Chapter 16 : Kingdom Nobility, Mysterious Bone Flute
Chapter 16: Kingdom Nobility, Mysterious Bone Flute
At this moment, Zoro stabbed his silver fork into the blood-streaked steak, the utensil scraping lightly against the plate.
His eyes, indifferent, were fixed on the group of Knight’s Squires and young officers at the far end of the banquet hall.
The well-dressed youths surrounded a fair-skinned young girl.
At the center of everyone’s attention, the girl had long golden hair. Both her appearance and figure were exceptionally outstanding.
She spoke familiarly with the Knight’s Squires around her, yet every gesture carried a faint air of superiority.
A young officer gathered his courage. “Miss Merlin, you mentioned earlier that your lady is discussing important matters with a knight. Would you grant me the honor of a dance?”
“This handsome sir, I’m afraid I cannot accept your invitation. If my lady comes out and sees me slacking off, I will surely be punished.” Merlin covered her mouth as she laughed. The movement of her chest trembled with her laughter, stirring even more restlessness among the surrounding young officers.
“Miss Merlin, with beauty like yours, it must be unmatched even in the Danlun Kingdom.”
Merlin couldn’t help but laugh. “No, no, please don’t say that. If such words spread to the kingdom, I would be ridiculed. With my looks, compared to the ladies of the kingdom, I can only be considered ordinary.”
“What?!” The surrounding young men gasped in astonishment.
Their imaginations of the Danlun Kingdom—the land of dreams—began to soar.
To them, Merlin already represented the pinnacle of beauty they could imagine, even surpassing Eve Sova by a touch of charm and allure.
Yet she claimed that in the kingdom, she was merely average.
The Danlun Kingdom—the dream destination of all knights.
Unless one was a titled noble invited there—
For ordinary knights, there was only one way to enter: joining the Golden Knight Order.
In Blackstone City, only Laforin had the qualification to recommend candidates.
And for most of them, they would never step foot on that land in their entire lives.
As they spoke, the harp music abruptly stopped.
The doors of the meeting hall opened, and a noblewoman wearing a thin veil hat stepped out.
Laforin followed behind her.
Merlin hurriedly squeezed through the crowd and stood behind the noblewoman.
The three of them passed through the banquet hall and headed straight toward the main entrance.
Laforin gave Zoro a look, and Zoro followed at a distance.
Only after the four of them left the hall did the previously spacious banquet hall seem to breathe again.
Half a minute later, the music resumed.
……
Under the night sky, the four exited from the large stable in the front courtyard.
The noblewoman spoke calmly, “Well done. Take good care of it during this period. As for what you requested, I will speak to the duke about it.”
Laforin knelt on one knee, performing a knight’s salute. “Thank you, Duchess. Would you like to stay the night before departing?”
“No need.” The noblewoman extended her hand, adorned with a family signet ring, allowing Laforin to kiss the back of her hand. “Let’s go, Merlin.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Laforin pointed toward the back courtyard. “Your horses are over there. Zoro, go bring them.”
“Yes.”
“No need.” Merlin took out a finger-length bone flute from her bosom and blew it softly.
Before long, two fine horses ran over from the direction of the stable on their own.
Merlin stroked the horses’ heads. “Sir Laforin, your Stablehand is quite good. He has taken excellent care of them—fed them night grass, groomed their coats, and even thoughtfully replaced their horseshoes. Look how lively they are.”
The two horses neighed and then knelt down. Merlin helped the noblewoman mount one of them.
“I like people who do things seriously.” The noblewoman lowered the veil of her hat gracefully, then spurred her horse and leaped into the air.
Laforin pondered her words before replying, “Yes, my lady. I will reward him properly.”
Merlin also mounted her horse and leaped into the air. She tossed the bone flute in her hand to Laforin. “Sir Knight, your Stablehand truly loves animals. Please pass this flute to him as payment for taking care of our horses.”
Holding the bone flute, Laforin looked at Merlin, her long hair flowing in the air, and faintly noticed the pointed ears hidden within her hair.
He lowered his head and did not look further. “Of course. I will deliver it on your behalf.”
Such was the authority of the kingdom—even as merely the personal maid of a duchess, she could not be slighted.
In the next moment, the two horses soared into the sky, reaching a hundred meters in an instant before disappearing into the horizon.
Laforin’s ears twitched slightly, as if he faintly heard two distant dragon roars.
……
Two days later, Butler Burton found Leo.
With Laforin’s permission, Leo obtained his first warhorse.
“You mean… Sir Knight is giving me a warhorse?” Leo suspected he had misheard.
“Sir Knight appreciates how you have taken care of his beloved horses recently and has made this decision.” Burton took out a wooden box and handed it to Leo. “Also, this was entrusted to you by the owners of those two horses from a few days ago.”
Burton had studied the item for a long time but found nothing special about it.
It seemed to be nothing more than a simple whistle, so he brought it over today.
Leo opened the box.
Inside was a white bone flute about the length of a finger.
He then looked toward the stable and chose his favorite white horse.
“Remember Sir Knight’s generosity.” Burton said before leaving.
Holding the bone flute, Leo couldn’t immediately discern anything special.
However, he noticed that the horses seemed particularly drawn to it—all six of them stared intently at the flute.
“You’re saying… you really like the scent on this flute.”
Leo was somewhat particular about cleanliness.
He spat a little saliva onto the bone flute, wiped it vigorously with his sleeve, and tried blowing it.
Beep~
The sound of the bone flute was not loud, but in the next moment, he sensed its wonder.
He stared into the eyes of the white horse in front of him, and the horse’s memories from last night surfaced clearly.
Leo realized that the duration of memory he could read had increased.
Previously, he could only see about one hour’s worth of memory fragments—now it had extended to half a day.
He glanced at his Spirit attribute—there was no change.
But it seemed that because of this bone flute, his influence over the horses through his spirit had been amplified.
Or perhaps the horses had opened their hearts to him?
What exactly was this thing?
“Burton said earlier that this was given by the owners of those two horses…” Leo recalled the two strange horses that had appeared in the stable a few days ago, along with the memory fragments he had seen from them.
“They were the noblewoman and the young girl from the Danlun Kingdom.”
Later, Leo had heard about these mysterious guests.
At the time, he had simply taken care of their horses to grind proficiency.
He never expected that such a casual good deed would bring this kind of reward.