The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

“To Alice”, the melodious tune, began to rise slowly, notes leaping at the fingertips as the graceful body wrapped in a gauzy veil shimmered in the glow of the furnace, as if coated in a layer of golden sheen.

Dong, dong, dong!

The last few notes fell.

Duniko Hyacinth released her hands and let out an imperceptible sigh all at once.

Behind her, a maid holding an evening gown spoke softly, “Miss, don’t you want to attend tonight’s banquet? Sir Richard is waiting to dance the first dance with you.”

“I am only eighteen years old, Luya, do you understand? I am only eighteen, and I don’t want to get married so soon. Why does this Richard act like an old man, starved for affection for fifty years, clinging to me, clinging to the Hyacinth Family? Can’t he wait a few more years? He hounded me before the festival, and he’s back at it again after the festival!”

“Miss, Sir Richard is deeply devoted to you.”

“Oh, what a joke, it’s just an alliance between families, with no foundation of feelings.” Hyacinth tore off the gauzy veil, leaving her shapely body completely exposed, and allowed the maid Luya to help her change, “Besides, he doesn’t meet my aesthetic standards.”

The maid Luya asked, “What kind of noble do you favor, miss?”

“Elegant, detached, handsome, one who can play beautiful piano melodies… Music can express the soul, and only those without so much self-interest can play tunes that touch the heart.”

“Are you talking about Baron Liszt, miss? You now play ‘To Alice’ every day. But the master seems unhappy. He is very angry about what happened at Long Taro Castle; you should try to avoid making the master angry.”

“He is courting favor from the Pineapple Green Family, everyone thinks the Long Taro Family is in decline, so he is eager to find a new support. But I don’t want to fulfill his wishes, Brother Meioubao will get through the hard times, and the Long Taro Family will still be the rulers of Red Crab Island.”

Duniko Hyacinth got dressed in her undergarments, her hair was put up, regaining the elegant grace of a noble young woman, her face filled with nostalgia, “I just wanted to visit Long Taro Castle to clear my mind, and then, I met Liszt. His nonchalant way of playing piano was a freedom I had never seen before.”

“Yes, Baron Liszt is even a bit handsomer than Sir Meioubao.”

“I had the most delightful night of my life at Long Taro Castle, Luya, you have no idea how strong he is, and… how heartless!”

“No wonder you can’t forget him, playing ‘To Alice’ every day.”

“No, I will forget him, I forgot him the moment he left Long Taro Castle. I just want to change parts of ‘To Alice’. There are many flaws in this piece, as if it were improvisation… I guess it was Liszt improvising, I can tell from the way he was so indifferent at the ball.”

“Then why don’t you write to him and ask?”

“I…” Duniko paused abruptly, “I took the initiative once, I don’t want to do it a second time. I am the rose with thorns of Red Crab Island, not a humble foxtail.”

The evening gown was ready.

Duniko looked at herself in the crystal mirror, still as beautiful as a blooming rose. She took a deep breath and put on the standard smile of a noble young woman, “Let’s go.”

…

“Rubber Tree Elf Bug Triplets?”

Seeing the reward for the Smoke Mission, Liszt found it unbelievable. He had never heard about Elf Bugs having twins or triplets.

As the essence of plant gestation, Elf Bugs are always born singly.

At least, in the information he possessed, there had never been mention of twin or triplet Elf Bugs, not even in those absurd Knight’s Novels, where no author dared to venture so far as to depict Elf Bug multiples.

“This mutation really is… exhilarating!”

Whether there had been elf bugs with multiple sprites before or not, the result now is thrilling. I thought there was only one, but suddenly, I got three of them.

It’s like a promotional sale: buy one, get two free.

“Just in time, now that rubber has been analyzed to be increasingly important. With three elf bugs, rubber tree cultivation can be greatly enhanced, and the rubber output will increase as well.”

This was a very good mutation, and Liszt was very satisfied with the result.

He suppressed his excitement and turned his attention to the new task at hand.

“Task: A performance of ‘For Alice’ will spread the fame of the Piano King Liszt across Red Crab Island, and also make a certain young girl’s heart flutter. You might think a one-night passion is the conclusive period, but perhaps there’s a chance for an encore. Please write a letter to Duniko Hyacinth. Reward: A melody from memory.”

He read the content of the Smoke Serpent Script carefully.

Liszt’s recent surprise was quickly replaced by a sense of absurdity: “What the hell is this!”

Piano King Liszt?

When Liszt had touched the piano at Long Taro Castle, he indeed had imagined his piano playing astonishing the world, but he never intended to actually become the Piano King.

Moreover, after a night of romance with Duniko, although he occasionally reminisced about the moment of passionate union of body and spirit, he had not considered stirring things up with her again.

What also depressed him was that the reward for the task was just a melody from memory. What significance did that hold?

He wished he was seeing things incorrectly.

But the Smoke Mission was written in clear, unmistakable Serpent Script, engraved with content he could not ignore. Indeed, the task was to write a letter to Duniko and then receive a certain tune, which could be the melody of a popular song or perhaps a piano piece.

In his previous life as an IT worker, he had a period where he liked to code while listening to ’70 Famous Piano Works of the World’, always looping that playlist.

A moment later.

He relaxed his emotions.

He accepted the reward from the Smoke Mission, no matter how useless, and would move on to the next task when it came; he also accepted the contents of the task, seeing no reason not to have another go with Duniko.

He was just pondering.

“Why does the Smoke Mission issue such peculiar content and dull rewards: ‘The Smoke Mission originates from the Smoke Dragon, it’s the power of destiny driving all this… What does destiny represent? The birth of elves in the territory, sea serpent encounters, invasions by formless dragons, Paris’s infiltration — all are events that could happen or not.”

But in the end, they did happen and were grasped by Liszt in the form of tasks.

There were other tasks that seemed to be tied to the residents’ desires, like Kostor wanting to sail, Reynard wanting to bake, Karasko wanting to be a craftsman, and even Douson wanting to release magic.

Then there were those things the territory already possessed, like the Miniature Saltpeter Mine, the fragments of Fire Dragon Bones, and the magical beasts of Thorn Ridge, and so on.

“So, the triggering of the Smoke Mission, or rather, the triggering of destiny, has three ways — the first is what I already have around me, which destiny guides me to obtain; the second is situations that may or may not occur, which destiny guides me to acquire or cause to happen; the third is that the desires and thoughts of people can also pull at destiny?”

Thinking this far.

He looked at himself in the mirror once more: “There’s no great surprise in wanting an encore with Duniko after having savored the flavor… And deep down inside, am I actually harboring a pianist?”