Chapter 67: Baby Dragon’s captives

Alaric turned his gaze away from the window and focused upon Rowena again as he remembered another matter which he needed her help with.

After all, the Marchioness was way more well informed about this continent than him.

"There is something else I want your help with. Zephyr, the baby dragon who has an oath of cooperation with me, was held inside a hidden laboratory for decades, where his captors took his blood every week.

"I killed the people stationed there, but I never discovered who was supporting them."

Rowena’s eyebrows raised when she heard that Alaric had a dragon accompanying him. Well, he kept bringing her more and more surprises.

Alaric didn’t explain how they met or what Zephyr had experienced before coming to House Orlen.

"Did you find anything identifying their affiliation?" she asked. "A magical crest, contract, communication artifact or payment record would be enough for me to begin investigating."

"There were papers describing their experiments and the amount of dragon blood they collected.

"I destroyed everything before leaving because I didn’t know who might come looking for that place, but I studied the documents first and still remember a few things."

Alaric returned to the desk and took out several blank sheets.

He wrote down everything he could recall about the experiments, including how the people inside the laboratory had attempted to inject dragon blood into humans so they could gain physical strength without practising a breathing technique.

All of those experiments had failed.

The more important section concerned the blood extracted from Zephyr.

A fixed amount was separated from every collection and delivered elsewhere, while the people inside the laboratory were only permitted to use whatever remained for their experiments.

Alaric couldn’t reproduce every word after so much time, but he remembered the layout because some of the marks had made no sense to him back then.

He drew the symbols placed beside the delivery amounts, followed by the strange arrangement used to record the blood’s quality.

"I think this part referred to where the blood was being sent, although there was no location written anywhere. The same symbol appeared beside every delivery record."

Rowena initially examined the recreated documents without showing much concern.

An operation containing two Knights, one Mage and several Squires could have been supported by one of the kingdoms, an independent Magic Tower, a guild, an Empire, or even by a noble house.

However, when she reached the symbols beside the delivery records, her pupils contracted.

She moved one of the sheets closer and asked Alaric to draw the symbol again without looking at his previous attempt.

"Don’t fill in anything you aren’t certain about," Rowena warned him. "Even the direction of a single line could change its meaning."

Alaric drew it again, leaving out two smaller marks he couldn’t remember clearly.

Rowena compared both versions before looking at the arrangement of numbers recording the blood’s quality.

"Did every record place the source vitality first, bloodline concentration second and resistance to refinement at the end?"

"I don’t know what those numbers represented, but there were always three of them in that order. The middle one was usually the highest." Alaric replied with a serious expression, not daring to lie whatsoever.

He noticed that something seemed to be wrong, and indeed, Rowena’s next words confirmed it.

"This notation is used by the Blood Origin Hall, an organization from the Central Continent.

"The hooked divider between the second and third values is especially distinctive because other alchemical organizations record blood quality differently."

Alaric hadn’t expected his question to produce a useful answer so quickly.

"So the Blood Origin Hall was responsible for imprisoning Zephyr?"

"Don’t reach that conclusion yet," Rowena cautioned him. "These records suggest that the blood was travelling toward someone who used their internal notation.

"That person could have belonged to the Blood Origin Hall, worked for one of its subordinate powers or acted as an independent supplier who followed their standards."

The documents also couldn’t establish who had personally authorized the experiments.

A high ranking member of the Blood Origin Hall might have created the laboratory, but it was equally possible that someone lower within the organization had arranged everything without informing its leaders.

Even the possibility of someone deliberately using their notation to redirect suspicion couldn’t be dismissed.

"The original documents would have allowed us to inspect the paper, ink and mana traces," Rowena explained. "Your recreation gives us a direction to investigate, but nobody will accept it as conclusive proof."

Alaric regretted destroying the papers, although leaving documents concerning dragon blood inside an abandoned laboratory hadn’t seemed like a good idea at the time.

"Why would an organization from the Central Continent build its laboratory all the way out here?"

"Because capturing and repeatedly bleeding a dragon would be extraordinarily dangerous on the Central Continent.

"Dragons have formed the Dragon Sovereign Alliance, which is one of the strongest organizations there. Even the Meridian Court would avoid creating an unnecessary conflict with them."

The Dragon Sovereign Alliance didn’t control every dragon in the world, and plenty of dragons never joined it. However, it still responded harshly whenever dragons were captured and treated as sources of materials.

Allowing such practices to spread would turn younger and weaker dragons into targets for every alchemist interested in their blood, scales or organs.

"If the laboratory had been discovered on the Central Continent, the Dragon Sovereign Alliance could have followed the blood directly to everyone involved," Rowena continued.

But alas, the laboratory was set up here in the Southern Continent.

The people stationed inside the laboratory had probably delivered the blood through several intermediaries.

If anyone discovered the captive dragon, the trail would initially lead toward a group of Southern Continent practitioners who might not even have known the identity of their true employer.

Meanwhile, the final beneficiaries could claim that they had purchased the blood without knowing how it was obtained.

Alaric felt his mood worsening as he listened.

Not to mention that this was one more enemy on their list, getting revenge for the baby dragon and earning some brownie points from Zephyr looked very difficult to accomplish in the short term.

However, this information also presented an opportunity.

"If we eventually approach the Dragon Sovereign Alliance with Zephyr and whatever evidence we can recover from the laboratory, would they help us investigate?"

"They would certainly take the matter seriously.

"Zephyr’s testimony, the location of the laboratory and these notations should be enough for them to begin their own investigation.

"Decades of extracting dragon blood will have left traces inside that cavern even if you destroyed the equipment."

The recreated papers couldn’t prove the Blood Origin Hall’s involvement by themselves, but the Dragon Sovereign Alliance possessed methods and influence far beyond House Orlen.

Once they knew where to look, they might be able to follow the old delivery route or identify the people who had purchased Zephyr’s blood.

That would allow Alaric to obtain help from one of the Central Continent’s strongest organizations while also giving Zephyr a chance to take revenge upon the people who had truly benefited from his captivity.

"We shouldn’t reveal this matter to the Meridian Court yet," Rowena said after considering the situation. "They have agreed to receive me despite the possibility of offending several Dominions.

"If we announce that our group might also carry a feud with the Blood Origin Hall, our value will become far less attractive."

"What about Zephyr? A dragon will be difficult to hide after we enter their vessel, especially if its formations can inspect the passengers."

"His identity can be disclosed confidentially. A talented young dragon travelling with us will improve the Meridian Court’s opinion of the group, but they don’t need to know anything about his captivity or the laboratory."

"I’ll have to ask Zephyr first," Alaric replied. "I won’t reveal his race to another organization without his agreement, even if they promise secrecy."

Rowena accepted that condition without any argument.

If Zephyr agreed, they would request a binding promise of confidentiality from the Meridian Court before disclosing his identity.

For now, Rowena placed Alaric’s recreated documents inside a sealed folder and stored them in her spatial ring.

The laboratory, the Blood Origin Hall and the possible delivery route would remain known only to them until their position on the Central Continent became secure.

Alaric had thought that killing Zephyr’s captors would be easy with Marchioness back in the mansion.

But, he now knew that the people who had ordered the dragon blood might not even be from this continent, and the first clue leading toward them was waiting beyond the Divine Sea.