"You want a live Storm Colossal Squid?"
Sea Wolf stared at Veylin with wide eyes, his wineglass frozen in midair, the wine still sloshing around its rim.
"Baron, do you know how big those things are? Catch one? Even the Kingdom's Southern Fleet wouldn't dream of it!"
Barrett and Ola exchanged a glance. Both seemed to have thought of something.
Tristan's writing hand jerked to a halt, and a drop of ink spread across the parchment.
He set down his quill and turned his gaze to Veylin.
Veylin lifted his glass and took a small sip, candlelight reflected in his wine-red eyes.
"I don't need you to 'catch' one."
"I need you to help me get some hatchlings or fertilized eggs."
"You... you want to raise them yourself?" Sea Wolf's voice had gone dry.
"Raise them? No."
Veylin corrected him.
"I want to 'design' a better breed."
The meeting room fell silent.
Sea Wolf's mouth opened and closed like that of a fish dragged ashore.
He stared into Veylin's earnest eyes for quite some time before finally deciding that the nobleman wasn't joking.
Unlike Sea Wolf's shock, Ola and Barrett's reactions were much calmer.
Ola grinned and muttered, "I knew it wouldn't be that simple."
Barrett looked at Veylin, his eyes seeming to say, Here we go again.
Ever since they had begun following their lord, they had witnessed too many wild ideas become reality.
Tristan, meanwhile, was inwardly reeling. As one of the Duchy's foremost magical families, his family naturally worked on modifying and creating magic and magical beasts.
He understood better than anyone present what this entailed.
It took generations of a family's finest minds and astronomical sums of money!
As a subordinate and administrator, his first instinct was to dissuade Veylin.
He almost blurted out, "The habitat