Chapter 37: Giving Out Bows as Presents
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
“Are you heading towards Bennett’s castle now? I really don’t suggest going because It’s extremely dangerous out there right now.”
The Knight of Marshall was hesitant to let Abel venture off during the current situation since he would be vulnerable to the attacking orcs outside. Even if Abel had brought a few guards with him, it still probably wasn’t going to end well if they were forced into a fight. The orcs that had appeared were all above level 6. The guards were no match against these orcs, and if they were to fight, they probably couldn’t even fend off a single orc.
“Uncle Marshall, I have to get to the Bennett Castle. You saw the power of my bow. I need to deliver the newly forged bows to the Bennett Castle. Otherwise, my family wouldn’t stand a chance against those orcs,” Abel explained, trying to persuade Knight of Marshall to let him venture off to the Bennett Castle.
“Why are you willing to risk your life to give them the bow, when they didn’t even ask for it? You know, I had to ask you before you would even give it to me…” the Knight of Marshall said with a hint of bitterness and jealousy on his face.
After hearing what the Knight Marshall said, Abel immediately spoke in an extremely serious manner, “Well, this attack made me doubt the safety of the Bennett Castle. Just look at the power of these orcs… I must go and deliver the bow to them before it’s too late!”
“Alright, if you insist to head towards the Bennett Castle. I’ll go with you.”
The Knight of Marshall felt that he had no choice. He grudgingly decided that he would head out to the Bennett Castle with Abel. For him, however, he was more concerned about Abel’s safety than the safety of the castle. Since the castle had already killed off at least half of the attacking orcs, he was certain that the orcs wouldn’t dare to come back and attack the castle unless if they wanted to commit suicide.
“Uncle Marshall! Are you sure you can come with me?”
Abel knew that it would’ve been extremely difficult for his uncle to leave the castle with the current situation. Even though Bennett’s Castle wasn’t too far away from them. If the Knight of Marshall was found wandering out with Abel, he would’ve lost all his estate because he went AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave). Besides that matter, the castle also needed the leadership and commands from Knight of Marshall to effectively defend against any attacking orcs.
“Don’t worry about it, Abel. It’s fine. I will go to Bennett’s Castle with you. Just let me change into some different clothes so that people can’t recognize me that easily. If we take the horses and ride as fast as we can, we should be able to return within half a day.”
The Knight of Marshall knew exactly what Abel was worried about, but to him, if he had lost his estate to someone else, he could always get it back in the future. If he lost Abel, however, he would’ve never been able to get someone’s life back. The Knight of Marshall knew that, as long as he stayed with Abel and educate him well, their potential together would be limitless. They might even gain a bigger territory and a higher title than what they have now.
It was already afternoon by the time they finished arguing. Shortly after, Abel equipped a leather armor suit and got onto a warhorse. For Knight Marshall, he wrapped his silky gold hair and swapped his eye-catching helmet into a less flashy one. Moreover, he also wore a hat that was capable of covering his face and took an ordinary warhorse so that no one would’ve noticed him during their trip to the Bennett Castle.
Before the two began their journey, both warhorses were fed with oats, which helped maintain them within their peak performance as well as maximize their powers. Without notifying anyone, Abel and Knight Marshall quietly sneaked out of the castle, when everyone inside the castle was celebrating in their successful attempt in defending against the Orcs.
Without taking any detours, the two horses galloped towards Bennett castle in a straight line. By this time, there were no visible signs of life anywhere in the Lord’s land between the Bennett castle and Harry’s castle. This was because, during a battle, all civilians that were resided in these lands would’ve evacuated and gathered inside the castle for safety measures. This would’ve explained why Abel and Knight Marshall had not stumbled across anyone during their trip to the Bennett Castle.
After two hours of traveling, Bennett’s castle was finally visible within their eyesight. Abel could not help but feel a sense of relieve as he took in a deep breath. In the distance, Bennett’s castle stood firmly and quietly in the setting sun. The castle’s entrance was shut tightly, and the guards of the castle were vaguely visible on the outskirt of the castle walls. Everything looked to be perfectly fine, and the Bennett Castle seemed to be unharmed. It didn’t seem to be attacked by Orcs.
As Abel and Marshall approached closer and closer towards the castle, their arrival caused the emergency bell of the castle to ring rapidly. As they got closer to the entrance of the castle, they were met immediately with soldiers equipped with bows aiming down at them from the castle walls…
“It’s me, Abel. Open the door.” Abel shouted.
“Holster your weapon guards, it’s Master Abel!” Someone yelled loudly.
“Open the door.” Suddenly, there were deep voices of Knight of Bennett coming from somewhere. Shortly after, the door of the Bennett Castle was slowly opened.
When Abel and the Knight of Marshall entered the castle, the door was quickly closed for security to prevent any potential of attacks.
“Abel, how dare you come to the castle during these dangerous times?” the Knight of Bennett said reproachfully towards Abel in a rather serious tone.
“Father, I need to talk to you privately. Can we find a quiet place to talk? It’s an urgent matter.” Abel said quietly, as he glanced over towards the Knight of Marshall, who took cover closely with Abel as he tried to prevent anyone from spotting him.
For Abel to travel across to the Bennett castle during these dangerous times, the Knight of Bennett certainly knew that there must’ve been something important. Else, Abel wouldn’t have taken such a big risk to get here.
The Knight of Bennett pitched a suspicious look at the mysterious knight (Knight Marshall) that was next to Abel. But without hesitation, he led the Abel and the mysterious knight into the guest room. He then told the guards to not disturb them as he closed the door once Abel and Marshall went inside.
“Father, this is…” Abel was about to reveal the identity of the mysterious knight.
The Knight of Bennett recognized the Knight of Marshall at first glance. He then immediately spoke up and said, “Marshall, have you gone out of your mind? You’re leaving your territory during these dangerous times? You better have a valid reason for coming along with Abel…”
“Hey! Do you think I want to come here? Your silly boy said he had to come here, I couldn’t just let him come here by himself. I had to follow him. Otherwise, he would’ve for sure ended up dead.”
Knight Marshall took off his hat, wobbled off his suppressed golden hair that was wrapped throughout the entire trip as he replied back to the Knight of Bennett in a rather angry attitude.
“God damn it, Marshall, you always cried when things went wrong.” The Knight of Bennett helplessly shook his head while looking at Marshall. He then turned around and asked Abel, “What’s the matter? Why do you have to act so mysteriously all the time…? Did you think about the consequences if Marshall was caught leaving his territory…? If he was caught, it would’ve been extremely inconvenient and troublesome for all parties involved.”
“Father, I knew the consequences, but I’ve come all the way here from Harry’s Castle was to give you this.” Abel took out a composite bow and passed it over to his father.
Knight Bennett took the composite bow with his hands and started to fiddle with the bow. Promptly after, he asked Abel with a surprised tone; “You came all the way here just to give me this?”
“What do you mean “this” Bennett? This is the “Harry’s bow”, a name that I’ve made for this special bow.” Knight Marshall said with a sense of dissatisfaction since he was very upset with Bennett’s attitude and his lack of appreciation for the special bow.
Abel could not help but remain silent and covered his head. He knew that Marshall declared the name of the bow without consulting or even bothering to tell him. What’s worse was that he even took his own name to classify the bow… Even though Abel had the same surname as the Knight of Marshall, he was certain that his uncle’s intention of naming the bow “Harry’s bow” was because he wanted it after his own name.
“Bennett, it’s not just an ordinary bow like you think it is. Here, try shooting an arrow and see for yourself.” The Knight of Marshall then enthusiastically took out an arrow and handed it to the Knight of Bennett. As he enthusiastically instructed Knight Bennett on how to aim and how to operate the spreader; “Okay Bennett, let’s shoot at the wall over there” As Knight Marshall pointed towards the wall.
The guest room was massive, it was nearly a 40 square meter room. The wall that Marshall told Bennett to shoot towards was more than 20 meters in distance, and without saying anything, Bennett released his hand and the arrow immediately disappeared on the bow. Within a split second, there was a harsh shrill sound and when they looked towards at the wall, the arrow had already pierced through the wall that was made from boulders.
Knight Bennett looked at the arrows on the wall, shocked and astonished of the power of the bow. He couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. He quickly walked over to the wall and knocked the wall a few times with his bare hands, confirming the bow’s legitimacy. He was stunned so that he didn’t even realize that the wall that he had just broken was his own guest room.
He then pulled out the arrow from the wall using a substantial amount of force. As he glanced at the wall, the arrow had made a hole that was 2 points/meters deep… When he looked over to the arrow, the arrowhead’s shape had already deformed due to the incredible strength of the impact when the arrow strikes through the wall.
“This b..b..bow.? Knight Bennett looked at Abel as he said in complete astonishment and curiosity in how his son has acquired such a powerful weapon.
As Abel was about to speak, the Knight of Marshall interrupted the conversation between the two and said, “Abel became a master blacksmith recently, did you know that?” Then he was silent…
When Knight of Bennett heard that his son had become a master blacksmith, he regretted giving Abel to Marshall as an adopted son. When Marshall repeated once again that his adopted son had become a master blacksmith, the facial expression on Bennett’s face immediately filled with sorrow.
Marshall was not able to understand Bennett’s expression, so he continued speaking; “Abel designed Harry’s Bow for me so that I could withstand the Orcs. Just today, I used the Harry Bow to swiftly take down 12 orcs. All of them were level 6 and above too!”
Knight Bennett felt a sense of uncontrollable shock and amazement as he gazed at Harry’s Bow that was on his hand. He now began to understand the reason why Abel had taken such a big risk to bring Harry’s bow all the way from Harry’s Castle. In terms of what Marshall had said to him, knowing him for so long already, if half the things that he said were true, it was already good enough…
However, what his old friend Marshall had done for Abel was beyond anyone’s capability. Marshall risked his territory just for the sake of Abel’s safety. Bennett knew that it would’ve extremely difficult for him to make such a decision and to risk it all.
The Knight of Bennett drew the bow once again. This time, he had discovered the advantages of the bow. The bow was hard to pull, but it was easy to aim at, and also it had a terrifying amount of power and destruction.
Knight Marshall then looked directly at Bennett with a sense of mockery, and said with a smile; “I forgot to tell you smarty pants, Harry’s bow cannot be used without any ammunition.”
By the time that the Knight of Bennett had restored his bow, using a large amount of his combat qi, Knight Marshall was already laughing so hard, as if he had already forgotten that he had also made the same mistake before.
Abel and the knight Marshall did not stay long in Bennett’s castle, and after instructing Knight Bennett on how to operate Harry’s bow. The two quickly set off to go back to Harry’s Castle before anyone realized that they were missing.
When they departed Bennett’s Castle, it was already dark. However, the two individuals were so familiar with the road, especially with Marshall who had journeyed on this route countless times. Alongside with guidance of the moonlight in the night sky, the warhorses were also quite fast as they traveled back to their castle.