Li Jia rode his horse along the stream, wearing a leather riding suit, holding the reins with both hands, and his hips slightly raised with the rise and fall of the horse's back. Except for his black hair and black eyes, he was no different from the knights of this era.
Occasionally, he would meet ragged farmers or village girls along the way, who would bow their heads to him humbly. In the first few days, he dismounted and tried to persuade them to be less respectful and restrained, but all he got was a look of fear and confusion. Later, he gave up and would just nod to them on horseback, regardless of whether the lowered head could see his greeting.
This place is closer to the center of the kingdom, but the people are far less wealthy than Floro Town, not to mention Suero where merchants gather. Li Jia asked Selina this question, and Selina gave a disgusted answer: Floro Town is located in the border area, the people are tough, and it is difficult to collect taxes. Her lazy father has been hanging out in the capital and the holiday estate all year round, and has not collected taxes properly for many years.
Occasionally, he would think back to the time when he first met Serinda. She was so sunny, cute, lively and confident, just like a country beauty in a knight's novel. However, reality was so cruel that such a character either only appeared in stories or was pretended to be some bored female knight.
After seven or eight days, the negotiation progressed slowly. The Earl avoided discussing many specific issues and just entertained him with good food and accommodation. Li Jia felt that he seemed to be waiting for someone. Li Jia could only spend his time on riding and magic every day. As a result, his riding skills improved a lot, and his magic level was changing with each passing day.
In the Earl's small castle, Serinda has her own study, which contains many books on magic. Every night, she takes time to guide Li Jia in learning spells. Although the Magic Knight is not a real wizard, he is enough to be Li Jia's guide.
There are only two aspects to practicing magic: cultivating mental power and learning magic.
Li Jia is about to reach the bottleneck of concentration and enter the final stage of nurturing consciousness. He is now practicing Serinda's secret concentration technique "Strong Wind Method". When practicing this secret technique, the magician must stand facing the wind and drive his mental power to split the oncoming wind. Li Jia rides a horse every day to practice the secret technique. According to Serinda, when you can feel the flow of air when riding a horse fast, the consciousness will be born.
In the past, even if Li Jia tried his best to control his mental power, he could only feel limited progress every day. But today, Li Jia clearly felt some breakthroughs. He found that he could break the breeze in front of him and make them blow to both sides. He was almost done.
He was happy and rode faster than ever before.
Li Jia didn't know that at this moment, in front of a window of the castle, Serinda and Count Arias were looking at him from afar.
Seeing him riding away, the Earl withdrew his gaze, looked at his daughter and smiled, "It seems that you really value him. The Fierce Wind Method was something your grandfather spent a lot of money to buy for you."
"Mystical skills are life-threatening. They are only valuable when used on humans." Serinda replied coldly, "Do you remember how long I spent concentrating my mind?"
"Three years?"
"Three years, five months and four days! Do you know how long it took him to reach the bottleneck of concentration? One month! Most of that month was spent fighting and traveling!"
The Earl shrugged and said, "He came from the magician's castle. He must have received training in concentration before. He just lacked a breakthrough."
"No, absolutely not! Do you think I can't even tell this? He doesn't have any formed mental power at all, and he's not even a magic apprentice! I tested him myself, and I can feel it!"
The count's expression became serious: "You never told me such an important thing."
"When have you ever cared about these things?" Serinda asked with a sarcastic look. "I have limited talent in magic. Three years have proven that I can't go very far on the path of magic. But one month! Do you understand what this means? In those towers, who has succeeded in concentrating their minds in a month? Master Ikasa of the Spirit Eye Tower only took three months and was labeled as having unlimited potential."
"You are too excited, my dear daughter. The distance between genius and real big shots is as far as the moon."
"But the possibility of him becoming the moon is a hundred times that of others, and ten thousand times that of you!"
"Your father will be sad if you think of him like this." The Count held his forehead with his hand in complaint. He said with a bitter face: "But since he is a genius, why hasn't he been discovered by those magicians? Have you ever thought about this question?"
"There are fools everywhere who mistake treasures for stones! The nobles of the kingdom are especially good at doing this." Serinda's expression seemed to say that you are also such a person. "But this is not important. What is important is that he is now a magician, a magician who may enter the holy realm, and he listens to me. As for you, since you are willing to talk to them, why are you still dragging it out? Li Jia has the authorization of the magicians, and he has also submitted their opinions, but you don't know what you are doing."
"You young people are just too impatient. A falcon flying too fast will miss the rabbit. Actually, I'm doing this for your own good. Look, now you have plenty of time together every day to cultivate your relationship with the future genius holy magician. Isn't this what you want?" the count joked.
"It's true that a dog can't change its bad habits." What Serinda hated most was that every time she talked about serious matters with the Earl, he would lead her in an inexplicable direction, which made her feel very powerless and frustrated.
"I'm going to practice swordplay." She didn't look at him again and turned to leave the room. When she left, she saw Pinto walking towards the door and bowing respectfully to her. But she held her head high and didn't even pause for him, and just ignored Pinto and walked away.
"It seems that the information has been collected. Tell me about it." When talking to Pinto, the count seemed like a different person. Although he still looked a little frivolous on the surface, it was obvious that there was something else in his expression.
"Yes, sir." Pinto did not take out any manuscripts, but spoke entirely from memory. What he talked about was naturally all kinds of information about the school.
As the count listened, he walked to the closet, picked up a glass bottle, and poured the slightly glittering rainbow fruit wine into a highball glass. These were all the good things that had appeared in Suero in the past two months. The count, who always enjoyed himself first, naturally had to catch up with this trend.
"... They opened up a lot of new fields near the Black Mountain, and even sent troops to wipe out two goblin tribes... According to their agricultural staff, there will be something called 'fertilizer' used in the fields in the future. It is said that it is a magic item configured by magicians that can increase food production. However, no one has ever seen that thing..."
"They have built several workshops that can produce bricks, iron, and something called 'glass.' These workshops are very large, with many people working in and out every day, but there are almost no locals involved in the most critical steps, so it is difficult for us to find out what is going on inside. All of Suero's supplies come from them."
"Their trade is very big, not only because of the new products, but also because of the help of two business families. Many goods have been sold to the capital and the empire."
"At least 80% of the villagers in Floro have already obeyed the magician's management. Most of them are farming, hunting, mining, or serving as soldiers for them. Their army is very well organized, and the most elite warriors use a magical weapon called "Five-Six-and-a-Half" with a very long range."
"'Five, six and a half'? Yes, Irus said so. That should be the model of the gun." The count finally spoke.
"We got one of these... guns from a horse thief under Cadiz, but we haven't found a way to use it yet. It seems like something is missing. However, that Li Jia must know, do you want to test him?"
The count drank a glass of wine, shook his head and said, "As long as they continue to use the new weapons, we will eventually find out. I know the virtues of this continent best. They can't survive without using fists. But we can't let the magicians know that we have any relationship with Kadis's actions. You have to cut off this matter completely."
"Except you and me, everyone who knows these things can only go and talk to the God of Nature."
"May they rest in peace. As for Li Jia..." The Count smiled, "Let my dear daughter be the future Holy Magician."
"The slaves that were kidnapped by the magicians Xiao Chen and Luo Ling have now settled down near Black Mountain. They seem to be content with the status quo and there are no signs of rioting for the time being. Our people have been placed inside, but the slaves are under strict surveillance and cannot send out any information. From the news outside, the magicians seem to be discussing how to deal with them."
"This Xiao Chen, and Luo Ling... How strong are they?"
"Xiao Chen must be a very powerful magician, especially good at mental magic. It is said that when suppressing the slave riot, he could deal with hundreds of slaves with one move. As for Luo Ling, a magic knight under Viscount Irus was easily knocked down by her. Several slave traders who negotiated with her said that she secretly used frost magic during a negotiation. But it is difficult to guess how strong she is."
"I heard that these two people are very young?" The count sat down on the chair, leaned back and asked thoughtfully.
"Yes. Everyone who has seen them thinks they are powerful and have great potential, including Master Ikasa."
"Unlimited potential again? So many of them all at once?" The count thought for a while and asked, "Pinto, tell me, based on this information, how do you think we can best handle our relationship with them?"
Pinto seemed a little hesitant. "I... I think..."
"Say, it's okay."
"Gather all the troops and wipe them out!"