*Kurt Endel Sylvian, the current king PoV*

Sylvian changed since I came here when I was a boy, various things stayed the same, but the abilities of their enchanters took a massive leap.

Carriages that don’t need horses, ships that need neither sails nor oars. And the train, oh the train, who knew travelling so fast was possible?

… I don’t remember much about the plane since I passed out when it separated from the ground… But from the outside they look to be very fast too.

And ‘all of this is thanks to a young Chevalier’ is what I was told, but I always found that doubtful, ‘Are they trying to improve the fame of the Chevalier even more?’ is what I thought.

The Chevalier are already known far and wide as the key reason Sylvian managed to remain stable for so long, since any noble that tried to amass power would have a Chevalier inquisitor knocking on their door.

Many countries kings tried to form an elite force similar to the Sylvian royal knights, but anyone that tried to create anything other than a small number of elite bodyguards ended up with rebellion or something similar. Even if those elites are part of the monarch’s family, like the Chevalier are to the Sylvian family.

When I asked Catherine about how she maintains the Chevalier’s loyalty, she only said the obvious. “I treat them as family and make sure they have the best of luxuries in the country.”

I don’t know if she’s just keeping it a secret from me, but I doubt it since I was told of the existence of mind magic, although they didn’t allow me to learn it. I’ve read a book on the Chevalier that theorized there is something special about the Sylvian and Chevalier bloodline that makes the betrayal less likely.

Oh right, back to the boy, even after I met him, I still felt he wasn’t that impressive aside from the fact he mutated his bloodline while young. My family only has a fire-based bloodline that isn’t even that strong, and here’s Sylvian improving theirs even further.

I can only sigh about that.

During the coronation I saw that he did have some skill when he put up a show by smelting the ores, forging and enchanting the new crown. But even then it was only a show, while the way the fire made the night seem like day and the way that lightning fell from the sky as if the gods were blessing the coronation were very pretty, it was still merely pretty.

I did see him do some more impressive things but even those might just be something someone else taught him, so while I can accept him as a genius, I still find it doubtful that he is truly responsible for something like the train.

But when Catherine was informing her military council about the invasion of Heiron is when I understood Lance’s position in Sylvian.

When Catherine gave him an order, he answered with a ‘what do I get out of it’! And that’s not the even biggest surprise, everyone, including Catherine, didn’t take this as insubordination!

They took it as if it was merely a child being silly!

While I was still speechless about the situation, he demanded a country-wide project as a reward ON TOP of receiving the most precious knowledge from both Sylvian and Heiron.

And then my father-in-law brought up evidence enough for an execution, but people only seemed mildly suspicious! Catherine even refused to use mind magic on him when he offered. The feeling of sensing his mind was disturbing.

After dinner was over I spoke to Catherine. “Is this really fine? Don’t you find that ‘country ruled by the people’ idea way too suspicious?”

“Kurt, dear. We have reports on Lance since he was a baby, if there’s one thing that’s safe to say about him, is that he would never want to deal with politics and diplomacy… Honestly, even I abhor that kind of thing…” She sighs.

So… It’s safe to say he’s loyal because betrayal would be too troublesome?… That’s a… unique way of looking at things. “And what of that ‘public education’ project?”

“You heard what he said, this isn’t much for him as it is for the country itself… I wonder how a country where everyone can read would look like. Would the country be filled with intellectual scholars discussing philosophy? Would there be more artists?”

I think she’s exaggerating, but I guess it’s good to dream a little. “What about that at the end? Why didn’t you read his mind when he offered?”

“Oh that. It’s not too complicated. There are two possibilities, Lance either wants to start a revolution or he doesn’t. If he doesn’t, there is no real problem and it is best if I don’t read his mind so that he will feel that I believe in him and will trust me more.

If he does and I read his mind, we would have a rift between us and he might not work for the country anymore. But even if I don’t read his mind, we would still know he wouldn’t start a revolution alone, as long as we make sure he doesn’t gather powerful supporters we would both have him working for us and avoid a revolution.

As such, it’s for the best if I don’t read his mind. But even then, I still think father was just being a worrywart, he’s too used with dealing with spies and can’t trust people anymore.”

That’s… A little bit more complicated than I expected…

~Back to MC~

I’m waiting for the tournament to be over before I set out to help the soldier training.

Talking about training, I have been practicing together with Chiara and my bodyguards. It’s fun to have something new to learn after so long.

It didn’t take long for the tournament to be over, Chiara wasn’t among the commoners to receive Knighthood, but that’s to be expected, she’s still too weak for that, though her improvement is noticeable even during the short time we have been teaching each other.

The winner of the martial arts category is one of Eleanor’s grandchildren, Ellie. She’s also of the giants’ bloodline, so she has more than two meters in height. She looks like a young Eleanor without scars and with green eyes instead of blue.

“Don’t worry Lance, grandma told me you weren’t really going to marry the tournament champion. But when they offered a position as your bodyguard I thought it would be fun, so I took it.” Oh well, one more sparring partner, I suppose.

The winner of the magic and spell category was actually one of my more distant kin, with vertical pupils and everything. Her name is Theodora, her part of the family is considered to have a ‘thinner’ bloodline than usual, so she being born with very pronounced bloodline characteristics came as a surprise.

“It’s only logical for you to marry a Chevalier, so our children can have a higher chance of inheriting your bloodline.”

“Didn’t you hear Ellie? I’m not really going to marry you.” Is she deaf?

“Don’t be silly, as if any man can resist my charms.” She says as she adjusts her long brown hair with one hand and has the other on her hip.

I can’t help but snicker a little. She’s older than me but she looks younger, so when she does a pose it looks a little silly.

“What are you laughing at?!”

“Oh, no, I wasn’t laughing. I just lost my breath from witnessing your beauty.” Better to not be rude.

“Oh, that’s good then.” She answers and pushes her chest out with both hands on her hips and chin raised up.

I can’t help but snicker again, I think this time I heard Ellie snicker too. This time Theodora just returned a small smile.

Athena enters the room at that moment. “I still can’t believe you actually won, Theo. Why didn’t you tell me you were that strong?”

“You never asked.” ‘Theo’ answers with a smug grin. Oh, so they know each other.

“So that’s why you were trying to convince me to only suggest a sorcery tournament.”

“Uh, no, that was just because sorcery is superior to martial arts.”

Oh, that’s not the case at all. “If that was the case we wouldn’t train so many knights, now would we? While sorcery is great and more versatile than physical combat, self-strengthening is simply too mana-efficient and shouldn’t be underestimated.” I correct her.

Athena answers. “She knows, dummy. She’s just saying that so it doesn’t seem she was trying to exclude her competition.” Athena gives her a cheeky grin.

“… Anyway, are you also going to be a bodyguard for me?” I ask the now pouting Theodora. She just nods.

Normally bodyguards are only allowed to be of the same sex as the one they are protecting, but it’s not like I care much.

~~

Before I left the capital for the big military encampment nearby, I had to organize the equipment side of things here.

Conscripted soldiers are only given a spear, helmet, shield and boots. No actual armor, the soldiers themselves only grab the thickest, toughest clothes they have, whether they are made of cloth or leather, and use that as improvised armor.

One shouldn’t underestimate the protection tough clothing can give, but it can’t really compare to proper armor.

Many families have gambeson (proper cloth armor) that’s given to the younger ones being conscripted; those families with more money would have either leather plate armor, a mail shirt or scale mail.

Only professional soldiers and knights have proper plate armor.

The soldiers also need to bring a short blade, a blade somewhere between a hunting knife and a short sword, to use in case the spear breaks and for general utility. The poorer ones would just bring the biggest kitchen knife they have.

Soldiers using kitchen knives and tough clothes don’t seem very acceptable to me, and the equipment they are actually given isn’t of the best quality either.

The crown had already set up a smelting operation to make large quantities of steel a long time ago, so I just need to get the smiths organized and equipped with the tools needed to mass produce the equipment.

With the right tools, steel plates can become quite cheap to make both in terms of money and time, so I went straight for making cuirasses. Of course, not everyone will get those at once, but the front line should have these.

Even if they don’t get armor on their limbs, protecting the vitals can be enough to buy time to get them healed and ready to fight once again. Even if you’re a cold bastard that doesn’t feel a thing for the lives of the soldiers, better equipment and survival odds can do wonders for the troops morale, and morale can improve their combat effectiveness.

If you have better gear than the opponent and that one time they stabbed you only gave you a scare before you were good to go again the next day, you won’t feel like running away as much when something scary happens.

Mail shirts would be more convenient for maintenance and adjusting the size between people, but they just take too long to make and aren’t as effective as a cuirass. I considered buying the used ones in the country to give to those who aren’t on the frontlines, but then the materials would be of inferior quality.

I’m pretty sure the mass production of cuirasses will have mail shirts decrease in price anyway, so if they really want those they might be able to buy it with a soldier’s salary.

I also had helmets made that cover more of the head than just the top, but I made sure to not cover the ears, eyes, mouth and nose, so it ended up similar to the helmet I made when I was stuck in the monster territory, in other words, similar to the roman helmet.

Being able to breathe well can do wonders for the soldier’s stamina, I don’t need to explain why being able to see is good, and being able to hear orders and communicate with your fellow soldiers is good for the troop’s cohesion.

They currently use round shields, so I had to choose between kite shield (teardrop shape) and scutum (big rectangular roman shield, sometimes nicknamed tower shield) for the new shields.

Round shields are ok, but they don’t match the human body’s profile (like a standing rectangle), so I’m not a big fan.

The scutum is great for making tidy formations, but it’s hard to wield weapons larger than a short sword (like the gladius) together with it.

Since the soldiers are used to using spears, I went with the kite shield, but I made sure to suggest the roman style of combat to the army’s higher ups, which is essentially a throwing spear, big shield and short sword used in tight formations.

After improving the quality of the spears and having short swords made to substitute the blades they bring from home, I set up the making of training equipment, like weights for weight lifting and weighted shields, spears, short swords and armor. Of course I don’t have many made since, unlike with normal equipment, the soldiers can just take turns using the weights.

Oh, when it comes to the boots, I have to give it to the country; they do give the soldiers some pretty good quality leather boots. But then again, they have to. If the soldier gets some disease on his feet while marching just because it rained a little, that could delay the marching speed by too much.

And trust me, while fighting and formations always take the spotlight, being better at marching than your enemy can easily win wars.

I just had to set up a production of rubber soles for the boots and that’s that. I can’t synthesize rubber using chemicals, but since I used it in carriages and cars, the country’s production of natural rubber increased.

Equipment for those in higher ranks will have to be taken care of on a case by case basis since there can be a lot of variety in their preferences, especially when it comes to enchantments, that’s a logistical hell I’m not touching.

I’ll leave that to the proper logistics guys and just advise in terms of what kind of steel or alloy to use.

After making devices similar to photographic cameras and organizing some pilots to scout the enemy’s geography and fortifications I set off towards the training grounds.

All that took almost two months; I feel that’s pretty fast when you consider all that I did. But even now the civil war hasn’t started yet. Maybe it will take longer than we expected?

Well, more time for me to play soldier.