Chapter 419 Emily’s Little Pony

Arriving at the cornfield, Liszt saw the flowering tassels of the corn stalks. At the top of the corn stalks, which were as tall as a person, there was indeed a large, fluffy tassel.

In the vision of the Magic Eye, there was no sign of magic power. This was either the birth of a spirit bug or simply a mutation of the corn stalks.

"Is the hint from the smoke mission about grain mutation referring to this tassel at the top of the corn stalks?" he pondered, looking at the mutation of the corn stalks, which didn't seem to evolve into what he considered corn. "It seems more like it's evolving into red sorghum."

It must be said that the patch of corn stalks before him indeed resembled sorghum.

Except that the tassels of the corn stalks were yellow.

"Carefully protect this patch of corn stalks; do not harvest them. Wait until they mature before determining what exactly is happening," Liszt instructed, then left the cornfield.

Whether the corn stalks would mutate into corn or sorghum still needed time to verify, but he felt a bit disappointed. Sorghum was not a high-yield crop.

He still longed for ears of corn.

But there was still hope: "Once I plan the industrial transition, there will be new mutant varieties of corn stalks waiting. Perhaps this will be the ears of corn."

Returning to the castle,

Good news arrived immediately. One-eyed Barton was responsible for the birthing, helping the Fire Dragon mare give birth to a healthy foal. It was a male foal with a black and red coat, looking very spirited, though still very weak and shaky on its legs.

"My lord, this foal has excellent lineage; it's fantastic. It has its mother's calm agility and its father's robust physique. It will surely grow into an outstanding warhorse," Barton said excitedly.

"Very good!"

Liszt was equally excited and tried to reach out and touch the foal hiding beside the Fire Dragon mare. Although he no longer needed such mixed-breed horses, warhorses were undoubtedly a noble's wealth. There were no large-scale horse farms on Coral Island, and a qualified warhorse cost several gold coins.

However, it was worth celebrating that during the Iron Horse Island campaign, many knights had replaced their horses with better ones—spoils of war that couldn't be taken away, but no one could stop them from upgrading their equipment.

It could be said that Liszt's knights, whether Earth Knights or squire knights, had all amassed a set of fine steel armor and sturdy warhorses from the battlefield.

These items were not counted in the military merits and were the knights' own private property.

"Barton, take good care of it, and other mares will also be giving birth. This batch of foals must be well cared for," Liszt instructed.

But Barton said, "My lord, you should arrange for knights to come and train these foals as soon as possible."

"Train them now? It's too young; wait until it's two or three years old to start training."

"My lord, actually, the most suitable time to train a foal is right after birth... In the first few months of a foal's life, it's the most influential time for its growth. Before I was sold to the Sapphire Duchy, I started raising horses and saw many knights from the mainland prefer to train foals right after birth."

"Is that so?" Liszt was a bit surprised, as he had never heard of such a thing.

For knights, with mana, any wild horse could be tamed, so there was rarely a systematic approach to training horses. Just like how Liszt tamed the Black Dragon and Lightning, he rode them, subdued them, and then slowly built a rapport, establishing a decent bond.

However, Barton's opinion was also a reference.

Training a foal from a young age could make it more accustomed to human interaction, so he decided to give this foal to his only female follower—the girl Emily—to train.

"My lord, may I have this foal?" Emily, who had returned from training at the knight's square, was called to the castle stables and asked excitedly.

Liszt nodded: "Of course, you can try to tame it. By the time it grows up, you will be about the right age to charge into battle."

He had been monitoring Emily's training and found that she was indeed exceptionally talented. Compared to Parris's sister Maggie, her progress was quite remarkable, already far surpassing Maggie—this was even with Parris desperately helping her sister, providing her with plenty of meat, even some blizzard beast meat.

Therefore, Liszt was increasingly excited about Emily's future.

Perhaps he could really train a female Sky Knight as his follower. Thinking about it, it felt quite impressive.

"Thank you, my lord. Emily pledges her life to serve you!" With her beloved foal, Emily's young face turned serious.

"I accept your loyalty, Emily," Liszt said with a smile.

That afternoon, Emily stayed in the stables to bond with the foal instead of going home. She even named the foal Sara—a lovely name.

Watching a little girl tame a horse wasn’t particularly exciting.

Liszt returned to the castle and brewed himself a cup of tea.

Just as he was settling down to read a book and unwind, the housekeeper Carter knocked and entered: "My lord, Advisor Gort has brought the town officials to report on their work."

"Is today the day for work reports?" Liszt pulled out a schedule from his desk and glanced at it.

The schedule was meticulously marked in bold ink.

...

6:00 AM to 6:30 AM—Wake up, wash up.

6:30 AM to 7:30 AM—Walk and feed the dog, birds, and horses.

7:30 AM to 8:00 AM—Have breakfast.

8:00 AM to 10:00 AM—Train in mana skills on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays; practice archery on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

10:00 AM to 11:30 AM—Train Hiddleston and the eight young animals.

11:30 AM to 12:30 PM—Have lunch.

12:30 PM to 1:00 PM—Read, sip tea, and relax.

1:00 PM to 1:30 PM—Rest for a while.

1:30 PM to 3:30 PM—Read on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays; survey the estate on Tuesdays and Saturdays; listen to officials' work reports on Thursdays.

3:30 PM to 4:00 PM—Play the piano.

4:00 PM to 6:00 PM—Take his medicine and practice mana.

6:00 PM to 7:30 PM—Free time, sometimes spent on combat drills.

7:30 PM to 8:30 PM—Have dinner.

8:30 PM to 9:30 PM—Take in the sea view from the beach villa.

9:30 PM to 10:30 PM—Read, sip tea, and reflect on the day.

10:30 PM to 6:00 AM the next day—Sleep.

...

He usually followed this schedule, though the timing wasn’t always exact. Frequent interruptions meant he rarely stuck to the schedule.

He put the schedule back and said, "Then show them into the study."

"Yes, my lord."

The sound of footsteps echoed as Gort and the officials entered the study, each taking a seat. Half an hour sufficed for their reports—in fact, there were no major issues, as administrative matters were often discussed at evening banquets.

Then, Liszt introduced the topic he had prepared: "What are your views on relocating industries from Flower Town to Black Horse Island?"