Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 235

So, what will the nobles do next?

“Raise taxes on the commoners! Up to 70%!”

The kingdom’s nobles increased the existing taxes, in many cases nearly doubling them.

Naturally, the people groaned under the burden.

“What kind of new era is this? An era of new hells!”

“They called him a tyrant, and he really was a tyrant.”

“Damn it. This one or that one, the nobles are all the same…”

Most of the nobles were known for being slow to act, but when it came to money, they were as swift as lightning.

The loud complaints from the people reached King Logan clearly.

“Crazy bastards… 90% of them raised taxes to 70%?”

He had considered that they might squeeze the commoners to get more for themselves.

But their behavior went beyond Logan’s expectations.

Even the honest nobles who had been taking 30% or 40% in taxes immediately turned into tyrants, squeezing the commoners now that they had less money.

‘Well, I’m not one to talk, having caused this situation myself.’

He felt a pang of conscience.

“What shall we do? Policies to soothe the public sentiment…”

“No. Not now. Now is the time to focus on what we must do.”

Now, despite Dwayne’s worries, he had no choice but to stand firm.

Setting aside concerns about public opinion for the moment, Logan shared his thoughts.

“Free knights or knights from local territories will gather if we, including the Aura users, directly lead and teach them. As the king is the lord of lords, it will also justify that they are not betraying their own lords.”

Heinckel nodded, adding his opinion.

“I agree with Your Majesty. However, the soldiers’ training needs to be more specialized.”

“Specialized, you say?”

“We are using funds even at the cost of damaging public sentiment. If we also get support from Esperanza and McLaine, we will be investing far more money than it seems. In that case, we should attract applicants by significantly raising the quality of the training.”

“Raise the quality level?”

“As Your Majesty said, knights can be lured by the promise of Aura users’ teachings, even if the treatment is similar to what they already have. But soldiers are different. They care more about immediate benefits than future possibilities.”

Everyone understood, nodding in agreement.

“You’re saying we should give them high monthly wages.”

Dwayne, always worried about money, frowned. But Heinckel nodded as if it were obvious.

“That’s only natural. And we need to invest generously in training facilities and equipment. We should also emphasize that they can focus solely on training for a year without taking on any missions. And if they pass that training, they should have an educational course prepared in advance so they can become senior soldiers in any territory.”

“It’s funny,” the Sword Master chuckled, “to see a king practically begging people to join his army. I’ve lived a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Everyone listening had to admit there was some truth in his words.

Except for one person.

“……This vast budget will drain away like water. Heuheuheu.”

Dwayne showed his distress, tearing at his hair, but no one responded.

Only Logan considered the financial officer’s difficulties.

“If we start with a target force of 50,000, just the equipment will cost ten million gold. We need to get all the magic workshops to produce weapons for the new soldiers first. Then we can lower the cost a little, right?”

“We have to make it at ‘cost’ only. Strictly. I’ll talk to Hamar,” Dwayne said, his eyes already bloodshot, creating a strange tension. “Heuheu.”

Heinckel brought up something that would make those bloodshot eyes even wider.

“The target level for the soldiers should be at least as high as McLaine’s crossbow cavalry. To do that, we need repeating crossbows and…”

“No way! Absolutely not! It’s impossible to get that many horses in a short period! Even if there was a way, buying the horses would bankrupt us immediately…!”

“……Of course, I’m not thinking that far. I’m just talking about the training level. Haha, I just meant that the crossbow skills, weapon skills, and tactical training should be perfect to that extent.”

“Haa…… Sir Heinckel. Please say things like that a little faster. Hooo, hooo. Aheueheu. I thought my heart was going to drop.”

Dwayne clutched his heart, gasping for breath with a red face.

Seeing that, Heinckel decided to hold off on the proposal to give horsemanship training to at least 10% of the best soldiers.

And.

“McLaine’s skilled soldiers should become training instructors for the royal direct territory soldiers. Given the scale, there should be at least two or three hundred of them.”

“That much is no problem.”

“If it’s for swordsmanship training, I’ll also assign knights from the Esperanza Knights.”

“……It seems a bit excessive for soldier training, but if so, the training results will be certain.”

“Even so, it’s daunting. To recruit 50,000 elite troops in one year, troops that won’t be second to anyone.”

“It can’t be helped. We have to get the best results in a short time. Isn’t that right, Your Majesty?”

“Of course. Master, don’t worry too much. McLaine knights will also help.”

With that, it was decided to use knights from Esperanza and McLaine for the new soldiers’ swordsmanship training.

A few days later, a soldier recruitment notice with generous conditions, unlike anything the kingdom had ever seen, began to be posted throughout the kingdom.

The knight recruitment conditions were very easy, only requiring applicants to be knights.

The soldier recruitment conditions were so groundbreaking that they practically told anyone to apply.

The notice quickly became the hottest topic in the kingdom, making everyone excited.

The rumor spread like wildfire, reaching even the young commoner workers who were most desperate because of the tax increase during the harvest season.

On top of that, this royal proclamation was added.

“There’s no point in farming, since everything will be taken away anyway. I should apply as a soldier.”

“Oh, Mother! They’re taking women too! Taxes are scary, so we should at least reduce one mouth to feed at home!”

Regardless of gender, lines of applicants began to form.

Starting with the young commoners living in the capital and the royal direct territories in the central region, a crowd of people soon gathered in Gran.

“Hey, don’t step on my foot!!”

“Stop pushing from behind!”

“Ack! Who’s elbow is that!”

The crowd filled the gates of Gran.

Gran, where the number of people had been steadily decreasing because of the grim atmosphere after the start of the new dynasty, was bustling for the first time in a while.

On the other hand, the faces of those who had to give the test according to McLaine’s standards were growing more despairing by the minute.

“Lo, Lord Count. Why are we doing this…?”

“……We have to do it because they told us to. What choice do we have?”

The face of Francisco Romero, the former Royal Guard Commander, as he watched the applicants swarming in, was truly ashen.

During the last civil war, he participated as a reinforcement from Esperanza and was captured. After being released from prison, he lost his title as Royal Guard Commander.

His subordinates, who were also Royal Guard Knights, were only assigned as knights of the newly created Kingdom Defense Force and were virtually on standby.

But their first mission was this.

It was a situation that only brought sighs, but there was no choice.

‘If I don’t handle this properly here, I’ll really be out of favor.’

Francisco was a top knight. Giving him this boring job felt like they wanted to crush him.

If he complained, he could be in real trouble.

Francisco bit his lip, took the papers, and stamped them hard.

“Hey! Barracks that way! Men to the left! Idiot, where do you think you’re going?”

Sometimes, someone would try to go into the wrong barracks. Francisco would push them back to the right side.

It was a mess. Just five minutes until the hour, and everything was crazy.

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying hard to make the area tidy and stop the craziness.

They only had one month to take in new people.

He could already feel dark circles under his eyes. He couldn’t change anything.

“These are the men I will lead later. Yes, think of it like that.”

He had to be humble now.

Being humble was the only way to get through this.

Francisco Romero put his pride aside and worked very, very hard.

“How many people have applied?”

“Too many! The number keeps going up. If it stays like this, we’ll have more than 50,000 in just two weeks!”

“That’s good in a way.”

“Not really good.”

Logan sighed, sounding happy, but Dwayne looked worried.

“…You said lots of people applied?”

“Yes, way more than we thought. The problem is, feeding and housing them is costing us more money than we planned. This is bad! We just started getting taxes!”

“…Really? Why are so many people coming?”

“Because some bad king’s rules made it impossible to live just by farming!”

The money minister looked very worried about the extra costs. He made the king nervous.

“Well… it’s better to have too many than too few.”

Logan looked away, not wanting to be blamed.

Dwayne, who was still looking angrily at the king, sighed and pointed to where all the new people were.

“And there’s one more problem.”

“Another one?”

“Using all the Royal Guards just to welcome people? Isn’t that a waste of soldiers?”

Logan answered Dwayne sharply.

“Real waste is when soldiers just sit around doing nothing. What have they been doing until now anyway?”

Logan thought the Royal Guard was useless, weak, and like they didn’t even exist. Just those three things.

Since the first civil war, he only remembered…

“Yes, but Count Francisco Romero is there, a really good knight.”

“Hmm? Oh… right, the mustache guy.”

He was the only one Logan remembered. Poor Francisco, Logan was only just remembering him now.

“Yes. Good knights might think this job is an insult.”

Just as Dwayne said that – “Hey! Where do you think you’re going! Men that way, you crazy fool!”

They could clearly see the ‘top knight’ waving his arms and shouting to keep order.

“…He’s working hard, isn’t he?”

“Yes… very hard.”

“Then let him keep working.”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

Did Francisco even know that working so hard was just making things worse for him? Dwayne felt sorry for the knight.

It wasn’t just regular soldiers coming to join. The kingdom had many civil wars lately. This made many knights lose their lords. The last war wasn’t long and not many died, but the nobles who helped the losing king were now broke. Hundreds of knights had no jobs.

Because they were almost nobles, many knights didn’t want to work as soldiers for hire. They were just knights without work. The king’s announcement about the army was like a light in the dark for them.

They would learn from someone who could use Aura (a special power). Also, working directly for the king was very attractive.

And it wasn’t just those knights interested. “If the King is above our Baron, then joining the King’s army isn’t betraying anyone.”

Knights who were unhappy with their local lords also started looking at the Royal Guard.

So, instead of the 300 knights they expected, more than 540 people applied!

The Sword Master got the applications and just said, “Accept them all.”

“Sir, but some of these men left their lords…”

“Those who are bad, we will make them good. Those who are too bad to change, we will get rid of them in training.”

The Sword Master smiled in a scary way. He was in charge of training the Royal Guard knights.

And the nobles, like always, were watching closely what the king was doing. Recruiting people to make a new army that only listened to the King!

[Knights] Good knights, join us! Work for the King! Learn from the best, like the Sword Master! Apply now!

[Soldiers] We want young men and women, 18-25 years old, anyone can apply! You will train for a whole year, no other work. We will treat you like good soldiers in any land. We give you a place to stay, food, and gear. You get paid like a good soldier too!

People from all over the kingdom can apply. The King says it’s okay to travel here. Even if you have no home or job, you can apply, as long as you are not a bad criminal.

But the people around the king were still worried.

“The new kingdom just started. Shouldn’t we make the people happy?”

“If we take too much from people who are already poor, the whole country will make less money later. Please think again, Your Majesty.”

Heinkel and Dwayne both said they were worried.

But Logan was set on his plan. “We can’t all fail just to make people happy right now. I know you’re worried, but focus on what’s most important now. It won’t be forever. Just one year, that’s all it takes.”

Everyone sighed at the same time when they heard his strong words. They looked at each other, worried, and then just smiled sadly.

Everyone there knew Logan was very stubborn. Many times before, Logan McLain’s stubbornness seemed crazy, but it always worked out in the end. Because of that, they followed his plan, even though it seemed risky.

“If that’s what you want, Your Majesty, then we should talk about how to train and organize the new soldiers, like we planned. Does anyone have any ideas?” Heinkel said. Everyone looked back at Logan.