It was said that the
After three rounds of horn blasts, a good half hour passed before a mere dozen-odd White Lion Corps soldiers shuffled back in, grumbling the entire time about who had blown the assembly horn for no good reason and disrupted everyone's money-making... The Second Prince flew into a rage, berated the dozen or so soldiers soundly, and then told them to get lost...
As one of the two regular corps of the New Krisen Empire, being a soldier in the White Lion Corps meant one's family enjoyed tax benefits and superior social status. This was something the Second Prince had learned from the
In the Second Prince's mind, discharging these dozen-odd soldiers from the corps was already an extremely harsh punishment. Had there not been so many other soldiers out moonlighting, he would have wanted to make an example of them — but when so many were guilty, punishing any one of them risked inflaming the rest and potentially sparking a mutiny. After some deliberation, he decided to simply kick them out of the corps. Without the tax breaks and various other benefits, he was absolutely certain these soldiers would be filled with unbearable regret, crawling on the ground and crying their eyes out as they begged for his mercy...
But when those dozen-odd soldiers heard that the Second Prince wanted them out of the White Lion Corps, every last one of them was ecstatic: "Great! I'm heading home right now to take my wife and kids to Yungeshandra Province to register as settlers!"
"Yeah, I'm going too. Last time I went home, my old man wouldn't stop complaining that I shouldn't have enlisted. Our neighbors next door already moved to Yungeshandra Province — they got land, got a house, and even found work at a kiln yard. They can earn ten-odd gold forte a year..."
"All right, let's all go together! Let's head home and tell our families the good news first..."
The Second Prince: "..."
Something felt distinctly off. The Second Prince watched those dozen-odd soldiers being kicked out of the camp, their jubilant expressions bearing absolutely no resemblance to people about to grovel for his mercy. He was still scratching his head in bewilderment when yet another batch of moonlighting soldiers filed back into camp. Upon learning that those ten or so soldiers had been stripped of their military status and expelled from the White Lion Corps, the envy and jealousy in their eyes was impossible to conceal. They swarmed toward the Second Prince, shouting: "Your Highness, we violated military discipline too! Please kick us out as well..."
The Second Prince was feeling quite bewildered, pointing at the dozen-odd soldiers who were about to leave and shouting: "Wait! Before you leave the corps, hand over your equipment first. That's the corps' property, you can't take it with you..."
To his surprise, those ten-odd soldiers retorted: "We bought this ourselves. It's our personal property, and it has nothing to do with the corps!"
Nonsense! This was clearly standard-issue equipment—armor made of refined iron. A single set cost at least forty gold ferdas. How could these destitute soldiers possibly afford it? However, something felt off to the Second Prince as well. He had never equipped the White Lion Corps with standard-issue refined iron armor of this quality.
Even accounting for the fifty-odd thousand sets of refined standard-issue armor from the former Krisen Empire that Lorrister had freely returned years ago, most of them had been damaged or lost through numerous campaigns. The remaining ten-odd thousand sets had all been reclaimed by the Second Prince to equip the Royal Guard. When he had reorganized the two legions a few years ago, the Second Prince remembered that the vast majority of what he had issued to the White Lion Corps was crude leather armor. Iron armor amounted to no more than a thousand sets, and most of it had been stripped from corpses, barely refurbished.
Yet now, the White Lion Corps soldiers were wearing identical standard-issue refined iron armor. It was only then that the Second Prince realized the White Lion Corps had undergone a dramatic transformation. Looking more carefully, his focus sharpened—this was clearly an extraordinarily elite fighting force, appearing even more disciplined and formidable than the Royal Guard he had invested so heavily in cultivating. Setting that aside for the moment, more and more soldiers were returning to camp. They were fully equipped in their armor, maintaining strict discipline, and upon entering the camp, they quickly organized into neat formations according to their respective units—silent, yet brimming with killing intent...
"Your Highness, the equipment they're wearing is indeed their personal property. They all purchased it with their own money. The weapons, equipment, and leather armor issued by the corps—because of their poor quality and inadequate protection—nobody was willing to wear them, so the soldiers spent their own money to purchase military gear. The equipment distributed by the corps is all piled up in the storeroom. There are ledgers that can be verified..." Sir Seberg, who had just received a thorough scolding, stepped forward to testify.
"How... how is that possible?" The Second Prince pointed incredulously at the assembled formations. "That's forty to fifty thousand men! They earn only two gold ferdas a year in pay. They'd have to go without eating or drinking for twenty years to afford that armor! Besides, where would they even find so many identical sets of standard-issue armor?"
"It's the truth, Your Highness," Sir Seberg said with some embarrassment. "Back when the Norton Family's forces crushed the Commerce Alliance's forces at Bruvia City, over two hundred thousand Alliance soldiers were nearly annihilated. The Norton Family captured enormous numbers of prisoners. These weapons, equipment, and armor were actually taken from those captured Alliance soldiers. The Norton Family had no use for them, so they sold them cheaply to the soldiers of our White Lion Corps."
"Sold..." The Second Prince's interest was piqued. If the Norton Family didn't want them, they could have sold them to him instead. Perhaps he could even get a batch of military supplies from the Norton Family for free.
Sir Seberg shook his head with some awkwardness. "Your Highness, at the time I also wanted to purchase a batch of seized military supplies in the White Lion Corps' name to re-equip the corps, but the Norton Family declined the proposal. They said they wouldn't sell to the corps itself, but individual soldiers could purchase them out of their own pockets. That way, even after mustering out, they could take the standard-issue armor and equipment home with them—considered a personal benefit. Since this was a matter of survival on the battlefield, and it just so happened that the bonus pay for the White Lion Corps' participation in the battle had been distributed, the soldiers all had money and bought a set. The cheapest set I know of sold for just eight large silver coins..."
Pfft! The Second Prince clenched his teeth hard to keep from spitting out the blood that rushed to his mouth. Eight large silver coins — that was practically dirt cheap. A single gold fortn was worth twenty large silver coins, and a standard-issue refined iron armor set like that could sell for over forty gold fortn on the open market. What kind of unbelievable bargain was this, and how could it possibly have ended up on the heads of these White Lion Corps soldiers?
"D-does the Norton Family still have any of this captured standard-issue armor and weapons? I-I'll pay for them — one — no, two gold fortn per set!" The Second Prince's eyes had gone red, and his nostrils flared wide. Who would pass up such a free advantage? Besides, two gold fortn was a far cry from eight large silver coins. The Second Prince thought this price was more than generous.
But Sir Seberg's reply hit him like a bucket of cold water: "They're long gone, Your Highness. Apart from the soldiers in our White Lion Corps who purchased sets for themselves, the remaining captured military supplies were split up. Some equipped the newly formed defense forces of the Free Alliance, and the rest were sold on credit at a thirty percent discount to the armed forces of the four kingdoms that recently re-established themselves around the Mana Hill Plains. Each set of armor and weapons went for about thirty gold fortn."
The Second Prince was both disappointed and furious. It was obviously the Norton Family's doing — selling such excellent refined iron armor and weapons to his White Lion Corps soldiers at rock-bottom prices. Wasn't that a deliberate attempt to drive a wedge between him and the corps? In that moment, the Second Prince had already forgotten that he was the one who had originally used the White Lion Corps as cannon fodder. He had forgotten how he constantly delayed their military funds and pay. All he could see were the sets of refined iron armor on the soldiers' bodies and the sharp weapons gripped tightly in their hands...
On the Galentea Continent, no kingdom or corps prohibited its armed personnel from purchasing their own weapons. On one hand, this allowed soldiers to wield weapons they were skilled and familiar with, increasing their effectiveness on the battlefield. On the other hand, it helped reduce the burden of equipping troops and cut military expenditures. In fact, most commanders would be happy to have all their soldiers use self-provided weapons. The White Lion Corps was a perfect example of this practice in action.
The Second Prince stared at the self-provided weapons and standard-issue armor of the White Lion Corps soldiers, practically drooling. Yet he had no excuse to seize equipment that legally belonged to the soldiers as their personal property. After agonizing over it for a long while, the Second Prince finally came to a difficult decision: "Seberg, I intend to buy the armor and weapons off their backs at the generous price of five gold fortn each. Give the order — have them take off all that armor and weapons, clean them up neatly, and I'll distribute the gold coins to them before long..."
"Out of the question!" Sir Seberg flatly refused the order. The contempt in his eyes made the Second Prince feel both stung and humiliated. "No one is a fool, Your Highness. If I were to announce that order publicly, you would immediately feel the fury of the entire corps. Even if you were the Emperor himself, you couldn't buy equipment that legally belongs to these soldiers at such a low price..."
"A low price? Didn't you say they only paid eight large silver coins per set? I'm offering five gold fortn — that's more than a tenfold increase! A person shouldn't be too greedy, you understand that, Commander Seberg?" The Second Prince was now flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and anger.
"Those are weapons and armor the soldiers used to save their lives on the battlefield," Seberg shot back without giving an inch of face. "Last time, the Snow Salt Commerce Alliance's trade caravan offered thirty-five gold fortn per set, and not a single person was willing to sell! Many soldiers plan to pass their armor and weapons down to their descendants as heirlooms. So I truly cannot fathom why Your Highness believes five gold fortn per set would be enough to buy their armor and weapons. Can your gold fortn somehow be worth ten times their normal value?" Commander Seberg showed the Second Prince absolutely no courtesy in his retort.
The Second Prince's face flushed scarlet, but he couldn't even summon the rage to lash out. It was just as well that the purchase order had never been issued — no one could guarantee it wouldn't have sparked a mutiny. The Snow Salt Commerce Alliance's caravan had offered thirty-five gold fortn per set, and the White Lion Corps soldiers still refused to sell their weapons and armor. If word got out that the Second Prince was offering a mere five gold fortn as a "generous" price, people would laugh themselves sick, and it would only cement his reputation as a miser.
Actually, the Second Prince's eye for value wasn't bad — the refined iron standard-issue armor worn by the White Lion Corps soldiers was indeed worth over forty gold fortn per set. And if you factored in the matching standard-issue spears, shields, and swords, the market price could easily exceed fifty gold fortn. Large batches of identical standard-issue armor were especially notable; in a forging industry still dominated by manual labor, prices might not drop at all for bulk orders — in fact, there was a good chance they'd climb by ten or twenty percent. After all, producing identical designs wasn't exactly easy.
Only the Norton Family, with their large-scale hydraulic forging workshops, had managed to cut labor requirements dramatically through the use of molds and hydraulic presses, giving them the capacity to mass-produce weapons and standard-issue equipment. However, because the Commerce Alliance had previously dispatched large numbers of Great Swordmasters to the Northland — intending to assassinate or at least severely wound
Just as Commander Seberg had said, these weapons and refined iron standard-issue armor were indeed the White Lion Corps soldiers' lifeline on the battlefield. The Galentea Continent was a world of
Take, for example, an enemy with no Combat Force. Even wielding a fine weapon, such an opponent might be unable to breach the refined iron armor worn by a White Lion Corps soldier. An enemy at the Bronze or
It was only now that the Second Prince realized he had mounted a tiger and couldn't get off — there was no graceful way to extricate himself. Facing the White Lion Corps soldiers already drawn up in battle formation, he had absolutely no idea what to say. First, he had assumed their equipment was standard-issue gear handed out by the corps and tried to make them hand it over, which had turned into a complete farce. Then, coveting the gear on their bodies, he had attempted to buy it at a low price, only to be flatly refused by Commander Seberg right to his face, leaving the Second Prince stranded on center stage with nowhere to go.
In his heart, the Second Prince badly wanted to fly into a rage — to viciously reprimand these soldiers for neglecting their duties to go work for the Norton Family, and then kick them out of the White Lion Corps altogether. But those dozen-odd soldiers who had just departed in high spirits had given him ample warning: for all he knew, the soldiers below would be only too happy to see that happen. Besides, scolding them would do no good — it was his own failure to pay military funds and soldier wages that had forced them to seek outside work in the first place…
Looking at the White Lion Corps soldiers standing neatly in battle array, the Second Prince's head throbbed. If he really expelled all of them and rebuilt the White Lion Corps from scratch, the next formation to stand before him would probably be full of soldiers wearing tattered leather armor. He could question the suspiciously warm and friendly relationship between the White Lion Corps and the Norton Family all he liked, but in his heart the Second Prince had to admit that the current White Lion Corps was a genuinely elite force. Disbanding them — would they all rush to join the Norton Family? Wouldn't that just create more headaches for him? The Norton Family might well use these soldiers to build yet another family armed corps…
But what to do with the White Lion Corps now was truly a thorny problem. Stationing them here was clearly no longer appropriate — it was simply providing the Norton Family with a steady supply of capable labor for building fortresses and fishing. After much deliberation, the Second Prince finally arrived at a solution. He turned and issued a command to Commander Seberg: the White Lion Corps was to march to the central region by April of the following year and crush the bandit infestation there. This time, they would genuinely be going to eliminate bandits, not to blockade the trade routes of the Northland's four-family alliance.
"The Emperor gave the White Lion Corps this order and then left in a huff, without making any personnel changes to the corps whatsoever. That concludes the report from Lord Er, commander of the Iron Guard Corps. He asks whether our family will grant passage — Commander Seberg has formally requested that the White Lion Corps be allowed to pass through the Egret Lake Marsh passageway in the Yungeshangdela Province en route to the central region for the bandit suppression campaign." Genoliro reported to Lorist.
Yungeshangdela Province was Norton Family territory. Any imperial regular corps wishing to pass through had to apply in advance. If Lorist refused, the White Lion Corps would be forced to take the southern route through Portoorge Province — the road via the King's Capital — which meant nearly doubling the journey by way of a vast detour.
Lorist tapped his fingers on the tabletop, mused for a moment, and then nodded. "Of course we'll grant passage. The White Lion Corps is an old friend of our family, and we're more than happy to help. However, we could send a message via courier hawk to Lord Er, asking him to consult with Commander Seberg. It's already late November. If the White Lion Corps is willing, we could use sled carts during the winter in late December and early January, when heavy snow covers the ground, to transport the entire White Lion Corps to the central region — sparing them the suffering of a long march after the rainy season..."
"Very well, I'll send word to Lord Er right away," Genoliro said. "But Your Highness, about that protest letter from His Majesty the Emperor — are you going to reply or not? Nearly a month has already passed."
"Heh," Lorist laughed. "Forget about that protest letter. Let's just pretend it never happened. I only hope that our Emperor, having learned a lesson from these two incidents, might become a little wiser and stop staring at our family with greedy eyes, trying to profit from things he hasn't earned. He should focus on managing the empire's welfare and internal affairs, rather than only knowing how to use force to coerce others into satisfying his personal desires..."
…