For Schwarz, today was a good day. With just half a year until he turned seventeen, he had finally received
Actually, Schwarz had been eager to awaken his Combat Force the year before last, hoping to become like his senior apprentice-brother Reidi and stay by his master Lorist's side at all times, listening to his teachings. However, after examining his body, Lorist had shut down his impulse. Having experienced the chaos of war in his youth, and then surviving two years of hunger and hardship with his sister Elisa after their family was torn apart before their father Botefeng found them, his physical constitution wasn't particularly strong.
Lorist believed there was no need for him to awaken his Combat Force so early. It was better to build a solid foundation first, so he could go further in his cultivation of Combat Force and become a
Following behind Reidi, Schwarz entered Lorist's study. He bowed respectfully toward Lorist behind the desk, bending at the waist: "Master..."
Lorist, who had been calculating something, looked up. Seeing it was Schwarz, he smiled. He was very satisfied with this second disciple of his—smart, eager to learn, hardworking, and grounded. The hardships of having once struggled to survive in the ruined imperial capital with his young sister had made him far more mature than his peers.
Time had truly flown. Four years ago, Lorist had still been at
He had gone to talk to Botefeng, but it just so happened that two Gold Swordsmen came looking for trouble. With Botefeng's help, he killed those two Gold Swordsmen, but Botefeng was seriously wounded. So Lorist brought Botefeng and his two children, Schwarz and Elisa, back home. They stayed for half a year, and he took Schwarz as a disciple. Now, that quiet, book-loving child had finally grown up—just like Reidi who had once come to learn the sword.
"Schwarz, why didn't your mischievous sister Elisa come today?" Lorist asked with a warm smile.
"Master, did you forget? Elisa took the Zeno brothers with her and went with Lady Tristi to the Edge Mountains to scout for a location," Schwarz replied.
Lorist slapped his forehead. He'd been too busy and had simply forgotten.
Over the past two years, Lady Tristi had been constantly thinking about the academy Lorist had promised to build under her mother's name. So Lorist had given her something to do. In his name, he gathered the underage children of the family knights—about a dozen boys and girls around ten years of age—and handed them over to Lady Tristi, charging her with educating them and giving them a basic cultural education first.
Among these children, eleven-year-old Elisa was the boss, bossing the Zeno brothers around. The Zeno brothers were the twin brothers of the Gold Knight Zeno Farea, and these two loved nothing more than following their big sister Elisa around to bully others.
Among these children, Lady Tristi's favorite was Elisa, and she wholeheartedly wanted to mold the girl into another version of herself—just as her foster mother, Dame Niko, had cultivated her into a believer of the Goddess of Knowledge and a female scholar. Unfortunately, all of Lady Tristi's painstaking efforts were completely wasted on the lively, rambunctious Elisa.
Even Lorist hadn't expected that Elisa's idol would turn out to be Miss Baisha. Simply because one day Miss Baisha had ridden past the central avenue of Bedrock Castle with a few female soldiers and Elisa had caught sight of her, that heroic mounted figure had deeply embedded itself in the little girl's dreams, and the very next day she swore that she too would become a female knight.
These past few months, the little girl had been at odds with her father. The cause was simple: two years ago, the widowed daughter of Baron Spensley had become Botefeng's maid, and now her belly had finally grown big. Naturally, Botefeng paid more attention to his pregnant maid and neglected his precious daughter. Feeling forgotten by her father, the little girl ran away from home, moving to Lady Tristi's residence less than a hundred meters from her own house, determined never to return.
At the beginning of the year, after defeating the magical beast tide, Lorist was in high spirits. He told Lady Tristi she could begin scouting and preparing the construction site for the academy. So in June, Lady Tristi set out for the Edge Mountains with her students, planning to find a scenic location to serve as the academy's site.
However, this scouting trip was taking longer than expected. Lorist's side had already defeated the second prince's coalition army of a hundred thousand Northland nobles and swept away all the Northland noble families outside the four-family alliance. Meanwhile, Lady Tristi and her students were still sightseeing in the Edge Mountains. According to the messengers' reports, they had only surveyed half the area and would need another two months.
"Come, Schwarz, put out your hand. Let me take your pulse," Lorist said.
Schwarz placed his hand on the desk. Taking pulse readings was nothing new to him—this was how his master assessed his physical condition. After the spinning training to develop your dynamic vision, you'd better be prepared." Lorist was very satisfied. Schwarz's body was healthy and his foundation was solid.
"Master, I've been ready for a long time," Schwarz said, his expression resolute.
"All right, today it's just us three here—don't be so stiff. We've got a long road ahead. If there's anything you don't understand, Reidi can tell you, or you can ask me directly. In front of others, address me the same way everyone else does—as 'my lord.' In private, we'll use master and disciple," Lorist said.
"Master, I've had a question for a while now. It's about some of the family's strategic decisions—I can't understand why you made certain choices. May I ask?" Schwarz said without standing on ceremony.
"Of course, go ahead," Lorist said with a smile.
"Master, with the military strength our
Schwarz's eyes were fixed intently on Lorist. He genuinely hoped his master would answer.
Lorist laughed. This was the first time someone had questioned his strategic decisions—and it was his own disciple at that. He nodded with satisfaction. "Schwarz, let me ask you a question. When a traveler who has been on a long, arduous journey finally returns to his hometown, what is his most pressing desire?"
"I suppose he'd want to get home as quickly as possible..." Schwarz thought about it and replied.
"Right. He wouldn't think about stopping at a tavern for a drink first, nor would he think about visiting friends for a chat, and he certainly wouldn't think about taking over his enemy neighbor's house. He just wants to get home early, take a long bath, and enjoy the family reunion after a long separation. Only after everything has settled down would he think about going to the tavern for a drink, bragging to his friends about what he saw on the road, or maybe causing trouble for that enemy neighbor of his..."
"In a sense, our northern caravan was exactly like such a traveler who had endured a year-long journey. Along the way, we went through untold hardships—fierce battles, bitter battles, bloody battles one after another—before we finally fought our way through and made it back to the Northland. Do you know what kept everyone going through all of that? Do you remember what we used to rally everyone in the northern caravan?"
Schwarz hesitated. "The northern caravan's slogan was 'return to the family territory, get land and houses, and live in peace and quiet'..."
"Exactly right. Most of the people in the northern caravan had never been to the Northland, but through our propaganda, they had come to see the family territories as their promised land. That's why everyone was able to persevere and make it back to the Northland, and why they felt such hatred toward the Grand Duke who had invaded our family's lands. With morale that high, we naturally toppled his forces with ease."
"Come look at this, Schwarz. Here's a map of the Northland. What are your thoughts?" Lorist stood up and walked to the Northland map hanging on the wall.
"The Northland is vast, Master," Schwarz said.
"Yes, the Northland is vast. Let's take a look—if we had done as you suggested and occupied the Grand Duchy's territory, what would have happened?" Lorist pointed to the areas surrounding the Grand Duchy. "The nobles of these territories would have taken one of two approaches—either flatter us or resist us. Either way, our family would have become entangled with them. Our family's military strength would have been forced to spread thin. Not only would we need to defend the Hendley-Fuso Bridge, but we'd also constantly have to dispatch forces to eliminate those lords hostile to our family. We would lose the initiative..."
"Like this..." Lorist spread his open hand. "We'd be turning our fist into fingers to fight against the enemy's fist. Not only would that bring harm to ourselves, but it would also cost us the most important things—popular support and morale. Because we would have failed to keep our promise, placing the commoners and soldiers who followed us right back into the fires of war..."
"That's why I gave up the idea of occupying the Grand Duchy's territory and brought everyone back to our own family lands. Over these three years, we developed the Fengle Plains, defeated the magical beast tide, and fulfilled our promise—distributing land and houses, giving them a stable and peaceful life. That's why, even when the second prince came with a hundred thousand troops, we were still able to win in a single battle."
"But Master, even though we won a great victory in this battle, you still have no intention of occupying the entire Northland. On the contrary, you allied with those three families and gave them generous benefits while we got very little in return. I think this is a very unwise decision," Schwarz said.
Lorist burst out laughing and reached over to ruffle Schwarz's hair into a bird's nest. "Bold of you—since when do you lecture your master like that?"
"Like I said, the Northland is too vast. Look—from Bedrock Castle to Gildusk City, a fast ride takes five days. To the Hendley-Fuso Bridge, it takes seven. Even if we occupied the entire Northland, the time needed just for relaying information would be enormous. Besides, those three families have always had a good relationship with us. Turning friends into enemies is easy, but the losses would be devastating. Our family's military is elite, but needless sacrifice is pure waste. Even if we occupied the entire Grand Duchy's territory, would we still have the energy to develop the Black Mud Swamp?"
"The future doesn't lie in those two chain bridges. If an enemy blocks the far side, the entire Northland would be sealed off with no way to contact the outside world. Our alliance with those three families is about tossing the burden to them—letting them defend those two chain bridges while our family receives outside supplies and grain through them, and having them sell our family's snow salt and other products."
"The reason I place the highest priority on our family's own territory, as I've explained before, is that only our family's territory possesses the Northland's sole sea outlet. Once we assemble a fleet, we'll be able to reach the entire coastal region of the Galentea Continent. That is when our family will truly take flight and develop. One day, the entire Northland will fly our family's Fierce Bear banners."
"But Master, didn't those three families form an alliance with us? What if they refuse when the time comes?" Schwarz asked.
"They'll agree. When our family's strength completely overwhelms theirs, they'll be eager to leave our side and depart the Northland as soon as possible. We might even help them acquire the family territories they desire. Schwarz, it's commendable that you're thinking in strategic terms, but your current thinking is the same as those so-called strategists and military men who play the game of world domination—all-in-one-wave thinking. That's not the way to go," Lorist said.
"Master, what is 'one-wave thinking'?" Schwarz asked.
Lorist's enthusiasm for discussion was in full swing. "War is not purely a matter of military considerations—it involves many aspects. Many seemingly trivial details often end up determining the final outcome of a war. True war is really a contest of strength between two nations or two families. Strip away all those so-called brilliant stratagems, and the one who achieves victory is almost always the side that is most thoroughly prepared."
"Unfortunately, no one on the Galentea Continent has truly recognized this. They still heavily promote those brilliant strategic deployments, like two people playing chess—all the pieces laid out in the open, fighting it out until one side achieves a pyrrhic victory, with absolutely no energy left to face the next enemy."
"The one-wave thinking I'm talking about is like the second prince. He spent three years in the Northland, scraping and plundering, until he finally assembled the kingdom's First Army. Together with those Northland nobles, he rounded up a hundred-thousand-strong force. If he hadn't targeted our Norton Family, where do you think he would have pointed his sword?"
Schwarz thought for a moment and pointed a finger at the Maderass Duchy.
"Correct—it should be the Maderass Duchy. Our second prince has always been someone who holds grudges. Of course, now the person he hates most is probably our family. If he hadn't come after us, his hundred-thousand-strong army would have descended upon the Maderass Duchy. And the Maderass Duchy would naturally have been well prepared. They would have fought a fierce battle that ended with both sides devastated—exhausted and grievously wounded, neither able to continue. They'd have no choice but to accept mediation, sign a peace agreement for a few years, then each side would go home to lick its wounds, rebuild its military, and come back to fight again in a few years. That's what I call one-wave thinking."
"If one side has a steady stream of reinforcements, with fresh troops arriving no matter how great the casualties, can the other side hold on? The result is obvious—there's nothing left for them but defeat. But look at the kingdoms and duchies that split off from the old empire. They're all the same—rebuild the military, fight a big battle, gain a little advantage or suffer a small setback, sign an agreement, and come back in a few years. These are all manifestations of one-wave thinking. It does nothing but make the people's lives more and more miserable," Lorist said with deep feeling.
"Master, I understand what you mean. War isn't like chess—it requires a powerful force as a guarantee. The better our family territory develops, the stronger our family's military becomes, and the more victories we'll achieve. Isn't that right? So you insist on focusing on developing our family territory, not like other lords who want to occupy as much land as possible..." Schwarz said, a look of realization dawning on his face.
"Exactly—that's the principle. Schwarz, you're going to become an excellent commander someday," Lorist said with a smile.
...