Chapter 41: Things you can obtain in someone else’s territory (4)

A few days after I helped her find a house, Mirine suddenly came to visit the chamberlain.

“I can do anything. I’m confident in my sewing and I’m good at cleaning. Please let me work for you!”

When I saw the scene, I decided to check her status.

[Mirine]

[Age: 21]

[Martial force: 5]

[Intelligence: 59]

[Command: 10]

There was an interesting part to her status. Her intelligence was 59, even though she had never studied properly. Martial force, intelligence, and command are all values that show a combination of talent and effort.

In addition, a talent limit is applied to the system’s values. The higher the limit, the higher the talent, but that doesn’t mean anything without the necessary effort.

The system also had a [skill] that could see talent limits. However, in order to use that [skill] I need 3000 points, it’s impossible at my current level.

After all, Mirine must not have made any effort to improve her intelligence. She was probably not in an environment where she could do so. Still, with a number of 59, she might be able to transform herself if she worked hard. I got curious what would happen.

“Do you want to work?”

“Yes, my lord!”

Mirine fell flat when she came in front of me. Then she tugged on Zint arm. ‘You too, get down on your knees quickly!’ This was the meaning behind her action.

“That’s enough. It’s not nice for a vassal to kneel every time. Zint is my vassal and you, his wife, may address me as sir.”

“Your Excellency? Well, that’s …….”

Mirine was confused, with a look of fear on her face that said she couldn’t call me that. I decided to quickly get down to business.

“You want to work, don’t you?”

“Yes. I don’t know how to repay this favor……I’ll do anything, really!”

“Can you do whatever it takes?”

“Yes!”

I replied with a shrug.

“Then why don’t you do some studying? You’d better start by learning the……letters.”

At my words, Mirine blinked her eyes for about ten seconds and then looked at Zint.

“It’s not Zint. He’s a far cry from all that.”

Mirine pointed to herself at my words.

“Me? Oh, no! Of course not! Aren’t letters supposed to be learned by nobles?”

“I’ve told you many times, vassals are quasi-aristocrats. If you really want to work for the territory, you should start by learning the letters. If you don’t, I won’t let you work.”

Mirine was very confused when I said that.

“Yes, sir! Can I do it ……?”

“If you work hard, the results will come. Let’s just wait and see what happens.”

That was the part I really had no idea about. Would her intelligence increase or stay the same? Besides, there are different kinds of intelligence: intelligence to manage a territory, intelligence to fight in wars and others. I don’t know what kind of intelligence she has until I experience it. It’s like waiting for the results of a lottery draw.

***

Currently, I’m level 19. I became level 18 after annihilating the Narja Royal Army in the recent war. Then, in the process of taking out Mirine, I had a battle with the border patrol, which brought me to level 19. My martial force is 64 and I have 300 points left.

I can’t neglect my level ups, that means that I have to stay involved in various battles. Of course, that would be after I’ve built up my territory.

“Haddin, assemble all the troops!”

I gathered the entire army to introduce my new vassals and now I’m holding a tournament with prizes. I can see the ability values of people, but the others can’t. No one but me knows who Zint and Yusen are.

This tournament is to show off the military prowess of the newly joined vassals. There is no one who can defeat Zint even Yusen had been defeated by him before. Naturally, the winner was Zint and the second place went to Yusen.

After this event I announced their new positions. Haddin, who is the only remaining noble among my vassals, was still the overall commander of the army. Yusen, who has a command ability value of 90, has been appointed as the deputy commander of the Territorial Army.

In addition, I created a new position called captain of 1,000 men and I appointed Givens and Bente, who were the two best suited to handle a force of this size. Givens command was 76 and Bente 82 they were the best for the job.

In Zint’s case, his command was too low. So, I appointed him as the captain of the Special Forces unit that doesn’t have any subordinates yet. He had the same grade as a thousand-man captain.

After reviewing the positions I now turned my attention to the troops. The current Aintorian Territorial Army was 14,000 men, but this was not a fully regular army. Looking at the history of China and Europe, the number of elite soldiers is generally around 1% of the population.

This 1% is not ordinary infantry, but special troops such as cavalry and archers. In the case of the Chinese, however, they often drafted up to 10% of the population, with 1% being a standing army of professional soldiers, and the remaining 9% being a reserve force that was usually engaged in farming and were used as needed.

With the condition that they would normally be engaged in farming, it was possible to conscript a high figure of 10% of the population.

Aintorian 14,000 troops were a mixture of these two. Currently, the population of the Lunan Kingdom is about 10 million. And the population of Aintorian territory is 220,000.

With the onset of war, I intend to increase the regular army to 10,000 and prepare 20,000 troops to be engaged in farming.

The problem is that Aintorian is a border region and therefore has a smaller population than the other territories; however, there has been a big change recently.

The original population was around 180,000, but thanks to the tax exemption policy and my fame, the population had increased by 40,000 as refugees from the northern part of the Lunan Kingdom, where the war was taking place, moved into the area.

Even after the tax exemption period is over, if I reduce taxes moderately and cultivate the land, the population will continue to grow, won’t it? Borders are always dangerous, but in times of warfare every territory will have such problems and people will choose the safest place to live.

If I give people confidence that they are safe, the population will grow. If the population reaches 300,000 I can sustain a force of 30,000.

[Do you want to draft?]

Since I can sustain 20,000 troops for the time being, I have moved towards my first goal.

[Who will you choose to do the draft?]

What’s a little interesting here is that the higher the martial strength and command, the more effective it is in increasing the training level, and the higher the popularity within the affiliation of the vassal making the conscription, the harder it is to lower the public sentiment towards the lord.

[Haddin popularity within the ranks 90]

[Zint popularity within the ranks 50]

[Bente popularity within the ranks 70]

[Yusen popularity within the ranks 50]

[Givens popularity within the ranks 50]

[Mirine popularity within the ranks 50]

This is natural since they had only been in the territory for a short time. I expect that Yusen’s affinity and good personality would soon increase his popularity within the ranks but for now only Haddin is suitable for drafting.

[Do you want Haddin to handle the draft?]

[6,000 men can be drafted]

[People spirit predicted to fall by 5↓]

When I selected Haddin, this message appeared. I thought about it for a while, but this time I decided to do it directly.

“Narja continues to increase their forces. Soon the age of war will start. The time will come when you must protect your families. Of course, when that time comes, I will do my best to protect Aintorian. But I can’t do it alone, I need your help. This draft is for the protection of our territory, that is why I am sending you to war, but I promise you one thing. I will lead you in battle; you will always have me in front!”

I have a pretty good reputation within the territory, so, as a result of making this declaration to the people in the square.

[People spirit increased by 2]

Surprisingly, the people’s spirits went up by two. Thanks to this, the number of soldiers steadily increased by 6,000, bringing their total to 20,000.

The 20,000 troops were reorganized and training was started anew. I left the training to Givens, Bente, and Yusen, the number of vassals was small so they all had to work hard.

We were going to select 10,000 from them to form a regular army and pay them salaries. Out of these 10,000, I would select 2,000 to form an elite unit.

Fortunately, war funds are not a problem, so all I needed was time. Of course I will not just sit and wait. I have many external issues to deal with this year, until the story starts.

As history has it, the Royal Army of Narja is very quiet. That history has been rewritten, but the great conquest will not stop so easily.

The pride of the Narja Kingdom is its elite troops, each led by one of the Ten Warlords. Each unit has a fancy name based on the alias of one of the warlords and they were quite troublesome in the game. This time I have to deal with them in reality, not in a game.

In other words, I have to use my head. If I fight purely with my troops, I have no chance of winning. Of course, in order to utilize my brain I needed troops who can serve as my hands and feet, even if they are small in scale.

Soon, news of war will reach our ears. It’s not a war between Narja and Lunan but a war between the southern countries. Originally, the Lunan Kingdom had already been destroyed when this war broke out and Narja wasn’t involved since they’re preparing for the Great Conquest.

However, history has changed. Due to the relationship between the country where the war took place and the Lunan Kingdom, something interesting was about to happen, if it did, I would have to play my part. The opportunity to lay a foundation for my expansion was coming.