Chapter 409 - 198 - 202

Settling Down

Here's the second bonus chapter of the week courtesy of Daniel B. from the USA. Sorry I wasn't able to do more chapters this week. As today was father's day, I was only able to find time to edit the chapter I did late night yesterday. Hope you guys enjoy the read nevertheless!

With a stern expression, Lorist was seated within the tent and looking at the crestfallen knights of his family.

"Well, explain. Why aren't you saying anything even though all of you dared to go overboard? While having more manpower will add to our might, do we have enough to feed them all? The Felicitas Settlement has only just recently stabilized and we still need to send food there for this year as they can only begin to sustain themselves starting next year after the first harvests. I'm sure you've heard what Supervisor Spiel and Supervisor Camorra said just now. The food stash within the family dominion can only last us 8 more months at this rate.

"It's already the 12th day of the 7th month right now and there's only 4 months before the 11th month comes. And all of us will have to survive the winter for three whole months from the 12th month to the 3rd month next year. What comes after that? We'll run out of food by the 4th or 5th month. For two whole years, we've spent so much resources and funds to develop Felicitas Settlement and our future seemed so bright that I thought we could even relax for a bit. But you lot on the other hand gave the family another huge burden!"

Lorist was incredibly troubled as he had much to worry about. The Northlands had a total population of around 800000 people. During the pillaging of the duke's dominion, they moved another 300000 people. This time around, the family knights had swept clean all of the dominions of other noble families within the Northlands apart from those of the Kenmays, Shazin and Felim families and brought in another 280000 people into the dominion. Right now, apart from the original 200000 plus people within the dominion and the 800000 people that the Second Prince brought to the duke's dominion for the past two years, almost the whole of the population of the Northlands had been gathered up.

"I bet you thought that you could gain a lot of food from the dominions of those other noble families, didn't you? You all know how that plan turned out. The Second Prince has already sucked the whole of the Northlands dry. And do you know how much the nobles taxed their citizens during the reign of the Second Prince? 70 percent! 50 percent of that alone would go to the Second Prince. The commoners only had the bare minimum of food to survive. Otherwise, why would they be so willing to follow our soldiers back to the dominion as prisoners of war? The food we brought along with us was akin to something that they hadn't even had the chance to taste for a year or so. They also got to eat until they were full..."

Lorist laughed bitterly and thought back at the supply stations he passed by when he escorted the princess to the Wild Husbandry Province. During mealtime, the supply stations would be really crowded with elated commoners that were traveling to the Norton Family dominion. It was like they were holding a large banquet. When Lorist went to check out what was going on, he found that the magical beast meat porridge was a delicacy that those commoners didn't get to eat usually. Not only that, the porridge was cooked with salt, a rare commodity for commoners, and they also each received a piece of thick black bread.

If the commoners remained under the rule of their original lords, this season would be when they conducted the yearly potato harvest. Even though more than half of the crop was going to be taken away by the nobles, they would still be able to survive on some wild vegetation through the cold season in time for the winter harvests.

But the Norton Family forces arrived and captured their ruling noble, ransacked the castle, and forced all the commoners to leave with them. While some of them were unwilling in the beginning, upon hearing mentions of free housing and farmland, not to mention the relatively low tax rate, everyone was eventually convinced. And when the commoners saw the soldiers cook their porridges with thick slices of dried magical beast meat, they all scrambled for their share and happily accepted the status as a prisoner of war.

If Lorist had enough food, there would be absolutely no reason for worry. Without the 280000 commoners, even if they were to gain an extra 60000 prisoners, the family's food stocks could sustain the population of the dominion for up to 15 months. Even if some natural disaster were to happen, they would still be able to fare well. But with the extra 280000 mouths to feed, the supervisors estimate that their available food stash could only last another 8 months. Even if the year end potato harvests at Felicitas Settlement were to be taken into account, that would at most buy them another three months.

Settling down the 280000 commoners by allocating housing and farmland to them would also take up to two years at the very least. During that time, they will be dependent on the Norton Family for food. Add to the fact that a lot of manpower was required to develop Blackmud Marsh, those commoners would not be able to produce food for the next few years. For the next three years at the very least, the commoners were nothing but a burden to the family.

Taking a deep breath, Lorist looked at his knights with a stiff gaze and said, "What's wrong? Have you all turned mute? Where would we get food to feed all those people?"

Charade said with a hint of sobbing, "Milord, it's our fault. We've committed a mistake... Please punish us however you see fit..."

"Hand me the map of the family dominion as well as the map of the lands originally belonging to Count Spenseid," Lorist instructed Reidy.

"How many prisoners did you manage to capture this time?" Lorist asked.

"There are a total of 63248 people. Every soldier of the allied noble army that isn't dead has been captured by us. The First Legion of the Second Prince sustained around 11000 casualties with 8000 dead and around 3000 injured. We've already given them treatment and they can begin working after they recover within a few months," Charade said. While feeling awfully repentant, he still had a good grasp of the statistics.

It was no exaggeration that the allied noble army of the Northlands numbered around 100000 soldiers. However, after they had been completely defeated, not a single managed to escape capture. Even their base was wiped clean completely.

"How many of those nobles are still alive?" Lorist asked.

"47 of them. There were 20 who resisted and were hanged by us," Charade said in a low voice.

"Sigh..." Lorist thought deeply in silence before saying, "Supervisor Camorra, you will bring Tarkel with you to deal with these nobles and hang those who don't behave well. Send the nobles entitled by the Second Prince out of the border. As for the original nobles of the Northlands, treat them the same we do the Spenseid Family and give them a yearly pension. As their castles have been destroyed by us and their commoners moved to our domain, sending them back would be equal to sending them to their deaths. We can only postpone the assignment of new dominions to them for the future."

"Yes, milord," said Camorra.

Reidy came back with the maps and laid them up on the table.

"Since the three of you were the main cause of the trouble, you will be in charge of fixing it. Knight Potterfang, lead three heavy-armored infantry brigades to escort the prisoners to Blackmud Marsh to begin their work term. Remember two things. First, the defensive walls and entrenchments from Tortoise Hill to Hidebull Mound must be completed before the 11th month. Just use the dirt dug out for the entrenchments as material for the defensive walls and pour water over them during the winter to freeze them up. I don't want to mess around with the magical beasts again during winter this year, so we'll bar what remains of the magical beast wave outside the walls.

"Second, the construction of roads at Blackmud Marsh can be slowed down for now. I will have the carroballista division cooperate with you to eliminate those Ironspine Crocodiles. However, the construction of the roads near the coast have to be sped up so that we can have a pathway to the highland hills soon. I hope that we can begin searching for a suitable place near the coast to build a shipyard, understood?" Lorist said as he tapped the map with his finger.

Potterfang straightened his body as he said, "Yes, milord. I will definitely fulfill your two demands."

"Don't agree to them so quickly before hearing the whole thing. The width of the wall I mentioned just now must be increased until we can at least fit two rows of chariots lined side by side," Lorist said. As two rows of chariots occupied up to 5 meters of width, the workload of the construction of the wall would be almost doubled.

Stunned, Potterfang asked, "Milord, why do we need it to be wide enough for two rows?"

"The distance between Tortoise Hill and Hidebull Mound is more than 10 kilometers. Are you going to have our family soldiers run that distance every single day? We must make it so that it is wide enough for two rows of chariots so that during emergencies we can mobilize the carroballista division to defend ourselves, understood?"

"Yes, milord," said Potterfang as he lowered his head in embarrassment.

"Knight Charade, you will have a lot on your hands to do. First, the distribution of farmland to the citizens of Felicitas Settlement must be completed by the end of this year. Don't forget to get the planting going as the land is being distributed. There is still enough time from now to the 11th month to plant some potatoes. We must definitely make use of as much planting area as we can as food is of critical importance right now. After harvesting the potatoes, you have to have the citizens there begin the planting for the winter wheat and tell them that magical beasts will no longer come this winter so that they won't have to worry about their crops being ruined and can plant without worries. Next year, the family will only collect 10 percent of their harvest, so the more they plant. the more they have remaining for themselves."

"I understand, milord. I will definitely do it well," Charade said.

"You can leave small matters like these to Butler Boris. What you have to focus on is not that," Lorist said, before he pointed to the commoner camp outside the tent. "You will be forming a labor team of youths from the 200000 plus commoners that have just arrived to begin building a town at Poplar Coast. I want to use the town there as a supply center to facilitate the development of Blackmud Marsh. So, transport the related development resources there.

"Additionally, we also have to prioritize the construction of the rear city at Firmrock Castle. Both the defensive facilities as well as the residential areas must be completed before the end of next year to spare me from seeing half-completed rubble all day. After these two projects are complete, you can prepare the construction of the Firmrock frontal city.

"Lastly, come over to take a look at the dominion formerly belonging to Count Spenseid. Loze, you come over here too," Lorist said as he tapped on the map on the table.

Both of them walked towards the table obediently.

"The land encompassing the dominion of Count Spenseid as well as several other nobles around the area is one of the rare places within the Northlands which is rich with aquatic plants. There are also 8 lakes in total, with three of them being larger ones, which are extremely suited for reclamation for agricultural production. I have decided to call this place Salus Settlement and from today onwards, that land belongs to the Norton Family.

"Salus Settlement can be divided into eight sectors similar to Felicitas Settlement. Knight Charade, you will be responsible for settling the 200000 plus commoners there. I will have Supervisor Kedan assist you with arranging for their residence as well as making a registry of their households. Supervisor Spiel will be in charge of the distribution of food while Supervisor Hansk will aid you with surveying and planning. I need the place to be managed like the towns of the seven sectors of Felicitas Settlement.

"But, after you divide the Salus Settlement into eight sectors, only focus the developmental efforts on three or four sectors first. The remaining ones shall be developed when we have a bigger population. Make sure to take the soonest opportunity to have the commoners plant potatoes on the reclaimed farmland. It's always better to have some extra food. As for Loze, all three brigades of your pike cavalrymen will be stationed at Salus Settlement and be responsible for the security of the area," Lorist explained. He had spent much of his recent time in coming up with the plan to handle the extra citizens.

"Milord, why don't you just move the commoners into the dominion? Look, along this path from Firmrock Castle to Maplewoods Bastide, the Felicitas Settlement on the left that is near the Bladedge Mountains has already began developing. On the right side, we have the Black Forests and that land is even wider than the Felicitas Settlement. It would definitely be able to house more people than Felicitas Settlement," Charade said.

Lorist shook his head and said, "We still haven't ascertained the safety of that area. I don't plan to develop that piece of wasteland just yet. While we could still use it for husbandry, forget building towns and reclaiming farmland for now. Do you remember that three years ago, our supply convoy transporting resources from Maplewoods Bastide to Firmrock Castle was attacked by barbarians near that area? Fortunately, Josk was there and used his divine archery skills to kill more than 30 barbarian soldiers in one go, sending the rest scurrying back into the Black Forests in fear.

"Until we deal with the mountain barbarians, it's better to leave that wasteland untouched for now. If they show up there and are discovered by us, we will use our forces to eliminate them. But if we start developing the area and the barbarians attack during that time, the laborers will sustain quite a lot of casualties. At that time, we will have to divert more military force to ensure the safety of the developers and stretch ourselves thin, so it is far from ideal.

"Now that only the four allied families remain within the Northlands, we are relatively safe from outside threats and don't have to rely as much on the defense of Firmrock Castle to ensure the safety of our dominion. As long as we can build reasonably good defense infrastructure at the towns and villages of the Salus Settlement like those of Felicitas Settlement, even if enemies invade us, the garrison there will be able to withstand the first wave of attacks. After that, our family forces will go to reinforce them and wipe the enemy out.

"That's why, the development of Salus Settlement is one of our top priorities. The invasion of Duke Loggins and the Second Prince have boosted the reputation of us, the Family of the Raging Bear, and it's about time we stretched out our claws towards more territory lest we be regarded as turtles who only know how to hide within our comfort zone. Do you guys understand now?"

"Understood, milord," replied the knights within the tent in unison.

"Also, there are two other things. The first is to make sure some plot of land is set for the construction of a bastide in each of the eight sectors of Salus Settlement. That will be left to Knight Charade," Lorist said.

"Milord, what is that for?" Charade asked curiously. He wondered why there would be a need for a bastide when there was already a central town in each sector where soldiers could be stationed.

Lorist laughed and said, "The family already has 6 Gold ranked knights. According to tradition, each one of them should already be given their own bastide. I've been delaying that right of theirs for the past two years as there were too many matters in the family that had to be settled first. Now that the time is right, it's about time they be given their own manorial estate bastides. The construction of two of those manor bastides is due to Terman and Yuriy's quick progress in training during the recent years. Since they left the academy a few years ago, they've already trained to the peak of the Silver rank from the Three Star Silver rank. Within two or three years, I believe that they'll be able to break through to the Gold rank. At that time, we should have those manors ready for them.

"Knight Charade, you also have to train harder and not fall behind. Also, Dulles, don't be so smitten by the might of the carroballistas. You should not neglect your training as it is also quite important as well. If you're able to reach the Gold rank, then you'll definitely have your own manor as well. I can even help you form another carroballista division which you will be the commander of."

"Really?" said Dulles excitedly.

"I won't lie to you," Lorist said as he nodded.

"Alright, then I'll begin training hard tonight when I get back," Dulles said as he patted his chest, causing everyone present to laugh out loud.

When the laughter died down, Lorist's expression turned serious again when he said, "Yuriy, I heard that you were the most enthusiastic one during the pillaging of the other nobles. This second matter will be handed to you. During the 8th month, Old Man Balk will be bringing the woodworking masters to the Black Forests to look for suitable wood. You shall lead your cavalry troops to serve as their escort and make sure that not one of them get injured, understood?"

"Yes, milord. Just like you said, these masters are all valued talents of the family. I will definitely give it my all to ensure their safety. If I knew that beforehand, I would've picked up woodworking myself in the past," said Yuriy, whose voice gradually lowered as he continued.

"It's not too late if you start now, you know. I can give you two years of vacation for that and when you come back, you will become the first knight carpenter of the family. When we go to war in the future, I will make sure to send a group of soldiers to protect you too," said Lorist, who had heard what Yuriy muttered.

"Milord, there's no need for that. Otherwise, I think you'll ask me to carry a saw instead of a sword into battle..." Yuriy responded with a bitter look.

The people within the tent broke into another bout of laughter.

Master-Disciple Conversation

Hi guys, here's your first regular chapter of the week. Very soon, we'll be hitting Chapter 200! (But technically, this is the 200th chapter if you include Chapter 0, so semi-milestone I guess?) Enjoy the read!

It was a good day for Howard as he had managed to awaken his Battle Force successfully after receiving permission from Lorist. Howard would be 17 years old in another six months' time.

In actuality, he had long been hoping that he would be able to awaken his Battle Force sooner and stay by his master, Lorist, to receive his teachings like his senior apprentice brother Reidy. But after Lorist gave his body's condition a check, Howard was prevented from awakening his Battle Force. Due to being birthed into an era of war, he and his sister Alisa spent two whole years living on the bare minimum of necessities before they were located by their father Potterfang. Because of that, Howard's body condition wasn't in an optimal state.

That was why Lorist felt that there wasn't a need for him to awaken his Battle Force so early and instead focus on building up the basics first so that he could travel further in the path of Battle Force training in the future and become a Gold ranked knight like his father. Being incredibly respectful of Lorist, Howard followed the routine his master drafted for him very strictly for two whole years before he was allowed to awaken his Battle Force.

Following behind Reidy, Howard entered the study and bowed respectfully to Lorist who was sitting at his desk. He greeted, "Master."

Lorist, who was in the middle of contemplating something, raised his head and smiled when he saw Howard. He was very satisfied with that second disciple of his that was witty, passionate about learning, hard working and upright. As he had to take care of his sister and survive in the war-torn imperial capital, Howard matured much faster than ordinary youths of his age.

Time really flies. Four years back, Lorist was still at the Dawn Academy being pushed around by the academy head to fight against Silver ranked instructors from other academies, eventually including even all the Silver ranked swordsmen and mercenaries within Morante City to spread the name of the academy. It was then when Lorist met with Potterfang on the dueling platform and defeated him. After that, he took Reidy in as his attendant when Els gifted him with a luxurious carriage. During the same night, he saw Potterfang and his two children sleeping at the public park.

And so he went to have a chat with him, during which two Gold ranked swordsmen wanted to cause trouble for Lorist. With Potterfang's aid, Lorist managed to kill the two assailants. Given that Potterfang was injured from battle, Lorist had Reidy bring Potterfang's two children back home and after living together for half a year, he even took Howard in as his disciple. Currently, that quiet youth who liked to read had already grown up, just like Reidy who came before.

"Howard, why isn't your rowdy sister Alisa here today?" Lorist asked with a warm smile.

"Master, did you forget? Alisa brought the Chino brothers with her to follow Miss Telesti to the Bladedge Mountains," Howard said.

Patting his head, Lorist thought, darn, I've forgotten about this completely.

For the past two years, Telesti kept Lorist's promise to build an academy in her mother's name in her mind. Before that happened, Lorist gave Telesti a task, and that was to gather up the various young children of the family knights, boys and girls of ten plus years of age, to educate them in basic cultural education.

Among these children, the 11-year-old Alisa was a boss-like figure who led around the Chino brothers as her minions. The Chino brothers were actually the twin sons of Gold ranked knight Chino Freiyar and one of their favorite pastimes was following Alisa around to mess with other kids.

Of all the children, Telesti's favorite was Alisa and she had intended to raise her into a scholar like herself just like how her adoptive mother, Lady Nico, passed her knowledge onto Telesti and trained her as a scholar. However, Telesti's efforts and attention on Alisa had all been in vain.

Even Lorist could not have imagined that Alisa's idol was Pesha instead. It all happened when Alisa witnessed Pesha leading a few other female soldiers on horseback passing through the central highway of Firmrock Castle. It was at that moment when the elegant form of horse-riding was imprinted into Alisa's head, causing her to make an oath to be a female knight on the very next day.

Alisa's relationship with her father as of late had also turned a little awkward. Two years back, Count Spenseid's widowed daughter had become Potterfang's maidservant. Just recently, she had been impregnated, and Potterfang focused his attention on his maidservant and her unborn child while neglecting her daughter in the process. Feeling that she had been forgotten by her father, Alisa promptly ran away from home, and when she traveled to Telesti's residence, she made up her mind to stay there for good.

Back at the beginning of the year when they first eliminated the magical beast wave, Lorist told Telesti happily that the preparatory work for the construction academy could begin. That was why Telesti set out with her students during the 6th month to Bladedge Mountains to find a scenic place on which to build the academy.

However, the choosing of the place took quite a long time. Even though Lorist had already defeated the Second Prince's 100000-strong army, and even wiped out most, if not all, of the nobles aside from the families in alliance with the Nortons, Telesti's trip would take two more months according to the messenger. The operation was progressing at a rather slow rate as Telesti and her students didn't hold back on having fun at the mountains and only managed to survey half the area so far.

"Come, Howard, stretch your hand out so I can read your pulse," Lorist said.

Howard placed his hand on the desk in response. Pulse-reading was no longer foreign to him as it was through using that technique that Lorist had managed to identify the condition of his body.

"Not bad. Your body's in great condition. Howard, for the next three months, you must focus on your Battle Force training from morning till noon and serve as my attendant in the afternoon. Three months later when your Battle Force stabilizes, you will also have to go through an arduous test just like your senior apprentice brother Reidy did and use the spinning chair to hone your dynamic vision. You better be prepared," Lorist said satisfiedly. Not only was Howard's body in perfect health, his foundations for training were also rather firm.

"Master, I've long been ready," Howard said with a look of seriousness.

"Alright. As there's only the three of us, master and disciples, here today, let's not be too formal. There's still much time in the days ahead. If there's anything you don't understand, Reidy can inform you about it. You can also ask me about it too. When we're in the presence of others, just call me milord like everyone else. But when we're together in a private setting, just refer to me as master," Lorist said.

"Master, I've always had a question about the family's military strategy and plans and I don't know why you chose to do what you did. Can I ask something about that?" Howard said, not holding back.

"Go ahead," Lorist said with a smile.

"Master, with the might of the Norton Family, we can already rival a kingdom in terms of military force. Ever since the convoy arrived at the Northlands, we've managed to defeat the Duke of the Northlands without much difficulty and that time, you have already accepted the entitlement of the Andinaq Kingdom and have been was considered an enemy of the Iblia Kingdom. We could've taken over the whole of the Northlands rightfully. But why did you not do that and insist on staying within the family dominion and allow the rest of the Northlands be occupied by the Second Prince, leading to the battle we fought with him recently? I really don't understand your intentions, master..."

Howard looked at Lorist with a straight face and earnestly wished that his question could be answered.

Lorist smiled and thought that it was interesting that the first person who had actually questioned Lorist's decisions was his own disciple. He nodded approvingly and said, "Howard, let me ask you a question. What do you think a person who has traveled far for an extended period of time would wish for when he returns to his homeland?"

"He should be visiting his home as soon as possible, I suppose," Howard responded after giving it some thought.

"That's right. He wouldn't think of having a drink first nor meet up with his old friends for a chat. Similarly, he wouldn't bother with the fact that his enemy's territory was conquered by another person. All he would care about is to return home as soon as possible, take a warm bath, and experience blissful time with his family. When everything calms down later, only then would he go get a drink at a tavern and tell the tales of his travels to his old friends. Or, he could go find trouble with his neighbor against whom he bears a grudge.

"In a way, our northbound convoy is that homesick traveler that just experienced a long and arduous journey filled with hardships and bloody battles, before finally arriving at the Northlands after walking a path of slaughter. Do you know the real thing that held everyone together the whole time? Do you remember how we encouraged the people of the convoy to persevere?"

Howard hesitated before he said, "The slogan for the northbound convoy was 'free housing and farmland to restart peaceful lives'..."

"That's right. Most of the people within the convoy had never been to the Northlands before. But because of our slogan and promotion, they have started to believe that our family dominion is the haven they have always craved. That's one of the main reasons why everyone was able to endure the journey with us and hate Duke Loggins in unison as he was the one who attempted to invade our haven. It was because of that hate that the morale of our soldiers were able to be so high as to allow us to easily crush the duke's forces.

"Come over here and look, Howard. This is the map of the Northlands. What thoughts do you have about this?" Lorist said as he stood up and headed to the wall on which a map of the Northlands was hung.

"The Northlands is incredibly large, master," Howard said.

"That's right. The Northlands is indeed large. Let's see, if we had proceeded according to your thoughts and conquered the duke's dominion, what do you think would happen?" Lorist asked as he pointed at the surrounding area of the duke's dominion. "These landed nobles would take mainly two actions. Either they can try to get on our good side, or resist us. Regardless of the choice they make, it will cause our family to be unnecessarily tangled up with them. The family forces will also have to be spread out. Not only do we have to defend the Hendliff Suspension Bridge and eliminate the nobles hostile to us, we will also lose the ability to act on our own initiative.

"Just like this," Lorist said as he opened his hand, "we would be spreading our fist into several fingers and put each finger against the fists of others in a fight. Not only will that cause harm to us, it will also cause us to lose the most important things, the spirit of the people and morale, mainly because we didn't fulfill our promise and dragged the commoners and soldiers into another era of war.

"That's the main reason I gave up on taking the duke's dominion for myself and focused on bringing everyone into the family dominion. During the past three years, we've developed the Felicitas Settlement, eliminated the magical beast wave and fulfilled our promise to distribute houses and farmland, granting them the peaceful lives they deserve. That's why, even though the Second Prince brought his troops of 100000 to face us, we were still able to gain victory within a single battle."

"But master, even though this time around we gained a huge victory in battle, you didn't even think about taking the duke's dominion and instead formed an alliance with the other three families and gave them so many benefits while not gaining any for ourselves. I believe that your decision wasn't too logical," Howard said.

Lorist laughed out loud and stroked Howard's head before he said, "How bold of you to say that to me.

"My explanation is still the same. The Northlands really is too big. Look here, traveling from Firmrock Castle to Gildusk City would already take 5 days, 7 days if you're planning to go all the way to Hendliff Suspension Bridge. Even if we take over the whole Northlands, information alone would take lots of time to transfer from one part to another. Additionally, those three families have also been on rather good terms with us. While it would be easy to turn our friends to enemies, our family stands to lose quite a lot by doing that. I know that our family soldiers are mighty, but needless sacrifices are nothing but wastage. Even if we take over the duke's dominion, will we still have enough resources to develop Blackmud Marsh?

"The future of our family and by extension, that of the Northlands, does not lie with those two suspension bridges. If the enemy seals off the other side of Metropoulos River, we will be effectively locked out and be unable to contact the outside world. Forming an alliance with the other three families is akin to passing that burden to them so that they can defend the two bridges while our family can use the bridges to procure more food and resources from the outside world as well as sell our own produce to them like salt and other goods.

"I believe I've already mentioned why I'm so focused on my own dominion, and that is because only our family dominion has access to the sea among all the other places in the Northlands. When we form our fleet, we will be able to travel to the other coastal nations of Grindia and that will be when our family's development will truly take flight. After that, the Northlands will one day be truly dominated by the banner of the Raging Bear."

"But master, what if the three families don't allow that to happen?" Howard asked.

"They will have to agree. By the time our family's might puts pressure on them, they will look for the soonest opportunity to leave the Northlands. Maybe we can even help them obtain new dominions of their choice. Howard, it is praiseworthy that you are ambitious for conquest. But your current thoughts are almost identical to that of the various powers struggling for domination right now in that you want to alpha strike[1] everything, and that is not to be encouraged," Lorist said.

"Master, what's an alpha strike?" Howard asked.

"In war, one has to consider not just the military aspect. There are lots of other factors that seem unrelated at first but will actually decide one's victory. War is actually a struggle for supremacy between two nations and it involves an incredible number of profound plots and tactics. The victor is always the one who makes the best preparations.

"However, it's a shame that there has yet to be any military experts in Grindia that has noticed this fact. All they know is to wage battle using the grandest of maneuvers. They are in a way similar to chess players. The winning player will no longer have the pieces necessary to face off against other opponents.

"Take for instance the Second Prince. During the three years he was at the Northlands, he put in lots of effort and finally managed to form his First Legion. Combined with the soldiers of other nobles, he has a force of about 100000 men. If he didn't cause any trouble for the Norton Family, who do you think he would target instead?"

After Howard gave it some thought, he said, "The Madras Duchy."

"Not bad. His target is very likely to be the Madras Duchy as our Second Prince is a person who holds grudges deeply. Naturally, there's no doubt that he hates our family the most now. But if he didn't act against us, he would definitely have sent his 100000 soldiers to the Madras Duchy. Needless to say, the duchy would have made their own preparations as well, so an intense battle would break out causing both sides to be crippled in the end with not one of them being able to continue any further. They will eventually have to sign a peace treaty for a few years to lick their wounds. After that, they would rebuild their army and have another conflict a few years later. That's the alpha strike I was talking about.

"If you have a constant stream of reinforcements however, no matter how many casualties you sustain, do you think the other side would be able to hold on? The result is obvious in that the side without reinforcements would definitely end up defeated. But take a look at the various duchies and kingdoms that have split from the Krissen Empire right now. Most of them build up their forces, engage in battle, and either gain or lose a little before signing a peace treaty that lasts only a few years. That is the alpha strike in action. Apart from worsening the standard of living of the commoners, there is completely no long-lasting benefit to it," Lorist explained.

"Master, I think I understand what you're trying to say. War is not chess and it requires might and power to fall back and rely on. And as you said, the more our family develops the dominion, the stronger our family will end up being, and the more victories we will obtain in the long run, right? That's why you focus on developing the dominion unlike other nobles who think that conquering more territory is automatically better," Howard said with a tone of realization.

"Not bad, that's exactly it. Howard, you'll definitely become a stellar strategist in the future," Lorist said as he laughed.

[1] Alpha strike: Putting all available resources into one attack. A little similar to a zerg rush. Read more.

Reidy's Request

And finally we've hit Chapter 200 with the second regular chapter of this week! Once again I can't stress enough that it is your readership and support that has kept me going for all this time. It is my passion to share this work with others who love it, but is unable to read it in its original language. Here's to hoping that we'll hit the 300th chapter milestone without a hitch!

"Come on, Reidy, don't just stand there laughing. Howard will be relying on you in his training from now on and it's your duty to guide him as his senior apprentice brother. Oh, and I just remembered that I haven't given you a reward yet since you broke through the SIlver rank a few months ago and I took you in as a family knight, right? What do you want as that gift?" Lorist asked with a smile.

Lorist was quite satisfied with both his disciples. Reidy was a quiet person who was earnest and loyal and was gifted with strength that was better than most. His body's condition was one of the best available with his mind also being keen and insightful. In other words, he was pretty talented on both the physical and the mental. During his four years journeying with Lorist, he trained from the Two Star Bronze rank all the way to the Silver rank, meaning that he broke through one rank every year and was progressing at breakneck speed. The ignorant youth from back then had already become a magnificent and prominent Silver ranked knight.

However, Reidy did something that was completely out of Lorist's expectations. He approached Lorist's study desk and suddenly kneeled down, saying, "Master, I want to train in the internal energy method you mentioned..."

Lorist was shocked as he came to realize that while he wasn't sure whether Blademaster Xanthi and Princess Sylvia truly believed that his technique originated from the ancient martial monks as his story suggested, Reidy definitely fell for it hook, line and sinker.

"Cough... cough, cough..." Lorist almost choked himself to death as he was in the midst of swallowing some tea. After clearing his throat and standing up, he said, "Reidy, you must understand that if you train according to the high-ranked Battle Force manual I gave you, you'll definitely become a Gold ranked knight in the future. And when you reach the peak of the Gold rank, you might be able to gain some sudden insights and become a Blademaster.

"It's not that I don't want to teach you the technique, it's just that training in internal energy is much too different from training in Battle Force. For you, it's like learning a whole new set of things that is totally unrelated to what you have done before. As I'm not sure whether you'll be able to take it all in, I cannot guarantee whether you will succeed or not. Right now, you are already far more fortunate than I was before and don't have to take so many risks like I did in the past. And just like what I said to Princess Sylvia, I'm still unsure of how I would continue improving down the road with my technique.

"Are you sure you want to train in internal energy? When I began training in it, I was still at the Iron rank and it was only done out of desperation. After beginning internal energy training, you will also no longer be able to rise in rank in Battle Force training. Right now, you're already at the Silver rank and I'm not sure what will happen if you begin training in internal energy from there. As this heavily concerns your future, I really don't recommend that you to train in this art."

"Master, I really want to learn it," Reidy said while raising his head and looking at Lorist resolutely.

While Reidy had many good points, his stubborn attitude was definitely not one of them.

Lorist gave it some thought before waving his hand and telling both Reidy and Howard, "Both of you should leave for now. Give me some time to think. Reidy, I will give you three days to reconsider. After that, I will give you my answer."

"Okay, master," said both of them before they left.

Lorist fell into deep thought as he tapped onto the surface of the table with his finger. He understood Reidy well; that disciple of his was someone who would not turn back after making his decision. During the past four years, Reidy had already become one of Lorist's most trusted people. Putting other things aside, based on Reidy's personality alone, Lorist was sure that his grandfather from his past life would definitely like him quite a lot and take him into their school of training without the slightest hesitation. Currently, Lorist wasn't hesitating about whether to teach him the technique, but rather whether Reidy will be able to learn it properly. He was worried that venturing into uncharted territory like this would heavily affect Reidy's future.

After all, the two paths were completely separate and distinct methods. As the Aquametal Technique was a hereditary technique, Lorist couldn't teach it to anyone except his own kin. It wasn't that there were any other internal energy schools within this world, but it was best if Lorist kept a trump card like his family's hereditary technique to himself in a foreign world like Grindia.

If Reidy really insisted on wanting to train in internal energy, Lorist was prepared to teach him the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique. In comparison to the Aquametal Technique, the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique was more stable and calm. It was one of the internal energy techniques that the ancestors of Lorist's family in his past life had modified based on another cultivation school's technique and it was split into five stages, each with increasing difficulty. The first two levels were rather easy and focused on guiding the ki into the body, cultivating the practitioner's grasp and mastery over it, and refining the body itself, further enhancing one's physical qualities. The latter three levels would compound in difficulty and anyone who managed to train successfully to the peak was definitely blessed with unparalleled talent.

Lorist had heard his grandfather of his past life mention before that one of his ancestors in the Qing Dynasty had took in an orphan as a disciple. After 30 years of painstaking training to reach the 5th stage of the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique, that orphan was able to contend with one of the most powerful martial masters within the republic that succeeded the dynasty and his reputation was quite well known in the martial world. After that when the enemy invaded the republic, that man went to the battlefield for his country and gained one achievement after another in battle. But in the end, that person disappeared during one of his battles and was never heard from again.

Perhaps it was a rather good idea to teach Reidy the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique. Firstly, that act would leave a lasting mark on the civilization of this world and be able to differentiate the training method of the Norton Family from other people's in the future. Also, if Lorist chose to teach the Aquametal Technique to his descendants in the future, they wouldn't be the only ones training with internal energy. Additionally, the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique was indeed used by Lorist's past life ancestors to teach disciples of their school that didn't belong to their bloodline and unlike the Aquametal Technique, there wasn't a restriction on teaching it to others.

Aside from that, Lorist was also quite curious to see what results would take shape after Reidy trains in the technique. He could also use this chance to understand the effects of melding Battle Force and internal energy training. Little did Reidy know that if he insisted on training in internal energy, he would essentially become a guinea pig for Lorist's experiment.

After making his decision, Lorist no longer hesitated and took out a pen and a piece of beastskin and began drafting.

Three days later, Reidy appeared before Lorist again.

"Have you made your decision? Are you sure you won't regret it?" Lorist asked.

Reidy didn't say anything and merely nodded.

Lorist opened his drawer and took out a beastskin on which a diagram of the human body was drawn and handed it to Reidy. "I will give you three months to memorize everything on that diagram."

Receiving the diagram, Reidy asked curiously, "Master, what is meant by the 'pressure points' you drew in this diagram? Also, what are 'meridians'?"

"You can think of pressure points like the circulation nodes of the bloodstream in Battle Force training. However, it's completely unrelated to them. And while meridians aren't really visible to the eye like blood vessels, you can think of them as an imaginary blood circulation system. However, what flows within is not blood but internal energy. Right now, you have to remember the position of the pressure points and meridians within the human body."

Lorist sighed before he continued, "Reidy, this is a completely different training method to Battle Force and you have to unlearn all the concepts you used and remember all you see on that diagram by heart. Only after that will I teach you how to guide ki into your body and circulate the internal energy. This is an extremely risky move and I have no idea whether you will succeed at all. Are you truly sure you want to train in internal energy?"

Reidy nodded resolutely and said, "Master, I really do. If I continue to train in Battle Force, I will eventually become a Gold ranked knight and perhaps even a Blademaster like you said, but that will take far too much time and I would probably be around 50 years old by then. But if I learn internal energy from you, I might be able to defeat Blademasters before the age of 30 like you."

Lorist was struck with realization as he recalled that he told Princess Sylvia that he had begun training in the 'technique of the ancient martial monks' at the age of 18 when he could no longer make any progress to break through to the Silver rank. Right now, he was only 20 and within 10 short years of training in internal energy, Lorist was able to defeat Blademaster Xanthi. It was no wonder that Reidy was so motivated.

Right now, Reidy was already 20 years old and he had just broken through to the Silver rank recently. If he continued to train in Battle Force, he might be able to become a Gold ranked knight but he definitely wouldn't be a Blademaster at that age. But if he trains in internal energy, he might turn out to be another Lorist within ten years and be able to kill Gold ranked knights as easy as he killed chickens and even take a Blademaster head on. Given Reidy's unyielding personality, it was a given that he would insist on wanting to train in internal energy.

Lorist laughed out loud and stepped to Reidy's side and ruffled his hair. "Just give it your best effort. As long as you can remember everything on the diagram, you can take your first step into internal energy training. I will pay close attention to your progress in the near future, so don't let me down."

...

Howard knocked on the door twice and heard Lorist say, "Come in."

Pushing open the door, Howard reported respectfully, "Milord, Grandmaster Sid and Grandmaster Fellin are both here. They even brought with them a few sets of armor."

Lorist stood up and said, "Come, let's go take a look."

Upon reaching the reception room on the second floor, they saw Grandmaster Sid leading a few servants around to place the armor down properly.

Before Lorist left Gildusk City to become Princess Sylvia's escort, he had already written Grandmaster Sid a letter with a request to design a few armor sets for the Kenmays, Shazin and Felim families. However, he didn't expect that before one month even elapsed, Grandmaster Sid was able to come up with 7 sets of armor that were ready for production.

Seeing Lorist and Howard arrive, Grandmaster Sid received them and said, "Milord, according to your orders, I have come up with these stainless steel armors, 3 of which are traditional types while the other 4 are the newer full-body ones."

"How are their defense capabilities?" Lorist asked. That was the main thing he was worried about because if they were too weak, he wouldn't be able to sell them.

"Milord, don't worry. Even though they're only half as tough as our own steel armor, they are still comparable to those of the Whitelion Legion. We've conducted experiments by shooting at these armor with the steel ballistas of our family and the bolts could only penetrate the armor if fired at a distance of 260 meters, 10 meters closer than the Whitelion Legion armor's 270. I suspect that is because the quality of the black iron produced by our family is too good," said the grandmaster. When it came to these armor, he spoke incessantly and enthusiastically.

"How much do they each cost to make?" Lorist asked.

Grandmaster Sid took a look around him before raising two fingers in the air and whispered, "Milord, they cost below 20 gold Fordes to make..."

Incredibly satisfied, Lorist replied quietly, "We'll quadruple the price when we sell them, understood?"

Grandmaster Sid laughed out loud and said, "Milord, I was just about to tell you that each set of Whitelion Legion armor cost 150 imperial gold coins to make in the former empire! Back then, the empire was still strong and the exchange rate of imperial gold coins wasn't as low as it is now at 3 imperial gold coins for 1 gold Forde. It should've cost around 108 gold Fordes according to the rates today. As you specified in your letter to prioritize controlling the cost to make the armor because you were prepared to sell them for 40 or 50 gold Fordes each, I felt that the profit margin was too low. I thought that we had to at least triple that amount."

Lorist laughed and said, "Alright. Grandmaster Sid, you should rest well these two days. When the people from the other three families come, brief them about these armor and try to sell it for more than 80 gold Fordes. For each set sold, I will give 10 gold Fordes to your armor development department as commision for you to distribute to the smiths who worked hard for this."

Grandmaster Sid stroked his goatee and happily said, "Rest assured, milord. I will show you what I can do when the day comes."

And so, when Baron Shazin, Baron Felim and Count Kenmays learned that they wouldn't be dealing with Lorist but instead the stingy Grandmaster Sid, they were all flabbergasted.

Lorist merely shrugged and said, "I had no choice. Even though I'm the dominion lord, I cannot oppose the grandmaster's wishes. He's the sole armorer that serves my family and he has a really high status. I can only abide by his wishes. Otherwise, if he leaves the family, my tears would all dry up before I even get to cry."

All the three other nobles nodded in unison as they understood that armorers were people whom even noble families couldn't exert total control over as they were the cornerstone of the might of their military force. They believed that Lorist truly had his own troubles and decided to first listen to Grandmaster Sid brief them on the armor.

When the grandmaster gave the presentation, he went all out and praised his creations like they were forged in the heavens themselves. To better convince the three dominion lords, he even had three sets of Whitelion Legion armor brought over so that they could compare and contrast them against his own creations.

The armor Count Kenmays took a fancy to was the one that was coated in a bright layer of silver. That armor had three unique features, with the first being its smooth surface. The second feature was the tight and encompassing protection it afforded to the body as a result of being a hybrid between plate armor and ring armor which gave it an incredibly sturdy look. Among the seven sets of armor, Grandmaster Sid praised it as the one with the highest defense which surpassed that of the Whitelion Legion armor by at least 10 percent. That was one of the main factors why it caught Count Kenmays's attention. Third, it was the most expensive one and each set was to be sold for 100 gold Fordes with no room for negotiation whatsoever.

However, Count Kenmays had one question, and that was why the armor was coated so brightly in silver while the Norton Family's armor was colored dull greyish silver instead.

Grandmaster Sid looked at Lorist with an insulting gaze and said to Count Kenmays, "That is because that lord of ours is too stingy and diluted the silver concentration with a ton of lead..."

Count Kenmays laughed out loud and said, "Fine. I will choose this set of armor and place an order for 20000 sets for now. Depending on the situation, I might want to add another 10000 more later."

Since Count Kenmays had made his offer, Baron Shazin and Baron Felim no longer held back. Shazin Hennard ordered 10000 sets of armor which was priced at 80 gold Fordes each while Baron Felim chose an armor that cost 85 gold Fordes and ordered 10000 sets as well. Lorist was surprised that the two didn't even attempt to bargain and made their orders so quickly.

Curious, Lorist asked, "Why didn't you even try to haggle? Did you find a gold mine or something?"

Count Kenmays laughed out loud and said, "You don't understand, Locke. Just a while ago, we managed to get into contact with Duke Madras and sold the armor we bought from you previously. The good ones sold for 80 gold Fordes each while the ones in worse condition sold for 45. It's a shame we didn't have enough as the duke plans to form two legions of soldiers and will require another 10000 sets of armor. After paying with the money we got from the duke, the order we just made will only cost our families around 20000 to 30000 gold Fordes."

Lorist stretched out his thumb and said, "Good for you. Since there's such a good opportunity, why don't you help me sell off our old armor for a ten percent commission? In the meantime, I'll need you to use that profit to buy some food for my dominion. I will also pay you ten percent of that price for that. Just by doing this, you'll be able to get a commission of 20 percent. You in?"

Count Kenmays clapped his hands and said, "Only an idiot wouldn't take this opportunity. However, why don't you contact Duke Madras and handle this transaction directly?"

Lorist laughed bitterly and pointed to Hennard before he said, "He knows the best that back then, the forces of us, the Norton Family, defeated Duke Loggins's forces because we were able to fight our way through the Madras Duchy and cross Metropoulos River from his dominion, causing him quite a bit of losses. That's why he later sealed off that crossing point and prevented anyone from crossing the river there. If my family intends to send a merchant convoy there, I'm afraid the duke will send his soldiers after it."

Hennard merely nodded and smiled.

"Alright, then I'll accept your proposal as a job for the salt merchant committee. However, Locke, you're far too stingy. You're already selling the committee your salt for 10000 gold Fordes per 1 million kilograms. Even though you're already making money off that, why are you still taking 10 percent of the profit by involving your family in the committee?" Count Kenmays said as he recalled the agreement they had made previously.

Lorist shrugged and said, "Well, I could leave the committee if you want. I just have to double the price of the salt I sell you."

"Then forget it, it's better if you stay in the committee..." Count Kenmays said exasperatedly.

A Failed Experiment

Here's the first bonus chapter of the week brought to you by Daniel B. from the USA as well. This one was a much longer than a usual chapter so it took a while.

BTW, there was a mistake in the last chapter tha stated Lorist's age as 20. Lorist is 28 years old as of the current chapter. Also, I just read a review of TRL on NovelUpdates by afaerytale that summed up all my feelings about the novel in a neat little essay! Thank you so much for the review and it really gladdens me that you like the novel as much as I do!

Black-colored powder could be seen gathered in a clump around which an oil-soaked rope circled. The rope stretched meters away like a long snake with Lorist near its other end holding a lit torch and looking at the black powder clump as if he was deep in thought.

This was his final attempt at that experiment. Lorist lit the oil-soaked rope with his torch and the flame traveled down the rope, quickly surrounding the clump of black powder.

Pssshhh! After letting out a sound and a flash of light, the black powder vanished altogether.

The result remained the same, causing Lorist to sigh in resignation. If he was back on Earth, that clump of black-colored gunpowder should explode. The danger of the explosion was what caused him to stand so far away in the first place. However, Lorist really couldn't understand why the gunpowder mixture from Earth based on sulfur, nitrate and coal, didn't react as intended on Grindia.

Lorist had collected the nitrate off the corners of the walls. As for sulfur, it was obtained by refining a herbal plant on Grindia which the herbalists use to make snake repellant to be sold to adventurers. The plant could be commonly found at places with volcanic activity and it was priced rather cheaply. As for coal, they were even easier to obtain. After getting the ingredients he recalled from his past life's experience, Lorist mixed a huge bucket of black powder and began experimenting with smaller portions before deciding to use them all up to carry out his final experiment. The results were still the same with the powder emitting a flash along with a hissing sound without anything else happening.

There was no explosion or loud noise. The air around the ignited powder didn't even heat up and expand.

That shouldn't be the case, Lorist thought as he scratched his head. Back when he was studying at Morante City, he had heard that the dwarven kingdom soldiers' main weapon was a firearm. Even though the power of those firearms were only slightly stronger than that of ballistas, they were still firearms nevertheless and Lorist felt that as long as he could synthesize some gunpowder, he would be able to shake up the era of cold arms and usher in a new age of domination of the Norton Family.

What he didn't expect was that actually making functioning gunpowder was more complicated than he had imagined. The recipe he remembered from his past life was of no use whatsoever, causing Lorist much frustration. Are those weapons used by the dwarves really firearms? What do they rely on to propel the projectile?

This wasn't Lorist's first attempt. Two months back, Lorist's attempts to make glass, porcelain, paper and cement, had all failed without exception. That caused him to realize that on Grindia, the chemical interactions between the particles were different than that of Earth.

Originally, he thought that making glass would be the simplest to achieve. As the owner of a crafts workshop back in his past life, Lorist was extremely well-versed working glass. He could fashion all sorts of shapes to make animals or other artistic pieces with glassblowing. On the Grindia Continent, the Teribo Kingdom is famed for their production of green glass, so Lorist felt rather confident that glass would be the first thing he would be able to replicate as the materials were simple, requiring mainly quartz.

But the results were like a strike on the head for Lorist. On Earth, after the quartz was melted, it would take a colloid form. After that, it would be relatively simple to use glassblowing techniques to split off a part of the molten glass and press it flat to make glass panes. That was the simplest method of making glass. However, in Grindia, Lorist discovered that the melted quartz turned into liquid form instead without any viscosity whatsoever and it would cool easily into droplet-shaped pieces. Even though they were hard, they were too fragile and there was no way to apply glassblowing to shape the material.

Not knowing why that was the case at all, Lorist went to seek out Charade as he felt that it was probably an issue with his materials. Perhaps, there was another material that he needed aside from quartz to make glass. Charade on the other hand was far too busy as he had been assigned by Lorist the daunting task of settling down the 200000 plus commoners that had just entered the dominion and couldn't be bothered to listen to Lorist's ramblings.

Seeing Lorist trouble him for such a trivial matter, Charade was enraged. Even though he was so busy that he was almost at the brink of death, Lorist had so much free time that he even tried his hand at glass making. Additionally, glass making is a highly protected secret of the Teribo Kingdom and Charade was merely born there and wouldn't know that method anyway. In the Teribo Kingdom, if one were to be found to be snooping around for the method of production and recipe for glass, one would no doubt be hanged.

Lorist laughed bitterly and told Charade that the green glass that cost only ten coppers in Morante City would be sold at 1 large silver each after the Kenmays Family shipped it from over there, with the price hiking up to almost ten times the original amount. Each gold Forde could then only be used to purchase 20 pieces of green glass within the Northlands. Upon mention of money and cost, Charade started to treat the matter seriously and he quickly wrote a letter to his father who was a merchant operating in the Teribo Kingdom and requested him to pay attention to what the glass factories usually purchased. As it doesn't directly involve seeking out the formula for glass production, it wasn't that risky. Additionally, once the materials were known, the mysteries of glass production could then slowly be researched.

Thus, the progress on glass research was put to a halt. After that, Lorist tried to begin making porcelain, only to fail again. In his past life, he had made replicas of various antique porcelain vases and Lorist was pretty sure he remembered the method for that quite clearly. As there has yet to be any porcelain products in Grindia, Lorist figured that he would try his hand at it and possibly come up with a new industry for his dominion.

At first, the porcelain vases and tiles he fashioned seemed fine. But after 7 days of drying, the results disappointed Lorist greatly. Take for instance a porcelain bowl. It should've been smooth and rounded. However, the surface of the bowl he made had a rugged surface and would crumble on touch, completely different from how porcelain should be. Lorist continued the experiments for one whole month and had no choice but to give up in the end to acknowledge his failure.

The same was the case with the attempt at reproducing paper. Two years ago right after the northbound convoy arrived at the dominion, Lorist gave Old Man Balk some instructions on paper production based on the information he remembered from his past life. But throughout these two years, the most they could come up with was borderline useless paper that was only good for use in the toilet. That kind of 'toilet paper' was already being produced at Morante City with the main ingredients being reed and rice stalks, which is priced at 1 copper coin per stack.

Lorist on the other hand tried using many other different materials, but the result was still the same soft and mushy paper with the only benefit being that it was slightly whiter and finer than the paper produced at Morante City, but cost way more to make with a far more complicated method of production. Even if that paper could sustain the demand of toilet paper within the dominion, causing the commoners to no longer have to use wooden rods to scrub their bottom clean after using the latrine, it didn't solve Lorist's need for the white writing paper at all.

And lastly there was concrete. In most fantasy stories, transmigrators like Lorist usually brought with them three of the greatest inventions, namely, glass, cement, and gunpowder. After the failing at glass production, Lorist figured he should give cement making a try. As the dominion was still in development, there was a great need for green vine glue and the 100000 buckets produced yearly at the Bladedge Mountains was not enough, causing Lorist to have to order 100000 more from the Kenmays Family. This year alone, the demand for it was 180000 buckets and that was no small burden for the family to bear. That's why Lorist wanted to see what he could do to decrease the reliance on green vine glue for construction.

The production of cement was actually rather easy. Lime and clay were first to be calcined before being powdered and mixed with sand and water. After the cement set, it would become concrete. Lorist had a few of his subordinates experiment around and managed to make a pile of cement. The problem was, the cement made was unable to harden. Even though it was mixed with water, it still didn't harden after three days passed and would crumble into pieces upon being kicked at lightly.

But one of his subordinates brought a bucket of green vine glue and added it to the cement mix before moulding it into a few sculptures. After only half a day, the sculptures did harden and were as sturdy as iron, being also far sturdier than green clay structures. But the reason Lorist wanted to reproduce cement in the first place was to replace green vine glue, not green clay.

And now, his latest research venture into gunpowder had failed as well. Was it because the chemical reactions of this world was markedly different from those of Earth? Lorist stroked his cheek as he began to sink into deep thought.

"Milord, what is it that you want to do?" Howard asked.

"Oh, nothing. I was just trying to make an explosive," Lorist replied.

"Explosive? What's an explosive?" Howard asked, confused.

It was at that moment when Lorist realized that there wasn't a term for explosion in the lexicon of the Grindian Language. While there were similar terms like eruption or bursting open, they didn't quite describe the phenomenon of explosion.

"Hmmm, how do I describe it... An explosive is a thing that explodes and an explosion describes a phenomenon in which an object bursts outwards in all directions from the inside when it expands too suddenly, releasing a huge burst of energy and damaging the surroundings in the process," Lorist defined.

"Oh, there's that sort of thing?" While Howard couldn't quite imagine it, he didn't forget to carry out his duty and reminded, "Milord, we should be heading to the ballista workshop of Grandmaster Fellin soon. We are scheduled to meet with him today."

"Alright then, let's go," Lorist said as he suppressed his frustration for now and got on his mount.

The only good news amidst his chain of failures is that the catapult he designed has been successfully implemented by Grandmaster Fellin. The presentation was scheduled for noon that day at the ballista factory situated near the Bladedge Mountains.

"Milord, based on the design blueprints you provided, we have ran all sorts of experiments and finally decided on the appropriate dimensions of this catapult that can throw a 50 kilogram rock at least 600 meters away. Congratulations, milord. You have successfully invented a new ranged weapon! This is the first catapult in the history of Grindia!" Grandmaster Fellin said excitedly.

However, the catapult in front of him looked rather displeasing. Not only was it huge, it was also incredibly heavy and looked far too different from the design Lorist drew on the beastskin blueprint.

"Milord, we had no choice but to do that. If it is not at least that heavy, we will be unable to ensure its stability," Grandmaster Fellin said after understanding Lorist's hesitant look. He quickly explained, "Milord, the hardest part of your design to implement is the arm of the catapult which has to be both tough and elastic. If the arm is too thick, it would cause the base of the catapult to rupture, but if it is too thin, it will break easily. We've tried making over 200 different catapult arms with different wood and discovered that the one we're using now is the most suitable. However, it still has to be switched out after ten shots or it will crack and snap."

Loirst nodded without saying anything else. What came next was seeing the catapult in action. That catapult had a rather simple construction and used the principle of levers. The huge catapult arm was suspended on a crossbar with the thick end of the arm bearing several heavy, filled boxes to serve as a counterweight with a leather pad tied at the thinner end in which a rock could be placed. A rope was used to fasten the thin end of the arm to the ground and after loading the payload, the rope would be cut and the thick end would be brought down by the counterweight, sending the thin end rocketing into the air and propelling the payload forward.

Lorist was finally assured as catapults were actually rather useful. Even though they weren't that accurate and the firing range wasn't always consistent with a margin of error of around 100 meters, it was considered a success as it was able to hurl rocks weighing near 100 kilograms into the distance. The next logical step was to find ways to improve upon the current design.

Lorist understood that the task of improving catapults couldn't be given to Grandmaster Fellin as he was not a good and insightful researcher despite being a good implementer. Lorist still felt that the most suitable person for the task is Grandmaster Sid. Even though he was an armorer, his mind was quite flexible from the fact that he also designed the various water-powered machines that occupied the space below the waterfall. It was that aspect of the grandmaster that truly caught Lorist's eye, and Lorist figured that since he designed those machines, he could try working on the catapult since it was a machine as well.

After a while, Howard brought Grandmaster Sid over and as expected, the grandmaster was instantly deeply occupied with trying to understand the principle of the lever and began his research immediately.

Directly following that, Lorist also invited Old Master Julian over and included him in the catapult research group along with Grandmaster Fellin and Grandmaster Sid. The reason Lorist had Julian in the team was because he hoped that the old master would be able to use the elastic steel he researched as material for the catapult arm. The base standard Lorist set for the catapults was for them to be at least as easy to aim and operate like the steel ballistas, requiring less than 10 operators per unit. It also had to be able to fire 500 meters away with a payload of above 25 kilograms and couldn't be too large lest they hinder the march of the army.

...

Within the Rose Palace located at the capital city of the Iblia Kingdom, Windbury City, the Second Prince made his return.

The Rose Palace, formally known as the Rose Provisional Palace, was called as such because the Second Prince felt that a true palace fitting for a descendant of the Krissen Imperial Family like him should be built at the imperial capital. That's why he called the palace he built at Windbury City a provisional one to symbolize his ambition to one day retake the imperial capital and return there.

Even though the Second Prince had made his way back, all the servants within the palace were unnerved because their master had completely changed in both act and appearance. He was volatile, unstable, decadent, manic and developed chronic alcoholism. Every day, he would seclude himself within his royal chambers and drink as much alcohol as he could while fooling around with women, losing himself in hedonistic pleasures of the flesh with abandon.

With his 100000-strong army gone within but a single battle and his peerless Blademaster being slaughtered right in front of him by a thick and long ballista bolt, the Second Prince was shocked completely out of his senses. He never would've even dreamed that the Norton Family's might would be that staggering and that Baron Felim and Baron Shazin whom he thought he had control over would rebel. When he was on his way back to Gildusk City, the Second Prince got news that the duke's dominion was under siege by the forces of those two families, forcing him to have no choice but to head to the dominion of the Kenmays Family and leave the Northlands using the suspension bridge.

Originally, he thought he could borrow three legions of soldiers from his father-in-law to fight his way back into the Northlands. But he wasn't aware that Duke Fisablen had already lost all hope for him as there was no way he could use three legions of soldiers to take the Northlands given that he had already lost 100000 within a single clash. That was something that would only happen in the Second Prince's dreams. Duke Fisablen had made up his mind to not let his three legions which he had spared no effort to build to march to their deaths with the Second Prince.

Having been refused entry to the city by his father-in-law, the Second Prine secretly made his way back to Windbury City as news of his complete defeat spread throughout the kingdom. Without any more soldiers under his command, none of the nobles of the kingdom treated him seriously. This sudden chain of events had caused the Second Prince to lose all his ambition and hole up within the Rose Palace to drink away his pain all day.

Sounds of music and laughter could be heard from far away. That was the hall where the queen stayed and a ball was being held there.

"That damned woman!" the Second Prince cursed with bloodshot eyes. While nobody even bothered to check out on him, his consort was actually hosting a ball that would progress into an orgy afterwards! The Second Prince really wanted to carry his sword and slaughter the rest of the frivolous men and women there.

"Fuck off!" he roared as he kicked a nude woman lying by the table aside. That was the maidservant who served alcohol to the Second Prince, but she had just been forcefully ravaged by her master to the point that she was barely able to move.

The woman was relieved that her life wasn't taken and hurriedly crawled aside. The Second Prince then took a few more gulps of alcohol and tried to drink himself to the lowest depths of drunkenness so that he could take his mind of the matters.

"Your Majesty, you cannot continue to waste away like this," a voice rang out from the corner of the hall.

"What do you think I can do at this point? I've left all my wealth at Gildusk City. All the resources I took from the Madras Duchy is gone! And the First Legion I spent three years building is gone too! No money, and no soldiers! Am I still fit to be king? Nobody looks at me in the eyes anymore... I'm finished... I've lost everything..." the Second Prince muttered.

A tall figure appeared before the Second Prince. That was his swordsmanship teacher, and the only remaining Blademaster by his side, Blademaster Zarinan.

"Your Majesty, no matter what, you're still a king. If you don't stand up again, the kingdom will truly lose its future. If you don't have soldiers, you can always recruit more. If you don't have money, you can always find ways to make more. Don't you still have your two iron mines? You can think of cooperating with that trading guild from the Trade Union that came back then and let them handle the iron mines. That way, you will have a source of income and can begin building another army..."

"No, no way... Half the produce of those mines must be provided to my father-in-law to replenish his own troops," said the Second Prince as he shook his head to freshen himself up. "Teacher, you are right. Since that old guy no longer cares about whether I live or die, then why would I help replenish the the equipment of his forces?! Tomorrow, I will send someone to seek out those from that trading guild and begin a cooperative relationship with them. As long as I can get the money to rebuild my army, I will even deal with a demon!

"Oh, and teacher, can you please make a trip to the Northlands? I want the head of the Norton Family's leader. If I don't kill him, I will never be able to eat and sleep in peace. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have been chased out of the Northlands and lose everything..." said the Second Prince with a manic look in his eyes.

"Your Majesty, assassination is not an action befitting of a king. There has never been a case where a king ordered the assassination of a dominion lord. If word of this gets out..."

"I don't care!" roared the Second Prince. "I must kill him! Teacher, you must bring me his head! I want to use it as my wine cup! Teacher, you can definitely fulfil this sole wish of mine just by making a single trip. Even if it's not for my sake, think of your junior apprentice brother, my Uncle Louinse, who died so horribly... Don't you want to avenge him?! Did you forget what your own master said about looking out for your junior apprentice brother?!"

The large man turned silent and after a long while, he opened his mouth and said, "Your Majesty, I shall agree to go to the Northlands and bring you the head of the Norton Family head. But I hope that you will never make a request of me that's so unfitting of a king again."

Assaulted [Cliffhanger 1 of 5]

Hi guys, here's the second bonus chapter of the week thanks to Daniel B. from the USA. There's another release coming in ten minutes, so make sure to not miss it! The arc finale is here and it will be a rather long chain of cliffhanger chapters, so bear with me!

The fair, slender figure twitched continuously from Lorist's thrusts accompanied by ecstatic moans. In the end, amidst the loud, long moan, Lorist's hot desires were emptied onto Irina's body.

After giving birth to her child, Irina got more plump and she was no longer small girl she used to be. Lorist took a page out of Hennard's book and made Irina his concubine as well as included her son into the family registry as his first successor candidate.

He continued to toy with Irina's breasts while basking in the climactic afterglow. After a while, she pushed Lorist away and said, "Milord, let me get some water to wash you down..."

Lorist said, "There's no need. Just stay put here before we go for another round..."

"Well, milord, can't we leave it for tonight? It's still only noon right now, aah..." Irina's words were cut short as Lorist once again shoved his manhood into her body...

After giving birth, Irina insisted on staying at Maplewoods Bastide to raise her child and refused to follow Lorist back to Firmrock Castle. She said that it was because she had spent all her life there and had long been used to the scenery and wasn't willing to go to somewhere foreign. Naturally, Lorist didn't force her to come along and allowed her to do as she pleased. However, whenever Lorist went to Maplewoods Bastide, he would spend a few nights there and get intimate with Irina as well as check on his newborn son.

In the 10th month, Lorist was much freer than he usually was mainly because the failures in his experiments had demotivated him quite a bit, causing him to stop his research efforts temporarily. After resting for almost a week at Maplewoods Bastide, Lorist was reminded by Howard that he had to head to Bladedge Mountains to bring Telesti back to Firmrock Castle. So, Lorist bid farewell to Irina and his son and left for the mountains with his guards.

Telesti and her ten plus students had picked a spot to build the academy that was not that far off from Wildnorth Town. There was a hill there where chrysanthemum plants prospered as well as a serene stream flowing nearby. Telesti liked that place a lot because of the beautiful scenery and ordered her guard escorts to set up camp there so that she could give her students some lectures on nature.

Just as Lorist arrived at the campsite, Alisa rushed straight to him and gave him a firm hug before she said, "Uncle Locke, you're finally here!"

Lorist stroked the girl's head affectionately and brushed some grass off her hair as he said, "You rowdy lass, where were you messing around at? Your hair is full of grass!"

Alisa giggled and said, "The Chino twins are real idiots. They couldn't even differentiate between chickweed and fiddleleaf plants and insisted that there were the same and could both be eaten. They were then given a long lecture by teacher..."

Chickweed was considered to be a medicinal plant that was slightly toxic while fiddleleaf could be consumed as a normal vegetable. As the two plants looked rather similar, it was quite common for careless or uninformed people to think that they're both the same thing.

"Since Alisa is so smart, you can definitely tell them apart, right?" Lorist said as he laughed.

"Of course! I'm definitely the fastest to learn. We had to differentiate such a large pile of plants and I was the one who finished first. Teacher even praised me for that," Alisa said proudly as she waved her arms to indicate how big the pile of grass was.

"Wow, Alisa is so amazing. I'm sure you'll definitely be a great scholar like your teacher when you grow up," Lorist praised.

Alisa then pouted and said, "Hmph, I don't want to be like teacher. She's so timid. One time, she was so terrified after seeing a grey mountain rat that she screamed like her life depended on it. I want to be a female knight like Auntie Pesha when I grow up and ride on horses elegantly and kill magical beasts with my lance in one strike..."

"Oh..." Lorist was quite surprised to find out that Pesha had actually gained such a young follower as he wondered how that busty but slow-witted knight managed to impress Alisa. Then again, he felt that it wasn't a bad idea for Alisa to go on the path of a knight. Given her boyish, rowdy personality, it was hard for Lorist to imagine her as a serene scholar like Telesti.

"Go greet your brother. Have you forgotten about him after not meeting him for a few months?" Lorist said as he ticked Alisa's nose.

"Hmph, you're a bad uncle, always messing with my nose like that... Brother!" Alisa said as she jumped towards Howard who was standing behind Lorist.

....

"Teacher, look who I brought here," Alisa exclaimed as she pushed open the flap of the tent and squeezed through the entrance. Lorist also followed her into the tent.

Telesti, who was in the middle of writing and drawing something, raised her head and said with a smile, "Locke, you're here."

"Yup. I'm here to bring you back to Firmrock Castle. The weather will start getting colder in another month and your trip with the kids have taken quite some time already," Lorist said as he approached the easel and assessed the drawing.

"Is this your design for the academy?" Lorist asked.

Telesti stood up and hugged Lorist before giving him a light kiss. She then said, "Yes, that's just the first draft of the design I have in mind. I will have to give it to Grandmaster Ciroba later and let him modify it before the blueprints are to be drawn."

"Alright. We'll leave tomorrow then. We'll first head to Poplar Coast before going to Blackmud Marsh. Grandmaster Ciroba should be at either of those places right now. I also have to check out on the development of the construction of the roads over there before we return to Firmrock Castle together," Lorist said.

"Will we be bringing the children along with us?" Telesti asked.

Lorist thought before he replied, "Let's bring them with us. Since I have so many guards with me, they will definitely be cared for well. Also, the construction effort there is a quite a large scale project and it can't hurt to show these children the might of manpower which can even shape the landscapes and change a swamps into homes."

...

Poplar Coast had already been turned into a bustling construction site through the recent developments. With more than 20000 laborers working on building the new town, the foundation for the town walls had already been completed. Currently, the workers were digging out a moat and using the mud they unearthed to make bricks for the wall. The one in charge of the site was a thin, dark-skinned, middle-aged man whom Lorist remembered to be one of the staff promoted by Supervisor Hansk. He wasn't sure whether the man was promoted due to his own merit or the lack of staff to supervise the site.

"Milord, the work here is progressing smoothly and we will finish the first part of the construction of the wall before winter as well as the warehouses. Next year, we can begin gathering various resources for further work," reported the man respectfully.

"Not bad, you've done great. Continue to work hard. Oh, and, is Grandmaster Ciroba here now?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, Grandmaster Ciroba just left two days ago to Tortoise Hill. I heard that something about the drainage system is problematic and requires a redesign," replied the man.

"Oh," Lorist mused as he nodded. "The day is still young, so I won't stay here to interrupt your work. Please get me some clean water and fill up my water flask. I'll head to the Blackmud Marsh right after that."

"Alright, milord. Please wait for a bit, I'll call someone to get the water."

Slightly further away from Lorist and that dark-skinned man, a few large pots could be seen at a resting spot. Within the pots were large bull bones floating amidst the soup. That was actually one of the benefits the Norton Family provided the laborers. No matter who, one could have some soup to drink the moment one turned thirsty. Not only was the bone soup thirst-relieving, it was also rather nutritious.

The ones taking care of the pots of soup were a fat man and his similarly plump wife. They added some more salt into each pot after a few bowls of soup were served from each.

A tall old man could be seen standing near the pot taking small sips out of his bowl of soup.

"Old man, do sit down and drink slowly. You can even stay here tonight and I'll get you some bull bones to chew on. Don't think that just because they're meatless, they're not good. Just crack the bone open and the good stuff's in the marrow. It's also very nutritious for a person of your age," said the fat cook warmly as he handed the old, largely-built man a piece of black bread.

"Have this, old man. Dip the bread in the soup and it'll soften right away. Fill yourself up with it for now," said the cook before he went to stir the pot of soup a little more and called his wife to remove some firewood so that the fire doesn't burn too strongly. After that, he went back to the old man's side and sat down.

"I've seen types like you quite often in the recent times. Seriously, I'm not kidding. From time to time, some family members of the war prisoners will come here to seek them out and hope to find their husbands or brothers here. Most of the family members of the captured Northlander soldiers would be able to meet up without issue. But since you said that you're from the Winston Province, this will be a little bit more difficult. Most of the soldiers of the Second Prince's First Legion are people from the Winston Province. But after the battle with the forces of the Norton Family, they lost more than 10000 men. That's why, old man, I pray that you are ready for whatever outcome and hope that your grandson didn't get unlucky...

"Then again, the Norton Family forces are not like the forces of those other savage and violent nobles. They don't kill senselessly or take the belongings of the commoners. That, I can assure you. Like my wife and I, even though we were forced to move here, we didn't have much to complain about. Before that, we were working as cooks for our previous master and we would be beaten and scolded for the smallest mistakes. Only after we came here did we experience true freedom. When the construction work of this town is complete, the Nortons said that they would even give us homes and farmland. I am prepared to start a small restaurant to live the rest of my days in peace. I never would've dreamed that we would be able to spend days like this in the future...

"If you could read, you can easily check the registry to see if your grandson is listed there. But sadly you don't and you only know that he is called 'Silo' without knowing how it is spelled. There are many people with similar or identical sounding names, so you have no choice but to travel from one place and another to find him. Since he's a prisoner, he should be at Blackmud Marsh. There are three spots there and you have to spend some effort to find him. In fact, this is the wrong place for you to come to. The people here are laborers and they are paid for their work while those laborers at Blackmud Marsh are war prisoners who are serving their 3-year term without pay for their own freedom."

"Who's that?" asked the tall old man as he raised his head and looked at the distant group of people and carriages.

The fat cook stood up and exclaimed happily, "That's the dominion lord! It's so rare for us to be able to see him. I think he's passing through this place to head to the Blackmud Marsh for an inspection..."

"Which one of them is the lord? Is he sitting in the carriage?" asked the tall man.

"No, he's the one riding a horse at the very front. Our lord doesn't like to wear full metal armor. He has long black hair and eyes, so he's quite easy to recognize. Look, it's that one wearing the black cloak. I've seen him once before when he was inspecting the commoner camp back at Firmrock Castle," said the fat cook energetically.

"Oh..." mumbled the tall old man as he stood up. It was at that moment when the fat cook seemed to visualize the tall old man as a razor-sharp sword.

However, Lorist had already traveled far with his guards. The tall old man sat back down and looked no different from his frail self before.

"Thank you, my kind friend. Oh, I really worry for my pitiful grandson... If something bad happened to him, I really don't know if I can bear to continue living... Ah, you said just now that there are three spots at the Blackmud Marsh where I might find him, right? Can you tell me more about those places?" asked the tall old man.

"Hey, old man, were you a mercenary when you were young?" asked the cook, troubled. For some reason, he perceived that man beside him to be a sword. Realizing that the tall man had a large build and was even strong enough to head to the Northlands to seek out his grandson, the cook reasoned that he must've been a mercenary during his younger days given his demeanor.

The tall man nodded and said, "That's right. I was a mercenary for 40 years. Because my grandson's parents died early, I had to head home to raise him. But that kid couldn't resist enlisting into the king's army and said that he wanted to become a knight. After hearing about the king's army's defeat, I rushed my way here to see if I can find my grandson..."

The cook said, "Don't be too agitated. Old man, I'm sure that Singwa will protect your son from all ills. I think that our lord should be heading to Blackmud Marsh to make his inspections. The nearest part from here is the part where the Blackmud Marsh meets the Bladedge Mountains. The next part would be at the central road of Blackmud Marsh while the last part will be near Tortoise Hill. These three places are where the prisoners were sent to work. However, I think that most of the laborers should be at Tortoise Hill. I heard that the work there is in a bit of a rush as it's really important."

"Oh, then I ought to head to Tortoise Hill to check first. If he isn't there, I'll go to the other two places. Thank you for your bone soup and bread," said the tall old man as he stood up and prepared to leave.

The fat cook hurriedly stopped him and said, "Old man, it'd take you forever to get there on foot! Do you see the carriages filled with stuff over there? Those are the resources that are scheduled to be delivered to Tortoise Hill. I know a few of the coachmen and I will ask them to let you ride with them at noon."

"Oh, I am incredibly grateful," said the tall old man with thanks.

"What's there to thank for? I understand how hard it can be to have no one to rely on outside your home like this. I'm just doing what I can to help. I hope you will find your grandson soon and maybe settle down here to spend the rest of your days in bliss," said the fat cook with a smile.

...

Lorist brought Telesti and the children with him to first check out the land reclamation operations at the intersection point between Bladedge Mountains and Blackmud Marsh. After staying for a day, they continued on to the middle road construction site. The work there was progressing rather slowly mostly because it was frequently under attack from Ironspine Crocodiles. While not many people got injured, the work was slowed nevertheless.

The moment Lorist arrived, he managed to see the three super ballistas show their might by shooting a 20-meter-long Ironspine Crocodile to death. This was the largest crocodile he had seen so far. The children all gathered beside the huge carcass excitedly and the rowdy Alisa was the first to climb up on top of the carcass along with the Chino brothers.

Lorist decided to make that Ironspine Crocodile into a display specimen and thought that the huge beast would be more effective in frightening others than the gigantic mammoth specimen he had. For that, he stayed there for two days to arrange for it to be carried out before heading to Tortoise Hill.

Potterfang who was in charge of managing the prisoner camp was there to receive Lorist on his arrival. Seeing that the mud wall had been completed with the rest being on schedule to finish before the arrival of winter, Lorist was extremely satisfied.

When he reached Tortoise Hill, Lorist headed straight for the army camp while Telesti sought out Grandmaster Ciroba by herself. Lorist took strolls around the area and bossed people around, satisfying his desire to act like a true dominion lord for once.

On the third day, Lorist decided to head to the other end of Tortoise Hill where the stream was located to hold a grill party in the wilds. As Lorist arranged for his guards to hunt some food for the party, Telesti taught her students to draw the various sights of nature.

Holding two fat, juicy pheasants as he walked out of the forest, Lorist walked to the side of the grimacing Telesti and asked, "Hey, what's wrong? You look down."

"It's nothing... I was just brainstorming for the design of the academy's insignia," said Telesti.

"Haha, what's so difficult about that? Reidy, go to the carriage and get me that small box at the lower storage compartment," Lorist instructed. Without delay, the box was brought to Lorist right away.

Lately, Reidy had been struggling to memorize the diagram Lorist gave him and even frequently forgot the things he had read before. Sometimes, he would zone out and look like an immobile scarecrow.

Lorist opened the box and said happily, "Here, my dear, look at my collection."

Within the small box was a thick velvet cloth that covered many different academy badges.

"Look here, these are the academy badges I've collected during my time at Morante City. These two here are respectively the badge of the Dawn Academy and my dual Gold ranked instructor badge," Lorist said as he caressed his two most precious badges before caving in to the urge to put on the two badges on his clothes. He said excitedly, "Back then when I wore these badges and entered the academy, the students would all make way for me respectfully..."

Before he finished, a loud cry could be heard from afar. "Stand there, old man, agh!"

"There's an enemy attack! Ugh..."

Lorist turned back only to see a tall old man rushing out from the forests with a longsword in hand heading in his direction. Behind the man, three collapsed guards with blood gushing out of their throats could be seen.

"Norton Family leader, I will have your life!" roared the tall man as his body became one with the sword before he approached at a terrifying speed...