Chapter 249: Hiren’s Melancholy

The Ultrad Mountains, it didn’t really seem appropriate to call them a mountain range. However, this little fellow with an altitude of less than 300 meters caused the coastline of the Duchy of Nohan to lack a convenient outlet to the sea, objectively strengthening the importance of Morbihan Port in the Bolerum Territory.

Generally speaking, there basically wouldn’t be any large mineral veins in such hills. But at the beginning of the founding of the Duchy of Nohan, someone discovered a silver vein hidden within the rolling hills, which became the most important financial guarantee for the Duchy, which was still in its infancy. Without it, the Duchy would never have had such a large territory now.

However, with the passage of time, even huge mineral resources would eventually be exhausted one day. The mines here had lost their value for large-scale mining as early as more than 100 years ago.

After that, perhaps some people picked up silver ore that hadn’t been cleaned up in the caves sporadically. But no new veins were discovered, so the place became desolate.

Its few outputs now were the fast-growing forests planted by humans on the hilltops and the natural game like foxes and rabbits in the woods. Although it couldn’t be called a forgotten land, who asked it not to produce truffles!

But just today, it once again became the focus of the Duchy. Because the passage from the Underdark to the surface extended within these mining caves that stretched for dozens of kilometers underground.

Well, it couldn’t exactly be called a passage, because so far that passage was still completely sealed shut. There was at least about 100-200 meters of thick rock wall existing in between. Moreover, as a non-Legend rank spell, it was already a miracle that it could limit the range of this passage to within a radius of 5 kilometers for defense.

If Greywood Town hadn’t been newly assigned to the Bolerum Territory, this former silver mining area in the Duchy would still be quite a distance away from George and the others! But now it became a mere 14-mile journey. Because of this, His Grace the Duke Garfield naturally asked the Bolerum Territory to send people to assist in the defense in the name of assisting defense.

“I say, George! His Grace the Duke’s transfer order this time is simply incredible! Saying that to make up for the lack of high-end combat power , it is enough for us to send a small number of elite troops. But I always feel that with just this few people we have, if something really happens, I’m afraid we won’t be able to play any role!” Hiren, sitting on his horse, said while waving his horsewhip listlessly.

“It’s not entirely useless. Although the number of soldiers we sent this time is small, with you included, 3 Knights came from our Bolerum Territory. When it comes to battle, the role we can play is not small.” George said his view without even thinking.

Suddenly, as if he thought of something, he continued without waiting for Hiren to reply: “Of course, I think this approach is probably also a reward for us being the first to discover this huge threat, and compensation for being attacked due to Duchy affairs some time ago! After all, since we are here, we can more or less get some Military Merit. And we didn’t send many people, so the expenses to be paid during this process will be much smaller. And the defensive power in the Territory is also weakened less, isn’t it?”

“Don’t tell me we are here this time just to go through the motions.” Hiren said and immediately sneezed!

“So what if His Grace the Duke arranged for us to go through the motions! Besides, in case something unexpected really happens, we still have to charge when it’s time to charge. But I almost forgot that Hiren, you are just a ‘shoddy’ Knight right now, and don’t have your own Squires and Retainers yet. Even if you want to charge, you need enough cavalry to cooperate.” This teasing voice came from not far behind the two. And without turning his head, just by hearing the voice, George knew it was Sir Bart teasing Hiren.

Hiren, having his sore spot stepped on, immediately retorted: “When I come back from traveling the Continent, I will naturally have followers! We’ll compare then.”

The so-called ‘shoddy’ Knights, usually called ‘blank’ Knights. Of course, as long as one can become a Knight, he absolutely possesses the strength in this aspect. The so-called ‘shoddy’ refers to them not having their own Retainers and Squires.

If Retainers are comrades-in-arms with deep bonds built by Knights during their travels on the Continent. Then the Squires are another kind of relationship. In the earliest times, due to frequent wars, military leaders and their Squires became fixed professions, forming a relationship of personal loyalty completely different from clan relations.

These Squires did not engage in production and fought specially. If their clan had no wars to fight, they would go to tribes with wars to participate in the war. Their lives, warhorses, and spears were all supplied by the leader. Protecting the leader and dedicating Military Merit to the leader was the manifestation of loyalty. If the leader died in battle and one survived, it was a great shame.

And with the development of the knight system to today, Squires had long been not just the narrow meaning of the beginning. The groups they included were far more than twice as large as the original.

If one really wants to talk about the difference with Retainers, besides basically not seeing Mages among the Squires; perhaps the most critical point is that the former are loyal to the entire Knight family, while the latter fight together merely because of the relationship with a certain Knight.

Of course, the highest status among the Squires were the Squires. Although they all seemed to have the possibility of becoming Knights, in fact, most of them were just “destined to be Squires” for a lifetime, so they had already sworn allegiance to a certain Knight early on. And served and fought for him as a houseman.

The current Squires referred to those semi-Freemen who also swore to take a certain Knight as their lord and served and fought for him, but were not Squires. They would not be considered housemen, but followed the Knight as servants.

And the attendants were another group of people, they were not fighters. But they possessed many abilities indispensable for travel and preparation, and some followed Knights as housemen, while most of the others were just hired Freemen, because these attendants all had a skill and didn’t worry about finding employers.

Different from the former two, the latter situation among the Squires could be said to be strange and all-encompassing. So it was rare for a Knight family to include them all. However, no matter who was missing, there would never be a merchant responsible for material purchasing and Loot selling.

It could be said that every Knight would have a merchant to assist them in managing the economy. Even newly promoted Knights who hadn’t obtained a Manor yet had their merchant sponsors. And some hereditary Knight families had their exclusive merchants, these exclusive merchants were almost in the status of servants. However, different from ordinary servants, these people had greater autonomy and freedom, under the protection of their respective firms, their masters could not arbitrarily scold or kill these people.

At the same time, there were also herdsmen specially taking care of horses, and the most important family Blacksmith were also two indispensable components. The former represented the important mobility and impact force concerning the Knight, while the latter was the key figure for weapons and defense equipment. Speaking of defense equipment, there was another profession that had to be mentioned, that was the leatherworker.

But in fact, the status of leatherworkers in this era, although not as good as ironsmiths, still had a relatively good social status. Because they were all part of the armorers, an indispensable member in the process of making armor. And armor, in the era of cold weapons for the ruling class, its importance often exceeded the weapons used for attack.

Let’s put it this way, whether it was iron armor, copper armor, or even leather armor, or even Paper Armor, the bows and arrows, knives, and swords on the battlefield were basically not fatal to the user. If one had a full-body iron plated armor, the threat of spears in close combat was also not big, let alone the later plate armor. It could be said that as long as it was a slightly decent iron armor, single-handed sharp weapons could not break it, one must use long-handled weapons or blunt weapons.

In fact, in Tianchao ancient times, as long as there were 100 armored soldiers, they could break through a camp of a thousand people. Therefore, the control of armor in past dynasties was above that of bows and crossbows.

In the Tang Dynasty, those who privately hid three pieces of armor—hanging. Those who hid five crossbow mechanisms—hanging. Long spears, pikes. Mo swords reaching ten—hanging.

In the Yuan Dynasty, those who privately hid a full set of armor were executed, those who privately hid incomplete armor were beaten fifty-seven times, those who privately hid spears or knives and crossbows reaching ten were executed, those who privately hid ten pairs of bows and arrows were executed.

And take George for example! Without suitable armor, he would need to be careful facing about 30 elite soldiers now. But fully armed, he had the opportunity to make the opponent scatter in a short time.

So in this world where war never stops, the status of these professionals would not be low. So the dependency model between Knights and Craftsmen also emerged as the times required. Don’t think this was Knights using their rights to infringe on the interests of Craftsmen. On the contrary, this was something Craftsmen dreamed of.

After all, if one didn’t build a subordinate relationship with a Formal Knight, such a Craftsman in the industry was considered unranked, and the number of Knights, which was quite rare compared to the huge base of Craftsmen, seemed so inadequate. Whenever a new Knight appeared, the competition among them was particularly intense. It felt a bit like the gatekeeper of a prime minister being a seventh-rank official.

It could be said that regarding the Craftsmen among the attendants, as long as Hiren let the news out, they could be filled up very quickly. The Squires probably could only be found and trained in their own Manor. However, the Val Family, which had just obtained a new Manor, was not short of manpower in this aspect. However, in terms of expenses and other trade-offs, it was not something Hiren could decide alone. But even if there was a chance to wait for them to formally take shape and be put into battle, it would take quite a long time.

And the recruitment of Squires required strength, money, and opportunity, none of which could be missing. It could be said that although Hiren now relied on his family’s long inheritance and solid foundation to be stronger than most people of the same Rank in combat power. But he still had a long way to go to establish the framework of a Knight with a complete and comprehensive Manor!

Of course, powerful Retainers who cooperated skillfully with oneself and could even complement each other relied even more on luck. So Hiren just shouted that sentence. Because Sir Bart’s own Retainers were just barely above the standard line. Hiren was looking forward to his future, while making a declaration, he didn’t forget to cause the other party some trouble.

After all, a combination like Sir Isolde Wayne Val and the Prophet Laurel Botfish could really be said to be rare in a hundred years. Although Sir Val’s other Retainers were also above the level of the vast majority of people. But they all seemed overshadowed under the halo of the Bronze Rank Prophet.

Sir Bart was not annoyed at all, while turning to leave, he naturally said: “You still have the mind to consider such things. I think you’d better deal with that fiancée in your house first!”

Hearing this, Hiren was like a wilted broccoli, becoming listless and lying on his horse’s back: “Why does everyone have to mention that matter!”

“I said that Miss Adonia Ulrika Eomede is a rare beauty! Anyway, in our Bolerum Territory, there isn’t a single girl who can compare to her. In the nearby territories, uh, it seems there aren’t any either. Plus, the other party is also a quite powerful Heavenly Sorcerer, what exactly are you dissatisfied with.” George was entrusted by Sir Val, and now he specifically acted as a lobbyist in front of Hiren.

Seeing Hiren still keeping his head down and silent, George decided it was better to figure out the reason for his resistance first: “Then do you think Miss Eomede’s personality doesn’t get along with yours?”

Although George said this with his mouth, he thought quite disapprovingly in his heart: ‘If there was really something wrong with Miss Eomede’s personality. Sir Val would probably never agree to this marriage. Let alone asking me to be a lobbyist. And I don’t believe the other party’s acting skills and means could deceive the well-informed Sir Val.’

Hiren barely raised his head, turned his head, and said to George listlessly: “It’s not because of that aspect. If I had met her during my travels, I might have fallen in love with her. But a person I’ve never met suddenly going to spend a lifetime with you. Would you think that’s normal? Anyway, I can’t stand this kind of thing.”

After speaking, he lay his head down and turned his head away again.

‘The term “progressive youth” pursuing marriage freedom doesn’t fit Hiren no matter how you look at it! Or is he a rebellious teenager in his “edgy” phase? Eh, although the age is quite a bit older, this is still the most fitting.’ George, having the answer in his heart, didn’t plan to persuade directly, instead, he sarcastically said: “When I was asked to go on a blind date, weren’t you very happy watching the joke? But I said this is the destiny that we people cannot avoid. Didn’t you laugh and say at the time, let’s talk about it when the time comes! Now it’s your turn, and you’re actually acting like a shrinking turtle.”

“You at least had a choice, okay? My old man brought the person right in front of me before I knew I had such a fiancée.” Hiren braced himself and said with a crying face.

George knew he had caught Hiren’s attention. He immediately started to strike while the iron was hot: “But looking at her own quality, she is much higher than the few objects I went on blind dates with. Just her dreamlike clear-colored thick long hair like silk and emerald-like eyes are not something just anyone can have.”

“The Celestial descendants of the Eta bloodline, none of them lose in looks!” Hiren said shaking his head.

George immediately looked interested and asked: “I know about Celestial descendants! But what is the Eta bloodline?”

Celestial descendants were considered the beautiful and blessed ones in the Prime Material Plane, the descendants of those who accompanied angels and other great existences of kind Planes. The blood of the Heavenly Realm flowed in their veins—proof of their ancestors’ justice and value.

And the light of that union was so dazzling that even the dilution of countless generations could not hide it, it would undoubtedly manifest in its own way. Most people thought that the god-descended were far wiser, purer, gifted, and beautiful than ordinary people.

But at the same time, Celestial descendants often bore the burden brought by their privileges. Their uninvited blessings attracted the jealousy of ordinary people around them; even their closest friends secretly harbored envy.

Some Celestial descendants took this gift for granted, even seeing themselves as superior, while others constantly proved themselves worthy of the admiration and responsibility they bore.

Celestial descendants might have questions about why they received this gift and what responsibility they should have towards those who were not blessed. But regardless of the Celestial descendant’s worldview, his life was not as easy as others thought. Their bloodline itself made them the primary targets of Evil creatures.

“The Eta bloodline, by most people’s aesthetic standards, can be said to be the most beautiful of all the god-descended. They themselves possess incredible charm. And they often have innate musical talent and love for melody, and an irrepressible wanderlust in their blood. This makes many of them trained to become Bards during their travels, and being a Heavenly Sorcerer like this is actually the minority among them.” Hiren stopped for a while, then continued with a difficult look on his face, “What I’m most worried about is the kind of wanderlust she might possess. Eta bloodline bearers like to carry out their adventure journeys as they please, whether in bustling cities or desolate frontiers. They like to constantly explore new places, make new friends, and by the way…”

‘Isn’t this pre-marriage syndrome? It turns out Hiren isn’t really resisting this marriage from his heart! It’s just anxiety about the unpredictable future.’ George smiled in his heart and asked back: “Then what bloodline do you have! And what is the difference between the general impression this bloodline of yours gives people?”

“Me, I am…” Hiren suddenly fell into deep thought.

George knew at this moment that his goal for today had been achieved.