Night had fallen.

The wind blowing in through the window was still scorching hot.

Dinner.

Leech had specifically requested lemon chicken. The tangy, appetizing chicken soaked in its sauce, paired with a glass of beer, was enough to make a person let out a satisfied sigh of "Ahhh~".

"Quickblade, how is the soldiers’ training coming along?" he asked, setting down his beer glass.

A man named Quickblade wiped the grease from his mouth with the back of his hand. "Those lads are training well. Once they see some blood, they’ll be proper soldiers."

"What about armor and weapons?" he inquired.

"We don’t have them yet."

"My apologies, my lord," said a man named Qiao. "I went to Iron Stone City and asked the blacksmiths. If we want to forge chainmail and lamellar armor like what Quickblade and his men have, complete with helmets, pauldrons, vambraces, chainmail leggings, and weapons, one set will cost at least two Jinri. I was just about to report this to you."

"Two Jinri?" Leech thought he had misheard.

A full set of equipment for a noble cavalryman was only five Jinri, and that’s not even counting the cost of a warhorse and tack.

This meant that for Leech to equip the remaining sixty soldiers with the same armor as Quickblade and his men, it would cost at least 120 Jinri!

And that was before considering future maintenance and repairs for damaged armor. Leech sucked in a breath.

’No wonder Porcupine Territory is so poor you can’t find a speck of gold. My father, Lieder, really poured a fortune into his soldiers.’

"In that case, buy ore and Iron Ingots. Have our own blacksmiths forge the equipment. I want everyone outfitted within a month, if possible."

He had brought back quite a few blacksmiths from Green Forest Castle this time. Unlike the Black Ears, forging armor and weapons was their actual profession.

"My lord, I’m afraid that will be difficult," Quickblade said. "I’ve watched blacksmiths make weapons and armor before. One man can make half a set of armor in a month, at most."

"Half a set?"

This world hadn’t entered the industrial age; everything was hammered out by hand.

Quickblade suggested, "We could make some leather armor or light armor first."

"And the speed?" Leech asked.

Quickblade thought for a moment before replying, "Maybe two or three pieces a month."

’The speed of pure manual labor is a real headache.’

In their eyes, the lord’s hope of using a few blacksmiths to produce over sixty sets of armor in a month was pure fantasy. Unless all the blacksmiths in Iron Stone City took the job, only then might it be possible to arm these sixty-odd men in a month or two.

"I’ll go talk to the blacksmiths tomorrow." Leech picked up his chopsticks. "To a brighter future for Porcupine Territory. Cheers."

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

...

「Longship Castle.」

A letter that arrived by raven was immediately delivered by Yi Lin into her older sister’s hands.

In the Baroness’s bedchamber in Longship Castle, Yi Lin quietly watched her sister.

Her sister, Jie Lin, quickly finished reading the letter, her expression changing dramatically.

"Well?" Yi Lin asked anxiously.

"Leech Clarence is willing to help us."

"Really? That’s wonderful!" Yi Lin was overjoyed. Although the Baron Porcupine was just a country baron, his decision to help meant Longship Castle could hold on a while longer.

They would surely find a solution.

But looking at her sister’s expression, Yi Lin felt something was wrong.

She asked cautiously, "What did he write in the letter?"

Jie Lin took a deep breath. "He wants us to declare war on the imposter bastard in his name. He’s demanding the bastard return the stolen slaves and pay 1,000 Jinri in compensation, or else he’ll take his head."

"What?" Yi Lin thought she had misheard.

The entire Porcupine Territory only had a population of a thousand, while Wado Nineteen now had tens of thousands of men! Unless his entire population consisted of elite soldiers, they wouldn’t stand a chance against Wado Nineteen. The enemy could drown him in spit alone.

’Or maybe Leech has secretly raised a Giant Dragon.’

"That’s what he wrote." Jie Lin handed the letter to her sister, Yi Lin. "I don’t know what he’s thinking. Even if the Baron Porcupine is covered in spines, he’s being too..."

Too outrageous!

Yi Lin took the letter, nodded in agreement after reading it, and then asked worriedly, "Should we do as he says?"

"Why not?" Jie Lin asked her sister in return.

...

Kro Camel awoke, his eyes heavy with sleep.

He wasn’t very fond of Xia Yu Village. To be precise, he wasn’t used to the food here. Just like the village’s name, it was all shrimp and fish.

Having grown up in the desert, he was more accustomed to sizzling, greasy roast lamb, served with bread and a glass of beer.

The grilled fish tasted decent enough, but the bones always seemed to defiantly poke his tongue. Whenever it happened, the rough men at the table would laugh at him.

He remembered getting a fish bone stuck in his throat yesterday. They had only laughed at him, and he’d had to chug beer and frantically eat bread to finally swallow it down.

He got out of bed and changed his clothes.

Pushing open the door, he was greeted by a chaotic scene outside, something he was starting to get used to.

"Good day, Sir Kro!"

The booming voice from behind startled him. Kro immediately turned to find Wado Eighteen, who was wearing even more gold jewelry than before. Kro instantly adopted his own impeccable noble etiquette. "Good day, Lord Wado!"

Kro followed Wado Eighteen into the dining hall.

In the hall was a long table covered with a red cloth. The table had belonged to the Knight of Xia Yu Village, whose corpse was now hanging from the gallows.

There were eight chairs at the table.

Wado Eighteen sat at the head, with Kro’s seat at his right hand. Wado Eighteen placed great importance on the first noble who had sworn fealty to him.

After them came Wado Eighteen’s former brothers.

People arrived one after another; they were the core of Wado Eighteen’s force.

The burly man who had previously kicked Kro flying was named "Bor." It was a name he had chosen for himself. His mother was a prostitute, and Bor figured that since anyone could be his father, why couldn’t it be King Bor Kaine? The King’s lechery was common knowledge.

The King, far away in the royal capital, would probably never imagine he had such a ridiculously distant "son."

Some people even called him "Bor the Third," though it was only a joke.

"SCREEECH—!" Bor yanked out a chair, its legs scraping the floor with a sharp, ear-splitting sound.

He saw nothing wrong with this and plopped down crookedly in his seat.

Wado Eighteen’s expression, however, turned ugly. "Sit up straight!"

"What?" Bor tilted his head.

"Sit up straight! This is a dining table! We must observe noble etiquette!" Wado Eighteen stressed.

In the end, Bor didn’t have the guts to argue with Wado Eighteen. Muttering, "We never had these stinking rules before," he straightened his chair, which inevitably produced another grating scrape.

The atmosphere at the table was a little strange. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The bandits and robbers were all awkward as they ate. Only Wado Eighteen and Kro chatted pleasantly.

’Look at this! This is true noble elegance!’

’These elegant manners will help me become a better Baron of Longship Castle.’

His men didn’t seem very happy about it, but Wado Eighteen paid them no mind. ’To become a noble, one must change, right?’

After the meal, Wado Eighteen and Kro went to the council hall. In Wado Eighteen’s eyes, Kro, as a nobleman, could surely offer him excellent advice. Kro, on the other hand, was inwardly panicking. ’I’m just a good-for-nothing parasite! I don’t know the first thing about war!’

The so-called council hall was actually just another house in Xia Yu Village. Inside was a very crude map that simply marked the location of Longship Castle, but it was difficult to find the position of Xia Yu Village itself.

"Next, we’ll attack Hebang Village."

Wado Eighteen’s war strategy was very simple: overwhelm them with numbers.

His goal was to use war to establish his identity as the bastard son, force the Baroness Jie Lin to acknowledge him, and secure the legitimate right of inheritance.

Or he could just attack Longship Castle directly. Once his ass was planted on the castle’s throne, he would be Baron Wado!

BANG!

The door was suddenly slammed open.

Wado Eighteen looked up, his face darkening instantly. "Knock before you enter!"

It was Bor who had burst in. Though he was yelled at the moment he entered, he still remembered his task. In a low, gravelly voice, he said, "It’s urgent! We snatched a few dozen slaves earlier. They were the property of some baron. Now that baron has declared war on us. He says we have to hand over the slaves and pay 1,000 Jinri in compensation, or he’ll take your head."

"What!" Wado Eighteen slammed the table in fury. "Hmph, I have an army of forty thousand! If he’s got the guts, let him come!"

After his outburst, Wado Eighteen asked, "When did we snatch these slaves?"

"Probably Mountain Rat and his crew. They must have nabbed them while robbing a passing merchant caravan," Bor said nonchalantly.

"And this baron?" Wado Eighteen asked.

"Seems he’s some country lord called Baron Porcupine."

Wado Eighteen frowned. "Never heard of him."

"I have," Kro said from the side. "I’ve heard of that Baron Porcupine. Their family crest is a porcupine, and their motto is: ’Covered in spines.’ Anyone who tries to provoke them ends up getting pricked until they bleed."

"Hahaha! That certainly won’t include us," Wado Eighteen laughed. "Let him come if he dares! He’s just a country baron."

Kro, however, was worried. He could see that Wado Eighteen’s army was riddled with problems, but he didn’t understand why his baron had declared war. Wouldn’t it be better to wait for this army to destroy itself?

That’s right. From his observations over the past few days, Kro had realized this force was on the verge of self-destruction. Food alone had become a major problem.

An army of forty thousand soldiers sounded intimidating, but forty thousand mouths waiting to be fed was even more terrifying.

They were like locusts. Because it wasn’t their own food and not their own land, they devoured and plundered everything in a frenzy.

’Tomorrow? Who cares about tomorrow?’

’If we just wait a little longer, this army is bound to fall apart.’

But the peasant who had delivered the message had been gone for a long time and hadn’t returned. Unsure of Leech’s intentions, Kro could only laugh along.

He could only hope that the lord he served was truly rational and not blinded by anger.

’Then again, a baron who could see my strengths at a glance and come up with a plan for me to infiltrate the enemy and gather intelligence must be a farsighted wise man.’

He thought of the developments in Porcupine Territory and its cleverly designed buildings.

Kro was suddenly filled with confidence. He turned to Wado Eighteen and said, "We will definitely win!"