Chapter 3

The next day, the sun rose as usual over the Green Forest.

Aaron Sotos, while praying in his heart, pulled back the curtain and, seeing the golden sunlight streaming through the window, finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank goodness... Thank goodness it wasn't here."

The dream from last night, or rather the scene from the golden finger world, was truly terrifying.

Aaron Sotos was afraid that he had actually changed the real world, which would have been a disaster, a classic example of a transmigrant's self-destruction.

'However, I just wanted to change the color of the sun, so why did the whole world change?... It seems that the crimson sunlight contained some kind of terrible pollution, instantly causing the entire world to undergo a bizarre transformation, along with a sense of madness. Could it be... that there's something wrong with my golden finger?'

Aaron Sotos opened the drawer and took out a black notebook, his observer's diary, half of which was filled with dense, square characters that only he could understand.

...

[Known: After extensive inquiries, the knights and scholars in the current territory have not mastered any mysterious powers.]

[Known: The 'Grandmother Green Banyan Tree' is just an ordinary primitive nature totem and has not shown any miracles.]

[Known: Through secret probing of the maids and others, no one has experienced a clear dream world.]

[In summary, it can be preliminarily determined that the 'dream reflection' is my golden finger.]

[Through setting goals and reference points, and continuous observation, it can be confirmed that the dream world has basic operating rules and is not a world of my imagination... The time flow rate in the dream world is not consistent with the real world.]

...

[Green Banyan Rooting Month, 15th, followed my father to worship the 'Grandmother Green Banyan Tree.' At night, I dreamed of that world again, changed the sun there, and caused the entire world to go mad... I speculate that my golden finger's power may be inclined towards chaos? Or does it contain a factor of madness??]

The hard quill pen dipped in ink left elegant marks on the slightly yellowed paper, but Aaron's expression was very serious.

He paused, dipped the pen in ink again, and continued writing:

[After changing the world, I felt extremely weak, as if I had returned to infancy.]

[Speculation: Each time I enter the dream, or in reality, each day that passes, my 'power' in the dream grows stronger. Last night, it reached a certain 'limit'? Although the accumulated power disappeared, a qualitative change may have occurred?]

[Things in the dream cannot be brought to this world, and the power in the dream seems to have no effect on me in reality... So... What is the point of this dream? Even whether it is real or not cannot be thoroughly verified!]

[Summary: Garbage golden finger!]

Aaron made the final stroke, closed the notebook, and sighed.

In this strange world, having a useless golden finger is truly depressing.

Although last night's performance showed that the golden finger might not be so useless, it still had no significant use.

Faced with the impending war, he still had no way to deal with it.

"Even though it's just a village-level conflict, it's still possible to die if you're not careful."

With a touch of melancholy, Aaron went to the dining room to have breakfast with his family.

The breakfast was quite rich, with baked bacon and white bread, various fresh fruits, and milk.

Theodore, Sonia, Colin, and Ginny were all there.

In addition, there was a ten-year-old boy with a white bandage and a wooden board on his leg, Aaron's third brother—Shawn Sotos.

Because Aaron's birth mother died of illness, the lord quickly married his third wife, and their relationship was relatively good.

Especially after the birth of Shawn, Colin's biggest rival and opponent appeared.

However, at this moment, the mischievous Shawn was cutting his food with a knife and fork, and seemed to be showing off as he glanced at Aaron.

'What's this? Showing off that you don't have to go to the battlefield because you're injured? No, you don't have to go to the battlefield anyway...'

Aaron rolled his eyes and sat down at his place.

Theodore was very quiet during the meal, and the butler and maids standing around dared not make a sound. The only sounds at the table were the occasional clinking of cutlery.

Finally, Aaron heard his father's voice: "Regarding this battle, Aaron, what are your thoughts?"

"Father..."

Aaron organized his thoughts: "From a moral standpoint, the other side violated the sacred marriage contract, giving us ample reason to send troops. However, from a geographical standpoint, they control the upper reaches of the Green Forest, allowing them to move downstream with high mobility..."

The vast Green Forest territory is ruled by two lords, Davis and Sotos, who are said to have some blood ties from their ancestors.

But there is no doubt that by this generation, those ties have become very thin.

Now, they are about to go to war.

...

Breakfast time passed quickly. Aaron observed coldly and noticed that although Lady Sonia appeared dignified, her occasional glances at Colin were quite playful.

'It seems this lady considers the previous incident of Shawn's fall from a horse to be Colin's doing... After all, he is the eldest legitimate son, Shawn's biggest rival... Well, I'm the least targeted, but I can't be careless. Sometimes, when the eldest and second sons fight, the third son can easily get killed.'

While deep in thought, Aaron went to the training ground in front of the castle.

He had always had the habit of exercising daily, and with war approaching, he needed to constantly hone his skills.

Aaron looked at his weapon rack, where two weapons were prominently displayed on the black wooden stand.

One of the swords had a long, slender blade, a complex and complete guard, and was light and agile, a swift sword, and the prototype of modern fencing.

It was the weapon Aaron most often carried, maliciously named 'Needle' by Colin, implying that it was a weapon for women.

But Aaron smiled without comment. He knew that the penetrating wounds caused by thrusts were far more troublesome than the cuts caused by slashes.

Whether it was internal bleeding from vital organs being pierced or infections from damaged intestines, in this era without surgery, they were incurable conditions!

Even losing a hand or leg was more likely to survive than being pierced in a vital spot!

The elegant appearance of the swift sword concealed terrifying lethality.

Especially, it was lighter than other swords, allowing for more prolonged combat.

In daily life and street defense, the thrusting sword was undoubtedly the best choice, arguably the strongest portable cold weapon in the West.

Aaron naturally put a lot of effort into mastering the thrusting sword.

But at this moment, he had to put it down and sighed: "It's not appropriate. Although the thrusting sword is suitable for daily combat and self-defense because no one wears heavy armor when they go out, war is different!"

The commoners in the Davis territory naturally had no armor, but the knights were different!

Each of them had undergone professional training, with bodies and killing techniques reaching the pinnacle, and they wore thick metal armor in battle!

That armor included a series of components—chainmail, breastplate, skirt armor, helmet, iron gloves—essentially a metal can.

Even a well-made set of knight's armor was worth as much as an estate!

It was precisely the nemesis of the slender and thin thrusting sword!

Thinking of this, Aaron directly picked up the other sword, a long cross sword.

It had a broad blade, a black handle, and was nearly two meters long, requiring a tall man to wield it. The blade had serrations to increase the damage when slashing through armor, making it a true weapon of war!