117: You won't give me a heads-up if I don't recruit soldiers? (4000-word chapter)

"W-we actually made it out alive?"

...Yalman, how did you trick that lord?"

Having left the boundaries of the Ironthorn Territory, Yalman and Vicky slowed their pace.

Vicky, who had thought she would die in the Ironthorn Territory, still felt a sense of unreality.

In her view, no lord could possibly let go of three individuals of unknown origin who had trespassed into their territory in the middle of the night.

Therefore, she, who was usually annoyed by Yalman's foul mouth, saw him in a completely new light today.

Seeing her curious expression, Yalman immediately threw Bentham's corpse, which he was carrying on his shoulder, onto the ground and stopped walking.

Ignoring Bentham's corpse, Vicky asked in confusion, "Yalman, why did you stop?"

"Heh, don't you want to know why that young lord let us go?"

Yalman revealed a harmless smile, then extended his clenched right hand and said, "Because I showed him this. Do you want to see?"

"Quick, let me see." Curious, Vicky hurriedly walked to Yalman's side.

With the corner of his mouth curling up slightly, Yalman opened his right fist, revealing an 'empty' palm.

Vicky immediately thought she was being played. Just as she was about to get angry... a faint, eerie light shot from the 'empty' palm and instantly entered the space between her eyebrows.

In the next moment, the light in Vicky's eyes vanished, replaced by a hollow blankness, as if she were a living dead.

"Fools are fools." Yalman smiled disdainfully, then seemed to think of something as he looked back toward the Ironthorn Territory, saying regretfully, "What a pity..."

A second later, he whispered softly, "The Lord of the Ironthorn Territory... there really are many interesting people in this world. We will meet again..."

After speaking, an indescribable, eerie light flashed deep in his eyes. He then shouldered Bentham's corpse again and disappeared into the night with Vicky. As the first light of dawn appeared, accompanied by the chirping of winter birds, the smoke of Ironthorn Town slowly rose.

Despite a night of hard work, Lister was still full of energy and woke up early in the morning.

As for that feeling of powerless weakness from his previous life, it had long since been left behind.

Standing by the window, tasting the hot milk Thomas had prepared for him early in the morning and feeling the warmth spreading from his stomach, he felt very comfortable and content.

At this moment, within his sight, the Serfs of Ironthorn Town had already begun the work of renovating Ironthorn Town and constructing roads within the Ironthorn Territory.

Since the progress of the renovation and construction had slowed down significantly, Lister had decided, after discussing with Brutus, to move the working hours earlier and increase the workload.

The three hundred-plus laborers from the Viscount Territory who had arrived yesterday also joined the work, their faces filled with excitement and enthusiasm for the job.

In their view, being able to meet a lord like Lister was already a great blessing. If they didn't work hard, they would be failing such excellent welfare and treatment.

After watching for a while, Lister retracted his gaze and looked at the Ancient Book floating in front of him.

Today's three divination entries slowly came into view.

[Divination 1: At noon today, Kim's caravan returning to Telris was ambushed in Cook Valley by the Bounty Six Brothers, who had been lying in wait for days, and members of the Benson Family. Carlyle, hidden within the caravan, acted with overwhelming force, cooperating with the accompanying Soldiers to kill most of the attackers. The Benson Family members were wiped out, while two of the Bounty Six Brothers escaped.]

[Divination 2: The first Soldier selection in the Ironthorn Territory went very smoothly. Thirty-nine participants became Apprentice Knights. Among them, Rodrigo Cardiaz, Pierre Lilt, Bertrand Duca, and Vegetius Armstrong have the talent to at least become Silver Knights, while the youngest, Aier Sidi, has the potential to at least become a Golden Knight.]

[Divination 3: After Gimel's untiring efforts over the past few days, he finally used the high-quality fine iron contributed by Red to forge a pair of Rare quality knight gloves inlaid with amethyst, as you requested.]

They were still attacked?

It had been more than ten days since Kim's caravan left. Lister had originally thought those people would give up after waiting for so long.

Unexpectedly, those bounty hunters and the Benson Family people were quite patient. Weren't they afraid of the cold, staying in the valley in the middle of winter?

Even if they had changed the time, location, or method, it would have made more sense.

Lister was momentarily speechless at their one-track minds.

However, this result was actually good for him. After all, he didn't have to stay on high alert constantly.

And with only two people escaping, it wasn't a big problem; he just needed to be more careful in the future.

Without paying it too much attention, Lister looked at the second divination and was instantly pleasantly surprised.

Because he had sent Red and the other two to protect Alaster yesterday afternoon, the conscription assessment had been left to Dewey and the others. He hadn't had time to learn the news yet.

"Tsk tsk, thirty-nine Apprentice Knights, and five of them have such high talent. This is more like what a Baron Territory should be."

While clicking his tongue in admiration, the corners of Lister's mouth curled up and stayed there.

According to the current number of Apprentice Knights, the overall strength of the Ironthorn Territory was already no weaker than some Viscount Territories.

Previously, although he had high-ranking knights like Red, the total number of knights was ultimately too small.

Every time he assigned a task, he had to calculate carefully, otherwise there simply weren't enough people.

Now it was Fine; with so many new Apprentice Knights, he could finally afford to be extravagant.

Not only that, he now felt like the Ironthorn Territory was a hidden auspicious land; otherwise, how could so many talent monsters appear?

Strangely, why hadn't there been any predictions about this before? Or rather... you won't give a prompt if I don't conscript?

Unfortunately, the divination relied on the Ancient Book; otherwise, he would really have to 'talk reason' with it.

After a few internal complaints, he stopped thinking about it and began calculating the upcoming expenses.

After all, Apprentice Knights were still knights, and the cost of training them was not low.

He had great ambitions and wanted to train all these Apprentice Knights into Full Knights. He was very envious of those Knight Orders.

Fortunately, although his cheapskate Viscount father hadn't left him many Rare resources, the gold coins he left were quite substantial.

Although there had been expenses during this period, he had also managed to get a few things for free, so overall the spending wasn't much.

According to the funds he had left, he should be able to last for a good while. By then, the bathing products would have already started selling, and there would no longer be a problem with money.

Taking a leisurely sip of the hot milk in his hand, he continued to look at the third divination.

Rare quality!

The four bright words didn't actually glow, but he felt as if they were blinding him.

Items forged by blacksmiths generally have six quality levels: Rough, Common, Fine, Rare, Epic, and Legendary.

Most items forged by ordinary blacksmiths range from Rough to Fine quality.

Only famous blacksmiths are likely to forge Rare quality items, and the success rate is not very high.

As for Epic quality, it's hard to say if even five people in the entire kingdom can achieve it; truly powerful blacksmiths still reside among the Dwarves.

As for Legendary quality, that truly is just a legend.

Gulping down the milk, Lister was already impatient to see his knight gloves.

Just then, Thomas's voice sounded outside the door.

"Master Lister, Gimel reports that the knight gloves you ordered have been forged. He is waiting in the first-floor hall to see you."

Speak of the devil!

Responding, Lister hurriedly opened the door and followed Thomas to the first-floor hall... Seeing Lister walking quickly toward him, Gimel greeted him respectfully and then excitedly presented the wooden box he was carefully holding in both hands:

"Lord Lister, the knight gloves have been forged. I had good luck and managed to forge them at Rare quality. Please inspect them."

"Haha, Gimel, there's no need to be modest." Lister laughed heartily and patted his shoulder. "If it were just good luck like you say, then most blacksmiths in the kingdom would have forged countless Rare quality items by now."

"This is the result of your skill, without a doubt!"

Hearing him affirm his abilities so strongly, Gimel was deeply moved.

Without further ado, Lister quickly opened the wooden box, and a pair of silver-white metal gloves immediately caught his eye.

Picking up the gloves, he examined them closely. Their appearance wasn't much different from ordinary knight gloves, but the texture felt far superior.

Moreover, despite being made of hard fine iron, the joints were very flexible, no different from leather gloves, perhaps even better.

In the center of the back of each glove was an inlaid amethyst emitting a mysterious purple glow, protected by a layer of transparent special material film. These were made from the previously whole amethyst being split.

With his powerful knight's observation, he could see that the two amethysts combined were only slightly smaller than the original whole amethyst.

This split-forging technique that didn't reduce the original volume of the item definitely counted as master-level blacksmithing, directly reflecting how high Gimel's current forging level was.

Putting on the gloves, the size was just right. The snug fit made him feel as if his hands and the gloves had merged into one.

It was just a pity there were too few amethysts. If there were a few more, he could have made a single—no, a pair of 'Infinity Gauntlets'.

Of course, given the power of amethyst, it certainly couldn't compare to the Infinity Stones. Otherwise, if he snapped his fingers, would anything in this world survive?

However, his purpose in ordering Gimel to forge this pair of gloves was naturally not to destroy the world, but to use the gloves as a medium to release more powerful Wizardry.

Allowing mages or wizards wearing gemstones to release even more powerful magic energy was one of the significant abilities of amethyst.

Originally, he was somewhat worried that the quality of the gloves themselves wouldn't be able to withstand the magic energy enhancement of the amethysts, but now that they had reached Rare quality, this problem was almost negligible.

At this time, Gimel reported, "Lord Lister, I have already inlaid the black refined stone into Sir Langman's armor. I wonder if you need the next inlay?"

"...Forge for Dewey first." Lister thought for a moment and said, "I have to go out today. We'll talk about the rest later when I have time."

"I understand."

Gimel respectfully complied, then seemed to remember something and reminded, "Lord Lister, Sir Spartacus's longsword is currently with me for the smelting and forging of Cursed Metal."

"Mm, I know." Lister nodded, then asked, "By the way, the new armor for the other knights also needs to be forged as soon as possible. Can the other craftsmen successfully forge them now?"

Gimel answered seriously, "After so many days of learning, they have the technical skills. Now they just need practical experience."

"I believe that under your generous instructions, Lord Lister, they should be successful very soon."

"That's good." Lister nodded slightly and ordered, "Now the manufacture of new armor is the most important thing. Next, the task for your Weapon Development Department is to put all your effort into producing 50 sets of new armor."

"If there's any shortage of fine iron, I will go buy more. On the premise of ensuring quality, the production speed must be fast, do you understand?"

"I will certainly complete it with all my effort."

Lister nodded appreciatively, and after giving him a generous reward, he had Thomas escort him away... to the Soldier Barracks.

Standing on the high platform of the generals, Lister looked at the newly selected knight-Soldiers standing in straight, neat rows before him, and a surge of heroic pride welled up in his heart.

Because there were too many new Apprentice Knights and the knight camp next to the castle couldn't hold them all, they were currently all arranged in the Soldier Barracks.

Under everyone's gaze, Lister imperceptibly channeled a trace of Battle Qi energy to his chest and said loudly:

"The first Soldier recruitment for the Ironthorn Territory has ended. I feel very happy and gratified."

"Previously, I never imagined that within our Ironthorn Territory, there could be so many outstanding talents like you."

"In addition to fifty Soldiers, thirty-nine Apprentice Knights have also emerged."

"That's right. Before the selection assessment, it was not revealed that Apprentice Knights were being selected; this was just a hidden assessment."

"But your outstanding hard work and talent have allowed you to stand out and earn this precious opportunity."

"And for those who were not selected, whether you are the veterans who have been with me or the new recruits, do not be discouraged, because an assessment for knight-Soldiers will be held every month from now on."

"Anyone with excellent results will have the chance to become an Apprentice Knight or even a Full Knight."

"I hope that in the future, none of you will fail your hard work and talent. Become my most loyal knights and Soldiers, only to protect the Ironthorn Territory!"

As the motivational words fell, the impassioned shouts of over a hundred people rang out.

"Loyal to the Lord, protect the Ironthorn Territory!"

"Loyal to the Lord, protect the Ironthorn Territory!!"

Not far away, the Ironthorn Territory Serfs and Viscount Territory laborers who were performing renovation and construction work were all moved by what they heard.

In particular, some middle-aged Ironthorn Territory Serfs were so excited that they shed tears of joy, because their children were among those knight-Soldiers.

Such an honor made them feel incredibly proud. At the same time, their backs, which were somewhat bent, couldn't help but straighten up.

The other Serfs around them showed infinite envy, while thinking in their hearts that they should go back and properly 'comfort' their own precious sons.