It seems that the villain is targeting me.

Come to think of it, it was me who secretly took Hongyue out to play yesterday and comfort her at the same time, but I ended up getting drunk and fell asleep on the way and was brought back by her.

Oops, I was so busy eating the fried fish at that time, Xiao Niao reflected in his heart, that he completely forgot to take care of his subordinates' mental health!

"...I'll go find her later." Xiao Niao covered his face.

She noticed that Bi'er was still standing by her bed without moving, and looked over with a hint of confusion: "Is there anything else?"

"Yes, sir," Bi'er took out an exquisite invitation from her coat pocket, "It is from the palace.

"Your Majesty will hold a formal banquet the day after tomorrow to honor the heroes who led the expedition against King Jialan. All the nobles of the capital will be present."

Bi'er paused for a moment, then continued, "—The royal messenger brought a message from His Majesty, asking if you would like to attend the banquet."

Unless necessary, Xiao Niao rarely attends celebrations or social banquets, so Lawrence specifically asked someone to ask more questions.

Xiao Niao remembered that he had promised Gwen that he would attend the dinner, so he nodded to the adjutant and said, "Tell the messenger that I will be there on time."

After giving the instructions, she let the adjutant leave first.

She took her shirt off the wooden rack, prepared to put it on, and then set off to find Hongyue.

------

-

The Red Moon Knight held the sword loosely in his hand, carefully observing the large tree with lush branches and leaves in front of him.

The yellow and curled leaves left the branches and slowly fell down under the wind.

Occasionally, one or two leaves would fall on Red Moon's shoulders, but the Red Moon Knight ignored them, maintaining her high concentration.

She had a face that seemed to have been carefully carved by the goddess of beauty. When she stood there quietly without moving or speaking, she looked like a beauty walking out of an ancient scroll.

The beauty's eyes suddenly moved and she raised her wrist.

There was no stagnation or hesitation in her movements. This was a sword technique honed through countless bloody battles. There were no unnecessary movements or wasted energy.

The Red Moon Knight swung several times in the air, and the leaves that rolled and fell in the air hit the edge of her sword and fell lightly to the ground.

Xiao Niao bent down and picked up a leaf that was blown to his feet by the sword's blast.

She reached out and pinched the left side of the leaf, and the entire leaf split along the middle vein, neatly splitting into two halves.

Xiao Niao knew very little about swordsmanship, but even as an outsider, she could see Hongyue's accurate control of strength - apart from talent, this was also the result of decades of hard training.

Ever since Xiao Niao met the Red Moon Knight, she has never interrupted her swordsmanship training.

At dawn every day, when most people are still fast asleep in their beds, Hongyue will come to the woods to practice swordplay. Sometimes when the Hongyue Knight feels upset, he will use training as a way to relieve his stress.

She had developed this habit a long time ago, and Xiaoniao knew this - of course, Xiaoniao also knew where Hongyue liked to run during training.

This guy is like a gourd with a sawed mouth. He won't tell anyone when he's unhappy. When something goes wrong, he just keeps it to himself.

If the problem can be solved or the person who raised the problem can be solved, then there is no need to say more, Hongyue will usually solve it on the spot.

But the problems in this world are not always that simple. Some things cannot be solved with a sword in hand.

And at times like this, she would run out gloomily to practice swordplay.

To some extent, Hongyue is actually a person who is not easy to deceive, because once Hongyue has determined something, it is difficult to change her mind.

Just like now, she believed that the bird had been wronged and was feeling very sad.

But Hongyue couldn't find a feasible way to uphold justice for the wronged people like the knights sung in the ballads.

She came to a simple conclusion based on these two points: I am a useless knight.

The Red Moon Knight had no choice but to practice sword skills desperately. She was always very quiet these days, like a dull puppet.

Even when Xiaoniao took her to the pub to relax last night, she was silent more than she spoke.

Xiao Niao called her name from a distance. Hongyue stopped swinging her sword and the bird slowly walked to her side.

The Red Moon Knight didn't turn around, but just lowered his head, not knowing what he was thinking.

"Sir," she suddenly said, "Please don't be sad."

The Red Moon Knight spoke at length, a rare moment: "Those people don't understand the real situation, nor will they try to. They only look at the surface and don't care what the truth is."

"These people only believe what they want to believe. Don't listen to what they say... They say very bad things... Don't be sad."

Hongyue has never been good at speaking, and usually doesn't even like to speak very long sentences.

She knew she was not good at talking, and the words she was mumbling had actually been turning over in her head for several days.

Xiao Niao thought: Isn't this nonsense? If I remember everything everyone says, I would have been pissed to death long ago.

In fact, as long as you grow up a little, you will understand that the praise that is easily obtained will also disappear easily. The person who praises you to the extreme today may insult you and devalue you to worthless the next day.

Most people will choose to flatter her because they have gained benefits from her, but they will also rush over to kick her when she is down.

This is human nature, there is nothing to blame. Xiao Niao has been struggling for more than 20 years in his two lifetimes, and he has seen this point very clearly.

She doesn't take to heart what others say, whether it's praise or insult.

Xiaoniao only cares about those who are truly important to him.

Xiao Niao didn't want to hurt the Red Moon Knight's heart, because this heart was really hard to break.

It's so precious, she may never meet another one in her life.

"Luna."

Kotori rarely addressed her knight by that resounding name, but instead called out his real name.

"I know what those people said is not important. I didn't take it to heart, and I don't feel sad." Xiao Niao looked at her seriously, "Really, I'm not lying to you."

The Red Moon Knight nodded silently, still looking a little depressed.

She was a little obsessed with the idea that Xiaoniao must be forcing herself to smile: those guys said such harsh words, and she was so angry that she wanted to kill people just by knowing some of the gossip. How could anyone hear that and not be sad?

Xiao Niao pulled Hongyue's wrist and asked her to sit on the lawn so that their eyes could be level.

Xiao Niao looked at her: "Luna, do you think I'm a bad person?"

Hongyue shook her head.

"Will you leave me and serve someone else because of what those people said?" Xiao Niao continued to ask.

How is that possible? Red Moon Knight shook his head vigorously.

"That's right," Xiao Niao patiently tried to comfort her like a child, "I only care about what the important people think of me - as long as you like me, let others scold me if they want to. It won't hurt me anyway."

Hongyue doesn't like people scolding Xiaoniao, but she thinks what Xiaoniao said makes sense.

She carefully observed Xiao Niao's heartless face and felt that she must not have lied to herself and really did not feel sad.

A slight smile appeared on the Red Moon Knight's face - it was really easy to understand what this guy was thinking.

Then, Hongyue seemed to remember something and spoke again.

"Then, if you feel sad again, just tell me," the Red Moon Knight leaned closer and lowered his voice, "...I'll help you quietly take out those guys."

Fortunately, this was in ancient times, Xiao Niao thought, otherwise it would only be a matter of time before this guy was arrested as a criminal.

Chapter 70: Honesty is the Only Virtue

"Your Highness, please stop running around..."

Guardian Knight Tony shouted repeatedly, and the lord he was loyal to was laughing happily and running wildly in the garden excitedly.

The seven-year-old prince Rickon actually rarely had the opportunity to be let out to play alone. The rules in the palace were strict, and his mother was always overprotective of little Rickon, fearing that he would get hurt or be poisoned to death.

Now Rickon has finally seized the opportunity to escape from the sight of his mother and the etiquette officer, so of course he wants to have a good time.

He was at the time in his life when his curiosity was at its peak. He was interested in everything he saw and could even spend a whole day playing with an ant nest.

The child was very agile and his steps were very fast. He disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Guardian Knight Tony had no choice but to call Rickon's name while searching helplessly in the garden.

As Rickon ran, he suddenly saw a colorful butterfly resting on a blooming oleander. Its wings fluttered slightly, and the scales shimmered in the sunlight.

Prince Rickon was immediately interested in this beautiful little thing. He wanted to catch this beautiful butterfly, but when he opened his palm and looked at his small hand, he felt that he would definitely let it go.

Rickon then ordered his loyal soldiers to capture the butterfly: "Ser Assault! Go!"

Assault Jazz is two and a half years old and weighs fourteen kilograms. He is a big tabby cat with a fierce expression.

It was very fat, but still as agile as before. After hearing the order from the little prince Rickon, it immediately meowed fiercely and flew towards the butterfly.

Assault Jazz Cat slapped the innocent oleander tree with a fierce slap. The butterfly perched on the petals was startled and flew away with its wings flapping. After a few breaths, it disappeared.

"...Ah." The little prince Rickon cried out in disappointment, looking at the fat tabby cat with a sense of disappointment.

"Meow!" Sir Assault raised his neck proudly, feeling that he was truly invincible.

"Stupid kitty!"

Rickon gave it a frustrated shout and turned to leave in anger.

But when he turned around suddenly, he accidentally bumped into someone.

"what?"

The little prince Rickon raised his head and looked upwards in confusion. At first he thought that it was the guardian knight Tony who came to find him, but later he found that he had bumped into a stranger he didn't know.

The man was quite tall, his clothes were elegant but not too extravagant, his eyes were gray-blue, and his expression was very kind as he looked down at him, like an elder who was easy to get along with.

Umuda smiled and gently grasped the little prince's shoulders, helping him stand steadily.

Rickon opened his mouth to ask who he was, but behind him came a sharp, angry meow.

Sir Assault suddenly became furious. He let out a loud roar and pounced fiercely on Umuda. He stretched out his claws fiercely and scratched three deep bloody marks on the back of his hand.

Wumuda didn't react in time and couldn't dodge. The man cried out in pain and the hand holding the little prince's shoulder couldn't help but loosen.

Although Assault Sir hit the target, he did not relax his vigilance at all. He arched his back high, and the hair on his entire tail stood up, and he had entered a state of stress.

It stood in front of the little prince Rickon and barked at Umuda fiercely.

The little prince Rickon looked stupidly at the big cat that suddenly became ferocious. It took him a while to realize that Sir Assault had hurt someone.

"Ah! You scratched me!"

The little prince Rickon reached out anxiously and hugged the mad Ser Assault, holding the angry and twisting fat cat tightly between his arms - considering that the cat weighed a full fourteen pounds, it was really difficult for him to hold it.

After finally calming down the angry cat, Rickon raised his head and looked at Umuda hesitantly.

At this time, Wumuda was looking down to check the scratches on the back of his hand. The wound was not too deep, so he simply pulled out a clean white silk from his pocket and wrapped it up.

Seeing the little prince looking at him, Umuda gave a kind and tolerant smile, as if he had no intention of blaming the other party.

Rickon, feeling a little bolder, said, "I'm so sorry, my lord. Ser Strikeback is usually so well behaved. I don't know what's wrong with him today..."

The obedient fat cat was working hard in little Rickon's arms, and while he was busy, he took the time to blow on Wumuda again.

Rickon, the cat's owner, felt so ashamed that he held the cat tighter in his arms to prevent it from jumping out and hurting anyone again.

“Please, please don’t blame him, sir,” little Rickon said, looking like he was about to cry. “He was really good…”

Rickon remembered an orange cat he had raised before. Because it accidentally scratched his brother, it was taken away and disposed of.

No matter how the little prince cried and begged, it was of no use. Even his mother only comforted him by saying that she would find him a better cat.

But Umuda really didn't look angry at all.

Umuda even showed an expression of great fondness. He gently stroked Sir Assault's bristling tail with his uninjured hand and spoke to comfort Rickon:

"Please don't worry, my dear little prince. It's a smart cat. It rushed over to protect you out of loyalty. Such loyal cats are rare. I won't be angry about it."

As he spoke, Umuda gently shook his hand wrapped in white silk towards the little prince Rickon: "I think I was accidentally caught in the bushes, wasn't it?"

The seven-year-old boy was visibly relieved, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face. He was not very good at hiding his emotions.

"You are right, my lord," Rickon agreed happily. "I'll have the gardener prune those branches—and, by the way, I'll take you to the doctor; they'll bandage your wounds."

This boy and his brother really have completely different personality types.

Umuda thought this in his heart and prepared to reject the kindness of the little prince Rickon.

Just as he was about to speak, the voice of the eldest prince Charles sounded from behind him - there seemed to be a hint of fear in the voice.

Charles walked over quickly, pulled the little prince Rickon away from Umudah, and dragged him behind him roughly, as if the kind-looking man in front of him was a monster.

Little Rickon was pulled so hard that he felt pain. He looked at his brother timidly. Sir Assault, who was held tightly in his arms, also let out a low growl of dissatisfaction.

The eldest prince was completely unaware that his rude behavior frightened the young Rickon. He lowered his head and sternly questioned his brother: "Rickon Hamilton, what are you doing here? Where is your knight?"