Unknown Knight

"Harvey! Don't assign any work to Mr. Axe." Old John said to Harvey in a slightly reproachful tone, then smiled apologetically at Axe and nodded in the direction of Yamila.

Aix immediately understood, nodded gratefully, turned around calmly and went to make the bed with Yamila. He was already very happy: "What do you say? What is the saying that good people will be blessed by heaven? This is the saying that good people will be blessed by heaven. Now that I am in trouble, I have a noble person to help me. Is this the so-called halo of the protagonist after traveling through time... "

Just as Axe was feeling excited, thinking that he had met a "noble man" when he was in trouble, and walked towards Yamila with a proud feeling of having someone to rely on, he didn't know that he had actually become a "noble man" in the eyes of others, and old John was looking at his back with a meaningful look.

Most of the time, Old John looked at him with this kind of eyes, but he was very knowledgeable about the ways of the world and hid it very well. Even if he was discovered by others, they all thought that he just saw Aix by accident, including Aix himself. But what everyone didn't know was that Old John was only calm on the surface, but his heart was already turbulent. He had already made up his mind, so he had been carefully observing our loser male protagonist these days.

From the first day he saw Aix fainting from hunger on the roadside, this mysterious young man had a great impact on him. 'This is a noble, no, a great noble!' He told himself confidently in his heart.

His tender and fair skin easily reminded people of a pampered life without work and exposure to the sun and wind. His slender body and arms that seemed even thinner than a girl's definitely not one of those middle- and low-level nobles who often practiced fighting skills and had to fight desperately in battle from time to time. His soft and tender hands without any calluses further proved this point. These hands should have rarely held a sword, or even never held a sword at all, because there was no need, because they were great nobles. Only those middle- and low-level nobles were the ones who panted and sweated and bleed on the battlefield. Unless necessary, the great nobles basically would not fight in person.

Another thing is that when he first discovered Aix, Old John had the idea of ​​selling this found man to slave traders, so he subconsciously opened his mouth to look at his teeth. His teeth were neat and clean, not like those of the poor people who ate coarse food, nor did he have his back teeth worn down at a young age due to malnutrition like the poor people.

It was rare to maintain teeth so well these days. It required special people to take care of them. He had seen the scene of young maids sticking their butts out to clean the teeth of noble masters. Only nobles could maintain their teeth so well. Therefore, the quality of teeth was the best way to distinguish between the noble and the humble in this era.

These were just judgements based on appearance alone. What surprised Old John even more was Aix's learning ability and knowledge. His ability to memorize words, which was several times higher than Jamila's, was nothing. The fact that he could learn to use simple Swadian in a short period of time was not something an ordinary person could do. And it was obvious that he had never been exposed to Swadian before. This meant that he must have studied knowledge for a long time and systematically, had a high level of learning literacy, and was a knowledgeable person to have such a high learning ability.

Not everyone could read and write in those days. Many middle and low-level nobles could not even recognize a few big characters. In this era, only the great nobles and the upper echelons of the church had the opportunity and ability to study culture systematically. An incident that happened the next day further confirmed Old John's previous conjecture.

The next day, they came to a city called Dheerim, an important town located in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Swadia. The city was built on a large terrace and surrounded by vast plains. It produced a lot of wheat, bread, beer, dried meat and other commodities. The main purpose of Old John and his party coming to Dheerim was to exchange the goods they sold in the surrounding villages for wheat at a lower price, then sell them in the beer workshops in the city, and then buy beer at a lower price and sell it to other cities.

As usual, they took the wheat to the brewery they often cooperated with, but a conflict occurred when delivering the wheat. A new guy in charge of receiving the goods at the brewery deliberately made trouble and counted the original 210 bags of wheat into 205 bags, and took 5 bags by force.

This trick was used by the receiving clerks in the past. It was considered a small unspoken rule in the beer workshop, but they usually just underreported 1 or 2 bags. Everyone just treated it as hard-earned money for the clerks and pretended not to notice it. It was mainly because of the lack of mathematical knowledge in this era. A hundred was a very large number. The counting was done bag by bag. It was normal to miss 1 or 2 bags. Old John did not have the confidence to be % correct. The key point was that it was not cost-effective to recount. The loading and unloading of goods had been monopolized by the local guild, and it would cost a lot of money to load and unload again.

So under normal circumstances, as long as the amount is not too excessive, everyone would turn a blind eye to the shortfall of one or two bags. However, this time, 5 bags of wheat were actually underreported, which meant that half of the profit of this trip was taken away in one go. Old John and Harvey couldn't help feeling indignant, and they started arguing with the guy who received the goods. After all, it was the hard-earned money earned after working hard for so many days, and no one would feel good about it.

It was the first time for Aix to enter the city since he came to this world. He was a little curious and did not follow the others to the warehouse. He was looking around outside to see the new things. He heard people in the team quarreling with others and ran up to find out what was going on. After finding out the situation, he looked at the pile of wheat, walked around it and asked Old John:

“How many bags did you count earlier?”

Old John, whose math is not even at the first grade level, stammered:

"Probably, about two hundred plus ten bags."

What two hundred plus ten bags? It's obvious that he lacks confidence.

"Is each bag stacked neatly? Are there any uneven bags or hollow bags in the middle?" Axe then turned to the other guys present. It was obvious that he was unsure about what Old John said.

"They must be neatly stacked in bags! I was watching them the whole time."

Harvey patted his chest.

"Well, my friend, I can tell you responsibly that our batch of wheat has a total of 213 bags. You didn't count 5 bags less, but 8 bags less!"

Aix said to the delivery guy very angrily.

"Are you sure? Are there really 213 bags? Old John said there were only 210 bags. What will you do if there are not 213 bags? If you recount, you will have to pay double the loading and unloading wages."

The guy said in a threatening tone. Aix could hear his guilty conscience and became even more angry. He didn't expect that a delivery guy would be so evil. So he said with certainty:

"It must be 213 bags! How about this, let's recount. If it's 205 bags as you said, oh no, even if it's 210 bags, we'll pay for the loading and unloading fees, and we'll compensate you with 100 copper coins as an apology. But if it's 213 bags, you have to pay the extra loading and unloading fees. What do you think?"

Aix spoke provocatively, feeling very disgusted with what this guy did.

"What's the logic behind this? I think our guys will pay for the loading and unloading fees if there are more than 210 bags, and we will also pay you 200 copper coins as an apology. What do you think?"

The person who spoke was the workshop owner who came out of the warehouse. Knowing his fellow workers' character well, he had to come out to save the situation in order to restore the reputation of the workshop. After all, Dehrim's beer was very famous, but there were more than one beer workshop, so maintaining the basic reputation was very important.

"This this……."

"Shut up!"

The blushing clerk wanted to make a few more excuses, but the workshop owner shouted at him angrily, and he retreated whimpering like a dog, not daring to say another word.

"Is this all right, sir?"

The workshop owner turned around and looked at Aix briefly, then spoke politely with a smile.

In his opinion, although this man was dressed in rags, his temperament and appearance made him, who was well versed in the world, see that he was different at a glance. It seemed that he was dressed so rags on purpose, but it could not hide his aristocratic face and temperament. He might be a nobleman of great background. If he touched a big bomb that he could not afford to offend, it would be something that a small person like him could not bear. Thinking of this, the smile on his face deepened a little, even with a bit of flattery.

What he doesn't know is that our classmate Wang Baoping from Aix is ​​not from a prominent family. His proud temperament comes from the compulsory education and four years of college life in the 21st century. His fair and regular facial features and slender and upright figure are also the blessings brought by the living environment of no worries about food and clothing in the old world. (You can't imagine it, right? You, an ordinary person now, would be regarded as a big shot, a noble or even a great noble in ancient times, haha.)

"That's what you said. We didn't ask for that, okay?"

Aix, who was overrated but still unaware of it, responded in his usual conciliatory tone.

"Yes, yes, how about you not order again? I trust you, how about I just compensate you with 200 copper coins?"

The workshop owner had no idea what Aix was thinking and thought it was just the reserve of a big shot, so he became even more respectful.

"How can that be? Let's do a fresh count! Otherwise, people will think we've taken advantage of your workshop."

Aix thought to himself: "Why don't you trust me? If you don't order anything, you'll have to pay me back. Wouldn't that make me look like you're taking advantage of me and treating me like a rogue? Or are you just being sarcastic?"

But the workshop owner understood it as: 'It's over, it's over, this "big shot" has to expose the embarrassment on the table, is there something bad waiting for me later?'

"Mr. Aix, why don't you just do what the boss says."

Old John was afraid that Axe would ruin the relationship; after all, businessmen believe that harmony brings wealth, so he hurried over to smooth things over.

"Is this okay? Okay."

Considering Old John's concerns, Aix had no choice but to nod his head and agreed. Then he turned to the workshop owner and added:

"Boss, we are not trying to cause trouble. This pile of wheat is 5 bags wide, 7 bags long and 6 bags high. 210 times 3 is 213 bags. Add the extra 8 bags on top and it's bags. Do you understand? One or two bags is fine, but your guys wanted to embezzle bags of our wheat. That's too much!"

Aix obviously did not have the awareness of being a "big shot" and continued to explain presumptuously. What he did not know was that this remark shocked everyone around him. In the eyes of these 98% illiterate and 2% semi-illiterate people, a person who could tell the number of such a large amount of goods at once had wisdom no less than that of a demigod.

How would they know anything about multiplication and division formulas? They would have to count on their fingers for a long time to do addition and subtraction within 10. But they could calculate such a large pile of goods with just a few words, which was equivalent to the loading and unloading fees of hundreds of copper coins.

Who is he? He seemed to be speaking with such conviction that he did not seem to be faking it. Could he be the noble lord who came out of the territory to visit incognito? Everyone present had this question in their mind. In fact, it was no wonder. In this era, only the nobles had the privilege and conditions to learn knowledge. Such a powerful arithmetic was the standard for the upper class. The lower class had never heard of the formulas of multiplication and division, and even the king did not know them.

Unconsciously, Old John, who had been standing behind Axe, no longer had any doubts in his mind. He was very sure that Axe was of noble status. His black single-lidded eyes and black hair were physical features only shared by the Khergits. In addition, he was found in the wilderness between the cities of Lana and Dehrim of the Khergit Khanate, which further indicated that he was most likely a great noble of the Khergit Khanate. It was even possible that he might be the prince of the Khan of the Khergit Khanate.

Thinking about how miserable he was when he was first found, as if he didn't even have time to put on his coat, it's easy to think of the scene of being hunted down for fighting for the right of inheritance. After all, this kind of thing often happens between nobles and princes of various countries...

Aix, who was in the center position but didn't notice, watched the people around him whispering and looking at him with awe. His sense of superiority naturally came out. Although he smiled, he said in his heart with disdain: "What's so strange about this? It's just elementary school math. A bunch of medieval illiterates." He unconsciously straightened his body, which made him, who was 175cm tall, look taller and more majestic than the people around him who were generally less than 160cm tall.

Just like that, in the atmosphere of everyone looking up to him, Aix gladly took the purse of 200 copper coins handed over by the bowing workshop owner. In order to clear up the misunderstanding, the workshop owner decided to sell the beer to the caravan at a price 5 copper coins lower than the market price. This made Old John very happy, and he rented a car from the market and bought another car of beer. It can be said that he returned home with a full load.

After watching the caravan leave with satisfaction, the owner of the beer workshop immediately sent someone to recount the pile of wheat. After confirmation, there were exactly 213 bags of wheat, not more or less. He immediately decided to fire the guy who received the goods and deducted 200 copper coins from his wages.

Let me add here that please don’t think that the description of mathematics in this chapter is exaggerated. When Arabic numerals were not popular, the level of mathematics in Europe was not worth mentioning. The level of the lower class people was probably even worse than what is described in the article. Few people could add and subtract, let alone multiplication and division. They had no concept of this.

Friends who are interested can look through the few available materials. After all, they do not compile history, and the cultural relics that can reflect the situation are fragmented, and their authenticity is hard to say.