"What's a knight order?" Alexander muttered under his breath.
Since Gofrey was closest to Alexander, he heard the words "knight order" and asked, "My lord, do you want to establish a knight order?"
"Huh? You know about this?" Alexander was at a loss for where to begin and almost forgot about the experienced veteran in front of him. He quickly responded, "Yes, indeed, I have such an intention."
Sure enough, Gofrey understood knight orders well. Generally speaking, according to Gofrey's explanation, the establishment of a knight order requires at least three elements.
First, the name of the knight order. Like people and trees, a knight order must have a distinguished name to be renowned far and wide in the future.
Second, a flag or emblem, a highly distinctive symbol that others can recognize at a glance.
Third, a motto, similar to a battle cry or guiding belief.
With these three points, a knight order can be established. Of course, there are other objective conditions, such as the necessity of having nobles join the knight order or vouch for it. After all, for a knight order, reputation is more important than life itself, and nobles are the best guarantors.
Furthermore, you need substantial financial resources and a stronghold. Without money, how can you buy equipment and pay salaries? Without a stronghold, can you even call it a knight order?
Luckily, Alexander completely possessed all the conditions to establish a knight order. Now, he only needed to do three things—choose a name, create a flag, and come up with a motto.
These three points left Alexander stumped. Starting with the first step, choosing a name was difficult. A name picked hastily would be too casual, while one that was grandiose would sound crude. Moreover, he needed to ensure it didn't overlap with other knight orders.
Alexander had also considered seeking everyone's input, but all he got were names like "Invincible Knight Order," "Fierce Beast Knight Order," "Big Rock Knight Order," and "Dry Hayfork Knight Order." He couldn't rely on these people who didn't know big characters to come up with a name any more than he could rely on the nobles of the Holy Martin Kingdom to help old ladies cross the street.
Suddenly, Alexander had a brainwave. "I've got it!"
He recalled a classic scene from a famous movie.
"Let's call it the Order of Redemption," Alexander confidently declared.
"Why?" asked Gofrey.
"Because... the path of redemption lies within it."
He didn't elaborate further, but this sentence deeply shook Gofrey and the others. Everyone had a different understanding of the sentence, but it didn't prevent them from feeling the full force of its impact.
Especially for some among them who had hands stained with blood, their understanding of this sentence was even deeper.
Regardless of whether it's redeeming oneself or others, it works. It depends on your own interpretation.
"My lord, I think it's great. This name... is extremely fitting," Gofrey was almost moved to tears. This name seemed tailor-made for him, perfectly matching his current situation.
Next, they needed to design a symbol to showcase the identity of the knight order.
In fact, Alexander and his companions already had a flag, hastily designed with Victor and Otto, without any meaningful symbolism. Now, they needed to change it seriously, at least imbuing it with some meaning.
Alexander invited a renowned weaver from Lisbon and personally designed a flag.
Since Alexander had impressed everyone with his choice of name, when the flag was designed, everyone crowded around to see its style.
"What's this?"
The background color of the flag was the traditional red of the Kingdom of Saint Martin, but the symbol on it was unexpectedly a black crow, shot by an arrow while flying.
This was completely different from the traditional flags with symbols like lions, warhorses, longswords, and knight shields that everyone had expected. In other words, it was not impressive enough.
Alexander stepped forward, holding the flag with both hands, stretched across his chest, and said, "They can shoot arrows through our bodies, but they cannot lock the wings filled with courage. We can still soar!"
The inspiration for this emblem also came from that classic movie: "Some birds can never be caged, because every feather shines with the light of freedom."
However, Alexander did not long for freedom. He needed the warriors to have an unparalleled courage.
This feeling was particularly important. On the battlefield, only courage was his own. Similarly, it is also the most important quality of cavalry, in the face of thousands of horses and horses, you have no courage to rush, what are you?
This banner, with the arrow piercing the black crow, gained a soul under Alexander's explanation, and everyone respected this seemingly unimposing flag—even the weaver who had been hired.
Finally, they reached the most crucial step: the knight order still lacked a powerful slogan.
The phrase "The path of redemption lies within" was philosophical but not suitable as a battle cry.
Imagine everyone on the battlefield shouting phrases like "Our banner covers the sky, our iron hooves tread across the eight corners of the world!" "The empire, never to fall!" "With my longsword, I cleave the enemy's head!" and so on.
And then you have "The path of redemption lies within."
It would be like going to a brawl, and everyone pulls out bricks, baseball bats, and you pull out an Ultraman transformation device from your backpack.
So the slogan must be domineering or menacing.
The crowd looked quietly at Alexander. Everyone remained silent, as Alexander's recent performance in naming and designing the flag had completely won their approval.
In this regard, Alexander was not just considered wise by this group of rough individuals; he was seen as a prophet.
The problem was, even though Alexander's mind was limited, he racked his brains and found inspiration from a movie he had seen before to come up with the name and emblem, but the slogan was difficult to think of.
Alexander paced back and forth, feeling the need to embrace a certain level of adolescent enthusiasm. Battle slogans were meant to evoke the primal ferocity of warriors, and what might seem cheesy in normal circumstances often proved to be the most stirring in the heat of battle.
"Eureka!" Alexander exclaimed suddenly, having thought of a slogan that fit the bill.
With the name, flag, and slogan all prepared, the Redemption Knights were finally established, accompanied by the system's announcement.
[Congratulations to Lord Alexander for successfully establishing the Knights]
[Experience +4000]
[System currency +5000]
Now his attribute panel became:
[Level]: 8
[Strength]: 12
[Agility]: 10
[Intelligence]: 6
[Charisma]: 9
[Available attribute points]: 0
[Experience]: 7000/12800
[System currency]: 10000
Previously, he spent 2000 denars to design the flag, purchased hooded robes with the emblem, painted the arrow-pierced raven on his armor and shield, and even refurbished the warehouse to make it look more like the headquarters of a knightly order.
With that, the Redemption Knights were officially established...