Walking on the road of Thorn Ridge.
Liszt is still very satisfied. When he first came, people walked on this road in a panic, always worrying about monsters escaping. Now with a wide view, people don't worry about the invasion of monsters at all. The original dirt road has also been transformed into a gravel road, although it is still bumpy.
Marcus is riding the pregnant Yellow-Gray Horse, half a body behind Li Dragon Horse who is Liszt.
He is fully armed, not afraid of the hot weather, and carefully examines every move around him. He is not only a tutor teaching Liszt knight class, but also a knight ordered by the earl to protect Liszt - in some countries, this kind of knight is called a chief knight. Grand Duchy does not implement this system.
Behind Liszt and Marcus is the town defense officer Karl·Hammer.
He didn't need to come, but he still volunteered to protect Liszt - maybe he just took this opportunity to go to Coral City to see the scenery and show his loyalty?
Side by side with Karl, scattered on both sides, are Philip·Wool and Xavier·Cow Dung. These two young men Retainer Knight have good talents and are the first to cultivate fighting spirit in the team.
The next ones are Rom·Barrel. Just the day before yesterday, he also successfully cultivated fighting spirit. As one of the first four people to serve as Liszt's retinue, Rom practiced hard and finally made progress. Liszt immediately appointed him as the patrol leader to assist Karl in controlling the patrol.
It is a pity that the other two of the four previous guards, Gray·Sickle, Oden·Insole, still have not developed fighting spirit.
Marcus has given up teaching the two of them. Their talents are too poor and they missed their teenage years. There is no hope. Liszt asked them to serve as assistants to officials, one to assist the legal officer Blair and the other to assist the financial officer Isaiah.
For his own people, Liszt is still affectionate and gives them a good identity.
At the end of the team are four young knights. They are the team members who have developed fighting spirit after Philip and Xavier. They are also transferred to Liszt and serve as Retainer Knight. As for the other members of the knight team, they are still training hard in the town.
Plus valet Thomas.
The whole team, a total of eleven people and eleven horses, galloped, kicking up waves of sand and dust.
Since there were many pregnant mares in the team, they did not move too fast, but still at about 10:30 in the morning, they arrived at Tulip Castle surrounded by a sea of flowers.
"Oh, my dear brother, you are finally here. I have been waiting for you here for a long time." Levis was dressed in festive costumes Frac Abie, with a noble smile on his face.
Open your arms and welcome Liszt.
Very warm welcome.
Liszt turned over and dismounted, opened his arms as well, and hugged Levis: "Dear brother, I wish you a happy birthday."
"Thank you for your blessing."
Liszt waved to Thomas and Retainer Knight behind him. "Send up the gift I prepared."
Present the gift and hand it to the deputy butler Silva who is following Levis.
"What is it? It's a big package. It seems like you spent a lot of money." Levis asked the valet to open it - the custom here is that gifts must be opened in person.
The gift in the bag is beautifully packaged.
First, there are coconuts the size of ocean bowls, wrapped with cloth strips. They look very high-end, and the faint scent of coconut milk hits your face.
"This is Fragrant Coconut. The coconut milk inside is very sweet. Open it and take a sip, and you will know how sweet and delicious it is." Liszt said exaggeratedly. In fact, it is slightly better than ordinary coconut milk on the earth.
But the fruit whose juice you can drink directly is unique.
Levis really started to get curious. "Coconut milk? Is this kind of fruit filled with milk?"
"Yes."
"It's so amazing, I can't wait to taste it." Levis turned to look at the other side of the bag, which was all wrapped in small bags, "What are these?"
"It's seafood."
"Seafood?"
"Brother, don't think they are ordinary. These seafood are the most precious seafood caught by fishermen. Especially the old oysters..." As he said, Liszt leaned into Levis's ear, "It allows you to do what you want to do without sleeping all night."
Levis's eyes lit up. "Really, this is too precious. Thank you, Liszt, my dear brother, this is the best gift I received on my birthday."
He is not married yet, but who says that unmarried nobles cannot have a bunch of mistresses?
After collecting the gifts, the two brothers walked into the castle side by side.
The hall of the castle was already crowded with nobles of all sizes.
Except for the two viscounts who sent their sons, Baron and Baronet Knight were all present in person. After all, Levis is the heir of Coral Island, the future Earl Coral Island, and their next leader.
"Very lively."
Liszt had to wear a standard aristocratic smile to greet the aristocrats who came to attend the birthday party. He did not like this kind of masked communication. However, as a member of the aristocracy, if he wanted to maintain the dignity of the aristocracy, such an occasion was indispensable.
Wait around and say hello.
He was going to see the count.
But after asking Levis, I learned that the count had left Coral Island: "The Grand Duke's messenger brought an order that all the direct lords will go to Blue Dragon Island to discuss this year's Pioneer Order matters. In fact, I am already training the knights and am ready to follow my father to the mainland at any time."
Pioneer Order is the most popular order among the Sapphire Grand Duchy nobles.
The order is very simple, just respond to the call of King Iron Ridge Kingdom, go to the mainland, and plunder the wealth, especially the mines - gold, silver, copper, iron, aluminum, and various precious stones are all targets of competition.
Iron Ridge Kingdom and Eagle Kingdom are feuding. Both countries have slaughtered each other's dragons. Therefore, a large-scale war breaks out almost every year to rob each other of minerals. Sapphire Grand Duchy is a vassal state of the Iron Ridge Kingdom. It is not very powerful, but harassment from the sea is very threatening.
Back then, the count had penetrated deep into the hinterland of the Eagle Kingdom, snatched an iron mine in one fell swoop, and plundered at least 200,000 tons of iron ore.
It is said that the ships hauling iron ore at that time were so densely packed that they looked like ants moving.
With such a heavy loss, the king of the Eagle Kingdom was furious and sent a dragon knight to intercept the fleet, but was blocked by the dragon knight of the Iron Ridge Kingdom. It was also in that battle that Merlin·Long-Yam, the captain of the palace fleet, Marquis, fancying the potential of Leewilliam, married his daughter Melissa to him.
Liszt has heard this story since childhood - every time at a banquet, when the nobles recalled the past, they would always mention this story to flatter the earl.
It's a pity that since that battle, Eagle Kingdom has paid more attention to coastline protection and has never had the opportunity to achieve such a brilliant result.
Every year, the blood of a group of knights can only be exchanged for a small amount of metal ore and gemstones.
"Brother is going to the battlefield too?" Liszt was a little surprised.
"Yes, I am twenty-three years old. Although I am not married yet, I am old enough. If I don't go to the battlefield, it will be a stain on me."
Liszt shook his head and pretended to be a pity. "I don't have a qualified knight team, and I don't even have a chance to go to the battlefield. I really want to fight side by side with my brother and win the glory of the knight."
In fact, he didn't want to go to the battlefield.
It would be great to farm safely at home. There are so many deserted islands overseas. If we don't develop them, we have to go to the mainland to shed our lives and blood.