Capítulo 16: Pegasus

The royal entourage walked for kilometers before arriving in the farmlands. The farmlands were located far away from the castle because of the urban development that was taking place. The first sight that greeted King Adrian was a stretch of crop fields that are starting to grow the plants. There were also multiple buildings that are used as accommodation for the farmers and temporary storage facilities. Unlike the town near the castle, the buildings here are still made out of wood as the urban development had not reached the farmlands just yet.

"Talk me through the progress." King Adrian eyed a brown-haired man in his 30s with a full set of beards. His height was taller than the king but people might consider him too lanky and thin.

The man was Niko Branstein, the department head of agriculture & maritime. "Y-yes, Your Majesty, we are starting to grow the crops from our world like wheat and corns. The mage department has also helped us in creating green manure made out of moss you find in the forest that is infused with magic to make the crops grow quicker." He explained.

"I see...and what the hell is that?" King Adrian pointed at a giant tortoise that was pulling a ploughing device. The tortoise has a shell that looked like uneven rocks.

"Ah. Those are what the elves call a mountain tortoise. They're very friendly and can live for a long time. We basically feed them some of our crop yields and they are willing to obey us so we make them plow the field. They're really strong...although they're a bit slow." Niko explained.

"Right. And what of the storage facility? Has Moka Rose discussed to you about building a magically reinforced building to store food for a long period of time?" King Adrian inquired.

"She did...we're still using the temporary wooden buildings but she told me she'll start sending construction workers here next month to begin building everything here." Niko replied.

"Alright. From all of the departments we have, yours is arguably the most important to us right now. Perhaps you were not appreciated very much in our previous world since we had an abundance of food back then. But now, you are our only hope in securing food for our people, understand?" King Adrian smiled to encourage the agricultural department head.

Niko Branstein was moved from His Majesty's kind words. It was true. His department was not very popular back in the previous king's rule as many farms were privately-owned and were capable of meeting the market's demand by themselves. His department job was just to regulate and enforce some rules but they did not receive a lot of budget from the central government. "I will not disappoint you, Your Majesty!" Niko said while doing a salute. His face was bright.

"That's good." King Adrian replied.

Niko then realized something. "My King....did you walk all the way over here?"

"Well...yes. It was a real coincidence that no horses were in the castle perimeters at the time of us being transported here so all of our means of transportation are lost." King Adrian replied.

"I apologize for making you walk all the way here!" Niko bowed down apologetically.

"It's nothing. Raise your head." King Adrian waved it off. Niko realized another thing. "My King, please follow me, perhaps I have a solution to our transportation problem." Niko motioned the King's entourage to follow him.

"WHAT! Those are....." King Adrian was utterly surprised of what he was currently witnessing.

"Pegasus." Braum, who was always next to King Adrian, finished the king's sentence.

"They are! I found out from the elves that they are only native for this specific region. The rest of the continent use normal horses that we have from our previous world." Niko replied while smiling.

They were now in a fenced field where horses with wings on their backs were walking about.

"H-how did you tame them?" King Adrian's face still shows surprise.

"We have some monster tamers in the mage department who were transported with us. We found a pack of twenty of them in the wild, which is what you are currently seeing right now." Niko explained.

"Your Majesty...it seems this world has a lot of our previous world's legendary creatures and species that did not exist...." Braum spoke.

"That's true...the weird thing is this world is also the combination of things that also existed in our previous world...odd." King Adrian stroke his chin to think.

Niko noticed the king's thinking face and interjected. "I was thinking Your Majesty may have the honor to choose one pegasus to ride back to the castle....don't worry, we tested it before and they're pretty safe since they have been tamed."

"That's ridiculous...even if you say so, for the King to also be a test subject...are you willing to be responsible if the King gets injured?" Braum frowned and reprimanded Niko.

"That's...." Niko took a step back and could not finish his words. A former general's intimidating aura was too much for him.

"Braum, calm down. Why not? For me to ride the legendary Pegasus is a child's dream come true." King Adrian smiled. He was a kid who went to the library often to read stories and books so encountering such mythical creature and being able to ride one made him excited.

Niko's face lit up as he was spared from Braum's cruel eyes. "T-then Your Majesty, please have the honor of choosing your first pegasus." Niko took the initiative of opening the wooden fence so the King could enter it.

'Unlike what the legends say...they're not all white.' King Adrian thought in his head while picking his pegasus. It was true, the pegasus was more diverse than he thought. The color ranges from brown to cream. In a sense, they looked just like normal horses but with wings.

'Wait, there's one that's white over there' King Adrian found a majestic white pegasus standing out in the middle of the crowd. The other pegasus also treated the white pegasus like it was royalty.

"It's a no brainer, I'll go with that pure white pegasus over there." King Adrian said to Niko.

"I knew you would, Your Majesty. I'll get my men to put a saddle on it." Niko replied and ordered his subordinates to place a horse saddle on the back of the white pegasus.

King Adrian turned to Braum next to him. "Braum, you choose one too."

Braum was caught off guard. "Me?" He did not even add a honorific title to this answer.

"Yes. Choose one." King Adrian simply replied, not being offended that Braum did not use honorific before.

"*cough* then I'll choose that black one over there." Braum covered his mouth while coughing. In truth, you could see he was covering up a smile.

"Then I'll have my men put a saddle on that one as well." Niko said.

It was already near sunset. King Adrian finally rode on the back of the white pegasus while Braum was sitting on the black pegasus.

"It feels just like a normal horse." Braum muttered.

"Then wait 'till you try to fly it, haha." Niko replied while smiling.

King Adrian was patting the neck of his white pegasus, who was enjoying it as well. "Niko, try to capture many more of the wild pegasus and also try to breed them. They will be an extremely valuable transportation for our kingdom." He said.

"As you wish, Your Majesty." Niko complied. "Have you given it a name, Your Majesty?" Niko asked.

"Hmmm....it's a boy...so I'll call it....Starlight." King Adrian patted the neck of the pegasus again. The pegasus made a noise that seem to indicate it liked the name. "Braum, what about yours?" King Adrian turned to his side where Braum was also riding his black pegasus.

One could see that Braum was extremely pleased with his black pegasus. His usual stoic face was full of smiles. "Mine is a female. I'll call her...Nightmare." For a brief second, Braum released his fierce magical force that was reminiscent of his military days. He was imagining in his head riding into battle with his pegasus and crushing his enemies.

"*cough* you're not even a general anymore, Braum. Oh well, let's go back to the castle. I'll see you later, Niko Branstein." King Adrian bid his farewell and rode off into the fields with his pegasus.

"You men meet us back in the castle, I'll follow him." Braum ordered the knight guards who were guarding them to go back by themselves since they did not have a pegasus yet. Braum took off to follow King Adrian as well.

King Adrian and Braum was riding side by side with their pegasus, they were still on the ground.

"So, how do we make them fly?" King Adrian asked.

"Let's see.....Braum pulled up the reins. Suddenly, the wings of the pegasus was stretched out and started flapping within intervals. Within seconds, Braum was flying with his pegasus. "Your Majesty, do the same thing I just did!" Braum said before he flew further.

King Adrian then copied what Braum did and his pegasus took off from the grounds as well.

King Adrian and Braum was flying across the sky.

"The sunset is extremely beautiful." King Adrian muttered. He gaze at Braum who was also flying. "*sigh* it's a shame I'm not sharing this view with a woman."