107 – Correction of the Knight Squad"s Att.i.tude
The next day.
The sun was rising from the east.
On the court, Liszt shouted: “Multiple Phantom Arrows!”
While issuing hissing sounds, the later three arrows chased up to the former three arrows and instantly collided midair. Next, the trajectories of the arrows became disorderly, not entering formation.
Only two arrows managed to hit the target one hundred meters away.
“Failure.” He shook his head. It was only natural for him to fail again, his archery had yet to reach the level at which he could display [Multiple Arrows]"s ultimate meaning – Multiple Phantom Arrows.
Additionally, because it had been quite a few days since he last touched his bow and arrows, his level had even regressed a bit.
A boat sailing against the stream must forge ahead lest it will be driven back, this was both true for cultivating qi as well as mastering techniques. Fortunately, he was already very skilled at the most basic part of [Multiple Arrows] – double arrows.
For Earth Knights, effectively displaying double arrows was good enough.
He looked at Marcus training the knight squad not far away. Just yesterday, another youngster managed to cultivate qi, becoming a retainer knight of his. Of the twenty people, half of them had already become Apprentice Knights with low-ranked qi. What remained was to wait until all of them cultivated qi.
At that time, he could initiate his campaign against the Thorns Ridge.
“The Thorns Ridge must be taken down before winter!” Without disturbing Marcus" teaching, Liszt handed his equipment to a retainer knight and strode back to the castle atop a horse.
After taking a shower, Liszt was ready to take his breakfast.
The butler Carter standing aside reported: “Master, the town"s baker Renal and Mrs. Abby succeeded in making a new type of bread. Would you like to try it?”
“So they finally succeeded. Bring me some.”
The new bread didn"t look like what he had imagined, it didn"t look like meat floss bread and instead, looked like a round steamed bun. When its surface was split open, a thick cream could be seen flowing inside.
“What bread is this?”
“It doesn"t have a name yet, waiting for you to name it, Master. According to Mrs. Abby, flour, eggs, and cream… were used to make it. It is divided into two parts, inner and outer. Although the outer part is troublesome to produce, but once the backed bread is split open, it looks very appealing.” Narrated Carter the method for making the new bread in detail.
Liszt picked up a piece and took a bite.
The fragrance of the cream immediately blended with the fragrance of the bread, stimulating his taste buds. It was much better than the simple white bread.
This flavor, this appearance… Liszt stated directly: “Mr. Carter, tell Mrs. Abby and Renal that it shall be called – pineapple bread!”
“Pineapple bread, what an imaginative name.”
“Hence forth, for breakfast I want pineapple bread to subst.i.tute for white bread. As for lunch and dinner, in can be as is. Contact Shylock, the Thorns Caravan is to cooperate with Renal to see whether there is an appet.i.te for pineapple bread in the Northvalley City.” Arranged Liszt the sale plan for pineapple bread in a flash.
He continued after contemplating for a moment: “Additionally, tell Renal and Mrs. Abby, that as a reward for inventing the new bread, they each will receive… ten silver coins. Also, if they want to, they can continue to invent new types of bread. The more flavors there are, the better.”
Initially, he wanted to reward them with one gold coin each.
With the recent sale of black pearls, his coin pouch was bulging and thus, he felt magnanimous.
However, when compared with the discovery of sprite worms and the cultivation of magic ingredients, a reward of one gold coin was too exaggerated. After all, it was just bread, a means to please the tongue. It was not worth too great of a reward.
Therefore, he changed the reward to ten silver coins.
Once Carter departed, Liszt slowly savored the pineapple bread. He was very pleased with himself for having reigned in his urge to be magnanimous: “He who takes charge knows responsibility. Even a lord doesn"t have extra food to spare.”
Unhurriedly, faint smoke rose before his eyes and twisted into Serpentines.
“Mission completed. Reward: a treasure shipwreck.”
After a while, the symbols dispersed into smoke before issuing a new mission: “Mission: Recently, Kosto has been quite distressed. Ever since he became the knight squad"s sailing teacher, he had been working hard, yet the knight squad"s youngsters don"t take sailing knowledge seriously. Please correct the youngsters" att.i.tude. Reward: a variant type of thorns.”
“The treasure shipwreck has arrived at last… The knight squad is not willing to learn sailing knowledge? There might be some connection between the mission reward and the new mission. Perhaps only Kosto can discover the treasure shipwreck.” He rang a bell to call the old butler, who had yet to go far.
“Master.”
“Send for Captain Kosto, I have something to ask him.”
“Yes, Master.”
Kosto arrived at the castle about half an hour later: “Sorry for the hold-up, Sir Lord, I was diving.”
“Diving?”
“I was exercising my swimming ability and underwater combat capability. Although I"m not a knight, but I"m also eager to do battle.”
“How has the knight squad been doing?”
“This…” Kosto hesitated.
“You can speak freely.”
“Your retainer knights show great animosity towards learning sailing knowledge. They aren"t too excited about learning how to swim, let alone alone learning how to sail. They keep saying that ‘knights rely on horses, not sailboats". Moreover, Mr. Marcus claims a great deal of the knights" time.”
Liszt instantly understood the situation.
Although Marcus had already been subdued and had started to follow Liszt loyally as well as had realized that the sea could provide riches, yet deep down, he still revered the glory of knights, having his mind set on charging into battle on horseback. As for ships, he believed that they only served to send them to the continent to battle; there was no need to learn any sailing knowledge.
Thus, he transmitted his ideals to the knight squad and even seized some of Kosto"s teaching time.
Liszt sighed lightly. It was quite easy to change a person"s ident.i.ty, but not their ideals.
Fortunately, as the lord, he could compel the other.
He immediately summoned Marcus and the knight squad and convened them outside the castle"s gate.
Liszt started to admonish: “Starting today, you are to learn sailing knowledge from Captain Kosto for half a day"s time each day. Within three days, you are to learn how to swim; otherwise, you"ll receive fifty lashes! A week later, I will examine you regarding your sailing related knowledge; wrong answers will be rewarded with ten lashes!”
The youngsters wanted to complain, but they didn"t dare.
Liszt ignored them. He called Marcus to the study: “Teacher Marcus, you should know the reason why I called you, right?”
Marcus said solemnly: “Sir, I don"t think that knights need to be distracted by learning how to sail. It"s true that we need to use ships to cross the sea to go to the continent, but they can be operated by ordinary sailors. Let us knights concentrate on combat. That is also the modus operandi of the Coral Island"s knight order.”
He made some sense.
Knights belonged to land forces, yet Liszt wanted them to act as sea forces. The other was naturally unwilling.
However, Liszt had his own reasons: “Of the twenty people in the knight squad, how many people can become Earth Knights? When do you think they can become Earth Knights?”
“I think that before the age of twenty, there should be two people able of becoming Earth Knights – Philip and Xavier are rather talented.” Answered Marcus.
“Two… After putting great efforts into raising them, only two Earth Knights can be harvested. Can they form a knight squad and go to the battlefield on the continent?”
“I am willing to fight to the death for Sir!”
“I appreciate it, but that would be a foolish act. The Flower Town is still developing. I already purchased a large number of serfs. In the future, I will periodically select outstanding youngsters to be trained. Currently, what I need are instructors adept at a variety of basic skills and not good-for-nothings proficient in combat.”
“What do you mean?”
“Teacher Marcus, among these youngsters, some will become the knight squad"s backbone, while others, will be a.s.signed to steer ships. In the future, they will transport my knights to the continent to vie over minerals… Each doing their part while working together, this is what I mean, do you understand?”
Although Liszt"s adopted a placid expression, but his gaze was severe.
Marcus took a deep breath, knelt on one knee, lowered his head, and replied bluntly: “I have misunderstood Sir and have been pa.s.sively resisting Sir"s arrangements for the knight squad! Sir, please punish me!”