6 (2)

‘I profited by 500 points.’

It had been a Difficulty-4 negotiation quest. Louis had not found it as hard as expected. Judging from how it felt, he had estimated about 2,000 points—but once he opened the lid, it was 2,500.

‘I guess I have more talent for this than I thought.’

Not self-praise, but clearing a Difficulty-4 military quest normally required considerable struggle. Louis had certainly carried out a Difficulty-4 negotiation quest, yet it had felt like attempting Difficulty-3.

‘Well, I sold the future.’

Louis recalled his elder brother Fred, the main culprit who had raised the difficulty. In the end, what persuaded Fred had not been Louis’s negotiation skill, but siege engines.

‘There’s no choice—I have to unlock Mathematics too, no matter what.’

He wanted to weigh options for efficiency, but he needed to push points rapidly into the tech line.

The techs currently unlocked—besides the basic Agriculture granted by default—extended to Animal Husbandry, opened to exploit prairie tiles.

He had a total of 3,600 points. First, he had to unlock the Wheel.

As soon as he opened the Wheel, information windows poured in.

‘Chariot archers, huh…’

He could field archers with mobility. Naturally, they would consume the warhorses Louis had just purchased.

They provided both mobility and ranged attack, but—as with all archers—their firepower became truly potent only in numbers. So while chariot archers could be great if used well, they were subtly a white elephant.

If horses were abundant, mixing a few chariot archers into cavalry would be like giving the cavalry wings. But Louis had only 500 horses. Even if he devoted all of them strictly to the cavalry, he was not sure a proper lance charge would result.

Louis intended to turn this cavalry into an elite force. He still had room in the budget. If he could separately procure iron, the Civilization System would let him unlock heavy equipment.

Cavalry equipped with heavy gear would be reborn as a special troop type.

‘Heavy cavalry.’

It was simply the most efficient form 500 warhorses could produce. Given the right conditions, a heavy-cavalry lance charge could quite literally grind infantry units to pieces.

‘It’s a pity I can’t use the Water Mill.’

Exactly as written: it required adjacency to a river or lake to enable its option. Its effect—food increase—was too good to be called a mere normal building.

Tempting as it was, it could not be applied in Proia. The consolation was that he could leverage it later if he acquired a riverside city.

In fact, the core of the Wheel was neither the new unit nor the mill, but that it enabled building Roads.

If a battle broke out, Louis might launch a counterattack. As distance increased, one thing became paramount:

Logistics.

From rations to manpower replenishment, the side that resupplied faster would seize the edge in a prolonged war of attrition, and that “small” edge flipped the tide. Roads were what maximized such logistics.

‘If we could lay essential roads as we advance at the same time…’

A war of attrition would no longer be frightening.

Now he could invest points into Mathematics. Louis tried to open Mathematics, but a message appeared first.

He would have to wait a few months. Still, he had not promised immediate delivery, so he could supply sugar for now and tell his brother the work was in progress.

‘Mathematics needs 2,000 points, so I’ll reserve 2,000… which leaves 600 points.’

For the moment, he had a rough allocation and a plan going forward.

Kaiser, with Louis’s full backing, had become the Colosseum’s champion. He had already fought in over thirty matches, and of course no gladiator who faced him had survived.

As Kaiser’s skill ripened, his fame in Proia became the talk of the town—more than that of many nobles.

A new duty had lately been assigned to Kaiser… bed partners.

The partners were wives of well-heeled merchants. Sleeping with a celebrity was a bragging point among them. Women from the port city of Kayani were especially so. Naturally, these things happened only after Louis’s order came down.

Through Kaiser, Louis was raking in a tidy profit.

Today again, Kaiser was lying with a woman who had watched his match. Beneath Kaiser, the woman’s body drew sharp breaths in and out.

‘Mm… ngh… it feels good, but it’s not like in the arena.’

The woman had paid quite a high price to sleep with Kaiser; yet his nighttime “ability” was rather below expectations.

‘Still, the Goddess of Fortune’s aura will come to me, too.’

There was a rumor: the Goddess of Fortune lingered over Kaiser, and the best way to receive the goddess’s aura was the common custom—sleep with the person in question.

“Hhng… Kaiser.”

“Yes.”

“Be at least half as fierce as you are in the arena.”

“Understood.”

The woman’s tone was fairly arrogant. Kaiser answered without thinking, but inside he burned with anger.

How much experience with women could a poor gambler have had? Kaiser was giving his utmost right now.

His temperament had turned rotten—violent, and only getting more violent. Anyone exposed to death once a week would end up like this.

It would not have been strange if Kaiser strangled the woman to death right then and there.

Yet Kaiser endured the insults with superhuman patience—for one single-minded reason…

‘Three days….’

It was the summons from Louis he had awaited and awaited. Ever since their last meeting, Kaiser had waited daily for Louis to call him. The desire to do something—anything—more valuable for Lord Louis was now the source of all his drive.

Without his blind devotion to Louis, his mind would have snapped long ago, and he might have committed an impulsive murder.

“Hh… hhk… yes. At that pace. No—faster, harder.”

“Huff… huff… I’ll try.”

The woman was gradually drawing near satisfying pleasure. Though Kaiser’s skill was lacking and it had taken time to get here, the mental thrill of sleeping with a celebrity pressed her pleasure buttons.

‘Mmm… mm… I want Louis, too.’

There was only one person more famous than Kaiser: Louis. His name was spreading throughout the domain. Rumors that Proia was becoming a better place to live thanks to the Consul’s excellent management had even spurred some to move there.

Even if Kaiser’s technique was below expectations, his gladiator-honed stamina was outstanding, and the woman ultimately squeezed out the pleasure she wanted.

When it ended, Kaiser repeated the same word to himself again.

‘Three days.’

Three days later, at the drill yard. Louis was reviewing Kaiser’s stats. While Louis handled other matters, Kaiser had been diligently growing through the Colosseum.

And those numbers were astounding.

‘Swordsmanship 9….’

It was not a trivial figure. With Kaiser’s superb sword talent, it was a number achievable only by devoting all his time without a shred of laziness.

‘His Respect is still maxed…’

Above all, Louis liked that. Kaiser was his devotee.

‘The odd part is he’s gained one more bad trait.’

On top of the Gambler trait, Kaiser had acquired the Slaughterer trait. When he saw blood, his overall abilities were boosted—but it was not purely good; it also increased his violence in daily life.

‘Let’s verify it first.’

At Kaiser’s position waited not only Kaiser but also ten regular soldiers. Each held a blunt iron weapon that could still break a bone if struck wrong.

“Would you like to see a demonstration?”

Boromir, who had thoroughly trained Kaiser while Louis was away, was itching to boast of his results.

“Tremendous growth. How did you teach him?”

“…Sir?”

“No—just begin the demonstration.”

At Louis’s word, the ten began to close in around Kaiser. Since this was a practice bout to check skill, there was no need to occupy the rear; as they surrounded him, they formed four layers of walls. Even if Kaiser felled a few, the line would be replenished from behind at once. Overwhelming them with swordsmanship mattered, but stamina had to support it.

‘I’ll show Lord Louis my worth…’

Kaiser saluted Louis and drew a thick, blunted sword. After a brief standoff, the soldiers and Kaiser clashed.

The soldiers’ average swordsmanship was only 1–2, while Kaiser’s was 9; the difference was stark. No sooner had things tangled than the first rank collapsed like a sand wall.

‘Astounding.’

It was only the beginning, but since Louis also trained with the sword, he was starting to sense the level Kaiser had reached.

Kaiser kept cutting them down one by one. The remaining soldiers, tense to the limit, resisted fiercely, and Kaiser allowed a blow or two.

By the time his struck thigh began to swell, the last soldier took a full-face blow from the sword and crashed to the ground.

‘Kaiser… this guy… had been hiding his skill.’

Kalbang watched, jaw slack. The result Kaiser had just produced was overwhelming, beyond the level Kalbang had known.

Louis, on the other hand, had already seen the numbers, so he did not go as far as surprise—merely confirmation—but an amusing idea lodged in his mind.

‘If I put him into the heavy cavalry…’

Just imagining him as a captain or centurion in heavy cavalry, leading a lance charge, made Louis pleased.

Combined with the Slaughterer trait, the stat bonus would produce even more synergy.

‘I should start pulling him out of the gladiators.’

But he needed a pretext. The maximum reward Louis had promised the death-row convicts was freedom; he could stage a nominal match and be done… when Dekal appeared behind him.

“So you were here, Consul.”

Dekal was thoroughly riled up. Even though Louis had met Dekal’s direct superior, Fred, he had not met Dekal once.

“Ah, Dekal.”

“Is Lord Fred well?”

“Too healthy, frankly. By the way, Dekal—your wife sends her regards.”

At the mention of Enika, Dekal flinched and forced a smile. He had been fretting lately that his overly freewheeling life would become a scandal.

“Don’t speak of her. I’m finally savoring my freedom.”

“It’s nothing serious. I only meant to say she’s enjoying herself very much, same as my brother, so don’t worry—but seeing you, my concern was needless.”

Louis sneered inwardly. The image of Enika’s body—so vigorous it seemed like a live fish—flashed through his mind.

As the mood threatened to dip, Dekal quickly grasped for a topic. He found one—Kaiser, standing tall among the groaning, fallen soldiers.