81 – Groom One-Eyed Barton
Blackdragon was a dragonhorse. Therefore, in order to get a team of Blackdragon horses, the mares should not be too lacking.
Firedragon was the most suitable breeding partner, but it was only a single mare.
Marcus" mount, the yellow-grey horse, was a breed that could be used on the battlefield, but it was a stallion.
The horses of Gort, Isaiah, and Blair were also suitable for the battlefield and they were mares. Generally, mares didn"t go to the battlefield. They were tamer, and therefore, were suitable to serve as mounts for aristocrats and descendants of aristocrats who weren"t particularly fond of the battlefield.
“Before long, we won"t have horses to ride.” Gort had an inscrutable expression as he looked at his horse being ravaged by Blackdragon.
The most crucial point was that this mare clearly had yet to enter its breading season, so Blackdragon was forcing itself on it.
This was the consequence of Liszt"s perverse side. As his mount, Firedragon, had already been defiled by Blackdragon, then the mounts of the others naturally could not be spared.
Marcus had a light smile plastered on his face.
It was unknown whether he was taking joy in seeing Gort"s mount being defiled, or he was looking forward to the day there was a large number of horses in the Flower Town.
He simply said: “Even if pregnant, the mares can still be ridden for the first seven months of their eleven months long pregnancy. After that, the frequency of them being ridden should be reduced. Additionally, they should not be speeding along for long distances, that would increase the risk of the mares having a miscarriage.”
Marcus was quite knowledgeable about horses, but he was not the person most knowledgeable about horses in the Flower Town.
That would be the serf called One-Eyed Barton, who fled from the Smallkerchief Island. He used to be a horse dealer for the Smallkerchief Family. He had extensive experience and had seen many breeds of horses.
“Sir Lord, I have never seen a horse more majestic than Blackdragon, it must have an extraordinary bloodline.” One-Eyed Barton was about forty five years of age. He had a thick beard and was missing an eye.
In order to examine his expertise.
Liszt let him appraise Blackdragon.
“What bloodline do you think it has?”
“I have seen horses with low-ranked magic beast bloodline. Firedragon, the mount that Sir often rides, has low-ranked magic beast bloodline. I have also seen a hybrid of the mid-ranked magic beast Nightmare and an ordinary horse, which was a new breed bread on a horse field in the Blast Furnace Kingdom.
Barton shook his head and then continued: “However, that breed of horses was not as majestic as Blackdragon… Although it was taller than Blackdragon, but it was lacking in spirit. Therefore, my guess is that it must have a bloodline higher than that of a mid-ranked magic beast… Perhaps it has the bloodline of a high-ranked magic beast. But I can"t say for certain.”
He already had a high estimation of Blackdragon"s bloodline, but it still was short of the truth as it was a dragonhorse.
But Liszt had no intentions of mentioning this as he had to be low-key. He asked One-Eyed Barton a few more questions, to which he received clear and reasonable replies.
Next, he said: “Barton, tell me your family name.”
One-Eyed Barton"s expression turned gloomy: “Sir Lord, I was an orphan, without a family name, raised by a horse dealer. Later, Lord Smallkerchief purchased me from the Blast Furnace Kingdom and employed me as a horse dealer.”
“Is that so?” Nodded Liszt, “Have you married?”
“I have not.”
Not having a family name didn"t matter if one didn"t marry. But once he were to marry and have children, then would Barton change his name to Barton Oneeyeddragon?
“Since this is the case, then you don"t need to cultivate the farmland. I will hire you as the castle"s groom. You will be responsible for managing the horse field as well as taking care of the castle"s horses.”
Barton happily kowtowed: “I, Barton, will definitely take good care of Sir"s horse field!”
Being a groom didn"t just meant that he would raise horses, it also meant that he would be a servant belonging to the castle. From now on, so long as he didn"t make mistakes, he wouldn"t have to worry about his basic necessities.
In the aristocratic system, servants were a very important link, shouldering all the work in and preserving the inner workings of the castle.
On the whole.
Servants could be divided into five categories: upstairs servants, retainer knights, downstairs servants, kitchen servants, and outdoor servants.
Upstairs servants included household teachers, household doctors as well as care takers of elderly aristocrats. They generally didn"t live in the castle. However, they could go upstairs to have meals together with the aristocrats.
Retainer knights included retainers that did odd jobs and retainers that fought alongside the aristocrats. They had their own households.
Downstairs servants included butlers, housekeepers, servingmen, and maids. They were the main staff of the castle and lived downstairs.
Kitchen servants were servants working in the kitchen.
There were still outdoor servants. This was a general term that included grooms, coachmen, foresters, hunters, gatekeepers, gardeners, and so on. They generally lived in separate houses outside the castle. Ordinarily, they didn"t work inside the castle, instead they raised horses, grew flowers, hunted, and so on.
If it was a greater aristocrat, then the servants would be further subdivided.
Concierges, caterers, laundry servants, dressers, secretaries, horse trainers, dog trainers, clowns, violinists, drummers, flautists, and so on. In short, so long as aristocrats required it, servants of any specialization could be hired.
For commoners, becoming servants was worthy of aspiring to.
Compared with serfs, servants clearly led better lives and did easier work. Furthermore, aristocrats still established servant relationships among themselves. It was common to see lesser aristocrats acting as servants of greater aristocrats. Taking Gort as an example, as a dest.i.tute chevalier, he was Liszt"s household teacher.
Even the count of the Coral Island, a Sky Knight with absolute power on the island, felt honored to serve the Sapphire Grand Duke as a groom.
The longer Liszt lived in his fief"s castle, the more he felt that there was no equality between people.
“Barton, I want you to first take care of Blackdragon, it has been very troublesome recently. I don"t want to see it one day collapsing atop some mare.” Liszt looked at Blackdragon, which exerted itself day and night, and said solemnly.
Barton carefully observed Blackdragon"s teeth through its open mouth: “This is still a young steed, so it is normal for it to e a bit restless, but as the weather is getting hotter and hotter, its estrous will weaken over time. However, it is necessary to properly divide up the number of times it mates with each mare.”
“First of all, you must ensure that Firedragon gets pregnant.”
“Understood, Master.” Barton quickly blended into the role of a groom by calling Liszt master.
……
In order for Firedragon to get pregnant as quickly as possible, Liszt decided not to ride Blackdragon or Firedragon. He changed to an ordinary horse and continued with his practice of archery.
In mid July, he managed to hit the targets one by one while speedily moving atop a horse, with the arrows not straying far from the bullseye. At this point, Marcus announced that he had officially graduated from [Fundamental Archery] and could start practicing [Multiple Arrows]. When all was said and done, it had merely taken him a week to learn it.
Therefore, he was very confident in learning [Multiple Arrows], expecting to completely grasp it before the beginning of August.
“Master, here is your ice cream.” Thomas carried a cup of fragrant ice cream.
Liszt, who even in this extremely hot weather still worked hard on his archery, took the ice cream and finished it with a few big mouthfuls. Following which, a slight chill ran trough his entire body. Its refreshing taste was too wonderful for words. If it were not for ice cream, cold bear, and cold juice, he would not be able to practice archery at the height of summer.
Fortunately, the extremely small saltpeter mine had been discovered. Altogether, three hundred catty of saltpeter had been mined, which was enough for the castle to produce enough ice everyday.
At night, a few pieces of ice would be placed in Liszt"s study and bedroom to lower the temperature.
With ice, the summer was not hard to bear.