When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#189 - Mechanical theater and gear puppets

After entering the garden palace, hundreds of soldiers dispersed, beginning to clear dangers along the central line.

Horn and Patrick were surrounded by soldiers in the middle, observing the palace that was almost a ruin as they walked.

The entire palace garden occupied approximately 15-20 hectares, two-thirds of which was a park composed of fountains and hedgerows.

In the flowerbeds beside the hedgerows, there should have been various precious flowers competing for beauty, growing wildly.

However, only a small portion of these flowers were well-maintained; most had their nutrients sucked dry by wild flowers and weeds carried by the wind, drooping or simply withering and rotting in the soil.

A small angel statue was responsible for supplying water to the flowerbeds. When Horn arrived, it was just the angel's watering time.

One side of the palace was a hill, with gurgling spring water flowing from the top through an aqueduct into the palace.

On either side of the aqueduct were several waterwheels, constantly turning with the flow of water.

Driven by the waterwheel mechanism, the four little angels beside the flowerbeds stuck out their little brothers and spun wildly, even creating circles of afterimages, sprinkling clear spiral streams of water into the flowerbeds.

Standing in front of the flowerbeds, Horn even heard a sound like a helicopter propeller.

The design is quite ingenious. Horn and Patrick exchanged glances. These simple automatic machines didn't seem like something a few people could make, let alone the delicate work that zombies could accomplish.

According to Horn's estimation, it would require at least seven or eight designers to design and hundreds of craftsmen to manufacture over a long period. But they had clearly explored this area and found no one.

Where have all these people gone?

"Your Majesty, we have checked all the palaces and villas except for that closed-door spire that you instructed us not to touch," said the child soldier scout sent by Victor, bowing to Horn after jogging and jumping over the fence.

"Then let's go and take a look at those palaces."

Passing through the hedgerow, behind it was a beautifully decorated palace. In the fountain pool in front of the palace, several wooden or metal deer dipped their heads into the water.

But if you looked closely, you would find that they were actually the outlets of the fountain; they were not drinking water from the fountain but spraying water.

"Brother, look over there," said Jenna, who had finished inspecting the palaces and villas, pointing to the side of the spire.

The place that should have been a garden was planted with various herbs, and next to the garden were several vegetable plots planted with cabbages that were in season.

As for the small zoo in the original palace, it housed three or five sheep, and sausages and cured meat were even hung under the eaves of the palace.

"Grandpa Chrispar, do vampires need to eat?" Horn asked Patrick with a strange expression, looking at the sausages swaying in the wind.

Patrick coughed and said, "If there is enough blood, they only need to eat a small amount to satisfy their appetite.

But if they only drink animal blood, their bodies will be very weak and they will not be able to use necromantic magic, so they need to eat a lot, consuming more food every day than a knight in the breathing technique advancement period."

These vampires are having a hard time. Isn't beastman blood good to drink?

If they don't sacrifice beast blood and just kill people, why not capture people back to the island to drink blood?

Walking to the eaves of the palace, Horn casually picked a blood sausage. The smoked blood sausage skin had a faint yellow glow.

"Click, click..."

Horn quickly turned his head towards the inside of the palace, but the sound, which seemed like a hallucination, disappeared again.

This was the third time he had heard the clicking sound: once on the way here, once at the door, and once in front of the palace.

If it wasn't a hallucination, then there must be something.

Horn knew his own situation. Perhaps because his magic power was much greater than that of a normal witch, he was more sensitive to the operation of magic power itself than witches were.

There must be some magical objects here related to magic power, such as the previous bone whistle or blood cloud cover.

"Brother, what's wrong?"

Jenna came closer, looking at Horn's solemn eyes and asking curiously.

"It's nothing," Horn said evasively, waving his hand to call Victor over. "Have you explored this palace?"

"We've checked every room and every corner, and there's no one in the entire palace," Victor hesitated. "If you want to go in, please let us search again."

"No need." Horn called a few holy gunners, while Patrick and Jenna walked towards the palace, one on the left and one on the right.

The palace was very different from the outside. Although it was messed up everywhere by the soldiers, it was still quite clean, with no weeds in the cracks in the ground, no cobwebs, and no dust. This ruin didn't look like a ruin at all.

On both sides of the palace's hall were mosaic stained-glass windows, casting dim, colorful light on the ground. The ground was smooth marble, seamlessly connected.

Scattered gears, springs, and various mechanical components were placed on the marble floor, and a wide workbench stood among the parts.

Walking to the center of the hall, Horn's gaze was unconsciously drawn to the most eye-catching part of the building: the puppet theater on the left side of the palace.

It had removed the walls of the villa's side room, and behind layers of curtains were puppets or bronze statues almost as tall as people.

Rather than a puppet theater, it was more like a miniature version of a 'Nibelungenlied'-style stage play.

It was a panoramic perspective three-dimensional model. Behind the stage were nearly a hundred intersecting or parallel star sky tracks.

Wooden boards carved into cloud shapes were painted white, circular ones were the sun and moon with faces, and several miniature taverns and houses stood on the stage.

At the edge of the stage, a miniature castle grew mechanical arms and rose from the ground.

On the ground outside the castle, seven or eight bronze swan dancers, each half a meter tall, stood on tiptoe, their left legs resting on the knees of their right legs, which were standing straight on one foot.

The knee of its left leg had obvious mechanical rotating joints, and a thin thread, almost invisible to the naked eye, was connected to the rotating wheel, seemingly to control the dancer's leg to straighten or bend.

In front of the miniature wooden house, a bronze puppet carpenter wearing a wool green coat stepped on a pedal, and a shepherd wearing a fur jacket opened his mouth, only able to smile.

Surrounding a scaled-down bronze 'barrel,' two crescent-mustached soldiers wearing brimless hats held playing cards in their hands, raising them high. As long as the thin line on their elbows was pulled, the cards would slam heavily on the barrel.

In front of the tavern, on the slate road painted on the wooden board, was an iron track painted with the same color. A marching band playing flutes and lutes was passing through the crowd.

The whole scene was like shrinking a small town and moving it in, then freezing time, waiting for the mechanism to start before it could continue to operate.

Tilting his head, Horn looked inside through the cracks in the wooden board.

Under the stage were complex and dazzling gears and mechanical structures, with countless intersecting chains wrapped around the gears, and a smell of lubricating oil permeated from the stage.

Horn took a few more steps, went around to the back of the stage, and looked up to see how those tracks worked.

Then he saw a pair of bright red eyes and a gray-white, shiny bald head, with sharp fangs protruding from the corners of his mouth.

Blood Cloud Cover was instantly unsheathed. Horn staggered back two steps, pointing the sword in his hand into the air, but the vampire-like thing remained motionless.

This is?

Taking two steps forward, Horn narrowed his eyes and looked, then smiled helplessly.

The "vampire's" claws were pieced together with brass and iron bars, its nose was made of wood, and its eyes were painted. This was clearly a hanging puppet.

Next to him was a mechanical angel holding a sword, with rivets on the bends of its wings, seemingly only half finished.

Horn awkwardly lowered his sword. If there was a vampire here, the soldiers would have discovered it long ago. Would they have waited until now?

He was really jumpy, actually scared by a mechanical puppet.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing," Horn coughed lightly, sheathed his sword, and turned around. "Let's go, let's go. We'll go to the master bedroom to take a look. I think I heard some sounds from there..."

The rotation of air currents and the clicking of gears sounded again. After multiple battles, Horn didn't even have time to think. He directly turned around subconsciously, using the scabbard to block in front of him.

"Who?!"

The strong wind blew up the light gauze on the 'clouds,' the curtain stirred, and a pointed-eared, sharp-toothed humanoid monster fell from the sky. His face was ferocious, silently roaring as he pounced towards Horn's face.

It's actually that vampire puppet?!

"Your Majesty, be careful!"

"Protect the emperor! Protect the emperor!"