The Natural Empire of the Oceanic Dragon

Seeing the half-goat man's excited appearance, Artilan could only smile and try to cool him down.

"This time you've only reached a cooperative agreement. The Grand Duke might not let you bring Trina back. To prevent you from getting carried away, I'll only allow you to bring a hundred horsemen and fifty minotaurs."

"If the number of people is too large, and the Grand Duke doesn't let you bring Trina back, I'm afraid you'll directly attack the Grand Duke's castle. I only have this little bit of wealth; don't let me lose it all."

The half-goat man smiled awkwardly, scratching his head and saying:

"How could I～"

Artilan just glared at him, and the half-goat man immediately lowered his head. Okay, he was indeed thinking that way. He could climb up the castle walls, assassinate the guards, and open the gates.

The centaurs and minotaurs would rush in. With silver nets woven from silk threads, capturing Trina wouldn't be difficult. Then, all that would be left to do is undo the charm magic the Grand Duke used to control Trina.

His Trina would be back!

"When doing great things, you can't rush, especially at critical moments. If you really want to be with Trina for the rest of your life, I advise you to strictly follow my plan."

Because he understood the nature of human nobles, to a noble, a shadow warrior was just a useful weapon. Don't even mention assassinating the king; even assassinating other Grand Dukes or even Earls might not work.

Shadow warriors weren't as useful as tricksters because tricksters could disguise themselves as other people, like chefs, sneak into the kitchen, poison the nobles, and then calmly retreat.

Then, the eerie and elegant trickster, in the half-goat man's hands, became a street performer using illusions, practically reduced to a clown.

Even though the half-goat man had undergone intensive training for the past few months, the professional habits accumulated over so many years had already made him full of flaws.

The rogue's basic stealth wasn't refined, and the trickster's spells were off track. No wonder he was clearly a high-level professional, but he didn't make Artilan feel threatened at all when they first met.

Because he simply couldn't break through the dragon scales of a giant dragon.

If the half-goat man really had the strength, Artilan wouldn't stop him even if he went to assassinate Grand Duke Artilan. But he was incompetent and overconfident; this was a death wish.

He turned to look at the mermen.

"Anz, Fizz, you two keep a close eye on him and watch out for him making irrational decisions. The trade caravan will depart in a week. I'll call Black Bull back and have him be your assistant."

Now that half-lings had been attracted to Green Scale Town, Black Bull's mission was considered complete. Black Bull's mill would continue to operate, but the person in charge of the mill would be replaced by a snake person.

After investigation, snake people were calmer than minotaurs and centaurs and more like humans. This new person in charge was also very clear about what his job was.

His job was to collect information about the half-ling town, preparing for the peaceful evolution of the half-ling town by the Atlantis Kingdom. In addition to the Black Bull Mill, more similar shops would appear in the half-ling town.

After all, Artilan would also send skilled farmers to cultivate and plant in the wilderness outside the town, gradually allowing the half-lings to adapt to the existence of races like snake people, centaurs, minotaurs, and mermen.

Black Bull had the simple honesty that ordinary stupid and brutal minotaurs lacked, but this kind of cunning work was still better suited for snake people, especially since this snake person had undergone Artilan's careful training.

Some who wanted to sleep went directly to their houses in Green Scale Town to sleep, while the leopard woman, the wine woman, and a few others who wanted to continue drinking went straight to the wine woman's wine cellar in the forest.

Looking at the leopard woman, who was drunk and acting crazy, Artilan shook his head helplessly.

This guy also said he wanted to train seriously, but after watching a performance and drinking a few sips of wine, he forgot his own name. Drinking too much today would not only make him unable to train the next day due to a hangover.

The training state on the third day would also be affected.

Artilan's condition hadn't fully recovered, so he chose to go to the underwater dragon nest to sleep and absorb water elements. Sleeping for a day would naturally restore him, considering it a vacation for himself.

Winning against the tiger people again deserved a little reward.

Choosing to sleep in the underwater dragon nest, passive life breathing would also slowly enhance his strength. It wasn't complete relaxation. Sleeping on the water element crystal wouldn't make the training effect too bad.

As a result, he hadn't even slept for half a day when he felt someone stirring the water elements. This was knocking on the door to wake him up. Artilan rushed out of the water with doubts.

He didn't expect to see the Old Rascal with a serious face.

He had never seen the Old Rascal show a serious expression before.

"Old Rascal, what's wrong?"

"I entrusted the children to you, and this is how you're taking care of them?"

"Am I not good enough to them? I've hired a dedicated chef to take care of their diet, and I've invited the bear man and flower woman to teach them the basic knowledge and physical training of druids. Isn't that enough?"

"Then what about you? This is the task I gave you, but you directly threw the task to others to help you complete it. Do you even have me in your eyes?"

The Old Rascal was just discussing the matter as it stood, definitely not because he returned to the forest early in the morning to have a drink with the wine woman to relieve the fatigue of playing the High Priest of the Flying Mantou Cult.

As a result, he heard the leopard woman, who had been drinking until dawn, talk about how beautiful the Rainbow Feather Garment Dance was last night, which he didn't see, resulting in dissatisfaction and retaliatory behavior!

"You just came back from the Emerald Dream and you're already so angry. Could it be that you've been contaminated by the filth of the Emerald Dream?"

Artilan subconsciously took two steps back.

The Old Rascal couldn't pretend to be serious for too long. Artilan's step back directly made him break character and return to his original form.

"You're the one who's been contaminated! You, knowing that I'm coming back soon, actually held that so-called performance without waiting for me to come back. You clearly don't have me in your eyes!"

"That's because the performance wasn't mature yet, so it wasn't suitable for large-scale performances. They haven't seen much of the world, so a semi-finished product can fool them, but you're different."

"A great druid of several hundred years, what haven't you seen! A mere Rainbow Feather Garment Dance, missing it once won't have any impact!"

"Precisely because it's the Rainbow Feather Garment Dance, I wanted to see it even more! That black and white bear person, the panda person you mentioned, once told us about a song and dance performance that only gods have the opportunity to appreciate."

"It's very similar to your Rainbow Feather Garment Dance, but I'm very curious, is this ocean wyrm that was lost and hatched in the lake really a dragon species from our world?"

"Why do I feel like there are a lot of things from the panda people's material world in your inherited memories?"

Artilan was shocked when he heard this and quickly said:

"You also know that elemental dragons can travel between material planes through the elemental planes. Maybe my parents were ocean wyrms who liked to travel, and I was just a dragon egg that was unfortunately lost during their travels."

The Old Rascal nodded and said:

"Indeed, most elemental dragons like to run to the elemental planes to occupy territory. Swamp wyrms like Ceresthes and you are indeed rare. Alright, now that you're awake, go fulfill your responsibilities."

Artilan blinked blankly.

"Responsibilities? What responsibilities do I have?"

"Didn't you describe to me that you wanted to build a druid school in the forest, with druids as the main body, while also teaching the skills of rangers, mages, rogues, barbarians, shamans, warriors, and other professions."

"So that these abandoned orphans can have a skill, at least enough to make a living in your Atlantis Kingdom, right?"

The last sentence directly exposed Artilan's ulterior motives.

"They don't necessarily have to work for me. They can completely pursue their own dreams."

The Old Rascal glanced at him and said lightly:

"Now that you're the principal, will you let go of excellent students?"

Artilan replied as a matter of course:

"Of course."

He was very clear that truly powerful geniuses had their own ideas. It wasn't realistic for him to force them to work for him. Only by letting them go out and explore would they be able to realize.

That the Atlantis Kingdom was the platform where they could best showcase their talents.

"Oak Hall isn't suitable. I've re-selected a piece of land as the site for the druid school. It should already be built. Take these children over there today."

"In addition to these twenty-odd children, there will be more than a dozen batches of children sent over one after another. Then you'll be the real principal."

Artilan asked in surprise:

"Ah! So fast?"

"What's fast? It's just a matter of manipulating trees to move a nest. The group animation spell that spontaneously activates branches and vines. It seems you really can't learn it right now."

"There's something wrong with your thinking. Don't just think about solving it with manpower. We're druids. We must learn to use magic."

You know what, Artilan felt like he was really being outdone by the Old Rascal today.

"You're so reliable today. Could it be that you've really been influenced by the solemn power of faith that the High Priest is attracted to?"

The Old Rascal suddenly glared at him.

"You still have the nerve to say that you spread the method of making mantou to the dwarves and halflings, and you even invented a slogan to shout before eating mantou, 'Praise the Mantou!'"

"Do you know how much more power of faith I received when I presided over the ceremony because of this sentence? A whole double! It almost killed me. I don't want to do this job anymore."

"Let Gai'ogai go. He's more suitable to act as a High Priest, like a High Priest."

As he spoke, the Old Rascal took out a scroll and threw it to Artilan.

"The secret art of professional training that you wanted. I'm going to eat things in Green Scale Town. You, the principal, hurry up and take office."