Lord of Rot

In the castle study, the door was closed.

On the massive desk where Leech usually worked, a small brass trinket shifted.

’To think he’d just toss me here and leave!’

The Brass Dragon was rather sullen. It flipped over onto its back, then rolled right side up again.

When Leech left the study that morning, he’d closed the door. The dragon had wanted to leave, but it couldn’t open the door or push open the windows. In the end, it could only lie bored on the desk.

And so it wasted the entire morning.

’What’s all this?’ The Brass Dragon looked at the notes and plans Leech hadn’t put away on his desk.

It saw a line of block-like characters written on them.

Had the Brass Dragon been able to read them, it would have seen the characters spelled out ”Sea Salt Production.” With his wealth and power on the rise, Baron Leech was already plotting his entry into a much larger market. He had never dared to touch the sea salt trade before, but now, he was beginning to consider it.

A person could live without soap or beer, but they absolutely could not live without salt.

Unfortunately, the Brass Dragon couldn’t understand any of it. It had no idea of the immense value held by the sheet of paper before it, which was covered in block-like characters that no one in this world, save for Leech, could read.

Footsteps approached from outside, and then—CREAK—the study door was pushed open.

The Brass Dragon immediately froze, resuming its posture as a small trinket.

Two women in maid uniforms entered. One carried a basin of water, while the other held several clean, dry rags.

”Wineglass, is the castle getting a new maid?” Small Eyes set down the basin and rolled up her sleeves. She took a rag, soaked it in the water, then pulled it out and wrung it dry.

SPLASH! Water rained back into the wooden basin, sending droplets everywhere.

Wineglass lifted the flowerpot from a nearby side table with both hands, waiting for Small Eyes to wipe the surface.

Normally, the table didn’t need to be cleaned so often. But with autumn’s arrival, the plants had begun to wilt, and they would occasionally find dead insects. Those were the main targets of the cleaning.

”Of course not.” Wineglass waited until Small Eyes had wiped the tabletop with a dry rag before setting the flowerpot back down. She continued, ”That Miss Betty... her clothes were a mess and her hair looked like it hadn’t been brushed in ages, all tangled up. But once she was cleaned up? Her skin is as white as milk, and she’s incredibly beautiful. The Lord hasn’t given her any work to do, either. She’s probably a noble lady.”

”Will she be our new Lady of the Manor, then?” Small Eyes asked, surprised.

”Of course not!”

Wineglass analyzed the situation seriously. ”The Lord is definitely going to marry Miss Stacy from Linta Bay. She’s his cousin, and they’re close.”

”I heard Pitchfork talking about that,” Small Eyes said, suddenly recalling that something like that had indeed been mentioned over the summer.

It was just that so much had happened in Porcupine Territory recently that it felt like a lifetime ago.

Suddenly, Small Eyes noticed the Brass Dragon on the desk. ”Wineglass, what’s this?” she couldn’t help but ask.

”A dragon?” Wineglass turned to look at the motionless Brass Dragon on the desk, a bit uncertain. ”I remember seeing a painting of a dragon once that looked a lot like this, but I think the one in the painting had two legs.”

The Brass Dragon fought back the urge to speak, retorting silently in its mind: ’Two legs? Your whole family has two legs!’

Reason told the Brass Dragon that if it revealed itself by speaking without Leech’s permission, Leech would flick it twice without a moment’s hesitation!

’More than the pain, it would be a humiliation to the Dragon Race! Better to stay quiet.’

The maids gathered around the Brass Dragon to observe it for a moment, but neither dared to pick it up. The thing looked very valuable—perhaps even made of gold. If they broke it, they could never afford to pay for it.

”MEOW.” The study door hadn’t been closed completely. Qingtian, the black cat who had been pacing outside, finally saw his chance and slipped through the gap.

”Oh, Qingtian, you’re here!”

”Come here, let me give you a cuddle.”

If any creature in the castle was pampered, it was the little black cat, Qingtian. Everyone from the Lord himself down to the maids loved to hold and pet him.

Life in the castle was comfortable and easy, and Qingtian had grown stout and strong. His fur was a glossy, smooth black.

Luckily, he was an active cat. Otherwise, Qingtian would have long since gone from a little black cat to a little black pig.

Small Eyes bent down to scoop up Qingtian, but the cat was too fast. He deftly dodged her hands, darted between her legs and under her skirt, and then, with a powerful push from his hind legs, leaped gracefully onto the desk.

Qingtian only knew that Pitz had repeatedly stressed to him that he had to be on his best behavior whenever the Lord was in the study. But the Lord wasn’t here now. ’That means I can do whatever I want, right?’

The two maids scrambled to grab Qingtian, terrified he would break something on the desk. But instead, Qingtian lowered his head, bit down on the Brass Dragon, and took off running.

The inky-black shadow shot through the crack in the door like a bolt of black lightning.

”Wait, Qingtian!”

”We’re done for! Go find Pitz, quickly! We can’t let that thing get lost!”

They had no idea what the Brass Dragon was, but if the Lord had placed it on his desk, it had to be incredibly valuable.

Panicked, the two of them dropped their rags, wiped their wet hands on their aprons, and rushed out of the study. Of course, they didn’t forget to close the door on their way out.

Meanwhile, once out of human sight, the Brass Dragon began to struggle.

”You wretched cat, let me go!” The Brass Dragon, held by its tail, kicked its four legs in the air. Unfortunately, this only earned it a violent shake from Qingtian, leaving it dizzy and disoriented.

’First Leech enjoyed grabbing my tail and swinging me around, and now a cat is doing the same thing.’

The Brass Dragon resigned itself to its fate, not daring to struggle too much. Its mouth, however, was far from idle. ”When I return to the homeland of the dragons and summon ten million of my brethren, I will see to it that your entire feline race is wiped from existence! Especially the black ones! The black ones!”

The black cat paid no mind to the Brass Dragon’s tirade. Gripping the dragon’s tail in its teeth, it darted through the castle as if it were its own personal domain. After a series of twists and turns, they arrived at a window. Qingtian leaped onto the sill, scrambled out of the castle, and with another jump, landed on an adjacent rooftop. Clearly, this was a familiar route.

Like climbing a stairway to the heavens, it navigated nooks and crannies, climbing ever higher.

Down below, the two maids had just rushed out and were frantically looking around.

”Have you seen Qingtian?”

”Pitz! Has anyone seen Pitz?”

Just then, Small Eyes looked up and spotted a glossy black figure on the roof.

”Qingtian! Qingtian! Get down from there!” Small Eyes yelled at the cat on the roof, but it only glanced back at her before quickly scampering away.

Wineglass said, ”You follow Qingtian! I’ll go find Pitz! Hurry!”

”Got it!”