Emperor Of Steel [EN]: Chapter 26

7. Tolude Fortress

After leaving the Northern Army Headquarters, Luke and his group headed to a nearby supply depot.

Upon presenting the Count’s signed permit, the amiable supply depot commander readily loaded military supplies onto the trailer.

“Why not change into Imperial army uniforms here? If you arrive in civilian clothes, you’ll be seen as just another naive young noble.”

‘Hmm, he has a point.’

Luke decided to heed the supply depot commander’s advice.

To quickly establish control over the notoriously chaotic Tolude Fortress, it was crucial to make a strong first impression.

So, Luke changed into a dark blue Imperial army uniform in the changing room. He also suggested that Philip and Erewyn do the same.

The two personal guards weren’t required to wear Imperial uniforms, but they readily agreed to Luke’s suggestion.

Erewyn donned a hooded mage’s coat of the same color as the uniform.

However, a minor stir occurred during the process.

“That, that mage is an elf!”

The supply depot commander’s eyes widened as he noticed Erewyn’s pointed ears peeking out from her hair.

“So what? Are you worried she’s a spy from Volga?”

“No, it’s just that…”

“She’s been working in our territory for a long time, so there’s no need to worry.”

Luke spoke with such confidence that the supply depot commander accepted it without further question.

Although extremely rare, some noble families did employ members of other races.

If spies were the concern, nobles who employed dwarves in mines or beastmen as guards would be the first to be interrogated by the Imperial Intelligence Agency.

Anyway, after finishing their preparations, Luke was about to head to the carriage when he suddenly smacked his fist into his palm, as if he had just remembered something.

“Oh, right, do you have any depleted mana stones here?”

“Those are usually sent from the Gigant maintenance shop, but what do you need them for?”

“I heard that grinding them and mixing them with gunpowder increases the explosive power. I thought they might be useful for defending the fortress.”

“Hmm, I’ve never heard of that before?”

The supply depot commander was puzzled but readily handed over a large number of depleted mana stones.

Since they weren’t worth much anyway, he figured it would be better to use them to build a relationship with another noble.

Having collected even the used mana stones, Luke left for Tolude Fortress in the trailer.

The coachman who had been driving the carriage was given generous travel expenses and sent back to the territory.

“Lord, are you going to regenerate the mana stones like you did last time?”

At Philip’s question, Luke nodded.

No matter how he looked at it, the conditions of the fortress seemed worse than he had imagined.

Therefore, he planned to regenerate the depleted mana stones and use them as parts for the Gigant or to create defensive magic circles.

“Regenerate mana stones?”

Erewyn asked with a puzzled expression at the unexpected remark.

“It’s a thing. You’ll be surprised when you see it.”

While Erewyn was tilting her head in confusion, something suddenly occurred to Luke.

‘That’s right, I should use ‘that’ this time too.’

The Warrior-class Gigant Achilles that he had captured during the last territorial war.

He had stored it in the subspace of his bracelet along with the golems, intending to use it personally.

At the time of capture, all the mana stones were depleted, but he had been working on it in his spare time, so it was now operational.

Luke stopped the trailer in a secluded spot and pulled Achilles out of the bracelet’s subspace.

When a Gigant suddenly appeared out of thin air, and it was Achilles, known as a masterpiece among Warrior-class Gigants, Philip’s jaw dropped.

“No way!”

“I captured it when it attacked our lord’s castle last time and kept it. The Demon King had a bracelet with a subspace…”

Luke’s explanation didn’t register with Philip.

His fists trembling, he yelled at Luke.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner!”

“Well, it’s related to the Demon King’s relic, so…”

“Whether it’s the Demon King’s relic or whatever, if there was something like a subspace, you should have told me sooner! Then I could have brought my darling ‘Marina’ with me!”

“…”

Philip had given the Gigant Sting II that Luke had bought him a girl’s name and cherished it.

When he followed Luke to perform his military service this time, he had no choice but to leave Marina in the territory.

Perhaps by now, she was being used by other riders who had their eyes on her.

“If… if you had told me sooner, my darling wouldn’t have been touched by other guys.”

Seeing Philip sobbing, Erewyn was dumbfounded and scolded him.

“Does a Gigant disappear if it’s touched a bit?”

“Honestly, that’s why mages are like this! Why do you think there are personal Gigants? Basically, the rider and the Gigant are one! A Gigant that has been ridden for a long time becomes attuned to the rider’s preferences, and its combat efficiency also increases! Do you think it can be compared to those that have been used by just anyone?”

Luke, who had initially tried to stop Philip, just let him be.

Philip’s explanation, as a Gigant expert, seemed reasonable at first glance.

However, Philip’s subsequent wailing was truly hard to watch.

“Waaah! Marinaaa! I should have brought you even if I had to force you!”

“Shouldn’t we just abandon that idiot?”

Luke shook his head at Erewyn’s heartless advice.

Although he was somewhat frivolous and pathetic, Philip was an Expert-level rider. And he was also a good instructor for him in Gigant piloting.

He couldn’t abandon him, especially after he had taught him an important fact today.

“Marina… *cough*!”

“Stop it and let’s go.”

Luke silenced the wailing Philip with a single mana bullet, loaded him onto the trailer, and set off again for Tolude Fortress.

Tolude Fortress was located in the middle reaches of the Sand River.

The Sand River originated in the Volga Republic and flowed into the Baroque Empire. Tolude Fortress was situated on a hill overlooking the ‘∩’ shaped bend in the river.

The training ground in the center of the stone-built fortress was desolate.

Normally, it should be noisy with the shouts of soldiers and knights undergoing training, and the air should be thick with dust.

However, the only people on the training ground now were about a dozen knights.

Even they were just slumped in the shade of the trees, resting.

The knights’ uniforms were in disarray.

Their breastplates were nowhere to be seen, and the buttons of their uniforms were all undone, revealing the hair on their chests.

“Seniors! Aren’t you going to train?”

A slender, youthful-looking female knight came out of the knights’ building and spoke.

At her question, the senior knights rolled around on the ground and said, as if they had just shed their trainee knight status.

“Too much trouble.”

“Anna, you do it.”

“I already did it this morning?”

At their answers, the female knight, Anna, frowned and said.

“Ugh! They say a new commander is coming today! What will they say if they see you like this!”

She wanted to make a good first impression on the new commander.

However, the seniors had no intention or motivation to do so.

“Let him scold us.”

“I heard he’s a greenhorn. What would he even know?”

“That’s right. Why bother trying to impress a guy who’ll just try to avoid trouble and leave?”

“Anna, you should just do enough. Don’t get on the new commander’s bad side and suffer.”

The knights of Tolude Fortress were mostly nobles’ sons who had been conscripted for two years.

Most of them were the second or third sons of lower nobles or illegitimate children. Since they had no backing or their families didn’t care about them, they were assigned to the harsh front lines.

In fact, they had been abandoned, so there was no way they would have any motivation.

Therefore, many of them just wanted to pass the time and be discharged, hoping that the enemy wouldn’t attack.

“Ugh! I don’t know anymore.”

Shaking her head, Anna drew her sword and began practicing swordsmanship on one side.

The only daughter of a rural baron family, she had been told since childhood that she had quite a talent for swordsmanship.

With her parents’ support, she was able to attend a military academy in one of the major cities, and she graduated earlier this year and was assigned to Tolude Fortress.

However, the atmosphere here was terrible.

The soldiers’ character was rough and unruly.

Most of them were those who had caused trouble in various units and were transferred, those who had committed minor crimes and came instead of going to prison, or those who had debts and came in place of others.

As a result, discipline and morale were a mess.

However, the behavior of the knights and officers who should have corrected it was no better.

Those who were napping or engrossed in card games, like the knights mentioned earlier, were considered the more decent ones.

There were even those who went out of the unit under the guise of patrol to go fishing, or those who started fights with their colleagues at the drop of a hat.

The fortress commander also locked himself in his room and didn’t show his face, but as soon as he received word this morning that a new commander was coming, he left immediately.

Without even handing over his duties.

‘Ha, are we going to have the fortress raided by the Volga Republic again?’

Anna was terrified.

She became a knight because she had a talent for swordsmanship, but also to rise in the world and bring honor to her family, not to die a dog’s death.

To do that, she had to somehow change the atmosphere of the knights, but as the youngest and a woman, it was beyond her ability to do so.

While Anna was lost in thought, a rumbling sound was heard.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

A trailer loaded with luggage and a Gigant passed through the fortress gate and crossed the training ground.

Three people got off the trailer and the Gigant in front of the fortress headquarters.

‘Could that be the new commander?’

It was highly likely.

Anna, her eyes sparkling, hurried to the headquarters.

“It’s a complete mess.”

Those were Luke’s first words after seeing Tolude Fortress.

The fortress walls, which looked as if they had been neglected for a long time, seemed as if they would collapse at any moment, and there was no sign of discipline in the soldiers on duty.

The final blow was the sight of the knights he saw passing through the training ground.

There were only a few of them at a time when they should have been training, and even they were slumped in the shade, making it seem like this was some kind of mercenary group on the verge of collapse.

“It’s worse than what I heard from the information guild.”

Philip’s face was also contorted.

“Let’s go inside for now.”

Sighing, they moved towards the headquarters building.

At that moment, a female knight who had rushed from the training ground stood in front of Luke’s group and saluted.

“Loyalty! I am Anna de Noas of the 7th Knight Order of the Northern Army. Are you the new fortress commander?”

“That’s right. I am Baron Luke de Rakan, who has been appointed as the commander here.”

‘Eek!’

Anna blushed in embarrassment.

Just now, she had saluted Philip. Judging by his age and appearance, he seemed like the new fortress commander.

However, the boy who she thought was an aide said that he was the new commander.

Just in case, she looked closely, and it was the boy who had the rank insignia symbolizing the commander on his shoulder.

“I, I am very sorry, Commander!”

“It’s fine. But are you the only one on duty?”

While Anna was looking embarrassed, several officers and soldiers rushed out from inside the headquarters.

They were in charge of the fortress’s administration, and they had been playing cards and chess when they found out that the new commander had arrived, so they had rushed out in a hurry.

Unlike the knights who were rolling around in the shade, they were wearing their uniforms properly and saluted sharply.

“Loyalty! Congratulations on your appointment!”

“…”

Philip, who had received another salute, silently pointed at Luke with both hands, as if to say that this was the new commander.

Their faces turned pale as they belatedly recognized the rank insignia, just like Anna.

“S, sorry, Commander. I never imagined you would be so young…”

“That’s enough. I want to unload my luggage first, so please guide me to my office.”

“T, that’s…”

The officer hesitated, looking troubled for some reason.

Luke, realizing that something was wrong, turned to Anna.

“Knight Anna, you will guide me.”

“Understood.”

Luke followed Anna to the office.

After going up one flight of stairs and going straight down the hallway on the right, they saw a door with a sign that read ‘Commander’s Office’.

Regardless of the administrative officers and soldiers’ anxiety, Luke immediately threw the door open.

“Hah! Hah!”

“Aaaah!”

A couple was intertwined naked on the sofa, like two snakes mating. The heat was intense, and it seemed like they had been at it for a while.

Anna’s face turned bright red at the sight, and Erewyn gave a cold, contemptuous look.

Luke was so dumbfounded that he let out a chuckle.

“Damn it, I told you not to come in when I’m doing this…!”

The man who was on top of the woman turned around, annoyed, and then his eyes widened when he saw Luke.

“D, Deren, young master. This is the new commander.”

At the words of the administrative officer who had followed Luke, the man got up awkwardly with a look of regret and put on his pants.

Then, he gave a perfunctory salute to Luke.

“I am Deren de Juke, the commander of the fortress’s infantry.”

‘Juke? I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere?’

As Luke showed a questioning look, Philip quickly informed him.

“It’s the Juke Count family, a very wealthy family. They own one of the top five merchant guilds in the Empire.”

“Ah…!”

Luke nodded as if he had finally remembered.

The Juke Merchant Guild was a rising merchant guild that was very successful 500 years ago.

There was no noble in Nemesis who hadn’t received bribes from them.

They weren’t nobles back then, but seeing that they had become a Count family, it seemed that they had poured a lot of money into the Imperial family and high-ranking nobles.

‘Anyway, this guy is the main culprit for corrupting the fortress.’

Luke was able to grasp the situation at once.

Even if it was a unit made up of only troublemakers, there must have been a reason why the military discipline was such a mess.

However, since a high-ranking officer like the commander was taking the lead in disrupting the atmosphere, there was no way that the military discipline wouldn’t be a mess.

“Aide, what is the punishment for this?”

“Yes?”

Philip, who had been suddenly asked a question, couldn’t answer right away. Luke pressed him.

“I asked what the Imperial army’s punishment is for violating military discipline within the camp.”

“Ah, violating military discipline within the camp is 50 lashes.”

“Then prepare to carry it out immediately.”

Deren’s eyes widened at Luke’s order, but he soon gave a haughty smile.

“Huh, are you going to punish me for having a woman in an empty room?”

“The guilty should be silent.”

“You can’t do this. I’ll tell my father and you’ll… *cough*!”

Luke punched Deren in the abdomen, who was even pointing his finger and raising his voice.

Deren, who had been hit by a fist imbued with aura and collapsed in one blow, foamed at the mouth and lost consciousness.

“Drag this guy out.”

Luke, who had easily subdued Deren, gave the order in a cold tone, and the administrative officers and soldiers dragged Deren out.

Anna, who had witnessed this series of events, looked at Luke with her eyes shining brightly.

‘Wow, amazing! He seems to be about the same age as me, but how can he be like this?’

Commander Deren was notorious in this fortress.

He was a troublemaker who acted as he pleased, relying on his family’s influence, and even the previous fortress commander, as well as the other two commanders, had given up on him.

Deren’s swordsmanship wasn’t bad, but to subdue him with a single punch and then sentence him to flogging was truly astonishing.

‘I need to tell my seniors about this right away!’

With a joyful and triumphant expression, she rushed to the training grounds, exaggerating what she had just witnessed.

Murmuring, murmuring.

For the first time in a long while, a pillory was erected in the Tolude Fortress training grounds.

The knights and soldiers, gathered by the new commander’s order, were shocked to see Deren, stripped to the waist, bound to the pillory.

Having regained consciousness after being bound, he began to shout at the top of his lungs.

“Release me! If you really whip me, I’ll tell my father to ruin the Lakan barony!”

“Sounds like a dog barking.”

Luke, having casually ignored Deren’s threats by picking at his ear, received an ogre-hide whip from Philip.

“Would you like to do it yourself?”

“It seems that would be more effective.”

He had all the fortress’s forces, except those on patrol, gathered in the training grounds.

It was intended as a lesson to all, and he knew that doing it himself would be more effective than having someone else do it.

Just as Luke was about to swing the whip,

“What is the meaning of this!”

“Release our young master immediately!”

Suddenly, five men appeared, blocking the way.

They wore breastplates with a scale emblem, and their attire was disheveled, as if they had been lounging somewhere and rushed over.

“Who are you?”

“We are knights of the Duke Juke family. Release our young master immediately and apologize.”

They demanded Deren’s release with great confidence.

“Are you Deren’s escorts?”

“That’s right. Release him before we inform the Duke.”

Luke, with a momentarily dumbfounded expression, swung the whip at Deren.

Whack!

“Kuaaak!”

The sharp blow that cut through the air split Deren’s back, and blood splattered.

“Y-Young Master!”

“You bastard!”

The five knights charged at Luke.

‘Heh, they fell for it.’

Luke needed an example to discipline the soldiers.

That’s why he had Deren flogged, but if there was something more effective, he wouldn’t hesitate.

He mercilessly swung the whip at the five knights who had volunteered to be examples along with Deren.

“Hmph, such an attack…”

The five knights were quite well-known in the Deren barony.

Two were experts who could handle aura [a type of magical energy], and the other three were top-tier sword users.

So, they thought they could easily subdue the young-looking commander and save their young master.

But just as they tried to grab the incoming whip,

The whip suddenly trembled and multiplied into dozens. Then, scattering in all directions, it flew at the five knights like venomous snakes lunging at their prey.

Whack! Thwack! Thwack, thwack, thwack!

The sound of tearing leather echoed from the pillory, followed by screams and groans.

“Aaaah!”

“Ugh!”

“It hurts! S-Stop…!”

The knights, who had underestimated Luke, screamed and rolled on the ground.

But Luke didn’t stop.

‘A half-hearted finish is worse than not doing it at all.’

His whip, subtly infused with aura, tore through the five knights’ clothes and flesh.

Tips of ears and noses were severed and lay on the ground, and white bones were exposed in the split wounds.

Deren’s face turned pale, almost white, as he watched his retainers become bloodied in an instant.

‘T-That…!’

‘Good heavens, he’s a complete demon.’

The faces of the soldiers gathered in the training grounds turned pale. The same was true for the knights.

They had looked down on the young commander, but they never imagined he would cause such a major incident as soon as he arrived.

“Hehehe, now shall we punish you?”

Luke, having turned the five knights into a pulp, grinned at Deren.

At that wicked smile, which resembled a demon, Deren involuntarily wet himself and screamed.

“Heeek! P-Please, spare me! I was wrong!”

“I won’t kill you. I’m just administering fair punishment according to military law.”

With those words, Luke turned his fierce gaze to the soldiers gathered in the training grounds and began to flog Deren.

Whack! Whack!

“Aaaah! Kuaaak!”

Each time his whip swung, Deren’s back was torn open.

Deren fainted at the tenth strike, and by the time Luke had completed the full fifty, his back was completely tattered and covered in blood.

Luke, having ordered the knights to drag Deren away, turned to the soldiers gathered in the training grounds and spoke.

“I will not question how you have acted until now. But from this moment on, I declare that anyone who disrupts the discipline of this unit will be punished according to military law.”

Luke’s voice was not loud.

But it was clearly heard by the soldiers and knights gathered in the training grounds.

As the new commander, who had declared his will to the soldiers, left, Anna and the senior knights gathered in their quarters for a strategy meeting.

“Shouldn’t we be careful too?”

“Yeah. He may be young, but he’s no pushover.”

“Rumor has it that he’s a Destroyer who single-handedly defeated four Gigants [giant monsters].”

“R-Really?”

At Anna’s words, all the knights’ gazes turned to her.

“I heard from the adjutant earlier that he can use magic as well as swordsmanship.”

“Huh! Then he’s a Rune Knight [a knight who can use magic].”

The knights began to chatter about the information they had received about the new commander from Anna.

If Deren had been there, he would have suggested showing the new commander who’s boss.

But he was the first to be targeted and was now hospitalized in the infirmary with a battered body.

“Hmph, let’s play it safe for now.”

“Yeah, that would be best.”

The knights tentatively came to that conclusion.

After Deren’s punishment, the discipline of Tolude Fortress seemed to be improving.

The soldiers didn’t slack off during their duties, and the knights also participated diligently in training.

However, this also began to gradually fall apart after ten days.

This was because the unit members’ qualities and mental state were so poor.

They thought that Luke would be full of enthusiasm at the beginning of his assignment.

But they believed that once he realized the harsh environment and reality of the fortress, he would quietly lock himself in his room like the previous commander.

So, their attitude towards duty and training gradually began to deteriorate, and eventually, they returned to how they were before Luke arrived.

“Haa, it seems trash is still trash.”

Philip sighed deeply after taking a tour of the fortress from the morning.

“Why are you so disappointed about that?”

“The problem is the knights. If we can control them, the officers and soldiers will naturally follow.”

The 7th Northern Army Knight Division stationed at Tolude Fortress included about 50 knights and 70 apprentice knights.

Most of them were from noble families or the sons of wealthy merchants, so they were steeped in a sense of privilege.

Moreover, as the unit had been disbanded several times, they were more concerned with protecting themselves than diligently performing their duties.

As a result, training and operations were neglected, and they only schemed about how to safely discharge or transfer to another unit.

When those who should be setting an example openly slacked off, it was easy for the officers and soldiers under them to follow suit.

Of course, there were a few more mages in the fortress besides them.

However, they were few in number and mostly stayed in their rooms, only doing maintenance during Gigant cycles, so their influence on the soldiers was negligible.

“But what has the lord been doing since earlier?”

Philip, who had been complaining, asked curiously as Luke kept fiddling with the metal clasp on his necklace.

It was a charm containing Reyna’s hair.

“I was just checking if there was any power in it.”

“Power?”

“There is such a thing. It’s hard for you to understand.”

After meeting Erewyn, Luke had examined the charm several times.

However, he had only felt a special power from the charm on the first day he received it from Reyna, and when Erewyn had reacted to the mana [magical energy].

He had tried to stimulate it with mana as Erewyn had done, but somehow, there was no reaction.

However, there was one noteworthy point.

‘Since I’ve been wearing this charm, the curse wave of the black magic on my body has become very weak.’

The nasty curse would activate when a crisis struck, especially at critical moments, putting him in mortal danger.

But despite the fact that his fight with Erewyn had been quite challenging, the curse had not activated.

‘Could Reyna really have ancient power?’

He couldn’t know for sure right now.

In any case, it was certain that there was something special about her.

Otherwise, there was no reason for that haughty elf to follow him around.

“What has Erewyn been doing lately?”

“She’s just been meditating in her room or looking around the fortress. Other than that, she hasn’t shown any special behavior.”

“It’s good that she’s keeping her promise.”

She had promised not to cause any trouble as much as possible as a condition for accompanying Luke.

He had been worried that she might reveal her true identity or cause a commotion with her cold personality, but he was relieved that she hadn’t.

“Then shall we go and get them back on track?”

Luke, having put the charm back into his pocket, got up from his seat.

Over the past ten days, he had been pushing the administrative officers to bring him all the documents that could show the current state of the fortress.

Among them were documents related to the personnel of the unit members.

After looking through all the documents, he had a rough idea of what to do with them.

“Shall I lend a hand?”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll be enough on my own this time too.”

When he went out to the training grounds, most of the knights and apprentice knights were there, except for those who had gone out on patrol or guard duty.

However, less than half of them were training diligently.

About 20 of them, centered around the senior knights, were sitting comfortably in the shade, chatting, and when they saw Luke and Philip approaching, they quickly pretended to train.

“Everyone, stop! Gather here!”

At Luke’s shout, the knights who had been scattered around the training grounds doing individual training gathered in one place.

There seemed to be about 100 of them.

“You don’t want to train, do you?”

For a knight, swordsmanship training was not an option but an obligation.

Since the unit’s combat power would increase if the individual’s skills improved, the knight order or each unit would even allocate separate training time.

At Luke’s question, a knight who seemed to be the representative raised his hand and asked.

“Why do you ask such a question?”

“And you are?”

“I am Caper, the deputy commander of the knights.”

Caper was a mid-level expert and the second son of Baron Molt, a central government official.

He was one of the most skilled in the fortress and was also one of only ten riders.

In some ways, Caper was more of a headache than Deren.

Was it because he was the type of person who, relying on his family’s influence, treated his superiors like dirt?

No, that wasn’t it.

It was because he had a strong pride in his skills and tended to ignore his superiors if they were weaker than him.

That’s why he had been transferred from unit to unit until he ended up in this hopeless unit.

Here, he was diligently slacking off with his followers.

“So you’re the friend who’s always fishing by the river.”

“Fishing? I was observing the enemy’s movements across the river.”

Caper replied nonchalantly to Luke’s sarcasm.

However, at Luke’s scathing criticism that followed, his and the other knights’ faces changed completely.

“How can a friend who observes the enemy’s movements so well not know why I asked that question? You’re a fool. You can’t even see what’s obvious just by looking at yourself.”

Caper’s face hardened.

No one had ever said such things to him so openly before.

“Take back those words!”

“Why? Are you upset? Then show me skills worthy of it.”

“Y-You, you, you!”

As Caper trembled, his face flushed red at Luke’s taunts, a knight with narrow, slit-like eyes stepped forward to stop him.

The slit-eyed knight looked at Luke and spoke.

“I am Alex, the first squad leader. If we really show our skills, will we not have to train?”

“That’s right.”

“Then, with my lacking skills, I will challenge you. I’d like to see if you are as good with a sword as you are with a whip, Your Excellency.”

As Alex stepped forward, a few other knights came out as well. They were all either confident in their skills or underestimated Luke.

Luke, having glanced at them, said indifferently.

“It’s annoying to deal with you one by one. Can’t you just come at me all at once? I don’t think anyone here can beat me, even if you all come at me.”

‘No, why is he doing that?’

Anna, who had been watching the knights and Luke’s squabble from behind, tilted her head. She thought the commander was provoking the knights’ pride too much.

Usually, a commander would try to appease the knights, who were the unit’s greatest strength.

Acting like Luke could lead to the knights’ backlash and retaliation.

Eventually, the knights, unable to bear the sarcasm, exploded.

“Are you really saying that we can all come at you?”

“That’s right. Why, do you think I can’t win?”

“What kind of nonsense is that!”

The knights dismissed Luke’s words as nonsense.

They didn’t really know how strong he was. They had heard the rumor that he was a Destroyer, but they could never believe that he could fight and win against 100 knights, not just one or two.

Among the 100, more than half were apprentice knights, but there were still over 20 who had reached the expert level.

“Good. If you’re so confident, swear that you will absolutely obey my orders from now on if you lose to me.”

“Hmph, understood. But if we win, don’t interfere with whether we train or not.”

Thus, the confrontation between the knights and Luke was established.

It wasn’t just a simple confrontation; they even called a mage to draw up a contract with mana certification [a magical contract].

‘Hehehe, I’ll make you shed tears of blood.’

Luke, having received the contract, inwardly wore a wicked expression.

He believed that the only way to establish the discipline of the knights was to subdue them with his skills.

That’s why he had deliberately provoked the knights to establish the confrontation.

Of course, even for Luke, it would be difficult to face 100 knights alone.

Especially since he couldn’t use black magic.

But he had a trump card.