Father's Guidance

Dinner at Bennett Castle was always served punctually. Since there were several knights in the household, dinner was set for eight in the evening. Tonight's meal was the same as usual: beef, wheat porridge, and mashed potatoes.

For economic reasons, the beef was not seasoned. Expensive spices were something only wealthy nobles could afford. Those spices were transported from the elven territories deep within Twin Moon Forest, and after being marked up by both elven and human merchants, their prices had risen to levels that left ordinary people speechless.

After the quiet yet warm dinner ended, Abel was preparing to return to his room. He had gone to Libo Town during the day, fought a battle, and then traveled for another two hours. Now, he only wanted to return to his room and wash up.

Everything else about the castle was fine, but washing up was rather inconvenient. Having only recently arrived here, Abel truly could not get used to the local hygiene habits, so he could only design a water system himself.

Bennett Castle had been built around an underground spring, as were most castles in this world. Without an independent water source, a castle was practically dead ground. Once surrounded by enemies, its fall would only be a matter of time. Therefore, castles were built according to the amount of spring water available. It was said that the underground springs beneath a grand duke's castle could provide enough water for thousands of people.

The underground spring beneath Bennett Castle had a fairly abundant flow, enough to support several hundred people without issue. Yet the castle, including attendants, guards, and their families, housed fewer than a hundred people in total, so there was more than enough water.

Abel summoned the castle carpenter and had him build a waterwheel powered by the drop in the spring water's elevation. It sent the water directly into a large wooden tank built high up in the castle, then connected it to the rooms through bamboo pipes treated with fire. It was not that he had not considered copper pipes, but they were far too expensive. Combined with the cost of processing them, it was simply impractical. The castle had no iron mine and therefore no blacksmith of its own, so even making iron pipes was beyond their means. Thus, Abel thought of using bamboo pipes. Once roasted over fire, bamboo could be bent in different directions and became sturdier and more durable.

He had wooden bathtubs and wooden washbasins made for the rooms. He had even built flush toilets, allowing Abel to finally regain a faint sense of modern life.

In this world, wood was truly worthless unless it was exceptionally precious timber. As long as one had the strength, one could simply chop it down oneself. Every tree within the hundred-li Bennett Knight's Territory belonged to their family. Carpenters' wages were even less worth mentioning. The castle carpenter depended on the castle for his livelihood. When there was no carpentry work, he worked in the fields just like everyone else, only setting aside farm work when carpentry was needed.

The final result was that every room in the castle was remodeled according to Abel's design. Knight Bennett also had the carpenter sign a confidentiality agreement, forbidding him from making this system for anyone else without the master's permission.

Knight Bennett carefully documented and stored this wooden castle water system in the family's secret chamber as part of the foundation of a noble house. He understood very clearly that there was no issue with using the system themselves, but if word got out, it would bring disaster upon the family. Those great nobles would hoard the technology within their own families and kill everyone who knew of it. Knight Bennett had seen such things far too often.

After that incident, Abel stopped producing any more inventions. Without sufficient strength to protect them, inventions were dangerous to both his family and himself. This world had existed for countless years. Its history alone reached back ten thousand years, and throughout all that time, it had continued unchanged. Abel did not know what force maintained this world's stability. On Earth, a new system could emerge within a few hundred years under such a social structure, yet this world had operated by the same unchanging rules for over ten thousand years.

"Abel, you and Zack stay behind," his father, Knight Bennett, called out to Abel as he prepared to return to his room. He continued, "You are already a Level 1 Rookie Knight. You may stay and listen to my instruction."

In the castle training room, the attendants had already prepared the wooden dummy. Knight Bennett took a wooden sword from the weapon rack by the wall, then stared at Abel and said, "I heard about what you did. A Shadow Leopard at the level of a Junior Knight—though Norman helped you, you, a Level 1 Rookie Knight, successfully killed it. I am very surprised."

"Along my path of growth, I encountered countless geniuses. Their talent was greater than mine, their strength greater than mine, their speed faster than mine. Yet most of them did not live to be as old as I am. Do you know why?"

Knight Bennett's expression was extremely serious. He was speaking far more than usual; since coming to this world, Abel had never heard his father say so much.

"That is because a knight has the strongest shield and the fastest sword. A knight can charge on horseback and draw a powerful bow on foot. Some of those geniuses trained their speed to its limit, while others trained their strength to its peak. But I was born into a knightly family with a complete legacy. I might not be the fastest or the strongest, but among the fastest, I am the strongest; among the strongest, I am the fastest. Before them, I am the one most capable of withstanding attacks."

Knight Bennett grew somewhat agitated as he shouted, "Because our ancestors gave us the most complete Knight's Legacy, and our family has passed that legacy down intact from generation to generation into my hands. In the future, it will be placed in yours as well. Compared to gold coins, compared to precious weapons and armor, the legacy is the most valuable wealth."

Knight Bennett tossed the wooden sword to Zack and called out, "Zack, show your younger brother how a knight truly attacks."

The moment Zack caught the wooden sword, his gaze changed. He stared at the dummy before him with the ferocity of a wild beast. He raised his sword horizontally before him in a knight's defensive stance, a movement that seemed tempered through countless repetitions. Then he lightly exhaled, and in an instant, the defensive stance transformed into a knight's charge. As he charged, the wooden sword in his hand thrust forward. Within a breath, the dummy was sent flying. During its brief time in the air, Zack's sword struck its leg, waist, and throat three times in rapid succession. The entire sequence flowed without interruption, as smooth as drifting clouds and running water. Every movement was as precise as a knight's textbook.

"You can be faster." His father's demands were always strict. Zack, who usually wore a smile, nodded solemnly to show that he understood.

"Did you see clearly? That was a typical knight's attack. First, use a charge to break open the enemy's defense, then use a swift sword to end the battle. Every combat movement of a knight has been refined over thousands of years. All we need to do is execute those movements perfectly. There is no need to alter them. These knightly combat movements were summarized and perfected by countless knights before us with their blood and their lives."

At this point, Knight Bennett seemed to recall something. With a mocking curl at the corner of his mouth, he said, "There are always so-called geniuses who want to change these combat movements. None of the geniuses I met like that are still alive."

"What you need to do is turn these combat movements into your body's instinct. Make your body remember them, so that at any moment, your movements are faster than your thoughts."

Only now did Abel awaken from the pride he had felt after killing the Shadow Leopard during the day. Against a true knight, or even someone like his elder brother Zack, a Rookie Knight who had received proper instruction in the legacy, his little tricks were utterly useless.

In the days that followed, Abel practiced knightly combat movements during the day, wore iron armor at night to train his muscular strength under pressure, and cultivated the Knight Breathing Technique before going to sleep.

His portion of beef each night also became much larger than before. Every evening, Abel received as much beef as his elder brother, and within the quiet family, Abel always felt that his father seemed to have made some kind of decision.