Chapter 13: Morning Call
Exodus Tales Exodus Tales
Lord Walker gave a deep bow to the Knight of Marshall, “I’m sorry for this, Sir. Someone like him should’ve never been allowed to attend an event like this. Please, settle this in whatever ways that you see fit.”
Whilst acknowledging the apology with a nod, the Knight of Marshall pointed his finger towards Daniel, “Guard! Send him to prison. I want him to be trialed in Bakong City by tomorrow.”
“No! You can’t do this!” the woman cried even louder, but she was quickly dragged away by Lord Walker. The two left the castle before the banquet had even ended.
While watching from the side, the butler Lindsay rubbed his chin with his hand. He witnessed the confrontation from start to finish. There was a good chance that he had discovered something.
The banquet went back to normal quite quickly after that. No one was going to pay too much attention to the sad bastard who offended a knight, especially when that bastard wasn’t even a nobleman.
Once the banquet was over, all the guests were led to the guest room. The butler Lindsay then came to the Knight of Marshall, who was busy cleaning his armor.
“What?” the Knight of Marshall dropped his cherished armor on the ground, “Abel is a rank four Novice Knight? Are you sure about this?”
“Yes, sir,” the butler Lindsay asserted, “While I am only a rank five warrior, the energy sir Abel released back then was, without a doubt, something that would only belong to a rank four Novice Knight.”
“Ha, haha!” the Knight of Marshall laughed frantically as he started slapping the table with his hand, “Seth is going to be so pissed about this! If only he knew that his son was a genius! Oh, but he doesn’t know, does he? Why else would he give Abel to me?”
“From what I’ve heard,” Lindsay lowered his voice for a reminder, “the eldest son of the Bennet Family is still a rank four Novice Knight, and he is eighteen right now.”
“Yes,” despite being wrong about Abel’s intentions, the Knight of Marshall felt moved by Abel’s decision to hide away his real power, “Abel is a good child. He didn’t want to discourage his older brother, so he’s been hiding his real potential this entire time.”
“Send a letter to the old men at Bakong City. I want them to know about this,” the Knight of Marshall commanded, then took a look at the armor he had just dropped, “Another thing. I want a full set of the blazing sun armor. When I left the place years ago, what they gave me was fake. Now I’ve brought a super genius into the family. They ought to do more to reward me this time, no?”
“Yes, master,” the butler Lindsay replied. He didn’t mind if his master sounded a little brash there. For the Knight of Marshall, his passion for the blazing sun armor was just as strong as his love for his deceased wife.
The blazing sun armor was the standard military equipment of the Blazing Sun Empire—an ancient empire known for its spectacular army. Whenever the Sun shone on a piece of the blazing sun armor, its surface would glow with a red identical to blood. Not only was it gorgeous to look at, but its defensive power was also, in every practical sense, something that every knight would want to lay their hands on.
After the Blazing Sun Empire had lost its former glory, most of the armor was lost. The few that remained were collected by noblemen as antiques, and they were rarely found as items to be sold.
It was now the second morning upon Abel’s arrival.
Having brushed himself off with the help of a maid, Abel came to the dining room for some breakfast. After seeing that the Knight of Marshall was already waiting for him, he quickly came to apologize.
“Sorry for making you wait, Sir.”
“That’s okay. How’s your sleep last night?” the Knight of Marshall asked casually.
“Very good. The bed was very comfortable when I slept on it.”
“It’s good to hear that,” the Knight of Marshall gestured Abel to come, “Here, come have a seat.”
The servants started handing out the dishes after they’ve said their grace. Surprisingly enough, there were a lot of different things in Abel’s plate: eggs, sausages, bacon, and green vegetables. Actually, there shouldn’t be green vegetables this season. How did they get them here?
Realizing the surprise on Abel’s face, the Knight of Marshall explained, “It’s the work of the druids. They used their special powers to grow these vegetables. The prices they sold these for are, well, very befitting of their status.”
Abel’s heart started churning after hearing this, “What other casters are there apart from the druids?”
Seeing how interested Abel was about this topic, the Knight of Marshall put down his knife, “You’re talking about the wizards, aren’t you?”
“Wizards!”
So maybe that’s why Abel couldn’t use the Scroll of Town Portal. Maybe magic scrolls were limited for the wizards. If Abel wanted to go home, he must find a chance to learn about the wizards.
Once breakfast was over, the Knight of Marshall told Abell to come to his study. He poured a cup of coffee for Abel, and only spoke once Abel sipped it.
“Abel, you are already a member of the Harry family.”
“I-uh,”
The Knight of Marshall paused for a bit to find the right words, “I think I should be honest with you. The power you released yesterday belongs to a rank four Novice Knight.”
Abel raised his head in shock. He didn’t expect to be exposed to this quickly. In his defense, he only used his real power for only a few seconds.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” the Knight of Marshall held onto Abel’s shoulder, “I know that you were watching out for your older brother. You didn’t want to make him feel bad about himself, right?”
As far as that guess was from the actual truth, Abel didn’t bother to give his explanation. If anything, that was a more reasonable explanation than talking about the Horadric Cube and all that other nonsense.
“I’m going to be straight with you. I don’t know how you’re doing it, but it’s not a good idea to suppress your powers. Knights are supposed to be fiery and explosive. Once you decide to hold it back, you start to lose your primitive drive. Do you know what I’m saying?”
From what the Knight of Marshall was saying, “power” seemed to be defined differently in this world. Back on planet Earth, one would be considered powerful if he could control his strength, but here, only untameable powers were considered the strongest.
What Abel learned on Earth was about relaxation—conserving one’s life forces. It was about surviving and living as long and healthy as possible. Since guns weren’t invented yet in this world, nobody was looking to live as long as possible. The only thing they were thinking about was to outlive their enemies, which meant being better at killing than anyone else.
“How should I control my powers, then?” Abel asked.
“I was in the same shoes as you many years ago. Luckily, I’ve found a solution already.”
The Knight of Marshall placed a long sword on the table, “Look at this blade right here. As you know, swords are the most important weapons for a knight. How much do you know about this blade right here?”
Abel replied after handling the sword for a bit, “This sword is one meter and five. Its weight is around twenty pounds.”
The Knight of Marshall swung the sword for a bit, “This long sword is designed for a knight. It has been forged for a hundred times before it is in the shape that it’s in now. The length of this piece is precisely 1.58 meters, and its weight is 21.2 pounds. Do you know why I know so much about it?”
“Because it’s yours,” Abel said softly, to which the Knight of Marshall could hear very clearly. Seeing how unconvinced Abel was getting, he couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.
The Knight of Marshall grinned, “How about that light sword you have on you? Do you know how long and heavy it is?”
For a moment, Abel didn’t know what to say. He just rubbed his nose for a bit.
“Estimate by sight. If you work for an armorsmith for about a year, you can do just as well as I can. You will have a better grip on your weapon than most trainers. At the same time, you will be able to release all that power and frenzy within you, meanwhile still maintaining the same amount of control that you would normally.
“Alright, you’ve convinced me. So where should I learn to make swords?”
The Knight of Marshall raised his cheek, “You ever wondered how I got so rich?”
From what Abel could see, the Harry Knight’s domain was no bigger than the Bennet Knight’s domain. Frankly enough, though, the standard of living between the two was miles apart from each other. That being said, Abel wanted to ask about it since day one.
“You see, there is an iron mine on my property,” the Knight of Marshall said proudly, “I happened to found it right after I was given this piece of land. If it wasn’t for that, I would’ve never built this castle the way Emma wanted me to.”
The Knight of Marshall seemed rather sad when he talked about his wife, “When Emma was still with me, she drew the construction plan of this castle, but our savings alone were not enough for the job. We had a lot of faith, though, so we started building it anyways. And just when we were short on money, we happened to found that mine and thank the heaven, we managed to fulfill our dreams together.”