Dragon Order of Flame
Volume 2
Chapter 6 Part 3
Viscount Nadal"s territory was only 1/3 the size of the Astal family"s territory. However, it was less likely to be attacked by monsters, and there were plenty of healthy grounds to be worked on, so it was a great place to live in. But this being the case, they did not have enough military strength for situations like the one they were facing today.
"I wonder, is this army considered to be a lot for such a small territory? I don"t think they"ve brought out all of their military power, and they seem to be fairly well off to be able to hire mercenaries."
Thinking of Count Astal"s territory, Luke sighed. Count Astal was very thorough with seeing results, and was always appointing common soldiers to knights. With this, there were over 60 knights that were under his command.
However, plenty of money needed to be spent in order to employ and arm these knights, so their equipment were rather poor, and the number of soldiers compared to knights led to an absurdly tiny military strength. There was a reason why Count Astal and his Knights were able to move to destinations quicker, and why they confronted monsters.
Compared to him, Viscount Nadal"s composition of troops was extremely common. There was even a mage that was following him, and amongst the soldiers, there were 16 bowmen mixed in.
For reference, the only gangchesul pract.i.tioner mixed in with the soldiers, was Luke. When Luke smashed a boulder in front of a knight, that was testing soldiers, with his bare hands, he was given a special contract- disregarding the fact that he was 16 years old.
"Honestly, with my skill, the amount of money I"m getting paid is pretty weak. But, it"s not like I"m fighting a large-scale battle, nor am I fighting a dangerous person, so I guess it"s alright."
Gangchesul was originally a prospect for knights, so it was very difficult to see a gangchesul pract.i.tioner that wasn"t a knight. This being the case, an elite gangchesul pract.i.tioner was highly respected wherever he went, and Luke was never given the short end of the stick when it came to money. It was even difficult to see knights at the 5th stage of gangchesul.
That"s why Luke was confident that it wouldn"t be difficult for him to make money. Although he wasn"t good with business, the amount of money that Luke needed shouldn"t take too long to earn.
"I need money if I want to have some face when I see Lana again."
Men would lose out on points, if they looked pitifully poor in front of women. Having lived in a world where everything was obtained through money and violence, this was Luke"s way of thinking.
Of course, Lana wasn"t the type of person to be hard on someone who didn"t have money, but wouldn"t it feel miserable to show yourself in a poor state, in front of the person you love? It was a carved instinct for a male to want to stand with pride and act cool in front of the love of their life.
"However, it"s a little weird. Is it necessary to have this many people just to subjugate a thief organization?"
Looking at the size of the military strength, Luke was suddenly filled with wonder.
When Luke asked the soldiers, he was told that the Batlan thief organization had a group of 70-80 people. With those numbers, it should"ve been possible to subjugate them with just Viscount Nadal"s military strength. Yet, Luke couldn"t understand why he had hired 50 more people for this quest.
"There"s too much money going out to the mercenaries to be thinking like that. This place might be more well off than the Astal territory, but there shouldn"t be any reason to use……"
Shwee shwee shwee shweet!
While Luke was speaking with Volkar, with a little distance put between himself and the closest person near him, a sudden sharp sound could be heard. Luke furrowed his brows, then raised his hand. As soon as he did, an arrow flying in a diagonal line was caught within his hand.
Smack!
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhk!"
Screams could be heard from the back from those who were hit by the arrows. Breaking the arrow within his hand, Luke gnashed his teeth.
"d.a.m.n it! What is this?"
From what the knights had said, the thief organization should have been nestled inside their base within a mountain that was still 8 days away. Although their organization was notorious and mixed with humans and orcs, there were only 70-80 people in it, so Luke had thought that it wouldn"t be dangerous. Yet, here they were getting ambushed?
Smack!
Hitting away the arrow that flew towards him, Luke jumped in between his allies and proceeded to block all of the arrows for them as well. Having to face an unantic.i.p.ated attack, the soldiers saw Haneul and began to thank him.
"Thank you."
"Don"t worry about it."
Briefly responding back, Luke turned to stare at the enemy bowmen. They really were mixed with both humans and orcs, and they were firing their arrows next to a tall notice beside the road. Having fallen to a tactic when the enemy was far away from their base, this proved that the enemy was thoroughly familiar with the topography here.
"It seems like there"s quite a smart person mixed in with them."
The enemy wasn"t too greedy. After firing away with their arrows from a favorable spot, they began to retreat after noticing that Luke"s party was beginning to recover their senses. Of course, they did not forget to block off their escape route by firing one to two arrows here and there.
Watching the enemy"s movements, Luke"s tongue twitched.
"How clever. The leader is quite smart. Is he someone with military background? Or maybe a mercenary affiliate?"
"He wouldn"t have taken such steps if it wasn"t the case. The timing for when they started to retreat was right on point as well. They began moving right after our party began to come to their senses and we"re beginning to block the arrows, and the mages were beginning to chant out their magic spells. Usually, they would try and end the fight as quickly as possible, but maybe they knew that a victor wouldn"t appear."
It was foolhardy to think that the thief organization would be able to win against the plentiful number of knights on their side. Not only were they polished in gangchesul, but they were also wearing armor that sword could not penetrate through easily. Even though they were horseless and on a mountainous terrain, one knight was strong enough to fight against ten people.
"It might be possible that Viscount Nadal may have known these guys from before. That would make sense as to why he had gathered 50 mercenaries, and had paid a lot of money for a gangchesul pract.i.tioner like me."
Having become angry, Luke grumbled as he watched Viscount Nadal being extremely unruly.
Chapter 6 Part 3 Completed.