Chapter 1: ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ก๐จ๐จ๐ (๐)
Chapter 1: ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ก๐จ๐จ๐ (๐)
The Aitz family, a knightly lineage of the Holy Empire.
The story of Kim Yo-han, a knight born with power in the Aitz family, a knightly family of the Holy Empire.
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After dying in an unexpected accident, Kim Yo-han was reborn with dragon power in the Aitz family, a knightly family of the Holy Empire.
And then 17 years passed.
Kim Yo-han had no choice but to admit that life here was not so easy.
๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ
The Aitz family was among the many noble families in the Empire, but so small that it could hardly be considered significant in the family tree.
Unlike other knights who lacked a fiefdom, the Aitz family at least had a small town as their territory, which might be considered fortunate.
However, the chances of this town falling into Johanโs hands were slim. Gessen Aitz had too many children.
His eldest, second, and third sons from his fourth wife; his fourth and fifth from his third wife. . .
Johanโs mother, who gave birth to him, was Gessenโs second wife. She passed away shortly after his birth, leaving Johan without any memory of her.
โ๐๐ต ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ค๐ถ๐ฃ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ. . .โ
Still, his situation was difficult enough. It would have been even more complicated if he had been illegitimate.
The sons of Gessenโs fourth wife, being older, naturally despised Johan and the children from the other wives.
The current Mrs. Aitz also disliked Johan and the children from the other wives.
Excluded from the two main factions in the fiefdom, other than Sir Gessen himself, Johanโs life was inevitably hard. Unless Sir Gessen mediated, which he rarely did, as he showed little interest in the affairs of the fiefdom.
Sir Gessen spent most of the year away from the fiefdom. What he did during this time was unclear, but he seemed very busy. When he did return, he mostly indulged in strong drinks. Johan had rarely seen his father, Sir Gessen, himself.
Thus, the fiefdom was managed by Sir Gessenโs subordinates, his wife, and his older sons. . .
And caught in the middle were sons like Johan.
At least the other sons had brothers from the same mother for support, but Johan was truly alone. Had he been smaller, he would have been relentlessly bullied.
โAh, Johan-nim. Hello.โ
โYes.โ
Johan greeted the serf.
Though the Aitz family had a fiefdom, they were a small and poor noble family, not owning an expensive castle. Their residence was a moderately-sized mansion adjacent to a village. Compared to the village houses, it seemed luxurious like a castle.
Consequently, the sons of the Aitz family had no choice but to interact closely with the villagers. Sons like Johan, who were more distant, even more so.
While most behaved arrogantly due to their noble status, Johan was different. It was not in his nature, and he saw no benefit in earning the wrath of the serfs.
As a result, the villagers liked Johan. Despite his youth, he had the stature of a knight and a commendable personality. In the village, there were talks that โJohan should succeed Sir Gessen.โ
However, these words meant nothing. The serfs, tied to their fiefdom and farming, had no influence. Even if Sir Gessen suddenly passed away, the decision would be made by his retainers, wife, and older sons.
โWhatโs up? Itโs Johan.โ
โDonโt look. Idiot.โ
Walking past the wheat fields near the village, there was a fairly dense forest. It was a dense forest that the elders of the village called the โDevilโs Forestโ, where light did not enter even in broad daylight.
Unlike Earth, the Holy Empire was full of places that were not cleared like this. It was a world where you had to be afraid of beasts jumping out of the forest even on the road.
And there were only a few people in the village who could enter that forest. Most of the serfs were forbidden to enter the forest unless it was a special time. The trees and beasts of the forest belonged to the feudal lord.
Only the son of the feudal lord or the hunters who were allowed could enter the forest!
Naturally, it was his half-brothers who were telling Johan not to look at him now. Johan shook his head.
Such a quarrel was now pitiful. At first, he didnโt tolerate it and fought back, but now he was so annoyed that he ignored it and passed by.
โ๐๐ฐ๐ฏโ๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ต๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ?โ
He knew that he shouldnโt do it with force, but the other side only quarreled with their mouths and didnโt come any closer. They knew very well that there was nothing good about bumping into Johan.
๐๐จ๐จ๐โ
Johan ignored it and stood in front of the dense oak tree. He was thinking of doing what he did every day.
โI donโt know if itโs okay to just train like this.โ
Over 180cm physique. When he fought with other brothers, he was so powerful that he could win against four.
From the moment he was born, Johan had a blessed body.
It was a similar appearance to his previous life, but it attracted much more attention. Overall, peopleโs physiques were smaller. Even Johanโs half-brothers were sons of knights and ate and slept well, so their physiques were above average, but they looked poor compared to Johan.
Besides. . .
โ๐๐ต ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ต๐ฉ ๐ช๐ด ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ.โ
Johan clenched his fist. The grip felt stronger than before.
The Bergmannโs Law.
The law that the colder the animal lives, the bigger it gets.
Did the environment of this world increase Johanโs strength like that? He didnโt know why he felt stronger even though his physique was the same.
๐๐ก๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฉ, ๐ญ๐ก๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฉโ
Johan stopped worrying and started exercising. It was a workout he had been doing since Earth. No matter how physically gifted he was, he couldnโt get stronger without training.
And in this part of the training, Johan was confident.
A person who is more familiar with modern and scientific training methods than anyone in the Empire!
Although there are no devices and it is difficult to adjust the diet, Johan made the maximum effort within his ability. The result was his current body.
The problem is that this is not a modern world, but a different world with a medieval feel.
It was not a world where you could succeed by being good at unarmed mixed martial arts, but a world where you could succeed by knowing how to swing a sword in armor.
And Johan didnโt learn this part at all. It wasnโt just Johan. Most of the other half-brothers were similar.
It was because Sir Gessen was so indifferent to his children.
It was okay to just wander around outside the fiefdom. There were many such people among the knights.
However, such knights usually sent their children to other knights for squire training. It was common for knights to exchange their children to train them into excellent knights.
A knight was not made overnight. From a young age, they consistently learned things necessary as a knight, such as swordsmanship, etiquette, tactics, and strategy.
Among Sir Gessenโs sons, only the eldest or second eldest received knight training, and the youngest son, now Mrs. Aitzโs son, was learning under a home tutor.
What about the rest?
They were just living comfortably.
โ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐จ๐ถ๐บ๐ด ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ.โ
Johan shook his head as he watched his half-brothers go hunting in the forest with their swords.
How nice it would have been if he could live comfortably like that.
But he couldnโt. Unlike them, who didnโt know their situation, Johan was fully aware of his situation.
โ๐๐ง ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏโ๐ต ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ข๐ค๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ ๐ฎ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ. . .โ
Think about it.
What if Sir Gessen dies?
Sir Gessen is already past middle age and looking at old age, and in this world, itโs rare for humans to live beyond 60 or 70, let alone 100. There was no such thing as a knight preventing aging with internal power, as in the fantasy novels Johan had read.
To Johanโs eyes, it seemed difficult for Sir Gessen to live more than ten years. He was extremely fat and old, but he still loved alcohol and women. . .
When Sir Gessen dies, one of the eldest or youngest sons will succeed the knight title. Johan didnโt know who it would be. Whoever wins the fight will take it.
The problem was the remaining sons like Johan.
If the brothers were close, they would have taken care of at least one feudatory position, but from Johanโs perspective, there was no chance. Whoever rises, the brothers with different mothers seemed likely to be driven out of the feudatory.
โ๐๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐จ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ตโ๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ.โ
Honestly, he didnโt think they would even do that.
In the past, he didnโt understand why the second and third sons of lower nobles in history went into the military so much, but now that he was experiencing it himself, he understood completely.
There was nothing else to do.
He was a son of a formal knight family, so he was a nobleman for now, and he didnโt think about doing business or farming, but he still needed money to eat and live. . .
If he had received training as a squire under a knight, he would have continued to run as a knight and aimed to enter under another nobleman who had a feudatory, but he had not received training, so there was no way.
โShould I ask to be sent to another knight with a big heart? Iโm still his child. . . Damn. I canโt try anything because he isnโt involved in the feudatory.โ
Johan resented Sir Gessen. He couldnโt try anything because he was away all the time.
In the end, there was only one thing Johan could do.
Training.
He didnโt know how meaningful bare-handed martial arts would be, but he had to do it because he was anxious. How useful it would be when others were wearing armor and swinging swords. . .
And the other half-brothers laughed at Johan like that. In their eyes, Johan seemed to be doing strange things with his bare body.
โAre you bewitched by a witch? Hahaha!โ
โShh. If the new priest hears you, itโll be a big deal.โ
๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ
โHello, Johan-nim.โ
Hunter Joseph bowed politely. Johan was as courteous as a knight in a bardโs song, but that made him all the more cautious.
โJoseph, are you ready?โ
โYes.โ
Johan stared intently at Joseph. It was initially uncomfortable to treat a middle-aged man arrogantly, but he had gotten used to it now.
If he was unnecessarily kind, it would only make the other person feel more burdened, and if it reached othersโ ears, it could cause unnecessary problems.
โ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏโ๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ.โ
On the hunterโs waist were a crude dagger and a few pouches of medicine. These were unique medicines passed down among the hunters, ranging from painkillers to drugs used to lure animals.
In addition, a bow and arrows. That was all the weaponry a hunter had. There were no chainmail, gauntlets, metal boots, or even a thick cloth armor called a gambeson. If a hunter had such equipment, he would have sold it for money immediately.
He was worried about what would happen if he encountered a beast, but the hunterโs answer was simple.
โ๐๐จ๐งโ๐ญ ๐ ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ก๐๐ซ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐.