Knight and Wand

Chapter 106 The Meaning of the Headband

Draw a simple sketch of women's casual clothes in your mind, marking the white shirt, blue skirt and bow tie.

Leon discovered that, perhaps because he had drawn more complex magic patterns, his painting skills were becoming more and more decent.

? However, can drawing those magic patterns really help improve drawing skills?

Not sure, he didn't think too much about it.

Old Sarto watched the young man in front of him, who was either rich or noble, drawing and making requests, and measuring the required dimensions on the ruler. He nodded frequently in response.

It's not a complicated piece of clothing, just a clean and neat dress. The dye costs a lot, but the details required in this style are indeed rare.

Even more rarely, the dress is paired with a pair of expensive black velvet stockings.

At first, the old tailor thought that the boy bought the stockings himself.

But when he learned that the girl also had long legs to match the dress, old Sarto couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

It is quite novel to let a young girl wear men's socks. Old Salto has been making clothes all his life and has never seen such a style.

Taking the pen and ink from the boy, the old tailor immediately wrote down on the paper the boy's approximate height, as well as the measurements of his chest, waist, hips, shoulders, arms, neck, etc.

As Leon recalled, he was also thankful. He had originally planned to make a set of fitted knight plate armor for Olivia that would not affect her flexibility when he became wealthy in the future.

So he had usually taken the girl to measure her body data, so today he didn't need to take the girl to the tailor shop to be measured again.

After making the requests with great interest, Leon did not forget to buy a few headbands and hair accessories of different colors from the old tailor shop.

Most of them were souvenirs bought for the ladies and girls in the family. Ms. Elena and Aunt Milia also got some, especially his little maid Lina. Leon had long wanted to tie two ponytails for that little girl.

As for the last blue headband decorated with carefully selected amber stones, it was naturally prepared for Olivia.

Seeing the young man buying so many exquisite headbands at one time, the old tailor naturally thought they were all for the same girl.

He couldn't help but feel the other party's deep affection.
after all
It is of great significance for a man to give a woman a headband.
Sending so many to others at one time.
What a passionate guy.
Leon, who was completely unaware of certain "things", did not realize that there was anything wrong with the gifts he prepared for the women in his family.

If Miss Lola wasn't a spirit, he would definitely choose one for his benefactor as well.

Leon did not show favoritism and picked out souvenirs for all the ladies in the family.

Then he also selected a pair of good quality boots for Azerien, Lohak and Corvis, and brought a few pairs of sturdy slippers for the little servants.

After receiving the deposit for the dress and the money for the goods, the old tailor smiled like an old chrysanthemum and respectfully waived the paper money for drawing the picture for the wealthy and infatuated young master from an unknown family.

The unique dress styles on the manuscript paper gave him a lot of new inspiration for making clothes. This was already a great advantage, and old Sarto didn't want to go any further.

The old tailor also gave the customer a large leather bag for free. He called his apprentice to pack up the boots and shoes, then politely escorted the customer out and tied the goods to the back of the customer's horse.

Leon looked at it and felt a little self-deprecating.

I was just going to take a stroll, but this time I ended up being like a little girl shopping. I couldn't resist and bought a whole bag of stuff.

However, no one knew where Olivia had gone. Leon had been shopping so much that he had left the tailor shop but still hadn't seen her come back.

After waiting for about ten minutes, Leon saw the girl coming towards him contentedly, leading the horse.

Leon looked at Olivia and the back of her horse, but didn't notice anything new on them. Their expressions just seemed very happy and expectant.

"Have you bought the things?" Leon asked curiously.

"Well, sorry for keeping you waiting for so long. I was delayed a little longer~ Hehe~ Let's go, Leon~, I have nothing else to do." Olivia nodded in a brisk tone.

The two continued to walk together, and the girl immediately noticed the leather bag tied to her companion's horse.

"What is that?" she asked.

"Some things for Azerien and the others." Leon said, smiling at her, "And a surprise for you."

"?" Olivia was stunned for a moment, then blinked and said, "Hey? You too. Um. Did you buy me a gift?"

"Guess~it's not a surprise if I tell you now." Leon said mysteriously.

With the girl's face full of suspicion and curiosity, Leon exchanged enough silver coins and copper points at the Chamber of Commerce, and then rushed to the Baron family's large fortress on the high ground in the inner city.

Azerien had been here many times, but this was Leon's first visit to the feudal lord's castle.

After showing the parchment document, revealing the heraldic ring, proving his identity and explaining his purpose, Leon led Olivia, who kept looking around on horseback, into the first outer city gate and stepped onto the inner slope of the castle surrounding the highlands.

After passing through a series of towering fortresses and passways, passing through the winding and carefully designed complex outer wall area, and stepping over the drawbridge in front of the inner castle gate, the two finally entered the real interior of the castle.

This is the entire territory of the Thorn Flower Family, the center of ruling power with a population of nearly 100,000.

Behind the castle's inner wall covered with crossbows, there is a clearly defined polygonal area.

Directly in front of us is the tall and magnificent main castle and tower.

On the left side is a group of low buildings close to the city wall, which house servants and craftsmen’s residences, barracks, shops, workshops, and warehouses. Many people come and go there.

The building complex was divided into an area by a row of houses. Next to the tower behind the area, there were several huge and tall defensive catapults, but they were not fully assembled.

On the right side behind the city gate, there is a huge building that seems to be the office of some administrative agency.

Further to the right is the open space in the square.

There is a fenced archery range in the square, and there are soldiers, knights, or family members practicing archery here and there.

On the other side, there are two rows of racecourses.

On one side of the horse racing field that can accommodate multiple knights for charging and fighting, there is a stepped viewing platform built against the wall, which is obviously used as an audience seat for watching knights' fighting.

Although the entire castle is not as large as the town-like fortress of Count Falcon in Western Port, it is still quite large.

Following the castle guards, the two walked along the stone-paved road to the main castle.

The castle servants helped unload the luggage from the horses and moved it to the guest rooms in the main castle first.

The guards took the horses away and arranged the stables.

Under the guidance of the servants, Leon entered the main castle and went to the hall first, where he was received by the steward as usual.

Perhaps because she had already seen the magnificent wizard tower with an interior that looked like a palace, Olivia, who followed behind Leon, was not too surprised by the luxurious aristocratic decoration in the Baron's castle. In fact, in comparison, she felt ashamed that it was a bit simple and rough.

Suppressing the rude thought in her heart, Olivia stopped at the door of the lord's hall and stayed outside obediently like the castle servants.

Leon asked the girl to wait a moment and stepped in.

After entering, I unexpectedly discovered that there were many noble men and women in gorgeous clothes chatting in the hall, both young and old.

Leon didn't recognize most of them, but fortunately he saw someone he knew. "Look who's here, Ser Pendragon, the snake slayer of Selva."

Balfe, who seemed to have known about the boy's visit, immediately smiled warmly and greeted him.

"Good day, Sir Balfe and your Excellencies." Leon saluted the scarred knight and the nobles with his hands on his chest, and his heart became confused.

Snake Slayer? What the hell?

When did you get this nickname?
The nobles of the Thorn Flower family turned around from their discussions and looked at the overly young knight with curious interest.

Balfe patted Leon's arm and pulled him towards the lady in the center of the crowd who was obviously the most senior.

She looked to be about thirty years old, and her graceful and beautiful appearance was still as beautiful as when she was young.

"I have the honor to introduce you to this beautiful lady, Lord Elliver's wife, Lady Adelina Farolis."

Adeline in the crowd smiled elegantly and gracefully at the young knight in front of her.

Leon knew the other party's identity, and he solemnly bowed to the feudal lord's wife according to etiquette.

According to his current understanding, there is no implicit rule in this world's political system that prohibits the harem from interfering in government affairs.

Excluding some special cases where the individual is weak, in most cases, whether in the king's court or in the noble family, the queen or the noble's wife has power second only to her husband.

The noble lady in front of him was, as expected, the person in charge of the Thorn Flower Family after the Baron went off to war.

Before Leon could raise his bow, he unexpectedly saw the white back of the hand of Lady Thorn Flower with the ring on it raised.

His mind was a little confused for a moment, then he realized that this was the hand-kissing gesture of a married noble of high rank among the Feru people.

So he followed the instructions of Azerien and Corvis in his memory, gently held the hand handed to him by the lady, lowered his head and lightly touched it to complete the etiquette.

It's just a symbolic bow, there's no offense at all, and in fact there's not much to it. You can kiss the back of the hand, kiss the fingers, or just bow your head in the air without any contact, depending on the situation.

However, as a Chinese citizen, whether you call him conservative or feudal, cultural differences lead him to have strong opinions on some etiquette in this world.

The cheek kiss is okay, it is a rare etiquette between relatives or good friends. If you feel uncomfortable, just feel it alone.

But the kiss of the hand
He felt that if he saw other men choosing to kiss the back of his wife's hand with their mouths in the future, he would probably feel indescribably disgusted.

Fortunately, this etiquette is proactive or solicitative, and whether to accept the gift or not depends mainly on the woman.

In fact, when meeting with the wife of a noble, the usual procedure is just to bow.

Leon guessed that the reason why Lady Thorn Flower took the initiative to ask him to perform the solemn etiquette when they first met was probably because Baron Elliver had recently expressed his appreciation for her.

After the formalities, Leon put down the lady's hand, and just as he raised his head, he heard Lady Adelina's gentle question.

".Are you the hero who slew the snake in the poem 'The Knight of Selva'?"

"Uh, poetry? Knight of Selva?" Leon said blankly.

In the vestibule outside the Lord's Hall, Olivia quietly rested her hand on her sword, waiting for Leon to come out while curiously looking at the servants walking back and forth in the surrounding corridors.

"Hey, are you the maid of the master who just went in?"

A man's voice suddenly came from the side.

Olivia heard this and looked sideways. The man walking over looked to be in his twenties, and judging by his clothes, he seemed to be a male servant in the castle.

The girl was speechless after hearing this question.

Of course, she was not Leon's maid, but she felt that it would be troublesome to explain too much, so she nodded silently.

The male servant smiled inexplicably and asked the girl, "You are so beautiful, but why are you wearing men's clothes? And wearing your master's sword? If it weren't for your dress, I would have thought you were a noble lady. What's your name?"

".My name is Olivia," the girl replied politely without changing her expression.

She wasn't the type of person who kept people at a distance, but Olivia had an indescribable feeling towards the man in front of her.

"That sounds great. Will you stay here tonight?" The servant approached casually.

The girl frowned
Olivia didn't know if it was an illusion, but in the other person's strange eyes, she seemed to see a shadow similar to Boris.

Just as the girl frowned and considered whether to pay attention to the stranger, she heard Leon's voice.

Leon returned to the front hall and called to the girl from a distance: "Olivia."

Hearing the knight's voice, the servant immediately shut his mouth, lowered his head, and abruptly turned away.

Coming up to his companion, Leon glanced at the man's back.

"Who?"

Olivia shook her head: "I don't know him, he seems to be a servant in the castle."

Leon didn't care and continued to pull Olivia to do the business of this trip.

Soon, they found the herald of the Farolis family, explained their purpose, and then, under the guidance of the attendant officer, they went to the painters' workshop to complete the requirements for the custom-made flag.

After dealing with the flag issue, it was already late.

Leon was invited to have dinner with the nobles in the castle in the main hall.

Olivia, who was unable to attend the banquet, did not return to her room. Instead, she took the dinner brought by the servants and ran to Leon's room early to wait for him to come back.

To be honest, since she couldn't move around freely, the girl felt that the lord's castle was much more boring than she had imagined when she first arrived.

If she had known this, she would have thought it would be more interesting to ask Leon to stay at the tavern where he stayed before going to the city. At least she could listen to the bragging of the traveling merchants passing by.

When the party was finally over, Leon pushed the door open and returned to the room, only to see the girl sitting on the windowsill with her knees hugged, leaning against the window frame, her head nodding, looking so bored that she seemed about to fall asleep.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, Olivia’s squinting eyes immediately woke up, and she looked up at her friend who came in: “Hey, Leon, you’re finally back.”

"I can't help it. The Lord's wife invited everyone to a dinner party, and I can't leave halfway." Leon apologized helplessly.

He turned his head to look at his bag of gifts, and smiled at the girl, "You didn't peek when I was away, did you?"

"How is that possible~! Of course not!" Olivia finally came to life, her emerald green eyes flashing with bright light.

The girl turned around and jumped down from the windowsill. She quickly walked behind Leon who was squatting to get something. She leaned on his shoulder and looked around expectantly: "Let me see what it is~?"

Leon raised his right hand and covered the girl's eyes amidst her small protests. He quickly took out the gift from his bag with his left hand and turned around to hide it behind him.

"Hey~ Why don't you guess it first?" He smiled and kept the suspense.

(End of this chapter)