"Not all witches in the Fifth Age were keen on riding horses."
While the maid of the Lemaire family went to register Shad and the groom went to prepare the saddle and other supplies, Shad stood in the stable and said to Tifa.
The black-haired girl clasped her hands together and let them hang naturally in front of her chest. She is so elegant and charming at any time.
"You also know about this?"
"Yes."
The two different Witch Reverberations not only gave Shade interesting knowledge, but also allowed him to understand some of the customs and practices of the Fifth Era. He hoped to use this kind of chat to dilute his anxiety:
"Powerful witches can fly on their own, or use alchemical props like flying carpets. Witches who like mounts also have alchemical puppets or very impressive spirit horses. Witches who really like biological mounts prefer unicorns or four-winged Pegasus."
"But even in the Fifth Epoch, unicorns are a rare species. And although there are many four-winged Pegasus, they are also very expensive."
Tifa asked curiously. Shade nodded and patted the chestnut horse's head again, hoping that it wouldn't fall off.
"So, low-level witches and witches who need to travel long distances actually like Chocobo the most."
This is also mentioned in the "Feliana Notes". Miss Feliana likes to travel sideways on a chocobo, and this creature has a good cargo capacity. There is a separate half page in the notes that mentions the food recipe of the chocobo. Unfortunately, in the sixth era, Shade has not seen this creature yet.
As if seeing through Shade's thoughts, Tifa smiled and said:
"I heard from the young lady that there are large populations of chocobos in the Sukses Medical School and the Church of Nature. Other thaumaturgical schools and churches also raise a small number of them. But to prevent ordinary people from seeing them, chocobos are not traded and can only live in the area. If you really go to Saint Byrons in the far north, you should be able to see ring sorcerers riding chocobos traveling through the ancient castle complex and the college city."
This kind of imagination and visual sense instantly brings this world in the steam wave back to the medieval fantasy era.
"I hope there are some Chocobos with the same fur color as Mia."
Shade thought about it, and then recalled the elven knowledge he gained after completing the Time Key of the God's Baccarat Party.
The vast amount of knowledge was only stored in his head, and was not mastered by Shade all at once. But when he recalled it now, the knowledge about elf riding suddenly jumped into his mind.
"oh?"
He suddenly sighed, turned around and asked Tifa:
"Can you lend me a strand of your hair?"
"Sure, what needs to be done?"
"I think I can learn to ride a horse for a short time."
Soon after, a new round of horse racing began again. Shade rode on the chestnut horse and appeared on the second track holding the reins. It seemed that someone had spread the news that "Ray Jed's Hamilton" was also participating in the horse race. When Shade appeared, there was actually a warm applause from the sparse audience.
The sun in the suburbs in late autumn was a bit dazzling, so Xia De raised his hand wearing anti-wear gloves to block the sunlight.
At this time, in the glove of his left hand was the "Animal Gentleness" amulet given by Tifa, and around his waist was an amulet hanging, which was the "Lucky Rider Amulet".
This is the skill of the elves. Using women's hair, elves' tokens and stones in the stable, combined with simple rune carvings, amulets can be made to help riders control their mounts. Of course, elf riders usually use this amulet to tame more powerful mounts instead of ordinary horses.
Shade didn't have the "elves' token", but he had the Eternal Youth Leaf. He used Tifa's long hair and special weaving techniques to tie the leaf to a stone he picked up at random, and then used a knife to carve the elf runes on the surface of the stone - the runes were carved by Tifa, and Shade didn't have such fine craftsmanship.
At this time, the amulet was hanging on Xia De's waist. It was also thanks to this simple amulet that Xia De had the confidence to not embarrass himself in the next game.
That's really interesting.
"She" was chuckling.
The bearded referee in a red shirt had come over, and the riders were getting on their horses and ready to go. On the track to the right of Shade, a young man with brown hair who looked a little older than Shade actually gave Shade the middle finger.
Shade frowned and turned to look at Tifa beside the track. The maid nodded. She had found the target of the delayed lameness spell.
"What's interesting?"
Xia De held the reins nervously.
Do you remember the God of Gamblers blessing “mortals with luck”
The referee blew his whistle to signal the start of the match, and then he raised his revolver toward the sky.
"I have an unusual amount of luck in any gambling game."
So, is there any betting on this horse race
Bang!
Gunshots rang out and Shad set off immediately.
"have."
So, what are you worried about
In the horse race that Xia De participated in, he did not need to leave the racecourse and run around the nearby path, but only needed to run three full laps around the racecourse.
There were 9 runners in the race, and at the start, the horses on track 9 and track 8 collided with each other. Then, when turning the first corner, something like a water bottle fell from the audience, startling the No. 3 runner who was running in the front.
So, when the first lap was over, Shad was at the end of the first group. There were only three horses ahead of him, and the one in the lead was only two and a half lengths faster than him.
The first lap was uneventful, and the power brought by the amulet allowed Xia De to control this docile mount very well. Although this bay horse was not the fastest, it was definitely the most stable, so much so that Xia De almost thought that he could really ride a horse.
In the middle of the second lap, Tifa's delayed lameness spell kicked in. The runner on track 4, who was half a length ahead of Shade, dropped out of the first group with a panicked cry, and cheers and whistles were heard from the audience at the right time.
So Xia De inexplicably became the third.
The race entered the last lap, and Shade, who was getting more and more used to riding horses, became more and more adept at maintaining a steady progress. He lowered his body slightly, thinking only of maintaining the third place until reaching the finish line.
But I didn't expect that on the last long straight track, the chestnut horse actually accelerated on its own. It ran very steadily at the beginning and accelerated very steadily at the end.
When he finally crossed the finish line, Xia De was actually slightly ahead of the second place - this result was confirmed after repeated verification.
As a result, Xia De, who had no idea how to ride a horse, won the second place in this horse race.
Afterwards, when he returned to Miss Carina, Miss Carina smiled and encouraged Shade to continue the competition. According to the competition schedule, if Shade could participate in five consecutive games and get the first place in the total points, he would not only get a very memorable medal, but also a considerable bonus.
Of course Shad refused.
But at least Miss Carina achieved her purpose of changing the topic. After Shad returned to the audience, Queen Diana no longer mentioned the princess, but became interested in Shad's equestrianism.
She even wanted to invite Shade, a young man with the title of knight, to participate in the "Tobesk Equestrian Competition" next spring. The "Tobesk Equestrian Competition" is a regional competition inherited from the old times. It was originally to show the bravery of knights. In the steam age when the knight class declined, it was to enrich the cultural life of citizens.
The "Tobesk Equestrian Competition" requires riders to conduct a long-distance horse race in the wild along a designated route, and use long swords and bows and arrows to attack targets erected along the way. The number of hits and the final arrival time are used to comprehensively rank the winners, and the winners can be awarded the "Delaion Honorary Knight Medal" and be on the headlines of the Delaion Evening News that day. Of course, the winners every year are almost all nobles, and commoners do not have time for such professional training.
This is the most famous official event in the Tobysk region in spring, except for His Majesty the King's inspection of spring sowing.
"I'll think about it."
Xia De evaded the question, but in his heart he didn't want to participate in such an activity at all.
Anyway, Shad spent the rest of the afternoon sitting next to Miss Carina, holding Mia in his arms. It was almost 4:30 in the afternoon when Queen Diana prepared to return to the city.
Miss Carina did not follow, but took Tifa and Shad back to the manor and invited Shad to dinner.
In the dinner restaurant, the crystal lamp above was brightly lit, illuminating the gold and silver utensils on the white tablecloth. In the middle of the long table was a porcelain vase with two wilted roses in it, the two that Shade had given. Of course, the witch noticed Shade's little gesture of handing the flowers to the maid, but she didn't seem to care at all.
The cat lay beside Shad waiting to be fed. Tifa poured wine for the two of them with the fruit wine that Shad had just made. The witch looked at the manor courtyard outside the window, while Shad played with the ring in his hand.
After the horse race, he received the Queen's feather fan and Miss Carina's golden ring as promised. Just as he thought, they were indeed alchemical items made by the witch herself.
"It's not an important thing, it just can detect malicious intent. When malicious eyes are looking at you, you can have a slight sense of it. I will bring it with me when I attend a party with a lot of people, but it is not very effective for a ring warlock. You can just use it as a toy."
Miss Carina introduced, and then saw Shade handing the ring to the cat at hand.
Little Mia, who was lying on the table, moved a little like a wriggling worm, sniffed the ring with her pink little nose, then turned her head away with some disgust, showing no interest at all.
"Hmm? Doesn't it like rings very much?"
Now Xia De didn't understand either.