What He Saw and Heard

Merchant Nobles were considered outsiders among the Empire's nobility. Not only were they not valued by the traditional noble class, they were also despised and excluded. Ben Tels's family had purchased its baronetcy through commercial dealings.

In his interactions with Sean and Jim, Ben usually placed himself in the weaker position. He often made subtle attempts to curry favor with them.

Sean smiled nonchalantly. "Dear Ben, I told you to call me Sean. We're classmates and friends; being so polite makes us seem distant!" After saying that, he shot a fierce glare at his cousin, Jim Horton, before continuing, "My dear cousin Jim, I only just finished my knight training. You'd better put away those wild fantasies of yours. Hmph..."

Ben smiled awkwardly at Sean's words and nodded slightly without speaking. Sean understood his thoughts as well. With traditional landed nobles forming the mainstream of the Empire, the best way for the occasional Merchant Noble to squeeze into high noble society was to gain an introduction from someone of traditional noble birth.

Sean's family was considered a major family throughout the Empire's south, in the area centered around Linshui City. Even without inheritance rights, Sean possessed considerable talent as a knight and was one of the promising knight prospects favored by the Academy instructors.

Jim did not mind Sean's attitude. Instead, he said in a frivolous tone, "Fantasies... My dear cousin, seeing how exhausted you look, I thought you might have had a secret rendezvous with some enchanting noblewoman last night! Wasn't that it? What a pity..."

Then he murmured disappointedly, "What a shame, what a shame... I was hoping you'd bring me along next time you had the chance, so I could learn a thing or two... Ha..." The more Jim spoke, the more excited he became, until he finally let out a lewd laugh.

Ben, who happened to be drinking water beside them, immediately began coughing after hearing Jim's muttering. Sean rolled his eyes and looked helplessly at Jim. His cousin had always been this improper in private.

After finally stopping his cough, Ben asked Sean in a slightly hoarse voice, "Sean, don't you usually practice the Knight Secret Method in the afternoon? Why were you training so early this morning?" Jim also put away his frivolous expression and looked at Sean with confusion.

"Ha... I woke up early and only meant to go for a run to loosen up. Then I got carried away and started practicing, though I really am a little tired now. Looks like I should return to my old routine in the future," Sean replied casually. In truth, he had simply been eager to test the strengthening effects of the Knight Secret Method on his physical attributes. Naturally, he could not reveal that reason.

"Oh, looks like you were still muddled from yesterday's sleep!" Naturally, it was Jim who had become unserious again.

Just then, a restaurant attendant brought Sean's breakfast over. After the attendant set down the meal and left, Sean said irritably to Jim, "Eat already. You never stop..." Then he ignored his two foolish friends and began eating by himself.

Seeing Sean focus on his breakfast, Jim and Ben exchanged strange faces and said no more. Breakfast ended quickly.

The attendants took care of clearing away their used tableware. After wiping his mouth with the napkin provided by the restaurant, Sean rose and left with Jim and Ben. As they walked, he said to them, "This morning's classes are mathematics and Law Class. I'm not going. I'm heading back to catch up on sleep..."

Sean naturally had no need to study mathematics, while Law Class mostly covered laws for commoners. Usually, only cadets intending to become Imperial Officials studied it seriously. The Empire enforced two separate legal systems for nobles and commoners. Imperial Noble law imposed very broad restrictions on nobles themselves, so there was very little that nobles like them needed to avoid.

Jim sighed. "Law Class doesn't matter much, but mathematics still needs to be learned well. I don't want to end up not even knowing how much money I have..." He truly had no aptitude for studying, and merely mentioning it gave him a headache.

"I really envy you two for your knightly talent," Ben said bitterly. Then he added, "I have no hope of entering the military after I come of age. So I'll either stay home and do business, or find a way to enter the Imperial Civil Service System and become a minor bureaucrat."

Sean patted Ben on the shoulder and offered a few words of comfort. After chatting for a little longer, they said goodbye. Jim and Ben went to class together, but Sean did not return to his dormitory to sleep. Instead, he went to the Academy Library to read. He needed to consult some books so he could understand the world he now lived in more quickly.

The library stood on the other side of the Academy, a two-story stone building. It took Sean twenty minutes to reach it. As he stepped up the stairs before the entrance, he saw that aside from a few librarians, there were no other cadets inside. Sean went straight to the desk, registered to enter, and looked around the library.

The first floor was filled with rows of wooden bookshelves, separated by long tables. Most of the books stored on the first floor were handwritten copies transcribed over the generations.

Past the librarian's desk was a split staircase leading directly to the second floor. The second floor housed all the library's Rare Books and Unique Copies. Looking up from the entrance, one could see only the small rooms near the hall on the second floor. Those were Copying Rooms for instructors and Noble Cadets to read and transcribe Rare Books.

Sean headed straight for the shelves containing history, biographies, and similar books. To understand the basic state of this world, nothing was more convenient than understanding its history.

The books in this world were bound with Parchment and covered in thick leather cases. A book that looked large and heavy actually did not contain many pages. Sean flipped through one book after another, and two hours soon passed.

Sean suddenly stiffened. He realized that his memory had become extraordinarily good—good to the point of being almost abnormal. After reading a book of several thousand words once, he could roughly recite it. He had never heard of such terrifying memory in either his previous life or this one. Unable to find any explanation for something so unbelievable, Sean could only attribute it to the benefits he had gained from crossing over.

The new world mainly consisted of the Eastern Continent, the Northern Grasslands, the Western Continent, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its shape somewhat resembled a lowercase n. Sean was currently in the Saint Fabio Empire on the Western Continent, an empire with a history of a thousand years.

The seventeenth day of the Month of Planting, Imperial Calendar 1156. That was the Imperial calendar, though people now generally referred to it as April 17, Imperial Calendar 1156. It was also the third day since Sean had crossed over.

More than a thousand years ago, the Western Continent had already endured a long period under the Noble Lord System. The lords devoured one another's territories while frequently suffering raids from the Grassland Nomads north of the Ural Mountains. Massive losses of wealth and population forced the noble lords of that era to reflect deeply.

Summoned by several great lords, the noble lords reached a consensus and formed the Noble Alliance to jointly resist the northern nomads. After several centuries of change, the alliance was officially renamed the Saint Fabio Empire in Alliance Year 435.

The Fao Great Plains in the center of the Western Continent were not only the Empire's central region, but also the birthplace of human civilization on the Western Continent. Stretching from the south bank of the North Luo River to the north bank of the South Star River, they covered nearly four hundred thousand square kilometers.

After the alliance was established, the noble lords' combined armies confronted the grassland people along the North Luo River. Following centuries of war, the Empire finally pushed the front line to the Ural Mountains and the Ural River, occupying more than two hundred thousand square kilometers of vast territory where grasslands and mountains intermingled.

After the alliance was renamed the Empire in Alliance Year 435, the Empire held back the powerful assaults from the grasslands in the north. It also had enough strength left to expand into the uninhabited lands to the south. Nearly two hundred thousand square kilometers of rolling hills and plains between the South Star River and the Dorosun River were incorporated into the Empire's territory. This region was known as the Empire Southern Region.

After more than six hundred years of development, the Empire's Southern Region had become quite prosperous, and its population had steadily grown. Linshui City lay on the north bank of the Dorosun River, in the plains of the Empire Southern Region. The narrow strip from the south bank of the Dorosun River to the Southern Wilderness Mountains was called the Southern Wilderness Region. Covering roughly seventy to eighty thousand square kilometers, it too consisted of hills and small plains, with the Empire's largest Southern Wilderness Great Swamp scattered among them.

The Southern Wilderness Region had been incorporated into the Empire more than three hundred years ago, but the Empire's main strength was concentrated in the north against the grasslands. Whatever spare resources it had were used to develop the Southern Region north of the Dorosun River. Thus, the Southern Wilderness Region was vast and sparsely populated. Apart from the territories granted to a dozen or so minor noble families, most of it was uninhabited wilderness. Large numbers of criminals and deserters fled into the wastelands of the Southern Wilderness Region to escape Imperial law, causing bandits to run rampant there.

The territory granted to the Winchester Family stretched from the south bank of the Dorosun River to the area near the Mediterranean Sea by the Southern Wilderness Mountains. It could be considered a prosperous part of the Southern Wilderness Region, yet its wealth and population were only slightly greater than those of baronial families in the prosperous Southern Region.

Besides the Saint Fabio Empire, the Western Continent also contained the Northern Kingdom northwest of the Empire, and the Aisik Duchy at the westernmost end of the Northern Corridor, south of the Ural Mountains and east of the Ural River's mouth.

Though most of the books were vague, and some even contradicted themselves, Sean roughly understood after thinking it over. The Empire had originated in the north-central Western Continent and, after a thousand years of development, had nearly monopolized the entire Western Continent. The annual wars against the grasslands in the north had also made both the Empire and its Imperial Nobles value Military Merit and warriors.

Before he knew it, it was lunchtime. Sean put down his book and strolled toward the restaurant. Jim and Ben had already arrived. After casually greeting each other, the three sat down to have lunch together.

They finished eating quickly, and Jim suggested that they go to Sean's dormitory to play Wargame. The three gladly agreed. Its rules resembled chess somewhat, with both sides commanding pieces in battle across a board. It was deeply loved by this world's noble class and senior military officers, appearing at almost every social occasion in the Empire. Along with hunting and dancing, it was highly sought after by high society.

Sean let Jim and Ben play Wargame in the sitting room while he, feeling somewhat tired, planned to take a nap first.

Jim and Ben did not mind. They both knew Sean had spent the entire morning reading, so he truly needed rest.

Sean was only fourteen, after all, and still a knight trainee. More than two hours later, he woke up full of energy. Jim and Ben were still playing, both completely absorbed in their game.