The Natural Empire of the Oceanic Dragon

"Granted!"

Although there were only a dozen or so Serpentfolk warriors, they had survived the defeat and were now entrusted with the most dangerous task of escorting the princess away.

They were all worth cultivating.

But what Attilan valued most was this Serpentfolk princess!

Truthfully, Attilan felt it was a waste to have such a beautiful Serpentfolk princess act as a dancer in the pleasure district.

If not a dancer, then let her be the tavern's proprietress.

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Among the Serpentfolk guarding the Serpentfolk princess were two females.

Let them be the dancers; he believed they wouldn't refuse his request.

Even if they were unwilling, there should be suitable candidates among the Serpentfolk refugees who would arrive later.

"Thank you, Dragon Lord.

Opeya hopes that the Dragon Lord can dispatch his elite warriors to help Opeya rescue as many of her people as possible to come here.

Opeya is willing to serve the Dragon Lord for the rest of her life as repayment."

Opeya looked at him with tearful eyes, making Attilan somewhat unable to resist.

"Opeya, since the Serpentfolk are willing to become my subjects, then I will naturally rescue as many Serpentfolk as possible.

Of course, the Serpentfolk must also repay me with loyalty and death."

"Yes, Opeya understands."

This Serpentfolk princess had too much charm; even the dragon's mental resistance couldn't withstand it.

This kind of charm, which was pure and without any mental bewitchment, would be irresistible to anyone whose aesthetic sense was compatible with the Serpentfolk race.

The problem was that Attilan's minotaurs, fishmen, and centaurs couldn't see her beauty.

Only the satyr was stunned at the first sight of the Serpentfolk princess.

"Opeya, go down and rest first.

I won't ignore the Serpentfolk."

Originally, he had arranged for the fishmen to go to the rainforest to inquire about the goblins who had tricked him, but he didn't expect that he would instead recruit a group of defeated Serpentfolk.

Compared to Opeya, whose upper body was human and lower body was a snake, ordinary Serpentfolk looked more like snakes with human-shaped upper bodies, their entire bodies covered in very obvious scales.

Even Attilan's two Serpentfolk dancers had human upper bodies, but they still had snake pupils and forked tongues, with snake scales on their faces, arms, and bodies.

It was enough for them to be dancers; perhaps it would make the customers feel that they had more exotic charm.

It's just that the Serpentfolk female dancers were relatively tall.

If they were to perform with two swords, the stage required would be relatively large, so the tavern would have to be rebuilt.

Fortunately, he had recruited kobolds, and there would be no shortage of manpower to rebuild a more magnificent tavern.

It's just that building a magnificent tavern required felling oak trees twenty meters high.

He didn't know if there were any corresponding logging quotas in the forest this year.

When the construction technology was not up to standard, he could only rely on high-quality building materials to increase the magnificence of the building.

It must be a magnificent tavern to match such an outstanding proprietress like Opeya.

According to the battle report brought back by the minotaur chieftain from the rainforest, the use of iron axes and spearheads did have a certain suppression effect on the races in the rainforest.

What surprised Lista the most was the shield woven from rattan by the fishmen.

The attacks launched by warriors in the rainforest using stone and bone weapons could be completely resolved with a light flick after being blocked by the rattan shield.

It was just that the craftsmanship of weaving the rattan shield was relatively poor.

Even if there were, it would be too difficult for them to maintain the balance of nature in such a place.

It was normal for the vitality of the plants to be a little worse.

The rainforest not being completely deforested by the warring tribes already showed that the druids were working hard.

50 iron axes and 300 iron spearheads were the result of a three-way trade between the satyrs, halflings, and dwarves.

Originally, Attilan wanted to sell soy sauce directly to the dwarves, but these drunkards didn't care about eating well at all.

They only wanted the halflings' mellow ale, while the halflings who loved food wanted to clear out the soy sauce.

Then he could only exchange soy sauce for ale, and then exchange ale for ironware.

Soy sauce couldn't capture the dwarves, unless Attilan took out sauce-fragrant liquor.

Brewing sauce-fragrant liquor consumed too much grain.

Unless the wasteland had been transformed and the fields were fertile into top-grade fields, and there was so much grain that there was a risk of spoilage, he would not brew sauce-fragrant liquor.

According to the news brought back by the centaur messenger, the Serpentfolk collected had 50 warriors and more than 50 elderly, weak, women, and children.

Because Greenscale Town had been building houses and practicing construction skills, it could completely accommodate the Serpentfolk.

"Mepp, take the Serpentfolk to choose houses to live in."

Not hearing the satyr's reply, Attilan turned his head and realized that he was staring straight at the direction the Serpentfolk princess had left.

"Snap out of it!

Don't you have a beloved girl?

Why are you still staring at Opeya?

Have you fallen in love with someone else?"

The satyr then came back to his senses, rubbed his eyes, and said:

"She looks too much like the girl I like, but I remember she's not a Serpentfolk.

How can there be people who look so alike…"

"There are so many people in this world.

What's the problem with two women looking alike?

Maybe you haven't seen your beloved girl for too long, and you think a pretty girl looks like her."

The half-goat person shook his head seriously and earnestly.

"Absolutely impossible! I couldn't possibly misremember Trina's appearance."

Finally extracting information about the girl the half-goat person liked, Atlan said with a smile:

"What's the difference? You clearly thought Ophelia was your Trina just now."

"Ophelia is a Serpentfolk priestess, while Trina is a Shadow Dancer. Their demeanors are very different. The only similarity is their appearance. No, their appearances are also different. Could it really be that I haven't seen Trina in too long?"

The Trickster's love interest is a Shadow Dancer, just as he expected.

"Then why didn't she agree to be with you? Is it because she dislikes your appearance?"

The half-goat person shook his head with a slightly worried expression, possibly because seeing the Serpentfolk princess was too shocking, making him unable to resist telling his past story.

"She is an assassin belonging to the lord, considered the lord's personal property. Years of assassin training have left Trina without much personal emotion. Unless the lord sets her free, it's impossible for us to be together."

"But even a duke wouldn't give up a powerful Shadow Dancer."

The half-goat person's rival in love is actually a human duke. Saying 'rival in love' isn't quite right. Clearly, the duke is someone who does big things. Even the most beautiful assassin is just a tool to him.

"The duke isn't willing to give her up simply because the stakes you offer aren't high enough! Trina is an assassin, destined to have limited use. Ten thousand gold coins!"

"Do you believe that ten thousand gold coins could make the duke sell Trina to you?"

The half-goat person suddenly became agitated.

"Trina isn't a tool; how can she be measured with money! Money isn't everything!"

Atlan closed his mouth speechlessly. He knew he shouldn't talk about these things with a love-struck idiot. Sure enough, he had provoked the half-goat person.

Money is indeed not everything, but you can't do anything without money, he really wanted to tell this love-struck idiot.

"Your Trina wouldn't happen to be in the human kingdom north of the Elf Forest, would she?"

The half-goat person looked at Atlan warily.

"What do you want to do?"

What do I want to do? I want to help you buy Trina over!

To raise assassins to the level of Shadow Dancers, this duke must be up to no good. Maybe he's thinking about usurping the throne. If he doesn't act sooner, the half-goat person's beloved female assassin will become cannon fodder sooner or later.

"Don't worry, I definitely won't touch a single hair on your goddess's head. Don't you want to be with Trina sooner rather than later?"

Only then did the half-goat person tell Atlan the duke's and Trina's information.

Sure enough, it was as he thought. This duke's family has probably been planning to usurp the throne for more than one generation. They even have a hand in things like the Ranger Training Camp behind the scenes.

The half-goat person was almost killed back then, and it probably had something to do with the duke.

It seems that Trina isn't completely without feelings for the half-goat person.

Contacting the duke requires a human to come forward, or the half-goat person himself to go. Now is not the right time. When he can mobilize an army of five hundred minotaurs and five hundred centaurs, he can help redeem Trina.

Of course, Atlan isn't that kind. His goal can't just be Trina and the half-goat person. He wants to develop the human kingdom into mature soil.

It's difficult to annex the human kingdom, so he must first let the kingdom disintegrate from within. It will take a long time. Maybe the person he incites to rebel will be the next duke.

The resettlement of the Serpentfolk went smoothly. The minotaurs and centaurs all returned alive. The troops chasing the Serpentfolk weren't particularly strong; not one of them was a match for the chieftain.

As a result, not long after the Serpentfolk were brought back, the half-goat person ran over to tell him that there wasn't enough food.

When Atlan heard this news, the entire dragon was dumbfounded. How could there not be enough food? Didn't the forest produce eight hundred mu of wheat with a yield of four hundred jin per mu?

"Thirty thousand jin of wheat have already been eaten?"

"Where are there thirty thousand? Master Lulu didn't show up after that. The skills of the other druids are completely inferior to Master Lulu. In the end, the yield per mu was less than three hundred jin."

"That's still more than two hundred thousand jin. How is that not enough?"

"The minotaurs and centaurs can eat too much, especially the minotaur chieftain. He alone can devour ten jin of flour, five jin of black beans, five jin of carrots, and five jin of meat in one meal."

"The centaur leader is a little less, but he also has eighty percent of his appetite. The most voracious fishman on my side only has half his appetite."

Hiss, Lista's appetite seems to be almost catching up to his.

"Because the wheat was planted with the help of the druids, they each took five hundred jin. This portion isn't much. I've calculated that the dependents under your command consume about five thousand jin of rations a day."

"Of the two hundred thousand jin of grain left to us, almost half has already been consumed. Now that there are a hundred more Serpentfolk, the daily consumption has increased to five thousand five. Counting the grain purchased from the halflings, we can only last for a month and a half."

"The black beans that have been planted still need three months, and the wheat still needs four months to mature. Atlan, what should we do? Should I go to the halfling town south of the Great River to purchase grain again?"

He didn't expect to encounter a food crisis. He thought there was plenty of food, so he agreed to recruit the Serpentfolk.

"We have a shortage of two hundred thousand jin of grain. Can we buy that much grain?"

Sorry, overestimated myself, thought I could finish writing by 9 o'clock, but ended up writing until now, I'm like a piece of trash.