Lord of Rot

Leech was reading a book in the shade of a tree in the courtyard.

The late Baron Wado had truly been a seasoned magical beast enthusiast. He had collected a great deal of information and biographical tales, the majority of which were about dragons. Leech even found some of Baron Wado’s personal notes, which explicitly stated that dragons were creatures of supreme intelligence and immense longevity—not magical beasts.

The notes also mentioned that a dragon’s power is tied to its age—the older, the stronger. Thus, one should never provoke an ancient dragon, not even with the might of an entire nation.

If you encountered an elder dragon, your only option was to pray, for humanity stood no chance.

’He writes so well, it’s as if he saw them with his own eyes.’ Leech skimmed through Baron Wado’s notes. He figured the Baron must have been obsessed to a certain degree, and absolutely loved world-building.

However, some of the sources Baron Wado mentioned also recorded instances of races like Fishmen and lizardmen serving a particular dragon.

’In other words, that school of Fishmen might be the vassals of some dragon?’

He didn’t much care about dragons. What he cared about was the emerald green crystal from the Fishman skeleton.

The "handcrafted" counterfeit crystal Baron Wado had purchased hadn’t led him to a Giant Dragon’s treasure, but it had spurred him into an excited frenzy of research, and he’d found related information in many books.

His supplementary sources included titles like *Furnace*, *The Silver-Scaled Princess and the Shepherd*, *Dragon Knight*, and *The Resurrection of Pang Ci*.

Leech had read *Furnace*, but he didn’t recall anything about crystals. ’Did I read an abridged version?’

It was only when he found a copy of *Furnace* in the book piles of Longship Castle and leafed through it carefully that he discovered Baron Wado’s definition of "crystal" somehow included people who had been covered in magma shaken from a Red Dragon.

’That counts?!’

’Completely useless as a reference.’

*The Silver-Scaled Princess and the Shepherd* was about a Giant Dragon with silver scales who transformed into a beautiful maiden to approach a shepherd. She did this because the shepherd slaughtered many sheep each day but never shared the meat with anyone.

’What a load of crap,’ Leech thought. ’He killed the sheep, so now he’s obligated to give the meat away for free? Are dragons really that stupid?’

The Silver-Scaled Princess approached the shepherd, only to discover he had a gravely ill mother and was, in fact, a very devoted son.

There was no love at first sight, nor did the shepherd mend his ways. Instead, the Silver-Scaled Princess discovered that his roasted mutton was delicious. She came every day to buy a sheep from him and have him roast it for her.

In time, the shepherd saved enough money to cure his mother’s grave illness.

He also built up a small fortune and decided to take his mother to live in a big city. When the Silver-Scaled Princess learned of this, their parting was clean and without fanfare. It was as if two travelers with vastly different lifespans had a chance encounter, nodded to one another, and then continued on their separate journeys. There was no lingering affection, only anticipation for the lives that lay ahead.

’Of all the countless novels I’ve read in this world, this is somehow the most wholesome one.’

No romance, no convoluted drama—it just told a story.

’And here I was expecting some kind of sordid affair between the Silver-Scaled Princess and the shepherd. After all, that’s what those novelists love to write. I may enjoy reading it, but that doesn’t stop me from calling it vulgar and depraved!’

The book did, however, offer a fair bit of detail about the Silver-Scaled Princess. She was very fond of human food, with a particular love for roasted mutton.

As for *Dragon Knight*... just like the less-than-stellar Bin, the entire thing was a series of mechanical, simplistic stories. They became tasteless after just a few read-throughs—the vulgar and depraved sort.

’The dragon can shapeshift into a human, so this Dragon Knight, while riding his mount, deliberately has it transform into a half-human, half-dragon form... Now that’s some next-level degeneracy.’

But as for the crystals, Leech was starting to understand.

They were a dragon’s treasure. If you were lucky, you might receive a dragon’s boon and learn Magic. If you were unlucky, you just had a rock.

’So that’s how the bearded Fishman could use Magic.’

Leech remembered that Magic vividly. It had severed his connection to Aina in an instant. If Aina hadn’t been able to act on her own, his first Extraordinary Corpse Ghost would have been torn to shreds by the Fishman.

「The conference room.」

Jie Lin had summoned the remaining nobles of Waterfall Land. Half of them were old men, and the other half were nobles in name only, with no fiefdoms to their name.

Waterfall Land had been so severely weakened that there was almost no one left to call upon. Gathering these old bones was a move born of desperation.

These old men all had one foot in the grave. Though excited to be back in their lady’s service, they commanded no soldiers and held no real power. This meeting at Longship Castle was little more than a council of cobblers.

They were discussing the aftermath of the battle against Wado Eighteen.

The topics were what to do with Wado Eighteen’s die-hard followers, and how to punish the rioters who had joined him to attack her.

She knew she had to display absolute ruthlessness. Otherwise, the next time some bastard son rose up, people would flock to him all the same.

"Issue the warrants!"

Lady Jie Lin’s face was cold. "I want them to know the price of betrayal. Issue warrants for all of the imposter’s men. And the first village that surrendered to follow him... Stream Village, if I recall correctly? Raze it to the ground. Burn every building. Capture every person from that village you can find and hang them. Then, drive away anyone from the surrounding area and forbid anyone from ever approaching that land again."