liszt delivered some fruit would A Qi open the shell.

The castle also held no more banquets on the grounds of construction.

Liszt still handled official duties, practices qi, and goes out for inspections as usual every day, but has stopped writing the historical book of the “Dragon Chronicle in the Wild” series. During this time, it was necessary to appease the siren A Qi who was a little uncomfortable with her new environment and Liszt has to make her feel at home.

The beauty of the Siren was one thing, but more importantly, with the Siren, one could get lost when sailing at sea.

After questioning, Liszt also found out that sirens can predict storms, sense sea monsters, and cast some magic with water properties. With this, the importance of Siren A Qi was that of a  strategic significance.

Three days passed.

The fast-paced building of the castle, the Shell Wood Building, was successfully completed and the large shell was hoisted up. The passage to the insect house was opened, and the siren A Qi and the thorny sprite Jiera became neighbors.

“Wow!”

Ella was very irritable to strangers, but it showed a strong curiosity and a gentle intimacy to the Singing Demon.

When the shell was opened, it stared at the siren A Qi curiously. “Wow! Wow!”

“Hello, Ella … My name is A Qi and I am a sea monster.” A Qi held out her  hand, Ella cocked her head and murmured some meaningless sounds, then fell on her palm.

The siren held the sprite.

Liszt watched the scene from the sidelines, regretting that there was no camera to record this beautiful picture.