PS. Here, I want to thank Young Master WV again for his million-dollar bounty. I want to churn out a triple release as a thank you, so please give me some time. Writing Warhammer is not easy, and as someone who likes to deliberate and refine my prose, my writing pace is quite slow. I hope for your understanding.
Tall windmills were turning their massive blades. In front of the windmill, the chosen champion and the duke's daughter embraced each other.
Today, Sulia was wearing a marquisate noble dress in cream white, with golden epaulettes and tassels on her shoulders. The buttons on her chest were stretched tight, shining bright. Her golden hair, reaching down to her waist, was curled at the tips and secured with a black hairband, giving her a spirited appearance. Her oval face, flushed with a slight blush, and her sea-blue eyes sparkled brightly.
Unusually, the female knight wore a short, blue pleated skirt today, barely reaching mid-thigh, and black sheer stockings that wrapped around her slender, long legs. Wearing blue high heels, the female knight, nearly 1.75 meters tall, still had to tiptoe slightly in front of Ryan, who was 1.85 meters tall.
"I'm so glad you're okay!" Sulia brushed Ryan's face with her hand, her face blossoming with a genuine smile. "After winning the knight's tournament, I wanted to visit you, but Princess Morgiana refused. She said you needed rest... Are you alright now?"
"I'm much better now." Ryan embraced the female knight once more before letting go. Sulia took Ryan's hand, and the two smiled at each other under the spring sun.
"Your hand is still a bit cold," the female knight said gently, feeling the temperature of Ryan's hand. "Ryan, your wounds haven't fully healed, have they? You're just out for a walk, right?"
"If I don't get out for a walk, I feel like I'll rust." Ryan chuckled wryly, pulling the female knight to sit on a chair in front of the windmill. "Actually, there's not much for me to do inside the Holy Grail Cathedral. Besides lying in bed and chatting with Amelia, I can only read books about the glorious stories of the Grail Knights. At night, after Amelia rests, Princess Morgiana discusses recent political events with me. I'm quite idle, actually."
"Now, you are part of those glorious stories," Sulia said, holding Ryan's hand and looking at him tenderly. "Like the legends in those myths, the deeds of the Grail Knights will be forever passed down. And now, in front of me, stands a living legend."
"A living legend?" Ryan felt no turmoil inside upon hearing this. Fighting chaos wasn't about seeking fame but about the survival of humanity.
The chosen champion didn't want to think too much about it. He noticed a small bag beside the female knight. "What's this?"
"Ah, this is cookies!" Sulia noticed Ryan's attention on the small bag beside her, her cheeks reddening. She picked up the bag and placed it in front of Ryan. "I made them myself. Try some?"
"This... Are you sure?" Ryan glanced at the contents of the bag, which were cookies shaped like little bears.
"They were meant for you. Try them, don't worry. I made them myself, and there's no poison." The female knight held his hand, her smile melting snow.
"These windmills can make cookies?" Ryan looked puzzledly at the giant windmill blades behind him.
"No, I made them in the mansion. The mansion has a kitchen, though it's seldom used."
"They smell good—sugar, honey, wheat, milk, butter... You added vanilla too?" Taking one and biting into it, the sweet and crisp texture made Ryan nod in approval.
"Fantastic, I knew you'd taste the difference!" Sulia clapped her hands, her face full of surprise. "It's a new cookie recipe I've been experimenting with. How is it?"
"Delicious, my female knight. You should try your creation too!"
"Mm!"
The two slowly finished the not-so-many cookies in the bag.
A breeze blew, and the lush sea of flowers rustled, "shasha". The chosen champion and the duke's daughter closed their eyes, enjoying this hard-earned moment of leisure.
The spring flower sea was picturesque.
Sulia gently leaned her delicate face against Ryan's shoulder. She seemed to have pondered for a long time before softly saying in Ryan's ear, "Ryan, you sometimes push yourself too hard."
"Why do you say that?" Ryan's hand moved through the female knight's waterfall-like golden hair, wrapping around her waist.
"At that time, you must have seen the knights suffering heavy casualties, many Grail Knights wounded, and the knight armies tirelessly fighting the chaos troops, so you decided to face the great daemon in a duel, right?" Sulia placed her small hand on Ryan's chest, where he had been pierced by the tongue of a Nurgle daemon.
Ryan remained silent.
"Ryan, you push yourself too hard. The knight army had already arrived, and my father came on his pegasus. You didn't have to rush to settle the score with the Nurgle daemon. Fighting evil isn't your responsibility alone. I understand you wanted to minimize casualties, but such a price... How could those who like and care about you not worry?" The female knight gently touched Ryan's face. "Too heavy a burden can crush a person."
"...I admit, when I realized I was the only one who could remain unharmed in the poison fog, and when I saw that the Grail Knights had been wounded to varying degrees, I indeed had that thought," Ryan finally spoke, chuckling wryly. "You're right. I did want to prevent further casualties among the knights, so I considered settling the score with the Nurgle daemon immediately."
"You didn't have to do that, Ryan."
"Mm, I understand now." Ryan reflected on Sulia's advice, realizing his decision was somewhat irresponsible. Rashly putting himself in danger was also irresponsible to those who cared about him.
Seeing Ryan taking her words to heart, the female knight beamed with a radiant smile, holding his hand. "Including me. I worry about you too."
"Me too." Ryan closed his eyes and spoke softly.
Some things were affirmed at that moment.
After a while, Sulia suddenly said to Ryan, "Want to see what's inside the windmill?"
"Is that an invitation?" Ryan snapped out of his daze, the chosen champion standing up with a mischievous smile on his face.
The female knight's face flushed red: "What are you talking about, Ryan! I haven't been inside either."
In this world, windmills and mills are workplaces for peasants, but for nobles, they are places of romance.
Why are they romantic?
Well, Ryan had only heard about it. Many noble ladies or wives like to do this and that with their lovers or paramours inside windmills or mills.
"Let's go!" The female knight huffed and then took the initiative to pull Ryan inside the windmill.
Today was a public holiday, so no serfs would be inside the windmill grinding flour. When Ryan gently pushed open the wooden door, the inside of the windmill was empty.
"Come on, come on, this is my first time inside a windmill too. So this is what the inside of a windmill looks like!" Sulia's heart was filled with a peculiar excitement. The duke's daughter pulled Ryan's hand, touring the interior of the windmill.
The interior was almost entirely made of wood, dominated by a massive grinding stone and mixing equipment. The windows on the second floor provided some faint lighting, but it still appeared very dim. The female knight's high heels and Ryan's boots made unpleasant noises on the wooden floor.
The air inside wasn't pleasant, filled with the smell of flour, various grains, and even ores, along with a few buckets of dirty water.
But to Sulia, this was irrelevant. The female knight, who was accustomed to castles and mansions, was experiencing something new in this enclosed space and dim light. She kept asking Ryan about the purpose of various things, and he answered her questions one by one.
Upon reaching the second floor, they saw a huge gear mechanism closely integrated with the windmill. The gears turned in sync with the windmill blades outside, driven by the wind.
"Due to different functions, almost every windmill is unique. Observing the position of the windmill blades is also quite interesting. According to a scholar's research, blades in a cross shape indicate a temporary halt in work, an X shape means a long-term stop, blades tilted right signify a celebration in the village, and left indicate mourning. The windmill uses wind power to transfer energy through the blades, bearings, and gears to the grinding stone or mixer below, replacing manual labor for various tasks," Ryan explained, holding Sulia's hand and smiling.
"So that's how it works!" Sulia's eyes sparkled as she observed the massive transmission shaft.
Then, she felt herself being embraced from behind.
"Ryan?" In the enclosed environment, Sulia immediately thought of something, her face flushing with shyness, but she didn't resist. Ryan's arm wrapped around her waist from behind, while his other hand rested on her smooth, silky leg: "Sulia~"
The female knight's attention was diverted from the transmission shaft. She turned to look at Ryan's handsome face for a while, then closed her eyes.
Their lips met.
Just about a minute later, noises from the first floor suddenly awakened the young couple from their kiss. The duke's daughter, startled, immediately separated from Ryan and then buried herself in his arms again, pinching his waist in embarrassment: "Now I understand why you said windmills are such places, Ryan! The atmosphere here is just too..."
"The environment is indeed like this. Shh... Sulia, keep it down, someone's coming." Ryan was also a bit embarrassed. He held the delicate beauty in his arms and whispered.
"Mm!" Sulia nodded, and the two carefully observed the movement below.
A young knight pushed open the door, his handsome and suave face filled with eagerness but also some dejection: "Please, Miss Fiona!"
Following that, a girl around sixteen or seventeen years old, with golden short hair and wearing a beret, dressed in a red Brittany noblewoman's attire, stepped in wearing brown leather shoes. Her cute face was full of impatience and arrogance: "Matthew Bard, you'd better give me an explanation. First, why did you bring me here, and what's going on with you? Why did you disappear after Brelayne? I've been looking for you everywhere, even had grandpa issue a notice to find you, and you show up here in Krona!"
"Ah, it's a long story, Miss Fiona." Matthew Bard nodded eagerly.
"Then make it short!" Fiona said impatiently, her gaze wandering over the windmill's interior: "I'm not interested in your lengthy explanations!"
"Yes, it's like this..." Matthew Bard briefly explained the situation, mainly about how he intercepted a vampire beast and fled towards the library, where he was ambushed. Wounded, he had no choice but to escape where the enemies were fewer, jumped into the moat under bat pursuit, and was washed outside the city.
"Then you could have returned to Brelayne for our help!" Fiona was extremely upset, shouting at Matthew Bard: "What does disappearing without a word mean?"
Fiona's voice was loud, and Matthew Bard instinctively tried to close the windmill's door, but after several attempts, he found the lock was open and without a key, it couldn't be locked, so he gave up: "Lower your voice, my lady. Let's talk upstairs."
This alarmed Ryan and Sulia, who were watching the drama from the second floor. Sulia panicked: "This is bad, Ryan. If Fiona finds out I'm hiding here on a date with you, she'll mock me for a lifetime!"
"Here, let's hide behind that cabinet!" Ryan quickly found a hiding spot. He had just pulled Sulia a step when her high heels made a "thump" on the wooden floor.
Fortunately, due to the wind outside, the windmill's huge gear structure was turning, and its noise covered Sulia's sound, so Matthew Bard and Fiona didn't notice.
"I'll carry you." Ryan quickly suggested, and the female knight nodded urgently. Her cheeks flushed, she wrapped her arms around Ryan's neck, allowing him to lift her by the waist.
Just as the two of them hid behind the cabinet, storing ores and tools, Matthew Bard and Fiona reached the second floor: "Miss Fiona, I know it was wrong of me to disappear without a word, but I was injured at the time. I couldn't possibly return to the castle with my injuries. I'm very sorry, so I swore to win the knight tournament's championship trophy as an apology to you, but..."
"Hmph, but you lost to Sulia. What a useless man." Fiona crossed her arms, her face full of disdain: "I don't want a second place. Keep your runner-up trophy!"
A flash of rage and resentment crossed Matthew Bard's eyes, but he quickly controlled himself and bowed repeatedly: "Yes, it's a pity, my fault."
Fiona looked at Matthew Bard's demeanor, bit her lip, her face flushing, and asked in a low voice: "Tell me the truth, Matthew Bard."
"The fourth volume of the nine volumes of Nagash hidden in grandpa's library, did you take it?"
Update! Asking for all kinds of votes!
___________________
(Support with power stones, comments or reviews)
If you guys enjoy this story, In support me on Patreon and get access to +200 advance Chapters
Read Ahead
Patreon.com/INNIT