Unknown Knight

For more than ten days, except for eating and sleeping, Aix and Liu Tang practiced the "Nine Swords and Thirteen Styles" martial arts and archery on the top of the mountain.

Aix passed on the book "Nine Swords and Thirteen Styles" to everyone without reservation. This martial arts book is a book on basic swordsmanship, which is simple and easy to learn. Although others did not have Aix's comprehension, they quickly got the hang of it under his hands-on guidance and all of them practiced it well.

In addition, Aix deliberately made everyone eat beef and ginseng every day, which was a very nutritious food. Combined with long-term and high-intensity training every day, everyone's physical fitness has been significantly improved in a short period of time, and their energy has also increased a lot.

Everyone still had a deep hatred for the pirates in their hearts, and they practiced so hard that they forgot to eat and sleep. In just ten days, everyone had made some progress. They were eager to find someone to compete with, and even came together to encourage Aix to let them go down the mountain to kill some pirates and collect some interest first. The crowd was so excited that it was hard to suppress it. The poem goes:

'With the skills to kill in my heart, I can no longer calm down. Every move I make is filled with hatred. I practice diligently without fear of hardship. I carry a huge hatred and dream of eating the flesh of the enemy. I want to pick up a three-foot sword and swing it to kill the enemy.'

Aix knew very well what they were thinking. The hatred in his heart was no less than theirs, but his body had not recovered yet. Niza had already gone down the mountain to investigate, and the situation down the mountain was still unclear. Now only these reliable confidants were left. Aix could not let them die in vain, so he had to tell them to be patient and hone their skills. There would be plenty of opportunities for revenge in the future, and one day he would let them kill to their heart's content. After some comfort and persuasion, everyone's hearts were reassured.

What impressed Axe the most was the girl Sophia. After watching Axe practice for a day, she also found a wooden stick and followed her to practice. Axe didn't think much of it at first. When he saw that there was something wrong with her strength, he pointed out a few points, but he didn't pay too much attention to it.

But Sophia was born with supernatural powers. This set of martial arts was simple, practical, and focused on exerting force, which seemed more suitable for her to practice. She quickly mastered the key points of the movements. In just two or three days, she became very good at it, and her skills were quite methodical and impressive.

Moreover, after practicing a set of moves that seemed quite strenuous to others, she did not breathe hard or her heart beat fast. She looked very relaxed and comfortable, which made the rough men who were sweating profusely envious.

Liu Tang, who thought he was very brave, was not convinced and found a wooden stick as thick as his wrist to compete with the girl. However, with just one move, the stick flew out of his hand. This amazing blow also scared away the others who were eager to try.

Only then did Axe realize the girl's potential in martial arts, so he paid more attention to her and asked her to restrain her strength and practice with Liu Tang and others. As a result, Axe found that the girl was not only incredibly strong, but her understanding of the moves also surpassed everyone else. When she restrained her strength, only Axe could fight with her, and the others were no match for her. Sometimes Axe even let two people attack her together, but she still defeated them one by one.

Seeing that they, as real men, could not defeat a little girl of sixteen or seventeen years old, they all felt ashamed and practiced harder. Some even got up early before dawn to practice.

I don't know if it was the effect of practicing "Nine Swords and Thirteen Styles" every day, or because of the daily consumption of food stewed with large amounts of ginseng, or because of the fresh air and beautiful environment here, but on the fifth day after arriving at the top of the mountain, Axe's dizziness problem was basically gone. He clearly remembered that his classmates who had a concussion in the original world were dizzy for nearly a month.

After thinking about it, Aix felt that the biggest reason was related to his daily tonic. He could eat about a pound of high-quality beef every day, and the ginseng used as food together with the beef was at least hundreds of years old. Sophia listened to him and took time out to dig up a lot of ginseng thicker than a thumb.

On the sixteenth day after Niza descended the mountain, he finally returned to the terrace on the top of the mountain. Returning with him were Robin Hood, who was disguised as a bandit, and his six men. They brought the information that Aix had longed for.

It turns out that the action of the ambitious Idenjar was planned for a long time and was not launched against Aix alone. He first gained the support of most of the lords of the Nord Kingdom except King Ragnar and Lord Iaia, and he also received the support of a group of tribal nobles from his hometown in the northern continent.

The nobles of these tribes were also the bulk of the troops dispatched this time. They dispatched a pirate army of about two thousand people, plus the more than one thousand troops that Idenyar had originally gathered. They joined forces and assembled a total of more than three thousand troops.

The first place they attacked was Repole Castle, which was located on the border between the Kingdom of Swadia and the Kingdom of Nord. This was the territory of Lord Count Prais. Its location made it the first to be hit by the enemy. Relying on its numerical advantage, Idenjar attacked with all his might and conquered it in just two days.

Then they immediately attacked the territory of Aix, but what the pirates did not expect was that they would encounter such great resistance when attacking the territory of Aix.

They were first blocked by the Robin Hoods led by Desevi, and the pirates suffered heavy losses from hidden arrows and traps in the forest. They were also met with the desperate resistance of more than 300 soldiers and civilians organized by the territory. They attacked from the village at the plantation at the foot of the mountain to the outer village, and then from the outer village to the inner village. Every place they broke through made the pirates pay a heavy price.

Robin Hood said that when the inner village was breached, Old John led dozens of soldiers and civilians to retreat to the castle of the lord's mansion, shooting from a high position to contain the pirates' attack. Amanti led about three or four hundred surviving people to escape through the secret passage into the nearby Black Forest.

This secret passage was built by Amanti when he was building the inner village. Axe didn't know about it at first. At that time, the construction site needed soil and rocks. Amanti thought it was a waste of time to dig from a distance, so he dug such a secret passage along the mountain at the location of the lord's warehouse, and also solved the need for soil and rocks on the construction site. When Axe knew about it, he had almost finished digging.

Axe also questioned Amanti, but he said that he had built several castles, and each castle had one or even several secret passages, which was standard for every castle. Axe thought he was addicted to city-building games and just laughed it off, not taking it seriously. Unexpectedly, it played such a big role at the critical moment this time.

In addition, I heard from Robin Hood that more than 300 horses belonging to the territory were also preserved. When the pirates attacked the village at the foot of the mountain, dozens of tribesmen who were responsible for grazing the territory saw that the situation was not good and drove away most of the horses, leaving only dozens of horses lost.

There are about 400 surviving citizens at present. Led by four leaders, namely, Amanti, Desevi, Zhang Ping and Li Da, they rely on their familiar Black Forest environment to fight guerrilla warfare against the pirates led by Idenyar. However, most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled, and are extremely short of food and daily necessities. Their situation is very difficult. Fortunately, it is only early summer now. If it were winter, many of them would probably freeze to death.

In addition, although the Nord pirates lost three or four hundred people in the battle to break through Talboliya, there are still nearly three thousand people. More than a thousand of them were tied up by the people of Aix, and the remaining nearly two thousand people were attacking the nearby city of Suno with all their strength.

I heard that King Harlaus was mobilizing troops across the country, and a major war was about to begin.

After listening to Robin Hood's report, Axe could no longer stay there and hurriedly prepared to go down the mountain. However, he was still thinking about Sophia's talent for fighting, so he asked her in a gentle and persuasive way if she wanted to see the outside world.

How could he know that as they spent these days together, the girl first took care of the weak Aix personally at her sister's instruction, and then the two of them studied "Nine Swords and Thirteen Styles" together. The girl was deeply attracted by the tall, burly, melancholy-looking handsome man. He was so kind and amiable to her, different from all the men she knew, so charming, that he had already created different feelings in her young heart.

When Aix asked her, she immediately expressed her willingness, but then shyly said that she needed the consent of Yamashita's parents.

Axe and his team had no choice but to go down the mountain to seek the opinions of Sofia's parents. At first, Sofia's parents and family members were strongly opposed to it. They would never agree to let their daughter, whom they had raised, go away with someone else. No matter how much Axe said nice things, it was of no use.

Later, after a little thought, Aix changed his strategy. After being in this world for so long, he knew a little about the customs and folkways here. In this patriarchal society, the fate of a daughter is generally unfortunate, even the daughters of nobles. They all have a unified mission, which is to form marriages, and are usually sacrificed as political bargaining chips.

The daughters of common people are not much better off. Their parents raise their daughters because, firstly, they hope that they can help with housework for a few years and do farm work to earn some money. Secondly, they hope that they can marry into a good family to consolidate the family's status in the neighborhood and receive a considerable amount of betrothal gifts. Otherwise, why do they raise their daughters in the first place? Sooner or later, they will marry them off as money-losing goods to some other family.

Now, if Axe directly asked their daughter to go with him, wouldn't it be the same as robbing them of their money in their eyes? It would be strange if they agreed. Axe had no choice but to sit down and communicate with the family in a friendly manner, chatting about trivial matters.

When talking about the fact that the betrothal gift for marrying off a daughter was at most two cows, Aix immediately told the girl's family that he actually wanted to hire their daughter to work for him, with an annual salary of ten silver coins. If they didn't believe him, they could pay two years' wages first. He immediately took out twenty silver coins and handed them to Sophia's father.

Moreover, Aix also promised that as long as the girl worked for him for two years, if she found a suitable marriage partner, he would introduce her to a good marriage and give her a generous dowry.

When the family saw the 20 silver coins in their hands, how could they not agree? The old father smiled so hard that his teeth were showing and even specifically instructed his daughter:

"My daughter, you must work hard (the whole family is counting on you to live a good life). Where can you find a noble master who treats you so well? Don't think about getting married all day long. You must serve Master Aix wholeheartedly and work as long as you can to repay Master Aix's kindness."

Seeing the family's sudden change of attitude, Axel felt relieved. He believed that this family must hope that the girl would never get married and be able to do things for them for the rest of her life.