40 – Why Is the Wild Maize so Tall?
Liszt had just helped the wheat sprite worm to settle down its worm stalk, when suddenly, the wheat settlement’s manager, Girge, told him: “Sir Lord, I don’t know if I should say this.”
“Pray tell.” Liszt's eyes lit up, thinking that the other might want to reveal information about the invisible dragon.
Yet Girge said: “Sir Lord, I have discovered three stalks of a very strange grass on the wheat settlement’s uncultivated land. They look very tall, with two to three meters in height, and are lush green. Our chicken like very much to eat their leaves.”
“It’s maize!”
Liszt immediately realized that the clues provided by the manager were not about the invisible dragons but about the three stalks of wild maizes. He immediately ordered the manager to take him there. Maize, he was looking forward to it.
But when he arrived before the wild maze, Liszt became doubtful.
“Girge, how long ago have you discovered these three stalks of grass?”
“Three months ago.”
“Have they always been this tall?”
“They have, Sir Lord.”
Out of habit, Liszt touched the Redblood Sword hanging from his waist.
He had been keeping the sword on his body. The ruby’s magic power constantly stimulated his fire-attributed qi, nourishing and strengthening it. Carrying the sword was equivalent to practicing cultivation. In the future, if he ate some magic ingredients, it might not be impossible for him to become a Sky Knight.
He kept observing the three stalks of wild maize.
The maize in front of him was not a straight pole with a few long leaves, clusters of silks on top and ears in the middle. Instead, each stalk had quite a few messily arranged poles culminating in clusters of silks. As for where the long ears should be, there were a few tiny ‘toothpicks’ instead.
The ‘toothpicks’ were divided into sections, with each section being a seed.
“Don’t tell me wild maize looks like this. This is not maize, this is wheat!” Liszt was quite hurt deep inside. He was quite clear, the three stalks of grass before his eyes were the three stalks of wild maize.
But he could not accept it.
What about the big and plump ears!
“This is basically livestock feed… Hmm, I remember, these three stalks of wild maize seem to be called Zea mexicana?”
Liszt, who had cultivated crops in his birthplace, remembered that some people in the village cultivated this plant to serve as feed for pigs. It was called Zea mexicana. Supposedly, it was a very high yield fodder which pigs, cattle, and sheep liked very much to eat.
“That should be it. If it was true maize, there would be no need to put ‘wild’ in front. Maize, which had been domesticated about ten thousand years ago, does not seem to comprise any wild species.” Once he realized this point, he could only sigh inside and console himself, “Anyhow, it is a high yield type of fodder, so there is no loss.”
After sorting out his dejection.
Liszt once more plastered that reserved smile on his face: “Girge, after careful considerations, I determined this grass to be called maize grass. It is of a very high yield and is a great fodder for livestock. Chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cattle and sheep, they all like to eat it. From now on, look after it. I want its seeds.”
“Yes, Sir Lord! I, Girge, will take good care of the maize grass! I will not let serfs or livestock near it!”
“Very good. I will notify Teacher Gort; wait for his arrangements.”
“Yes, Sir Lord.”
Giving the Zea mexicana another look, Liszt gave a deep sigh and lashed with the horsewhip: “Return!”
The wheat sprite worm’s worm stalk was smoothly settled down. So far, the peanut sprite worm, alfalfa sprite worm, tulip sprite worm, and wheat sprite worm were properly settled down.
Leaving the thorns sprite worm, which still had no place to plant its worm stalk, and the maize sprite worm, whose maize field was still in the planing stage.
In any case, the sprites would get the best care.
……
On the way back, Liszt ran into Marcus. The later was going to the castle to see the former.
“Teacher Marcus, is something the matter?”
“Sir, Sir Gort mentioned that you asked him about the invisible dragon?”
“Oh, do you know about the invisible dragon?”
“I read of it.” Marcus said seriously, “From a half-torn knight novel. I do not know the name of the novel. I was still very young at the time.”
“Is that so? What was the description of the invisible dragon?” Liszt knew that this was the reward from the completion of the wheat sprite worm mission.
Marcus replied: “In the novel, in addition to the gem, metal and elemental dragons, there was still a type of dragon called the sacred dragon. The invisible dragon was a type of sacred dragons. It is transparent, with no one being capable of seeing its appearance. It brings endless disasters wherever it goes.”
“Disasters? Then why is it called the sacred dragon?”
“Because it is capable of producing a very special type of gems.”
“A special gem… Then it should be classified as a gem dragon. Right, what is that special gem and what power does it posses?”
“This gem is related to a type of legendary equipment. Sir, have you heard of the space ring? It is a ring that can hold a lot of things.”
This world also had space rings?
Liszt searched through his predecessor’s memories, yet he could not find any related information. He said: “I have not. So, does the space ring really exist? Or in other words, can the gems produced by the invisible dragon be used to forge space rings?”
“I do not know if space rings exist or not. But even if they did, they would be priceless treasures which only aristocrats could posses.” Marcus continued, “In the knight novel, it was said that apart from endless disasters, the invisible dragon still would leave gems produced by it behind wherever it went. Those who pick them up would have space rings.”
“And then.”
“That is it.”
“There was no more information recorded in the book pertaining to the invisible dragon?”
“There was not. Besides, I think that this story was just a fabrication. As you know, quite a lot of those novels about the glory of knights meant to inspire us are nonsense.” Although Marcus had made a trip just to tell Liszt this information, but evidently, he did not believe in the existence of the invisible dragon.
Liszt did not deny it and instead continued to ask: “So, are there other sacred dragons?”
“I do not know. Half of the book was missing, and I only read a bit of the remaining half, which introduced the invisible dragon as a type of sacred dragon.”
Marcus left.
Liszt still could not understand.
The mission reward, information about the invisible dragon, what did it mean?
Was it simply to tell him knowledge about the invisible dragon? Or did it mean that there was an invisible dragon nearby? Then could it be captured? Perhaps, the invisible dragon was going to attack the Flower Town and this reward was to help him prepare accordingly? Of course, it was also possible that the invisible dragon was going to deliver a piece of equipment, a space ring?
While lost in his thoughts, smoke once more emerged before his eyes.
“Mission completed. Reward: information about the invisible dragon.”
After a bout of twisting and warping, a new mission was issued: “Mission: the wild maize that had suddenly appeared in the wheat settlement had piqued your interest? As the lord, you have to ponder over the reason why wild maize would grow in the wheat settlement. Perhaps there is more wild maize nearby. Please find the origin of the wild maize. Reward: new information about the invisible dragon.”
Liszt's attention was quickly placed on the new mission reward.
“More information about the invisible dragon. What the hell? How much more information about the invisible dragon does it want to tell me?”