Chapter 23: The Firehooves Appear!

“Good heavens, my lord, these are night-scented grasses—this entire patch must be worth several gold coins at least!”

Laurent gasped, clearly stunned by the sheer expanse of night-scented grass.

“Correct, Laurent. Immediately order everyone to gather and pull up all the night-scented grass around the perimeter!”

“But do not touch this central patch—it’s the most lush and thriving!” Gervas gestured to a roughly hundred-square-meter area in the center.

The night-scented grass within this zone was the most dense and uniform—perfect for Firehooves.

“Yes, Lord Gervas!”

While the soldiers struggled to pull up the night-scented grass, Gervas ordered four knights to quickly fetch eight thick tree stumps.

Then he had them hammered deep into the ground over a meter, leaving only one and a half meters exposed.

Once the stumps were secured, he carved matching notches at equal heights on each, then tied nooses to the ropes—done!

“What is the lord preparing to do?”

“No idea. Is he fencing off the remaining night-scented grass to keep other animals from eating it?”

“But there are only two ropes—enough to deter horses at best. What about rabbits or goats?”

“Shut up, you fools! Do you dare question the lord’s orders? If you want to hang, don’t drag me or the guard squad down with you!”

Seeing his men murmuring, Captain Laurent immediately silenced them.

They were mere soldiers, not the lord’s knights—they had no right to offer opinions.

At this moment, Gervas, having finished setting the stumps, walked toward the group.

“Among you, how many know how to throw a lasso?”

The knight attendants had all been trained in lassoing, but Gervas wasn’t sure about the soldiers.

To his surprise, a few soldiers in this border region had indeed learned the skill.

“My lord, I know how! Seven or eight years ago, Baron Ma Qiaoer tried to form a wild-horse capture team to hunt the Chaos Wastes—I happened to learn it!”

“Also, Zari, Harry, and Percy can lasso too,” Laurent reported.

“Excellent!”

All was ready—only the wind remained.

Gervas then told everyone the Firehooves were coming.

Upon hearing this, both the soldiers and the four knights stared in disbelief.

But as always, if the lord said it, then it was true.

So everyone quietly followed Gervas and hid in the bushes fifty to sixty meters beyond the night-scented grass.

Under the blazing sun, they squeezed into the damp, stifling undergrowth. As seconds ticked by, the soldiers said nothing aloud, but inwardly doubted whether the Firehooves would even come.

After all, Firehooves were top-tier warhorses worth seventy or eighty gold coins each—how could they possibly appear so easily?

Finding ordinary wild horses would be more plausible.

Clip-clop! Clip-clop!

Just as the soldiers’ thoughts wandered, hoofbeats drew near and captured everyone’s attention.

Looking beyond the bushes, they saw seven brown-red figures emerging at the edge of the grassland.

These seven figures were tall and powerfully built, their appearance majestic, their hooves striking like lightning.

“F-Firehooves!”

The soldiers widened their eyes, clapping hands over their mouths to stifle any excited noise.

The Firehooves’ defining trait was their brown-red hide—they were said to carry dragon blood, hence their coloration.

Moreover, their bodies were a full size larger than ordinary horses, standing around two point two meters tall.

Some had even seen advanced Firehooves reach two point five meters.

“Relax. Wait for my signal!” Gervas’s calm voice reached them just in time, steadying the excited soldiers.

Yet now, the way everyone looked at their lord was filled with reverence.

Especially the soldiers—they had never imagined their lord possessed such skill.

The original four knight attendants, however, had witnessed this many times before.

Besides, they truly believed it was Yueyue who had spotted the Firehooves, so their astonishment was muted.

Firehooves were highly alert.

When they reached the night-scented grass, they did not immediately enter the field, but instead nibbled cautiously on ordinary tender grass nearby.

Gervas knew it was the eight stumps that had alarmed them—even though they’d camouflaged them with branches and leaves, they still looked unnatural.

Fortunately, the allure of night-scented grass was overwhelming; save for divine creatures like unicorns, no herbivore could resist.

Gradually, the lead Firehoof ventured to the edge of the night-scented grass and took a few bites.

Finding no danger, it finally stepped into the field.

After a few more bites, it lifted its head and neighed loudly—whereupon the others, as if granted permission, hurried over.

“This beast—no wonder it carries dragon blood. Even the faintest trace grants it wisdom far beyond ordinary animals!” Gervas marveled.

Yet the higher their intelligence, the greater their potential for control after taming—Gervas was delighted.

“Ready—act!”

As all seven Firehooves entered the night-scented grass field, Gervas gave the signal to capture.

“Pull!”

At his command, over twenty men yanked the four ropes before them with all their strength.

With a loud rustle, the tension spread across the ropes to the eight stumps dozens of meters away.

On each stump were nooses; as the ropes tightened, they snapped taut from within the night-scented grass.

The sudden commotion jolted the seven Firehooves mid-feast.

Instantly, they panicked and scattered in all directions.

But soon, they realized they could not escape.

Four ropes now blocked their path.

Firehooves could not lower their heads, nor could they leap freely in the cramped space—they became frantic, darting wildly within the rope-bound enclosure.

Gervas knew these ropes wouldn’t hold them long. He charged forward first. “Lasso team—follow me!”

Laurent and the others dared not delay—they sprinted after their lord, desperate to keep up.

Their gazes burned with hunger, hearts pounding, blood surging.

Though the Firehooves wouldn’t belong to them, to have caught one worth seventy or eighty gold coins in their lifetime—this alone would be a tale to boast about forever.

Just as a knight who slays a dragon gains a lifetime’s glory.