Neil left the former Bull Chief's tent in high spirits. When Raul saw him smiling, he even thought Landen had promised Blaze to him.
Not just Blaze—all the Black-Scaled Horses in Landen's camp belonged to Landen alone. That was not only a rule among Human Race lords, but among the Barbarians as well.
Among the Barbarians, Mana-Wielders in a tribe had some private property and their own tents, but all the slaves, resources, and livestock in the camp belonged to the chief. Before each battle, the Barbarian Cavalry could choose the horse they liked best, but that did not affect the chief's ownership of the horses.
Landen's camp was quite large. It had the relatively independent camp of Baron Gallop, as well as two camps for enfeoffed knights.
In addition, Barbarian tribes that had submitted to him kept their tribal structure intact, along with their property, population, and livestock. But they did not live in Landen's camp; instead, they had relatively independent camps on its outskirts.
However, the people acquired after each victory since entering the Gallop Plains, along with the Mana-Wielders among them and the Barbarians gained through duels, were divided among the Left Camp, the Right Camp, and the Middle Camp where Landen lived. All the people, property, and livestock in those three camps belonged to Landen alone.
Listening to Neil and Raul talk inside the tent, Landen felt a little reluctant. After all, before Blaze had become a Devil Beast, Neil had indeed been closest to him. So Landen called Neil into the tent.
Landen was straightforward. He told Neil that to ride a Magic Beast Horse like Blaze, one had to be at least an Intermediate Knight. Though Neil was strong and healthy, he had no Battle Qi and simply couldn't control Blaze.
Landen promised to train Neil to become a knight. Once Blaze had offspring, he would let Neil ride one of them.
Neil left the tent happily. It wasn't just because he might get to ride a Magic Beast Horse someday in the distant future. More importantly, Landen had truly paid attention to him, believed he was worthy of riding one, and was willing to train him.
Landen found the Magic-Sealing Box left behind by the Bull Chief. What he hadn't expected was that, besides Magic Crystals, the box held more Magic Potions in glass bottles than anything else, along with Magic Plant seeds and a veterinary book.
There was a small bookshelf in the Bull Chief's tent, filled with leather scrolls and books. Landen carefully unrolled one of the scrolls and discovered it was a magical illustration. It showed an anatomical drawing of a pack animal. After he placed a Magic Crystal in the base of the scroll stand, nothing unusual appeared at first. But when he touched the drawing, an illusion appeared before his eyes: it seemed as if a pack animal had been cut open right in front of him, revealing its blood vessels, muscles, and organs in clear detail. He could even focus on a particular part of the animal to enlarge or shrink it.
There were several other magical illustrations like it, depicting Black-Scaled Horses, Long-Haired Sheep, Rock Sheep, draft horses, rabbits, and several kinds of deer. There were not only scrolls, but also many illustrated books about herbs and animals, as well as basic notes. The notes recorded methods and case studies on breeding, raising, and treating pack animals. Landen hadn't expected the Bull Tribe's chief to be a scholarly veterinarian. But Landen clearly had no talent for veterinary medicine; he only flipped through the books, much as he always rummaged through a Barbarian chief's hidden stash, counted it, then put it in his own stash.
Landen was in a very good mood that day. After making a quick circuit of the tent, he hurried outside. He told his subordinates he was going to inspect the migration at the old camp in person. They all knew he simply wanted to ride Blaze around to his heart's content, but none of them had the nerve to say so.
Before Landen even reached Blaze, the horse seemed to know instinctively that Landen was heading out. He came over of his own accord and let Landen mount. After Landen swung into the saddle, Blaze even trotted forward a couple of lively steps.
The Magic Patterns on his hooves gave off a faint glow, and Wind Element gathered around them of its own accord. One step, two steps, then three or four. The black hooves, marked with dark red Magic Patterns, seemed to spark against the ground. As his pace quickened and his strides lengthened, the wind beneath Blaze's feet grew faster and faster. When they reached the camp's fence, about two meters high, Blaze lifted himself lightly and leaped beyond it.
The knights, Barbarians, and Mana-Less people in the camp watched Landen "fly" out on his Magic Beast Horse.
"Could that be Night-Kirin?" a Barbarian suddenly cried. He recalled what Landen had told them about their family's glorious history: the strongest of the Black-Scaled Horses was called Night-Kirin, and it was the origin of Night-Kirin City's name as well as a symbol of the Gallop Royal Family.
"That's Night-Kirin!" Raul knew what Night-Kirin meant, too, and said firmly, "Neil, go tell everyone right away. Night-Kirin has appeared in our Gallop Tribe and Gallop Territory. Chief Landen is Night-Kirin's master!"
Neil was still staring blankly at Blaze's retreating figure. "Huh?... All right, I understand. I'll let everyone know right now!"
"Blaze charges, stirring up the wind; red clouds shine beneath the blue sky;
Across the wild plains, we ride free; smoke rises on the distant horizon..."
Riding the Magic Beast Horse, Landen couldn't describe how exhilarated he felt. He racked his brains, then suddenly remembered a song from his hometown. In the saddle, he thought of how it had felt to buy a car back home and take it onto the highway for the first time: enjoying the comfort of all its high-end features, wanting to floor the accelerator and test its limits, yet worrying that if he pressed too hard, the car might fly off the road—or that something might not have broken in properly.
Landen was enjoying the thrill of riding, and Blaze was enjoying the rush of galloping with Battle Qi bolstering him. For a Devil Beast, a level-zero beast could only sense magic passively. After breaking through and becoming a low-level Devil Beast, it could use magic in simple ways. But to truly wield magic, it needed to form a Magic Core in its head to store it.
Now that Landen was connecting his Battle Qi to Blaze, it was as if he were using his own Battle Qi in place of Blaze's magic. Naturally, Blaze wanted to gallop alongside Landen for as long as possible.
Before he had ridden far, Landen spotted the former chief of the Bull Tribe in the distance. For a moment, he considered going over and persuading the seasoned veterinarian to join his tribe. But he soon abandoned the idea. Although Landen had been through several battles since arriving in this world, and the Gallop River couldn't wash the blood from his hands, he still hoped to be a man of principles and limits when his own safety wasn't at stake.
"Look! What a tall horse!" In the migrating group from the main camp, the first to spot Landen was Redbird, standing on top of a luxurious carriage.
"What?" Albert was right beside the driver's seat. After thinking it over all night, Landen had decided to give him the Mage's Eye mask. He had also left Albert plenty of Magic Crystals so he could keep up his surveillance.
Albert put on the mask. Through the Mage's Eye, he clearly saw Landen riding toward the camp on a horse that looked like it was made of flames.
"That's..." Albert murmured. "A Magic Beast Horse?... No, that's Night-Kirin!"
"Nila! Nila!" Albert shouted. "Go gather all the people in charge in the camp! Landen has ridden Night-Kirin back!"
Albert and Raul had exactly the same idea: they would use Blaze to build Landen's reputation. After more than a dozen battles and the steady addition of Human Race Mana-Wielders from among the Barbarians, neither Albert nor Raul still hoped to find Baron Hark. The most important thing now was to make everyone—the Territory Residents of Gallop Territory, the Left and Right Camps, and even the allied Barbarians—truly recognize Landen from the bottom of their hearts.
The knights and cavalry at the front of the group could already see Landen. Word of Night-Kirin's return had spread to every corner of the migrating group. Albert had already taken off the mask and was running forward to greet Landen. Tears streamed down his face. At last, he knew which being had descended upon Landen: it must have been the greatest ancestor of the Gallop Family, returning with Night-Kirin at his side like lightning.