Chapter 1 Slaves and Knights
The Principality of Morton, the Territory of Thorns, and the Baron's Castle.
At dawn, the castle ushered in the first light rain since autumn.
Rhine pinched her biological clock and slowly woke up in a pile of straw.
As the lowest-status 'slave' in the castle, Rhine had neither a room nor a bed of his own.
Therefore, he could only sleep in this dirty, cold, and smelly empty stable with other 'horse slaves' like him.
In the darkness, Rhine looked at his other sleeping companions and stood up quietly without disturbing them.
After all, similar situations have been happening in the two years since he was sold to the castle, and he has long been accustomed to it.
"Huh..."
Rhine took out a breath and then rubbed his hands vigorously.
After a little adapting to the cold rainy day, Rhine passed over the other sleeping companions and walked softly towards the only oil lamp in the center of the empty stable.
The oil lamp contained lamp oil made from animal fat.
Although this kind of lamp oil is cheap, it has a big disadvantage, that is, it is very easy to solidify in severe cold weather and is difficult to ignite.
The lamp oil in the oil lamp in front of Rhine was now solidified and stuck to the match rope, and the flint in his hand could not light it at all.
For this reason, Rhine had to hold the exposed match rope with his hand and stand alone in the cold empty stable, waiting for the solidified lamp oil on the match rope to melt with his palm.
After a while...
Snap!
With a burst of sparks flickering, the dim empty stable was soon illuminated by a burst of dim firelight.
Rhine looked around at his 'companions' who were either sleeping or pretending to be asleep, and did not try to wake them up.
After all, as 'horse slaves', their only role is to help the knights in the castle take good care of the horses.
If you do well, there will be no reward.
If you do something wrong, you will be beaten and scolded at best, or beaten to death and thrown out of the castle without anyone paying attention.
With such a dark future, the Manu slaves just have the idea of muddling along and living one day at a time.
But Rhine, who is also a Man slave, is an exception...
Knowing that others would not get up so early, Rhine directly took off the hanging oil lamp and walked to the stable next to him alone.
In this stable, there are three war horses and a few ordinary pack horses.
The Principality of Morton is a country built on cavalry. In this country, everyone is proud to be a knight.
Once upon a time, Rhine, who had just traveled through time, also longed to become a 'knight'.
I feel that I might be able to carve out a world in this strange 'different world' and leave my own legend.
But all this came to nothing after a group of horse thieves broke into the village and looted everywhere.
It was also after that night that Rhine understood two things.
First, the person riding on the horse is not necessarily the knight.
Second, the things that knights protect may not include civilians like them.
Because on the armor of one of the leading horse thieves, Rhine clearly saw a pattern similar to a 'family crest'.
Although he couldn't identify which family this 'family emblem' belonged to, and he didn't know what the pattern represented, he knew that these guys were definitely not ordinary horse thieves.
After all, ordinary horse thieves cannot afford to wear expensive armor, and they are not qualified to wear family crests.
After that, Rhine, who was caught by these people, was finally sold to the Baron Castle in the Thorn Territory after going around a lot, and became a horse slave who specialized in helping knights take care of their horses.
"A person who dreams of becoming a knight ends up becoming a slave that is worse than a horse..."
Rhine lowered his head to feed the horse and murmured softly.
And the fact is exactly what he said.
If the horse dies, the knights will really feel sad for a long time.
But if Manu dies, the knights may just say indifferently that they understand, and then there will be nothing more.
This is the slave in the Principality of Morton, like the weeds on the roadside, no one cares about them.
In the dim stable, after pouring all the feed into the manger, Rhine sat alone on a big stone next to the stable, looking at the open space in the castle yard not far away, waiting quietly.
As the rain stopped, a ray of morning light shone into the thorn collar.
A group of militiamen soon began to practice in the courtyard of the castle, led by a trainee knight.
And this time is also a rare 'learning time' for Rhine.
Rhine didn't want to be a slave for the rest of his life, let alone raise horses for the rest of his life.
To do this, he must seize every opportunity to ‘rise’.
Getting up early to peek at the militia training was Rhine's only 'opportunity'.
If you want to become a ‘knight’, you can’t just look at it.
Horses, equipment, martial arts, and even other things that Rhine could never imagine finally established the 'knight's' outstanding status in the Principality of Morton.
Therefore, even if some militiamen noticed something strange about Rhine, no one cared about it at all.
After all who cares what a slave thinks?
There was a time when Rhine also felt that he could not break free from the shackles of slavery imposed on him.
But the second day after he arrived at the Baron Castle, changes occurred...
[The soul link is completed, the knight's protection takes effect...]
[Note: Those who follow the eight virtues of knights will be protected by knights and receive glory for themselves]
‘Knight protection’, this was the message that came to Rhine’s mind on the second day after he arrived at the Baron’s castle.
And its effect is also very simple, that is, as long as Rhine strictly abides by the 'Eight Virtues of Knights', he can obtain varying degrees of 'protection', which is the so-called talent.
But it is not easy to activate these talents.
Two years have passed, and Rhine has only activated two protections in total.
They are ‘humility’ and ‘honesty’ among the eight virtues of knighthood.
[Humility (absolute focus): If you remain humble, you will have the best learning and analysis abilities. 】
[Honesty (sense of truth): By remaining honest, you have the ability to distinguish all truth from falsehood. 】
Without these two blessings, Rhine didn't think he could learn anything from watching this training.
But with these two blessings, the situation is completely different.
After all, Rhine's students were never ordinary militiamen.
Instead, standing in front of the militiamen, was Fergus, a burly trainee knight from the castle.
Although Fergus rarely takes action, he occasionally selects one or two militiamen to spar with him in order to show the strength of the trainee knights.
Therefore, by chance, Rhine relied on the terrifying learning ability brought by "humility (absolute concentration)" and observed something different from ordinary people in the other party.
For example, when the apprentice knight of the castle is fighting, his breathing method will immediately change.
Even his strength and speed were visibly improved, which shocked Rhine.
And after making this discovery, Rhine would take advantage of Fergus's militia training every day to quietly observe his breathing pattern and other details.
Thanks to the terrifying blessing of 'humility (absolute concentration)', Rhine had basically mastered Fergus's special breathing method only in the third month after arriving at the Baron Castle. It's just that after Rhine quietly tried it once, he never breathed in this way again.
Because in that attempt, Rhine felt what it meant to be "on the brink of death" for the first time.
The feeling of splitting all over his body and tingling pain in his internal organs made Rhine immediately stop this reckless behavior.
After that, Rhine had a high fever for three days, and it took him less than half a month to recover. It was equivalent to walking before the gate of hell.
However, although this attempt cost Rhine a lot of money, it was not without gain.
Because after that time, Rhine clearly felt that his appetite had increased a lot.
Physical fitness also seems to have improved a bit.
It's just that his status as a Rhine slave meant that he couldn't always eat enough.
Naturally, I dare not use this special 'breathing method' to exercise my body.
But Rhine didn't give up.
Check out the 16-9 book bar and see the correct version!
For this reason, Rhine did not hesitate to get up early every day, and then sit here rain or shine, watching the militia training regularly.
Rhine didn't want to learn anything through this, but to seize a small, fleeting 'opportunity'.
Hard work paid off, and today, that almost impossible opportunity... appeared.
"Hey, little slave over there, I see you have been watching here for more than a year. I guess you have some thoughts on becoming a knight."
"But if you want to be a knight, how about just watching over there? Come over and try?"
Fergus' cheerful voice instantly interrupted the militiamen's training, causing everyone's eyes to focus on the thin figure beside the stable.
Faced with Fergus's invitation, Rhine naturally would not refuse and could not refuse.
In the open space of the castle in the early morning, Rhine was allowed to walk out of the dirty and dim stables for the first time and set foot on the flat and green grass of the castle.
When Rhine came closer, he found that because he had been in the stable all year round, his body was filled with an indescribable odor, and the coarse cloth was visibly stained with many weeds and some indistinguishable stains. .
This made the surrounding militiamen express disgust and subconsciously distanced themselves from Rhine.
But they were different from the militiamen who made no secret of their disgust towards Rhine.
Fergus, the trainee knight of the old castle, showed considerable interest in this little slave.
After a close observation, Fergus discovered that although Rhine's clothes were dirty and his hair was messy, the nails on his hands were very clean and there was no trace of dirt in them.
It shows that Rhine is actually a very clean person, but he is forced by the environment to look so shabby and slovenly.
But this little detail is actually insignificant.
Because no matter what Rhine's identity was before, he is just a slave of the castle now.
There was only one reason from the beginning to the end that really made Fergus decide to let Rhine come over and participate in a training session.
Those are Rhine's eyes.
Unlike the numb and empty eyes of other slaves, Rhine's eyes were very clear and pure.
This made him stand out among the slaves.
After all, there are walking dead on one side and living people on the other.
Let alone a trainee knight like Fergus, any normal person can see the difference.
It’s just that most people don’t care about what slaves think, let alone understand these people’s past.
Therefore, they all selectively ignored this point.
In fact, if Rhine hadn't appeared in a fixed position in the stable every morning, watching their training.
Fergus would never notice his unusual look, and naturally he would not act on a whim like he did today.
After all, who cares what a slave thinks?
Under the early morning sun, Rhine, who was skinny and shabbily dressed, was like the ugly duckling mixed in with the swans. He was watched silently by the tall and ruddy-faced militiamen around him with either disgust or arrogance.
But just as the militiamen didn't care what the slaves thought, Fergus, as a trainee knight, also didn't care what the mere militiamen thought.
So after looking at Rhine, who was only twelve years old and only as tall as the waist of the militiamen, for a moment.
Fergus casually took a wooden sword from the shelf next to him and threw it in front of Rhine.
"Take it up, little slave, and..."
Fergus's eyes swept across the militia, and finally pointed at one of the guys with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks, who was relatively thin among the militia, and said: "...defeat him."
"As long as you can do it, I will let you join my militia, how about it?"
It's the truth...
Rhine, who possesses 'honesty (sense of truth)', immediately recognized the 'sincerity' and 'charity' in Fergus's words at this time.
To this, Rhine gave his own answer.
He picked up the wooden sword that was stained by rain and became a little heavy from the ground, and said respectfully: "Thank you for your gift, the respected Lord Knight Fergus."
Hearing this, Fergus was stunned for a moment, and then he couldn't help but laugh while touching his stubble-covered chin.
'Dear Lord Knight Fergus'...
What a nice and appropriate title.
Although Fergus had heard similar words from many people.
But for some reason, when these words came out of Rhine’s mouth, the effect was completely different from others
Because Fergus could feel that Rhine's words were not a false compliment, but a sincere compliment from the heart.
Thinking of this, Fergus's impression of Rhine improved a lot.
And secretly made up his mind.
As long as Rhine performs well next, he will incorporate him into his militia group regardless of winning or losing.
After all, he is the Sir Fergus Knight whom Rhine respects, not a damn trainee knight.
And why would a true knight be stingy in giving alms to a slave?
But unlike Fergus, who had a special regard for Rhine, the selected militiamen looked impatient at this time.
"You despicable, damn slave, why are you still standing there? Hurry up and attack! Do you want me to stand with you in this cold morning!"
Rhine was not angry about this.
He just silently raised the wooden sword with both hands, lowered his body, and raised the sword over his shoulders.
"Huh?"
Fergus on the side was perked up when he saw this.
Because the starting position that Rhine performed at this time was the first position in the 'White Pigeon Swordsmanship' that he had just demonstrated three days ago - White Pigeon Beak.
If Rhine's appearance was not empty, it would prove that this unnoticed little slave had learned a sword move in just three days by just looking.
If that was the case, then Fergus might have found a treasure.
Thinking of this, Fergus's expression gradually became serious.
Because he had a hunch that this originally inconspicuous little slave in front of him might bring him a big surprise.
(End of chapter)