Time goes on and Eric's hand finally healed so much that he could not only return to his muscular training, but from time to time practice at the smithy. Master Gottfried reacted to the current situation with understanding and for three months the fee did not take. And why? After all, before the very injury, he received as many as ten denarii for a bag of streaks, which were made from waste. He's a cunning devil-he ate a good meal and did not seem to eat. But the baron was not offended at him, as he gave him feasible and timely help. But you do not think that he sour, although the wounded and knocked the guy out of the rut, but the mass of free time and our hero were completely incompatible. Therefore, in addition to useless wanderings and conversations, he closely dealt with hygiene issues in the dwelling that he was renting. Yes, and Morrigan, being not spoiled by the values of the modern world, to put it mildly, she was flustered. And this is very, very to put it mildly. About how the groin he could only guess. Alas, dear reader, even such seemingly completely simple task again rested on the development of industry and technology. Are you smiling and wondering at what kind of technology such a simple matter can be? But you yourself look - the 12th century, paper does not make a paper in Europe, imported from silk costs a lot of money, and you wipe the ass, what are you going to do? Yes, in the summer, yes in the forest you can solve this problem. And in a medieval city, where grass and trees are a rarity? It's not such a simple task. It helped in this delicate matter, strangely enough, the Arabs, from whom he ordered a damask. They used a not very traditional solution - a jug called apaftoy, with which they washed away after the act of defecation. Not very mobile, but quite tolerable. So there was a solution of problems, where own head, where advice, but always effectively. But there were not only technical difficulties. Morrigan turned out to be a very complex and completely non-technical task, in matters of hygiene introduction. She resisted to the last. He even had to snatch a saber when she, squeezed into a corner, tried to escape, and promise to cut it if she did not obey. At first she was horrified, and then fell to the floor and started to roar. But after he removed the saber, neatly hugged her and politely explained why all this is necessary, she forced herself to undress and climb into a large basin for it. Do you think this was an erotic scene? Yes, hell with two - it was a demonstration of a heavy and very fragrant work. As expected, the most terrible, in all respects, was the first wash. The poor woman was trembling like an aspen leaf, undressing herself in the room, alone with a man. Honestly, she very rarely undressed, even with the few ablutions she did, trying to stay in her underwear. But the guy had another problem - he hardly lost consciousness from the stunning aroma that came from her well, you understand. And when warm water got there, he, the poor girl, already had eyes tingled. In general, he washed it to creaky skin. And then, he forced me to lie down on the bed, and mercilessly amputated a massively grown store of stunning fragrances. In this case, he was helped in advance by a razor and a piece of soap. A poor woman has never even heard of such things in her life, and so, naturally, she thought that now there will be sex, but, alas, she did not guess. After such fragrances, Eric was not at all excited by the naked body of a very beautiful and harmoniously built woman. Impressions were too strong. When he had finished, he gave her fresh, clean clothes and took care of himself. Alas, she did not help him, because she turned red and turned away when she saw him naked. To her horror, this procedure took place every third day.

A steady result in personal hygiene was achieved only closer to winter, not without the resistance of the companion, who for a long time perceived all these washings as a form of harassment and was surprised that Eric did not go "to business. " But alas, she was wrong in her conclusions, since our hero was thinking solely about creating his own comfort zone and preventing infectious diseases. Plus, the consciousness of 30-year-old man helped not to fly off the coils at the sight of a beautiful, naked woman. So he held on, and she slowly began to perceive everything happening as normal and self-evident. Yes, and the attitude changed - she began to see in his companion is not an eccentric and anxious guy, but a fully mature man, and so her feelings toward him progressed from gratitude for saving lives, respect and respect. With food it was all much easier and without any misunderstandings. They cooked and ate at home, so food poisoning stopped torturing them.

Having completed the whole milestone in establishing his life in the new world, Eric moved on to a very important task - the search for tools, since the normal armor does not use those cliches that Gottfried uses. You will laugh, but he still used poor stone sledgehammers, as they could not do the normal ones from metal, and iron with iron forged will remind plastic clay forging plasticine. In short, having talked to one jeweler, the baron learned that the Solvati family in Venice holds a good jewelry store, where you can buy quite a decent jade, he got them as a payment for one transaction, but does not want to leave because it's rather expensive and precious . Immediately after realizing that he was benefiting twice from the deceased, he decided to write a letter to his family, where he described that their jewelry store had been recommended to him by Stefan and he wants to go there to order a number of forging tools from jade. In the same place he gave simple drawings with the sizes and the price that he would like to put for these products. With the price he acted slyly. Having learned from the aforementioned jeweler, the entire layout, he proposed a price that is a fifth of the cost of raw jade, but the volume of the order was very tempting. Having sent a letter to the Solvati family by courier, he had a week's talk with their commercial emissary, who brought the samples of the material with the aim of negotiating everything, signing a contract and getting a deposit. In the spring he already worked in the smithy with helmets only, he was interested in the technique of processing complex spatial details in the new conditions. By the summer, he began to obtain excellent set-up spatial structures, for example spangelhelms, which Gottfried very much praised, setting as an example Ulrich, still sitting on the broach wire and chain mail. In June came the jade tools, for which, in total, had to pay 7 marks of silver. A lot of money! Crazy money! But it was worth it, and Stefan's relatives threw him the price for the volume of the order. Now the business went much better and he began to get "pilots", one-piece from one piece of iron. In addition to direct forging, he began to experiment with thermal and chemical treatments. The fact is that the damask, which comes to him, is not very weakly susceptible to rust, but this must be fought.

So, in the worries and exercises passed the promised eight months with the hook, and in early June 1197, merchants already familiar to Eric arrived from Vienna with 30 kg of excellent bulat, which had to be exchanged for almost 3 kg of pure silver, that is 10 marks. The arrival of merchants in the most pleasant manner coincided with the departure of Ulrich to his homeland and Gottfried's important business trip to Venice, where he was to receive a very interesting order for a batch of equipment, after he was waiting for Rome and Naples, with the same questions. Far from it, of course, but the old customers were ordered in good lots and gave a solid deposit, so he was glad of such trips. As a result, on the blacksmith's farmstead for the next 2-3 months, in addition to the baron, there was only a smart but not very smart apprentice. Even the master's family, and she already lived in the countryside, with relatives, where she rested from the eternal noise of the smithy. Whatever you say, and almost the ideal combination of circumstances for the production of smart armor and the preservation of a maximum of secrecy around it. But it was just an illusion. Already on the third day of enthusiastic work in the smithy, events took place that postponed such a good cause for a couple of months. The fact is that through the city was a small military detachment of the domain of Philip II Augustus, who, using a favorable direction, carried out the protection of a group of Byzantine traders going to Vienna. Already in the city they had a conflict on the basis of payment, the Byzantines decided to halve the agreed amount, since the French were too much to apply to the wine that they were being brought for sale. Of course, the conflict broke out. Very quickly the guys switched to higher tones. It is not known who first snatched the weapon, but it so happened that a small slaughter occurred in the square near the St. Stephen's Cathedral. As you may have guessed - the French killed almost all the Byzantines, only the personal bodyguard of the commercial emissary could escape - Dregovich Ostrogneg. At this time, Eric just returned from a horse ride. The door to the house was open for ventilation. A wounded man jumped into it and collapsed on the threshold. Still that situation. The young baron immediately assessed the situation and decided to close the door, is not it enough. But, alas, the French saw where the pursued bodyguard had dived, and therefore they tried to break in once. The Baron did not like this arrogance at all. In his house, a wounded unarmed man was looking for shelter, and here some armed boars begin to break his door and water him with bad words. The door was still holding, so he quietly climbed to the second floor, loaded all three crossbows, peered out, evaluated the situation and set to bask in the sunshine of the three most frenzied knights. After that, loudly in Latin asked about burning need, disturbing the venerable gentlemen so much that they so unbecomingly disturb the master Baron. The conversation began. Eric immediately told the French - another blow on the door and he shoots again, the door is his, and he does not like their attitude to the property of a noble person. During the conversation a couple of times the French broke down, and so the discussion ended with five corpses in the Haubek. Our "Voroshilovsky shooter" very simply and clearly explained everything about customs, the right of asylum, noble honor, and indeed, he recalled the philanthropy and good-order rules. He mocked pretty gracefully, interwoven with religious motifs, familiar from the student days, with elements of black humor. Realizing that there is nothing to shine here, the gentlemen of the knights retired for a complaint to the Duke of Austria for the outrageous behavior of an eccentric teenager. Of course, they were able to take the lost fighters, only carefully folding their armor and weapons on the doorstep of the house - a fighting trophy, you can not argue. After watching how the French carried their dead companions, Eric went downstairs, took the hack inside, closed the door again and occupied himself with an unknown guest.