Chapter 33 (1/2)

Liszt was drowsy on the shaking wagon.

The road had been bumpy. After spending another night in Red Stone City, they rode on for another two hours before they finally saw Taro Castle halfway up the mountain.

Taro Castle was almost four times as large as Tulip Castle. It had towers almost ten meters tall and seemed to be part of the mountain.

Back when he was on Earth, Liszt visited Neuschwanstein Castle1 in Europe.

Neuschwanstein Castle was almost as magnificent as Tulip Castle, except that Tulip Castle was located on a steep cliff. However, it was incomparable to Taro Castle before him, which was as breathtaking as Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings.

Below the castle was a city.

The wagons need not pass through the city, but simply went to the castle along a precipitous mountain road. Soon, the knights of Taro Castle discovered them and escorted them to the castle.

Some of them rushed to inform the castle.

So, by the time the wagons came to the gate of the castle, Mayop Taro, heir of Taro Castle and a cousin of the siblings, was waiting with the servants.

“Levis, Lvera, and Liszt.” Mayop was a handsome man with particularly beautiful sapphire eyes. He said, “I’ve been waiting for a long time. I hope everything went well on the road.”

Liszt had to admit that his cousin was more like his blood brother than Levis was.

“Cousin, everything has been good.”

“Lvera, you are more gorgeous than last year.”

“Thank you for your compliment, cousin, but compared to your pretty face, I feel that you’re mocking me,” said Lvera half seriously and half jokingly.

Mayop laughed. “It’s not something I can refuse, is it, Liszt?” He turned to Liszt.

Liszt smiled.

He was finally sure that Lvera had been mean to him because she was jealous of him. “You’re right, cousin.”

“Haha. Great minds do think alike. Let’s go inside. My father is supervising the tax collection this season. My grandfather is resting. He’s happy that you’re here.”

“How is he now?”

Mayop sighed. “His sickness is caused by complications of former wounds. The archduke has sent his doctor to treat Grandfather. I believe he’ll be better soon.”

…

Merlin Taro—lord of Red Crab Island, one of the seven marquises of the archduchy, former commander of the royal fleet, and the most honorable man in Taro Castle—was sitting on the bed in a splendid bedroom.

He was an old man in his sixties. The gravitas on his pale, wrinkled face could not hide the weakness caused by old age and sickness anymore.

Even a former sky knight could not resist the passage of time.

His sapphire eyes were turning white. His hair was entirely so.

Leaning against the head of the bed, he was writing on a short table that was placed on his quilt with difficulty.

The spots on his face were particularly eye-catching.