My Villains Chapter 303
55. The Marquis of Eabon (2)
Knights are precious.
Expensive armaments such as heavy armor and battle horse spears, which are visible elements, are also one of the reasons. However, ordinary farmers do not become knights overnight just by wearing precious equipment.
This is because the most important factor determining the value of an article is skill. It is a superhuman skill that is clearly different from that of ordinary soldiers.
He starts training at the age of eight at the earliest, at the age of six, and after enduring inhuman training for well over ten years, he acquires the skills worthy of the title of knight.
There are two main ways to recruit such a valuable knight as a subordinate, and neither of them are that easy.
The first way is to give the land to a useful soldier, as Ulkar did to me, and make him a landlord!
To use this method, you must first be wealthy enough to give land to your subordinates. In addition, you must find and recruit rare talents who have the skills to be worthy of knighthood, and who are at least not heretics or criminals.
In a word, it is a method that can be adopted only with surplus land and great luck.
The second way is to gather talented children from your territory and raise them as knights.
Naturally, the servants and servants who train to become knights are beings without any productivity. Knight trainees are military enlistments who consume huge amounts of food without doing any labor.
Furthermore, even if they invested for a long time, not all trainees have the skills appropriate for a knight.
Falling out or losing one’s life during training is not uncommon, and even if one somehow finishes training, one orc may barely be able to deal with one due to lack of effort or talent.
In fact, it is no different from running a random box using promising children as coins. A random box with only a 10% chance of winning the targeted product, a knight, excluding all kinds of craps, including dropouts and deaths.
Of course, if this process succeeds, you will be able to obtain a knight without a separate manor. In other words, you will lead a general knight, which is different from a holding knight. In a word
, it is a method that requires deep patience and a little luck
in addition to a rich talent pool and generous wealth .
For this reason, it was rare for even a moderately wealthy lord to have more than five knights.
Looking back on his memories, even Osred, the great lord of Savon and the owner of South Harbor, had no knights under his command. The title of sir was not attached to the captain of the guard or the guard, nor to the commander of the guards or military commander.
In the case of Baron Mallory, the lord of Longville, the only knight was Sir Killian, who was in his fifties. Even so, he soon betrayed
and left.
In this context, the army now appearing in front of the Seteniora Monastery came as a bit of a shock to me.
It was not surprising that there were eight hundred men marching under yellow banners, and that all of them were on horseback, all wearing chainmail and iron helmets.
This is because the Mullin family army, which I faced one day, also boasted an elite figure like me.
“Wow… there are so many.” Of course, it seemed different from the eyes of Mungchi, who was watching under the curtain wall while clinging to my side.
Anyway, what surprised me was about forty heavy cavalrymen driving horses at the head of the army.
The heavy cavalrymen all wore high-quality plate armor and wore yellow surcoats with white twigs carved on them. And the cloak on his shoulders was embroidered with different sentences indistinctly.
In other words, those forty heavy cavalrymen were all knights.
“The Knights of the Golden Age.”
Heila, who had heard the news and led mercenaries such as the veteran Confair and the heavily armed Dervish, came up to the gatehouse and said calmly.
“The Knights of the Golden Age?”
“huh. The knights of the Aryan family.”
” ah.”
Only then did Phoenix’s memories come back.
The crest engraved on the knights’ circus coats and waving flags symbolized the Aria family, the only marquess of the kingdom of Milano.
“I heard that the letter was sent about 15 days ago, but I didn’t know that the army would come already.”
It was the monk Okan. He surveyed the troops with a pleased look, then turned to me.
“If Arya is the family’s army, we can relax now.”
“Iknow, right.”
It is a majestic dragon that can sufficiently replace the mission of protecting the holy land, which has implicitly tied me to it. As Utequai said, it is an army that will give you freedom.
Looking down at the bottom of the curtain wall, a few priests, including the priest Marcel and the cathedral knight Sir Kabar, were greeted by a group of horses.
In particular, what caught my eye were the three men and women who were strictly escorted by fifteen knights.
An elderly man with curly white hair, a young woman wearing a white towel and a neat gown, and a boy who looked to be in his mid-teens.
The three men and women seemed to be from an aristocratic family, consisting of a slightly old father and his younger siblings, because they were dressed and looked different.
“Is it the Marquis of Eavon?”
“The Marquis came directly?”
“Ten days is enough to travel from Lianwell, the capital of the Marquis Territory, to this monastery. There is nothing that cannot come.”
At Heila’s words, I quietly nodded and looked at the elderly man again.
“…The Marquis of Eavon.”
Aside from Prince Ulkar, he’s the biggest man I’ve ever met.
The province of Antrum, a few days north of the monastery, is two or three times as large as any county, and is considered one of the most fertile lands in the kingdom. It is the Arya marquis family that has ruled that land for nearly 200 years.
So it was only natural that the Marquis of Eabon was mentioned as one of the most powerful people in the Kingdom of Milanol.
Lost in thought, I looked down at the curtain wall, and my eyes met by chance with a dark brown gaze. The subject of his gaze was a boy with a fine face wearing glossy white leather armor.
The boy who was staring up at me looked back at the Marquis of Eavon and the young woman and whispered something, and soon the Marquis and the woman also looked up.
It was a little embarrassing, but I didn’t commit any particular crime, so I made eye contact with them as I stood with my arms crossed.
Unlike the young woman who looked up at me blankly with her mouth slightly open, the Marquis of Avon narrowed her eyes and asked Priest Marcel a question.
“Who is that?”
Because Marquis Eabon and Priest Marcel did not lower their voices, the conversation could be heard clearly despite the considerable distance. Like my other senses, hearing was at a level beyond that of a criminal.
“Who are you referring to?”
“The man standing on the wall over there. A tall man with black hair.”
“Ah, Lord Phoenix.”
“…Sir Phoenix? You mean this bloody swordsman?”
“yes. He is also one of the chiefs who helped protect the Holy Land, Your Excellency.”
“
The Marquis looked at me for a moment with a different look and then nodded.
There was not enough space in the monastery, so half of the Aryan army had to camp in front of the curtain wall.
From what I’ve heard, only half the troops, five knights, and one battle mage are stationed in the monastery anyway.
The rest of the force, that is, four hundred soldiers, over thirty knights, and six battle mages came only to escort the Marquis.
“To make a fuss. Even the king’s procession is not like that.”
At the words of the heavy soldier Dervish, who was sitting on a tree stump in front of the communal house, Eson, who had been shoving his boots through the snowdrifts, snorted.
“Damn it. Have you ever seen the king’s procession? Eastern Riding country boy.”
“This bastard. What are you pretending to know when you’re a southerner too?”
“Is Leadburn the village? You can’t say that when you see Lemeric’s Cathedral, right?” Puffy Esson shrugged and continued.
“Besides, I’ve personally seen the king’s procession.”
“You guys? when?”
“Four or three? It means that the previous king, King Jun-eom, visited Leadburn.”
“King Jun-eom?”
Gidon, a crossbowman who turned off the fire to boil water next to them, interrupted their conversation.
“I think I heard. About a year before King Jun-eom died, he made a tour of the South.”
“Yeah, it must have been then.”
Esson knocked the heel of his boots against the stump on which Dervish sat and brushed off the snow.
“I can’t even compare it to the Marquis’s army I saw today. There were over a hundred knights alone, and the number of soldiers was immeasurable. He said his eyes were rolling around.”
“That much?”
Dervish said ‘Hmm’ and asked all the questions while touching his chin.
“Then have you seen the King now?”
“The king now was Prince Lionel then, but Prince Lionel didn’t come. Prince Arlot came instead. My other memories are fuzzy, but I remember that one mesmerizingly handsome face.”
“Are you that handsome?”
“then. Not only was his face handsome, but how handsome he was in white armor and riding a white horse. For a while, when the kids in the neighborhood got together to play, they would fight each other to play the role of Prince Arrot.”
“Is that enough?”
“Young kids don’t know. I was to the point of cheering for Prince Aloth when he rebelled.”
When Esson playfully lowered his voice, Dervish laughed and bruised him.
“Watch out for this crazy bastard. Are you saying that in front of my master?”
Only then did Eson pretend to be surprised when he found me sitting on a chair in front of the house.
“What’s wrong? How long have you been here?”
“…Don’t talk nonsense and clear your eyes. Sweep it with a broom and don’t scratch it with your feet.” “Ah, I was about to do that anyway. My boots are all wet.”
He scratched his head as he spoke, then lowered his voice again.
“By the way, I heard that Prince Ulkar is also an incredibly handsome man. How does it look to you?”
“Prince Ulkar?”
” yes.”
I scratched my chin and answered roughly.
“You were handsome.”
“…is that the answer?” “Then what?”
“You must have felt something when you saw that face.”
“What is impression? Do I have to look at the man’s face and even appreciate it?”
“No, I heard that people say that Prince Ulkar resembles Prince Aloth-”
“Stop it.”
Heila, who was sitting next to me, warned me in a low voice.
“Like Dervish said, you better be careful.”
“Uh yes…
Uncharacteristic of her usual voice, it was very cold, so Esson kept her mouth shut with a hard face.
It was then. Two men in yellow surcoats approached the common house holding the reins. They were knights of the Aryan family.
They glanced over the communal house and immediately met my eyes.
“Are you Sir Phoenix?”
“…exactly.”
“I found it at once. Then the lady next to me… said that Lord Phoenix’s fiancée’?”
Heila nodded quietly, and the two knights met eyes and nodded.
“Follow me. Your Excellency, Marquis of Eabon, wants to see you two.”
