A loud whistle echoed through the area, followed by a dull sound that occurs when something crashes into a tree at high speed.
-Act, don't think.
On one pine tree in the forest near the village where Damian now lived, hung a target with a large red dot in its center. Below this target, on the same tree, was an arrow stuck in the tree.
"Pf, you most likely won't even be able to solve a simple quadratic equation, don't teach me."
Damian thought.
-I understand, Uncle Alric.
Damian said.
After the little child was accepted into the village, quite a lot of time passed, and now he was no longer a child but a young boy around 12 years old.
His appearance was significantly different from what he looked like before his... rebirth? Reincarnation? Transmigration?
It is not known at the moment what exactly he experienced, but we will call it rebirth for convenience.
So, he retained only some of his facial features before rebirth.
His night-black hair and blue-colored eyes, which looked like clear sky up close, remained in the same places.
His narrow, straight nose and wide eyes, over which were thin eyebrows, were completely new.
His ears have also changed a bit. They seem to have become sharper and less rounded.
What has undergone almost global changes was his figure.
If earlier he was terribly stooped, and the strength of his body was approximately at the level of a child in high school, now he looked like a normal, athletic boy.
It is important to understand that in the village where he now lived, there were no olympiads or other academic competitions, but there was a whole heap of physical work that he constantly did.
So, although Damian did not exercise, he was physically quite developed.
-Again.
Alrik's voice sounded. As you might have guessed, he was training a new generation of archers for this village right now.
Damian was only recently allowed to practice with a bow because he was finally 12 years old. It would be a very big exaggeration to say that he was burning with a desire to learn the art of archery, but he also did not want to refuse directly.
"Think, given the force of gravity, air resistance, and the mass of the arrow, you just need to calculate the trajectory and adjust it to the force of the wind…"
However, such a seemingly primitive thing as archery turned out to be not so primitive after all but rather complex.
Damian could not understand how he could take into account all the factors in order to finally learn how to shoot accurately.
Alrik's words about what he should just do and not think did not inspire him much, so he decided to go his own way.
After a grueling calculation that took only a couple of seconds in his head, he pulled the arrow back on the bowstring and prepared to shoot.
"Well, I guess I took everything into account. Now it should definitely hit the target"
The boy relaxed his fingers. The tension that stretched the bowstring finally disappeared, and it quickly, like a thunderclap, contracted and sent the arrow flying at breakneck speed.
The whistle of the wind, which had already become something ordinary, was again heard from an arrow rapidly flying towards its target, peacefully located on a tree trunk.
Damian's whole gut froze in anticipation.
This feeling was similar to when he was waiting for the results of the Olympiads in his childhood.
You decided everything, calculated everything, and double-checked everything. You are confident in yourself, in your knowledge, in your answers.
But a second before the result, all this ceases to matter. There remains only you and the result that is about to reveal itself.
Excitement, fear, and anticipation, no matter how well prepared you are, no matter how confident you are.
In the end, this moment decides everything.
This moment makes you a winner or a loser.
This moment dictates your fate.
For Damian, time slowed down, blood boiled, eyes narrowed, and only an arrow and a target remained in the world.
Miss.
"Tsk….."
The arrow did not hit the target but struck slightly above it.
Resentment, anger at himself, fear.
Failures awakened in Damian a frightened child who, cowering under the blows of his father, muttered apologies and promises to improve.
Disgusting.
Quickly, already instinctively, suppressing this feeling in himself, he prepared to shoot again, restarting the process of calculations in his head. But his thoughts were interrupted by a woman's voice.
-Damian, Alric, the food is ready!
Astrid stood calmly not far from them.
Alrick, in his usual manner, without uttering a word, quickly walked towards Vivienne's house, where the whole village was going to eat.
-Coming!
The young archer went up to the tree, removed all the arrows from it, carefully folding them into a quilt, and went in the same direction.
Inside Vivienne's house, also known as the dining room, was divided into two parts, one part - the same room with a table where Damian's fate was decided many years ago, and Vivien's private room, from where the child watched the trial of his fate.
The private room also contained a variety of kitchen utensils and cooking equipment. Although it must be said, in the large room with a table, there was also a part of the kitchen, neither the house nor its hostess was particularly organized.
Ruben, Gerard, and Wilfred were already sitting in the dining room, and Vivien finished cooking in the kitchen. Soon everyone else came inside.
After a couple of minutes, the table was already completely set, and there was a lot of food on it. Most of the delicacies consisted of various kinds of agricultural crops, which the residents worked together to grow nearby.
The lands are harsh, so there was not much harvest, but more or less enough for 7 people.
Alrick also helped with the food, sometimes going out hunting and bringing the prey home. Gerard, that muscular man, cuts up meat, after which Vivien turns it into something edible and often even tasty.
While everyone was actively eating food, Astrid talked with Wilfred
-Will you be able to finish the nails? What about horseshoes?
-Of course, I can. I can even make some more arrowheads from the remnants of metal!
Wilfred answered in his traditional grumpy-proud tone.
- Okay, Ruben, do you have any problems?
-I'm doing well too, I won't be able to make more furniture than I planned, but I'll fulfill the norm.
-Nice to hear.
The traditional conversation between Astrid, Wilfred, and Ruben has just occurred.
Two men, due to the lack of daily duties, were engaged in producing "export goods", as Damian called them.
Wilfred made various blacksmith items such as nails, horseshoes, tools, etc. as needed. In turn, Ruben was engaged in the furniture and various household goods.
Astrid then sold all this to imperial merchants who sometimes passed by this village, so the locals had at least some money and, accordingly, the opportunity to buy at least some goods.
Thus, everyone in the village fulfilled its role, and it somehow could exist.