Chapter 133: Distance and Expectations
1897 AD, the summer of the Year of the Griffin.
Against the worsening situation in the country, as well as the eternal Sacred War that was about to occur, the East Mist Communal Country’s ‘Princess Knight’ Reyne Qin Mist had decided to seek for the Mist Country’s lost honor. After going through many tribulations and trials, she finally received the acknowledgement of the Heroic Spirit of her ancestor, Roland Mist. Following the return of the Undead army, marked by the “Homecoming Day Celebration” and the “First Winter Hunt in 300 Years”, a page opened in the annals of history as the Northern King of Wolves crouching in the Northern Lands started to rise once more.
That was the evaluation written in a certain history magazine many years later. At this point, everything seemed normal in it...
“Of course, to a large portion of the audience, this isn’t the main point from the very start. Princess Reyne who remained unwedded for her entire life chose her ancestor, Roland, to serve as her Guardian Knight. This became the popular theme for the works of many playwrights. Even though there aren’t many details left behind, considering the chaotic relationship within the household of the Northerners and the fact of Princess Reyne remaining unwedded for her entire life, we can infer that there is some truth behind these creations. As for the rumors of Princess Reyne having a unique sexual orientation, that is likely just a tactic to divert the attention of others.”
“—The previous passage is extracted from The Truth Behind The Top Ten Historical Romance Plays, compiled by a printing press which was the subsidiary of the Arhinlo Empire’s Cultural Department. Note: This book has been banned by the East Mist Communal Country and numerous other northern countries. The author is wanted by the East Mist and if someone is found bringing this book into the Northern Lands, he will be lynched. The publisher takes no responsibility for the damage incurred by the purchaser.”
Alright, let’s not pursue the matter about the incredibly suicidal future printing press, although it’s not like I could pursue the matter even if I wanted to. Ignoring the problems that the position as a Guardian Knight would bring in the future, at the very least, it solved the problem of my awkward position, thus preventing the bizarre situation of having two central figures in East Mist.
After all, East Mist Communal Country was in the midst of rebuilding its various divisions, but the head of the divisions were all Undead Knights. In the perspective of outsiders, I seemed to have appeared from nowhere to take control of the new armies, so it did seem like I was gaining too much power over the country. In the end, it is best to avoid some matters if possible.
The formation of most of the divisions went well. The moment the intention to expand the army was revealed, the conscription points and the barracks were filled to the brim. Due to our industries lagging behind, it was impossible for us to equip all of them. However, at the very least, we weren’t lacking in manpower and training could be started.
However, while some things were well, others weren’t that lucky. There were some divisions which met with problems from the start, and they had problems that could not be resolved within the short term.
“Asmu Hound Tamers? We have the complete improved training methods of the troops, and those who signed up are intelligent lads who are carefully hand-picked from the applicants. They are all good seedlings. The Undead Rangers also demonstrated their expertise in taming hounds and how it feels like to have ten Skeleton Hounds suddenly surrounding and assaulting an enemy in a battlefield. However, the problem is…”
“Tucker War Hounds are extinct? How is it possible?”
Alright, we really didn’t expect such a problem to occur. Tucker War Hounds were massive warhounds unique to the Northern Lands. They were around half a human’s height and their snow-white fur was exceptionally resistant to the chill. Furthermore, they possessed sharp fangs, a strong sense of smell, and an aggressive and loyal personality. They were the best companions to an Asmu Hound Tamer and after undergoing training, they were capable of competing physically with lions.
“We had also just realized it. Back then, due to the overwhelming damage from the fall of our nation, all of the warhounds that we were rearing were lost. After which, natural disaster struck year after year in quick succession. Even humans were unable to find food, needless to say, dogs. Those wild dogs that failed to escape into the mountains were all consumed as food by the refugees. At the very least, not a single warhound can be found in Diffindor now.”
After hesitating for a moment, I finally asked, “...Since the warhounds are extinct, why don’t you all… change your job to Asmu Wolf Tamer? The Northern Lands may lack everything, but one thing it doesn’t lack is wolves. It seems that the Winter Wolves are rather powerful as well. Since they belong to the same family as hounds, there shouldn’t be too much of a difference between the two.”
Alright, the moment the words of this outsider sounded, the Undead Rangers stared at me as though I was an alien.
“Your Highness, wolves and hounds are two completely different animals. Wolves have a wild nature, which makes them a difficult target to tame. Furthermore, Winter Wolves are Magic Beasts. No matter how I look at them, they have nothing to do with ordinary wolves.”
My mouth opened, only to close without saying a word. After all, do you expect me to start talking to them about Darwin’s theory of evolution? Besides, who knew how the hounds and wolves from a foreign world evolved? It was possible that they might be two different species. If I turned out to be mistaken, that would be even more embarrassing.
“Crossing species would be difficult, but…”
At this point, talking about crossing species, somehow I recalled that certain someone/
“The reason why you still like humans is because you have yet to meet a life form which you truly love. Species? That is never a problem!”
—By a certain elder brother of the True Love Siblings.
Thus, I tried advising them.
“It might seem inconceivable, but you all can give it a try. Look for the hunter named Beifeng Herault. Yeah, that ‘criminal, Beifeng; crime, Beifeng; punishment, Beifeng’ mortal legend. No, don’t look at me like this, I have not given up on treatment yet, nor did I eat medicine today. Trust me, try looking for him first.”
The rangers left half-convinced half-doubtful. Thankful that I was able to hoodwink them, I forgot the entire matter.
I didn’t expect that two months later, the rangers would rush into my office and inform me of the surprising and pleasant news.
“What, that fellow actually managed to tame a Winter Wolf? Herault Wolf Tamer? Go ahead, what does a single name count as. Right, how did he succeed? Hmm? Why did all of you go silent? Alright, I know that I shouldn’t have asked, so please do not tell me. Don’t go spreading it around as well!”
While the Herault Wolf Tamer happened to find a substitute out of coincidence, there were few divisions that, due to numerous reasons, were unable to be formed.
The meritorious Black Griffon Aerial Unit, who had its final remaining Dragon Knight Timier as its living signboard, had many people enthusiastically signing up for it. However, the recruitment closed within a single day, and Timier did not manage to accept a single person.
The reason? How could an aerial unit be created when there wasn’t any powerful aerial mounts? Just by the name of the Black Griffon Aerial Unit itself, it was clear that the Mist Country’s aerial unit was not much different from those of the human empires. They depended heavily on griffons as their main fighting power. However, how could the current East Mist afford to raise those expensive Griffon?
Furthermore, now that the Sacred War had started, these kinds of military supplies were hard to buy. Upon seeing his brothers building up their own divisions while his was still empty, Timier panicked.
“The proposal to transfer the Aurora Knights and Dullahans into the aerial unit is rejected. Timier, don’t look so bitter. I will have Bastian capture a bunch of Manticores here. Those are even more powerful than Griffons.”
“What? Aren’t those two completely different species? Can manticores even be tamed? Trust me, you only need a Beifeng. What? Only with Griffons can your group formation be executed? Alright, if you insist on having Griffons, I remember that Xiao Hong had been rearing a group of them. It should be fine if I borrow a few dozens of it from here. However, if it numbers over a hundred, even if she is willing to hand it over, we cannot afford to raise them.”
Just like how the energy consumption of mechanical flying units is a hundred times that of a chariot, in order to escape from the bindings of gravity, aerial troops require a massive amount of food to sustain their energy consumption. Regardless of whether they were mechanical aerial units, magic lifeforms or living flying beasts, the same rules applied for all of them. In fact, the Griffons which humans raise and giant eagles can already be considered one of the better ones.
Four hundred to five hundred Griffons could eat the amount sufficient to feed ten thousand humans in a single meal. Most probably, the Finance Head would faint from seeing the expenditure afterwards. However, it was true that there wasn’t much use to Griffons if they didn’t come in a pack.
“Fine, the most I can accept is 30 mounts, so the division can only serve as a scouting unit. I really cannot afford any more than that.”
If it could only number thirty, then so be it. After all, it was much better than having an empty division. As Timier left the room sighing, a new trouble came knocking.
This time, it was the siblings Fanderk and Lani. They were once outstanding Holy Light users, and after they were converted into Undead, both of them became outstanding Death Knights. The division they were creating had met with great trouble.
Initially, their “Dawn Hammer” was a Holy Light division centered around Holy Knights and Battle Priests. However, not mentioning how the East Mist was hostile with the Holy Church at the moment, which would cause the growth of the recruited soldiers to slow, the division commander and vice-commander were unable to use Holy Light as well.
Having Death Knights who were incapable of using Holy Light to impart skills of Holy Light and the battle techniques of Holy Knights would be a completely awkward situation. Furthermore, if these Undead were to stay with a massive group of Holy Light users, they might just happen to be cleansed by it somehow someday, so they would have to be wary of it as well.
“... Why don’t you try building an order of Black Warriors and Black Knights? Or why don’t you just start a division of Death Knights and teach those lads the battle techniques of Death Knights in advance?”
In the end, the Fallen Holy Knight Order and Death Knight Order fell through. After all, the prerequisites for a job advancement was way too absurd. After all, no living knights would take the initiative to job change into a Death Knight.
As for Swift Wind Knight Slance, who was in the midst of discussions with me on building a Light Cavalry Order, the contents of our discussions can be summarised with nine words.
“Money? Mount? Equipment?”
“No money! No mount! No equipment!”
Knights were a money-burning class, and Knight Orders required a large amount of funds to be pumped into them. Only with strong finance could a country afford to support powerful Knight Orders. Upon hearing my reply, the cool Slance turned around to leave. Perhaps, from the very start, he knew that it was impossible, but he couldn’t give up without giving it a try.
Initially, I thought that conscripting manpower to build new divisions would be an easy task, but when I am seated in this position, when innumerable small matters came flying towards me, I realised that my thoughts were too simple.
Those flaws at the very start were still solvable through thinking flexibly. However, there were a few aspects that were true dead ends. The greatest problem of it all was the East Mist’s industries, which were lagging far behind this era.
This lag was in all aspects, be it smithing, mining, refining, engineering, or alchemy. Every single one of them was still at the standards of a century or two ago. There were wise kings who had tried hard to advance these industries, but even if we ignore the fact that the East Mist was locked out and viewed with hostility by the main human societies, East Mist couldn’t afford to buy those technologies.
The design of the old furnaces was still stuck at that of two generations ago. All of the products in the alchemy and engineering shops were all some standardized low-end stuff with low specifications. Then, after the final mine was lost twenty years ago, the mining industry went into decline and at present, it was already basically negligible.
In this world, smithing a good sword first required mining sufficient iron ores before refining it into metal ingots. After that, the metal ingots would be forged into swords under the hands of a blacksmith. If it turned out to be a superior product, then an Enchanter and Alchemist would be invited to carve magic runes on the sword to enchant it.
Given East Mist’s current industry standards, besides trying to decipher the new weapons obtained from Auland, even repairing those damaged weapons in the armory was already a difficult task, much less producing new equipment of acceptable quality in bulk for the new army.
Even an inferior metal sword requires countless processes to be done on it before it can be formed, not to mention the superior equipment used by those ace knight orders. The East Mist fell into a bizarre situation where there were blueprints but no craftsman, technologies but no facilities, models but no resources.
However, the talents that I had scouted from Auland were fortunately all from different industries. However, it would take a long period of time for them to truly integrate into this country, and the resource that we were lacking the most at the current moment was time.
Boom! Boom!
The sounds of explosions in the distance reached the heavens. The roof flew across the sky, rotating into the distance. However, the citizens were already used to this sight. After all, the explosions had become a daily occurrence.
Previously, the citizens couldn’t understand the rationale behind creating a specialized district for the various experts of various industries to do their research, but after numerous days of explosions and flames, they finally understood my painstaking efforts.
However, this time, a familiar figure could be seen after the explosion. It was the “Miraculous Alchemist” Olivia, and smoke was emanating from her. At this moment, even though she was a mess, a thrilled expression covered her face.
“Ever since she has come under Yingou, Olivia’s explosion frequency has taken up half of the entire research district. Explosions occur at least three times every day, and on some days, it can number up to ten times. To be able to remain alive after all that, perhaps that’s where the ‘miraculous’ of her title came from.”
While I was slandering her in my head, Olivia smiled happily upon seeing me.
“Your Highness, there have been some results to the object that you wanted me to research. Just as you said, it could probably change this world.”