Before Liszt could give the order to search for a Dragon-Blood Horse, Gortai, who was in charge of replacing the Dairy Farm's alfalfa, hurried to the castle early that morning.
"Liszt, good news! The alfalfa we just planted has sprouted and is growing very well. Most importantly, somehow a wild horse has appeared and come to eat it. It's an exceptionally fine horse—oh, even taller and stronger than your Fire Dragon Horse!"
"Get Teacher Marcus. Let's go to the Dairy Farm and have a look at this wild horse. It ate the alfalfa, so it'll have to sell itself to pay for its feed, right?"
"Exactly. Its feed bill is itself. Haha!"
Everything in the domain belonged to the lord. There was no doubt that this wild horse was Liszt's private property.
The group quickly arrived at the Dairy Farm. Sure enough, they saw a black wild horse leisurely eating the newly sprouted alfalfa in the pasture that should have belonged to the cows. It was tall, with a glossy coat and a powerful build. Its muscles were clearly defined.
"Teacher Marcus, you're an expert at judging horses. What do you think of this one?"
The wild horse had noticed Liszt and the others, but seemed quite bold. When they didn't approach, it lowered its head and went back to eating.
Marcus's eyes gleamed. He said excitedly, "My lord, what a steed! Its bones are fine, but its frame is large. Its muscles are beautifully shaped, and it has long legs and long tendons. Its neck is long and straight, angled forward, and its hindquarters are well-formed. Its coat is also very glossy, which shows it's perfectly healthy. Most important of all are its eyes—they're sharp!"
"How does it compare with the Blue Blood Steed?"
"Sorry, my lord, I've never seen a Blue Blood Steed. The finest horse I've seen was the count's Di Leopard, which is said to carry the blood of the magical Drywood Leopard. But even the Di Leopard is nowhere near as fine as this wild horse."
A horse with a white forehead was called a Di.
The Di Leopard was the Coral Island count's mount, so Liszt was naturally familiar with it.
The black wild horse before them had far more presence than the Di Leopard. After all, dragons were the most sacred creatures, and Dragon-Blood Horses were the noblest of all horses.
"How do we catch it?"
Marcus said, "I could knock it over with my bare hands. It's only a horse, after all. But if you want it as your mount, my lord, you'll have to subdue it yourself. A wild horse only submits to someone who can overpower it."
Liszt had no intention of making the Dragon-Blood Horse his mount. He wanted it to become a true stud and breed a whole herd of Dragon-Blood Horses.
Still, taming a wild Dragon-Blood Horse sounded like fun, and Liszt didn't ask Marcus to do it for him.
He walked toward the wild horse himself.
As he drew near, the horse immediately grew alert. It turned around and glared fiercely at Liszt, as if warning him not to cross the line.
When Liszt came closer, the horse finally lost patience and lunged at him, trying to bite.
Liszt twisted his body. His excellent horsemanship let him flip onto the horse's back in an instant. Humiliated at having someone ride it, the wild horse thrashed and bucked wildly, trying to throw him off. But Liszt clamped his arms around its neck, his battle aura surging, and remained unmoved.
An Earth Knight could stand against a true magical beast, let alone a horse.
Half an hour later, the exhausted wild horse finally stopped struggling. Panting, it let Liszt ride it and guide it left and right.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Liszt laughed. "What a stubborn big fellow. Your coat is pure black—not a single stray hair. I'll just call you Li Dragon."
A pure black horse was called a Li.
And with its faint dragon blood, the name Li Dragon suited it perfectly.
"Karl, bring me some bran cakes." Liszt dismounted. Taming a wild horse wasn't especially difficult, but it was exhausting. He was drenched in sweat.
Just then, the Fire Dragon Horse came over too. She was a young mare.
She rubbed against Liszt's shoulder while staring wide-eyed at the tall Li Dragon Horse beside her. But the Li Dragon Horse didn't even spare her a proper glance. It held its head high, made no effort to ingratiate itself with Liszt, and kept a trace of its defiant spirit.
Even when Liszt took a bran cake and fed it, it showed no affection.
"My lord, the Li Dragon Horse is an adult. If you plan to raise it as a warhorse, it would be best to geld it so it doesn't lose weight when it gets restless," Marcus said.
"Geld it?" Liszt waved a hand. "That won't do. I've already decided the Li Dragon Horse will be a stud and breed a herd of horses for Flower Town. It would be a huge loss if such an extraordinary horse couldn't pass on its bloodline."
"You intend to use it as a stud?" Marcus nodded, approving of the decision.
Even though he didn't know the Li Dragon Horse was a Dragon-Blood Horse, he could still see how extraordinary it was. It would indeed be a shame to geld a horse like this.
The Li Dragon Horse, completely unaware that it had just escaped a close call, ate its bran cake and had already returned to its original, contented state.
Every now and then, it took a few bites of the alfalfa on the ground.
Gortai tried to step forward and pet it, but the Li Dragon Horse snorted, making him jump. He had no choice but to awkwardly change the subject. "Where did the Li Dragon Horse come from? Did it walk here from Thorn Ridge?"
"Perhaps there are more Li Dragon Horses in Thorn Ridge... It's strange when you think about it: there are wild horses on the island," Marcus guessed.
Horses generally lived on the grasslands.
Coral Island didn't have enough grassland to support wild horses, so it seemed unlikely that they could have originated there naturally.
"Maybe it wandered here from somewhere else, or maybe horses raised by the island's former residents went wild. In any case, it couldn't have appeared out of nowhere. And Liszt, I think another Li Dragon Horse might come out of Thorn Ridge in a few days. If that happens, we could really have a herd of them."
"That would be ideal."
Liszt was puzzled too.
He didn't know whether to believe the Li Dragon Horse had always lived on this land, or whether some force behind the Smoke Mission had conjured one up out of thin air. He leaned toward believing that the Li Dragon Horse had always lived here, and that the Smoke Mission was merely a trigger mechanism rather than something that created it outright.
As for what the Smoke Mission really was, he had no way of figuring it out for now.
He could only set the question aside and seek an answer later.
Looking at the tender new alfalfa, whose growth had formed a lovely meadow, he suddenly thought of the wasteland outside the castle. "Teacher Gortai, what do you think about planting alfalfa in the wasteland around the castle? We could build a horse farm outside and raise a herd of Li Dragon Horses."
"Hmm, that should work. Why not give it a try?"
"Then I'll leave it to you, Teacher Gortai."
Liszt rode the Li Dragon Horse back to the castle.
Gortai and Marcus also prepared to head back. On the way, Gortai suddenly asked, "Marcus, you're calling Liszt 'my lord' now?"
"Yes."
"That doesn't seem like you. You made your decision so quickly."
"I don't have many choices, Mr. Gortai." Marcus gazed into the distance. The small castle basked in the sunlight, gleaming brightly. "Besides, don't you always say he has the bearing of the count? I believe he won't stay hidden away forever in a remote place like Flower Town."
"Perhaps," Gortai replied noncommittally.