The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

History does not exist; it can only be speculated upon through various knight’s novels, to understand the customs and social development of the past.

This is Liszt’s recognition of the matter.

He also doesn’t know the origin year of this world’s humankind.

What is certain is that the Duchy of Sapphire has been established for one hundred and fifty years. Last year, a grand anniversary celebration was held, which left an impression on Liszt.

There are many knight’s novels in the country about the Sapphire Family, and some of them record that the Sapphire Family has a thousand years of heritage.

As for the Tulip Family, there is no such thing as a family tree. What Liszt knows is about his great-great-grandfather, who was his grandfather’s grandfather’s father—at that time, there was neither a Tulip Great Elf nor a Tulip Lesser Spirit in the family, so the surname Tulip didn’t exist either.

Their original surname was “Tile,” indicating they were originally just commoners. According to the family history passed down from father to son, the great-great-grandfather possessed extraordinary strength and followed a noble to serve the newly-founded Sapphire Family. He made achievements in war and was ennobled as an Honored Knight.

From then on, the family entered the ranks of the nobility.

In the generation of his great-grandfather, the family became Barons; in his great-grandfather’s generation, they became Viscounts; and in his grandfather’s generation, they obtained a Tulip Lesser Spirit.

It was after Li Weiliam inherited the title that the little minor elf evolved into a Greater Elf, and the family surname was changed to Tulip. A few years later, Li Weiliam became a Sky Knight with illustrious wartime achievements and was ennobled by the Sapphire Duke as Coral Island’s Count.

To signify the family’s rise to the upper ranks of nobility, the Serpent Script “Li (L)” in Li Weiliam’s name became the prefix for the names of subsequent generations. Every descendant would carry the Serpent Script L to honor the founder of the family. They might be named “Li XX,” “Li X,” or even “Li XXX,” “Li XXXX”… How many “X”s there could be depended on the mood of the person naming the child.

Liszt understood that this “Li L” probably amounted to a “clan” name outside of the surname.

His mother’s family also had this tradition but used the character “Mei (M)” instead.

Therefore, the Tulip Family, when counting both past and present, only has a history of six generations, spanning around one hundred and fifty years.

Beyond that, no one knows who the ancestors were.

“Progenitor, distant ancestor, great ancestor, esteemed ancestor, great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather, grandfather, father… A noble Earl family that, rather than having eighteen generations of ancestors, only remembers six; truly, it is a barbarous age.” Liszt dismissed this with disdain, for without history, how can one talk of heritage?

In his homeland, his own family can trace its ancestry with precise names back to the time of the Ming Dynasty.

As for tracing bloodlines, it can go back even further, to the time of the Yellow Emperor.

“And then there are these knight’s novels that boast about the Sapphire Family; they’re all nonsense. The family’s thousand-year heritage is told in a myriad of bizarre and fanciful origins. Some say it started in the southern part of the Steel Ridge Kingdom, some say it migrated from Blast Furnace Fortress Kingdom, and others from the faraway Blue Dragon Empire… If these novels are really self-congratulation of the Sapphire Family, then they’re not very conscientiously done.”

He would like to sort out a rough history of this world but feels there is little hope. The farthest back in history that any knight’s novel he has read goes is a book titled “Dull-headed Knight and the Red-tailed Fire Dragon.”

This novel tells a story taking place ten thousand years ago in the Neverfall Empire—but Liszt has verified that the Neverfall Empire has been in existence for no more than three thousand years.

The Neverfall Empire is also the country with the longest reign on the continent.

Many kingdoms were established with the friendship of dragons, and would decline with the dragons’ death or departure, or even vanish midway through a dragon-slaying war, which was considered normal.

At the beginning of the Duchy of Sapphire’s founding, there was such a dragon-slaying battle.

In that battle, the Sapphire Dragon almost got killed by the invaders from the Eagle Kingdom and was unable to gain a foothold on the vast continent. Fleeing, the dragon’s blood stained a mountain range blue, where countless sapphires formed, becoming an important mineral range for the Steel Ridge Kingdom—the Blue Blood Mountain.

Although the dragon survived, the first Sapphire Duke was severely injured and had to withdraw from the continent, founding his nation on an island far away.

Of course, this part of the history is Liszt’s own deduction.

In the knight’s novels that worship the Sapphire Family, the origin of Blue Blood Mountain is due to the Sapphire Dragon wounding the White Maw Iron Dragon of the hostile Eagle Kingdom, and its blood dyed the mines.

As to why the blood of a White Maw Iron Dragon can create a mountain range with sapphires, that is a matter of opinion.

Fooling the common people is enough; there’s no need to go into great detail.

…

Knock knock knock, the sound of knocking at the door.

“Come in,” Liszt lifted his head from a book titled “Fire Attribute Dou Qi Development Guide.”

The person who entered was the castle’s deputy butler, Silva, a man just over forty. He was Louis’s deputy and the predetermined successor as the family’s steward.

“Young Master Liszt, your grandmother, Lady Penelope, has arrived. She’s in the drawing room, chatting with Young Master Levis and Miss Li Vera,” he said.

“Grandmother is here? I’ll be there shortly.”

Liszt rubbed his forehead, feeling somewhat annoyed—his grandmother, after all, did not look kindly upon him.

The disdain from his father was more about disappointment, but now, after returning with a changed demeanor, the Earl no longer showed any dislike, clearly pleased with his transformation. But his grandmother was different; she did not look kindly upon Liszt simply because he reminded her of Melissa, her daughter-in-law.

Penelope lived in a small castle in Coral City and chose not to live with her son due to one reason—her discord with her daughter-in-law, Melissa.

Liszt, who looked very much like his mother, became an outlet for Penelope’s frustrations.

But no matter how annoyed he was, he still needed to go downstairs and pay his respects.

“Grandmother, you’re here. Seeing you in good health brings me great peace of mind.”

“Oh, look who it is!” The wrinkles on Penelope’s face were quite pronounced; she was approaching her sixtieth year. “Liszt, if you didn’t speak, I might have thought that Melissa had come to oppose me again. That beautiful face… Thank God, she’s gone to heaven to enjoy her peace, and this old woman dares to visit her son’s castle.”

Liszt sat down quietly, his face expressionless, saying nothing.

Why bother humoring someone who disdained him? They rarely saw each other anyway. It was best to just treat her as a stranger and maintain a superficial respect.

Li Vera laughed and said, “Liszt, when Grandma heard you were back, she rushed to the castle. Usually around this time, she spends hours praying for the family.”

Penelope turned her head away from Liszt, muttering under her breath, “I didn’t come just to see him.”

Could this be grudging respect after all?

Liszt thought to himself that Lady Penelope probably did love her grandson. It was just habit for her to attack Liszt, who bore a strong resemblance to Melissa—over a decade of habit. Whether it was love or disdain, it didn’t matter much to Liszt. He just wanted to be a quietly handsome man.

“Your sister said that Fresh Flower Town looks even more rudimentary than imagined, almost like a small village?” Lady Penelope inquired.

“It is indeed a bit rudimentary. However, it’s more suitable for grand development. I already have plans for developing Fresh Flower Town.”

“Look at that, such a grand manner of speaking. That’s a bit more like our Tulip Family’s temperament. Don’t always imitate Melissa’s calm, superior demeanor as if you’re born better than others. It’s bad enough you look so much like her; if you inherit her temperament as well, that would truly be the death of me, a cloud that I could never shake off.”

Liszt did not respond.

He didn’t have many memories of his mother, as she passed away due to illness when he was very young.

Lady Penelope continued to ramble, lamenting Melissa’s faults. Essentially, her message was the daughter of the Marquis looked down on me, opposed me at every turn, and you must not inherit her flaws.