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The Duke’s Eldest Son Escaped to the Military (115)

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

39 To the Frontline! (3)

If the troops of the unit were normal, anyone would believe that they were really a special unit that was beyond useful. 

Where can you even see a lieutenant colonel like me bring a unit that’s composed of a knight order, a ranger unit, and an artillery unit, huh? 

However, if most of them were newcomers, trainees and injured, then the story would change. 

“So, it’s trash.”

Ariel smiled bitterly when she heard Iron’s mumbles. Just like he said, it was really trash. 

“Should I be glad that at least the knights are at least at 4th Stage?”

“Sorry.”

“Huh?”

Iron looked at her in confusion when Ariel suddenly started apologizing. 

“There are some… 3rd Stages too.”

“I don’t think the Northeast is that easy? The commander allowed it?”

Ariel nodded heavily at Iron’s question. Iron’s expression turned incredulous. 

It’s not even a different place, it’s the Northeast.

In fact, there were a lot of knights in the territorial forces with strength far below the 3rd Stage. However, this was not those places, this was the Northeast. In addition, it was a squadron of knights that was directly under Command. Even if there were countless monsters overflowing from the Northeast, they still maintained the practice of only officially appointing a person as a knight after reaching the 4th Stage. However, it seemed like this practice was broken during this war. 

“There are many knights who died for them to protect the practice. They know that there’s a limit to what an apprentice knight can do… but they decided that it was important to first appoint them as knights and build up their strength through actual battle.”

“To that extent?”

“Yeah. Even if we filled up all of the apprentice knights, the vacant spots will still not be filled completely.”

Iron sighed before asking Ariel.

“If they already picked those kids at the 3rd Stage then they should just pick some more 3rd Stage kids to completely fill in those empty spots.” 

“We were only able to pick out enough to fill in our ranks thanks to our apprentice knights but even if we want more, there’s no one else that we can take in. Everyone is flailing around since there’s a lack of people but I’m sure we’re not the only ones greedy to completely fill in our vacant positions.” 

Iron looked troubled after hearing Ariel’s words. 

Right now, he could clearly see how serious their situation was. 

“If most of the seniors went to the 2nd and 3rd group then your 4th group… should be filled with people who shouldn’t be official knights yet, right?” 

“…Yeah.” 

“Ha! I’m going crazy. Don’t tell me it’s the same with the rangers?” 

“It’s probably the same.” 

Iron covered his face with both of his hands when he heard this. Ariel could only smile bitterly at Iron’s reaction. 

“The executives want to see how much you can achieve with the worst conditions.” 

“In the first place, it’s already strange for a lieutenant colonel like me to lead the knights and rangers.” 

He was already suspicious since the number of troops were forcibly matched with the numbers of a battalion-level unit. 

“So… are you still going to do it?” 

Hearing Ariel’s question, Iron opened his mouth heavily.

“Returning to Ghost must be hard… right?” 

“It would be hard even if you were at your peak condition.” 

“ Why?” 

“All of the Ghosts are located in the deepest parts of the Northern Forest. Even if we start today, it would be hard to form a force strong enough to break through those monsters again.” 

Iron pondered over Ariel’s explanation before nodding quietly. 

“Hoo… Alright. That’s alright since my goal is to eliminate monsters anyway. Can they guarantee my autonomy?” 

“Probably? If they don’t give you that much then you won’t bite the bullet so they’ll agree to that…”

“Then, that’s all that matters.”

It was a battalion-level force but it was not the same as the usual force. It was a unit that consisted of knights, rangers, artillery soldiers as well as injured but experienced soldiers, commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers.If he raised them and used them well, then he was sure that they would become a great unit. As long as he could raise them as much as he could with his limited supplies and let them carry out operations then that was all that mattered. 

“Are you really going to do it?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you going to do with this unit?”

“Where can you find a good unit in the beginning? I’m going to raise them, change them and use them well.”

Iron stood up as he said that. 

“When do I have to go?”

“Uh… The sooner, the better. Right? What’s more important is that you do it.”

Since there was no particular time limit, it seemed like the unit was still not yet completed. 

“Then, I’ll be there within the week. Tell them to gather everyone until then.”

“…I understand.”

Iron looked at Ariel in confusion when she spoke with an uncomfortable look on her face.

“Are you uncomfortable because I became your direct superior?”

“Uhm… Maybe a bit? But I’m feeling uncomfortable because I feel like I’m being dragged into a political dispute.”

“There’s no place free of that.”

Ariel sighed. 

The Northeast had little to no political strife. But these days, she felt like politics was getting more and more rampant. Ariel wasn’t like Iron, she had been in the Northeast since she was young so it was quite hard for her to adapt to something like this. 

But for Iron, it was just something that he hadn’t felt and experienced in a long while. He had been so sick and tired of dealing with things like this in his past life to the point that this just looked like a child’s prank to him. Perhaps that was the reason why he did not feel that much when he was given this task. 

Anyway, the small fries would be taken care of after the war. The most important thing right now is the Imperial Family’s intervention. Thanks to the chaotic situation in the Center, they couldn’t afford to pay attention to the North. In other words, the worst situation had not yet arrived. That was why Iron did not feel much despite the seriousness of the situation that he was currently in. 

‘All that matters is that we have avoided the worst situation.’

He sent Ariel out as he focused on recovering his body. 

A few days passed by in an instant. Right now, he was headed to the Lion Castle Fortress’ warp gate to go to the frontlines. 

He felt sorry for a lot of people so he took advantage of the cover of the darkness at dawn. But when he arrived at the warp gate, a young man approached him as if he had been waiting for him for a long time. 

“Leaving?”

“That’s right.”

Kaiden pulled out his sword. It was as if he was waiting for this. 

“Let’s have a duel before you go.”

“With an injured person?”

“Aren’t you leaving because you’re all better now?”

Iron grew quiet at Kaiden’s question. 

He looked at Kaiden incredulously. He found him a bit ignorant and naive if he thought like that. Then, he glanced at his surroundings secretly. 

“Will you be able to take me on by yourself? Even if you all come at me at once, you’ll still fall short.”

Kaiden only realized the presence of other people besides them when he saw Iron looking at their surroundings as if he found them bothersome. 

“All of us showed up, huh?”

Kaiden spoke arrogantly. 

From the second Kaiden, to the third Saeriden and the twins Ludem and Rodem, all of them appeared and stared at Iron with their swords pulled out. 

“We’re making an official request. I, the representative of the direct descendants, ask Jaiden Leonhardt to take on the Lion’s Test. Will you accept?”

Iron’s younger brothers increased their momentum at Kaiden’s words. 

“The Lion’s Test is a way to test the force and recognize someone as the deputy family head. However, I don’t believe that this applies to me?”

Kaiden nodded silently at the words of Iron.

“You can’t be the deputy family head since you don’t use the Lion Sword Technique despite coming from the family. In addition, the entire line of direct descendants is not complete.”

“So, why are you doing this?”

“Just because.”

Iron tilted his head at Kaiden. 

“We just made a pretext because we wanted to see it once.”

His other brothers also nodded their heads in agreement to Kaiden. 

“We were curious if you have really reached the 6th Stage… We wanted to see for ourselves if the path you chose was worthy enough for you to abandon your family.”

Iron remained silent at Kaiden’s honest words.

“Please accept it. So, I can taste my brother’s blood.”

Iron frowned when Saeriden licked his lips.

“Is that for real or is it his concept?”

“I don’t know.”

Kaiden looked at Iron as if he was not interested in other things except for this fight. 

“Hoo… Fine. I think it’s enough for me to warm up.” 

Iron raised his momentum as he said so. 

Then, Kaiden asked him sharply. 

“Will you accept the Lion’s Test?” 

“Fine.”

“Good.” 

Lion energy spread all over the area as his younger brothers showed off their momentum. As the family’s direct descendants, their energy was deep and unfathomable for their level. They were even expressing their different individual spirits as warriors who have entered the 4th Stage. Although what they were showing off was not their attributed mana of the 5th Stage, they were still able to imitate the sharp and heavy lion energy with the power hidden in their blood.

“It looks a bit like battle qi?” 

Iron recalled the orc champion who created the image of a wild boar not too long ago. Although they were not that good enough, the four of them together showed a fierce power to the extent that they were able to create a vague shape of the lion. 

“It seems like I’m learning something interesting?” 

When the direct descendants of the Lion Family worked together, they showed a technique that was comparable to a technique that he had once learned.

‘The Return of the Lion God.’ 

The Blood Lions, Silver Lions and Steel Lions would learn different formations and techniques but the roots of their techniques all came from the Return of the Lion God. It was a technique that could only be used if a knight was on the correct mana wavelength. In other words, it was a unique technique that could only be learned and used after learning the same lion sword technique and having a similar form of mana to the direct descendants. 

The origin of the techniques, the Return of the Lion God, was directly passed down to the direct descendants and could only be used and learned by those who have passed the Lion’s Test.

“Inexperienced. Can you even break my steel with that?” 

Black steel mana spread all over Iron’s body as he said so. 

“You’ll never know.” 

Kaiden answered bluntly as he rushed forward first. Then, Saeriden and the twins followed right behind him. 

Just like the technique that was designed to defeat people that were overwhelmingly stronger than them, they thoroughly targeted their opponent’s weaknesses. Like lions hunting their prey from all sides. 

Kaiden’s swordsmanship looked similar to claw strikes. 

Saeriden’s swordsmanship was a swordsmanship that bit on and preyed on his opponent’s weaknesses. 

And the twins’ swordsmanship was a swordsmanship that gradually pushed their prey to the limits as they gradually killed them. 

These different types of swordsmanship moved to try and pierce through Iron’s steel. However, none of them were able to touch Iron’s body. 

Iron’s swordsmanship was extremely strange after it had been completed when his numerous experiences had been incorporated into his simple swordsmanship. There was a strange firmness in his swordsmanship that was derived from the basic swordsmanship. He had trained these basic sword movements countless times that he did not lose his form or balance even if he shifted his form.

‘This is…’ 

‘Brother’s…’ 

‘Path?’ 

‘Path?’ 

These thoughts ran through Kaiden and the other direct descendants’ heads as their sword strikes got easily parried by Iron. 

Some people would create shockwaves with their sword techniques. Some would create slashes. Some would create storms. Some would create lightning. Some would even create illusions. But Iron did not have any of these special attributes which made it hard to tell if he was truly at the 6th Stage. 

However, they realized this when they got closer.

He might not have any eye-catching attributes but the steel-like hardness that would never break was hidden in his every strike. And this sword technique, which was not inferior to any other sword technique, was already imprinted in Iron’s body. 

“Heok… heok…”

Kaiden looked at Iron in exhaustion. Saeriden, who was always smiling, had now lost his smile. And the twins were looking at him incredulously. 

“Is your test over?” 

“…Yeah.” 

“So, what’s your evaluation?” 

Kaiden was silent for a moment before opening his mouth. 

“Congratulations on finding your own path. I will support you until the day you break through the wall and complete everything.” 

“I acknowledge your Path of Steel.” 

“Me too.” 

“Me too.” 

With Kaiden leading, all of Iron’s younger brothers also spoke up as they acknowledged his path. 

Iron, who had always been ignored in his previous life, was now recognized and acknowledged in this life even though he left the family and learned a different swordsmanship. This was a place where you can only prove yourself with strength. So, Iron felt a bit strange and emotional that the Lion Family’s direct descendants had recognized his path. However, he made sure to press this emotion down and not show it on his face. 

“Thank you. I hope you find your path soon.” 

The four direct descendants bowed lightly after hearing Iron’s words. It was their sign of respect for those who have found their path. After accepting their bows, Iron looked at them and asked something that he was curious about. 

“By the way, where’s Faulden?” 

“Yes, that guy had left to find his own path. Just like what you did, big brother..” 

Iron’s eyes widened when Saeriden suddenly spoke formally and politely to him. 

“Suddenly speaking formally?” 

“We have decided to do so since you have passed the Lion’s Test and we have acknowledged your strength.” 

Saeriden said so as Iron looked at Kaiden. 

“Are you serious?” 

“Yes, that’s right.” 

Kaiden answered Iron with a distinct dialect. 

Iron smiled when Kaiden deliberately used the heavy dialect of the North as if it was his own Maginot Line. 

“So, what was his path?” 

“Information Guild. He said that he would go there and would only come back when he turned 20 and he would only come back as the head of the guild.” 

“Hmm…” 

Iron hummed after hearing Saeriden’s words. 

No matter how talented the direct blood descendants of the Lion Family were, he believed that it would be difficult to register an information guild of his own by the age of 20. However, no one expected them to make any contributions so there were no laws that forbid Faulden from doing this. 

“Alright. Well… Even though I passed your test, I don’t have any inclination to become the deputy family head so you don’t have to worry.” 

Iron spoke up about this topic deliberately to reassure them but the direct descendants did not respond to him that much. 

“Do whatever you want, it doesn’t matter to me.” 

“It’s the same for me too.” 

“Me too.” 

“Me too.” 

Saeriden and the twins smiled broadly as they raised their hands. They were smiling broadly as if they were happy that a strong older brother like him appeared. They don’t look the least bit upset that they would be in a disadvantage in the fight for the deputy family head position. And although he tried to hide it, Kaiden also looked extremely happy.

“Please don’t let your guard down. We’ll catch up to you in a few years.”

“Right.” 

Iron smiled upon hearing Kaiden’s cute warning. He headed straight to the warp gate after saying his goodbyes to them.

Knights of the Lion Castle Fortress appeared nearby after the bright light that transferred Iron had disappeared. 

“Tell father that we acknowledge our big brother.” 

The knights bowed their heads all at once and disappeared as Kaiden left those words to them and left to go back to the mansion. 

***

Notes

Maginot Line – Named after Andre Maginot. A line of concrete fortifications lined up with obstacles and installed with weapons. Built by France to stop the German invasion during the 1930s and force them to go around their fortifications.

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