The rocking carriage jolted Liszt into a drowsy haze.
They had traveled all the way from Sea Crab City to Red Stone City, where they spent the night. At dawn, after another two hours on the road, they finally saw Long-Yam Castle, perched halfway up the mountain.
Long-Yam Castle was almost four times the size of Tulip Castle, with arrow towers that rose a hundred or two hundred meters high. Perched halfway up the mountain, the castle seemed to blend right into the range.
Back on his home planet, Earth, Liszt had visited Neuschwanstein Castle in Europe.
Neuschwanstein was about as imposing as Tulip Castle, but it lacked Tulip Castle's perilous setting, backed against a cliff. Compared with Long-Yam Castle before him, though, Neuschwanstein seemed so modest. Long-Yam Castle alone had the grandeur of the White City in The Lord of the Rings.
A city lay below the castle.
The carriage didn't need to pass through the city. It headed straight toward the castle along a somewhat steep mountain road. Halfway up, a patrol of Long-Yam Castle's knights spotted them and came to meet them. When they learned the travelers were relatives of the Tulip Family, the knights immediately escorted the carriage to the castle.
One of the knights also galloped up the mountain to deliver the news ahead of them.
So when the carriage reached the castle gates, the heir to Long-Yam Castle, the three siblings' cousin, Meopel Long-Yam, was already waiting with the servants.
"Levis, Lvera, Liszt." Meopel was handsome and graceful, his sapphire-blue eyes especially striking. "I heard you were coming in your letter, and I've been looking forward to seeing you for a long time. Was the journey smooth?"
Liszt had to admit it.
His cousin stood out in both looks and bearing, every bit his equal. Standing together, they looked more like brothers than he and Levis did.
"Everything went smoothly, Cousin Meopel."
"Cousin, you've grown even more beautiful since last year."
"Thank you for the compliment, Cousin. But compared with your handsome face, I can't help feeling you're teasing me." Lvera looked at Meopel and spoke half in jest, half in earnest.
Meopel laughed. "It's not something I can help, is it, Liszt?" He directed the second half of his remark at Liszt.
Liszt smiled faintly.
At last, he knew that Lvera had bullied him all these years out of jealousy over his looks. "You're right, Cousin."
"Haha, it seems great men do think alike. Come on, let's head inside. Father is away overseeing the quarterly tax collection and hasn't returned yet. Grandfather is resting. When he heard you were coming, he was delighted."
"How is Grandfather's health?"
Meopel sighed. "His illness is from complications caused by an old injury. It comes and goes. The Grand Duke has sent the court physicians to treat him, so I'm sure he'll recover."
In a lavish bedroom sat the master of Red Crab Island, one of the Grand Duchy's seven marquises, former commander of the palace fleet, and the most esteemed man in Long-Yam Castle.
Merlin Long-Yam.
He was a man in his seventies. His pale, wrinkled face still bore the dignity of a life spent in comfort, but he could no longer hide the weakness that age and illness had brought him.
Even a Sky Knight who had once soared through the air could not withstand the carving hand of time.
His sapphire-blue eyes had turned cloudy, to say nothing of his head of white hair.
He leaned quietly against the headboard. A low tea table rested on his blanket, and with a quill dipped in ink, he struggled to write on a sheet of parchment.
The age spots on his face stood out clearly.
"Master, the young master has brought the three young masters and young lady from the Tulip Family into the castle." The butler, nearly as old as Marquis Merlin, didn't want to disturb him and kept his voice especially soft.
Marquis Merlin's quill paused for a moment, then continued moving. Without looking up, he said, "Melissa's children? Then let them come see this old man who's already halfway into his grave."
"Master, you're only temporarily unwell. You'll recover soon. You said yourself that you'd live to a hundred and outlast Marquis Wallace next door."
"Haha, I also threatened the Grand Duke's Sapphire Dragon, saying I'd slaughter it if it wouldn't make me a Dragonlord. That didn't do me any good either. This time, I'm sure I'll lose to that old fossil." Marquis Merlin laughed heartily, quickly wrote the final few words, and set down his quill.
A servant standing nearby immediately carried away the tea table.
The old butler helped the marquis settle back against the headboard. Once he was sitting securely, he leaned over and straightened the red bow tie at the marquis's chest.
A servant brought over a bronze mirror.
The other servants took turns serving the marquis, bringing him water, towels, and a hairpin.
The marquis carefully tidied his appearance, quickly transforming from a frail old man in his twilight years back into a figure of authority. Then he waited.
When he heard familiar footsteps outside the door, a glimmer of light shone in his cloudy eyes.
It soon faded again.
Meopel entered the bedroom with the three siblings.
Levis led the way, bringing Lvera and Liszt to the bedside. They paid their respects to Marquis Merlin as grandchildren. "Grandfather, Lvera and Liszt and I have come to visit you. Father also asked me to send his sincere regards. He hopes you'll recover at once and regain the bearing of Long-Yam Castle's master."
"Your father is thoughtful." The marquis nodded faintly. "Was the journey smooth?"
"Very smooth."
"That's good. Since you've come to visit your grandfather, stay at Long-Yam Castle for a few more days."
"Yes, Grandfather."
The marquis looked past Levis and Lvera to Liszt, his eyes full of nostalgia. "Liszt, you've come of age."
"Yes. My coming-of-age ceremony was on March ninth this year."
"I heard your father enfeoffed you as a baron. Which town did he give you?"
"Flower Town."
"Hmm, he couldn't even spare a viscount's title. It seems Leewilliam is a poor earl indeed." Marquis Merlin's assessment was blunt, but his tone soon turned wistful. "I wasn't there to witness your coming-of-age ceremony. Melissa must blame me for that. Looking at you is like seeing Melissa standing before me."
Meopel chimed in. "Grandfather, my cousin Liszt really does look so much like Aunt Melissa. When I saw Aunt Melissa as a child, I thought the Flower of Long-Yam was the most dazzling flower in the Grand Duchy."
"I can't remember what my mother looked like. I can only admire her portrait at Tulip Castle," Liszt said. His past self truly had no memories of his mother.
Melissa had died when Liszt was two. What could a two-year-old remember?
There was a portrait of Melissa in the castle, but he rarely looked at it. And even as a portrait, it was so inaccurate that it could hardly capture what she had been like in person.
It was a regret he would always carry.
The marquis quickly composed himself. "More than ten years can sometimes feel like they passed only yesterday... You must be tired from the journey. Meopel, take your cousins to rest. I want all the young men and women to be full of energy at the luncheon. And if time permits, you young people should hold a ball tomorrow night and liven things up a bit."