The Genius Knight of a Fallen Race - Chapter 70

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

◈ The Genius Knight of a Fallen Race ◈

Chapter 70: Something Rising from Beneath the River

──────

The victory banquet began by welcoming the new guests, moved on to rewarding merit, and eventually turned into a cheerful drinking party.

Having been promised rewards befitting their accomplishments, the warriors relaxed and reveled in delicious food, wine, and the festive atmosphere as they chatted noisily.

“To Princess Serin!”

At a knight’s cry, everyone raised their glasses high, clinked them together, and drank deeply.

Serin, seated at the head table, smiled calmly at the toast offered in her honor. She raised her glass, gave it a little wave in the air, then drank.

“Good grief.”

The bishop of the Diocese of Pales watched with a displeased expression and sighed.

Whether they followed the Old Faith or the New Faith, priests of the Church of the Goddess had always hated seeing people drink themselves into a stupor.

As more alcohol flowed, the banquet hall grew even rowdier.

Unlike the stiff banquets of the capital, where people dressed finely and acted dignified, country knights jostled one another roughly and bonded more openly.

Shan found this far more comfortable and enjoyable.

“That’s right. This is the proper knightly tradition of the Arman Empire. Look at that painting. Even Emperor Varen is sharing drinks freely with his subordinates,” Shan said.

Roden chimed in and pointed to a large painting hanging on one side of the banquet hall.

It showed a man radiating a blazing halo from behind as he offered a cup to his subordinates.

Emperor Varen was always painted that way, making him easy to recognize.

Even someone as ignorant as Shan could tell at a glance.

As the mood heated up and more drinks went down, a few people gradually crossed the line.

Baron Yurk was the clearest example. His old delinquent habits began to surface, and before long, he and another knight were grabbing each other by the collar.

All because the knight had stepped on his foot while passing by.

Shan rose from his seat, walked over to the pair, and placed a hand on each of their shoulders.

“That’s enough. Stop there.”

Yurk turned his head, met Shan’s eyes, and immediately let go, then returned to his seat looking thoroughly cowed.

Everyone stared in surprise.

Come to think of it, Shan was the one who had tamed that troublemaker.

While Shan was enjoying the banquet, he suddenly felt something lightly tickling the back of his neck.

A spider had somehow climbed onto him and was using its front legs to write against his skin.

[Come to the garden]

When Shan turned his head, Serin was gone.

Only moments ago, she had been seated at the head table, speaking with Orum and the count.

Shan immediately set down his glass and stood.

“Where are you going, Sir Shan?”

“I need to use the restroom.”

After making an excuse, Shan left the banquet hall and walked through a corridor brightly lit by magic lamps.

After rounding three corners at a brisk pace, he reached a dark garden.

It was early summer, and the inner garden of Pales Castle was red with blooming roses.

The flower buds, still a little short of their season, had grown full and plump, as though they might burst into bloom at any moment.

Serin stood in the middle of the garden, looking up at the sky. Sensing Shan’s presence, she turned toward him.

“You came?”

“You called for me.”

It reminded him of when they had spoken in the royal gardens before.

Unlike then, there were no princesses or knights watching from afar, and this garden was much smaller and humbler.

As Shan drew closer, he caught a strong scent of alcohol from Serin.

Her face, usually pale, was flushed from drink. Her unfocused eyes looked faintly dazed.

“You’re drunk. You told me not to drink too much.”

“I didn’t want to drink either. But I couldn’t refuse the cups offered by subordinates who earned merit.”

She was not wrong, so Shan nodded before raising another concern.

“And it’s the middle of the night. You should at least bring guards with you. It’s dangerous.”

“The area is bright anyway. Besides, the strongest knight is right beside me. Who would dare threaten me?”

Serin answered in a lazy voice, then burst into laughter, apparently amused by her own words.

A moment later, she fanned her face with an embarrassed expression.

“I really am a little drunk. Right. I wanted to talk with you alone because...”

As she spoke, Serin edged closer before suddenly striking Shan’s back hard with her palm.

He had clearly seen the attack coming, but instead of dodging, he tensed his back.

Even with the vast difference in their physical abilities, a blow like that still hurt.

A hot sting spread through his back, and a groan escaped him.

“Urgh.”

“I called you out here to scold you first. You climbed down a vertical cliff over a hundred meters high? Do you have three lives or something? I nearly fainted when I heard about it!”

“It wasn’t that dangerous.”

Shan was confident he could even sleep while hanging from a cliff.

With his overwhelming balance and physical ability, a cliff was little more than a tiring set of stairs to climb up and down.

The mounted charge against Duke Moraen’s knights had been much more dangerous.

The chance of dying on the cliff had been less than one in ten thousand, while the charge might have had a one-in-a-hundred chance of killing him.

Serin let out a deep sigh after hearing that.

“You’re right. It doesn’t make sense for someone who fights not to risk death. Still, please value your life more. You’re not just an ordinary knight. You practically symbolize the military strength of Pales.”

Serin murmured desperately that losing Shan would be like losing both arms.

Shan nodded.

Even while being scolded, something tickled at his heart. It was strange, but not unpleasant.

“And there’s one more thing. I called you here to apologize.”

“Why?”

“Because I couldn’t give you territory and settled things by giving you the position of Lord Protector.”

The position of Lord Protector was a great reward, as everyone’s reactions had shown.

Still, it was far from Shan’s ambition.

He dreamed of becoming a lord and creating land where the Altos could live without discrimination.

Shan blinked a few times, then answered.

“Well, it’s not that urgent. Everyone’s doing well here anyway... Honestly, you didn’t even need to give me that position. I don’t know much about it, but isn’t it a burden for you?”

Serin was already someone within Shan’s circle.

Because of that, he did not need any particular reward to fight for her, just as he did not need one to save people like Roden, Kalion, or Darkal.

“That won’t do. If I don’t reward my best knight properly, no one will see me as a fair ruler. And people around you may try to tempt you, saying you’re being treated unfairly and that they can offer you greater rewards.”

A face suddenly came to Shan’s mind.

Serin seemed to have been thinking of the same person and immediately named him.

“That rat Duke Moraen even promised you Count Barlic’s title, didn’t he?”

Fierce hostility burned in Serin’s reddish-brown eyes.

The corners of her eyes rose sharply, and she looked vicious enough to cast magic at him on the spot if he were standing before her.

“You heard?”

“Of course. Remember? The day I become queen, you’ll become Duke Ranphel. You’ll be the greatest lord in western Pendia. Compared to some count’s title... Well, honestly, I can’t exactly say it’ll be better. After all, that title is in Libert.”

Serin began confidently, but her voice gradually trailed off.

She was right. Libert was over three times larger than Pendia, had almost no monsters, and was a wealthy country with a high population density.

Count Barlic’s northern territory bordered the Kingdom of Ajun, so it was poor despite its strong military power.

Even considering that, it would still be richer than any territory in Pendia.

Perhaps only Pales could compare to it at all.

“Still, Pendia is better for the Altos to live in. And it’ll get better from now on. Things are a little difficult right now, but... You understand what I’m saying, right?”

Her drunken speech came out in scattered, uneven pieces, and Shan could not help chuckling as he nodded.

Serin frowned, grabbed his collar, and clung to him.

“Remember. You’re my knight. I knighted you, and you swore loyalty to me. No one can take you away.”

Serin’s mutter carried a strong possessiveness.

Shan laughed at the princess’s uncontrollable drunken rambling.

* * *

The next day, Serin acted as though nothing had happened in the garden.

Still, when Shan teasingly said, “You knighted me, and I swore loyalty to you,” her face turned red.

It seemed she remembered.

Unfortunately, they did not have much time to meet and joke around.

They became busy distributing the enormous resources brought back by the expedition throughout Pales.

A significant portion was given to those who had participated in the expedition as rewards, but even that would circulate within the territory and replenish the depleted treasury through indirect taxes.

Most importantly, they had secured a large supply of Magic stones, the expedition’s original purpose.

Orum, Serin’s teacher and the Leader of the Magic Society, personally involved himself in dividing the Magic stones and producing magic devices.

The efficiency of the work immediately began to rise.

“Yes, the spell, you idiot! Did you drink yesterday? Why are your lines so crooked? These fools, honestly! Move aside. This great sage will demonstrate!”

Whenever the irritable old man stomped around and shouted, the mages visibly tensed up.

Thanks to having such an excellent supervisor, Serin was finally able to set aside one major duty and gain some free time.

Shan could not spend all his time relaxing either.

He was no longer only Princess Serin’s guardian knight and the commander of the Alto mercenary company.

He was now the Lord Protector of Lynel-Pales.

As the commander-in-chief holding all military authority over the land, he had a duty not only to command the army in wartime, but also to train soldiers and manage weapon stocks during peacetime.

Naturally, as always, all of that was left to Roden.

“Come on, you need to do some work too... Where are you going? Stop right there!”

Whenever Roden approached with his arms full of documents, Shan immediately ran away.

Instead, Shan happily took care of the tasks that required physical effort.

For example, he helped train the squires and knights under his command.

“Hold your spear like this.”

“Yes...!”

“Tuck your chin while you’re charging. If a splinter gets into your throat through that gap, it’ll tear it open.”

Ravana had recently been formally knighted by Serin and sworn loyalty to her, becoming her second knight.

More than anything else, Shan focused on teaching her how to ride and use a lance.

Her specialty might have been the axe, but riding and mounted lance techniques were essential for a knight.

In that regard, Shan’s two squires, Biko and Tavera, made excellent practice partners.

They were physically immature, but they had trained for several months longer than Ravana.

After rolling around the training ground for a long time, teacher and student switched places.

“This is what I learned while fighting on the Gat Plains...”

Ravana and her subordinates taught Shan and the Pales knights various doctrines and techniques of war drawn from their rich battlefield experience.

Pendia had not lacked wars between humans, but most of the knowledge they had learned had been dead knowledge. Even their teachers had never truly experienced it.

In contrast, those who had fought on large battlefields offered lessons filled with useful practical knowledge.

The Pales soldiers, who had experienced firsthand how helplessly they had been pushed back by Duke Moraen’s army, did not take those lessons lightly.

As they sweated through each day and passed the hot summer, Pales took another leap forward.

The first notable change was the substantial improvement in the city’s cleanliness brought by the completed water supply and sewer facilities.

As water-lifting support devices were mass-produced, fresh water from the supply system was delivered throughout the territory.

Used water flowed downstream through the sewers.

All sorts of impurities produced in the new magic device factory were removed through them as well.

At the same time, throwing waste anywhere was strictly forbidden, and the city’s smell changed completely.

Many people did not care much about filth, but nobody liked it.

Everyone welcomed the change.

“And once people are cleaner, the number of illnesses will drop noticeably too. As I told you before, poor cleanliness is the source of all kinds of diseases.”

Serin proudly explained her recent achievements in her office.

Shan still could not properly understand the concept of germs that she and the mages talked about.

They said one could uncover the secrets of the world by using advanced magnification magic to observe the microscopic realm, but that was something only mages could see.

Still, one thing was certain.

Once the water supply and sewer systems were properly established, the number of sick people visibly decreased.

Being able to cook with fresh water and bathe easily relieved the priests, who had been busy treating the ill.

Food storage facilities were also distributed throughout the territory in earnest, greatly increasing their ability to preserve food.

People no longer had to slaughter animals and rush to consume the meat that same day.

Meat and fish placed in large cold-storage warehouses would not spoil in just a few days.

More importantly, they had finally begun producing combat magic devices to arm their soldiers.

“More importantly, this is the first finished product. As Lord Protector, could you give me your opinion?”

Serin placed the first mass-produced magic devices on the desk.

“I worked hard to balance the cost of the Magic stones used and the performance as efficiently as possible. Making other magic devices until now helped me build up some know-how.”

The first mass-produced magic devices came in five types: spears, shields, helmets, chainmail breastplates, and leather shoes.

The magic placed on the equipment was nothing especially remarkable.

The spears were sharpened, the shields and armor were strengthened to absorb impacts better, and the leather shoes were made tougher so they would not tear easily.

They were designed to improve the basic function of each item.

Shan tested the equipment in several ways. He stabbed a nearby tree with the spear and set up the shield before striking it himself.

After cutting the armor in half with Guardian of the East, carefully avoiding the Magic stone embedded in its center since it needed to be reused, Shan nodded.

“They’re much better than I expected. How many pieces did you say each Magic stone was divided into?”

“Each item uses one hundredth of a werewolf’s Magic stone. Altogether, the five items use one twentieth.”

“I thought you would have used at least one fifteenth for each piece...”

Magic stones certainly seemed more efficient when divided rather than used whole.

By Shan’s estimate, the performance of every piece of equipment had increased by around twenty to thirty percent.

The base equipment was mass-produced, so it still fell well short of properly made magic devices.

Even so, it felt somewhat excessive for an ordinary soldier’s equipment.

They were already recruiting additional able-bodied men freed up by the territory’s reforms, so if nearly a thousand soldiers were eventually armed with this equipment, they would surely wield overwhelming power compared to the other factions.

Perhaps ten or so skilled warriors equipped this way could hunt even a troll without the aid of Spirit.

“They’re expensive items even if they aren’t proper magic devices. We should keep a close watch so soldiers don’t secretly sell them.”

“Of course. Do you know how hard I worked to make these?”

A cold smile appeared on Serin’s face.

It looked as if she would never forgive anyone who tried such a thing.

“Anyway, this is good enough, right? Then we should continue producing them with this design. We also need to prepare the production process for magic devices used by archers and knights, as well as siege magic devices...”

The soldiers’ magic devices had been designed with strict efficiency in mind.

The knights’ magic devices would prioritize performance instead.

Pales was short on knightly strength, and losing even one knight was a serious blow.

Serin was especially planning to make Shan an incredible suit of armor.

She intended to divide the ogre Magic stone he had obtained into five pieces and use all of it.

Serin’s ambition was to create the strongest armor imaginable, something so extraordinary it would have appeared only in myths.

“I’ve been drawing designs for ages, but I still haven’t finished. I want to include physical enhancement, vitality recovery, resistance to heat and cold, grounding, underwater breathing...”

“Don’t you think that’s a little unnecessary in practical terms?”

At Shan’s objection, Serin sighed and complained that the gap between ideals and reality was painful.

Even if the design was not complete, they could not leave him without armor forever.

Shan’s growth had slowed now that he was approaching one hundred and eighty centimeters, so they could finally adjust armor to fit his body properly.

During the battle with Duke Moraen, had Shan not been in danger because his armor lacked proper magic?

To prevent the same thing from happening again, they needed to make him decent temporary armor at least.

“It would be nice if we could find a skilled blacksmith. We secured rare metals last time too...”

Serin quietly muttered that she should trade with Count Sedil soon.

“Still, we have plenty of time for now.”

Over the past few months, Serin admitted that she had paid too little attention to gathering outside information.

She planted spies among traveling merchants and began collecting information more actively.

According to what they learned, not as many changes had occurred outside Pales as expected.

Conrad was furious at Duke Moraen’s betrayal, but practical concerns prevented him from punishing the duke.

The allied army of Elvin and the Kingdom of Luman had also reached the limit of its recent offensive and fallen into a partial lull.

The three factions watched one another carefully, considering how the others might move and how they could benefit from responding.

That did not mean Pales had escaped everyone’s attention.

They had undertaken too much to keep it secret, and word had spread that Pales was producing its own magic devices.

Duke Moraen’s overtures, constantly asking Pales to sell him goods while slipping in requests to hand over Shan as well, were annoying.

Even more troublesome was the summons from the Holy See in Libert.

A priestly delegation sent by the pope insisted that Serin had likely violated major doctrine. Unless she wanted to be declared a heretic and face a holy war, they demanded that she obey the summons.

Serin naturally snorted and drove the visiting priests away.

Count Barlic had only just driven out Duke Moraen and had not even fully taken control of the government. He was not going to come running over.

As for the hollow shell of the Old Faith’s priesthood, she did not care about them at all.

She had wanted to throw them into the river and tell them to swim home, but letting them leave peacefully by boat was her final act of mercy.

“I wish things could always be like this. Growing slowly and steadily, without needing to rush...”

Serin stopped speaking and frowned.

Shan immediately sensed that she was looking outside her office through a spider.

As expected, a knock soon came at the door.

A knight of Count Paless entered, breathing heavily with an urgent expression.

“What is it?”

“W-We have a problem, Princess! We received a report that all kinds of monsters are coming upstream from the lower river!”

“What?”