Mercenary System: I can increase innate potential !-Chapter 216: The curtains of the show finally open

Another 50 points, and his sword mastery would reach level 4, which was synonymous with being a sword saint in the Kingdom of the Frost Eagle.

Most of the great knights of the kingdom did not reach this level, due to the lack of teaching and resources to improve in this area.

But now, after their duel, Maxime realized that he was still below Alaric’s level.

The level of the top 5 knights in the kingdom was clearly not there for show.

He must have been dangerously close to level 4.

By instinct, Maxime would say that Alaric must have approximately 80 level 3 sword mastery points.

The two continued to chat for a while as they made their way to the communal dining hall of the Purple Knight Academy.

There, Maxime ate with Alaric and some apprentice knights.

Including Tomas, Théo, Lila and Caleb, who had accompanied him to defend that famous village against the orcs.

The same village where they had almost all died, but thanks to the new talent [Awakening of Life] and the arrival of Count Ardan, they had narrowly escaped death.

The meal passed quickly and in good humor.

It was only after nightfall that Maxime was finally able to see all his men in the dormitory of the final year students.

Fortunately, the latter were obviously still on a mission, which left room for all his mercenaries.

Otherwise, with their numbers, they would have had to go to the hostel to sleep.

Behind the dormitory for final-year students, there was a large training ground reserved for them.

So Maxime took the opportunity to gather his men on the training ground and break the news to them.

Maxime stood in the center of the training ground, his gaze determined, while his men formed a semicircle in front of him.

The expressions on some of their faces betrayed a slight concern, while others showed eager enthusiasm.

He took a deep breath before speaking in a clear and confident tone.

"I have an important announcement to make."

A respectful silence immediately fell. His mercenaries knew that he never spoke lightly.

"I met the king of this Kingdom, Arthur Ravenwood, and was able to talk to him."

The mercenaries’ faces changed very slightly. Although they had all suspected as much, they still found it incredible that a mercenary without status could meet and talk with the king.

For them, almost all of whom were simple former villagers, the very existence of the king seemed so distant that they thought the chance of meeting a dragon would be higher.

Only Duke Devron’s older men seemed less disturbed by the news.

Living in the capital, they had already seen the king on several occasions.

"And the king, Arthur Ravenwood, has entrusted me with a territory."

For a moment, there was no reaction, as if his words had not yet sunk in. Then, murmurs ran through the men of the mercenary group.

Some exchanged surprised looks, others frowned.

Andrew folded his arms and asked in a calm voice:

"A territory? Does that mean you’re going to become a nobleman then?"

Stay connected with novelbuddy

Maxime shook his head.

"Not exactly. It will be an independent territory, so whether or not there is nobility there is still a question."

"An independent territory?" Laura couldn’t help but repeat out loud.

"Does that mean you’ll be a king?" she continued aloud.

On hearing this, everyone’s thoughts began to wander in all directions.

"Maybe? I don’t know myself how we can name this territory, and what its status will be," Maxime replied.

Laura’s eyes lit up.

"If our future territory becomes a kingdom, that means you’ll be a king... And there’s no king without a queen, right?"

Everyone looked at Laura, with a common thought:

"Ah, so that’s what she was getting at..."

Terry took a step forward.

"But... we’re mercenaries, aren’t we?" His gaze shone with a mixture of excitement and perplexity.

"If we settle down, does that mean we’ll stop fighting?"

A slight smile stretched Maxime’s lips.

"Of course not. But instead of being simple hired swords, we will be much more than that. We will have an army, an economy, infrastructure. We will no longer be at the mercy of other people’s contracts. We will be our own masters."

The excitement rose a notch among the mercenaries. Some nodded approvingly, others still seemed hesitant.

Ernest, calmer than the others, asked:

"And this territory... Where exactly is it? How big is it? And above all, what are the king’s conditions for offering such a thing?"

Rodrigo was also looking very seriously at Maxime.

Both of them, as former princes, were much less naive than the others. Land and people were the two most important things in the world in the eyes of the nobles.

There was no way they could give this to someone who wasn’t related to them and without something in return.

There had to be something their leader hadn’t told them yet.

Maxime looked very serious at that moment.

Everyone became much calmer and they looked attentively at Maxime.

"Most of you already know the owner of our future territory... It’s Baron Barthon."

Everyone was surprised to hear this. Even the mercenaries who had joined Maxime after Plouta left, because the mercenaries talked to each other.

Naturally, everyone knew Baron Barthon, especially since Maxime had already mentioned him several times.

Most of them thought to themselves:

"Fate really does work in mysterious ways."

For them it was a coincidence, except for a few who had their doubts, such as Ernest, Rodrigo and Tena.

It was not so easy to dismiss a nobleman, and above all, for a king, it was extremely important to retain the loyalty of his vassals.

Because no king was safe from a revolt or a coup d’état.

Giving away a noble’s territory was one of the worst decisions a king could make, because it would chill the hearts of the other nobles in the kingdom.

Because, since it had happened once, it could happen a second or a third time.

Who could guarantee that they wouldn’t be next?

"So the first thing is to defeat Baron Barthon, but that was already planned so it’s not particularly troublesome. What’s really important will come after we’ve defeated the baron."

Maxime gave the mercenaries a little time to digest what he had just said before continuing.

"This future territory will serve as a source of finance and manpower for our group of mercenaries to take back some of the orcs’ territory and defend it. In short, we are going to become a wall for the Kingdom of the Frost Eagle."

Rodrigo and Ernest looked at each other. Being princes, albeit miserable ones, they knew what it meant:

The kingdom was no longer capable of defending itself. The king had reached the point of giving territory to a mercenary to reduce the pressure on the Kingdom and free up men to transfer them to other places that needed reinforcements.

"So the kingdom is in such a bad way?" Rodrigo whispered, low enough for only Ernest to hear.

"I imagine... It must only be a matter of time before it collapses," Ernest replied, also in a low voice.

"Yet I had heard that the king, Arthur Ravenwood, was a very talented and capable king. It’s really strange..."

It wasn’t just them, Tena and other rather intelligent mercenaries found it really very strange.

Although most of them had never seen the king, they had all heard of his reputation and his prowess on the battlefield.

Maxime naturally overheard some of the murmurs of his mercenaries.

"It doesn’t matter whether the kingdom is in trouble or not, the kingdom has given us a mission with such a high reward that it is almost unimaginable for other groups of mercenaries."

"We will seize this opportunity to improve the strength of our mercenary group but also to improve the lives of every person who will live in our future lands."

While Maxime continued to announce the stakes and the new motivations that he and his mercenaries will have in the future, elsewhere something was happening.

...

Barthon, with an impassive gaze, observed his vast secret training camp from the balcony of a raised building. It was the tallest building in the entire training camp.

The biting cold of twilight could be felt, but he didn’t care. His physique easily protected him from this kind of temperature.

In front of him, hundreds of apprentice knights tirelessly repeated the sequences they had been taught, while 2,000 soldiers carried out precise maneuvers under the orders of the captains.

Behind the baron, a dozen or so knights stood at attention, silent, awaiting his orders.

All of them were extremely confident, and it showed in their posture.

Some were eager to fight, while others seemed bored at the idea of facing the weak.

But in any case, their loyalty was unshakeable because they all drew their strength from the baron’s generosity.

Without this, there would still only be 2 or 3 knights in the territory.

But that wasn’t all, it was also because they were all equally deeply convinced by the strength of their lord.

Not one of them could resist a few moves from the baron, who was giving it his all.

Baron Barthon folded his arms and took a deep breath before slowly turning to face his men. His piercing gaze lingered on each of them, weighing them up and showing no mercy.

"The time has come."

A shiver ran through the knights, not of fear, but of contained excitement. They knew what it meant.

Even the most bored were excited, because even if they thought they wouldn’t have much to do, the fact was that very interesting things were going to happen.

Just like a show that finally opened its curtains after a long wait, it was inevitable that a certain excitement would arise.

"Baron Irut is just an insignificant insect. Three knights, including him, dare to call themselves lords and have the same status as us."

"And yet this simple insect allied himself with a group of mercenaries and dared to resist us. Even today, this group of mercenaries is still well established in Plouta and defends the village."

"This same group of mercenaries not only killed many apprentice knights under my command, but also destroyed the band of bandits that I had raised with such care and in whom I had invested so much."

"All must submit to this lord or die."

Follow curr𝒆nt nov𝒆ls on fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com.

As he said this, Baron Barthon’s eyes gleamed with greed.

He sensed that this group of mercenaries had to be hiding something, otherwise there was no way that his apprentice knights and his group of bandits could die at the hands of young mercenaries.

He had seen their captain for himself, and already at the time had sensed that this young man was hiding something.

It was just a shame that his assassination attempt at the very beginning had failed, and that since then, this group of mercenaries had become much stronger.

But he still thought he could easily crush this group of mercenaries by sending one or two knights.

"At the same time, we will prove to the king and the kingdom that our military strength is far greater than that of the surrounding barons, and that we deserve to rule over all of them."

His tone was implacable, without the slightest hesitation. He expected neither approval nor questions.

"Gather our troops. We will leave at dawn."

He turned around and looked back at the camp below. The army was ready, disciplined, ruthless. The knights behind were confident.

This battle would be a formality.