Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 52

The Lord said he would teach them amazing sword skills. The McLaine knights heard this news yesterday. They were so excited they came to the training grounds early in the morning.

“Does our family even have special sword skills to teach?”

“Maybe he will just tell us some of his tricks?”

“He has given us advice before. If it’s just more advice…”

“Hmm. But he usually keeps his promises.”

The knights were talking louder and louder. Suddenly, a man walked into the training ground from the side. He was middle-aged and had a face they knew well.

As soon as they saw him, all the knights bowed together.

“We greet you, Lord!”

“We greet our leader!” They said it politely and respectfully. But Patrick, the Lord, did not look happy as he looked at them.

“…You are standing in two groups. Are we two groups of knights now?” Patrick sounded surprised and a little angry. The knights all jumped a little when they heard his voice. He was right. They were in two groups, one of 41 knights and another of 32. They stood apart like they didn’t know each other.

One group was the McLaine knights who had always been here. The other group was knights who used to serve Lord Teslon but had joined Patrick.

“I know it’s hard to become friends quickly. You used to fight each other in battles.” Usually, a knight who serves two different lords is seen as dishonorable. But this was not a war between countries. It was a fight within their own land. Also, Lord Teslon was dead, and his family was gone. So, the Teslon knights had only one choice. Joining Patrick was not dishonorable for them.

“But I thought you would start to work together if you understood what it means to be a knight. But instead…” Patrick clicked his tongue in disappointment. Even though he sounded like he didn’t care, his power was growing stronger. The morning light behind him made his red hair and eyes look even redder, like blood.

“I have been quiet for a while. But I heard silly rumors. Rumors about you fighting among yourselves and trying to ruin each other’s work. I didn’t want to believe it. But… I can see it’s true just by looking at you.” Every time the knights looked at the Lord’s face, which was angry and disappointed, they started to sweat. Patrick’s power was still getting stronger.

“It’s because you are too comfortable! Too comfortable! I am training so hard I could die, to become stronger. And my son is working all day for our land…” The Lord walked slowly, but he felt more powerful and scary than ever before.

“Knights are supposed to protect our land. But you are acting like children, fighting over who is better. I have not paid enough attention to this. Yes, it is my fault. It is all my fault. Right?” Suddenly, Patrick’s power felt like it was pushing down on all the knights.

Heinkel was standing right in front of Patrick. He could feel the Lord’s power very strongly. He knew Patrick had become much stronger. He should be happy that his Lord was improving after so many years of being stuck. But…

“No!” Heinkel shouted. He was even more worried now because he felt he had disappointed his Lord.

“No, Lord! Absolutely not!” The other knights also felt the cold power and the strange mood. They all waved their hands and shouted together.

“No, it’s our fault, Lord! It’s our fault!”

“Okay,” Patrick said. “Then I will pay more attention to you from now on. Is that alright?”

“Yes, Lord! Of course!”

“Good. Then, first…” The knights swallowed hard, watching their Lord nervously. Patrick picked up a wooden sword. Suddenly, a red line of light, longer than two meters, shot out from the sword!

“Gasp!”

“W-what is that thing?!” Even the knights who had doubted Patrick’s skills were shocked. Their eyes opened wide as they saw clearly that their Lord had become incredibly strong.

“The best way to learn swordsmanship is by doing it,” Patrick said. “Come forward, one at a time.” For the knights, this sounded like terrible news. They looked sad and worried. Patrick saw their faces and made his own face even colder.

‘If I make them train like crazy, they won’t have time to cause trouble.’ Patrick thought. He wanted to teach his son how to be a good Lord and have strong knights. He was ready to do anything to make that happen.

Later that morning, Logan woke up after meditating. He finished his morning training and walked to his office. He met Dwayne in the hallway. Logan didn’t even say hello. He just asked, “Did you put up the notices to recruit soldiers?”

“Yes,” Dwayne replied. “We will start hiring soldiers at both castles when winter begins. Peran, who is in charge of the soldiers, is a bit surprised we need so many more. But we have plenty of money.” Dwayne’s answer seemed a little strange to Logan, like he wasn’t really listening. Logan coughed.

“Well, money is important, but people do the work. You should help Peran a bit…”

“Why worry when we have so much money?” Dwayne smiled, looking completely relaxed.

‘This old man has really changed,’ Logan thought. He sighed, but decided to ignore it.

“Okay, also, my father will now train the regular soldiers too.”

“But isn’t the Lord supposed to train only the knights?” Dwayne asked.

“Soldiers can become knights later,” Logan explained. “Maybe if my father trains them, more of them will become Awakened, you never know.” Logan thought to himself, ‘Putting the right people in the right jobs is important for running a territory well. I want to make my father see that he gave me too much power too soon.’

“Haha. Okay, do whatever you want,” Dwayne said easily. Luckily, Dwayne had started agreeing with everything Logan said. He didn’t argue at all.

“Have all the villagers finished their work and gone home?” Logan asked. “We’ll need them again in about a month, so let them rest until then.”

“Are you talking about building the new village?” Dwayne asked. “Yes, I already told them. The villagers are happy to do it.”

“…They are happy?” Logan was surprised. He was making them work when winter was starting, a time when they should be resting.

“That’s how much the Lord has impressed them,” Dwayne explained.

“Hmm…” Logan still didn’t understand, but he decided to just accept it. ‘Maybe it is a good thing,’ he thought.

“And you are giving them food too, right? After all, they are building their own homes.” Dwayne’s words made sense.

“And when we hire soldiers…” “Aargh!” Suddenly, a loud scream cut off Logan’s words. It was a scream of pain and fear. Both Logan and Dwayne turned quickly to see where it came from.

“……”

“……”

“Did that sound like it came from the training grounds?” Logan asked.

“Yes, it did. But the knights are training there now…” Suddenly, a loud THUD!

“Gwaah…!” Another scream, even stranger than before! And then, a red light shot up into the sky. It was so bright they could see it even from far away.

The figure of a sturdy knight soared over the walls of the training grounds.

“S-Spare me…!”

“Lord, I-I was wrong…”

The closer they got to the training grounds, the clearer the desperate voices became, and the two could not hide their bewilderment.

Logan frowned. “Has knight training always been this scary?” he wondered.

At that, Logan immediately recalled the ridiculous horseback riding training, but…

“It couldn’t be…”

It wasn’t enough to cause such wails of anguish.

Logan thought his father must have decided on some new, tough training. He must have steeled his heart.

It was an unexpected turn of events, but that was Logan’s impression.

Just…

“F-From today, I’m in charge of the soldiers’ training… Ack!”

“I’ve left all other matters to Logan. You lot will only train with me for a while!”

He had inadvertently learned that one of the knights’ most important duties had also fallen to him.

‘Well, I’ll be in charge of recruiting soldiers anyway.’

This new job wasn’t so bad for Logan, who had to raise the level of the soldiers anyway.

However, there was something he had to do first.

These days, Dwayne was receiving many complaints like this: “Why is Lord Logan being like this? These days, he’s practically acting on his own…”

However…

“The Young Lord must have a reason. What are you questioning? Are you getting cocky now that the budget’s increased?! Where do you think that budget comes from! Huh? Just do what Lord Logan tells you. If he tells you to do it, you do it!”

“L-Lord Dwayne?”

Dwayne had already lost sight of everything.

‘Twenty years as a manager. I didn’t know it was so wonderful to be able to sign documents without worrying about the budget.’

And he didn’t want to tolerate any factor that would interfere with that happiness.

“Y-You’re going to use up gold bars worth ten million?! Why? What are you going to do again?!”

But Dwayne now seemed to see the illusion of the money that had given him happiness fading away like mist.

“I’ll give you twice as much next month. Don’t worry.”

It sounded like a scam even if you just listened to it, but the one spouting it happened to be the owner of the budget.

“S-Still, I need to know why that ridiculous expenditure is necessary…”

“I’m going to buy mithril. Quite a lot.”

“…Pardon?”

“Mithril.”

“Buy what?”

“I’m buying mithril. About 100㎏.”

“Why on earth?!”

Dwayne screamed as if he was having a seizure.

The silver of the gods, Mithril. A rare magical metal that inherently possesses magical power, has more than ten times the strength of refined steel, and weighs only 1/3 as much. It is a metal that is rarely mined in small quantities in iron, gold, or silver mines, and its value is 1,000 times that of gold of the same weight.

So, Dwayne had no choice but to go crazy and jump up and down.

“What are you going to do with 100㎏ of mithril!”

But as always, Logan didn’t accept any objections.

“Why, why, why. Don’t you ever get tired?”

“…Yes?”

“If I were you, I’d be too tired to do it. Have I ever done anything wrong?”

“W-Well, that’s true, but…”

The undeniable fact created by his performance heavily suppressed Dwayne’s resistance.

Logan chuckled at Dwayne’s suffering, who had a lot to say but couldn’t bring himself to say it, and told him the reason.

“I’m going to make some weapons for the knights.”

“Yes? Mithril weapons, th-that’s insane…”

“Insane! I’m not saying I’m going to give them all pure mithril. Even if I buy that much, mithril alloy would be the best I could do considering the number of knights.”

“Ugh, you’ve lost your sense of money since you mined a gold mine…”

Looking at the frustrated Dwayne, Logan added words of comfort.

“They’re knights who have been suffering while receiving less pay than other territories. We should treat them as well as we can, even now.”

“D-Does it necessarily have to be mithril weapons?”

“We have money, and we have dwarves. What can’t we do? That’s a reasonable consumption with just one month’s income.”

“R-Reasonable… Heh heh heh.”

Dwayne thought Logan’s spending was becoming a habit.

If he called this absurd consumption reasonable, it meant that this kind of thing could continue to happen in the future.

In Dwayne’s imagination, the future that seemed to be full of flower paths was darkening in real time.

‘I have to stop him. I can’t stop him…’

However, the instigator of this extravagance had proven everything with his performance, as he himself said.

Moreover, the gold mine was actually his personal property, so there was no justification for opposing it.

“I’ve already decided, so keep that in mind. If you have any urgent money matters, put them off.”

Logan left, leaving behind a notice that was not a consultation.

He seemed to have made up his mind, and now no one could stop him.

Thud.

“…Lord, you’ve gone too far! Sniffle.”

The door closed, and the administrator, left alone, had no choice but to sob where no one could hear.

‘A sure way to strengthen the knights’ power.’

Qualitative improvement of weapons.

It was insane to someone, but it was just one of the things Logan had to do.

He wanted to give them artifacts as gifts, but giving artifact weapons to all the knights was impossible, even if he had a gold mine.

‘Pure mithril weapons for the knights, most of whom are at the level of regular knights, would only be light and wasteful.’

Considering everything, this was the most reasonable choice.

Just having mithril alloy weapons would be enough to expect at least a 10% to 20% increase in power.

‘Should I make my sword out of pure mithril?’

Just imagining it made him smile with satisfaction.

As a knight, he couldn’t help but be greedy for a great weapon.

In his previous life, he had never even seen a mithril alloy weapon, but now he thought it was okay to be a little more greedy.

But then, a voice in his mind, Philip, said firmly, “[That’s impossible.]”