The goose-yellow parchment scroll was already half-used, covered in densely packed, neat black letters.
Simon touched the scroll; it was soft and somewhat thin.
"Hmm…"
Suddenly, a muffled, stammering sound came from a corner of the bedroom.
Only then did Simon recall what his father had mentioned earlier.
Following the sound, he looked towards the dark corner.
A delicate, long-haired young girl was sitting with her knees hugged to her chest, huddled in the shadow of the wall.
Although somewhat blurry, Simon still remembered her identity.
"Is your name Cecilia?" Simon stood up and walked toward the little girl.
He also recalled her name.
"Yes, yes." The little girl cowered further into the corner, seemingly afraid.
Her eyes were somewhat swollen, indicating she had been crying for a long time.
There were also dried tear streaks on her face.
"Mr... Mr. Arthur, do you have any commands?" she asked in a low voice.
Simon glanced at her somewhat developed figure and shook his head slightly.
Although he had learned from memory that this world was similar to medieval Europe, where attitudes toward intimacy were quite casual and open, in reality, as an adult soul in his twenties, he couldn't bear to—nor did he have the inclination to—harm a little girl who looked to be only fifteen or sixteen.
He had many things to do now and no time to deal with such matters.
"Alright, I have no commands." Simon clapped his hands hard.
"Maggie! Maggie!"
The bedroom door creaked open, and a woman in a gray maid's uniform respectfully walked in.
"Do you have any commands?"
"Take this little girl out and settle her in a room. I haven't…" Simon paused, suddenly remembering his father's character.
If he simply sent the little girl away like this, it might be assumed that Cecilia had angered him, and the consequences… Furthermore, with Baron Caius's methods, Cecilia was likely sent by her family to take the blame.
If she were sent back untouched, a dead man would be inevitable; at best, the little girl would be sent to the guard squad to serve as…
Simon glanced at the little girl cowering in the corner, her face filled with terror and unease.
He simply changed his words: "I'm not in the mood today. Take her out and settle her. I'll deal with her in a few days."
The maid bowed respectfully and led the timid Cecilia out of the bedroom.
Only then did Simon truly and completely breathe a sigh of relief.
From Transmigration until now, he had always been in a state of bewilderment and helplessness.
Sitting at the desk, he picked up the white quill.
The pen body felt smooth, and the tip of the white feather had a slight reddish tint; he didn't know what kind of bird it came from.
Simon felt it was surprisingly heavy in his hand.
Under the candlelight, the white feather reflected a faint yellow glow, which was quite beautiful.
"I thought I was going to die, but I didn't expect to Transmigrate directly." Simon toyed with the quill in his hand, lost in thought.
From Arthur's memories, this world seemed to be purely an age of cold weapons.
Ranged weapons consisted only of bows and arrows and javelins; as for gunpowder, it was unheard of.
Therefore, in this era, individual martial prowess had a very strong influence.
Arthur's father, Baron Caius, was so arrogant, overbearing, and ruthless, yet he still thrived, largely because he himself possessed strong combat power.
Baron Caius had once participated in the Luton Kingdom's external Hyacinth War, a brutal and famous conflict that severely depleted the Luton Kingdom's vitality.
Warriors who survived that war were definitely not simple individuals.
Skilled combat techniques, strong physical fitness, and fluid, powerful broadsword swordsmanship.
These qualities enabled Baron Caius to achieve a record of killing fifteen heavily armored cavalrymen by himself.
Coupled with the terrifyingly renowned Knight Auden, the two together made even the Viscount Candon wary.
In the current Luton Kingdom, noble titles were not an indicator of strength; only power was!
The power of the army! The power of the strong!
That was the fundamental backing.
This was a purely brutal era.
Just like the entire Baron Caius's domain.
Even though Baron Caius was notoriously cruel and infamous, not many of his subjects moved away.
This was the fundamental reason.
Leaving the protection of the lord meant certain death at the hands of the numerous bandits, thieves, and exiles in the surrounding areas.
Currently, there was a severe drought, and some food-scarce bandits even directly cooked and ate human flesh.
In such an era, wanting to travel from one territory to another without the assurance of martial prowess required not only courage but also faced a nearly fifty percent mortality rate.
However, this was completely different in Baron Caius's domain.
The bandits around the territory had all been cleared out by Baron Caius leading his guards one by one.
Regarding the Baron's fierce reputation, not only the common people but even the bandits fled at the mere mention of his name.
Therefore, the Baron's domain, including the large area of Candon City, was considered a safe territory.
At least half of Candon City's current stability relied on Baron Caius's prestige.
This was also why Ward the butler was so impolite to the Viscount Candon.
Living under such a powerful lord, although occasionally fearful due to the lord's cruelty, was still better than constantly risking one's life.
After all, no matter how cruel the lord was, he only harmed a small number of people; with so many people in the entire territory, it wouldn't necessarily be one's turn.
Simon estimated this was the thought of many common people.
He picked up the parchment scroll on the table.
The letters on it were a script Simon had never seen before.
It looked a bit like English, and also seemed like a language from his previous world.
"In terms of the language of this world, if I hadn't undergone Fusion with Arthur's memories, it would have been truly difficult to relearn it." Although Simon spoke fluently with people, this was an instinctive imprint of the body.
The contents of the language memory area still remained.
When he instinctively wanted to express his meaning, he would directly call upon language symbols from his brain's memory to form combinations, which saved him from having to relearn spoken language.
"But this script looks very complete…" Simon frowned slightly as he looked at the parchment scroll in his hand.
The content was a copy of Family history notes he had transcribed when he returned earlier.
"If my old Chip were still here, it would be great; since the script is so complete, absorbing knowledge from books would also be very convenient."
Simon habitually rubbed his left temple.
This was the activation method for those implanted with biological auxiliary Chips on Earth in his previous life.
He just did it subconsciously out of habit.
"Beep!!"
Suddenly, a long beep sounded in his ears.
Simon was stunned; he had heard this sound countless times, so familiar that it couldn't be more familiar.
This was the sound of the biological auxiliary Chip being activated when he was on Earth.
"Biological Chip N18907 is at your service. Manufactured by a Technological Company in my previous world, supervised by the Artificial Intelligence Monitoring Department." A sweet Chinese female voice sounded in his mind.
Simon was not flustered; he knew this was an advertising sound that only appeared after the first activation, just like brand screens appearing when a TV turned on.
It didn't mean the Chip possessed intelligence.
As an auxiliary Chip that everyone in the 23rd century possessed, the biological Chip had only two functions: Analysis and Storage.
Analysis was just basic logical modeling analysis, performing comprehensive analysis using data from multiple disciplines such as mathematics and physics, with results automatically input into the storage area.
Because of fears that artificial intelligence might affect the human brain, the Chip was not intelligent and existed in a perfect symbiotic state with the human brain, or rather, was simply a part of the human brain.
As for Storage, it involved an independent biological memory module, separate from the brain, with a capacity far exceeding the human brain, capable of flawlessly remembering all visual and sensory information for over a thousand years.
The human brain, at most, could only remember for 150 years.
"Even the Chip came with me?" Simon couldn't believe it for a moment.
His breathing quickened, and he sat in the chair for a long time without making a sound.
He needed some time to digest the impact of this event.
"But it's possible. It's said that the new generation of Chips I used were directly engraved into the gene chain, and even if damaged, they would self-repair like a liver. Does this mean my genes might have also been brought over?" Simon speculated.
"Please name the Chip." The sweet voice sounded again in his brain.
"Zero." Simon unconsciously blurted out the previous name of his Chip.
"Name confirmed. The Zero Chip's automatic auxiliary initialization program will now self-destruct. We wish you a pleasant experience. For complaints or suggestions, please call 40355627. Thank you for your use." The female voice abruptly stopped.
Simon knew this was the Chip's last auxiliary voice.
From now on, it would be a completely genderless machine voice, directly extracting speech from his own language memory area.
Simon's heart swelled with emotion, and his breathing quickened.
He understood very clearly what it meant to possess a biological Chip in this cold weapon era.
The candle on the desk flickered with a faint yellow light, illuminating Simon's face and reflecting a thin layer of glow.
Immediately next to the desk was the window.
The wooden window was covered with a layer of white paper-like film, which constituted the so-called window of the earthen castle.
Simon stood up and pushed open the wooden window.
With a creak, the wooden window opened outwards.
A fresh night breeze blew in, carrying a faint scent of green grass.
Simon poked his head out the window; he wanted to calm down properly.
His bedroom was on the fourth floor of the earthen castle.
Looking out from the window, in the distance were vast expanses of dark forests, like shadows.
The wind rustled the leaves, creating a whooshing sound, and the calls of numerous unknown insects blended together.
In the night sky, two sickle moons hung silently, casting a thin layer of pale moonlight.
Between the forests, the only main road leading to the outside town, now faintly carried the dense sound of horse hooves.
Simon felt the cold wind, and his mind cleared slightly.
By the moonlight, he saw at the end of the road, deep in the forest, a team of black knights slowly approaching the earthen castle.
Several of these knights held torches in their hands.
Their horses occasionally snorted.
Looking from afar, the leading knight seemed to be saying something to a person slightly behind him, occasionally letting out light laughter.
By the light of the torches, Simon could barely make out the appearance of the leading knight.
His face was solemn, with a small black mustache under his chin, long flaxen (a mix of golden and brown) hair draped over his shoulders, a strong physique, and he wore silver-white full armor.
He looked savage yet carried a hint of nobility.
"It's Father, Baron Caius." Simon immediately recognized this person, having only seen him a short while ago.
Moreover, Arthur's memories also contained a deep impression of him.
The Baron's hands, holding the horse's reins, were both gloved in black leather.
The moment Simon looked over, he seemed to notice Simon's gaze, and his eyes turned to look this way.
Seeing Simon watching him from the window, he took off one glove and waved this way, a slight smile on his face.
The Baron nodded slightly at Simon, then gently shook the horse's reins, increasing his speed.