It seems that the villain is targeting me.

Even the most arrogant warriors knew that it was best to avoid the Red Moon Knight when they saw him in the duel arena.

These people did not dare to say bad things about Xiaoniao in front of Hongyue. They just said it secretly behind her back and spread it quietly.

The Red Moon Knight felt that he had martial arts skills but could not even protect a single person, and could only watch the bird suffer injustice.

This made her so depressed that she ate two fewer potatoes for dinner - the old lady working in the kitchen was the first to notice this.

The nanny thought worriedly: Oh no, Miss Luna is worried about something.

That afternoon, Xiao Niao learned about the situation of the Red Moon Knight.

After listening to the old lady's talk about potatoes, she felt complicated and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Xiao Niao has actually been having a pretty good time recently, just like she's on vacation. She doesn't have much work to deal with, and she can allocate the whole day freely. No one cares whether she sleeps or goes to the kitchen to prepare food.

After all, Xiao Niao is not the type of overtime maniac like Lao Zhu. He still prefers eating, drinking and having fun to working.

This time, she had the rare opportunity to experience the joy of a corporate vacation. She did nothing but eat and sleep for two days, and her life was quite decadent.

But in the eyes of the Red Moon Knight, this action seemed to indicate that Lord Butcher was overly sad and behaving abnormally.

Xiao Niao stroked his chin and pondered for a few minutes: The Red Moon Knight is too naive, and I can't let her think about it alone. Anyway, I don't have anything to do now, so why don't I take her out for a walk to relax.

----

-

In the lower town, deep in Copper Alley, there is an unnamed tavern.

The owner of this tavern is a middle-aged man. I heard that he was a small captain in the legion when he was young. Later, he was injured in a battle and retired, and then he came to open this tavern.

The tavern he opened was not big. It was a place where blacksmiths and soldiers on break would come to drink some rough brew after work. Due to its poor location, there were not many customers, and sometimes there was no business for the entire afternoon.

The owner of this pub has some slightly strange rules. The best, hidden and ventilated seats in the store are always reserved by him - it is said that someone paid for them specifically and asked the owner to keep them.

According to the recollections of drunken drinkers, occasionally a thin-looking young man would sit in that position and drink, and he was always accompanied by a very tall woman.

However, not many people know about this rumor. After all, the boss's business is really bad. You may not be able to find the door of the store even if you walk around Tongxiang for a long time. It is a true portrayal of the deserted store.

But today there happened to be a guest in the best seat - just as the rumors said, it was a combination of a half-human and a tall woman.

Both men were wearing ordinary coarse linen clothes, which made them look inconspicuous. They didn't order anything expensive. There was only a large plate of fried fish on the table in front of them.

Fried fish, those tiny anchovies cooked to a crispy crisp so they can be eaten head-on, can be found in any tavern in the capital, casually served on a varnished plate with a beer chilled with spring water.

However, the owner of this pub has some experience in frying small fish, and he always makes them salty, fragrant and delicious, so he can still attract some customers who like this kind of fish. Some people even come here specifically to eat this kind of small fish.

The tavern's business was as bad as usual today. Apart from the half-occupied table, there was only a bard who looked rather down and out.

The bard's clothes looked like they had been worn for a long time and were washed white, but they were still clean.

He didn't take up a table, but drank directly at the counter.

The poet leisurely spread out eight copper coins on the table and said with a smug look, "I've got a good deal today. A small profit, a small profit... Boss, have a glass of ice-cold wheat beer first."

The boss swept the copper coins on the table into the drawer, then suddenly stretched out his big hand and lifted up the bard like a boiled chicken.

"You owe me two silver coins for a beer, and you still want to drink ice beer?!" The boss raised his fist, as big as a clay pot, and gestured in front of the poet's face, "If you don't pay me back today, you can't leave!"

Bard: "Brother, let's talk nicely."

The boss didn't want to talk nicely, so the two of them had a very uncivilized argument. In the end, the bard persuaded the boss to agree to continue the credit for a while.

The poet was finally lowered from the air, his complexion looking better. He then suggested to the boss, "Brother, how about this? I'll sing you a song, and you'll buy me a glass of wine on credit..."

The tavern owner frowned, and was about to strike again. The bard quickly waved his hands, "No, no, no, no credit. No credit. I'll sing for you for free, for free."

The boss thought for five seconds and decided that free stuff is worth a try, so he agreed.

The down-and-out poet then took out an old and broken harp, cleared his throat, and began to play and sing.

The poet was singing an old tune from many years ago. The lyrics told the legend of the Red Moon Knight when he was just starting out: this talented knight defeated seven knights of the same age in a martial arts competition, and eventually became famous and won the favor of Prime Minister Butcher.

The bard's voice is actually quite good, a little hoarse and seems a little vicissitudes of life.

He sang the story that happened more than ten years ago, telling how the legendary Red Moon Knight used

Wisdom defeated the opponents one by one, forcing them to surrender by dropping their weapons with conviction.

The bard probably never imagined that the protagonist of his lyrics was currently sitting in this old and run-down tavern, eating fried fish and listening to him bragging about his own prowess.

It took the poet about ten minutes to finish singing the entire song. He sang with great devotion and emotion. After he finished, he was still immersed in the world of the song and didn't come back to his senses for a long time.

At this time, the guests at another table seemed to have finished their meal and were preparing to leave.

The half-human with bird-like features walked to the counter, handed the boss a few coins, whispered something, turned his head to look at the bard, smiled and praised: "You sing well."

The bard smiled back reflexively - after all, he was in this line of work, so it was a professional instinct.

After the half-man finished speaking, he left with his companions. The bard let out a long breath, put the harp on the dirty table, licked his cracked lips, and felt that his throat was about to smoke.

Just as he was wondering whether he should shamelessly ask the boss for some of the remaining sour beer, a full glass of ice-cold ale with water droplets on it fell next to his harp.

The bard was shocked and looked at the tall and strong tavern owner with confusion.

He looked at the wine glass and then at the man, suspecting that the boss had spit in the wine.

The tavern owner nodded towards the door and said, "Here, they treated you and I've already paid for the drinks."

------

On the other side, the Imperial Prime Minister walked out of the tavern and was a little drunk. She staggered forward for a while, blowing the wind to sober up.

As if he was thinking of the song that the poet sang in the tavern, Xiao Niao lowered his head and laughed in a very unpresentable way. The more he laughed, the more he bent down, and his whole body almost bent like a shrimp.

After he finished laughing, Xiao Niao raised his head again, his eyebrows raised happily: "Very impressive, my knight who has won seven battles and seven victories."

Xiao Niao put his fist to his lips again and made a throat-clearing motion: "Well, I like the 'Fated Knight' section the most. Although it's a bit too beautified, the melody is still quite nice."

That section tells the story of the first encounter between the Knight of the Red Moon and the Shrike. The poet sings in the lyrics that the great knight met his destined lord.

Hongyue wanted to say that she actually liked that section the most. She had listened to it many times, to the point that she could almost recite it.

But the Red Moon Knight simply reached out to steady the drunken bird and said, "You've had too much to drink, my lord."

Hongyue knew in her heart that this story was not as romantic as the ballad said, but was more filled with helplessness, bitterness and her youthful unwillingness.

It was indeed because of the knightly tournament jointly organized by the two lords that her fame first became known to the public.

It was a competition only for young knights, a seven-round wheel-style competition. The lords of both sides each sent out seven squire knights, who took turns to go on the field in order. When all the squires on one side were defeated, the squire who remained on the field could be promoted to a formal knight.

She didn't know at the time that the official knight's spot had already been reserved for a baron's son - he was ranked fifth in the team, the order most likely to win.

Hongyue was the first to appear. When she came on stage, she only had the only thing left to her by her father: a standard knight's sword.

She was first to appear and then won seven games in a row.

The Red Moon Knight's victory was not as easy as the ballad said. When the last opponent dropped her weapon in surrender, her blood seeped through her leather wrist guards and she could barely lift her weapon.

But when Hongyue took off her helmet tremblingly and looked hesitantly at the two lords watching the battle, there was a sudden and extremely loud booing from the stands, and there was an uproar all around. Both lords refused to fulfill their promise to knight her.

They felt they had been deceived.

All this was because Hongyue was a woman - according to ancient tradition, women could not become knights - she should not even touch the knight's sword blessed by the priest with her hands, so as not to damage the sacred blessing.

Hongyue was waiting at that station to be crowned. She listened for a long time before she finally understood what the two grumbling fat men were saying: in short, they were going to go back on their word, and what they said was just bullshit.

Hongyue was furious at that moment. She dropped the sword and helmet in her hands and clenched the last thing she could hold: her fist.

——Then he rushed to the stands and beat up the two distinguished lords.

In the end, Hongyue was naturally caught by the knights who rushed up to protect the lord.

The knights didn't know what to do with the champion who had defeated all the squires. They wanted to ask the lords for their opinions, but both lords were knocked unconscious.

After thinking for a while, they locked Hongyue in the dungeon and planned to wait until the lord woke up the next day to discuss how to deal with this guy.

When Xiao Niao opened the door of the dungeon and slowly walked in, what he saw was Hongyue sleeping in the corner of the cell.

At that time, Hongyue had been locked up for the entire night. She had fought hard but had not even had a sip of water to drink. The wound on her wrist was not treated properly. The reddish-brown blood was stuck to the inside of her elbow, and she looked extremely pitiful.

And Xiao Niao was not in a good position at that time - she had not yet met Lao Yezhu's team.

The little money they have saved is no different from what a beggar has.

Their first meeting was not destined at all, but rather a result of their shared misfortune.

Because of Xiao Niao's half-human identity at the time, he would encounter human traffickers wherever he went, and he was extremely eager to have a guard with high combat power.

She accidentally saw the game, and then spent all her gold to bribe the jailer, preparing to persuade Hongyue to take this guy away with her.

Our unfortunate little bird had to explain to Hongyue for half an hour before the silly kid understood what she meant.

After Hongyue understood, she asked her, "Then can you let me become a knight?"

Xiao Niao thought: Sister, look at me. I only have two coins left on my body, and I still want to be a knight. Why don’t you say you want to ride me?

But Xiaoniao had already spent all her money, so she had no choice but to continue to deceive the other party:

"...How about this, you follow me first, and when I become a lord, I will knight you?"

Anyone with a little common sense can understand how unreliable this statement is - it is essentially no different from "Lend me some money first and I'll pay you back when I become rich"!

But the silly kid actually believed it.

From a certain perspective, these two people might really be destined to be together: one of them really dares to speak out, and the other really dares to believe it.

Hongyue really believed those words. She solemnly placed her hand on her left heart and swore to the bird:

"I am willing to follow you for the rest of my life," the seventeen-year-old Luna promised earnestly. "I will dedicate all my loyalty to you and protect you forever—as long as you allow me to become a true knight."

This messy, erroneous story has one particularly satisfying point:

That is, at the end of the story, both protagonists actually fulfilled their vows.

So both parties were happy and satisfied.

Chapter 69 The puppy doesn’t understand anything. He is just afraid that you will be sad.

She was indeed a little too drunk last night and didn't even remember how she got home.

When Xiao Niao woke up in a daze, he found himself lying on a familiar bed, wrapped in a warm quilt.

The feeling of hangover made it difficult for her to open her eyes. Xiaoniao felt that a blood vessel in her temple was beating slowly and heavily, causing a faint and lingering pain.

She only moved her head up a few centimeters and felt a dizzying feeling of dislocation.

Xiao Niao groaned uncomfortably.

She had to put her head back on the pillow and bury her whole face in the soft pillowcase.

Xiao Niao wrapped himself in a warm blanket, closed his eyes and lay on the pillow to relieve the dizziness. His already unclear consciousness was gradually overwhelmed by sleepiness, and he slowly fell asleep again.

Half asleep and half awake, Xiao Niao felt as if someone was gently pushing her shoulder.

A familiar voice sounded in her ears, calling her name in a low voice.

"My lord? Wake up, Lord Butcher," the gentle female voice said patiently but ruthlessly, "It is time to get up, my lord."

Xiao Bird muttered vaguely, and the soft down feathers that were originally tightly attached to the back of its ears puffed up a little and stood up randomly.

The force pushing the shoulders became stronger, and the gentle voice became helpless:

"Don't sleep, sir. There is a lot of work to be done. You can't rest yet."

Xiao Niao finally reacted and squinted her eyes for a long time before she saw clearly who was speaking: her adjutant, Bier.

The Prime Minister of the Empire looked a little dazed when he just woke up, with a dazed expression and slow reactions. He was not as unapproachable as usual, but instead looked like someone who was easy to bully.

Her silly look made Bier stunned for a moment, and her pupils flickered slightly.

Xiao Niao supported herself on the bed and slowly sat up. She still felt very dizzy, so she blinked hard, trying to make herself awake.

When she looked at Bier again, the adjutant's expression had returned to normal.

"What time is it?" Xiao Niao asked, his voice a little hoarse.

"It's nearly eight o'clock, my Lord."

"...I drank too much last night," Xiao Niao covered Qing's aching head, "was it Hongyue who brought me back?"

"Yes," Beau replied calmly, "You were asleep at the time, and it was Miss Luna who brought you back."

"Where is she now?" Xiao Niao asked.

"I got up at five in the morning to practice swordplay," Bier replied.

It's true that people's physical conditions are different. Hongyue even drank more than her last night, but she was full of energy and had no problems at all. She even got up on time to exercise. But she was lying in bed, almost unable to get out of bed.