Unknown Knight

The next morning, the caravan left Allen Village. As a thank you, the caravan not only sold the captured gangsters to Airen's bounty hunters at the price of one silver coin per person, but also gave two barrels of beer to Airen and the village chief respectively. After some politeness, everyone said nothing more.

They hurried along without taking a break at noon, and it was almost dusk when they arrived at Suno City. The city gate was about to close, but the guards ignored the smile of old John, an old acquaintance, and insisted on keeping the caravan out. Old John had to stuff some copper coins into their mouth before they gave up.

Looking at the smug expressions of the guards, Aix felt the unfriendliness in Suno City before he even entered the city. According to Bandak, this was a situation that had never happened before. It seemed that although Suno City was old John's base, he was not doing very well judging from the situation after entering the city.

As soon as I entered the city, a mixture of urine and rotten smell hit me in the face. The history books I had read in my original world said that people in medieval towns dumped their feces and urine directly from the second floor onto the street. Noble ladies who could afford it had to carry umbrellas when traveling to avoid the embarrassment of being drenched in feces.

After sniffing the air that made people cover their mouths, Aix couldn't help but sigh in his heart: It seems to be true what the books said about the medieval towns being full of shit and urine, the ancients really didn't lie to me!

The whole town was not big. After a while, everyone pushed the car to a small two-story warehouse. Although it was not big, that was from Aix's perspective. Growing up in modern society, he was accustomed to seeing high-rise buildings. In comparison, the warehouse was indeed very small, only the size of two or three storefronts. But judging from the appearance of the entire Suno city, this should be considered one of the best warehouses.

Although it was already dark, the joy of returning home made everyone forget their fatigue. They worked for half the night to unload all the goods and then dispersed. Only old John and his daughter, Bandak, Harvey, Axe, and a woman named Catherine were left.

This woman was the one who stayed behind at the warehouse when the caravan was out traveling. She seemed to be the old classmate's lover. He had been rubbing against Catherine since he came back, and patting the woman's butt from time to time, causing her to scream and burst into laughter from everyone. If it weren't for the fact that he was in front of so many people, the lust accumulated along the way would probably have turned him into a wolf in an instant.

After eating the porridge dinner prepared by Catherine, Axel was arranged to sleep in a relatively clean small room. Although he did not have the treatment of sleeping on the big bed with a beautiful woman by his side a few days ago, he was still in the mood for romance at the moment. Tiredness made him fall asleep immediately.

It was already noon when he woke up. Although Axe felt clear-headed, he felt weak and lazy all over, as if he had just recovered from a long illness. If it weren't for the rumbling stomach, he would probably have stayed in bed until the evening.

I got up and went downstairs, following a scent to the kitchen, where I found Amil and Catherine preparing lunch, and Old John and Bandak drinking beer at the long table in the hall. They were chatting excitedly, and from time to time there were obscene laughs that only men can understand. It seemed that the two were talking about their romantic affairs from last night.

Seeing Aix, they waved to him to join them. Aix came over and sat down. The two old friends immediately became serious and changed the subject, talking about the afternoon arrangements. Specifically, Old John would go to the homes of each member of the caravan to distribute the money for their hard work, and the old class leader would take Aix to several surrounding villages to see the growth of olives this year.

The specialty of Suno City is olive oil, and selling olive oil is the main livelihood of the caravan. The olives will be ripe in a month or so. Before that, the caravan needs to understand the growth of olives so as to prepare the corresponding funds and oil tanks, and then sell them to Sagos, Tiha and other places in the Nord Kingdom.

Lunch was served soon, with a side dish of porridge with some potato-like stems and chopped dried meat. The staple food was black bread that was not too hard. There were no metal cutlery such as knives on the left and forks on the right, and no appetizers. As for the Western cuisine of later generations, such as soup before meals, desserts after meals, etc., there was no way to talk about any decorations.

Seeing this kind of food, Aix couldn't help but frowned. Since coming to this world, food is the thing he complained about the most. But no matter how much he complained, he still had to fill his stomach. He could only comfort himself in his heart that what he ate was pure natural green food, without any food additives and chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

After dinner, Old John took Jamila to settle the wages, while Aix and Bandak went out of the city to learn about the growth of olives.

Walking on the grass-covered path, breathing the fresh air, and looking at the olive trees full of fruits on both sides, Aix seemed to have forgotten that it was living in the dark and chaotic Middle Ages, as if it was on a picnic.

Before, he lived a life of working 996 hours a day. His meager salary forced him to stay at home when he had a break. He didn't dare go out and spend money lavishly. He didn't know how long it had been since he had felt so happy. If Bandak hadn't introduced him to the growth of olives and a certain olive field belonging to a noble lord from time to time, he would have forgotten the purpose of this trip.

During the half-day outing, Axe and his companions had almost toured most of the suburbs of Suno. However, as the sky gradually darkened, Bandak's face became more and more gloomy, especially after whispering with a few acquaintances they met on the way, his face became even uglier.

Axe knew that those acquaintances must have told him some bad news. Seeing that he didn't say anything, he didn't dare to ask more, so he became cautious and quickened his pace to keep up with Bandak's increasingly fast pace of returning to the city.

As soon as they arrived at the warehouse, Bandak called old John, who had been back for a long time, and went straight to the inner room. After a long time, the two came out with gloomy faces. As soon as he saw the situation, Aix knew that something bad had happened. In connection with the situation of today's visit to the olive oil field, it must be related to the olive oil that was not purchased.

During dinner, everyone lowered their heads and picked at their spoons without saying a word. The only sound in the room was the slurping of food, and the atmosphere was extremely depressing.

It has been a while since he joined the caravan. As he became more familiar with the situation, Aix knew that nearly half of the caravan's annual income came from the sale of olive oil. Although the growth of olives was not very good this year, it would not affect the caravan's income too much. The price increase could make up for the poor harvest of olive oil, so there must be other reasons.

From his previous conversation with Bandak, Aix knew that Old John was one of the royal merchants of Marquis Craggs, the Lord of Suno City. His main business was to buy and sell olive oil for the Earl. Looking at the atmosphere today, could there be some major changes?

Aix wanted to step forward and inquire about the situation several times, but he hesitated when he saw the serious expressions of Old John and Bandak. He knew in his heart that although everyone seemed to respect him at the moment, as far as the entire caravan was concerned, the core figures were still Old John and Bandak. Since they were unwilling to say, there must be reasons for not wanting to say it. He decided to wait and see.

The next morning, Old John ate a few bites of food and hurried out without making any arrangements for the day. After dinner, when Catherine and Yamila finished cleaning, they chatted in a low voice. It was really inappropriate for him to join in on such conversations among women's best friends, and he still had a grudge about what happened the day before.

Harvey wiped his mouth after finishing his meal and went out to hang out, ignoring him. Bandak sat alone at the table drinking beer, and he didn't want to join him. He was not used to drinking so early in the morning. For a moment, Axe sat awkwardly at the table, feeling a little at a loss and uncomfortable all over.

Just as he was looking around to hide his confusion, he suddenly saw something hanging on the wall. It was Bandak's crossbow. Thinking of the amazing shot that Bandak had used to kill Marcus, he immediately became eager to try it out and wanted to take it and try his hand at it.

Modern wisdom made him realize that the ADC in the back row had an advantage in first move and survival over the warriors in the front row, so he couldn't help but say to Bandak:

"Master, can I..."

Following his gaze, Bandak saw the crossbow on the wall and immediately understood his idea. He walked over, took it down, and handed it to him, saying:

"Want to shoot a couple of arrows sir?"

"Of course, the arrow you shot that killed Marcus was amazing. I wish I were as good as you!"

Bandak raised his eyebrows slightly after hearing the subtle flattery and felt much better. He pulled him to the backyard of the warehouse, where there was a thatched target. From the marks on it, it seemed that the old bandit had practiced a lot, so it was no wonder that he could kill Marcus with one shot.

After stringing the crossbow and loading the arrows, Bandak handed the crossbow to him and said:

"Give it a try and see how good you are."

After taking the crossbow handed over by Bandak, Axe felt an urge to try it out. This was a powerful weapon for killing people in ancient times. It was no less than the feeling of modern people touching a gun for the first time. He felt an urge to shoot two arrows immediately.

Recalling the three-point-one-line principle known to everyone in later generations, he squinted his eyes and calibrated the arrow feather, arrow tip and bull's eye into a line. With a "whoosh", he hit the red bull's eye fifteen meters away.

"Wow!"

Axe's stunning shot caused a burst of exclamations from Catherine and Yamila who came to watch. They had heard Bandak asking Axe on the way to the backyard, and knew that this was his first virgin shot. They didn't expect it to be so stunning. Most people would be lucky to hit the target on their first shooting.

Looking at Bandak again, he just raised his eyebrows slightly, obviously thinking that Aix was just lucky. He took the crossbow from Aix's hand, skillfully strung it, and handed it to him, meaning that he should shoot another arrow.

Axel knew that Bandak was testing him, and he couldn't help but feel competitive. He took a deep breath, and when the three points aligned, he shot the bull's eye again with a "click".

Bandak's expression became serious now. He cocked the bowstring again and asked Aix to shoot. He repeated this process more than ten times. All the shots hit the target, and almost all of them hit the center of the bull's eye.

Bandak was now upset. He had been practicing very hard since he was a child. Although the distance was not far, he could not 100% guarantee a result like Aix. This was too discouraging.

From time to time, the exclamations of admiration from the two girls of Yamila made Bandak even more overshadowed. Ever since Airen appeared, little stars appeared in Yamila's eyes, which had lost their starlight. At this moment, she was looking at Aix with a burning gaze, which made him feel secretly happy.

Bandak was still unwilling to give up and poured cold water on Aix. He asked him to stand at the innermost wall of the backyard and try shooting. This time Aix's luck was gone. Only two out of ten arrows hit the target, and he never hit the bull's eye once.

It was estimated that the base of the wall was about thirty meters away from the target. The inexperienced Aix couldn't understand for a moment why the iron rule of three points and one line failed to work at a distance of thirty meters.

Only the expert Bandak knew that there were many factors that determined whether an arrow hit the target. Although he had not learned simple physics and could not know the three points in a straight line, his family skills and hard practice made him very experienced in crossbow shooting.

He confidently took the crossbow from Aix's hand, skillfully wound the bowstring, aimed and shot, hitting the bull's eye in one go, and then said to Aix calmly:

"There are many factors that contribute to the accuracy of a crossbow shot. It's not just about aiming well, but also about breathing and feeling. This requires hard practice and cannot be mastered by just shooting a few times. But you are already very good, Mr. Axe. If you want to learn, I can teach you."

Looking at Bandak's smug expression and carefully pondering Bandak's words, Aix suddenly had an idea.

Ever since he joined the caravan, he had always wanted to befriend the No. 1 fighter in the caravan, but Bandak was always polite to him and kept his distance from him, so he could never get Bandak's point. Now he knew that Bandak's point was his pride, his superb crossbow skills, so he showed an excited and incredible expression and said:

"Really? Mr. Sharpshooter! Please allow me to call you Bandak. The arrow you shot just now was truly amazing. Are you really willing to teach me such a skill?"

Hearing Aix's slightly exaggerated flattery, Bandak was impressed that his family's inherited skills were appreciated by the noble lord. His eyebrows trembled slightly, and then he said modestly:

"It is my honor sir."

If Aix had a system now, it would definitely hear this:

"Ding——, your relationship with Bandak has increased by 20. The current value is 80, which means you have reached a very close level. The total value is 100."

The two actors' acting skills were poor, but it didn't affect each other's mood at all. After a round of business exaggeration, they sat on the stone wall with their arms around each other's shoulders and talked about their crossbow shooting experience, not paying any attention to the two girls next to them. The two people watching the fun rolled their eyes and cursed in their hearts: "Men, young men!"

After a heart-to-heart talk, Axe seemed to understand something. Bandak told him to practice more and get a better feel for it. Also, each crossbow has different characteristics, so he should get a better feel for it through practice and achieve a tacit understanding between the person and the crossbow.

Axe thought, isn't this in line with the unity of man and sword in Chinese martial arts? Isn't it so mysterious? Isn't it said that crossbows are the easiest long-range weapons to use in ancient times? Although he has doubts, he knows that the farther the long-range attack is, the more effective it is. It is a good skill to have in the Dark Ages.

So he listened carefully and humbly to Bandak's "teachings", and from time to time he showed an expression of sudden enlightenment and great benefit for some truths that he could understand at once. This made Bandak even more excited. When he thought that Aix, a nobleman, was actually interested in his special skills, he taught him even harder.

In just one morning, the simple old teacher had taught Aix all the crossbow skills he knew and didn't know. This benefited Aix a lot and gave him a deeper understanding of the use of the crossbow.

Unconsciously, it was already noon. When Catherine and Yamila prepared lunch and called them, the two young men realized that they were hungry. However, Axe's shooting skills at a distance of 30 meters did not improve much, which made him feel a little disappointed. Seeing his expression, Bandak said to him earnestly:

"You know what, sir? You're so good at shooting on your first try. You're already a rare genius. The only thing you lack is diligent practice. Believe me, you will become a sharpshooter in the future!"

Seeing Bandak's confident expression, Axe felt relieved. Thinking that he had only been playing with the crossbow for a whole morning, this result seemed very good, so he felt better.