Chapter 345 — A Wise Move
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Things they would surely have dealings with in the future?
Hearing Gaosong's words, the Kant knights could not help but ponder, and very quickly they had more or less pieced it together.
What did knights have dealings with? Beyond the etiquette every noble was obliged to observe, it was of course swords and armor and warhorses.
Though Ansul's noble system had already begun its decline, and many of the traditional martial nobles had been corroded by luxurious living, turning to magical rituals, potions, and other easy, effortless means to catalyze their own transcendent power, this was, after all, a world where transcendent power existed and where personal strength could largely determine one's social standing—especially in the Southland, where law and order were poor. There the martial nobles at the grassroots still set great store by "strength," and these knights from Kant Territory were certainly no exception. As retainers of a higher noble, as the standard-bearers of martial might upon their territory, they kept the improvement of their personal power foremost at all times. And when it came to what a knight must have dealings with... that was beyond doubt weapons and equipment.
At most, add a few "adornments" like squires.
The knights exchanged silent glances. They knew this was most likely the new lord about to display his military might. Word had it that Cecil Territory's original armed forces had suffered grievous losses in that calamity, that only two transcendent knights had survived, and that the rest were merely soldiers and militia. Only later had Gaoyang recruited a great many from among the refugees and put them through training, just barely scraping together enough troops to defend the territory...
They knew little of this new army, only that it possessed some peculiar weapons and equipment and that its fighting strength far surpassed that of ordinary soldiers. Presumably this was the sort of thing the new lord meant to display.
Each knight had his own thoughts, but they were unanimous in feeling that the lord need not display his army at all. As a powerful knight lord who himself possessed legendary strength, Gaoyang Cecil was the finest deterrent there was. His martial prowess was already sufficient—what more was there to show?
Whatever their thoughts, the party soon arrived at a weapons testing ground outside the city. After passing through soldier after soldier at checkpoint after checkpoint, the Kant knights came to a tall wooden viewing platform and saw a row of strange, hulking things drawn up in neat order on the ground below.
"I thought I would show you the Justice-I magic-crystal railgun, which has just completed its rollout in the Cecil Combat Corps," Gaoyang said with a faint smile, watching the Kant knights as they curiously took in their surroundings. "If you are to become one of Cecil's own, it simply won't do not to understand how your own people fight."
Justice-I magic-crystal railgun? What was that? Those big iron lumps and iron pillars down there? Their forms were regular enough—though how the craftsmen had managed to make them all identical was anyone's guess...
The knights were wholly bewildered, and then they watched the soldiers spring into action: those soldiers trained up from common folk scurried about each railgun, loading metal objects among the steel, adjusting the angle of the "rails," checking one thing or another, all the while shouting strange, incomprehensible commands...
This was a novel sight indeed. There was scarcely a trace of transcendent aura about these soldiers, which meant they were commoners, illiterate clods of the earth—and yet this Duke Gaoyang Cecil could train such people to be so obedient, so quick in their movements, so in tune with one another. That was no easy feat. But what were they doing?