Chapter 104
The meeting with Ellenhower was beneficial.
He was the figure most suited to be emperor that I had encountered since coming to this world, and I learned he was a person with surprisingly open-minded thoughts, even refreshing to Karl.
His demeanor was more like a leader from the modern era Karl lived in than from this age.
“You seem to be in a good mood?”
“I had some good liquor.”
“Were you happy drinking without us?”
“It seemed you received good treatment there too?”
“That’s true.”
Whatever treatment he received, Kelvin’s expression brightened noticeably.
“May I ask what you discussed?”
“Cooperation.”
“Pardon?”
“Duke Ellenhower and we are in a cooperative relationship. That’s all you need to know.”
It was a short but powerful statement.
A relationship of cooperation, not subordination, with a Duke possessing one of the most prominent powers on the West Continent. What on earth did this mean?
“Come to think of it, Commander. What is our goal? The Holy Knights pursue the salvation of the world, Alcantara their own glory. The Golden Knights pursue money. Doesn’t everyone pursue something?”
Thinking about it, since founding the knight order, they didn’t even know the reason why it was created.
It was simply formed first because a ‘knight order’ was needed.
“Like the name of our knight order, we become the lighthouse of the continent.”
A light that people can see and refer to amidst a chaotic world.
It wasn't about illuminating every nook and cranny of the world.
It was merely about presenting a milestone for where to go.
And a lighthouse does not wander. It simply shines its light from its place.
“We simply walk our path silently. We can let each person decide what they feel when they see us.”
Having finished speaking, Karl exited the tavern.
The people seated there also continued their silence quietly due to the atmosphere of the members.
“Well, I’ll be….”
“…This feels strange.”
All the members felt an inexplicable excitement at Karl’s words.
It was a kind of thrill and also tension.
“What people feel when they see us is up to them to judge….”
Their expressions as they repeated Karl’s last words in their own way were quite serious and solemn.
“We can’t just stay like this! How we appear from now on is all in our hands.”
Without anyone ordering them, they all rose from their seats simultaneously and ran towards the training ground provided by the Somerset Domain.
***
[Lighthouse Knights take 2nd place in Somerset Knight Grand Tournament, effectively the winners.]
[Karl Meyer declares the Lighthouse Knights will be a milestone in a chaotic world.]
Recently, among the rumors circulating among people, stories about the Lighthouse Knights began to spread alongside tales of Karl.
Their performance and passion shown in the Somerset Knight Grand Tournament, and actions like Karl's in the final match, formed the mainstream of the rumors.
Karl and the knight order were on their way back to the County of Collo.
Even amidst the chatter of people in a tavern they stopped at midway, Karl was looking at the item [Beginner's Training Kit] received as a reward last time.
‘Beginner?’
Karl smirked at the phrase that brought various thoughts to mind.
How many years had it been since starting to survive on this continent?
If one had played the game this long, they would be among the most veteran players.
Moreover, playing a role-playing game without a save function and never having died once yet – truly the ultimate veteran player.
To such a person, a beginner's kit couldn't help but be amusing.
‘Let’s see….’
He touched the beginner's kit he had taken out.
The members, aware that Karl possessed a subspace ring, showed no surprise even when the item suddenly appeared.
[Beginner's Steel Iron Weights]
[Beginner's Steel Lining]
Iron weights worn on the wrists and ankles, and an inner lining came out.
During a short break, Karl put the four iron weights on his ankles and wrists respectively and wore the lining.
[The training function of the Training Steel Iron Weights activates.]
[The training function of the Training Steel Lining activates.]
As soon as he wore them, the items adjusted to fit Karl perfectly and seemed designed to increase strength or stamina through a weight-increasing function.
[System detects an abnormal signal. User's stats are excessively high.]
[Beginner's Training Kit is transforming.]
It was something he had experienced several times.
Like the Sword Mastery passive or the movement skill Aura Step, various functions seemed to recognize Karl's current situation as a sort of bug.
[Training Kit of Chaos: Wearing it imparts a sense of extreme weight. Physical activity can accelerate the synergistic effect on physical stat increase. Caution: The weight is excessive, exercise prudence when wearing.]
[Steel Iron Weights of Chaos]
[Steel Lining of Chaos]
Curious, Karl took off one iron weight and lightly tossed it to the ground.
Kwaaaaaang!
The iron weight, dropped from about chest height, made a tremendous noise upon reaching the floor and smashed through it.
Startled by the sudden impact sound, the knight order members rushed towards Karl’s location.
“Commander, are you alright!?”
“What happened!?”
Everyone was gripping their weapons.
One person, apparently about to sleep, had even run over bare-bodied without armor.
“…It’s nothing.”
At Karl’s word, the members looked puzzled for a while before dispersing.
“Hmm… The weight is considerable….”
He felt it was quite heavy even while wearing it, but he hadn't known it was this heavy.
Momentarily curious about one thing, Karl slowly walked towards a tree about the thickness of a person’s ankle.
“Hup!”
Crack! Thud!
“What is it, Commander!”
The knights rushed over once again.
There, a tree was split at the trunk and lay fallen sideways, and Karl’s hand was precisely gripping the broken part of the tree trunk.
“….”
Everyone stared at their commander who had crushed the tree with his bare hands, distorting it with grip strength.
“With your hands… did you do that…?”
“It seems so.”
“….”
The members, their faces pale, slowly turned their backs on Karl and left.
And Karl, in that spot, raised his hand and repeatedly clenched and unclenched it a few times.
‘I’ve become a monster.’
He hadn't realized it while going through numerous fights with strong enemies, but he now recognized for the first time that his physical strength had increased beyond imagination.
He cautiously guessed that the stats granted by the game's functions might have made him this way.
Becoming a Master and the body changing would lead to possessing a superhuman physique, so that influence might also be there, but.
‘No matter how I look at it, that alone doesn’t explain it.’
In any case, it was a positive phenomenon for Karl.
This Training Kit of Chaos would also be helpful to Karl.
Conducting various experiments he couldn't do before, Karl soon reached the County of Collo.
***
Dudududududu.
The rough sound of horse hooves shook the earth.
After the sound of hooves echoed for a moment, hundreds of mounted figures suddenly appeared on the plains.
Well-maintained equipment and sturdy horses. And the knights mounted atop them.
Dudududududu.
A village appeared before the group of knights that had been galloping in one direction for some time.
At the sudden sound of horse hooves, the villagers emerged.
The villagers realized that over several hundred horses were already inside the village.
“Do you admit the crime of defying His Lordship Marquis Baltimo?”
“We, we don’t know such a high-ranking person!”
“Ignorance does not wash away sin. You crossed into the Marquisate, illegally damaged the land, and plundered nearby villages.”
“What is this…! We have done no such thing!’
“No, you did.”
The knight gripped his weapon as if further words were unnecessary.
The moment one of the villagers sensed trouble and turned to flee, a spear flew and pierced the man’s torso.
“Delmaric…!”
Perhaps the pierced man’s name was Delmaric, as someone cried out his name.
And at that moment, the mounted knights descended upon the villagers.
Horses clad in iron armor ruthlessly trampled the villagers.
The knights' swords cut down their necks without any hesitation.
The leg of someone trying to escape was cut off, and swords and spears plunged into the back of someone crawling away.
“Ah… Essus…!”
Thus, a village instantly turned into a ghost town.
“Is everything cleared?”
The leader of the blood-covered knights spoke, smacking his lips as if regretful.
“Yes. Not a single living soul remains.”
“A pity.”
Though his words were short, his subordinate felt chills run down his spine at the blood-red smile he wore.
Whatever his subordinates thought, Oleg Yankov, Commander of the Red Wolf Knights, was intoxicated by the taste of blood he hadn't experienced in a long time.
***
“…What did you say?”
“Heinsville Village has been wiped out.”
“Who is responsible?”
“They say it’s Marquis Baltimo….”
“That man has finally gone completely mad!”
“Do you remember the proposal from the Marquis last month?”
“….”
The face of Baron Marat of the Bashirov Domain hardened rapidly.
He understood exactly what his subordinate knight was implying.
“Because I didn’t accept that proposal back then… he massacred 300 innocent subjects? Does that even make sense?”
“That man wouldn’t hesitate to do even worse.”
“….”
The proposal from Marquis Baltimo last month was simple.
Become his vassal. Offer half the tax revenue from the domain to him. Send a certain number of troops to join his battles.
They were all conditions difficult to meet.
He hadn't outright rejected the proposal, but had politely declined, citing practical difficulties.
The price for a polite refusal was bloody retribution.
“…Isn’t he a madman? How can he possibly gain support and become some emperor with such methods!”
“We might just be an example….”
“…!”
Baron Marat’s face, no longer just hardened, turned deathly pale.
It was surely his calculation that if he made a clear example just once at the beginning, the remaining domains would naturally follow.
He had been caught as the example.
“What should I do….”
“Unless you bow your head now and beg for that evil man’s mercy… there is no choice but to abandon the domain and leave.”
“And the subjects?”
“We cannot escape with them as well.”
“….”
Baron Marat, after a moment of silence, abandoned all his subjects and left the castle late that night.
“Kuaaaaaaaaak!”
“Please save me… Save me… Please….”
“Just the child, please spare just the child…!”
The next dawn, the Red Wolf Knights entered the heart of the Bashirov Domain.
Screams and cries of the people filled the air.
“You will be punished by heaven! You children of the devil! You will surely! Surely! Fall into hell!”
A woman holding her dead baby shrieked, coughing up blood.
The knight order members looked at her with uneasy expressions as she cursed them, truly shedding tears of blood.
As the knights hesitated, reluctant to kill the woman cursing like one possessed, someone strode confidently through their midst.
The man who walked up grabbed the woman’s nape with his left hand and brought an iron rod held in his right hand to her mouth.
“Mmmmmmph! Mmmmmmmmmph!”
The heated iron rod seared the woman’s mouth, and she writhed, convulsing in pain.
“Do not kill her. No, make sure she absolutely cannot die. Let her taste the agony of burning for a long, long time.”
Watching Oleg Yankov speak with a gentle smile, devoid of sound, the subordinates took the woman away from his sight with trembling hands.
Thus, the story of this incident perpetrated by Marquis Baltimo began to spread throughout the continent.