Episode 160: It’s Better to Strike First, Right? (2)
“Look at this? Anyway, people these days have no trust, no trust at all.”
Ghislaine clicked his tongue at the lukewarm reactions around him and continued speaking.
“I have never lost a single time in the wars I commanded.”
That was quite an arrogant statement. Not even the greatest generals would dare to say such a thing.
But Ghislaine felt no shame whatsoever. After receiving the title of King of Mercenaries, he had truly never lost a war.
He had lost his life in the last war, but that didn’t count since he had gone back to the past.
Belinda covered her mouth with her hand and giggled at Ghislaine’s confident words.
“Oh my, our Young Master is so cute. After just one battle… Well, he did win, so it’s not really a lie.”
The others thought similarly. He had a record of 1 win and 0 losses, so it wasn’t a total fabrication.
It was cringeworthy, but Ghislaine’s official war win rate was 100%.
Realizing what others were thinking, Ghislaine smacked his lips.
“Oh, this is true. I really am undefeated, but they don’t believe me.”
Claude looked at Ghislaine with a faintly sad expression and said,
“I’ve heard the Lord can fight a bit, but you’re not intending to charge in alone, are you? Even if we pick all the combat-capable immigrants, there won’t be more than a thousand.”
Sure, thousands had come in, but excluding the elderly and children, the number of people who could actually fight was quite limited.
The thousand Claude mentioned was just an estimated maximum.
“Even if we make them all soldiers, they would be a bunch of untrained rabble. How can we wage war with such troops?”
“Certainly, no matter how strong I am, it would be a bit tough with such forces. It’s not like I can’t win… but there’s no need to take unnecessary losses.”
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying. So let’s postpone the war until the next opportunity…”
“Not at all! I’ll find the lacking troops myself. And right now, we can strengthen our existing forces to be as strong as thousands, right?”
Claude’s heart sank at such nonsense. If that was possible, then why were other lords so desperate to increase their forces?
Especially in a situation where time was of the essence, no matter how hard they trained, there were limits to how strong they could become.
Just as he was about to retort, Ghislaine’s lethargic voice resonated first.
“I will establish the Penris Knights.”
The assembled retainers blinked, doubting they had heard correctly.
Creating a knight order without a single knight? That was the most innovative nonsense they had heard.
What is a knight?
A type of combat weapon that could change the tide of war.
The number of knights present in each camp and their level often determined the outcome of battles.
To be called a knight order, there needed to be at least dozens gathered together.
Therefore, a “knight order” became a means to showcase the territory’s strength and a symbol of military power.
It had become a means of showcasing the power of the territory as well as a symbol of might.
However, when Ghislaine suddenly mentioned forming a knight order while preparing for war, everyone was left dumbfounded.
“Do they think just because you gather a bunch of random people and give it a name, it becomes a knight order?”
“At the very least, to be recognized as a knight, you must know how to handle mana. How many people in our territory can even do that? The lord surely knows this!”
Knight orders usually operate in great territories under the count rank, and most territories don’t have one at all. Typically, just a few knights serve the lord. It’s even more so in a barony.
Knights are high-tier forces, and just having money doesn’t make it easy to obtain them, not to mention the cost to maintain such forces is no joke.
Naturally, there wasn’t a single person in Penris who had formally been knighted.
Claude couldn’t hide his incredulity and said, “How can you create a knight order if there aren’t any knights?”
“So we’ll just have to create them from now on. We’ll make all the mercenaries and our new recruits knights. Of course, we’ll need to contract the mercenaries who want to join and knight them too.”
“You mean… make knights?”
“Yeah, two months will be enough.”
“They’re not bread you can just bake at a bakery…”
How do you train people who can’t even use mana into knights in just two months?
“No, at the very least, even a low-tier knight needs to be able to handle mana to be recognized… Wait, could it be?”
Claude recalled the Mana Convergence Circle he had spent an enormous amount of money to create in the past.
It had been used to create monster grains, but originally it was meant to train knights.
Ghislaine, looking as if she finally understood, nodded and said, “We can just force them to learn mana. It’s tough to reach a high level, but we can grow low-tier knights quickly. I plan to teach them the Mana Circulation Method personally.”
“No way!”
Just then, Belinda’s sharp voice cut off Ghislaine.
Ghislaine was startled and asked, “Whoa, you scared me. Why?”
“You’re planning to teach the Mana Circulation Method of the Perdium family!”
As she knew, Ghislaine had only mastered the Mana Circulation Method from the Perdium family.
It was common sense in this age not to leak the family’s circulation method recklessly.
But Ghislaine replied nonchalantly, “That’s my intention. It’s obvious that we need the Mana Circulation Method to create knights.”
“But that’s the family’s vision! Why call it a vision?”
The Mana Circulation Method could only be learned by a family member or someone granted permission by the head of the family. It could not be leaked to others.
The Mana Circulation Method was essential for maintaining the family’s and territory’s strength and power.
However, Ghislaine was not interested in unnecessary honors or power.
When crisis strikes, hoarding such things for excuses while everyone dies is pointless.
“If we need to use the family’s vision, we should use it all. We need to create a strong force right now!”
“Still, that circulation method belongs to the Perdium family. You know it shouldn’t be leaked recklessly!”
“Anyway, leaks are already happening through the collateral line or even through personal apprentices. Why make a big deal about it… Besides, these days, not all knights are nobles. They probably learned some family circulation method from somewhere.”
“That’s different! That’s just a few!”
Sometimes, the circulation method is transmitted between a master and apprentice like in mage towers, and if someone talented emerges, it can also be taught to commoners under an oath of loyalty and secrecy.
Even with strict confidentiality, over time, it inevitably spreads a little.
But openly spreading it like Ghislaine was a completely different story.
“Who, in the world, reveals the family’s vision to hundreds of people at once?”
“Who on earth would share the family’s vision with hundreds of people at the same time?!”
“Here.”
“……”
Belinda was left speechless by Ghislaine’s utterly confident attitude, letting out a sigh of resignation.
“I was worried when he was a brat, but hasn’t he grown too big for his britches now?”
In her moment of confusion, Belinda spotted someone.
It was none other than Fergus, who was always lurking around Ghislaine like a ghost.
Fergus held the official title of the Lord’s Guard Knight.
Of course, someone else handled the actual guarding, but nonetheless, Fergus was treated as a respected elder of the territory.
No one could dare act recklessly around him.
Who would pick a fight with someone the lord took such care of, personally circulating mana every day for their health?
Even now, Fergus was the only one sitting beside Ghislaine in the great hall.
Belinda quickly sought Fergus’s support.
He had served Perdium for a long time, so surely he would oppose this.
“Sir! Please talk some sense into the Young Master! He’s just throwing the family’s mana circulation method around!”
But Fergus mercilessly betrayed Belinda’s expectations.
“Hah, let our Young Master do whatever he wants.”
Fergus was simply delighted by whatever Ghislaine chose to do.
Seeing Ghislaine as a lord managing the territory seemed beautiful, and gathering people for meetings like this was lovely as well.
Belinda realized something for sure.
“Oh no! That’s the smile of a grandfather watching his late-blooming grandson! We’re at the stage where he would call him cute even if the Young Master plucked all his beard hairs!”
However, Fergus did oppose the idea of waging war.
“But Young Master, you should think a bit more carefully about war. It’s a dangerous matter.”
Ghislaine merely turned his gaze elsewhere and casually nodded.
Fergus shook his head, resigned.
He knew from watching Ghislaine since childhood that when he acted like this, he wouldn’t listen to a word.
With Fergus’s support, Ghislaine puffed up his chest even more confidently.
Belinda tried to attack with another argument.
“Let’s say you teach them under a secret pact. It can’t be easy to master that, right? At least a few years of training is needed—how can they learn and use mana in just two months?”
That was a valid point. Unfortunately, the mana circulation method wasn’t something you could easily manage just because it was shared.
Everyone is affected by mana and possesses it in minuscule amounts, but feeling and controlling it requires talent and effort.
Yet Ghislaine dismissed that issue entirely.
“It’s fine. I can improve it. I can force them to learn like Vanessa does.”
“Forcing them to… learn the mana circulation method?”
“Yep. My father and the knights of Perdium will all learn what I’ve improved. The Perdium family’s mana circulation method is being discarded now. It turns out it’s not that great. I feel a bit sorry for our ancestors though.”
Belinda unconsciously rubbed her forehead.
“Oh, I’m going to lose my mind. Does that even make sense?!”
She understood Ghislaine’s intentions. It wasn’t entirely wrong that law, honor, and such are useless if you’re dead.
But this was a matter of possibility. Making hundreds of people handle mana at a knight level in just two months?
Not once in history has that ever happened.
On top of that, not only was he belittling the mana circulation method that had guarded the family at the northern front for a long time, but he also planned to improve it.
And not just any kind of improvement, but to make a counterfeit and then eliminate the original!
“You’re saying you’ll completely overhaul the mana circulation method? If you mess up, it’ll be a huge deal! That’s something only an extraordinary genius could pull off!”
Why do all the famous founders of mana circulation methods become legendary geniuses or heroes?
Because these methods took decades, even centuries, to perfect, and no one could just tamper with them lightly unless they were that kind of genius.
Because it’s not.
If you learn the wrong circulation method, you could end up a cripple or dead.
“Why? When I was little, people called me a genius multiple times, didn’t they?”
“That’s because Young Master…!”
Belinda stopped mid-sentence. She couldn’t talk about that in front of people.
‘That’s just because you needed a confidence boost after you managed not to pee your pants for the first time!’
Ghislaine shrugged at the worried Belinda.
‘There’s no need to worry at all.’
In his past life, he was one of the seven strongest on the continent.
He had transcended humanity and had endlessly revised circulation methods to throw at his followers.
“Don’t worry. You know I helped Vanessa feel mana, right? I can improve it well! You don’t trust me?”
With that confident tone, Belinda almost got convinced for a moment.
‘Well, Young Master’s mana circulation methods… Sure, they have similarities, but they’re definitely different from the Perdium family’s.’
Caught in her thoughts of whether to believe him or not, Belinda suddenly snapped back to reality and shook her head vigorously.
After all, the phrase ‘You don’t trust me?’ is what bad boys say the most.
“That’s completely different!”
Vanessa was a genius who had trained at the Mage Tower for several years, even if she lacked mana.
The situation was totally different from teaching clueless mercenaries about mana.
‘I know Young Master has excellent mana control and special talents… But this is just nonsense. He’s high on his own abilities right now. Just because everything’s going well, he’s lost it!’
What kind of knight could just pump them out in two months like they were bread!?
If that were possible, Perdium would have taken the kingdom long before Ghislaine was even born.
Claude, who had been listening to their conversation, jumped in.
“Lord, think about it. We’re in a desperate situation and have a lot to do. You brought up the war with Count Desmond first, didn’t you? Right?”
“And?”
“Preparing for war and developing the territory will cost a fortune, right?”
“Definitely an astronomical amount. I’d run out of money even if I spent everything I’ve earned and everything I’ll earn!”
“Then how does it make sense not to sell that expensive runestone and use it for the Mana Convergence Circle? If we can’t produce knights in two months, we’re wasting money and time!”
Claude raised his voice desperately.
He acknowledged the accomplishments the lord had shown so far and even admitted that he possessed mystical knowledge from unknown sources.
So surely, could he not ask just one more time for faith?
‘What a joke! If you make one mistake, we all die!’
It’s a matter of life and death; who would easily agree to such an absurd proposal?
Even if they prepare meticulously without wasting a single penny, it’s questionable if they can hold out in the war.
The opponent was Count Desmond, the strongest in the North.
He absolutely couldn’t agree to Ghislaine’s plan, which could waste two months and an astronomical amount of funds.
“If we fail, it’ll be even more dangerous! Can’t we please prepare sensibly?”
Others, seemingly agreeing with Claude’s cry, gazed at Ghislaine with pleading eyes.
But Ghislaine only shrugged indifferently.
“I’m telling you it’ll work! That’s common sense for me! Have you ever seen me talk nonsense? I’m not that kind of person.”
In an instant, all eyes turned to Ghislaine, and silence enveloped the area.
If you were to judge who was the best at spouting nonsense in this territory, undoubtedly, the lord would take the crown.
Thankfully, things turned out well, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still nonsense.
Sensing everyone’s stares, Ghislaine murmured again.
“This is ridiculous.”
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
