Chapter 12: Knights

Despite the young age of my father, Hubert, is considered as one of the powerhouse in the kingdom of Turox, as he belongs to one of the strongest knights in the kingdom.

Knights also have their own hierarchy system, that has 5 levels each rank. Starting from Junior Knight which is Michael's rank, but he is only currently at the lowest level, which is 5th class Junior knight, While 1st class Junior knight is the highest level.

Next is the Intermediate knight, after this level is the Senior knight, followed by the Grand Knight which is my father's current rank and the last is a Supreme Knight. All of this ranks are further divided into 5 levels from 5th class as the lowest to 1st class as the highest.

Their ranks can be determined based on the color of the aura that surrounds their body, starting from copper for the junior knight, silver for the Intermediate knight, gold for the Senior knight, milky white for the Grand knight, and black for the Supreme knight.

No one in the Turox kingdom has managed to attain the Supreme level yet.

The strongest knight that the kingdom has is my ancestor, the first founder of the Beaufort house, who is considered as a 1st class Grand knight only a little bit away from becoming a Supreme class.

My ancestor's name is Randolph Ditler Beaufort. His story was known by many, but only a few know about his regrets in life. He spent his last few days writing down the biggest regret he had, which is not being able to become a Supreme knight. No one really knows where he came from. Just one day, he appears and becomes a part of the founding fathers of this kingdom.

His life history is a big mystery for all, and even for us, as he doesn't leave any documents or bibliography about the land of his origin.

The only thing that he left for us was his precious sword and shield in our family's vault. It's also made from an unknown material. That even the king wants to have it stored in their own treasury, but only the blood of a Beaufort can use it. As a powerful seal was put into it. He strictly demanded, that only a Supreme knight with the Beaufort blood can take it out and inherit it, and no one is allowed to use it. But the seal that was put into it is also a mystery for all of us.

At the same time, only a few kingdoms have a supreme knight level, and all of them are large and old power of the Vreachland continent that has existed since the ancient past. A supreme knight is enough to flatten a small kingdom, but dozens of them can be found stationed at the Great fortress, guarding humanity's last defense against Demonic creatures. This also shows how dangerous the demonic creature is.

It is documented in my ancestor's memoir that a simple attack from a supreme knight can level an entire city to the ground, but despite their immense power, humanity can only fall into a defensive mode against the unending siege of demonic creatures.

This memoir is written more than 700 years ago, a time when a huge number of knights was assigned to guard the Great Fortress, as a huge number of demonic creatures almost breached the defensive line. This stand lasted for another hundred years before their number started to decrease.

He mentions the big difference between the power of a Grand knight from a Supreme class. That's where he realized the real power of a Supreme knight, and the danger that the northern continent might bring against us, but despite their huge power. They can only stop the demonic beast for a few days or weeks before they go back to besieging the Fortress, and no matter how many they killed a new demonic creature would be born and this unending cycle repeats.

Supreme Knight is also wary about going deeper into the northern continent, as a more powerful monster resides inside of it. Such this results in a lot of information being unknown to us. As no one really manages to explore the entirety of the northern continent to find out the source of this disaster.

Due to my father being a 5th class Great knight and one of the most powerful people in the Turox kingdom, No matter what the other nobles think about us, None of them have the guts to make a move against us. As our family is still loyal to the throne despite all the accusations against us.

The current king of the kingdom is already 100 years old and it was said by the people that he is on the last amber of his life. The war that happens a few decades ago have greatly damaged his foundation as a 3rd class Grand wizard, and it decreased his life span by a quarter, due to the use of a forbidden spell in order to win that war.

Despite sending many of the kingdom's soldiers, knights and wizards, if the king didn't intervene in that war and use a forbidden spell, the Turox kingdom would definitely lose that war. But in exchange for all of this, is the massive casualties of the kingdom's military forces, that brought huge damage to the kingdom's vitality.

No one has expected that the war would be that chaotic, as many kingdoms got involved with it. But father said that it was due to the decreasing tension in the central continent, as the presence of demonic creatures lessen, people's greed and priorities have shifted back inland, towards expansion and conquering of lands.

Father, has said that due to the less trouble in the Great fortress, Kingdoms have more energy, time, and power to deal with other problems aside from the demonic creatures. If this situation continues there's a possibility of another bloody war happening.

Anyway, that's still far away. There are still a lot of people that defended the fortress that is still alive till now. And they all opposed on having another war, that would cause huge casualties to human military force, since the danger of the demonic beast is still there.

Because of the death of my father's sibling a few decades ago, It causes our force to weaken by a large margin, not just in the military but also in the economy. A large patch of the enchanted forest is now left abandoned since we don't have enough manpower to maintain all of it. Some of them are used as previous resource stations as this forest is rich in resources and minerals.

Their death also causes a massive blow not just to my father's life but also to the entire city of Florentine. It affected people's life as there were 500 widows left in our city after the death of most of our soldiers which is their husbands.

That is also the most difficult time for my father, since he needs to manage the entire territory despite his young age, and the pressure from the outside nobles as they tried to take away the control of this territory from my father's hands.

My father was the only one left to succeed in the Beaufort house. Thankfully, when it happens my father is already a 5th class intermediate knight and my grandfather was still alive at that time. He help my father in managing the territory and shielded him from any harm.

Sadly my Grandfather passed away when I was 5 years old, and I only remembered little things from that time.

Due to this situation, the people's trust in my father and our family has remained strong. Since my father has not forsaken the people of Florentine. He gave them all the pensions and benefits they deserve even to the point that our own saving was almost emptied.

That also caused us a lot of trouble, but unlike other nobles who pocketed their soldier's benefits, and only gave some of it to the family of the fallen knights. This is also one of the reasons that greatly damages the reputation of the nobility among the common people of the kingdom, as this kind of thing is very common everywhere.

My father has become more popular among the civilians, but it also causes us a lot of scrutiny from the eyes of other nobles as they are not fond of us because of our different principle.

Most of the nobles in the kingdom are the descendants of people who came from the founding era. Which gave them a glorious background of history, but now, most of the noblemen are only just for show.

Despite having the power of a knight, many of them are just at the junior rank and doesn't really have any experience in battling the demonic beast none of them even know how to properly utilizes their power.

Unlike in the past, when nobles would personally go to the central continent to guard the Great Fortress in honor of their name. But now most of them would only send their private army, and they would grab all the credits once their army have returned.

Nobles would rather focus on how to grow the wealth and influence, that they have within the kingdom. Although knights are indeed powerful people. A lot of them actually don't have the title and influence befitting their rank, especially for the low-ranking knights, as the kingdom still has preferential treatment towards the nobility.

Most of the knights that they hired came from the private army of the kingdom. All of them are born soldiers. They don't care about the nobles. All they had in mind is to serve the people of the kingdom.

Unlike the noble's circle which has rotten long ago, the kingdom's military is still healthy. Well, somehow healthy, as the bottom level of the military is already showing signs of decay.

Knight is a hard profession. They need to consume a lot of resources in order to cultivate their body and power. This is also the reason why other noble's are not fond of us, because despite of our family's decline in power, our lineage has still stayed strong, as we continuously gave birth to powerful individuals.

And while I was looking at the documents in my hands. I found something wrong that catches my attention.

The ridiculous increase in taxes for the last few years doesn't make any sense at all. As they said that the activity of demonic creatures began to decline 100 years ago. It means that expenses should go down, so something is not right here.

"Master Lucas, you've been reading all this documents the entire morning. It would be better if you would take a rest for a moment and get your lunch first." Said by James while looking at the documents that were scattered on my table.

"Thanks for the reminder James, but I'm still not done reading all of this. Just bring my lunch here in my room and—" my sentence was cut off upon seeing particular details on the documents.

The Turox Kingdom has been raising its taxes on its territory for several years without proper explanation, and it doesn't make any sense unless they are preparing for something big...Would there be a war in the future?

Thinking of this possible scenario. It seems like I need to immediately implement some changes to my plans, and develop our territory as soon as possible.

"Sir? Sir? Are you alright?" James worriedly called as he look at me with concern in his eyes.

"Yeah, don't mind me. I just thought of something." I said to him calmly.

If a war breaks out, then it's my chance to step up the development of our city. There would be a possibility of refugees coming in, which might result in the decline of the city's security, and food supply. So I really need to prepare a lot of things, so that, whatever happens, we are prepared to act anytime.

I should start first, with the development of our agriculture, as there was a limitation on productivity due to a lot of reasons.

Then I would strengthen the trade with other merchants to amass more materials and grain. I also need to prepare for the possible expansion of the city in the future.

If I want to do all of this, then it's necessary to upgrade all our mining equipment, since the development of the territory would result in a rise in material consumption.

There are a lot of things to do and I felt tired by just thinking about it.

I need to focus first, on the most urgent thing, and that is how to earn more money.

I suddenly remember one of the most famous inventions that started up the development of human agriculture, and that is the invention of the waterwheel. With the help of this thing, we can further expand our farm without worrying about the irrigation of the crops.

"James, call our craftsman I need their help in building something." I excitedly said as I immediately put my plans into motion.

"The craftsman? are you sure master Lucas?" James said in wonder.

"Yes, I thought of a way on how we could expand our farm. But I need their help in order to build it." I said confidently as James stares at me reluctantly.

"As you wish sir" said by James as he quickly bows his head and leaves the room.

I don't really know the exact look of the waterwheel, but I have the general concept and ideas about it. Hopefully, those craftsmen can build their own blueprint based on my idea.

Half an hour have fast before James returned together with our family craftsman.

"Young Master, this is Manuel one of the best craftsman within our city." James said as he introduces Manuel to me.

"Master Lucas, sir James has told me that you need the help of a craftsman, but I don't really know how could I possibly help you." He said with uncertainty.

"Manuel, it's nice to meet you. I was wondering if you could help me build something that can transfer water from the river to uphill, and spread it to our farmland," I said while looking at him seriously.

"Si-Sir? A way to transfer water uphill? There's no way I could do that. We can't make the water flow to a higher area I'm just a normal person and only wizards have this kind of capability. I'm afraid I can't help you with this." He said at me with an apprehensive look.

"No problem, I have an idea on how can we do it without the help of wizards by just purely using your skills."

As I share the concept of the water wheel and how we could possibly build it such as using the natural shape of a wheel and the power of nature to turn the wheel that carries water every time it rotates.

"Sir you're a genius, such a clever way of thinking. It would revolutionize our way of farming." Said by James.

"I would try to do my best and present you multiple models of this wheel, within 2 weeks Master Lucas." Said by Manuel.

"One more thing make sure to keep everything confidential, especially for the production of bearings."

"Definitely sir" as both of them answered.

Gears, axel, and bearings would be the foundation and start of the mechanical revolution of this era. That's why it's important to keep them secret for now as they were easy to copy. I wonder what kind of change would it bring if I involved magic in the creation of machines that I plan to make to modernize the Beaufort territory.