Chapter 6: Life in Bobington
Life in Bobington was hard, but in hindsight, such hardships were inevitable for those out in the country. At first I helped with the household work, learning how to take care of myself without my attendants. Then I learned about the field. The chief food crops seems to be types of grain, seeing as how it is the easiest to grow. However,we still plant other crops to vary our diet. It seems there are 4 portions to every field, and every year we rotate the crops grown. When I asked Bob, he said that it reduces stress on the soil. After planting, I helped with the artisans. Starting from spinning cloth and ending at blacksmithing, I helped out with every good I could.
Meanwhile, progress with Bob was going good. He had decent ettiquette, but I could tell he only recently learned it. However, he was very informative. When I asked him why something happened, he would usually provide an answer. When asked about his knight career, would tell me all sorts of stories.
First it was the training they followed. Any minor noble bellow the age of 15 became a squire, who trained under knights until they became strongmen and graduated to knight. Any squire that fails to do so by 15 are put through the less prestigious normal army, consistent of privates and sergeants. Whether soldier or knight, anyone who was at warrior level with sufficient loyalty became a knights captain like Bob.
During training they were subjected to any and every nondestructive means of toughening them up, mentally and physically, imaginable. By the time he came out, he said that the battlefield was something he could look forward to. After his 1st battle, he revised his opinion and thanked his instructors for all those hardships, hoping to never fight again. After his 4th battle, he hoped only for a simple life, so he could get married, raise a child, and settle down away from all this, but knew that desertion was punishable by death. By the time princess Mary was in danger, he didn't care about his arm, and once he learned he was to be baron, he was ecstatic. Once he arrived he named the previously unnamed hamlet Bobington and then quickly settled down.
These details, as he said them, made me feel a fundamental change within me. When I practiced the rulers formula that day, I felt something moving within me, to be stopped by some unknown barrier. It seems I am at the limit of what Bobs accounts can provide, but also just short of breaking through to the second stage of the Rulers formula. I will table it for now, as I have no clue what I could do about it.
I have recently started to notice subtle changes in my body. First, I am beginning to grow taller. Not that this is out of the ordinary, after all, I am an 8 year old child. Such changes are practically guaranteed. Only that in the 5 months I have been here, I have grown a foot. I have also grown more muscular, but this is also to be expected. Most practitioners look muscular as well. Except I seem to be even more muscular looking, even though I can only put forth three quarters of the strength of a strong man. Looking closely, my fat has been sculpted to look like muscle, even though it does not provide me any benefits. For some reason, the older girls have taken a liking to me, calling me "shota knight" for some reason. I don't know what a "shota" is but I don't think it is harming me, so I will simply ignore it for now.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone