Chapter 344: Chapter 225: Delight_2
"Eh! David, look quickly, what are they doing over there? There are so many people."
Upon hearing this, David turned his head to look and indeed saw many people carrying large and small bundles, trudging wearily across the rugged terrain and sparse vegetation of the wasteland.
Under normal circumstances, if it were just them, David estimated that he wouldn’t have given them a second glance.
But now that his sister was by his side, and considering the inherently compassionate nature of Silver Dragons, he gently asked, "A group of human refugees. This is the current state of Luwalden. With a fragmented government and Nobles ruling their own territories, surrounding powers have long infiltrated. Bandits sweep through like a comb; soldiers, like a fine-toothed comb. Such scenes play out every day, and we can’t manage them all."
"However, since we have seen them, if you want to give them some aid, I can have Mofei airdrop some food to them. This way, maybe they can hold on until they reach the Port of Wallens..."
But before he could finish his sentence, reality brutally slapped David in the face.
An arrow shot from the dense forest whizzed straight through the neck of an old man who, unable to walk any further, had wanted to rest on the spot. He fell to the ground without a struggle.
Ironically, the others were so accustomed to such scenes that the younger ones could only quicken their escape in panic. The majority of the crowd, however, marched on with numb eyes, their legs moving as if rusted, much like herds of cattle and horses migrating to distant grasslands.
The arrows that shot out sporadically served as whips, driving them forward and urging them to quicken their pace.
At first, I thought it was some beastly Noble who had started using living people as targets for a hunting competition again, David mused.
Then he saw several pointy-eared knights on white Pegasi, clad in radiant armor, emerge from the forest as if they were shepherds.
"High Elves?" David suddenly felt things were getting interesting, and his mouth curled into a grin.
As the saying goes, one of life’s greatest joys is an unexpected reunion. For Dragons, encountering an archenemy in a foreign land was also something that could delight a Dragon’s heart.
As David’s eyes flashed fiercely, the group of Elf Pegasus Knights who had just emerged from the forest also noticed the group of Chromatic Dragons passing by. They instantly panicked like mice seeing a cat. Forgetting about the refugees, they prepared to flee back even faster than they had come.
David immediately vanished from the spot, casting Advanced Teleportation Spell.
The journey has finally become less tedious! It’s time to earn some glory! Mofei needed no urging and immediately dived, plummeting like a crashing plane.
The group of Dragons looked at each other.
But since their master has gone ahead, what else can we do?
"How come there are Dragons here! When did Chromatic Dragons start traveling in groups!" On the other side, a few Elf Pegasus Knights, who thought they had escaped disaster, were grumbling to themselves when suddenly a massive figure burst out of the forest in front of them. The towering trees along its path crashed down like crushed toothpicks.
They saw a Red Dragon, with a beautiful silver-haired young girl perched atop its head, staring at them with his molten lava-like eyes. He spoke in a low, mocking tone, "Now that we’ve met, isn’t it rather impolite to run off without so much as a greeting?"
At such close range, the Dragon Might unfurled. Several of the Pegasi, reacting instantaneously, spasmed, discharged excrement, and plummeted to the ground. One of them smashed its head on a tree stump, its skull bursting open.
The High Elves were decisive, dismounting and rolling to the ground just in time.
A Red Dragon that knows Greater Teleport!
The leading Elf’s eyes filled with despair. "It’s the Second Red Calamity! He has come to the New Continent! This message must be sent back! Scatter and run—"
But before he could finish saying "run," and while David was wondering, When did I pick up another new title?
"Freeze! Don’t you move!"
With a light shout from Tania, a ring of ice magic—a spell not found in any standard spellbook—exploded outward, centered on David’s head.
In an instant, the dense forest within a radius of several tens of meters transformed into a silver, wintry landscape. Several Moon Elves were frozen on the spot, becoming ice sculptures.
"Uh, I only meant to freeze their feet," Tania said, suddenly a bit embarrassed.
It wasn’t that her elemental magic lacked power, but rather that these Elves’ resistance didn’t seem to be very high.
What Tania didn’t know was that times had changed; not every Elf was equipped with lavish magical gear like Yevgeny.
"URGH—HAAA! I’m... too heavy! I can’t stop!" Just then, they heard Mofei’s comical roar as he dived.
Fearing this oaf would crush all his living captives, David immediately opened a Festantantalus Teleportation Gate and ejected the troublesome creature ahead of schedule.
"OH MY!" The group of Dragons, hovering rapidly in mid-air, heard the terrible sound of Mofei, the Red Dragon, crashing in the distance.
"Oh dear, a few fair-skinned High Elves. How about I take over the interrogation, Prince David Uthos?" Naferutali, who had been seething with nameless anger ever since she had been made to wear those iron panties, licked her lips as she eyed the Elf ice sculptures.
Nearly every adult Drow is an excellent interrogation master.
Hiatt’s interrogation of Yevgeny years ago had left a deep impression on David.
"Go ahead. Viola can also learn some Drow interrogation techniques," David certainly wouldn’t refuse a volunteer for overtime. He glanced at the black Dragoness beside him, signaling her to assist.
"On it!" Viola immediately accepted the command cheerfully.
Even though Naferutali is wearing those iron panties—the ones I made her wear—it doesn’t mean I can trust her completely. Or rather, no Drow deserves complete trust. It’s always just a matter of whether the benefits of betrayal are significant enough to outweigh the costs. Unless, like Hiatt, they pledge their soul into my hands.
Naferutali, befitting her past as a Drow Matriarch, returned in less than five minutes. She looked completely unsatisfied.
"They confessed," she announced, a hint of boredom in her voice. "How dull."
"... " For a moment, David didn’t know whether Yevgeny back then had possessed incredible endurance, or if this younger generation of High Elves had all just prematurely crumbled.
"Speak. Why did you appear in Luwalden?" David asked, looking down at the captured Elf prisoner.
The High Elf, pale from being frozen and with somewhat vacant eyes from the interrogation, answered, shivering, "The area around Ogleet Territory has been officially sold to us by the Luwalden royal family. This place is now the border of our High Elf nation."
This answer was somewhat unexpected for David. Connecting it with the message from the Royal Capital of Luwalden half a month ago about recruiting powerhouses from Central Earth, an absurd idea suddenly sprang to his mind:
Damn, could the Luwalden authorities really be so desperate for money that they’d sell off their own land? Come to think of it, it’s actually quite possible. After forty-five years of political chaos, Luwalden was already incapable of looking after itself. Rather than nominally occupying territories from which they couldn’t collect taxes, it made more sense to exchange them for benefits that could be immediately realized. This is a fairly common method of exchanging interests in this world, and even in the West of Blue Star. Meanwhile, the High Elves have been continuously immigrating from the main material plane of Toriel over the past decades. Since they haven’t completely taken over the new continent of Skanis, they’d naturally have to find ways to expand their territory to settle so many immigrants. And if they don’t want to fight on two fronts, using money to pave the way is indeed a good option.
As David fell into contemplation, Tania, perched on his head, took it upon herself to dispense her father’s justice with a question: "Then, if you’ve already obtained the territory you wanted, why do you continue to hunt these humans?"
"This isn’t hunting, merely a method of eviction," the High Elf quickly denied. "Some of the resistance among them refuse to cooperate and leave our territory. They continue to cause us damage and losses, so we were forced to retaliate. Moreover, we already issued them an advance notice, giving them three days to evacuate the area."
The High Elf said no more. Because he could clearly sense the Chromatic Dragons before him were amused by his explanation.
David and the others were indeed amused.
Damn it! A bunch of refugees, burdened with belongings and insufficient food, expected to cross mountains and leave a territory within three days? Do they really think everyone can just ascend to the heavens on the spot, like Dragons?