6 — 1 (5)

Louis walked on while the two exchanged glances.

“Is that really Louis…?”

“He’s changed.”

They turned to watch Louis strolling around nearby.

The soldiers’ reactions were all the same. Clearly, something about Louis was different from before, but they could not quite put their finger on what. The one certain thing was that he could no longer be treated carelessly.

“Is that… a mouse?”

“Well…”

“Did you see him? With your own eyes?”

“No, I only heard about it.”

“That’s a lion. I’m seeing Young Lord Louis for the first time in two years, and it seems much has happened since.”

“Should we report this to Lord Fred?”

“Report what? He’s his own brother, so he must already know.”

“If a succession dispute breaks out, he doesn’t look like someone who’ll just lie down and take it….”

“He has no base. No foundation. If things go to the worst, he’ll be the first to die.”

“Still, you never know what the future holds. For the next two days, we’d better treat him with the utmost courtesy.”

“What? To the third young lord? Have you no guts?”

“What are you talking about?”

“If rumors spread, it’ll hurt your promotion chances even more.”

Peter glanced over the soldiers and spoke.

“I don’t think so… Anyway, I hate getting myself into trouble. Do as you like.”

With that, Peter walked over to Louis. Ider watched uneasily, but did not move.

The night before their arrival in Jaksen, Louis received a visitor.

“Young Lord Louis, I am Centurion Boromir. May I have a word with you?”

A deep, resonant voice sounded outside. Even without a name, Louis thought he knew who it was. Unlike Peter, who had suddenly grown polite, or Ider, who now avoided him, Boromir had neither spoken to him nor changed his demeanor—he only focused on his own training.

Now that they were arriving in Jaksen tomorrow, Louis knew he would not see these three centurions again.

“Come in.”

The stern-faced Boromir entered and gave a respectful bow.

“What is it?”

“…Since the day we rescued you, I’ve been thinking, my lord…”

As Boromir began, Louis already had a sense of what he wanted to say.

Boromir had come to make a decision. Likely the same reason he had been pushed from the front lines to the rear. He wanted to follow Louis. But why attach himself to Louis, who had no foundation at all?

“That day… in the rain, I was the one who found you unconscious in the cave. At that moment, I was… shocked.”

“What shocked you?”

“Young Lord Louis is not as the rumors say.”

Louis knew, but pretended ignorance.

“…What do the rumors say?”

“…It is difficult to speak of, but they are not good. And since then, I have been thinking it over and over. Please accept me. I have come to believe you are someone worthy to serve.”

The lingering question was answered. Boromir had been drawn to Genghis Khan’s charisma. And his own situation—no hope of advancement in Lord Fred’s legion—had come crashing down on him. After long deliberation, he had made up his mind at the last moment.

“…I don’t know if you will accept me, but if I don’t say this now, I’ll regret it all my life. Please, I beg you to accept me.”

Yet it could not be dismissed as pure sincerity—there was always the chance Boromir was Fred’s spy.

After a moment’s thought, Louis decided readily.

‘This is no scheme. This is the first fruit of my Military Charisma.’

“Good.”

Boromir still could not raise his head. Genghis Khan’s charisma ruled the space so completely that even with only Boromir present, the man felt exhilarated, convinced his choice was right.

“Let me ask again. What is your name?”

Suppressing his excitement, Boromir answered in a trembling voice.

“Centurion Boromir, my lord.”

“I accept you.”

As Louis spoke, a message appeared.

Points came in. The Civilization System was working. Only now did Louis realize there had been a quest log he had not checked.

‘So this is how to gain points….’

He grew excited at having taken another step into the Civilization System.

The next day, Louis arrived in Jaksen, recovered fully, and returned to the Pontina family’s direct domain.

Several days passed after he finished his report to Duke Remitri and received a scolding. In that time, Louis had done little of note. He checked the quest log. Quests were broadly divided into five categories. The first was Subjugation quests—currently, the only one available to him was a clash with barbarians. They were not easy to access, but when they could be attempted, the risks were high and the rewards great.

The second was Administration quests, relating to governance and infrastructure, especially food and population growth. The third was Industry. If commerce was placed under administration, then in practice there were only two types: military and administrative.

The points from recruiting Boromir totaled 30. First and foremost, he needed to accumulate 100 points. To do that, he needed his father’s trust again and an official position.

So Louis stayed quiet, waiting for his father’s anger to cool. In the meantime, he trained in swordsmanship and physical conditioning with Centurion Boromir.

The lesson from Atila’s assault was clear: to protect himself, he had to train consistently.

And he roamed the city of Pontina without rest.

At present, the only place where he could start quests was this Pontina territory. Until his father entrusted him with another city, he needed to rebuild trust. For Louis, who had only buried himself in books before, such firsthand inspections were a new experience.

In truth, he had little desire for it—but each inspection and analysis granted him 5 quest points a day.

‘This area’s commerce is dead. The waterway has been cut off. If drought comes, this area will be the first to suffer.’

He recorded evaluations of the territory.

He gathered data and information, and thought up countermeasures one by one.

He was preparing.

Then came a report from Proia, the city where he had once been governor. Dekal had gone personally and returned with the report.

Reading it, Louis was surprised. Atila had plundered with precision. Barbarians usually lost themselves over women, but not one had been taken. Nor had they looted finances. They had taken food alone, as if to destroy it completely. While food raids were common, this was the first time they had done so in such an orderly, large-scale, and deliberate manner. Why? Louis quickly deduced the answer.

‘War.’

‘Atila means to start a war.’

Whether civil war or external, he could not tell. But if external—then the Pontina domain was in danger.