Lord of Rot

Leech immediately entered the workshop.

Inside the alchemy workshop, just as expected, sat a mortar. It had no carriage and was just sitting forlornly in a corner.

"Have you tested it?" Leech asked Betty, who was busy with her work.

Betty nodded. "It’s hard to control the direction, but if I use Magic to control the combustion, it can be very accurate."

"How accurate?"

"Do you want to try it?"

"Of course, I want to try it!"

Leech, Betty, and Chuina carried the large cannon and solid cannonballs out of the alchemy workshop.

The benefits of choosing this area became apparent. No matter what experiments they ran, they wouldn’t disturb any residents. It was sufficiently desolate.

After Chuina set up a simple gun mount, Leech put down the cannon he was carrying.

The weapon Betty had created was a gunpowder-based smoothbore cannon, and it was, of course, a muzzle-loader.

Without a carriage, anyone who wasn’t a Transcendent wouldn’t be able to lift the 600-pound-plus lump of iron.

They loaded the gunpowder, then the solid iron cannonball.

Of course, given Betty’s research style, she would never have left a fuse hole. She was determined to activate it with Magic.

’As long as she managed to build it, that’s what matters.’ He didn’t dwell on the issue. The rest could be gradually improved and researched later.

After roughly aiming at the mountains of Pig Spine Valley, Leech recited a Spell.

"Ignite!"

BOOM!

The cannon recoiled violently, its upturned muzzle spewing thick smoke. Then, with a deafening blast, an iron ball shot toward the sky.

It followed a high-arcing trajectory.

Unfortunately, it didn’t hit the mountains of Pig Spine Valley in the end, instead crashing into the ground.

’A range of only a few miles. Too short.’

But for siege warfare in this era, it was a completely overwhelming advantage.

Leech nodded, quite satisfied. "Continue your research and development. Don’t hesitate to ask for anything you need!"

He looked at Betty and asked, "Have you ever thought about training a group of apprentices?"

Even without a talent for explosions, more people could still innovate and iron out minor flaws. However, Betty ultimately rejected his proposal. Her reason was that there wasn’t even enough gunpowder for her to squander on her own, so she didn’t want to add anyone else. Besides, she disliked taking care of people.

After they carried the cannon back to the alchemy workshop, Leech left.

Leech spent almost the entire afternoon with Rocket. The Horse-headed Eagle was getting closer and closer to adulthood. The time when Leech could ride him into the sky would likely come much sooner than he and the Groom had anticipated.

"Their training is coming along nicely."

Leech watched the cavalry training in the paddock.

The horses were focused, listening to the training and learning the commands.

The cavalry now had a direct channel to communicate with their mounts. This method of mutual communication and understanding gave them unparalleled coordination in their training.

After all, ordinary cavalry training relied on breaking in the horses and building experience over time.

The training of the Porcupine Territory’s cavalry, however, relied on cooperation—not just the men cooperating with the horses, but the horses cooperating with the men.

Plus, with the Horse-headed Eagle Rocket nearby, patrolling like the king of horses, the herd didn’t dare to disobey a single command.

"NEIGH~"

"SKRAWK!"

A desert mare tried to approach Rocket, but his piercing cry frightened her into lowering her head.

Leech immediately raised a hand and lightly tapped Rocket on the head. "Hey, you little rascal, be nicer to her. You have to dote on your wife, you know? I’m counting on her to help you produce a whole arsenal of ’hot weapons’ for me!"

’RPGs, missiles, Dongfeng...’ The names were practically inexhaustible. It all depended on Rocket’s actual combat prowess.

"Coo coo~" Rocket cooed.

"That’s still not okay," Leech said. "She just wants to play with you. Don’t bully her for having a low IQ."

It was a helpless situation, really. Rocket’s intelligence even surpassed that of some humans; he was incredibly smart.

Although the desert horse was a warhorse, its intelligence was leagues below Rocket’s. It was understandable that Rocket looked down on the mare. The reason could be summed up in one sentence: ’Her IQ is too low; I don’t want to play with a dummy.’

Leech had no choice but to emphasize the heavy burden on Rocket’s shoulders.

"The task of reviving the Horse-headed Eagle Clan rests entirely on you," Leech said. "And my Horse-headed Eagle Cavalry Team needs you too."

"Coo coo?" Rocket tilted his head.

He seemed to have a problem with that last sentence.

"You’ll understand when you grow up," Leech said, patting Rocket’s head and pointing at the horses in training. "Look at them. They’ve all been gelded. Yours still works. Shouldn’t you be happy about that?"

"Coo coo!"

"Yes, don’t worry, I won’t geld you. Not only that, but I’ll work hard to find you some mares," Leech comforted Rocket. "You don’t like the exotic desert type? How about the wild northern type? Or the gentle kind from the Eastern Gorges? Maybe the petite and delicate ones from the Giant’s Foot?"

"Coo coo."

’The kid hasn’t grown up yet. Never mind, I shouldn’t be in such a hurry.’

That evening, Hawke Wood claimed he was feeling unwell and didn’t dare come to dinner. He was probably afraid of being drunk under the table by Quickblade again.

Leech didn’t insist, merely having someone deliver food to Hawke Wood’s room.

Quickblade was quite disappointed. With no guest present, he could only drink some beer.

Leech went to the night school to listen in on another class. The effect was much better this time.

He could even understand parts of the lecture given by Scholar Toma, though the problem of him going off-topic still hadn’t been solved.

’Everyone is working very hard. After a while, if we really can’t cultivate anyone with aptitude, then I’ll just select some of the talented ones for employment.’

In Porcupine Territory, being proficient in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, being able to write some simple, common words, and being barely literate was enough to be considered a talent.

Only after becoming a "talent" could one get a high-paying, non-strenuous job.

Getting a portion of the population to be willing to learn was Leech’s goal.

The next morning, a thoroughly rested Hawke Wood left Porcupine Territory with Leech.

Leech had previously promised Hawke Wood he would solve the ghost problem in the Three-fork River mine. He didn’t bring many people on this trip, as a large group wouldn’t help with ghosts. He only brought his retainers, Corpse Ghost Aina, and the Corpse Ghost Necromancer, Ah Yamei.

At the same time, he maintained contact with the Water Nymph.

Three-fork River Castle was not outside Leech’s spiritual range, so he could maintain constant contact with the Water Nymph.

The journey itself was uneventful. The group rode on fast horses without stopping, but it still took them a considerable amount of time to reach Three-fork River Castle.

As soon as they arrived at Three-fork River Castle, Linsen’s family came out to greet them.

Agnes’s smile toward Leech was particularly brilliant, and Leech returned her smile.

"Let’s skip the banquet for now," Leech said to Hawke Wood. "It won’t be too late to celebrate after we’ve solved the mine problem."

Hawke Wood thought so as well.

"How will you solve it?" he asked. He was completely clueless about the world of Transcendents.

Leech said, "First, bring me the bodies to examine."

Hawke Wood immediately gave the order, "Quickly, find the bodies of the slaves who died in the mine."

"Father, the bodies have already been disposed of," Steven said quietly.

Leaving bodies for too long could cause a plague. Even in the current cold weather, it was hard to guarantee that the slaves, who had died strangely, wouldn’t cause other problems.

Like... a demon’s curse.

"What about the slaves who saw the ghost?"

"I’ll bring them right away."

A group of slaves was brought before Leech. They knelt on the ground, repeatedly chanting, "Four Gods preserve us, Four Gods preserve us!"

"You saw a ghost?" Leech asked.

"Yes, my lord," one slave nodded. "We saw a white shadow. It rushed at Toes, and then Toes died."

Toes was presumably one of the slaves.

The chances of finding another commoner with the same name were very high, probably because everyone has toes, making it an easy name to come up with.

"What exactly did it look like?"

"It was... it was probably a man, with a long beard."

"I don’t think it had a beard," another slave countered uncertainly. "I remember its face was bare, with only two eyes."

"I remember it was a little girl."

"It wasn’t human at all! It had more than ten arms!"

"It was covered in eyes!"

Before Leech could say anything, the slaves had already started arguing amongst themselves.

And their descriptions were getting more and more outlandish.

"Enough!" Leech waved his hand to stop them. ’If this continues,’ he thought, ’they’ll be describing Cthulhu next.’

Leech looked at Hawke Wood. "Lord Hawke Wood, didn’t you say a scholar from Three-fork River Castle also entered the mine, and that his mind was in a very bad state after he came out?"

"That’s right!"

"I’d like to see him first."

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