“There is much good fortune in the world, and one cannot have it all.. he or she just has to find something that is suitable for him or her.. and that will be good enough.”

The third day came by so fast.

The incident left Marcus Cornelius mourning for three days.

As a 15-year old youth, what transpired was more than traumatically challenging. It was actually humiliating that he knew he no longer has the face, as a son of a noble count, to show the public.

Marcus Cornelius has his own pride as an aristocrat but he was clever enough not to retort aggressively.

As the wind blows, leaves gradually fall from trees.

‘Rock bottom.’

Marcus Cornelius could only sigh.

He just wished that he would get the opportunity to get back at whoever is responsible in the future. So he simply buried vengeance at the back of his mind.

Somehow, he gained a little understanding of what exactly happened. But with his current powerlessness, he knew it was better to take a step back and endure. At the moment, it is enough that he is given a lease in life—and escaped a much severe punishment.

He is charging the entire turn in his life to experience in such a way that he believes it will earn him some sort of wisdom.

As a matter of fact, it is much to his liking that he became a baron early despite the laughable size of his territory. To him, it was a workable situation.

With a personal Silver ranked Knight and ten squires at his beck and call, he is sure to make his living better than nothing.

Marcus Cornelius is yet to start to engage himself in the army.

Normally, a noble is sent to military exploits at the age of 16. But with only a Silver rank Knight and 10 squires on top of only 3-village worth of people under his command, it is unlikely that he would be able to rake military rewards in the near future.

In fact, he is certain that the presence or absence of his own forces in the upcoming war would not make any difference.

Marcus Cornelius is a knight himself.

As a person who hailed from a noble family, he was trained early in the ways of a knight. From his younger days, training was instilled in him together with his two other brothers.

All knights proceed from training as squires; but as nobles, they skipped being squires and are directly taught knighthood.

But among the children of Count Augusto, Marcus Cornelius can be considered as the laziest.

And this is also the reason why the mother of his 3rd brother saw that he lacks the talent to inherit the throne. And it was a fact that made her happy. To her, it was a window of opportunity.

But Marcus Cornelius is idle not because he lacks the necessary interest in becoming a knight, but because he is more interested in learning war strategies and army formations. As a result, he spends more time in the family archives than on training grounds.

And when it comes to battle strategies, he favors more to learn defensive army formations than the reckless army sieges. He felt that being in the offensive sacrifices too much lives.

While army strategies are all good, a knight, and a true noble at that, cannot achieve greatness in war without personal strength. For most nobles, army strategies are better left to talented commanders.

However, becoming a knight is not an easy task as it requires arduous bodily training, of draining one's limit until one achieves a so-called breakthrough.

In truth, the so-called breakthrough refers to advancement in ranks. And ranks are defined by a knight's physical strength coupled with a mastery of his skills with his weapon. The higher the rank, the stronger, the faster and the higher the stamina of the knight becomes; and because of which, the greater the efficiency of the weapon he wields.

In a sense, knighthood may be considered a body refinement method in itself. And to some extent, because it technically upgrades one's physique, the lifespan of a knight is also extended by some dozens of years—the higher the rank, the longer the lifespan.

Knighthood is further divided into seven ranks with Iron rank as the lowest, followed by Bronze, then Silver, and Gold. Beyond that rank is the so-called Master rank and Grandmaster rank. After that rank is the pinnacle stage which is known as the legendary Saint rank.

Since ranks are also determined by one's mastery of his chosen weapon, weapons are thus a lifetime choice. While there are plenty of weapons available for knights, the mainstream among the military is the spear and some methods of swords and bows. And this is especially true for the spears. In fact, learning the fundamentals of spearmanship is a basic requirement in every Knight Order. But as for advanced swordplay training, only the nobles have access to it.

Moreover, when a knight achieves Master rank, he is eventually no longer considered a knight, but more exactly, a Sword Master, a Spear Master or whatever the case may be.

Only a handful has been seen throughout the empire's history, much less the rank of Grandmaster. It is believed that the emperor and the 4 Dukes are Grandmasters themselves.

As for Marcus Cornelius, he is currently a Bronze ranked Knight. And at 15 years of age, that equates to an average level of talent, at least for common knights. But for a noble like him, it can be said to be way below average, if not a trash talent.

While there is a certain difficulty in achieving a breakthrough in ranks, it may not be the same case for a noble who has access to all early preparations and training resources.

And as expected, Marcus Cornelius himself has already developed a good grasp of his skills with spears.

However, instead of advancing into swords and bows, he unorthodoxly chose to use a blade—a single-edged weapon looking like a long cleaver.

Apparently, Marcus Cornelius personally found it satisfying to learn as it was way easier with the method of hack and slash. But unfortunately, the Count of Thorns did not have any manual for blade weapons.

There was no precise movement its use, just a simple sway of the blade. In the history of the empire, most blades were mainly found to have been used by the barbarians.

In effect, Marcus Cornelius never got to advance with this weapon. And this also added to the reason why he got stuck at Bronze rank.

“Baron Marcus.”

A Silver ranked Knight approached with a respectful salute.

“I am Sir Endel from the Sander family, assigned to be the captain of the ten squires in your fief. You can simply call me by my name, Sire.”

A faint smile appeared on Marcus Cornelius' face.

“There's no need for formalities, brother knight. I may be a baron now but I am apparently a banished noble. From now on, I am under your care.”

The knight obviously heard of the baron's story, but his impression on his new master suddenly became better.

In truth, it was the norm for nobles to be arrogant, so to him, Marcus Cornelius' words spelled a breath of fresh air.

Knight Endel has a serious-looking face but his demeanor shows that he is one such tough person. He wore a full light armor and carried a long sword.

And upon seeing Marcus Cornelius, he immediately departed from his horse.

The surname Sander is of common origin, but the knight mentioned it just the same in order to be remembered as he showed the fealty of his entire family.

At the same time, with perhaps some meritorious achievements in the future, he may be awarded honorary nobility which would obviously affect the status of his entire family.

Marcus Cornelius nodded as he sized up the knight's bearing and found the other, to his satisfaction, very capable.

He then glanced at the squires and thought whether the ten skinny squires with seeming blunt short swords hanging from their waists would be able to hold their ground from either bandits or beast attack.

“If everything's ready, then let's not delay any longer. Please lead the way, Captain.”

“As you command, Milord.”