Li Jia thought that the masked female knight, Sir Arias, was a good person. Arias was her last name, and it was said that she was a relative of the earl. Li Jia had been wondering whether her appearance was a friendly gesture from the earl.
If a person is willing to fight with your organization, it at least means that she shares some interests with you. If a person cares about your personal safety and hopes that you can become more capable, then no matter what attitude she uses, it at least means that she is still good to you.
This was the third time the female knight had asked him recently, "You weak fellow, don't you really want to learn some life-saving moves?"
The first two times, Li Jia just smiled and said that he had no foundation and might not be able to learn in a short time. However, the female knight said that expecting the enemy to show leniency was as ridiculous as a duck crossing a river and praying not to drown. Even if a warrior fell, he would still be respected by the other side. Even if a noble was captured, his life would be kept in exchange for a ransom. In the eyes of the enemy, civilians were no different from dry grass on the mud.
Somehow, Li Jia seemed to see disappointment in her eyes behind the mask. Many words that she wanted to say in defense were stuck in her throat.
Li Jia went back and thought for a long time, asking himself why he gave such an answer. On the one hand, he felt that it was useless to cram for the exam, and it was better to rely on a pistol than to practice martial arts. On the other hand, it was his inner cowardice that was at work. I have always been this kind of person. If it were Xiao Chen, he would never miss any opportunity to strengthen himself, he thought to himself.
Li Jia came back to her senses and saw the knight sighing, "Even if you don't want to be a hero, don't you have someone to protect? Your parents, your sisters, or someone else?"
"I don't have any relatives." Li Jia said this calmly. After a long time, when the female knight shook her head and prepared to leave, he said again: "However, there is indeed someone I want to protect. But where is she?"
The female knight said solemnly, "We are talking about whether you are prepared. We have an old saying that if you don't want to capsize in the sea of fate, you must build a good boat in advance."
"You... are right, Sir Arias. Please guide me." Li Jia finally made a decision.
Li Jia stood facing the female knight, struggling to follow her in doing strange body movements, which required great toughness and strength. This was really a torture for him who was not good at sports.
Li Jia felt like a dancing puppet.
"You... should give up the idea of becoming a warrior." After a dozen moves, the female knight stopped and said depressedly.
"I... don't have the qualifications?" Li Jia asked anxiously.
"The stones on the roadside are more talented than you! Your ligaments are harder than my sword, and your muscles are softer than my clothes. You... just learn a few blocking moves." The female knight said irritably, "I don't know how you have lived for the past twenty years. This body is like a shabby house that has been abandoned for decades!"
"I've already said that I'm a non-combatant." Li Jia felt relieved for some reason. He suddenly felt that the angry female knight seemed easier to approach. They no longer had the same distance as before.
"Since you can neither improve your martial arts nor have any talent for magic, can you only be an ordinary person?" The female knight became angry and kicked the wooden stake she was training on. The wooden stake, as thick as a bowl, broke with a snap.
"Although there's nothing wrong with being an ordinary person. But why do you say that I don't have a talent for magic?"
"If you have a talent for magic, why would you be a steward in a magician's castle? Haven't they measured your talent for magic?" the female knight asked.
Determine talent? Li Jia shook his head. Xiao Chen didn't even understand how he learned magic.
"Really?"
"Close your eyes and feel what's on my fingertips." There seemed to be nothing on the female knight's fingertips, but if you got close, you could hear a very slight whistling sound.
“Don’t think about it, don’t worry about it, feel it with your senses beyond your will.”
Li Jia closed his eyes, there was nothing.
However, under the guidance of Sir Arias, he slowly calmed down, and gradually, he felt a restless energy hovering not far ahead.
"This..." Li Jia said hesitantly, "Like a whirlwind?"
"Okay." The female knight's eyes showed a hint of joy, "Let your thoughts get close to it, and then try to influence it."
Li Jia felt that his thoughts were like a staggering baby, slowly approaching the wind. Its clumsy hands touched the wind, just like accidentally puncturing a balloon, and the wind quickly scattered and disappeared without a trace.
"What's going on? I seem to have destroyed that wind?" Li Jia asked, opening his eyes.
“Ah… you are very talented.” The female knight turned from surprise to excitement. “I thought you could only slightly change its shape, but you actually crushed it with your mental power. This is a sign of concentration! Few people can do this in the test! This shows that your mental talent is very strong, at least much stronger than mine. Your magician lord is really blind! Letting you be the manager is definitely paving the way with gems! Although I am just a magic knight, I definitely have some knowledge!”
“I’ve never been one to attract attention.”
"It's their loss that they don't recognize your treasure. I know a magician in the royal capital and I can introduce you to a teacher. They will definitely scramble to have an apprentice like you. Your achievements will not be worse than anyone else's." The female knight paced back and forth with a smile in her voice.
Li Jia had never seen her like this before. She was no longer as calm as usual. But when he looked at her, a surge of warmth surged in his heart. Was it the power of magic? He scratched his head and laughed.
———————————
Ji Yijun sat on the roof of a three-story building, leaning on a rifle in one hand and holding a telescope in the other, looking ahead. In the past few days, his squad has been responsible for observing the enemy situation in this direction.
Garcia ran up from the stairs and handed him three steamed buns and a water bottle. Seeing him staring at the steamed buns and drooling, Ji Yijun took out a steamed bun from his bag and threw it to him, saying, "Eat it."
Garcia took the bun and took a bite without even saying thank you. In the blink of an eye, the bun was stuffed into his mouth and he mumbled, "It's delicious."
Ji Yijun didn't care. He knew that although the school accepted these refugees and recruited some young and strong people to join the guard as soldiers, the treatment was still quite different from that of modern people. For example, Ji Yijun could use the meal ticket that only time travelers have to get luxury goods such as steamed buns. But Garcia only had coarse grain steamed buns rationed by the army to eat.
So a bun and a piece of meat bone still have great appeal to them.
"Where are Enrique and the others?" Ji Yijun asked while chewing on a steamed bun. The bun tasted terrible, probably because there was no alkaline noodles in it. It was hard and dry. However, after eating it for so many days, he gradually got used to it.
"Um... the deputy monitor is leading us, uh... practicing crossbows." Garcia answered while wolfing down his food. Before he finished speaking, he swallowed the last bite of the bun and revealed a satisfied smile.
"He takes himself very seriously." Huang Zheng is a good person in every way, except that he is too serious. He has been talking to Ji Yijun a lot these days, which annoys him a lot.
"What's the point of practicing the broken crossbow? It's still a question whether you can kill someone at 50 steps."
"The material of that crossbow is not good. The steel is not good, and the string is not good." Garcia said sternly.
"Hey, you know a lot. Old Huang, if he were less talkative, he would be quite talented. When the second shift comes to take over, we will go to the shooting range with him."
The shooting range is not far from the building. It was originally the school's basketball court. Now a batch of crossbows produced by the school have been distributed to the guard team. Perhaps they think that crossbows are safer than spears. In recent days, many people have been working hard to practice their accuracy in the shooting range.
When Ji Yijun brought Garcia to the shooting range, he found that the group of people in his class and several people from the second row of the first squad were arguing loudly. Ji Yijun saw that the person leading the fight was the squad leader of the first squad, Sun Chengjie, and without saying a word, he started to hit the hand that was pointing at Huang Zheng's chest, and shouted: "You dead monkey, you are picking on my people again, are you looking for a fight?"
Sun Chengjie was tall and thin, with a hunched back, and indeed he looked like a monkey. Seeing Ji Yijun coming aggressively, he said unwillingly, "Get lost. We agreed on a bet, and my people have already won the pack of cigarettes. It's obviously your people who want to renege on their debt!"
"You are the one who is cheating!" A soldier under Ji Yijun said angrily, "We are competing against each other in crossbows, so we should use the same crossbow. Your Brass used his own hunting crossbow, and you relied on recruiting a local hunter to set a trap to trick us."
"Yes, an unfair match doesn't count."
"That's weird. A hunting crossbow isn't a crossbow? You don't use a good crossbow, but a broken one. Do you think I'm stupid? If you want to blame someone, you can only blame the school's crossbows for being too bad. They're not even as good as homemade ones."
Ji Yijun now understood what was going on. The crossbows in the school were indeed lousy. There was no fiberglass, no suitable wood or animal material. The arms of the first wave of crossbows in the school were made of steel sheets, which were not only heavy but also had poor elasticity. But, so what? He said arrogantly, "My people say you are unfair, and that's it. The bet is void. The cigarettes are here. If you have the guts, come and get them yourself."
He snatched the pack of Peony cigarettes from Huang Zheng's hand, threw it to Enrique, and then said, "He is the opponent, if you are brave enough, go and grab it!"
Everyone present knew that Enrique was a freak with great strength. No one could rival him except Ji Yijun. Sun Chengjie said angrily, "Ji Yijun, you only know how to bully others at home. Do you have the ability to fight against the bandits?"
Ji Yijun sneered, "I've been bored these past two days, wondering why the bandits are hanging around outside. I'm going to go out and catch some of them and ask them about it. Do you dare to follow me?"
"You... you are crazy. Don't do anything reckless." Sun Chengjie suddenly softened and looked at Ji Yijun in great surprise.
Ji Yijun ignored him and waved to his subordinates, "Let's go. Let's not argue with cowards. Let's go back and discuss how to get out of the city and arrest people."
“You, don’t be ridiculous! Do you want to disobey Captain Wang’s order? Hey!… You lunatic!… Hey!”
As they were walking back to the base, Huang Zheng said seriously, "Squad leader, you just joked a little too much. The battle could break out at any time, and everyone is very anxious. Don't scare them."
"They are trying to bully you."
Huang Zheng smiled with a fake smile: "They can't bully me, there's no need for you to make such a joke."
Ji Yijun laughed and said, "Who said it was a joke? Even if this hadn't happened today, I would have gone out to investigate. Let me be frank with you. If you don't agree, I will knock you out and tie you up!"