Chapter XXIV

"Where's the saddle?"

I asked Kinov

Kinoff thought that his belt was tightly fastened, and was grabbing the belt with both hands and shaking it vigorously from side to side, trying to relax his waist, Kinoff came over in the morning and asked me if I would help him brush his horse every day in the future, damn Christopher didn't ask my opinion at all, so he helped me find an equestrian instructor and helped me negotiate the tuition fee

I could only nod and say, "Yes, you bring the horse in the morning, and I will help you brush the horse after you bring it."

Kinov seemed to have heard something anecdotal, "I brought the horse?" You're kidding, every morning you go up to the meadow on the east side to wake me up, and then I'll ride you over and you'll brush the horse, and then I'll ride back."

"I'm just riding so close? What can be learned? ”

"Hmph, how much more can you learn now? I heard you can't even get on a horse, don't you? ”

"Yesterday, you said?" Christopher's mouth is too tight, but if he hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have known that Kinov was actually very bad at martial arts, "But yesterday the horse didn't even have a saddle."

"No saddle?" Kinov spat on the ground: "Do you know the little children of the Kujits? They grabbed the mane and ran on the steppe, and when the horses could not shake them off, they could get the saddle, and by that time, the Kugit would all become cavalry, and our children would not even be able to ride their horses steadily when they were twelve or thirteen years old, and they would all go hunting."

"I'm not a Kujitt"

"If you're a Kujit, you're born and thrown into the river to feed the fish, go up, step on this stool, yes, and grab the horse's mane," Kinov said, standing aside

As soon as I grabbed the horse's mane, the horse began to shake its neck, and I hurriedly turned around: "It's going to bite me"

"Hell, it just wants to throw you down, can you be happy if you are grabbed by someone?" He stood aside and gloated

"Then you're going to let me grab it and ride it?" The horse began to spin in circles, I hooked one foot on its back, one foot hung in the air, and two hands grabbed its mane so that it could barely keep it from falling, and when it turned, Kinov laughed, but I panicked to death, I felt that it was so big, I would definitely be stepped on by it if I fell, and if it stepped on me all at once, it would definitely hurt

"Hey," I yelled at Kinov, "stop the damn thing, I'm going to come down, stop it turning"

Kinov was still laughing at the horse, probably upset by my catch, and shook his neck violently, as if I had brushed it, and I shook it off in one fell to the ground, but fortunately the fall was not very bad, not as bad as I thought, but the horse came and snorted at me and jumped at me

"How? You can't even get on the horse, I said let you ride to the pasture, you're too close, I'm afraid you won't be able to ride it."

"Your horse is not obedient, other horses ride up, why don't you see a circle or something? You're not a good horse."

"Nonsense, how bad is the horse I trained, do you know why it threw you down? Because you're saying bad things about it, horses are smart, and whatever you say it says it understands what you just said it's a 'damn thing', of course it's not happy, what's wrong, is it still riding? Look at you like this, or wait for tomorrow your horse brushing skills are stronger than before, this time is not in vain, after you brushed the horse that time, I went back and brushed it again, tomorrow it will still be like this"

"You can't practice like that," I said to Kinov, "I haven't seen anyone riding without a saddle, so I'm used to the smooth back of a horse, and I'm not used to it when I have a saddle."

"Don't quibble, if you can ride well on bare horseback, and then you have a saddle stirrup, you will feel that riding a horse is no different from walking on the ground, and besides, I am your equestrian instructor, you can not learn if you are not happy, but don't tell me how to learn so," Kinov yawned, "Is it possible to end today?" I don't really want to learn like this, tomorrow, go to me to find me before dawn, how to go, you can ask yourself clearly, don't come after the time, wait for the next day"

"No," I rolled up my sleeves, "I have to ride your clever horse today," I turned and moved my stool, ready to climb onto the horse, and the horse's left front hoof dug the ground, looked at me, and then shook its head and left me alone

I moved the stool to it, and tried to climb it as I had just done, but it threw me down again and again, and every time Kinov laughed, and then he made a bet that I would not be able to get on horseback to-day, and that if I did, he would give me a horsewhip

I felt that riding a horse should be very simple, but I was thrown badly, and the horse seemed to be deliberately teasing me, and Kinov was also sneering on the side, which made me very annoyed, and I said to Kinov: "Okay, you look"

I put the bench on the ground, and no longer grabbed the horse's mane, but stepped on the bench and jumped on the horse's back, and when I jumped on the horse's back and lay on the horse's back, my chest pounded, and I felt myself sliding, and I cried out, "Kinoff! Behold, I have come up and your whip is mine."

He snorted twice, "Aren't you like this, is this considered to climb up?" ”

"Don't be dishonest," I grabbed its hair with both hands, but it was so slippery, I couldn't catch it at all, and I watched it fall and fall to the ground, "You said I'll give me a horsewhip when I go up" I got up

He smiled, "Come tomorrow morning to remember, come at dawn, or the next day"

I was exhausted from tossing, and I had broken my foot just now, but I was glad to hear that there was something to take, after all, I didn't want to keep any of the things that Pink had left

Kirov lazily brought back the two horses he had brought, and I fell into boredom again, the main thing of the day was that things were done, and I just had to wait until the evening to feed the horses, and before that, I couldn't think of anything to do, and when I went to see Amy the other day, Amy told me that Kaja was learning to sing, and that she sang very good songs

Amy said for a long time that I couldn't figure out what Kaja was doing, so I decided to take a look for myself, and in the very center of the castle was a high ground where the Count of Kalinin lived, where Renaud and Kaja also lived, and the laundry aunt told me last time that she had sent the clothes she had washed for Kaja

I saw that there was no one around, so I stripped naked, and then scooped up the water and bathed myself to feel cleaner, and then left the stable, although I knew that others could still smell the horse niāo on my body, but there was no way, and I was not like those knights, who could take a bath with a large bottle of perfume and cover the smell of my body

After passing through a few sentinel trees and a birch forest, we came to the edge of the highlands, which was the last line of defense in times of war, and deep trenches were dug around it, and water was drawn from the rivers to pour into them, and if anyone came to attack, the people would abandon the houses on the periphery of the castle and take refuge in the inner fort with all their food and livestock, and anyone who tried to force their way through the trenches would have to pay a great price

But there has been no fighting here for a long time, the trenches are no longer filled with water for a long time, the people have sealed the sluices upstream, the trenches have dried up for a long time, the people have grown alfalfa and rape here, and a large area of yellow, yellow, green and green is covered with trenches, and it seems that as long as it is usable land, everything is now planted

When I walked across the stone bridge across the ditch, no one came to stop me, and several middle-aged men who were loading the shafts of arrows with feathers looked up at me silently, and let me go inside, and the stone castle here was not very outstanding from a distance, but up close it was very tall, and the gray walls looked thick and solid, and the top layer was an archery tower made of wood, and the outside of the tower was covered with raw hides to prevent fire, but now the leather had been pulled down and trimmed into leftovers for later use

Through a side door, I walked into the castle

This is a place to store shoes, I saw some dusty boots and cloth shoes being thrown on the ground arbitrarily, an empty bucket with a few gloves in it, and still no one, I walked up the stairs to the second floor, and saw an old woman dozing, she was lying on a dining table, the tablecloth on the table was used yesterday, oil-stained, a candle holder was placed in the center of the table, the candle was half burned, the solidified wax was like tears, a cat came out from under the table, squatted on the ground, looked up at me, puzzled' Meow, fearing that it would wake up the old woman, spilled a little of the bread crumbs that I had brought with me, and it sniffed, added a nose and ran away

When I got to the third floor, I heard singing

The singing was like a clear sound from a distant world, many of the words were swadiayan, I could understand some of them, I followed the sound, I looked for the light from the window, the courtyard wall was black and white, I followed the source of the song between light and darkness, but halfway through, I was now blocked by a door, there was a big iron lock on the door, I shook it slightly, I don't know if it was locked on the door, but there was a voice from inside the house, 'Who?' I immediately turned around and ran away, it was too late, the corridor was too long, and it was impossible for me to run away before the people inside came out

The footsteps were getting closer, and I ran away, but I certainly didn't reach the end of the hallway

An arm stretched out and pulled me into the side of the room

There was a murmuring outside, and someone walked back and forth, then muttered back

At this time, I looked back and saw a half-exposed maid at the head, and a man lying under a sheet on the bed with a glass of wine on a small stool on the side, he looked at me, and then the glass was taken and took a sip

"Who are you?" The man asked, the maid put a white shirt off her head and put it on her body, and I saw her room beating, and her eyes were bright "Don't look at it, there will be a look in the future" The man showed my gaze and said with a smile

My face turned red, "I'm here I heard the song, I want to come and listen to the song"

"I want to see the girl" The man cut to the point The maid giggled and began to put on her coat, then sat down next to the man, kissed him, took his cup and took a sip, and then the two of them looked at me

"Yes, I'm looking for Kaja" I don't know what's wrong, I suddenly said the name

"Kaja?" The man frowned and muttered to the maid, then turned to me, "We don't have Kaja and so on, you don't mean it's Lord Leo's daughter, Miss Catherine?" ”

"All I know is that her name is Katyusha"

"Boy," the man squinted and continued to drink, "Katyusha is Catherine's nickname, Katya is Katya's nickname, are you familiar with that young lady?" Can it be called so intimate? ”

The maid smiled, "I saw that little girl in the bathroom, her skin was white like a piece of fingers, she was really the little daughter of a noble family, she took a bath and washed it carefully, she liked to wash one toe after another, and she had to wash off every piece of dust to be willing."

My face was a little hot, the man whispered something to the maid, the maid wrinkled her nose, angrily slapped the man and then she came over, suddenly touched my crotch, and said to the man in disappointment, "Nothing has changed, this kid is still a rǔ pigeon"

The man stretched, "Eh, I thought it was fun," he said to me, "You go down to the second floor, and through the hallway from the dining room, there's a little storage room, and there's a ladder to climb up and open the lid on your head to see your dream girl out."

I ran away, thinking to myself that it didn't matter if I was caught by someone outside, this place couldn't stay long

"And," the man said coldly from behind me, "you'd better not talk to anyone about this here," he suddenly threw something over, and before I could react, a dagger slammed into the door behind me and shook gently

The maid's face turned white all of a sudden, and she slapped the man, "What are you doing, it will scare the little children" She said to me, "You go quickly"

The man shrank into the bed, "If you don't scare, the child's mouth can't be closed, your dream lover is waiting for you, but it's a beautiful embryo, if I'm ten years younger, I'll want it myself"

I hurried out the door, just thinking about getting back to my hapless stable, and I tiptoed downstairs, but when I got to the dining room, the thought of taking a look at Kaja came back to me, and I thought to myself, now that I was here, I couldn't be any worse, so I walked behind the old woman

I found the aisle that the man had said, walked to the storage room, and waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness before I saw the ladder he was talking about

My hands and feet were cold, I walked through the debris, and began to climb towards the top of the ladder, I don't know if I was nervous or excited, anyway, my body couldn't stop trembling, and after a while, I climbed to the roof, and I gently pushed my head against the lid of the ceiling, but I couldn't open it

At this time, a voice suddenly came from under him

"Uncle housekeeper, is this the thing you want to move?" It was Jack, and his voice was full of meekness and obedience

"Yes," came an impatient voice, "get those damn boxes out of the warehouse, and throw them into the workshop if they don't work, and let them be cut into strips"

"Yes, Jack can do well"

"Well, go"

I stood on the top of the ladder and shivered with fear, and I raised my hand to put the lid on it, but I still couldn't break away

The footsteps outside were getting closer and closer, and I was sure to be seen standing on top of the ladder, and I could almost imagine Jack's excitement when he saw me, and he would use this opportunity to fix me

I jerked it twice, the lid loosened, a glimmer of light shot into the darkness, and the song came down

I didn't care if I would be seen by the people above, I pushed the lid hard, the lid was scratched, and the light poured down, I hurriedly climbed on it, pouted my ass and covered the lid back, I don't know if Jack saw me after he walked in, I sat on the ground and my heart was a mess, and I felt that Jack had messed up everything

I don't know when I stopped singing, and when I turned around, I saw a thin, well-dressed man sitting on the edge of a piano, and he was instructing one of the biggest girls to play the long piano, and he had now stopped and looked at me, and beside him, seven girls were staring at me, and two girls were sneering and whispering something to each other

On the far left of the girls, Kaja was looking at me coldly

I understood that look at once: never say you know me