The Third Son of a Medieval Knight Family Chapter 1 - The Third Son of a Knight Family

Kim Chulsu died in an unexpected accident.

And he was reborn in another world.

He was reincarnated with the memories of his past life.

Kim Chulsu tried to live faithfully in his newly given life.

However, the world he was reborn into was one where common sense and thoughts from his previous life didn’t apply at all.

He instinctively realized that surviving in this world would not be easy.

****

The Kobarov family was a knightly house that ruled a small village in the harshest northern region.

The territory they governed was winter for most of the year, a place where cold and hunger were everyday companions.

The reason people could still survive in such a desolate neighborhood was entirely because the family’s territory straddled a midpoint for merchants.

Merchants from the principality brought food and iron from the east, and in return, the villagers provided them with quality fur and honey.

Because of this, the family’s soldiers were closer to hunters, and the serfs were rough from cultivating the barren land.

A place straddling civilization and barbarism.

The Kobarov family was a place where untamed wildness lived and breathed.

****

Kim Chulsu, or Viktor as he was called here, was born as the third son of the family.

Fifteen years had passed since Viktor was reincarnated into this world, but he was still struggling to live in it.

The gap between his previous life and this one was just that large.

The culture was backward, and the people were violent.

The weather was unbearably harsh, and food was always scarce.

Perhaps for these reasons, even though Viktor was a nobleman and the son of the ruling family of the village, he received little respect.

In this barbaric land, it was difficult to find modern customs of respect and consideration.

If there was a time when Viktor could feel even a trace of intellect in this land, it was only when he met the priest of the Orthodox Church who came to support the pioneer village.

When he followed the priest around to get even a slight whiff of civilization, the family members instead looked at Viktor with disapproval.

Viktor’s family was a traditional one that had not yet fully assimilated into the Orthodox faith.

As for whether he got along with his siblings, the answer was no.

All the brothers in the family were competitors.

Only one person could inherit the insignificant territory of the Kobarov family.

Moreover, Viktor’s mother passed away right after giving birth to him.

His half-brothers and sisters avoided him, and his father was indifferent.

Thus, in the neglect of his family members, Viktor eventually became accustomed to being alone.

****

‘Hmm…’

Viktor glared at the log in front of him.

As he swung his hand like lightning, the axe rushed forward, split the log, and embedded itself deeply into the chopping block beneath.

It was a formidable display of strength, but Viktor muttered as if dissatisfied.

“I still lack control over my strength…”

Thunk!

Though it seemed deeply embedded and difficult to pull out, Viktor easily retrieved the axe with one hand.

Though he had just reached adulthood, his strength was no less than that of the average warrior in the village.

No, to be honest, there were hardly any people in this village who could beat him in physical strength.

Being born with extraordinary power was part of the family lineage, but he possessed strength that exceeded the norm.

Viktor’s father and siblings were also quite strong, but from his perspective, they didn’t match the strength he possessed.

Of course, that didn’t mean this power gave him any authority in the family.

He was neglected in the family, after all.

No one invited Viktor to go hunting together, nor did they call for him when subduing nearby barbarians.

The family members just wanted Viktor to live quietly, breathing but not much else.

It wasn’t that they particularly hated Viktor, but they didn’t pretend to be friendly with him either.

The indifference of Lord Sergei Kobarov, the village lord and knight, was the cause.

The third son, excluded from the family succession, was nothing more than a burden in the impoverished village.

Viktor quietly threw the cut wood chunks near the woodpile and began to clean up the area.

‘This has been going on for three months now…’

In truth, Viktor had initially tried to befriend people.

After all, since he was born into this world, he wanted to try to get along with others somehow.

But such attempts were repeatedly frustrated.

The people of this world, by Viktor’s standards, didn’t seem… human.

When young Viktor had first attended a banquet with his relatives, he had seen it.

It was shocking to see people who were supposedly nobles tearing at meat with unwashed hands and eating greedily with alcohol smeared on their faces.

Of course, if it had been just that, he wouldn’t have been so disgusted.

As the banquet intensified, people tied up cows and pigs in the center.

Then they pulled out spears and blades and began cutting portions from the live animals.

The beasts screamed, and blood sprayed everywhere.

The sight of people, stained red in the flickering bonfire, laughing as they chewed on entrails was a kind of madness.

Later, Viktor came to understand that such banquets were a kind of festival unique to this region, but he could not bring himself to participate.

It was barbarism in its purest form.

The rough people of the north still possessed an untamed savagery.

And this wasn’t just true for the natives of the region, but also for the family members who had come from outside and been granted the village.

After all, his family too had its origins in northern people who had been civilized and knighted.

Even after the shocking and horrifying banquet, Viktor tried his best to understand and emulate the people of this world, but their way of speaking, customs of behavior, and way of thinking all didn’t match well with him.

Thus, from a certain point, Viktor gave up on mingling with the humans of this place.

Seeing him like this, people instead mocked Viktor for being too timid.

Having become a loner, Viktor began to focus on things he could do alone, and this firewood chopping that he had started recently was among the better hobbies.

First of all, not many people came to the shed where the firewood was gathered, and at most only servants passed through, so he didn’t have to worry about other people’s gazes.

Also, while chopping firewood, he could develop his ability to handle an axe and release his overflowing strength.

Viktor sat on the workbench for a moment to catch his breath.

In his opinion, one of the few things he liked about this world was the ridiculous strength he possessed.

He had power latent within him that was unimaginably stronger than anything in his previous life.

Even without special training, his ever-increasing physical strength was frightening even to himself.

Since his siblings also boasted considerable strength, Viktor thought he must have been born into a family of natural strongmen.

Honestly, it would have been better if he had been born into a merchant family rather than just a strong warrior family…

He was wiping his sweat and thinking these useless thoughts when it happened.

-Sir Viktor!!

“…?”

He heard someone calling for him from afar.

Looking up, he saw a servant running towards him from outside the shed, panting.

“Sir Viktor! So this is where you were!”

He was a servant Viktor was familiar with.

“Pim, what’s the matter?”

“Lord Kobarov has returned. He orders everyone to attend the banquet.”

“…I understand. Wait for me a moment.”

Viktor looked at his attire and sighed.

It was about time for Lord Kobarov to return from patrolling the surroundings, but it was earlier than expected.

He couldn’t go to the banquet dressed like this.

This place was dirty and messy, but strangely, the customs required of nobles were different.

Because of this, he often felt as if two disparate cultures were mixed together—from what he had heard, it was the influence of the south…

‘Perhaps I should just go down south?’

Viktor shook his head and left the shed.

Honestly, he couldn’t see a future here.

Rather than spending his life ostracized here, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to go south and find work?

Of course, he barely knew the geography of even the surrounding area.

He had never been outside, and in this era, most information was restricted.

What was around, where to go to find what—these things were assets never disclosed to the ignorant.

Most people were born, lived, and died in the place where they grew up.

Unfortunately, Viktor wasn’t much better off than commoners in this regard.

All he could do was listen to the words of hunters or merchants who visited the territory and roughly map out the area in his head.

When Viktor changed his clothes and headed to the banquet hall, it was already bustling.

Despite the considerable distance, he could clearly hear someone shouting.

-Come on, drink up, you fools! Hahaha!

It was the voice of his father, Lord Kobarov.

Perhaps he had caught a big fish while patrolling the area.

Viktor quickened his pace.

There was no benefit in getting on his bad side.

Though Lord Kobarov was a nobleman and a knight, he wasn’t exactly the type of person you’d find in tales of chivalry.

Rather, it was more like a rough, untamed warrior dressed well and pretending to be a knight.

He would speak of noble etiquette and customs with his mouth, but his actions were no different from the nearby barbarians.

Most likely, he had just returned from robbing some poor traveler, wandering barbarian, or peddler.

That was usually what “patrolling” meant in these parts.

****

As Viktor entered the banquet hall, several people began to turn in his direction.

The people of the Kobarov family were all large-boned, but Viktor stood out among them.

His height seemed a head taller than others, with a massive build.

Despite not eating more abundantly than others, he had grown formidably.

His deeply sunken eye sockets created dark shadows, and his tightly closed mouth and strong-looking jaw reminded one of a powerful warrior.

A brother who was drinking near Lord Kobarov wore an unpleasant expression.

The second son, Nikita, opened his mouth.

“That fellow seems to get bigger every time I see him.”

In response to his words, the eldest son, Igor, retorted.

“That’s because he’s just stuck in the village consuming food. But looking at him now, he sure is handsome.”

“Brother, what good is a fine appearance? That bastard seems to have the soul of a priest rather than a warrior inside him. A member of our family should be more manly.”

Nikita slammed his cup down hard and grumbled with dissatisfaction.

He didn’t much like his brother Viktor.

It was his always quiet and cold-seeming demeanor, and the way he acted as if his head was full of ink.

Despite this, he was secretively strong, so even the brothers couldn’t teach him what a warrior should be like.

In Nikita’s view, Viktor had either become like the men from the west or south because he followed the priest too much since childhood, or he was born half-witted.

If he had been born with a warrior’s spirit, he wouldn’t let that body of his rot away.

Of course, if Viktor had read Nikita’s inner thoughts, he would have found them absurd.

After being ostracized for so long, he couldn’t just barge in and say, “Let me join you, too.”

Nikita would probably have said that a real warrior and worthy family successor should overcome such obstacles and claim his rightful place, but from Viktor’s perspective, this was, frankly speaking, meaningless.

Anyway, there was no one who would recognize him for fighting for such a position.

No matter how hard he tried, it seemed unlikely that he would inherit the family territory, and it was obvious that he would only face more severe checks from his siblings.

As Viktor slowly approached, Lord Kobarov, who was drinking heavily at the head table, addressed him.

“Oh, Viktor. You’re a bit late. What were you doing to show up now?”

“My lord, I apologize. I was briefly in the shed, so it seems the servants couldn’t find me.”

As Viktor bowed respectfully, Lord Kobarov snorted.

“Enough, put it away. Coming from the shed, yet your behavior is like that of a scribe or a merchant.”

As he waved his hand, Viktor quickly bowed his head and went to sit with his siblings.

He could feel people covertly laughing at him, but Viktor didn’t particularly care.

He focused more on the food in front of him.

In this barren neighborhood, such banquets were incredibly rare and important occasions.

Delicacies that couldn’t be seen ordinarily were served in abundance.

Large pieces of meat seasoned with spices obtained from merchants were not something one could eat anytime.

Viktor smiled at the servant who filled his cup.

‘It’s quite lavish today. Did Lord Kobarov reap a greater harvest than expected?’

Instead of cheap beer, a honey wine, a specialty of the village, was poured appetizingly.

He began to devour the dishes in front of him.

He was now quite accustomed to eating without using his hands.

It looked voracious, but here, eating greedily was considered virtuous.

As Viktor gulped down the honey wine, his brother Igor, who had been watching him from the side, approached him.