Chapter 30: The miserable life of squires
Hello everyone. I have recovered. And wrote an unplanned chapter, by accident.
I hope you enjoy it.
This is a chapter, simply, about the achievements of the hero and about the moments of life in the church.
Enjoy reading.
-------------------------------------
Time flows quickly, never stops moving. This feature of time affects everyone and I am no exception. Now, before I could blink, a year passed.
But this is just such an expression. In fact, I felt the fullness of this year on myself. Recurring situations and days. Training in the morning, learning magic in the afternoon, visiting the library, in the evening self-training for controlling mana, trying to use magic, and applying various methods of controlling dark gray energy. This is how my days usually passed. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes boring, sometimes dangerous.
This has been my main schedule for about six months. But then this schedule changed dramatically. The children were able to get used to this training and gained strength.
By the way, after about a month and a half, after the appointment of Meris as a teacher of magic, the priest returned, who was supposed to teach us. And, with joy on her face, Meris threw all the responsibility on him, in such ways, we continued to be taught magic. ... It would be more accurate to say: to go through the basics of magic and learning to write, literacy and the ability to read.
This is the Middle Ages, here only people of the upper class can read and write. Most of the children squires are the children of commoners, they do not know letters and do not know how to write, from the skills of mathematics, they only have an easy account for the money. For this reason, the priest taught the children to write and letters.
The priest also told at times the essence of magic and the construction of magic circles, but no one understood anything.
In general: There was no training in magic, we were taught to read and write. All.
For me, as a former resident of the 21st century, it was incredibly boring, especially because I learned to read and write as a child. It was a waste of time, but I could not help but come, because I could get punished.
I don't want to get twenty hits with a whip.
There has already been such a case, one of the guys in my group missed a workout and came only to Meris's lecture. The next day he also skipped and Nel, our dumb instructor, got angry. I saw his angry face for the first time for the entire time of training.
It was creepy.
It fits perfectly with the saying: "In a quiet lake, devils are found."
Usually, Nel, always calm, he always has a serious face that is covered with scars and it looks intimidating. But when he got angry, it looked like a demon had come to earth. His frown frowned, veins show through all over the face, muscles bulged and his scars became worse, they moved like living creatures due to twitching of facial muscles.
I have seen many people in my life and some were ugly or nasty in anger, but Nel was the first person that in an evil state seemed incredibly disgusting and scary to me. I don't want to see this anymore.
As for the guy who made him angry, Nel personally followed him and brought him ... or rather, dragged him along the ground. The boy at that time already looked beaten, but then, the instructor, also publicly beat him with a whip, twenty times.
On the training ground, there were the sounds of a whip being hit, accompanied by screams and groans of pain. And at the end of the punishment, which looked more like torture, the guilty guy was covered with bloody lines on his body left after the blows of the whip. These wounds were bleeding, and the guy just lay there and cried unable to move, his whole face was covered with dirt, which was adhered from the tears and snot that flowed from his eyes and nose all the time.
After that, the "executioner" who committed the punishment simply continued training, as if nothing had happened, forgetting about the body that was lying on the ground.
Of course, this did not go unnoticed, the screams attracted someone else's attention, and the powerless, the probably half-dead guy was taken away for treatment.
It was a terrible sight, I saw this only in films, seeing this live is completely different. But I did not empathize with this child, although the process of punishment was not pleasant, he himself brought trouble on himself.
Who allowed him to skip? Did he really think that all the uncles here are kind?
No, this is a cruel world and a cruel reality, any of your random words addressed to the rich or the strong, and your head will go flying.
The Middle Ages is the time of the rise of art and architecture, but at the same time, this is the time of the power of wild animals, where the strong have the right to live freely, the rest must obey. Only a thick purse and power provide protection, although a thick purse is sometimes the cause of death.
All this did not change even before the modern world, but it is well hidden, while in the Middle Ages it was open and on a huge scale, undisguised with hypocrisy, the time of the flourishing of cruelty, not many were hiding behind an idol.
I perceive the world realistically, it is gray for me, a lot of black tones, a lot of white. I hate something, I like something. The essence is the same: Everywhere there will be good and evil. Seeing only one thing while closing your eyes to the other is naivety that will ruin. Therefore, I try to live, acting calmly and deliberately knowing where to climb and where not to meddle.
This time, will not spare me without strength and intelligence, proof of this guy, who was beaten for a seemingly simple act. Of course, when Meris found out about this, he got angry and scolded Nel, but it looked like he scolded the child for breaking dishes.
There was no punishment for beating a child half to death. The commander does not give a damn about the squires, purely logically, this beaten guy became an example for the rest, instilled in them a fear of disobeying orders and for freedom of action during assignments. A dangerous psychological trick was used by accident, but it worked perfectly, killing free will in children at an early age, and made them puppets with a fear of such a fate, ideal puppets carrying out orders.
I think now that Meris has a bunch of toys, I'm too used to psychological games in the past, I participated in them many times, it doesn't work on me, but I am not able to help other children, I am a loner. After that incident with Meris, in the capital, these cowardly children avoided me if I was close, did not want to communicate with me. But this became more apparent when Meris used me as a training dummy. Now, seeing me, the cowards run away and keep their distance, and when there are moments when they cannot run away from me, they try to ignore me. It's funny. I'm like a green ball, in a bunch of pink balls.
While children try to avoid me, adults look with contempt. It's a little offensive, but overall I don't give a damn.
And, by the way, about Meris. Bastard stayed bastard, nothing changed.
After that attempt to kill me, he behaved, as usual, I did the same, at times we both let out murderous intent at each other, it was almost daily fun.
In general, we tried to ignore each other, but we were bad at it. It's hard to get along with the person you hate. But when the priest took his teaching position, I hardly saw him, only sometimes I noticed him when he was carrying barrels of wine from the warehouse near the dining room.
Returning to the topic of training and changing the schedule.
After about six months, useless training in body development ended, but in their place came training in the use of weapons and wearing armor.
Each person was given a wooden sword, all-metal armor that had suffered for years, and we trained in the morning, starting at seven o'clock. Carried plate armor covered with rust and trained in the use of various weapons. At the same time, the training time has been significantly reduced, we used to train almost all morning, now about two or three hours. The rest of the morning time was spent learning to read and write, and the rest from the priest.
But in the afternoon, the "fun" began.
Many people know the saying: "He who does not work, he does not eat"
It was this saying that began to work. We, squires, were fed for free, but now we have to work to get food.
How?
Cleaning the stables, watering fields with vegetables, caring for horses, repairing buildings, and much more variety of activities.
If you have not completed the task for the day, you will not get normal food, you will only eat stale bread. Although the food is not better, chowder is viscous like porridge, without taste, and with the smell of game, the drink is something reminiscent of berry compote and hard bread. This is the whole ration twice a day, at lunch and dinner, if you want to eat in the morning, eat hard bread. And very rarely we were given whole cuts of meat.
I want food from modernity. * Whimper *
Only squires ate this way, the knights ate better, much better. They ate baked meat every day, washed down with ale or a honey drink, their chowder looked like normal soup and they had fresh bread from the furnace.
How it pisses me annoying.
These unfinished knights do nothing but exercise every day, but they eat superb food. Whereas we, squires, tear our backs doing most of the work and get miserable slop.
By the way, hunt also squires, which are older than us.
Knights are needed only for protecting territories from attacks and periodically clearing the forest from various creatures. And by "periodic," I mean, they do it every five years.
For all that, these knights still laugh at the squires and watch our suffering. Great adults, just great. Burn them in hell.
In fact, this is a terrible and disgusting psychological move. I don't know who the freak-psychologist is, but his plan is working.
Everything is simple here. Children suffer as squires, accumulate anger, and, becoming knights, look at the suffering of new squires, amuse themselves with the suffering of others.
Why are there no people who will help or will not be so angry?
Pfft. This psychological move was made when the child has not yet fully formed his character, due to the transitional age, it is at this moment that a blow is struck, creating a trauma. Further, all this is tempered by battles and determination to become a knight and live luxuriously. Having passed this path, all pity for the newcomers is killed in the bud, all this becomes the norm for them and it amuses them.
It's disgusting. If I find out who is playing with children like that, I will torture him, slowly breaking the bones of his body and burn him at the stake. I hate such freaks so much.
I'll deal with that later, but concerning food.
There is another unpleasant moment in the church, this is the time of fasting. A period of time or several days when certain foods cannot be eaten. All this is for the strengthening of determination and faith.
Yeah. Of course.
This time was created to reduce food, during times of famine or lack of supplies. Usually, this period occurs in winter and it was created for one purpose: not to allow people to create a riot, in a time of famine. God is a brake on hungry people and a force that gives them hope.
It's a bad time when your food is one water with vegetables. This is very little for a child's body. I don't want to talk about the knights, they ate better even at this time.
The top, probably, does not even observe this time, I am almost sure of that.
Better to stop this dark theme, it makes me angry. Better to focus on the good.
Good. I learned these symbols, which are so and called, "Magic symbols", the "original" name. So they are called in the modern book, their other name from the ancient era, "Magic runes", even more, "original" name.
Hurrah. Now I know six languages.
I learned all the symbols in three weeks. Improved memory is wonderful at times like this.
I also trained in magic and was able to use spells from books, both simple and complex. Memory helped me again. I understood the principle and methods of use in practice, my mana is enough to compose some difficult spells, but still, it is not enough for a long and difficult fight. I tried to use my mana almost to zero, it was a disgusting experience. I wanted to know: "Am I capable of continuing to fight with the sword when I am weak from the loss of a large amount of mana." The result was bad. I could hardly move my limbs and almost fell, with every swing of the sword.
The experiment failed, I don't have enough mana for long-term use. My maximum, with an economical losses, is about forty minutes. And "economical losses" is the creation of weak air currents. If I use simple magic like Fireball, that time will be reduced to fourteen minutes. If I use a difficult one like Flame Lance, my mana will only last for four uses. With all this, I use the method of composing spells of ancient magic, where the mana cost is reduced, but it still does not help with a low mana supply.
Why is the method of ancient magic, and not combined?
I still cannot fully use the two hemispheres of the brain for different tasks. It is difficult, it will take me some more time, I can separate simple thoughts and compose different light sentences at the same time, but I am not yet able to compose a spell and a formula with a model separately. I am glad that there is progress. For now, the method of ancient magic is enough for me.
But mana is still a problem, I need to increase its amount. In one of the books I read, it was said that with a full waste of mana, it is possible to increase the initial amount. The masochist method.
I can of course do this and suffer for a while, but another problem arises. Before that, I tried to use magic quietly, but now I need to waste mana almost immediately, it will attract a lot of attention, I will be like fireworks, to which the crowd will come running. At the same time, I will not have the strength to leave. I don't want to risk it, so I will do it when I'm safe and away from prying eyes alone.
I was also able to control the dark gray energy, it strengthens the body when it is stimulated. My body is getting stronger and the more I stimulate the energy, the stronger I become. But, I could not achieve that state when I dodged the bastard's attack, I just strengthen my body depending on the amount of energy used, the more it is used, the stronger my body is.
Everything seems to be fine, I am strong, but there is a problem.
If I use a lot of this energy, the load on my body increases, or if I use it for too long, the body cannot withstand the load, it collapses from the inside. Muscles tense like ropes when stretched, bones seem to be under pressure, blood accelerates movement and heart beats faster. My maximum with the strongest increase is three minutes, but at the same time I feel pain in my body, and the pain gets stronger over time, when two minutes pass, it feels like you might be torn from the inside and your bones begin to creak. The weaker the gain, the more time I can use it.
But there is a solution to this problem, you just need to train the body, a strong body can withstand heavy loads.
In fact, I want to test my abilities in battle, but it's too early to reveal my power to the public. Soon we will be sent on a hunt, "for the practice of skills," they will use us for the extraction of meat, so as not to waste efforts ourselves. This is the perfect time for me to put my skills to the test. Looking forward to it.
-----------------------------------------
Poor squires, sorry for them. But this is the harsh reality of life.
Finally, the movement has begun from a standstill and there will be a lot of time skips. I will try to show only the important points.
If you have any suggestions, suggest; if you have questions, ask. I'll consider everything.
Your support is important.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone