Derek calculated the days and set off with all his knights and prepared five excellent-quality warhorses. It would take at least a year to raise them from excellent to outstanding quality. He couldn’t wait; excellent-quality warhorses were already mainstream on the market. Even the king's direct knight brigade had this level of treatment.

Take the warhorse he was riding, for example. Its stats were as follows:

Warhorse (Unnamed)

Quality: Excellent (45/100)

Experience Pool: 0/100

This was the best warhorse he had on hand, with fifty-five experience points left; it would take three or four days to accumulate a bit in the experience pool, and it would only gain a couple of points in a month or two. It could be considered average among excellent-quality horses, yet it was still better than eighty percent of the warhorses on the market.

Derek had equipped it with a layer of leather armor; its muscular build and smooth brown coat made for a very appealing appearance. Most knights would consider this level of horse to be their dream mount. Truly outstanding warhorses were something most people could only dream of.

Most of the other knights were riding warhorses that had just reached the excellent level, which looked slightly inferior. Since they were all cavalry, they traveled at great speed. After resting for a night, they arrived at their destination the next day. This place was very close to the core of Count Perez's territory, one of the few areas in the North with a dense population and farmland.

Knight Cloyah's fief was located here—a knight manor passed down from his ancestors, one of the first knight fiefs in the North. It covered two thousand acres, enough to sustain seventy to eighty families who had farmed for generations under the Cloyah family. He could even muster his own army, set up checkpoints to collect taxes, and wield a series of administrative powers.

This small knightly title already came with certain privileges, which were not available to those who purchased manors. Of course, Knight Cloyah usually didn’t use these powers. Being so close to the Count's castle, maintaining soldiers was entirely unnecessary. Setting up tax checkpoints would be tantamount to courting disaster; most businesses that thrived under the Count's nose were largely owned by him.

However, through farming, he earned enough each year—around two to three hundred gold coins. Coupled with his salary and some extra income, he was living better than ninety-nine percent of the people in this world.

By the way, there’s a word in Knight Cloyah’s name: Perez. Because of their proximity and without any rest days, Knight Cloyah would return to the family estate regularly. Derek had timed his visit perfectly.

It had been ten months since he left the knight brigade. When Knight Cloyah suddenly heard of Derek’s visit, he thought he might be coming to seek connections. The young man had suffered some setbacks in the outside world, so returning home was normal. Coincidentally, the Count had expressed interest in expanding the knight brigade, which presented an opportunity.

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However, the steward leaned in close to Knight Cloyah and reported the situation before Derek arrived. "Knight Derek comes with seven knights and a dozen warhorses, all well-equipped and looking quite impressive."

"Impressive" was the minimum compliment for a noble. However, not everyone could be described this way. Knight Cloyah thought to himself, perhaps he had guessed wrong. When he saw Derek stride over, full of spirit, he became even more convinced he had misjudged.

“Uncle Cloyah, I’ve come to ask you for a favor,” Derek said jokingly upon meeting him. The two families had a long-standing relationship; the current Baron Ferreira and Knight Cloyah had fought together on the battlefield, so it was natural to be informal.

Sure enough, Cloyah smiled, showing a hint of affection for the younger man. “As long as it’s within my power, feel free to ask. But... Little Derek, you’ve become much more open after your adventures.”

The Derek of old wouldn’t have spoken to him like this—he had been very serious and formal. After nearly a year apart, it was understandable that the young man had changed under different circumstances.

Derek, hearing this, smiled. Even though they were both engaging in a kind of collusion, it felt much more comforting with a touch of warmth. Some people believed that clear-cut boundaries were best, but life was rarely that straightforward. Just because you could handle something didn’t mean everyone else could. If even one person couldn’t manage, it would become a barrier.

Thus, Derek laughed as he pulled on Cloyah’s arm, leading him outside. A line of brown warhorses stood in front of the door, and even the slightly inferior ones were hard to distinguish from excellent and ordinary quality. The remaining seven or eight were clearly excellent horses at first glance.

“Good horses!” Knight Cloyah said without much surprise, his praise casual. While these horses were decent, none were astonishingly impressive. He commanded a banner, and aside from people, he mostly dealt with horses, so he was hardly astonished. However, the fact that Derek could have so many horses indicated he was indeed doing well.

“Little Derek, are you here to show off? Do you want me to take you back to the knight brigade to relive the glory of training horses?” Derek quickly walked down to stand in front of the horses.

“Uncle Cloyah, you asked what I was here for—this is it. This is my gift to you. How do you like it?”

At this, Cloyah was genuinely surprised. He stepped down a few paces to examine the warhorse carefully—its teeth, hooves, legs, and coat. It was indeed a fine horse, standing quietly under Derek’s care, only occasionally shaking its head, clearly well-trained and ready for battle.

“A gift for me? Then I’ll gladly accept.”

“Keep this one as a gift, but the other four I’ll sell to you at full price.” Cloyah didn’t lack for warhorses, but the market had a shortage, even Count Perez himself was in need. Scarce resources were always in demand.

“How much?”

“Taking these four as an example, they’re only of lower quality among warhorses—20 gold coins each, how does that sound?”

“Not expensive!”

It wasn’t exactly cheap, but it was about the current market price. However, such items were primarily for resource exchange; a reasonable price was already considered a good deal.

Knight Cloyah immediately decided, “I’ll take them all. If you have more like this, you can come find me.”

“Eighty gold coins for four, and buy four get one free. If Uncle Cloyah wants more, I can bring another batch next month.” Derek tossed the reins to Simon.

“Oh! Now that’s quite a deal; your gift is too generous, I’m almost afraid to accept.”

Sixteen gold coins each was already below market price. Such a big discount felt too good to be true. Cloyah wanted it but feared he wouldn’t be able to pay the price.

“Just tell me what you want to do, and I’ll see if I can help.”

You see, that’s the warmth of human connection. With another person, even if it were a gift, they might not find the right path. What’s considered polite would be a flat refusal. The less refined would take what they could get without any hesitation.