Chapter 101

Revival (2)

Countless crates were stacked neatly along one side of the broad, snow-covered plain. They filled the view, piled up with no end in sight. It was hard to imagine when so many had been transported here. Before them, the soldiers of Whitewolf Castle stood in orderly ranks.

At last, the crates opened, revealing gleaming goods inside: thick blankets, sturdy leather boots, winter clothing made from waterproof fabric, leather armor, and more. The recruits' eyes shone as they followed the supplies.

“Ooh...! Those boots look really warm.”

“And look at those clothes. With those, we wouldn't have to worry about freezing to death.”

And that wasn't all. There were neatly arranged loaves of bread and fresh meat, bottles filled with warm water, and simple provisions such as dried jerky. These were foods they could never have dreamed of in Violess.

“Everyone, line up! Come forward one at a time and collect your supplies!”

At the sudden shout from the Whitewolf Castle soldiers, every recruit's eyes went wide.

“... P-pardon?”

“What did you just say...?”

“I said, come forward one at a time and collect your supplies.”

They blinked.

“You're really giving those to us...?”

“Hurry up, unless you want a scolding from Lord Adrian.”

“C-coming!”

One recruit stepped forward on trembling legs. Approaching the supply crates, he reached out and gathered up the various items.

“Next!”

At the Whitewolf Castle soldier's shout, the other recruits came forward in turn. As the distribution proceeded smoothly, Adrian sat at a table set up to one side, as though supervising. Each time a recruit received supplies, he would glance up and write something on a sheet of parchment.

Whenever he spotted someone who looked older, had a somewhat gentler face, or seemed physically impaired, however...

“You there. Step out of line and go over there.”

He separated them into another group.

“Leopard, I'm talking to you.”

He even remembered their names. Astonishingly, Adrian knew the name of every recruit.

Most simply did as he told them, without understanding why. But wherever one went, there was always someone whose curiosity got the better of them.

“Excuse me... Why are you separating us from the others...?”

One recruit bravely asked the question, though the way he swallowed hard suggested that Adrian still frightened him. And he wasn't the only one trembling. Every recruit was. They all seemed to harbor some kind of deeply ingrained fear of Adrian.

Fortunately(?), Adrian did not rebuke the recruit for his courage. Without taking his eyes off the parchment, he simply said,

“You're military cooks.”

Military cooks: soldiers responsible for feeding an army. Put simply, theirs was the branch that handled meals within a unit.

Food distribution was the most essential part of sustaining an army. It wasn't merely a matter of handing out meals. It involved procuring and distributing provisions, managing ingredients, and even making strategic decisions to minimize losses in transit. Military cooks could rightly be called the army's lifeline, making them indispensable.

But there were no fewer than 2,132 recruits. The county's existing manpower alone could not provide enough military cooks to sustain an army of that size.

Adrian lifted his red eyes from the parchment.

“What are you doing? Get moving.”

“Ah, yes, sir...!”

Swallowing hard, the recruit shouldered his supplies and hurried away.

* * *

Distributing the supplies took a considerable amount of time. Partway through, Adrian returned to his tent, saying he had work to do. Once Kai had finished overseeing the distribution, he headed to Adrian's tent.

“All recruits have received their supplies.”

“Good work.”

Adrian answered without so much as looking at him. For some reason, his eyes were squeezed shut. A mound of parchment lay on the table inside the tent—the same sheets he had been writing on earlier.

“What is all this?”

“... Hmm? Oh, I've restructured the county's military administration.”

“You did this yourself, Lord Adrian?”

“Who else?”

Adrian answered with a question, and Kai pressed his lips together. To be honest, he had his doubts.

Of course, Adrian was no longer a wastrel. But that did not necessarily mean he was a capable lord. Above all, military administration was a separate matter.

It encompassed such things as military organization, the chain of command, personnel, the maintenance and repair of military facilities, and troop training. In short, it was entirely different from civil administration. Someone who did not understand how an army operated could not—and should not—tamper with it. There was a reason the two were run independently, and a reason Kai, rather than Seraphia, had handled the county's military administration until now.

Kai picked up a sheet from the pile. It was densely packed with detailed plans for organizing the units. Yet...

* * *

[Infantry] - 1,521

[Archers] - 315

[Scouts] - 56

[Medics] - 22

[Military Cooks] - 218

* * *

... It was perfect. There wasn't a single flaw.

“Th-this is...?”

The more he read, the more certain he became. Personnel had been assigned according to each recruit's individual characteristics. The chain of command meshed as seamlessly as cogwheels. There truly wasn't a single thing to criticize.

If anything, it was the other way around. Kai wasn't confident he could have done this well. As House Whitewolf's head knight, he had commanded the soldiers of Whitewolf Castle—an army of roughly six hundred. But he had no confidence he could organize an army nearly four times that size so perfectly.

Adrian was now holding his forehead, as though his head hurt. If he had done all this alone, it would have been stranger if it didn't.

“The recruits will be organized separately from the castle soldiers. Kai, finish the training you've started. Once that's done, form the new units according to these plans.”

When Kai lowered the parchment completely, Adrian spoke again.

“Assign the county's knight-ranked instructors to command the individual units, but take charge of the infantry yourself.”

“... Understood.”

Kai could only nod.

“Also, I've drawn each unit's sergeants primarily from those who used to serve as officers.”

“By sergeants, you mean...?”

“Soldiers of centurion rank. From now on, we'll call them all sergeants.”

“Understood.”

“Kai, you're free to change those appointments at your discretion if necessary.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kai gave a crisp nod, and Adrian lowered the hand he had been pressing against his forehead.

“And these men used to fight one another. More importantly, they grew up in a lawless city, so disputes are inevitable.”

“I will discipline them strictly under the county's military law.”

“That's fine, but leave it to their sergeants' discretion whenever possible. You can turn a blind eye to a little brawling.”

“Understood.”

“However.”

Adrian's red eyes gleamed as he continued.

“If it turns into abuse, harms the residents, or escalates into violent crime, kill the offenders without mercy.”

“...”

“Do you understand?”

“... I understand.”

When Kai nodded gravely, Adrian rose and headed out of the tent.

“Where are you going?”

“I've still got a Kraulgar-sized pile of work to do.”

Leaving those incomprehensible words behind, Adrian abruptly departed.

* * *

Hundreds of women bustled about the county's spacious square. On one side, hands worked busily at weaving cloth; on another, women pulled fabric from large vats of dye. Others shaped pottery or fashioned household goods from wood.

The results, however, were unimpressive.

“Oh...! Ah, oh!”

Crudely tangled fabric.

“Wh-why is it...?”

Bizarrely blotchy dye.

“Oh dear...”

Pottery cracked all over.

It was an utter mess. Just as everyone was growing dejected, at a loss for what to do, Adrian suddenly spread out a piece of cloth to inspect the dyeing.

“Try adjusting the concentration of the dye. And the color will fade during distribution, so it needs to be darker than this.”

“... Oh, yes!”

The women carefully handled the dye according to his instructions. Then Adrian examined the crudely tangled fabric.

“Crisscross this section and it'll be sturdier. Get into the habit of applying a little more pressure with your fingers.”

“Oh, yes...!”

Following his instructions, the women calmly untangled the yarn. After that, everything from painting intricate designs on pottery to carving wood into household goods proceeded in an orderly fashion under his guidance and supervision. Their work was still clumsy and rough, but...

“No one is good at something from the start. Success is simply the sum of small efforts repeated every day. Every botched dye job and broken pot contributes to making a masterpiece.”

Adrian encouraged them.

“What you're doing isn't mere labor. You're creating prosperity and a future for your children.”

He instilled pride and motivation in them.

“You are this county's roots and foundation.”

And their hands grew more confident and practiced.

Seraphia watched the scene from a distance. As she gazed at Adrian...

'Brother, you're so amazing...!!'

Her eyes filled with indescribable respect and pride.

There was no trace of the wastrel he had once been. He truly seemed like a different person.

Yet there were his long eyelashes and sharp jawline, his cold yet mysterious air, the fringe falling lightly across his forehead, and his clearly defined features. And there was that powerful charisma, as though he could see straight through things. He had simply become far more handsome since she had last seen him. Adrian was still Adrian.

Perhaps that was why she thought,

'I wish things could stay like this...'

She wanted these moments to continue.

After all, he had once said that he had no intention of becoming either the head of their house or the lord of the county.

Of course, that wasn't how he was acting now. Anyone could see that he was the head of their house. Anyone could see that he was the county's lord. But whether that meant he had changed his mind... she honestly couldn't say.

'He said he had something to do.'

She still didn't know what it was. But he had said that once it was done, he would leave the family, and that he would never see her again, under any circumstances.

Until then, though, she could remain with him.

'No matter what!'

She would change his mind for good. Seraphia clenched both fists.

The medicine Adrian had made for her had left her stronger and more resilient than before. Thanks to that, she had been able to study and learn day and night, gaining knowledge and experience through sleepless nights of practice and repeated failure. Now it was time to pour everything she had into the work, so none of that effort would go to waste.

“Try smoothing this corner a little more. It'll feel much softer to the touch.”

“Oh...! I see. Thank you, Lady Seraphia.”

“I think a more elaborate design would suit the pottery. That way, it'll really catch people's eyes at the market.”

“Then what about a pattern like this?”

“That's lovely! But a pattern like that needs a more delicate finish.”

“Um... Lady Seraphia, could you take a look at mine too?”

“Of course!”

Seraphia moved tirelessly around the work area, using her own keen eye to attend to the fine details Adrian had missed.

* * *

Whitewolf Castle commanded a clear view of the county. Night had fallen, shrouding the land in darkness, yet the lights in the snowy camp and the square still shone brightly.

I sat in my room in the castle, pressing firmly against both temples.

2,132 recruits. 391 Villagers. A total of 2,523 people. I had used Predatory Instincts[S] on every last one of them.

After all, no two people were alike. Even the Visters, who had spent practically every day brawling, weren't all the same. Some lacked combat skills, and some were getting on in years. Others had become Visters only because they could no longer endure being exploited. As a result, some had little inclination toward violence, and quite a few had physical limitations or were otherwise unsuited to combat.

Ignoring all those differences and organizing them into units indiscriminately would have been a mistake. So I had used Predatory Instincts[S] to identify each person's strengths, then assigned them the military branches or jobs that suited them best.

It had left my head pounding so badly that it felt ready to split, but with the recruits under Kai's command and the Villagers under Seraphia's direction, everything was proceeding very smoothly.

“Still, the overall framework and systems are almost all in place...”

It was safe to say that completing the Territory Quest, with its hefty experience reward, was only a matter of time.

Just as I was trying to soothe my headache...

KNOCK, KNOCK.

Someone suddenly knocked on my door.

“Lord Adrian. It's Bernard.”

“Come in.”

With my permission, the impeccably groomed Bernard cautiously entered, his hair slicked back. But something about his expression was troubling. Whatever had happened, it seemed serious.

“What is it?”

“Well, my lord... a visitor has just arrived in the county.”

My eyes widened of their own accord. After all, the Veneron viscounty, which had caused me so much trouble, no longer existed. That left only one person who would visit this barren, remote county at such a late hour.

'Ian!'

Ian had returned.