"Roar—!"
With a resounding roar, the red dragon beat his wings and swept over Bedrock Fortress.
The ogre guards on the ground immediately brandished their wooden clubs and cheered. At either side of the main gate, the wyverns craned their necks and raised their heads, unleashing long screeches to welcome the master of the lair.
When Cassius returned to Giant's Mouth Cave, even the chimera respectfully stepped forward to greet him, not daring to show the slightest negligence.
"Langpu, how have things been while I was away?"
The ogre mage before him had somehow acquired and put on a delicate pair of silver-rimmed spectacles—snatched from who knew where. Perched precariously on his massive head, the tiny glasses looked absurdly comical.
Langpu deliberately pushed up his spectacles, unrolled the parchment scroll in his hands, and scrutinized it as he spoke. "Cinder Nest currently has thirty-eight ogres, four hundred thirty-five goblins, twenty-six worgs, twenty-seven bugbears, one hundred twenty-one kobolds, and fifteen wyverns."
He paused deliberately before continuing, "Three days ago, the hobgoblin chieftain, Duoluo, sent twenty-seven worg riders to the Lost Mine. They suffered disastrous losses. Only six riders returned alive, three of whom are wounded, while the remaining twenty-one are completely unaccounted for."
"Where is Duoluo?"
"He's still over at the goblin camp. The goblin camp overlaps with the kobolds' lair, and he's leading his men to tear down those whelps' nests." The ogre mage gave a low chuckle, a sly glint flashing in his eyes.
"I see. Go back to studying your spells." The red dragon's tone betrayed neither pleasure nor anger.
...
"Lord Duoluo, you can't tear this down! Our little ones need to hatch our eggs here!" The gold-toothed kobold chieftain beamed obsequiously, looking up at the tall hobgoblin.
"Piss off, you filthy mongrels! Don't get in our way!" Duoluo waved a hand in blatant irritation.
Jinya hesitated for a moment, yet still planted himself before the hobgoblin. "My lord, we specifically reported this to Steward Langpu, and he already approved it. Changing it now at the last minute... wouldn't that be a bit improper?"
To a hobgoblin who worshipped war and martial might, these puny kobolds were utterly worthless—unfit to serve even as cannon fodder. What was worse, their intelligence had indirectly caused him to lose dozens of worg riders, earning him repeated mockery from Langpu.
At the thought of this, the hobgoblin chieftain grew all the more furious. His naturally reddish-brown face flushed a deeper crimson. He kicked the kobold aside and spat viciously on the ground.
"Langpu, Langpu! Always Langpu! What the hell does an ogre count for?!"
"If you hadn't shown your face before the master and gotten your name noted down, sooner or later I'd have—"
Just as he was about to step forward and deliver another kick, he suddenly noticed a colossal shadow engulfing his own. The kobold sprawled on the ground looked up with an expression of having found a savior.
"Sooner or later have what?" the red dragon asked coolly.
Duoluo's expression instantly pivoted a full hundred and eighty degrees. An ingratiating smile spread across his face, and he turned around with an apologetic grin. "Master, you're back! It was my carelessness just now—I failed to go to the gates to welcome you and wasted time here instead."
Jinya, however, knelt on the ground, blubbering with tears and snot streaming down his face. "Master, you must uphold justice for us kobolds! Lord Duoluo means well, of course, but without a nest, how are we kobolds supposed to..."
Duoluo glared daggers at him, then whipped his head back with a fawning smile. "You misunderstand, Master! I was supervising the construction of the goblin camp, and when I saw these kobolds causing trouble, I only—"
Cassius could not bear to watch this farce any longer and cut in bluntly, "Enough, Duoluo. Leave room for the kobolds, and cause no further trouble."
Delighted, Jinya rattled off an endless stream of flattery, his lips moving so fast they were practically a blur.
"Great Master, your benevolence and justice are beyond compare! Your might..."
"Go back to building your nests."
The red dragon paid Jinya little mind, merely saying offhandedly to the hobgoblin, "Bring those worg riders here. I'd like to see what kind of creature managed to inflict such heavy losses on them."
Hearing the red dragon bring up the worg riders, the hobgoblin felt an immediate surge of apprehension. But seeing that the dragon was not in a towering rage, he let out a sigh of relief and hurried off to carry out the order.
Accompanied by a chorus of wolf howls, several worgs carrying goblins sprinted out of the military camp and prostrated themselves before the red dragon.
The six goblins looked thoroughly terrified, most of them bearing injuries. One was even carried out draped limply over a worg's back, covered in charred wounds and bound with medicinal herbs, looking as though he did not have long to live.
Whip in hand, Duoluo barked sternly, "Tell the great master what you encountered!"
"Th-that was a terrifying monster," one of the goblins stammered.
"It ate everyone!" another added.
"It... it was a shadow!"
Their accounts were just like the kobolds' earlier claims: a beast capable of devouring everything, its features impossible to discern in the gloom of the mine, discernible only as a vague, shifting shadow of tremendous size.
"Is there not a single piece of useful information?" the red dragon rebuked.
Sensing the red dragon's growing displeasure, Duoluo immediately cracked his leather whip with a sharp snap and roared, "Your cowardly retreat has already brought shame upon the master! Now that you have a chance to redeem yourselves, can't you be of the slightest use?!"
Though the goblins feared the lash, ignorance was ignorance; their straw-stuffed brains could not even concoct a decent lie.
Duoluo looked up at the red dragon, his face instantly shifting again. "Master, please trust me once more! I will make these useless wretches pull their weight! Next time, next time for certain..."
Just as Cassius was growing disappointed, the goblin lying on the worg's back forced his eyes open. He parted his lips with great effort and murmured intermittently, "I... I saw it... Lightning... It... it can use lightning. Blue..."
The goblin's consciousness was already drifting and incoherent.
Yet the lightning had clearly left an indelible impression on him.
Lightning?
Blue lightning at that?
Could it be a blue dragon?
Cassius immediately shook his head. Blue dragons preferred arid deserts over dark, subterranean mine shafts; their proud nature would never permit them to lurk in the dark.
Furthermore, blue dragons were notorious for their fierce territorial instincts. There was no way one would ever tolerate kobolds and human smugglers encroaching on its domain.
*I will still have to go and see for myself,* the red dragon thought.
Given the current situation, sending more thralls would be nothing more than squandering his own forces. Judging by the worg riders' descriptions, even sending wyverns would likely end with them merely being served up on a platter.
And a gold mine delivered right to his doorstep was something Cassius would never allow to slip away.
Chapter 19