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 practitioner 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 practitioner that wasn't a knight. This being the case, an elite gangchesul practitioner 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.