Knight and Wand

Chapter 113: Beast Summoning Horn
Holding up the griffin egg in the box, Leon stroked its hard shell and asked Corvis, "How long will it take for it to hatch?"

"One month at most. If it's fast, maybe more than 20 days."

Corvis recalled and replied, "According to the records in the book, it takes about four months for a griffin egg to hatch. Considering the time when Pirenno brought it back, it's about time now."

“The days go by so fast.”

Leon put down the griffin egg. He had been busy recently and had thought about how to deal with this precious treasure.

As for the question of whether griffins were easy to raise, he had briefly consulted Miss Lola long before leaving the dissipated spirit-like land. After returning, he also frequently discussed with Corvis some of the knowledge he knew about griffins.

The answer was quite encouraging.

This powerful creature has strong and tenacious vitality even when it is just born.

Of course, it costs a lot to raise it.

It takes a full six years for a young griffin to hatch from its shell, pass its infancy and become a young griffin.

During these six years of growth, except for the first few months in the first three years, I basically had to eat six to ten kilograms of meat every day.

In the last three years, as the body grows, it needs to eat ten to twenty kilograms of meat every day.

Roughly speaking, a griffin cub will eat the equivalent of more than four hundred fat sheep during its entire infancy, with some horse meat occasionally serving as a snack.

Over the past six years, the average monthly food expenditure would be around three to four gold crowns.

With today's financial resources, it is not completely unaffordable. It is just equivalent to paying the empty salaries of about two guards every month, and the expenses in the first three years are far less than those in the last three years.

However, this empty salary will have to be paid for six full years. Only when the griffin grows into a young man can he really get the tangible return.

If it can grow up healthy and sound without any accidents, and you will have such a powerful war beast partner in the future, the cost of just a few hundred gold coins will undoubtedly be worth it.

After all, if it weren't for this unexpected gain, even if you spent thousands of gold coins you wouldn't be able to buy a powerful griffin war beast.

These noble and proud legendary creatures are extremely rare, and they are extremely intelligent, so it is almost impossible to enslave adult wild griffins.

Although there are many brave and powerful knights in the legends of Thrian who found griffins and tamed them as mounts through bravery, stories are just stories after all.

In reality, if you challenge a griffin in this way, there is a 99% chance that you will end up being ripped open.

Leon still remembered his griffin friend, how he crushed the Knight Kantadar into a steel bag of meat with his ferocious claws like crushing a can.

Thinking of the Death Claw, Leon couldn't help but sigh.

It's not that I feel bad about the cost of raising the little griffin, but I am considering the relationship between this griffin egg and the adult griffin.

Until now, he still dared not to conclude whether this griffin egg was the other party's child.

Judging from the timing, this is very likely, unless the Atias wizards attacked more than one griffin nest.

And if this egg is really the child of Deathclaw, it would be embarrassing.

According to Miss Lola, griffins, regardless of gender or age, can identify their own bloodline through their instinctive magical perception.

Leon couldn't be sure whether Deathclaw would come to Selva again in the future.

Once it passes by here and finds the griffin cub, it will take it back to the nest. I can't stop it and become an enemy of my friend.

However, if he returns the cub, the money he spent on raising the griffin will undoubtedly be wasted.

It’s okay for a short period of time, just think of it as taking care of a friend’s child, and it’s okay to eat a few more meals.

But if this happens after raising it for two or three years.
That would truly be paying off the Deathclaws' debt for saving their lives in Selva.

Fortunately, Leon has also considered how to deal with such a situation.

First of all, he would never stop his griffin friend from protecting his cubs.

In this case, instead of being a sucker and worrying about your investment going down the drain, it is better to return the child from the beginning. This will save money and create a good relationship.

However, it is unknown whether the Deathclaws are still in the area.

If it has already flown to some unknown end of the world, then worrying about it is just asking for trouble.

The most urgent task at the moment is to confirm the whereabouts of the Death Claw as soon as possible.

However, sending people to search for it by climbing mountains everywhere is obviously too inefficient.

Corvis had a better idea.

"How's the progress of the craftsmen on your horn?" Leon asked Corvis.

"The broken roof of the windmill tower on the north slope has been dismantled. Once the horn is completed in the next few days, I will let the workers hoist things up." Corvis replied.

Leon was satisfied with the workers' fast progress. After all, it was not a big project. It was just a renovation of the old windmill tower on the north slope.

The stone tower is located at the top of a small hill in the north, surrounded by cliffs on the west and north, and facing slopes on the east and south. It has an excellent terrain. It would be a pity if it is not converted into a lookout tower while there are many craftsmen and laborers gathered in Selva.

As for the large copper horn with animal horns that Corvis designed based on his knowledge, although its original function was not to call griffins, the sound can be transmitted extremely far and wide. As long as a griffin passes by, given the powerful hearing ability of that creature, it will inevitably fly over to take a curious look according to its habit.

In the future, we will have someone go to the top of the north slope tower to blow the horn at a fixed time to call for the Death Claws, so that we don’t have to look for a needle in a haystack.

If it really doesn't live nearby, he can really raise the little griffin with peace of mind. The horn can also be used as a territory warning and time-telling device in the future, equivalent to a clock tower, so it won't be a waste of effort.

After talking about the things, Leon said goodbye to Corvis for a while, asked the servants to boil some water, and went back to his room to wash off the dust from the long journey.

He rested for a while, then took out the gifts he had brought back, found Azerien and his family and the little servant in the house one by one, and gave away the boots and shoes.

Before dinner, Olivia also came to the house and gave the headbands that almost caused a joke and trouble to each of the women on his behalf.

Seeing little Lina so happy and eager to let Ms. Elena help her tie her hair and put on hair accessories, Leon's eyes unconsciously looked at the blue headband behind Olivia's head.

The change in the girl's hairstyle did not attract much attention.

The local people of Orland around her naturally thought that Olivia bought her hair accessories herself.

The girl, who was still shy, was obviously not mentally prepared to announce her engagement to everyone. She herself was probably still confused at the moment.

Leon naturally wanted to take care of the other party's feelings, so he didn't rush to find Uncle Brian and mention the fact that he had a private engagement with his daughter. However, if what the other party said that night was true, the father-in-law he had never met might be someone else.

Although Olivia herself doesn't know the truth yet.

After a long talk with old Brian that night, Leon already knew that although old Brian had treated the girl as his own daughter for many years, he was not her biological father.

Leon sighed helplessly as he learned the truth about Olivia's life experience.

It was even more difficult to explain than he had previously guessed. He couldn't help but sigh at the chaos in the royal family. If possible, Leon now felt that it would be better for the girl not to know the inside story for her entire life.

the next day.

The heads of all the existing Selva households were privately gathered together.

After confirming the identities of everyone one by one and ensuring that no one claimed the money falsely, Leon presided over and supervised the distribution of the ransom money to the surviving families in Selva.

Even though it was a fortune gained through disaster, getting this money meant that all the villagers in this small village became wealthy overnight.

The villagers lined up to register and received the heavy bags of money. Their eyes flashed with a complex joy and excitement like a dream, as they watched the lord fulfill his promise.

Nearly three months have passed since the disaster, and for these tenant farmers who were almost destined to always struggle for food and clothing at the bottom of the society, life must go on day after day. No matter how much grief they feel, it cannot withstand the erosion of time and hard work in the future.

Receiving this huge sum of money also means that their lives will turn to a new starting point.

It can be predicted that, whether looking for a wife or children in the village, the men who have lost their wives and children will soon use the money to remarry and have children and rebuild their families, and the same is true for the women who have lost their husbands and children.

There will surely be many small weddings in Selva in the future.

This is not the modern society on Earth, where one can live freely alone. Instead, getting married and starting a family has gradually become a heavy burden for everyone.

In today's world, which is similar to the cruel social environment of the ancient times, being alone without relatives or descendants means being helpless and powerless, unable to protect oneself and even unable to keep one's property.

Leon was willing to encourage his people to remarry people outside the village and bring more people back.

However, if a woman or girl with free citizen status wanted to marry far away, he would not be completely charitable and act like a saint. Unless the place of marriage was Pleton or Longka, he would not reduce the relocation tax that should be collected as usual.

But having said that, in reality, unless there are special circumstances, no fool would spend money and pay taxes to leave the hometown where they have lived for generations and move to a foreign land where they don't know the depths of the country when Selva is seeing its development getting better and better.

In this day and age, the dangers of moving to a different place are extremely unpredictable.

What's more, there are only a handful of Buddhist lords like Leon who lightly taxes and levies, and pay money and food to laborers in an orderly manner, not only in Orland, but probably in the entire Western Continent.

After distributing the money, Leon took the opportunity to hold a manor meeting with these wealthy subjects, informing everyone in advance that the village would expand the construction of taverns, hotels and other facilities, and rebuild the market, and the villagers could seize the opportunity to join in the investment.

Regardless of whether these uninformed farmers understand it or not, Leon hopes that some smart people among them can join the plan and turn the dead money in their hands into living money. Anyway, he will definitely not cheat them.

The camp construction team sent by the Farolis family is not far to the east of Selva and has been working for several days. People passing through Selva from all directions have come in several waves, and there are also soldiers and craftsmen from the camp in the east who come to look for taverns and village markets.

Naturally, they could only return disappointed.

Signs of consumer demand and commercial development have already appeared, and Leon knows that there can be no delay, even if it will slow down the progress of the barracks a little. Anyway, there are only 20 to 30 standing troops off duty, and the unfinished barracks can be used while they are being built.

This is just the beginning. Once the supply camp is built and the roads in the forest are opened, the flow of people will increase exponentially. It will be too late then. If Selva does not act quickly, the natural flow of people and merchants will develop around the transit camp and form a new settlement.

How can we leave the opportunity to make money to others when we are so close?
After the public meeting was dissolved, the next day, Leon called together several wealthy representatives from the Selva people to go to the woodlands in the east of Selva to plan the construction of residential land for future winery entertainment and commercial markets.

The Nightmare Forest in the south is no longer a desperate situation. For many, many years to come, there will be almost inexhaustible forest resources. Even if all the forests east of Selva are cut down now, Leon will not feel bad. After all, everything is lacking except wood. Lonka and south of Selva can provide as much as they want.

Over the next few days, a team was separated from the barracks construction site and began to expand the eastern part of Selva, making the already bustling territory even busier.

The first to be completed was the sentry tower on the north slope.

The renovated stone tower not only had windows carved out on all four sides of the original third floor, but also had a fourth-floor lookout tower built on top, using the space vacated by the original windmill. The original windmill no longer looks like it.

A flagpole was placed horizontally from the side of the tower, with a drooping black coarse cloth swallowtail flag hung on it. The sword-wing emblem representing Pendragon on the flag swayed in the wind, allowing every pedestrian passing by the slope to see clearly which lord the territory belonged to.

The huge beast-summoning horn is placed on a wheel on the top floor of the watchtower. According to the timing of the sun corona and hourglass, at dawn, noon and dusk, the horn will be pushed out of the lookout by the on-duty sentry and blown vigorously.

At three times every day, the copper echo amplification structure specially designed by Corvis and processed by goldsmiths will transmit the loud and long sound to every corner of Selva.

According to Lohak, who often traveled back and forth to the territory, he could hear faint horn sounds in the wilderness halfway through his patrol to Longka.

I think if the Deathclaws are still active in this area, they will be attracted here one day.

Day after day, he and his partners took turns to supervise the progress of construction in various places, and Leon did not dare to stop his magic training at all.

February passed by quietly and quickly.

It is March and winter is coming to an end in southern Aurland. Although it is not over yet, the weather has warmed up a little.

Enduring the exhausting pressure, Leon sweated profusely as he accepted Olivia's sword skills training day after day.

After being beaten by his lover, he used the physical and mental torture, as if he had honed his martial arts over the years, to knock down all the increasingly powerful guards.

As expected, the person standing in front of him in the end was still Zabron, the best martial artist among the guards.

Leon's breathing became heavier. He growled softly, letting go of his strength and skillfully swung out the horizontal slash that he had swung tens of thousands of times over a long period of time.

Zabron leaned forward and tried to take his lord's blows as usual.

Bang! !

There was a loud collision.

The loud sound of breaking through the air caused the grass to dance wildly.

Zabron, who was holding the shield, was shocked to find that he was unable to resist and his feet were knocked off the ground by a huge force.

Behind the mask, Leon was so shocked by his sudden sense of relief that he stopped moving.

The big man in heavy armor was knocked back several steps like a puppet and fell to the ground with a clang.
But Leon swore that with his dynamic vision, he could see it clearly.

Your own sword.

It didn't even touch the opponent's shield.

(End of this chapter)