Another 50 points, and his sword mastery would reach level 4, which was synonymous with being a sword saint in the Kingdom of the Frost Eagle.
Most of the great knights of the kingdom did not reach this level, due to the lack of teaching and resources to improve in this area.
But now, after their duel, Maxi realized that he was still below Alaric's level.
The level of the top 5 knights in the kingdom was clearly not there for show.
He must have been dangerously close to level 4.
By instinct, Maxi would say that Alaric must have approximately 80 level 3 sword mastery points.
The two continued to chat for a while as they made their way to the communal dining hall of the Purple Knight Academy.
There, Maxi ate with Alaric and so apprentice knights.
Including Tomas, Théo, Lila and Caleb, who had accompanied him to defend that famous village against the orcs.
The sa village where they had almost all died, but thanks to the new talent [Awakening of Life] and the arrival of Count Ardan, they had narrowly escaped death.
The al passed quickly and in good humor.
It was only after nightfall that Maxi was finally able to see all his n in the dormitory of the final year students.
Fortunately, the latter were obviously still on a mission, which left room for all his rcenaries.
Otherwise, with their numbers, they would have had to go to the hostel to sleep.
Behind the dormitory for final-year students, there was a large training ground reserved for them.
So Maxi took the opportunity to gather his n on the training ground and break the news to them.
Maxi stood in the center of the training ground, his gaze determined, while his n ford a semicircle in front of him.
The expressions on so of their faces betrayed a slight concern, while others showed eager enthusiasm.
He took a deep breath before speaking in a clear and confident tone.
"I have an important announcent to make."
A respectful silence imdiately fell. His rcenaries knew that he never spoke lightly.
"I t the king of this Kingdom, Arthur Ravenwood, and was able to talk to him."
The rcenaries' faces changed very slightly. Although they had all suspected as much, they still found it incredible that a rcenary without status could et and talk with the king.
For them, almost all of whom were simple forr villagers, the very existence of the king seed so distant that they thought the chance of eting a dragon would be higher.
Only Duke Devron's older n seed less disturbed by the news.
Living in the capital, they had already seen the king on several occasions.
"And the king, Arthur Ravenwood, has entrusted with a territory."
For a mont, there was no reaction, as if his words had not yet sunk in. Then, murmurs ran through the n of the rcenary group.
So exchanged surprised looks, others frowned.
Andrew folded his arms and asked in a calm voice:
"A territory? Does that an you're going to beco a nobleman then?"
Stay connected with My Virtual Library Empire
Maxi shook his head.
"Not exactly. It will be an independent territory, so whether or not there is nobility there is still a question."
"An independent territory?" Laura couldn't help but repeat out loud.
"Does that an you'll be a king?" she continued aloud.
On hearing this, everyone's thoughts began to wander in all directions.
"Maybe? I don't know myself how we can na this territory, and what its status will be," Maxi replied.
Laura's eyes lit up.
"If our future territory becos a kingdom, that ans you'll be a king... And there's no king without a queen, right?"
Everyone looked at Laura, with a common thought:
"Ah, so that's what she was getting at..."
Terry took a step forward.
"But... we're rcenaries, aren't we?" His gaze shone with a mixture of excitent and perplexity.
"If we settle down, does that an we'll stop fighting?"
A slight smile stretched Maxi's lips.
"Of course not. But instead of being simple hired swords, we will be much more than that. We will have an army, an economy, infrastructure. We will no longer be at the rcy of other people's contracts. We will be our own masters."
The excitent rose a notch among the rcenaries. So nodded approvingly, others still seed hesitant.
Ernest, calr than the others, asked:
"And this territory... Where exactly is it? How big is it? And above all, what are the king's conditions for offering such a thing?"
Rodrigo was also looking very seriously at Maxi.
Both of them, as forr princes, were much less naive than the others. Land and people were the two most important things in the world in the eyes of the nobles.
There was no way they could give this to soone who wasn't related to them and without sothing in return.
There had to be sothing their leader hadn't told them yet.
Maxi looked very serious at that mont.
Everyone beca much calr and they looked attentively at Maxi.
"Most of you already know the owner of our future territory... It's Baron Barthon."
Everyone was surprised to hear this. Even the rcenaries who had joined Maxi after Plouta left, because the rcenaries talked to each other.
Naturally, everyone knew Baron Barthon, especially since Maxi had already ntioned him several tis.
Most of them thought to themselves:
"Fate really does work in mysterious ways."
For them it was a coincidence, except for a few who had their doubts, such as Ernest, Rodrigo and Tena.
It was not so easy to dismiss a nobleman, and above all, for a king, it was extrely important to retain the loyalty of his vassals.
Because no king was safe from a revolt or a coup d'état.
Giving away a noble's territory was one of the worst decisions a king could make, because it would chill the hearts of the other nobles in the kingdom.
Because, since it had happened once, it could happen a second or a third ti.
Who could guarantee that they wouldn't be next?
"So the first thing is to defeat Baron Barthon, but that was already planned so it's not particularly troubleso. What's really important will co after we've defeated the baron."
Maxi gave the rcenaries a little ti to digest what he had just said before continuing.
"This future territory will serve as a source of finance and manpower for our group of rcenaries to take back so of the orcs' territory and defend it. In short, we are going to beco a wall for the Kingdom of the Frost Eagle."
Rodrigo and Ernest looked at each other. Being princes, albeit miserable ones, they knew what it ant:
The kingdom was no longer capable of defending itself. The king had reached the point of giving territory to a rcenary to reduce the pressure on the Kingdom and free up n to transfer them to other places that needed reinforcents.
"So the kingdom is in such a bad way?" Rodrigo whispered, low enough for only Ernest to hear.
"I imagine... It must only be a matter of ti before it collapses," Ernest replied, also in a low voice.
"Yet I had heard that the king, Arthur Ravenwood, was a very talented and capable king. It's really strange..."
It wasn't just them, Tena and other rather intelligent rcenaries found it really very strange.
Although most of them had never seen the king, they had all heard of his reputation and his prowess on the battlefield.
Maxi naturally overheard so of the murmurs of his rcenaries.
"It doesn't matter whether the kingdom is in trouble or not, the kingdom has given us a mission with such a high reward that it is almost unimaginable for other groups of rcenaries."
"We will seize this opportunity to improve the strength of our rcenary group but also to improve the lives of every person who will live in our future lands."
While Maxi continued to announce the stakes and the new motivations that he and his rcenaries will have in the future, elsewhere sothing was happening.
...
Barthon, with an impassive gaze, observed his vast secret training camp from the balcony of a raised building. It was the tallest building in the entire training camp.
The biting cold of twilight could be felt, but he didn't care. His physique easily protected him from this kind of temperature.
In front of him, hundreds of apprentice knights tirelessly repeated the sequences they had been taught, while 2,000 soldiers carried out precise maneuvers under the orders of the captains.
Behind the baron, a dozen or so knights stood at attention, silent, awaiting his orders.
All of them were extrely confident, and it showed in their posture.
So were eager to fight, while others seed bored at the idea of facing the weak.
But in any case, their loyalty was unshakeable because they all drew their strength from the baron's generosity.
Without this, there would still only be 2 or 3 knights in the territory.
But that wasn't all, it was also because they were all equally deeply convinced by the strength of their lord.
Not one of them could resist a few moves from the baron, who was giving it his all.
Baron Barthon folded his arms and took a deep breath before slowly turning to face his n. His piercing gaze lingered on each of them, weighing them up and showing no rcy.
"The ti has co."
A shiver ran through the knights, not of fear, but of contained excitent. They knew what it ant.
Even the most bored were excited, because even if they thought they wouldn't have much to do, the fact was that very interesting things were going to happen.
Just like a show that finally opened its curtains after a long wait, it was inevitable that a certain excitent would arise.
"Baron Irut is just an insignificant insect. Three knights, including him, dare to call themselves lords and have the sa status as us."
"And yet this simple insect allied himself with a group of rcenaries and dared to resist us. Even today, this group of rcenaries is still well established in Plouta and defends the village."
"This sa group of rcenaries not only killed many apprentice knights under my command, but also destroyed the band of bandits that I had raised with such care and in whom I had invested so much."
"All must submit to this lord or die."
As he said this, Baron Barthon's eyes glead with greed.
He sensed that this group of rcenaries had to be hiding sothing, otherwise there was no way that his apprentice knights and his group of bandits could die at the hands of young rcenaries.
He had seen their captain for himself, and already at the ti had sensed that this young man was hiding sothing.
It was just a sha that his assassination attempt at the very beginning had failed, and that since then, this group of rcenaries had beco much stronger.
But he still thought he could easily crush this group of rcenaries by sending one or two knights.
"At the sa ti, we will prove to the king and the kingdom that our military strength is far greater than that of the surrounding barons, and that we deserve to rule over all of them."
His tone was implacable, without the slightest hesitation. He expected neither approval nor questions.
"Gather our troops. We will leave at dawn."
He turned around and looked back at the camp below. The army was ready, disciplined, ruthless. The knights behind were confident.
This battle would be a formality.
Reviews
All reviews (0)