163 Royal Talk I (2/2)
===============
It did not take long before the knights the farmboy was talking about came into view. They were at the main road, nearby Li's own cottage, and they formed a formidable crowd. They were in neat rectangular formation by the road, a mass of glinting silver and fluttering white banners emblazoned with blue doves.
”That's not the whole order,” came Sylvie's immediate observation.
”It ain't?” wheezed out the farmboy, who by now had been well and thoroughly exhausted.
”Eyeballing it, I'd say about a hundred men?” said Li. ”If I recall correctly, 120 men is the standard number for a squadron of knights, and that's what it seems like to me. I can understand where the confusion comes from if you haven't been used to seeing large groups of people, though, but this is a far cry from the ten squadrons I was expecting.”
”More a very highly secure guard, I should say,” said Sylvie.
”All the more reason to believe that this isn't anything too serious,” said Li. He walked forwards, and as he did so, he recognized the squadron captain standing at the front of the formation. It was the very same one that had worked with him on the Chevrette case.
The captain nodded, the white plume atop his helm shaking with the movement, and Li nodded back in understanding.
”I should assume that Lord Lys wishes to see me?” called out Li approached.
”You are correct. Men!” the captain shouted. ”Stand aside for the Easterner!”
The knights broke rank and made a path for Li to their center where Lord Lys's large and sturdy carriage was. Unlike the color scheme of the knights, the carriage was made of sleek black metal and pulled by magical horses. Li immediately recognized this as one of the carriages from Black Securities, which was not much of a surprise considering that Lord Lys and Alexei were supposedly rather good friends.
And as Li passed through the ranks of knights, he realized the driver of the carriage was Valery, the vampire knight whom Alexei usually assigned to tasks regarding Li.
Valery put a hand to his hat and tipped it, and Li ever so slightly nodded. So Alexei was in on this and was overseeing what was happening. Then, it was as Li thought. There was nothing to worry for.
Li stepped up to the door of the carriage and swung it open. It was heavy and it opened with a click as magical enchantments came temporarily undone. Inside, he found seated at one end the portly figure of Lord Lys and right beside him, a little uncomfortably squished to the side due to Lys's bulk, was a younger man in a blue and white bodysuit.
A hero.