Unknown Knight

It was already late at night when I came out of Old John's house. He would have gone to bed at this time in the past, but today he couldn't fall asleep.

As a modern man, he was very well taken care of in his original world and never had to shoulder too much responsibility. The only thing he was a little worried about was his meager salary. He had to count his money carefully, otherwise he would be too embarrassed to ask his parents for more money if he spent it all before the end of the month.

He is almost 30 years old and still has little savings. He doesn’t even dare to dream of getting married and having children. Although he was under a lot of pressure from his parents who kept urging him to get married, he became numb and didn’t care anymore. This attitude of not caring even spread to every aspect of his life: he didn’t care about salary increases, promotions, buying a house, or getting married…

In this world, apart from his parents, nothing else matters to him. Even his parents do not require him to worry too much. They work for the unit, and their pension will be managed by the state when they retire. So his life can be said to be stress-free. He is so content with this stress-free life that he has forgotten what responsibility is.

But the world now is different from his original one. As a pseudo-aristocrat that everyone pays attention to, he should and must take responsibility. When he thought about how he could affect the lives of dozens of people in the caravan, he tossed and turned uncomfortably and couldn't fall asleep. He racked his brains for half the night but couldn't think of any solution. He fell asleep exhausted in the second half of the night.

The next day, he didn't wake up until Yamila came to call him to get up and eat after breakfast was ready. He washed his face with cold water in a daze and regained a little consciousness.

After dinner, he was at a loss as to what to do when Yamila came over and said that Old John wanted him to come over. When he came to the room, he saw Old John lying on the bed with a tired face. It was obvious that he did not sleep well last night.

"Master, you lead everyone to continue training today. Everyone else should just focus on their own things. I'm going to talk to Mr. Axe alone." He said when he saw Bandak and others following him.

After everyone left, Aix said:

"You look much better today."

"You don't need to comfort me. I know my situation. I barely slept last night and thought about it for a long time. There are some things I want to hear your opinion on."

"You need to rest more. Dozens of people in the caravan are counting on you for food." Aix said with concern.

"Alas..." After hearing this, Old John sighed and continued:

"Yes, there are dozens of people in the caravan to feed, and it's almost the most important time of the year. But I'm in this situation now. What should I do?"

Axe really couldn't respond to this. He really hadn't thought of any solution. His consolation words were a bit perfunctory, and the room suddenly became quiet. After a long while, Old John seemed to have made up his mind and said:

"Originally, I wanted to quit after two more years, let that kid Harvey take over my position, and then let Yamila marry him. But as you can see, he is too useless. He can't even count a hundred numbers properly, let alone keep accounts. He just goes out to gamble and drink all day, and his mind is particularly narrow.

The other old brothers all dislike him, and Jamila dislikes him even more. I think you are at most in your 20s, and Jamila is years old, which is the right age. I think you two are doing well, you see…”

Old John felt embarrassed when he said this, this kind of forced matchmaking was not what a father should do. He originally wanted to wait until the two of them were ready and everything would fall into place naturally, but now the situation was urgent and he could no longer care about so much.

Axe didn't care about these. He just blushed when he heard Old John say that he was in his 20s. In fact, he was already 29 years old. To put it bluntly, when he and Old John got drunk and talked about age, he could call him big brother. When he heard what he said next, he was overjoyed and blurted out without hesitation:

"I have no problem. I like Yamila very much."

As for Jamila, she was only seventeen years old and he didn't have too much burden. In the Middle Ages, people generally got married very early, and many got married at the age of thirteen or fourteen. Some people as old as Jamila already had two children.

"Okay, okay, that's good."

After hearing what Aix said, Old John's mood suddenly improved a lot, and he quickly agreed. He was worried that Aix would be proud of his status and would not agree, but he did not expect it to go smoothly.

With this verbal agreement, the conversation between the future father-in-law and son-in-law immediately became less estranged and cautious. After chatting about some trivial matters, they tacitly skipped this slightly awkward topic and talked about the current urgent situation.

Having just got a stable meal ticket, Aix felt that his thoughts were very active and clear. The fact that he and Old John had risen to the level of father-in-law and son-in-law also dispelled his remaining concerns. So he asked Old Taishan the question that had been puzzling him for the past few days:

"I have some doubts. Aren't you the only olive oil distributor authorized by Lord Marquis Cleggs? If he needs to cancel our franchise, can't he just notify us directly? Why let Steward Grans make things difficult for us? Isn't it Lord Marquis's idea, but Steward Grans wants to embezzle the profits from our olive oil sales, so he is targeting us?"

After hearing what Axe said, Old John couldn't help but sigh again. After thinking silently for a moment, he explained to Axe the cause and effect of the matter.

This story starts with the previous Swadian King, Eastrich. The king died young in the defense of Dhrim during the Khergit invasion, leaving behind only his only daughter, Princess Esona, as his heir.

At that time, the country was in a critical juncture. Princess Aisona was still young and incompetent, and she was also a woman. At this critical juncture, the nobles felt that she was not strong enough, and they recommended the king's cousin Harlaus, who was also in Dehrim to defend the city, as the king.

He was also brave enough to recommend himself, and he used connections everywhere to promise benefits, and promised to return the throne to her when Esona came of age. Even Princess Esona's uncle, Clegers, had to nod his head. In this way, Harlaus became king, and Princess Esona lived in Suno under the protection of her uncle, and was called Esona of Suno by the outside world.

Originally, according to previous scripts, Princess Esona would probably not live to adulthood, and would die inexplicably from falling off a horse, dying of illness, jumping off a castle to death, or even choking to death while drinking water, etc. However, none of these reasons happened to Princess Esona, because she had an uncle who loved her, the powerful uncle, Marquis Craggs.

Speaking of Craggs, he also has a great background. His family is a branch of the royal family of East, and all the family members are brave and good at fighting. There are not only lords who inherited the fiefdom, but also powerful lords who were awarded for their merits.

They were Earl Glenward (Craggs's second brother), whose fiefs were Caerridan Castle, Tosdel and Elber, and his son Earl Dupins, whose fief was Wincord Castle.

Earl of Ruis (the third brother of Craggs), whose fiefs were St. Luzgodaburg and Tispoding, and his son Earl of Montville, whose fiefs were Nymega and Ballanly.

and Claggs's own son, Earl Berlands, whose fief was Twarinburg.

This large family controlled one city, four castles and several villages, and their combined territory occupied half of the Kingdom of Swadia. Their strength was so strong that they could hardly be shaken in the entire kingdom. And it seemed that the Marquis also had great ambitions. He had always kept Princess Aisona by his side as a guardian, and would not let her leave the Marquisate in Suno City easily. King Harlaus summoned the princess to the capital, Paraven City, several times for various reasons, but was rejected by Marquis Craggs on the grounds that the princess was ill.

As he grew older, Harlaus increasingly felt that Princess Aisona of Suno was a huge hidden danger. At the same time, several other great nobles in the country also felt that the increasingly powerful Craggs family was a huge threat. So the two sides united and planned several assassinations against the princess and the Marquis together.

Although this despicable tactic ultimately ended in failure, it caused very serious consequences, causing two opposing forces to form within the already precarious Swadia Kingdom: one was the king's faction headed by Harlaus, and the other was the family faction headed by Marquis Craggs.

The constant frictions between the two sides almost led to the second division of the kingdom. Seeing this, the surrounding Nordic Kingdom, Vaegir Kingdom, Khergit Khanate and others were eager to take the opportunity to divide the Swadia Kingdom. In this serious situation, the two sides had to temporarily put aside their grievances and sat down at the negotiation table at the initiative of another city lord, Marquis Dilinard of Uxhall.

Finally, after some bargaining, the two sides reached a temporary peace agreement, on the condition that the Craggs family exiled Princess Avina to the Kingdom of Rhodok, and the king and his nobles guaranteed that there would be no more assassinations against the marquis and the princess from within Swadia.

At the same time, as a guarantee, Marquis Dilinard married his young and beautiful daughter Anna to the old man Craggs who had been widowed for many years. Only in this way did the Kingdom of Swadia temporarily restore peace.

But this peace and tranquility did not last for two years, and the kingdom began to be turbulent again.

First, the old marquis felt that he was able to recover and actually made Lady Anna pregnant. Then, Craggs and the father and son, Bernards, had an inexplicable falling out. Earl Bernards returned to his fiefdom, Twarinburg, in anger and vowed never to set foot in Suno again in his life.

Then, the old Marquis drank too much at a banquet and had too much fun, and he suffered a stroke in the belly of Lady Anna's maid. From then on, he was paralyzed in bed and unable to speak. Naturally, Lady Anna took over the power inside and outside the family.

In this way, Marquis Dilinard, the lord of Uxhall, the Swadian version of Wang Yun, became the biggest winner with a beauty trap. At that time, Lady Anna was about to give birth, and the management power of the entire Suno actually fell into the hands of Grans, the general manager sent by Marquis Dilinard.

After hearing this, Aix suddenly understood that it was no wonder that General Grans suppressed the caravan. There were reasons and consequences for this.

However, the origin of Old John was also extraordinary. Logically speaking, the political events and secrets of the kingdom mentioned above would only be circulated among the high-level officials of the kingdom. As a businessman, Old John was not high enough to know them. However, his other identity provided convenience, allowing him to witness the changing situation of the kingdom in recent years. He was the personal guard of the old Marquis, and had been accompanying the king since he inherited the title from Craggs. He had also blocked a knife and shed blood for the Marquis, and was deeply trusted by the Marquis. It could be said that he was the most trusted confidant of the confidants.

Later, as he grew older, the old marquis wanted to reward him for his hard work, but because he was a commoner, he had to give him a sum of money and hand over his most important business, the sale of olive oil, to him, making him the only licensed merchant of olive oil produced in Suno City. This led to the establishment of the caravan.

In those days, supplies were scarce and productivity was extremely low. Two to three hundred kilograms of wheat per mu was considered a high yield. Although Suno City seemed large (in fact, it was just a small town with a population of more than 1), the output was not much. The largest output of the Marquisate was olive oil. Nearly half of the annual expenses and military expenses came from the sale of olive oil, which could be said to be the economic lifeline of Suno (from this, it can be seen that Marquis Craggs valued old John). Therefore, whoever controlled the olive oil business controlled the Suno Territory. This was the biggest source of the caravan's current predicament.

As a modern man, Aix understood the cause and effect of the whole incident and the conspiracy behind it after listening to old John's narration. He felt overwhelmed, as if the will of Marquis Dilinard was like a sword of Damocles, which could chop off his head at any time through Grans' hands.

Regardless of whether Old John agreed to defect or not, it was impossible for Grans to let the caravan go. Obviously, compromise was useless, but if they kept waiting passively, they would only face worse results. For a moment, Aix racked his brains but could not think of any solution. Seeing that Old John was tired of talking for most of the day, he comforted him:

"There will always be a solution. Take a good rest first and let me think about it."

After leaving Old John's room, Axel went straight to the backyard. The daily training was basically over. He ended the training and asked everyone to go home, then called Bandak to come to his room.

Now that he regarded himself as the young master, he was well aware of the famous saying "No investigation, no right to speak", so he asked the old classmate in detail about all aspects of the caravan. Bandak also cooperated well and answered every question without any doubt or hesitation. He told him any information he knew about the caravan, even the details. It was obvious that he and the old John brother had already communicated privately.

Through understanding, Aix learned that the caravan had three trading routes. The first was the flax and beer business from Suno to Paraven, the second was the wheat, dried meat and beer business from Suno to Dehrim, and the third was the olive oil, salt and salted fish business from Suno to Tiha and Sagos in the Nordic Kingdom.

Among them, the third trade route was the most profitable. The nobles of the Nordic Kingdom, who were born as pirates, were both businessmen and pirates. In recent years, they made a lot of money by doing business along the coast of the Nord Sea. They were despised by nobles from other kingdoms as pirates, vulgar, and nouveau riche. They were very fond of luxury goods such as olive oil, velvet, and spices that only southern nobles could enjoy, which meant that these things could be sold at a good price once they were taken there.

Afterwards, Aix asked Bandak about the seasons, characteristics, and origins of the goods sold by the caravan, especially the main product, olive oil. He knew the information in the most detailed way, and through this summary of information, he had some ideas of his own.