Chapter 62: Gradually Getting on Track

  In the small cottage in Brunei, Johnny's rest was not bad. Sitting on the bed, leaning against the wall, listening to the old man talk about past events... After putting down his worries, listening to these stories didn't feel tedious at all.

  Why are the villagers so hostile? Johnny found it strange. What a wonderful story, a commoner who earned his way to becoming an earl in the army, those ugly enemies, those dead comrades... how great!

  But why would I feel disgusted?

  "It's almost time to eat, right?" Bruny rarely stopped talking on his own, "Let's go back, we'll come again tomorrow. It's suffocating, I'm going to die in this broken place, let's go, let's go."

  Although Johnny had never seen a clock in this world, he still came into contact with some simple timing tools, such as hourglasses and sundials. There was a sundial in the church.

  The bell of the church rang out, reminding people of the arrival of dinner time.

  When you don't need it, you'll just ignore it as background noise; when you're in a hurry, it's the devil's advocate.

  "Sorry I'm late!" Johnny's first words as he entered the door were an apology, yesterday he could only eat leftover food, "Sorry!"

  At this time, everyone had already started eating and saw Johnny rushing in, so they all stopped their actions and looked at him.

  Joni felt a bit hairy under this gaze, Aisley and Odara's eyes seemed relatively normal, just with a hint of curiosity. The other three revealed a hint of understanding and sympathetic emotions.

  "Back already?" Udis nodded, "Sit down and eat, back from Lord Lei's place?"

  Jony nodded.

  "Actually, you don't have to work so hard... It seems like you still don't think there's a problem, okay, just wait until next month and you'll know how tough the path you've chosen is. May Odin protect you."

  With a mind full of doubts, Joanie sat down and silently enjoyed his own food. The food was not sumptuous, and Joanie didn't eat with relish either. What's the point of all this? He looked at Odara, who was eating with his head down, and thought to himself: It's him who's going to the front line!

  After dinner, Lancelot and Aisling came together to Joni's side. Aisling said with a comforting smile: "Joni... you've worked hard."

  Joni felt very puzzled, but could only nod: "It's okay, it's okay, Aisutieru you..."

  "Alright, alright, don't think about taking advantage of the situation." Lancelot carelessly inserted himself in front of Astarte, interrupting Jony's inquiry. "That old man is very strong, follow him and learn from him properly. If one day you can't take it anymore, you can hide in the church, rest assured, if that happens I absolutely won't look down on you."

  After finishing speaking, Astrid pulled along, occasionally turning her head back to glance and smile, then left the dining hall, leaving Joanie alone there, crying and laughing helplessly.

  Are you guys serious?

  －－－－－－

  That night was a review lesson. Although he recited repeatedly, Jonyi had already forgotten the spelling of some words. Fortunately, it was originally an annotated text, and it wasn't particularly difficult to recall. Jonyi even asked Udis to borrow paper and pen, writing down a sentence: "Odin is the supreme true god."

  Half of this was written by Johnny based on his guesswork from the pronunciation.

  Udis took the paper, glanced at it, pointed out three spelling mistakes, and shook the paper saying: "I remember I didn't teach you those words, but you can write them roughly, not bad. But don't say 'supreme' again, knowing it in your heart is enough."

  "Why?" Johnny wondered.

  Although the gods were bound by a ceasefire agreement and could not do anything, they were all dissatisfied with the sun god who openly claimed to be supreme. Udis told the secrets between the gods, some of which only priests might have access to, "Even if there are foreign gods and churches coming to attack the local sun god, the gods just forced Musata's main god to sign an agreement without much effort."

  "A treaty of ceasefire among gods?" Johnny felt he had taken in too much information at one time.

  "A powerful pact signed after the War of the Gods," Udis explained. "The main content is that gods are not allowed to personally descend into the mortal world and interfere with secular affairs, nor can they attack other divine countries. I'd rather not say more to you, this was originally a story understood within each church, and outsiders basically don't know about it. Even bards don't know the specific contents of the pact, at most they can only fabricate or recite poems about the grandeur and cruelty of the War of the Gods, and the peace after the war."

  Alright, Jony thought, so it's just that it can't be called the highest after all? Then don't say it. However, looking at Odin's situation, although there was no faith control, almost all the locals were Odin's believers. Just this point alone, the big boss he chose was really powerful.

  －－－－－－－

  The next day, after running those twenty laps, Johnny arrived at the lumber warehouse.

  "Jony, you're a bit late today." Bruni said with a dissatisfied face.

  "It's like this," Jony explained. "I ran yesterday and slept after waking up, only to find that my muscles were a bit sore, so I ran a bit slower today."

  "Alas, young people are so pampered. In my day, I led a group of brothers deep into the territory of the barbarians. A dozen or so of us were chased by an entire tribe. Who wasn't running for their lives back then? Those who ran slower are now martyrs. Someone like you, who runs slowly because they're tired from the previous day... on the battlefield, that's just a recipe for nostalgia!" The old man scolded.

  "My goodness, I'm really tired, okay? You old fellow... never mind. This old guy carrying a shoulder pole is definitely easy as play. But, to say..."

  "Can Ossetin's soldiers still run away?" Zhonyi asked curiously, with a hint of playful smile on his face.

  Brunhilda sensed the teasing in Joni's tone and slapped him on the head with a palm: "What are you thinking, little devil? Who told you that Odin's warriors can't retreat?"

  Ow... Jony covered his head and glared at Bruni with discontent.

  "Look, I'm not even heavy. What do you think a battlefield is? What is war? Child's play, where if you die, you can just come back for another round?" The old man seemed somewhat angry, "Odin's warriors, if facing an equal number of enemies and executing an attack order, running away would be a huge shame, and people would mock us wherever we go. But at that time, our team was on a mission to harass and scout the enemy from behind, originally a flexible and mobile command, encountering over 100 barbarian warriors' pursuit, coming back alive is an even greater honor! Of course, those few guys who stayed behind to cover for us and delay their advance were also great..."

  Bruni suddenly fell silent, as if lost in thought over his fallen comrades.

  "Sir, let's go in and talk." Johnny realized he had misspoken and whispered an apology.

  Bruni ignored Johnny and remained silent. After a while, he turned his head to look at Johnny who was somewhat at a loss: "Let's go inside and talk."

  "To be honest, I still don't know about your situation." After sitting down on the kang, the old man spoke up, "You go ahead and talk about your affairs first, it's always me talking alone."

  Has your conscience finally been discovered, old sir?

  "My name is Johnny Smith, originally the son of a blacksmith in Tabriz..." Johnny recounted his life story, leaving out more than half of it. He didn't think anyone needed to know about Xia Xiao San.

  Bruni was not only a good speaker, but also a good listener. When he heard that Joni's parents had passed away, he would comfort him with a few words of condolence; when he heard about the evil deeds of Count Rais, he would slam his fist on the low table and curse loudly, as if the wolf mercenaries and their master were right in front of him. And when he finished listening to Joni's inference that the whole thing was manipulated by the Solar God Church behind the scenes, the old man's anger suddenly burst out. He jumped down from the bed, extremely agitated.

  "Those scum of the Solar Church!" He waved his arms, his eyes reddening, "The Sun, damn the Sun! They talk about how bright they are, but in fact they're just a bunch of lunatics blinded by their own god's light! If you want to fight, then fight, what does it have to do with ordinary people? From south to north, they're all the same, not a single good thing among them!"

  Johnny was startled by the old man. He quickly got up and scolded a few words, then persuaded him for a while, and finally persuaded the old man to sit back in his seat. But Bruni's chest was still rising and falling violently. Johnny was wondering, suddenly remembered why Stefan left, and saw the old man's eyes with hidden tears, and suddenly understood.

  This village has been slaughtered once.

  It turns out that the Solarian Church in southern Valsana is somewhat unjustly maligned. Since the failure of the Southern Valsanan armed invasion, they have put away their tough stance from the time of Taninas. For such a stubborn church to be able to endure even being refused permission to proselytize is quite something.

  But who made them get into such a situation? Anyway, their reputation is already ruined, so it's no big deal.

  "I was still fighting on the Western Front at that time." Bruny recalled calmly, "At that time, we all thought it was just a war of conquest. Maybe the other side wanted to spread their faith, but after all, they were different from those barbarians in the North."

  For just one reason, humans can immediately return to being beasts.

  Due to the rapid advance of the cavalry and the declaration of war only about an hour earlier, Tanais directly broke into Ossetia at the beginning.

  At the beginning of the war, Tannenberg's army was only forcibly requisitioned for supplies, mobilized labor, and occasionally harassed localities, but in this era, this was already the best state that an occupying army could achieve.

  The Ossetians did not fear defeat, they knew how to respect their opponents. But these seemingly respectable opponents soon tore off the mask of hypocrisy. As they had done in Tannenberg, all pagans who refused to change their faith were crucified and carried by soldiers from one village to another, intimidating the stubborn villagers.

  They soon discovered that the obstinacy of the Ossetians far exceeded that of those small national tribes. This led to the event where the marquis attacked the village and directly slaughtered the villagers. They wanted to thoroughly destroy the Ossetians' will to resist.

  Audara's mother died in battle, as did Brunhilda's husband and children.

  "Bang!" As he spoke, the old man's emotions were stirred up again, and with a loud crash, he slammed his hand on the table.

  Having comforted Bruni's emotions, Joni glanced at that table: It really is sturdy...

  Solid?

  "Mr. Bruni." Johnny waited until the other's emotions had stabilized a bit, then carefully spoke up, "The other day I saw many wooden stakes in the backyard of the church, and when I chopped at them with a sword, it broke. Do you know what kind of wood that is?"

  "Is your sword broken?" Bruny's heart was at ease, and he put aside the exciting topic just now, "How did you chop it?"

  "Go all out with one slash..." Joanie got down from the kang, her two hands making a slashing motion.

  "Oh." Bruny pondered for a moment, "The sword from the south?"

  Why drag in the south every time? "Yes."

  "No wonder." The old man nodded, "That kind of wood is originally very sturdy, you see, this table of mine is made of it. Usually, they need to be wrapped in layers of cloth to be used as a wooden target for practicing slashing and chopping, otherwise, it's too damaging to the blade. You actually thought you could cut it off with one sword, and still use that shoddy thing from the south, haha, kid, you're too impulsive."

  "But how did Mr. Stefan manage to cut down two trees with one sword?" Johnny still didn't understand, and sat down to ask.

  Bruni smiled: "Can you compare with him? Not to mention that he is a strong man who can single-handedly kill the leader of a tribal alliance and more than 40 barbarian guards, just the weapon given by the church on his body, even cutting an iron rod can cut out a neat incision."

  So that's how it is, Jony thought, should have known earlier.

  "Since you have a grudge against the Sun God Church, I'll help you no matter what. I don't care how strong you become, but if you don't put in some effort, I'd feel guilty myself. Next time we fight those scum, I'll need your help to take down more of those bastards." Brunie put on his shoes, "Follow me, I'll teach you some basic training methods first. Your physical condition is really too poor."

  Jiang Yanni was overjoyed and got up from the bedside, following the old man outside.

  "Although your movements are all standard, and the coordination of each part of your body is also smooth, but basic training cannot be relaxed. You practice by yourself first, and in two days I will go to Olvisa Castle to find you two iron wrist guards." Bruny found a log, patted the thin layer of snow on it, sat down and said, "Now you practice by yourself, and I'll tell you some stories from the past..."

  Joni suddenly fell back to the mortal world. What's the point of teaching any secret skills now? But thinking about it, it does make sense - Lancelot's power is terrifyingly strong, and before finding another way to control it, I should just start practicing from scratch again!

  In the lumber warehouse, an old man and a young boy. The boy is swinging his sword, while the old man is muttering to himself. What a warm scene... at least for now.

  A few days later, the old man indeed brought a pair of iron arm guards for Jony. Perhaps considering that it was Jony's first time, the arm guard wasn't too heavy, but Jony felt that his arm movements were already quite inconvenient. Even his actions had slightly changed.

  "This thing can only be used by people like you who have a brain," Brunie said, "After wearing it, the action will definitely change. If those idiots who only know how to imitate actions, either they will always walk in this deformed way or they will never swing their giant sword normally again. Practicing is useless."

  Joni struggled to correct his posture under the action of centrifugal force, but it was not smooth.

  Bruni brought a wooden pillar wrapped in layers of linen at the top and erected it: "You just treat it as an enemy, start with a straight cut. I'll tell you, since that time I escaped from the land of barbarians..."

  Since this training started, Giorgio has asked Udinese to stop the weight-bearing running exercises. Seeing Giorgio's tired expression, Udinese did not object and only asked about the situation in Bruni, then said: "Let's suspend it for now. But there is something here that I want to give you."

  Udis walked out of the house and came back with a suit of armor in his hands: "This is the sacred temple's armor, but it's not usually worn during battles as it affects movement. It's only used for some ceremonial demonstrations of bravery. Now I'm lending it to you. Remember, from dawn till dusk, until you sleep or take a bath, don't take it off!"

  Joni nodded in agreement, taking the wooden board with both hands. His hands sank as he took it. He touched the surface of the board and found it to be quite thick, completely incomparable to the iron sheets from the armor shop in Taburi City. However, this weight... Joni's arms were already feeling sore.

  "I'll help you put it on." Udis lifted the half-body plate armor in Joni's hand with one hand, "From now on, you can run with a load at any time and anywhere without affecting your training."

  Joni felt a heavy burden on his shoulders. He turned back to ask Udis, who was tightening the screws on his armor: "Sir, can't I really not accept the treatment of divine magic? This practice will hurt me!"

  Udis hesitated for a moment, then let out a sigh: "Alright, I also hope you can grow up quickly. Lancelot's side needs someone to suppress her sharpness. And your training volume has indeed exceeded those children outside... and it's still under Lei's training... I'll help you recover from the physical injuries every night when you come back."

  This father is really... But having a daughter like Lancelot must be quite a headache?

  "Thank you, sir, I will work hard!" Johnny was very satisfied with this result. "What are we learning today?"

  ……

  Today, Jony's hard days have finally come to an end.

  However, another bitter day is about to begin.

  (Training time, training time, it's really going to start leveling up now~~~ - You guys know this is a metaphor, right?)

  (By the way: the shoulder armor is not directly attached, but fixed with screws on both front and back pieces hanging from the shoulders - if there's anything incorrect, please feel free to correct me!)

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