A gust of wind struck the Fairy Dragon, sending it tumbling through the air and cutting off its unfinished words, which it swallowed back down.
"Vera, didn't you say back then that you hadn't seen anything?"
Garos shook his left wing and shot the Fairy Dragon a threatening look.
"Y-Yes, Vera didn't see anything, Vera doesn't know anything!"
The Fairy Dragon jolted and shouted its declaration.
Her reaction drew a suspicious look from Samantha. Her gaze drifted between the Fairy Dragon and Garos, as though she sensed some secret between them.
Samantha walked over to Vera.
She wanted to get the truth out of her.
But before she could speak, Garos interrupted with an order.
"Samantha, bring me an iron bucket and fill it with water."
He said.
"Oh."
The Red Dragonet gave the Fairy Dragon another look, planning to interrogate her properly later and use both threats and bribes to make her reveal the secret. Then she flapped her wings and flew low toward the Alchemy Workshop.
She had crafted plenty of containers like iron buckets.
"Vera, there's a saying: disaster comes from the mouth. Talking carelessly can get you killed."
After Samantha left, Garos smiled gently at the Fairy Dragon, baring a mouthful of gleaming fangs.
The Fairy Dragon shut her mouth and covered it with her claws, nodding rapidly like a pecking chicken.
Less than two minutes later, Samantha fetched an iron bucket from the Alchemy Workshop, filled it with water from the river flowing through Conifer Valley, and carried it back to Garos.
By then,
both blade-like edges of Garos's wings had been coated in the Serpent Dragon's toxic blood, and its severed tail had shriveled.
He shredded the tail into minced flesh with his claws, mixed it into the water, and stirred it. The clear