First, I was wearing a dark green tunic like a dress, made of relatively good fabric. The pants were made of well-ventilated fabric, so movement was easy, and the shoe design was very peculiar. I didn't understand why only the toe part was so long and pointy with no practicality. Was it a trendy design?
The hat and coat hanging on the wall had a distinctive stench. They smelled like ammonia or something equally foul. I didn't really want to wear them. This house had an L-shaped layout connecting a room, living room, and kitchen in sequence, and it was a two-story building: I lived on the first floor, and the landlord lived on the second floor.
Located in the northeast district of Breisburg, this was a residential area where the knight class lived. The knight class was classified as lower nobility in noble society. Nobles with titles (duke, marquis, count, viscount, baron) were upper nobility, and among these, upper nobles with territories were called princes and were essentially kings of their regions.
Creak.
When I opened the door and stepped out, I saw a medieval European housing complex. Before I could feel like I was on a European vacation, I immediately noticed a lump of filth in a corner of the street. That seemed to be the source of the foul smell. That... no matter how I looked at it, it looked like excrement. Was this the real world, unlike the game?
Come to think of it, I'd heard that in medieval times there were no proper toilets, so people did their business in chamber pots and then threw the contents into the streets. Just thinking about it made me want to go home. Could I go back if I died again? In this unsanitary place, could someone like me who loved cleanliness endure? What if I got sick?
Even without the Black Death, it was a terrifying sight that made me feel like I'd die from disease. So I could understand why the hat and coat were hanging next to the front door. They were protective gear to shield yourself from the filth raining down from above.
Unpleasant, but I had to wear them to go out.
The long, cloak-like coat that came down to below the knees was called a surcoat, one of the representative garments of the Middle Ages along with the tunic. It had a hood attached, so wearing it made you look like you were wrapped in a robe. Putting it on somehow made me feel secure.
"..."
Similar brick houses lined up in a row, the large castle walls surrounding them in the distance, people in various medieval-style clothes walking the streets. And mixed among the people were livestock, hunting dogs, and children running around vigorously. Definitely not a landscape I was familiar with.
In the game, citizen NPCs didn't wander around in such detail. So seeing this scene drove home that this was truly a living world. These people weren't programmed to move. They were organic and clearly had their own purposes.
Each person's life, each person's existence.
I confirmed it.
I noticed the winding alleys and vagrants sitting here and there, and there were more of them than I had expected. Among them, what appeared to be a Romani family had set up a small tent and was tending to a newborn baby inside. There were dirty puddles on the ground, and the smell was terrible.
"Sir, please spare just a coin for a poor beggar with an injured leg? If you wish to receive blessings, donate to me. The kindness you show will be repaid by God."
A vagrant with a bandage on his leg, leaning on a crutch, boldly asked me for alms. God would repay me if I donated? When I said I couldn't give alms because I had no money, the vagrant smiled at me and said that if I came to give alms next time, he'd bestow blessings upon me. I was dumbfounded and left the alley.
A vagrant boldly demanding alms.
I'd never seen that even in the game.
There were more people who appeared to be vagrants and Romani than I had expected.
Between the vagrants boldly begging and the filth raining from above, I couldn't help but be culture-shocked. How long would it take to adapt to this medieval environment? It was definitely not a place where a hygiene-conscious modern person could live comfortably. Fortunately, this was an era after the Black Death epidemic had passed.
The game setting was a blended era of the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Black Death had raged in the 14th century and had since subsided.
The world of Medieval Knight was fundamentally based on fictional history. While historically famous events and historical accuracy were incorporated, it would be wrong to treat it as actual history. The Duchy of Beren that I belonged to ruled the Swabia and Baden regions, but it was a duchy that didn't exist historically.
Setting aside the filthy ground and stench, I could definitely tell this was the most prosperous city of the Duchy of Beren. As befitting the duchy's largest city, it was teeming with people, serving as a center of culture and economy, and the market was full of merchants selling all kinds of goods.
After leaving the maze-like alleys where beggars and Romani coexisted, the Cross Boulevards of Breisburg that I'd seen in the game came into view. The cross boulevards, which branched into east, west, south, and north, also served as boundaries separating each area into four major districts. I lived in the northeast district.
Coming out onto Kisling Boulevard (east), I could see the procession of carriages and pedestrians heading toward the plaza.
Following this boulevard to the center, there was a huge plaza where all the boulevards converged. There stood the government complex where the four government offices (administrative, military, financial, judicial) were housed, along with the execution platform. Breisburg Cathedral, with its sky-piercing spire and massive Gothic architecture, stood imposingly nearby.
The pointed Gothic style was very impressive.
Beyond that, there were the duchy hospital and university, and a market displaying various goods. The grim execution platform also occupied its place in front of the government office, casting a desolate atmosphere over the area. People in various outfits symbolizing different classes could easily be spotted in the plaza. All these facilities were gathered there.
The duchy hospital and university were run by the Church, and the university in particular could be called a professional institution for training Catholic priests. Of course, besides theology, they taught law, medicine, mathematics, and more. When I played Medieval Knight, the duchy hospital and university were places I frequently visited, so I knew them well.
When people in monastic robes passed through the streets holding crosses, onlookers offered prayers and showed respect. Then a thought suddenly occurred to me: I was a non-religious person who didn't go to church.
I realized this was quite a dangerous situation.
They wouldn't burn me at the stake just for being non-religious, right? I should at least pretend to believe. It would be best not to cross paths with Church officials, but since the Church's influence permeated every aspect of life, I couldn't risk being burned alive, so it seemed wise to learn enough about the Church to get by.
Anyway, I'd received a repetitive quest back at the house, and looking at it, it seemed better to loop around this plaza rather than run on the boulevard full of people. So I did some simple stretching. But some young nuns nearby saw me and giggled.
Why were they laughing? Was my form that strange?
After warming up, I started by running slowly at first, because a 35-year-old office worker has terrible stamina. But far from getting tired, it actually felt too easy, as though I'd gone back to my youth when I was bursting with energy. When I started picking up speed, that's when I felt all my muscles come alive.
Running for 30 minutes. At first, I thought it was too difficult a quest. How could I run for 30 minutes when I had such terrible stamina that I couldn't even run for 3 minutes, let alone 30? But my body was fresh, healthy, and sturdy at 15 years old. So the more I ran, the more I felt energy surging through me.
It had been so long since I'd felt like this.
In middle school, I had boasted such impressive stamina that I could play basketball for 8 hours under the scorching sun with friends without getting tired. Even in the military, I was confident in my stamina, but once I turned 30, my physical abilities gradually declined, and I became a low-stamina wreck almost overnight. Even the flexibility I'd been proud of vanished.
So when I started running, I truly loved my current self—this body that didn't get tired even after running steadily without stopping for the first time in ages. If I'd run this much before, I would have already been gasping for breath and doubled over. My legs didn't hurt, either, and I had enough energy to keep going.
A 15-year-old body was this sturdy and recovered this quickly.
[Repetitive Quest: Training Complete]
[50 points, 50 copper coins awarded]
The 30-minute run ended quickly. A leather pouch appeared in the inner pocket of my surcoat. When I opened it, there were 50 copper coins inside. Was this how money came in? The copper coins were smaller than I'd thought. How big exactly? A bit bigger than a dime?
Running definitely cleared the clutter from my head. I received another running quest. I wanted to run more. I wanted to enjoy this fresh body a little longer. The prime I thought would never return after reaching my mid-30s had come back to me.