The carriage moved steadily, and in the distance, the silhouette of the castle came into view.
The black-haired youth sat in the front compartment, breathing in the fresh countryside air. He opened his eyes and greeted the gentle morning sunlight with a faint, warm smile.
Yesterday, the two of them had left the fishing village and headed straight for the lord’s manor. Halfway there, Lu Qiuchen said she needed to step away for a while, leaving Zhang Cheng to search for clues about Laity alone.
Zhang Cheng was puzzled at the time, but when he turned around, Lu Qiuchen had already disappeared from the carriage. He had no choice but to continue alone toward the lord’s manor.
Without Lu Qiuchen by his side, Zhang Cheng felt somewhat uneasy. After walking a short distance, he began to worry about her. Seeing that the sky was getting late, he decided to stop the carriage by the roadside, lit a candle, and made do with a meal of stinky salted fish and black bread. In the dim candlelight, he practiced various combat moves and skills.
But even by the next morning, Lu Qiuchen had yet to return. Left with no other option, Zhang Cheng resumed his journey alone.
He drove the carriage slowly closer to the massive manor.
The manor was built on a gentle hillside—not very wide, but extremely long, stretching from the hilltop down to the foot of the hill. The lord’s castle was situated at the slope’s summit.
The lord’s family, knights, stewards, and attendants all lived within the castle. Outside the castle were the manor’s auxiliary buildings: a bakery, blacksmith, brewery, stables, and various storage facilities belonging exclusively to the lord.
Servants working in the castle resided in houses at lower elevations. Beyond those were the serfs’ and craftsmen’s dwellings, the marketplace, mill, workshops, and granaries—public buildings essential to the manor’s functioning.
The outermost layer of the manor was farmland, forest, and pastureland, where the serfs worked daily. Unlike the villages Zhang Cheng had seen before, the lord’s manor was private property. The serfs were not free; they could not leave the manor without the lord’s permission. However, the lord was also obligated to ensure the serfs’ living conditions.
Zhang Cheng had learned from the forums that, unlike other countries on the Southern Continent, the Knight Kingdom granted serfs the right to buy their freedom after the establishment of the Knights’ Council. However, most would remain working on the manor even after redeeming themselves, since a lifetime of secure food and shelter under the lord’s protection was safer than venturing out into the unknown.
Zhang Cheng watched the gaunt serfs laboring in the fields, then glanced at the tall knights “escorting” him nearby, silently reflecting on the world’s disparities.
As mentioned earlier, the manor was the lord’s private property. Zhang Cheng had brazenly entered without notification, thus trespassing. As he neared the manor, patrolling knights noticed him and “escorted” him under guard.
However, Zhang Cheng was fully armed and radiated the aura of a powerful warrior, causing the knights to hesitate before taking any rash action. After Zhang Cheng explained his purpose, the knights reported to the lord and left a contingent to accompany the carriage.
Since he was searching for that Zorral, enlisting the local lord’s support might be a good idea, Zhang Cheng thought.
According to the innkeeper, the knights who collected the rent had already informed the lord. It had been a week since then; if the Zorral hadn’t been caught, the lord was likely troubled by the matter—making it the perfect opportunity for Zhang Cheng to join forces with him.
If the lord had already captured the Zorral, that would be fine too. This was a remote rural area, and Zhang Cheng was confident he could take the Celestial Fragment by his own strength.
Inside the castle, Lord Delong Cohen frowned deeply when a knight reported that a Saint-level knight had arrived to inquire about the Zorral.
“A Guardian Knight?”
“I sent out the message at the Adventurers’ Guild yesterday and rushed here today. Was it a coincidence, or premeditated? There shouldn’t be warriors this strong in the nearby adventurer branches. I don’t know if he has other motives. It seems I must meet him personally to find out.”
After the knight confirmed this, Delong Cohen stood up briskly and strode out of the castle to personally greet his guest.
The steward behind him, seeing the young baron’s urgency, instructed the servants to prepare Earl Grey tea for the guest while sighing internally: “The young master’s adventurer temperament hasn’t changed. After years of adventuring, his knightly demeanor has worn away. Looks like we’ll need to add more etiquette lessons.”
At the castle gate, Zhang Cheng met the local lord. Both were taken aback by how young the other appeared.
Delong Cohen studied the black-haired youth in the carriage, surprised that someone so young already possessed the power of a Guardian Knight. Yet he had no impression of this youth at all.
He seemed to have only just broken through recently—the aura around him had not fully settled and was still leaking outward. Delong secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Having broken through to Saint level at twenty-two, and only recently entering mid-stage Saint level after five years, he was considered a prodigy in his family. If any young man could so easily surpass him, he’d lose all grounds for boasting.
Zhang Cheng was equally surprised that the lord was a Guardian Knight himself and appeared to be under thirty. The system showed him at level 88—two levels higher than Zhang Cheng’s recent breakthrough.
How he had achieved such a level was something Zhang Cheng understood all too well. This knight lord restrained his aura skillfully; without the system’s aid, Zhang Cheng could not gauge his true strength. That was a skill far beyond what a mediocre warrior like himself could match!
Amid mutual surprise, they saluted and introduced themselves. Zhang Cheng had reviewed medieval knightly gestures on the forum before arriving but was frustrated by the complex etiquette. An idea struck him—he had donned full armor so that he only needed to remove his great helm, place a hand over his chest, and nod in greeting, regardless of who he met.
What Zhang Cheng didn’t know was that, because he had reached Saint level, he didn’t actually need to perform formal salutations to minor nobles. In fact, doing so might cause lesser nobles to fawn over him instead.
“Pleased to meet you, Lord. I am Childers, a wandering knight from the County of Harem.” Zhang Cheng jumped down from the carriage, tossed his great helm onto the carriage, placed his left hand on his right chest, and gave a slight nod to Delong.
“Wandering Knight” was a self-designation among some knights who did not belong to the royal family or the church. This term arose because advancing from Guardian Knight to higher classes was extremely difficult. Those who were Guardian Knights but did not belong to the church or royal knight orders often stagnated in their progress and jokingly called themselves wandering knights.
Most wandering knights served as vassals to powerful nobles or joined large adventuring parties; they were not truly wanderers.
“Greetings. I am Delong Cohen, Baron of Tridnan and a candidate of the Royal Knights. I’m sorry, but I have not heard your name before.”
Delong returned the salute but furrowed his brows in thought. The County of Harem was not far from his fief. Had his information been too limited?
Such a young Guardian Knight was rare throughout the entire Knight Kingdom, and even more so one without any affiliations—a truly extraordinary case.
In the Knight Kingdom, highly talented young knights attracted the council’s attention and were given special training. The vast majority ended up on the Royal Knights’ candidate list, just like Delong himself.
Zhang Cheng was also surprised by the lord’s identity. He had been briefed by Lu Qiuchen on the Knight Kingdom’s situation. The Cohen family was one of the twelve great houses controlling the Knight Kingdom. That Baron Delong had reached Saint-level power so young and was in the Royal Knights’ reserves clearly marked him as a core member of the Cohen family.
Zhang Cheng had expected the local lord to be a fat, lazy rural noble. Instead, he found a young knight of formidable strength. He wondered whether this would affect his own plans.
After confirming that Zhang Cheng had come regarding the Zorral causing trouble in his territory, Delong recalled some etiquette lessons and regained a touch of noble bearing before inviting Zhang Cheng inside for a detailed discussion.
Delong sent someone to take the carriage to the stables and accompanied Zhang Cheng into the castle, where the steward brought Earl Grey tea and exquisite pastries.
Zhang Cheng sat down without mentioning Laity, choosing first to enjoy the food.
Previously, Lu Qiuchen had provided his meals, but before leaving, she had forgotten to leave him anything good to eat. He had spent last night and this morning eating dry, hard black bread—difficult to swallow. Now given the chance to enjoy delicious food, Zhang Cheng was naturally going to treat himself.
Only after Zhang Cheng had eaten his fill did Delong bring up the matter of the Zorral. Zhang Cheng then learned that Laity had been repeatedly emerging from the forest to steal food from the serfs, causing a major stir within the manor. Although there had been no injuries so far, the knights and serfs were growing exhausted from the constant disturbance.
Just yesterday, Delong had led the pursuit himself. Despite nearly capturing the creature several times, the knights’ unfamiliarity with forest combat allowed the agile and cunning Zorral to escape in the end.
Since the forest was his private property, Delong was unwilling to cause damage in the chase, so he had no choice but to post a notice at the Adventurers’ Guild to invite other adventurers to assist.
Zhang Cheng suddenly understood why the tense knights had stopped him on the road.
Recalling that he had an adventurer’s guild ID in his inventory, Zhang Cheng checked and found Lai had thoughtfully prepared an adventurer card for him. He decided to accept the quest under that identity, then afterward submit the proof from Delong directly to the guild to claim the reward.
He removed his armor and, feigning formality, pulled out the adventurer certificate from a cloth pouch inside the armor and handed it to the lord for confirmation.
This way, he could complete the quest and receive payment. Zhang Cheng thought to himself, “More jobs like this, please! I’m going to raise a dragon someday; I need to save every coin I can.”
Two Saint-level knights working together were nearly unstoppable. They only needed to wait for the Zorral to appear again. There was nothing left to negotiate.
Having been here for months, Delong hadn’t encountered a peer of his level for a long time. Seeing that time was still early, he suddenly felt an itch for a sparring match. Zhang Cheng, craving combat experience, was more than happy to accept this unexpected opportunity to train with a skilled opponent.