Chapter 7

Dinner at Bennett Castle was always punctual. Since there were several knights in the family, dinner was set for 8 PM. Today's dinner was the same as usual, with beef, barley porridge, and mashed potatoes.

Due to economic reasons, the beef was not seasoned with spices. The expensive spices could only be afforded by wealthy nobles, who obtained them from the elven territories in the distant Twin Moon Forest. After being marked up by both elves and human merchants, the prices were so high that ordinary people could only marvel at them.

After the quiet and warm dinner, Aber was about to return to his room. He had gone to Fort Town during the day, fought a battle, and then traveled for two hours. Now he wanted to go back to his room to freshen up.

The castle was generally good, but washing up was not convenient. When Aber first arrived, he found the hygiene habits here hard to get used to, so he designed a water supply system himself.

Bennett Castle was built relying on an underground spring, like most castles in this world. Without a separate spring, a castle would essentially be a dead zone, and it would be doomed if besieged by enemies. Therefore, the construction of castles was based on the availability of springs. It was said that the underground spring of the Duke's castle could supply the living water needs of thousands of people.

The underground spring of Bennett Castle had a considerable flow rate, sufficient for the needs of several hundred people. The castle, including servants, guards, and their families, had fewer than a hundred people, so the spring was more than enough.

Aber found the castle's carpenter and had him build a water wheel powered by the spring's flow, which sent the spring water to a large wooden water tank at the top of the castle. The water was then connected to the rooms via bamboo pipes that had been treated with fire. He had considered using copper pipes, but they were too expensive, and the cost of processing them was even higher. The castle did not have its own iron mine, so it had no blacksmiths, and there was no way to process even iron pipes. Therefore, Aber decided to use bamboo pipes, which could be bent and made more durable after being treated with fire.

In the room, he made a wooden bathtub for bathing and a wooden basin for washing, even creating a flush toilet, which gave him a sense of modern living.

In this world, wood was not expensive unless it was very rare. As long as you had the strength, you could cut it yourself. All the trees within 100 miles of Bennett's knightly domain belonged to the family. The carpenter's wages were not even a concern; the castle's carpenter relied on the castle for a living. When there was no carpentry work, he would work in the fields, and only when carpentry was needed would he stop field work.

As a result, all the rooms in the castle were renovated according to Aber's design, and the carpenter signed a confidentiality agreement with Bennett's knight, prohibiting him from helping anyone else build this system without the owner's permission.

This wooden water supply system for the castle was carefully recorded and stored in the family's secret room by Bennett's knight, as part of the family's heritage. Bennett's knight understood that using this system himself was fine, but if it were revealed, it would bring disaster to the family. The great nobles would keep this technology in their own families and kill everyone who knew about it. Bennett's knight had seen this happen too many times.

After this, Aber did not invent anything else. Without a solid foundation, inventing things was dangerous for the family and himself. This world had existed for countless years, and the history could be traced back ten thousand years, with no changes. It was unknown what force maintained the stability of this world. On Earth, a new system could emerge in a few hundred years under similar social conditions, but this world had been running according to unchanging rules for ten thousand years.

"Aber, you and Zak stay behind." Father, Bennett's knight, called out to Aber, who was about to return to his room, and then said, "You are now a 1st-level squire and can stay to listen to my teachings."

In the castle's training room, the servants had already prepared the wooden dummies. Bennett's knight took a wooden sword from the weapon rack by the wall and stared at Aber's face, saying, "I have heard about your performance. A shadow leopard at the level of a junior knight, although with Norman's help, you, a 1st-level squire, successfully killed it. I am very surprised."

"On my path to growth, there were countless geniuses. They had better talent, greater strength, and faster speed than me, but most of them did not live as long as I did. Do you know why?"

Bennett's knight's expression was very serious, and he spoke more than usual. Aber had never heard his father speak so much since coming to this world.

"It's because the strongest shield of a knight is the fastest sword. A knight can charge on horseback and pull a strong bow on foot. Those geniuses, some of them trained their speed to the fastest, some trained their strength to the strongest, but as a knight from a family with a complete lineage, I can be not the fastest, not the strongest, but in the fastest, I am the strongest, and in the strongest, I am the fastest. In front of them, I am the one who can withstand the most attacks."

Bennett's knight shouted excitedly, "Because our ancestors gave us the most complete knightly lineage, and our family has passed this lineage down to me, and it will be passed down to you. Compared to gold and valuable weapons and armor, the lineage is the most precious wealth."

Bennett's knight threw the wooden sword to Zak and said, "Zak, show your brother the true way a knight attacks."

When Zak took the wooden sword, his eyes changed, staring at the wooden dummy like a fierce beast. He held the sword in front of him in a defensive stance, then exhaled lightly, and the defensive stance instantly turned into a knight's charge. As he charged, the wooden sword thrust forward, and the wooden dummy was killed in an instant. In the brief time the dummy was in the air, Zak struck three times at the dummy's leg, waist, and throat, the entire process smooth and fluid, like a textbook example of a knight's attack.

"You can be even faster," his father's demands were always strict. Zak, who usually smiled, nodded seriously, indicating he understood.

"Did you see clearly? This is a typical knight's attack. First, use a charge to break the enemy's defense, then use a fast sword to end the battle. Every battle move of a knight has been perfected over thousands of years. What we need to do is to perform these moves perfectly, without changing them. These battle moves are the result of countless knights' blood and lives."

At this point, Bennett's knight seemed to think of something and said with a mocking tone, "There are always some so-called geniuses who want to change these battle moves. I have never met a living one."

"What you need to do is to make these battle moves a part of your body's instinct, to make your body remember them, so that your actions are faster than your thoughts at any time."

Aber was now sobering up from the pride of killing the shadow leopard during the day. For a true knight or a squire like his older brother Zak, who had received formal lineage education, his clever tricks were useless.

In the following days, Aber practiced knightly battle moves during the day, wore iron armor to train muscle strength in the evening, and practiced knightly breathing techniques before bed.

The amount of beef served every night was also much more than before. Every night, Aber could get as much beef as his older brother, and in the quiet family, Aber always felt that his father had made some decision.