Food Reserves on the Dragon's Back

Silas woke up suddenly after sleeping for seven or eight hours. He was stunned for several seconds before realizing that Xuefeng had used hypnotism on him. He hurriedly put on his clothes and left the dark residence, grabbed Harik who was sitting blankly at the entrance of the cave, and asked him if he had any news about Sarannar.

Harrick shook his head, and before he could start talking, Silas left him and hurried away.

He rushed to Silverbrook City without taking a breath, and found Barristan at the headquarters of the Smiling Hand.

"Any news?" Silas grabbed Barristan's arm.

"Unfortunately, there is still no news." Barristan frowned and watched Silas grab his hand. Silas realized that he was too hard. He let go of Barristan, very uneasy Said: "How could this happen? It's been more than a day. Are you looking for it seriously?"

Compared with Silas, Barristan's voice was very calm: "I can understand your mood at the moment, Master Silas, but now we can only do our best and obey the destiny."

"Are you going to just resign yourself to fate?" Silas looked at the still calm Barristan in disbelief.

"I understand your anxiety, Master Silas. For you, the disappearance of Lord Saranar is like the sky is falling. But for us, the sky is not falling. The normal business of the smiling hand We have to continue, because our allegiance is to the entire Dragon Clan, not Lord Sarannar." Barristan said to Silas, whose face became increasingly ugly, "Lord Sarannar has long been We have prepared for this kind of thing, according to the order he left behind, once something happens to him, we will completely obey the order of the new leader of the Dragon Clan—that is, Master Xuefeng.”

"You really don't want him back at all, do you?" Silas looked at Barristan threateningly, his voice muffled by suppressed anger.

"Why do you think so? Master Silas, this kind of misunderstanding will make me very sad." Barristan looked at Silas without fear, as if he was watching a man with teeth and claws trying to intimidate an adult. like a child.

Silas forced himself to take a deep breath to calm down his rage. Although Sarannar intends to let him take over the intelligence organization, the power of the Smiling Hand is still completely in the hands of the elders of the Dragon Cult. , the most important of which is Barristan, the prestige and influence of this middle-aged man in his 40s among the local Hahuacans, which a native Andocian nobleman like Silas will never be able to surpass.

If Barristan was determined to follow his own path, there was nothing Silas could do.

"Salanar told me that sometimes being too smart is not a good thing. It will only arouse the fear of others. A truly smart person should make himself look a little stupid. For humans, he is not smart enough. In some respects, you can even say that you are not very clever." Silas said in a calm voice, "You are the elder of the Dragon Cult and one of the main founders of the Smiling Hand. In order to establish this organization, you I have done so many things with all my heart, and I have not made even the slightest contribution except for being loved by Sarannar, but he asked you to hand over the whole organization of the Smiling Hand to me. If it were me You are so angry that you will tie a straw man and cast a curse."

"You mustn't think so, Master Silas," said Barristan respectfully. "We Havacans never lay curses on grass."

"I believe that you will not intentionally design and frame Sarannar, but everything you have worked so hard to build is about to be given away to others, and no one can guarantee that you will not have some ideas that Master Xuefeng will be the Dragon Clan The leader is more beneficial to you. Indeed, Lord Xuefeng doesn’t like me, just like she doesn’t like all humans. You are so well informed, you should know that Sarannar is the most friendly to humans among all the dragons. Only he regards human beings as allies, while the aloof Master Xuefeng only regards human beings as weak slaves full of tricks. If possible, she hopes that the dragons and humans will have nothing to do with each other. If she is the leader , Can the Dragon Cult and the Smiling Hand still get the full support from the Dragon Clan? Without the support and assistance of the Dragon Clan, based on your current foundation alone, let alone growing the organization, it would be a problem for you to even guarantee your own survival. It is impossible for Andorcia's military intelligence to be unaware of your existence, why do you keep turning a blind eye, have you thought about it?"

Barristan fell silent, and Silas said with a serious face: "I know what you are worrying about, and I swear to all the gods in the sky, no matter what people's creeds they belong to-I, Silas Ha Silan will never be the leader of the Smiling Hand in this life, if I violate this oath, I am willing to suffer any terrible misfortune and torture."

"...You really misunderstood me, Master Silas." Barristan lowered his eyes and didn't look at him, "It's not that I didn't try my best, but our people really couldn't find any clues belonging to Lord Salanar , that morning, someone watched Lord Sarannar fly away from the top of the dragon, and then disappeared from the sky after flying a short distance to the north. You also know that when Lord Sarannar did not want to be discovered, he We will use invisibility magic to hide ourselves. Our clues will stop here, and we will never make any progress."

"Is it going north?" Silas held the candlestick and approached the map on the wall, and used his finger to draw the distance north on the sign of Dragon's Summit.

"I can't be sure. Lord Saranar often sets up suspicious positions. When he wants to go east, he deliberately flies south for a while to interfere with the sight of certain people."

"It doesn't matter, let's count from where he disappeared. I know his magic. To hide his huge size in dragon form, even a dragon with full of magic power like him can't last long. It lasts for half an hour, and the distance he can fly within half an hour is about as wide as from here to here." He drew a circle on the map with a charcoal pencil, "Start from this range and inquire in the direction of the surrounding area. Well, he must release his invisibility before changing his form, and a dragon suddenly appearing in the air will definitely attract a lot of attention."

"All right, I'll send for inquiries," said Barristan.

"Go." Silas sat down on the chair slumped as if he had exhausted all the strength in his body, "I will stay here for a few days, waiting for your feedback."

"Is it because we're not doing our best?" Barristan said quietly.

Silas sighed: "I just hope that if there is news, I will be the first to know."

Barristan thought for a while before saying, "Actually, I have an idea. Could Lord Sarannar's disappearance be related to the Dragon Slaying Crossbow?"

"How?" Silas raised his head suddenly.

"You brought the model of the dragon-slaying crossbow back to the Dragon Peak that day, and Lord Sarannar disappeared the next day. We all know that according to Lord Sarannar's original intention, he wanted to deter those who have evil intentions. Let them see, we have already discovered what they are plotting, if this evil-minded person had prepared some plot to hurt Lord Saranar, he would probably launch it in advance because of a guilty conscience or out of breath." Barristan paused, looked at Silas deeply and said, "Although we have no basis now, if we want to design and manufacture such a huge weapon as the dragon-slaying crossbow, ordinary small forces are simply unable to mobilize enough manpower and resources. I think that instead of waiting here, Master Silas, it is better to find out what King Heather has to say, maybe there may be unexpected gains."

Silas immediately stood up: "You're right, I'm going to see the king right away."

It was past dinner time, and Silas didn't even think about eating, so he was busy going to the palace to see the king in the name of the leader of the dragon knights.

After waiting for some time, King Heather received him.

"I am not surprised to see you, Silas of the Haslan family." In the hall with the brazier on, King Heather sat on his throne, looked down at Silas and said, "The Dragon Clan The leader has been silent since yesterday, do you have any clues to report to me, or come to seek my help?"

Of course, Silas couldn't ask his king on the spot, "Did you make Sarannar disappear?" He said cautiously: "The Dragon Clan has been searching for a day, and there is no trace of Lord Sarannar. , as a staunch ally of the Dragon Clan, humans cannot just sit idly by, I hope His Majesty can send some people to help the Dragon Clan find their leader."

"I have already asked the Military Intelligence Department to intervene in the investigation during the daytime today. If there is any news, I will directly let them feed it back to the top of the dragon." King Heather said, "As the leader of the dragon knights, you are the most important now. The important task is to appease the emotions of the Dragon Clan and become a bridge of communication between humans and the Dragon Clan, so as not to let them misunderstand humans because of this incident."

"I understand that I will do my best, Your Majesty the King." Silas said respectfully, "But just before Lord Salanar disappeared, he discovered that someone was making a weapon called a dragon-slaying crossbow. Shortly after discovering this, he suddenly disappeared, and I don't know if there is any connection between the two."

"I've also heard about the Dragon Slaying Crossbow. Regardless of whether this weapon is useful or not, this kind of thing happened shortly after the signing of the Platinum Agreement. The timing is really just right. Maybe the planner deliberately let the Dragon Clan get this news , its purpose is to make the dragons feel defensive and distrustful of humans.” King Heather sighed worriedly, and asked Silas, “You brought that model back, do you know where Salanar came from? Where did you get the news?"

"I don't know, Salanar won't tell me many things, but suddenly gave me a blueprint and asked me to find the blacksmith in the city to make the model." Facing the king's question, Silas had no choice but to They used the saying that they had colluded long ago.

"So that's how it is..." King Heather was lost in thought, stroking his neatly combed beard, "The sudden disappearance of Sarannar is a huge disaster for the whole of Andorcia. Crisis, is there any change in the Dragon Clan?"