I Became a Mythical Knight King

Chapter 20: The Master of Lothian (4)

“I’ve got more mana!”

The next morning Rene came to Yoo-seong’s chamber just as she had yesterday, her eyes shining with a wide smile, and Yoo-seong smiled back.

“You did a good enough job in that battle.”

He could tell, having fought in the front lines himself.

The kobold prince had chosen to flee rather than fight at the last moment.

It was thanks to Vanadain and Rene that the golden blow of the King’s Time – Rising Impact – could hit the Kobold Prince.

Red blood ice that stole a moment from the Prince of Kobolds.

As Yoo-seong explained, Rene blushed as if embarrassed, but eventually smiled again.

It was a compliment, but she was also glad that Yoo-seong had seen her performance.

Of course, that wasn’t Rene’s only accomplishment.

It would take ten fingers to list all of his performances against the Kobolds during Lothian’s Siege.

“Anyway, are you one and a half times stronger this time?”

“Yep. Now, in terms of mana, I might be the strongest among all the mages under the age of twenty on the entire continent.”

It made sense since the magical power that was initially considered strong was increased by 2.25 times.

‘She also seems to have gotten prettier.’

I couldn’t put her finger on it, but she did feel prettier than before.

Yoo-seong had spent three of Rene’s five points last night to strengthen her mana.

The remaining 2 points were not invested.

I was tempted to increase her stamina or agility, but I decided against it because I wanted to summon a warhorse.

‘If she levels up next time, I feel like I’ll end up focusing on increasing her mana again.’

In other words, if I spend all her points this time without saving any, she won’t be able to summon warhorse when she levels up next time.

‘She needs a warhorse.’

Now that Yoo-seong had a warhorse of his own, he could ride with Rene, but he couldn’t stay with her all the time, so Rene needed a warhorse too.

‘Hand-to-hand combat is……unpleasant, but it must be endured.’

It was clear that Rene had the talent of a martial artist, but it was impossible for her to suddenly change from a wizard to a martial artist or a magical martial artist.

‘If her talent for martial arts is greater than I thought, it will blossom even if I don’t nurture it too much.’

When she leveled up, her stats would increase by a certain amount without spending points.

This meant that even if I didn’t spend any points on Rene, she would likely end up with the physical abilities of a knight.

‘Yeah, she’ll eventually get there.’

First is mana.

The more mana she has, the stronger her magic will be and the more times she can use it, so it’s always best to start with mana first.

“Anyway, let’s eat and get to work.”

“Yes, Heir……No, my lord.”

Rene said with a wry smile, and Yoo-seong, who couldn’t help but laugh along with her, happily stepped forward.

* * *

It was nice to be a lord, but it was not a situation where I could leisurely learn about the work of a lord.

Barony of Latus-As the information about the towns centered on Lothian rushed through his mind, Yoo-seong listed the issues that needed to be dealt with immediately.

Repairing the walls.

Scouting the surroundings.

Gathering information.

Contacting the royal family and other neighboring lords.

Disposing of the kobold god’s relics left behind by the kobold prince.

The most urgent task was to repair the broken city walls.

Since the Era of the Ominous Star had begun, there was no telling when new monsters would arrive.

It was too much to ask now, but the destroyed villages, including Lotho, needed to be inspected, whether in person or by sending men.

There’s also gathering information.

Baron Latus told me that he had asked for help not only from Count Baltois, René’s home, but also from the royal court.

I needed to know how they reacted, and if the monsters had invaded other areas besides Lothian.

There were four main fiefs centered around Lothian.

Volvo Barony to the east.

Fabian Barony to the north.

Baltois County to the northwest.

And finally, Carian County to the northeast.

Lord Simone said that the four fiefs and the kingdom should be informed of Baron Latus’ death and the inauguration of a new lord, and Yoo-seong thought so too.

‘I have Rene from Count Baltois’ side, so it won’t be a problem, but……the other two estates might be different.’

Baron Latus, despite his advanced age, had no heirs, so it was likely that the two neighboring estates had their eyes on him.

Yoo-seong himself was convinced of the Era of Ominous Stars, so he was only thinking about fighting the monsters, but Baron Volvo and Baron Fabian might have different ideas.

‘It’s taking too long to gather information.’

While communication magic existed, this was a world where communication was usually done in person.

It was common to send someone to a neighboring estate and wait days to hear back.

‘Is the Kobold God’s divine weapon a blessing?’

The armor and axe of a kobold prince.

Unlike the armor, which was badly damaged, the axe was still nearly intact, but the Yoo-seong had melted both of them.

‘I caught the Kobold Prince, not the Kobold God.’

What if the Kobold God is alive and well with his eyes wide open and I get cursed while using that divine weapon?

And there was no one who could wield it properly because it was made for a kobold prince who was three meters tall.

‘It’s a bit of a problem to melt it down, but……it’ll work.’

Although Lothian was a fairly developed city among the border cities, it was still a small city with a population of only a few thousand people.

Both the blacksmiths’ skills and the size of the blacksmith shop were inadequate to melt the weapons imbued with the power of the evil god.

‘Let’s just try it, and if it doesn’t work out……let’s call Fergus and Melissa.’

The blacksmiths from [Yoo-seong Castle].

They were still low-level, but they were the smiths of Camelot, so why shouldn’t they be any different?

Thinking quickly about the various issues at hand, Yoo-seong quickly received the documents that Rene and the administrators had organized and reviewed them.

Like the language, the characters were unfamiliar to him, but fortunately, he could read them as if they were Korean.

It was as if he knew what they meant right away.

-Population status.

-Tax revenue.

-Food stockpiles and Baron Latus’ fortune.

After checking the numbers, Yoo-seong began to write a whole new document, much to the delight of Rene and the administrators watching on the sidelines.

It was impressive to see how quickly he was able to organize and condense the jumble of information into a single document, let alone write in an unfamiliar script.

‘So you’re not just good at combat.’

After seeing you fight the Prince of Kobolds, I thought you must have spent your life holding a sword, but you’ve also developed a literary side.

In truth, Yoo-seong’s documentation was merely organizing existing information according to the Fantasy Monarch’s standards for managing a manor, but even knights with this level of documentation skills were rare in this world.

It wasn’t because the knights of this world were stupid or unintelligent.

There were two main reasons: one was that the technology to organize documents hadn’t been developed in the first place-accounting techniques like double entry bookkeeping hadn’t been developed yet, and the other was that knights didn’t have time to learn how to organize documents.

Knighthood in this world was not an honorary position.

It was an honorable position that could only be attained by those who had awakened their own chivalry.

In other words, most knights were so focused on their training that they had an overwhelming lack of time for anything else.

Of course, once they reached a certain level, it was also common for them to turn their backs on other things, saying, “I’m a fighter after all, so let’s just focus on fighting.”

Anyway, as Yoo-seong organized the numbers on the document at a brisk pace, he narrowed his eyes.

‘At least the number of evacuees is small.’

Despite the loss of three villages, the number of evacuees was only about thirty, including the ones Yoo-seong himself had led.

With fewer evacuees, there were fewer problems to manage them, but Yoo-seong’s heart grew heavy as he thought about the reason why there were so few evacuees in the first place.

Three villages were virtually wiped out.

More than a thousand people, almost all of them dead, had not been able to evacuate.

But then it happened.

A shout outside his window interrupted his thoughts and made him jump to his feet.

His superhuman hearing picked up the sounds, and they were not normal.

Rene and the administrators were puzzled by his sudden rise to his feet, but instead of explaining it away, Yoo-seong stood by the window and looked out.

He could see the refugees…and they were not few in number.

At first glance, there were more than forty of them.

I wondered what had happened to them.

No, where did they come from?

“My lord, I have urgent news!”

It was Robin who burst through the door of his office.

She was so surprised she didn’t even think to say yes, and as soon as her eyes locked with Yoo-seong’s, she spoke quickly, almost spilling out.

“Barony Volvo has fallen! Baron Volvo is dead! Baron Volvo’s daughter has just arrived with news! It was the monsters!”

Rene and the administrators’ eyes widened in shock at the barrage of information, and Yoo-seong gritted his teeth.

He looked back out the window.

* * *

Baroness Volvo, Iserina Volvo was a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties.

A widow who had married away and returned to her family after her husband’s death, she was the sole survivor of Baron Volvo family.

A young woman whose life was spared by Baron Volvo’s early escape when he realized the castle was about to fall, Iserina describes the situation with a half-stunned look on her face.

“They were horrible monsters. They were big and small green monsters, both of which ate people. The big ones, you could stab them with a spear and they wouldn’t die, they were so strong. They threw rocks by the dozens and destroyed the city walls. The smaller ones are goblins, yes, probably goblins, that’s what Sir Cyril said.”

The scroll was a bit ragged, but it contained the necessary information.

“Lady Iserina, Sir Cyril is…….”

“He died in battle. His sacrifice has brought us this far.”

Sir Simone’s face fell at Iserina’s words.

It seemed he knew the knight, Sir Cyril, well.

As Yoo-seong organized Iserina’s story in his mind, he studied the map of the surrounding area.

The distance between Lothian and Volano, the home of the Barony of Volvo and the time it had taken Iserina to flee this far.

‘Almost simultaneous.’

All things considered, the attack on Volano coincided with the attack on Lothian.

So what have those who occupy Volano done in the last three days?

And what would they do in the future?

“My lord, we must be prepared. We must hasten the repairs to the walls, and conscript once more for reinforcements.”

Lord Rant’s suggestion made sense.

It was only common sense to prepare for a war against the beasts, given the high likelihood of unknown monsters.

But Yoo-seong didn’t see it that way.

Even if the monsters that had taken Volano were pushing toward them, a defensive battle was not the answer.

This time, the opponent was likely to be too difficult to consider a defensive battle.

“Rene, paper and pen, please.”

Rene immediately reached for the paper and pen on the desk in the Lord’s Office.

As soon as she grabbed the pen, she immediately started drawing and showed it to Iserina.

“Iserina, the big green monsters looked like this?”

Iserina’s eyes widened in response to Yoo-seong’s question.

“Oh, yes, that’s them!”

Iserina almost screamed as horrible memories came flooding back.

Then they all looked at the drawing of the monster that Yoo-seong had made, and then back at Yoo-seong.

As everyone looked at him with curiosity, he took a deep breath and answered.

“It’s a swamp troll. They’re cannibalistic monsters that enslave goblins.”

He had seen them countless times in Fantasy Monarch.

“They’re usually between three and five meters tall, with the really big ones growing to ten. Their regenerative powers are so strong that they can heal slashes and stab wounds in an instant, and they can even regenerate severed limbs, though it takes some time. It is very strong and its mouth spits out an acidic fluid that can melt steel.”

The officials were stunned by Yoo-seong’s description.

Could such monsters really exist?

“Do you have any idea how many of them there are?”

Lord Simone asked, and Iserina narrowed her eyes.

“I don’t know exactly, but there are at least a few dozen. The sight of the ramparts being smashed by a rain of rocks that seemed to cover the sky…….”

Iserina could say no more, and the air in the chamber settled even heavier.

Yoo-seong was right.

A defensive battle was impossible against such monsters.

But what else was there to do?

“We are waging guerrilla warfare.”

“What?”

“Guerilla warfare. Considering the behavior patterns of the swamp trolls, those who have taken over Volano will be ravaging the surrounding villages and feasting on human flesh to their heart’s content. So we intercept the scattered ones and defeat them individually.”

Yoo-seong’s explanation left everyone in the room even more perplexed, most notably Iserina and Lord Rant.

“My lord, but with what kind of troops? I mean, do you really think you’re going to intercept them with conscripts?!”

“We can’t take them on with a flimsy force, they’ll all die!”

The two men raised their voices in unison and looked around the room for agreement.

But the reactions were strange.

“Guerilla warfare?”

“Guerilla warfare.”

“Ah.”

“Ah!”

They looked at each other, blinked, then clapped their hands in realization, and René even smiled.

What the hell is this, she thought.

Do they all want the new lord dead?

Facing Lord Rant and Iserina, who were eager for an explanation, Yoo-seong spared them a long explanation.

“Step outside for a moment.”

And after a moment they understood.