Chapter 150: Chapter 150

After listening to Hakan’s story, instead of immediately going to see Cheryn, Shan and Roden first summoned the Horais people from the royal stables to bring them face-to-face.

Although they had not been particularly close during their time in Horais, Hakan, a talented young member of the Golden Clan, was so famous that everyone had at least heard descriptions of his appearance.

Furthermore, the servants Hakan had brought along were also warriors of the Golden Clan, making them fairly well-known figures in their own right.

After confirming their identities and sharing a brief moment of reunion, they grew enraged at the news that Ranta had become the chieftain of the Lugan tribe, only to get caught in a power struggle, leaving even his life or death unknown.

“Do you mean we cannot even know what became of Commander Ranta, no, Chieftain Ranta!?”

“Regrettably, that is the case. Of course, I believe my father-in-law is still alive, but the situation was so dire.”

“Goodness……!”

Of course, there was nothing that a few dozen semi-horse archers in a foreign land could do simply by being enraged.

Leaving them to catch up further on news of their homeland with Hakan, Shan and Roden headed to the reception room of the Red Palace.

Shortly after, Cheryn, who accepted Shan and Roden’s request for an audience, showed great interest upon hearing about Hakan, just as expected.

“If we make good use of this, we can create a rift among the Alliance factions targeting us.”

“Then we will also be able to bring in plenty of Horais warhorses.”

Roden added with a smile at Cheryn’s words.

Eighty years ago, Cheryn’s great-great-grandfather had incurred enormous expenses in exchange for receiving a single warhorse from the chieftain of the Golden Clan.

This was because it was not a gelding or a mare, but a stallion of the finest bloodline.

Since then, the royal house of Pendia had continuously bred them, but most of the offspring had merely degenerated into ordinary warhorses.

Only a few horses, such as Arwin or Lipo, strongly inherited the bloodline of their ancestor.

“They do not necessarily have to be Horais warhorses. We are short even on ordinary warhorses, and that land has more horses than people.”

In truth, considering their staggering rarity, Horais warhorses were closer to luxury items than strategic resources.

Unless one was a warrior as powerful as Shan, charging alone on a horse far stronger and faster than those of others would lead to nothing more than dying early.

Pendia was particularly lacking in warhorse resources compared to all the other nations belonging to the Arman Alliance.

This was because operating large-scale ranches was impossible while turning settlements into fortresses due to the monsters pouring out of the Demonic Realm.

Thanks to this, while neighboring Libert built cavalry units numbering in the hundreds or even thousands alongside their knights, Pendia could only assemble at most a few dozen to a few hundred.

“If we make someone friendly to us the chieftain of the Golden Clan, we can easily receive thousands of warhorses of good bloodlines.”

Perhaps pleased by the mere imagination of it, a greedy smile hung on Cheryn’s lips.

Of course, all of this was only applicable if they successfully placed Hakan as the new chieftain of the Golden Clan.

If too many resources were consumed in the process, or if Hakan possessed a vile character and turned out to be the type to repay favor with enmity, it would be worse than doing nothing at all.

Accordingly, Cheryn decided to first take Hakan in as a knight as requested, to evaluate his character and capability.

After all, it would take a year or two of rest to distribute the wealth gained from conquering the Ruman Kingdom across the entire country and stabilize it.

If Hakan proved to be severely lacking to become a king, or conversely, possessed an ambition so immense that he would not be satisfied with the throne of a king, the plan would unfortunately have to be discarded.

“Come to think of it, there was one more person I prepared to use a similar method on.”

“Who?”

At Shan’s question, Cheryn spoke with an exasperated expression.

“Did you forget about the one you captured? Count Glusa.”

“Ah.”

Only upon hearing her words did Shan inwardly recall that such a guy had existed.

Was he the vice commander who led the holy crusade of the Ajun Kingdom, a young royal who had tried to gather the remnants and escape through the Demonic Realm?

Shan remembered beating him up because he had dared to spout nonsense about condescending to marry Cheryn.

Come to think of it, nearly a year had passed since he was captured and sent away back then, and Shan had never seen his face since.

“I truly had completely forgotten about him…… What has he been up to lately?”

“That guy had bad habits, so he has been receiving education in the underground dungeon. I will make him become the King of Ajun in the future and faithfully represent Pendia’s interests. Cooking him slowly and leisurely.”

Seeing Cheryn’s smiling expression as she said that, Shan did not particularly wish to know the contents of that education.

Roden, who was beside him, also nodded with a look of disgust on his face.

Shan inwardly suspected that she might be venting her desire for revenge on behalf of Princess Cassia, who was being abused, onto him.

*

Originally, knights in Pendia were bound to the King and nobles, but after Cheryn’s reforms, things changed somewhat.

Now, knights were fundamentally all subjects of the Queen and subordinates of the Lord Protector, belonging to organizations rather than specific nobles.

For example, belonging to the East Solod Castle Knights, the Eastern Patrol, the Capital Guard Knights, or the Royal Inspection Knights.

Of course, a few meritorious retainers such as Count of Palles, Viscount of Treba, and Duke Velakar still retained the authority to dub knights and establish vassal relationships.

In such cases, holding multiple positions concurrently was allowed, so Shan’s knights, Vico and Tavera, were also members of the Capital Guard Knights.

That was why they had guarded the capital without participating in the expedition during the last Ruman War.

Among those, Hakan became a member of the Royal Knights.

The Royal Knights, to which figures like Lord Protector Shan, Lanky Lug, Slaughter Rabbit Ravana, and Valiant Roden belonged, were an elite order of knights that held their own against the former Royal Knights prior to the organizational reforms in terms of both salary and prestige.

As the Queen’s direct military force, they performed various personal duties starting from bodyguarding, and could also exercise various extrajudicial rights under the premise that it was necessary for capital defense and kingdom protection.

Normally, there would have been backlash against a fledgling knight from Horais of uncertain identity obtaining such qualifications, but the title of jousting tournament champion was more than enough to quiet it down.

Above all, even in the past, a jousting tournament champion was often appointed as a royal knight according to the whim of the King.

Of course, Shan, being an Altoan, had never thought such a possibility even existed for him, and in the first place, the King himself had been bedridden back then.

“I will do my absolute best!”

At the news that he had become a member of the Royal Knights, Hakan widened his eyes and nodded vigorously.

His first assignment was none other than inspecting and reorganizing the royal stables.

Of course, there were already people from Horais who had settled here after following Ranta in the past, but as Hakan had boasted, being a descendant of the Golden Clan, he had learned various secret techniques for handling horses, so there were many areas for him to improve.

“It is far too narrow.”

Hakan, seeing the stables for the first time, said with a frown.

The royal stables had cleared out an entire section of the royal palace to provide a sizable open lot where horses could run about, but to him, coming from Horais, even this seemed excessively cramped.

Shan nodded at this and spoke.

“We are actually planning to build a new stable outside Hasra soon because of that.”

Of course, putting precious warhorses outside where they could not be ridden immediately and ran a high risk of being stolen was dangerous, but keeping horses confined in such a narrow place for long periods not only caused severe stress but could also harm their health.

In truth, this was a fact known through experience even without being a Horais native.

After pointing out several more things, Hakan looked at Arwin and marvelled with his mouth agape.

“This child is indeed…… Arwin!”

“I suppose there must be many like Arwin in the Golden Clan?”

Hakan shook his head at Shan’s words.

“How could that be? Of course, the horses of Horais are the finest in the world, but even with strict management, about half of the warhorses born inherit a diluted bloodline. Yet for this child to remain so close to a pure bloodline in a distant land, even after the bloodline has thinned……”

The knight of the steppe circled around Arwin as if unable to believe it, letting out continuous exclamations of admiration.

“A powerful magical energy flows through the bloodline of a Horais warhorse. The snort it breathes is a gale, its four legs pounding the ground are hammers of thunder, and its fluttering mane is like flames.”

After briefly watching Hakan murmur as if reciting a poem, Shan’s gaze landed on Arwin behind him.

Her temper had never been good to begin with, and having grown even more sensitive due to her pregnancy, she wore an expression asking Shan if she could kick him.

Seeing this, Shan nudged Hakan and spoke.

“Step back for now. She doesn’t seem to be in a good mood right now.”

“Oh, my apologies.”

Surprised, Hakan stepped back and apologized for making a pregnant horse uncomfortable, then taught Shan a few incantations.

He explained that these could be used even by non-mages to soothe Horais warhorses.

When Shan approached and recited the incantation, the eyes of Arwin, who had been intensely sensitive moments before, truly grew dull and calm.

“Oh.”

“The stronger the magical power flowing through a Horais warhorse’s bloodline, the fiercer its temperament. Without taming them with this incantation from a young age, riding them would have been difficult.”

He added that this was a secret technique of the royal family that even the ordinary Horais people already present did not know.

This technique alone made taking in Hakan worthwhile.

As Shan took his newly recruited subordinate around to show him various places, the celebration period for the victory over Ruman came to an end before long.

While honing his skills at the training ground, Shan read a message that arrived from the Eastern Holy See and let out a small groan of realization.

“I completely forgot about this.”

“What is it?”

Roden, who was practicing martial arts beside him, wiped his sweat and asked.

“It’s about testing the ‘Chorus’ mentioned earlier. We couldn’t do it because we were busy in the meantime, but they are asking to do it now.”

“Ah…… Well, it happens to be a time when we aren’t particularly busy.”

Originally, the test of the secret art (a secret technique of the Western Holy See that stacked multiple blessings upon the body) had been postponed due to the unexpected Ruman expedition.

Yet testing it with another knight was difficult, as most of the skilled knights had participated in the Ruman expedition.

Shan immediately sought Cheryn’s understanding and packed his bags.

It was time to set off on a lighthearted journey without any problems to solve for the first time in a long while.

*

After entrusting Roden to act as his proxy for some of the duties he had been handling himself, Shan departed for the east accompanied by a few servants and the two knights who were once his squires.

In truth, it was not a path dangerous enough to warrant taking escort knights, but Vico and Tavera stuck by him, claiming that it was a matter of prestige for someone as grand as a Duke not to travel with escorts.

“To be honest, I wanted to follow you on the last Ruman expedition as well.”

“That couldn’t be helped. We had gone out to battle too many times recently. We had to give others a fair chance as well.”

Tavera, riding his horse beside Vico, countered incredulously at Vico’s words.

Just as he said, not all knights could leave the country empty and march out, so when someone stepped forward, someone else had to guard the castle.

And failing to march to war meant losing the opportunity to make a name as a knight.

Unless one was indispensable personnel like Shan or the Royal Knights, if ordinary knights like Vico or Tavera joined every expedition, those left behind would inevitably feel discontent.

“You say that, but weren’t you honestly glad to stay behind in the capital?”

“Ayy, no way. Of course I wanted to follow behind His Grace the Duke and attend to him!”

At Shan’s question, Tavera spoke with an embarrassed expression.

Shan inwardly thought that despite talking like that, Tavera was probably glad he had been able to relax in the capital.

Trading jokes in that manner, the party consisting of three knights and seven servants advanced along the main highway east of Hasra.

Fallen left fluttered in the wind, which was beginning to mix with the chill of winter.

The road, wide enough for several carriages to pass, was paved with crushed stone and sand before being coated with a special alchemical solution, which perhaps was why a cheerful sound echoed every time the horses’ hooves struck it.

Closing one’s eyes quietly during the somewhat tedious journey and focusing on that sound gave a strange feeling of time passing quickly.

“Truly, I can feel that the world is improving. I am certain this road used to be a complete muddy mess before.”

Vico looked at the ground and spoke in wonder.

Just as he said, Cheryn actively utilized the overflowing goods and capital to repave and widen the roads extending in all directions centered around Hasra, revitalizing logistics.

Furthermore, she abolished arbitrary tolls and road taxes levied by individual fiefs upon passing through, as well as laws forcing detours under pretexts such as a lord’s hunting ground; as a result, travelers increased while monsters decreased.

Thanks to this, Shan’s party did not draw much attention from other travelers.

Although riding horses and wearing luxurious attire showed they were not commoners, noble travelers journeying to the Eastern Holy See or other regions were not particularly rare.

Had they known that the Lord Protector was moving right beside them with only such a modest entourage, everyone would have been terrified.

After traveling for about five days while staying at various cities and villages, the party arrived at the Eastern Holy See without incident.

As they entered the Holy See located above Moniv City, a guard blocked the entrance and asked their business.

“I am Shan Barendil-Kurt, Lord Protector of Pendia, Duke of Velakar, Commander of the Royal Knights, and Head of the Paladin Order. I have visited at the invitation of the Archbishop.”

Upon being shown the family crest, the guard’s eyes widened in shock, and he snapped to attention.

Who could have imagined that this plainly dressed young man was the kingdom’s greatest warrior and a high-ranking noble?

“Pardon my rudeness, Your Grace!”

Immediately granting entry, another guard ran off to report his arrival to the Archbishop.

Shan watched that scene before looking at his two knights and speaking.

“For someone who is supposed to be the Head of the Holy See’s Paladin Order, the Holy See guard didn’t even recognize my face, so I really haven’t come here often enough. Wouldn’t you say?”

“Mmm.”

“Well, you really haven’t visited more than a few times.”

Unlike Vico, who groaned unsure of how to answer, Tavera replied lightheartedly with a chuckle.

In truth, unlike the Western Holy See of Libert which was close to the capital, the Eastern Holy See was quite a distance away from Hasra.

Shortly after, Archbishop Vent, whom he had not seen in a long time, welcomed him with a smile.

“My word, I heard you were coming, but I didn’t expect you to arrive so quickly as soon as I summoned you. You didn’t rush all the way here in a hurry, did you?”

“I took my time enjoying the scenery of fluttering leaves and the monsters along the way. They said there were many monsters in the east lately, but not as many showed up on the way here as I expected.”

“That is because the Eastern Knights Order is working so hard.”

Although the Queen’s direct forces were spread across all of Pendia, perfectly projecting domain authority over the kingdom, the region where the greatest number of troops were deployed was the east.

This was because monsters had recently begun crawling out more frequently than before.

The silver lining was that powerful large monsters did not appear very often.

Had basilisks, cockatrices, ogres, and the like that they hunted previously poured out one after another, most of Pendia’s knights, including Shan, would have had to remain guarding the east.

“Then rest up and prepare at your leisure.”

After exchanging greetings, Shan unpacked his luggage in a guest room of the Holy See, guided by priests instead of Vent, who was busy with various affairs.

They handed over a few potions, telling him to drink them alongside his meals.

The food coming from the Holy See’s kitchen was quite frugal compared to what he ate in the capital.

As the New Faith itself originally emerged in backlash against the overly luxurious and corrupt Old Faith, even Archbishop Vent ate the exact same food as the ordinary priests.

Without much complaint, Shan enjoyed his meals with his subordinate knights and servants, drinking potions at every meal and receiving purification miracles to adjust his physical condition.

It might have just been a feeling, but it felt as though some of the grease accumulated on his body was being shed.

On the third day, Vent called Shan out, stating that the physical adjustment was finally complete.

“Thank you for your hard work in complying.”

“It was no trouble at all. I enjoyed relaxing without work for the first time in a while.”

Shan spoke with a smile and then stood in the center of the priests lined up in a circle.

Since Vent had become an Archbishop for political reasons and his power of miracles was objectively not formidable, another High Priest presided over the Chorus.

“O benevolent Goddess who watches over us…”

“Grant us the strength to overcome our trials…”

“And to the one who fights for Her, let the doors of holy war be opened…”

As they began chanting prayers of blessing one by one, their multiple voices formed a strange harmony.

It felt as though the voices of many were combining and transforming into one grand song……

Since everyone normally practiced singing hymns during their childhood, the priests’ singing skills were not bad at all.

While standing still and listening, the middle-aged High Priest pointed at Shan and spoke.

“We all exist for you alone, O Goddess, so sing Your wrath through Your warrior.”

Along with the low murmur, Shan felt blessings dwelling within his body.

Physical strength, agility, stamina, durability, mental strength……

He felt multiple powers that normally could not coexist seep into his body like intricately fitted pieces.

Shan’s already formidable physical capability reached a realm that completely transcended humanity at this very moment.

Had the present Shan fought against his unblessed self who lacked the blessings of the Chorus, it would not take even a minute to kill him.

Of course, that did not mean he could become drunk on such power and rampage recklessly.

Because before all kinds of natural disasters starting from a landslide like the one he had experienced before, power of this degree would amount to nothing.

Just as he briefly thought once more that the experience back then had planted humility deep into his bones, an exclamation of shock burst out from behind him.

“Hmm?”

“Is that…… could it be…… the Great Emperor’s?”

“O Goddess!”

All the priests presiding over the ceremony were staring at him with wide, shocked eyes.

While briefly wondering what was happening, Shan felt that his surroundings had somehow grown a bit brighter.

Glancing back slightly, he saw a radiant halo surging from behind his back.