Victory Celebration Feast

Rubbing his bleary eyes, Reiner got dressed with the help of his attendants. He pulled a layer of leather armor over his clothes and lazily stepped out of the tent. By then, the soldiers were already awake. They had lit fires and were cooking.

The earthenware pots hung over the fires. They casually tossed in a handful of snow and boiled it into a pot of hot water, then threw in some shelled oats and added a little dried salted meat. That was how they completed breakfast.

This was already very decent fare. Meat was an extremely precious thing. The meat they were eating now came from the archers' hunts in the forests during autumn and summer, as well as sheep that had grown too old. Before Reiner improved their meals, they could not eat any of this at all.

Reiner was also served a portion of the same food. How should he put it? It was not particularly tasty, but at least it was not difficult to swallow. The slightly salty dried meat was pleasantly chewy, and Reiner had never been a picky eater, so he quickly finished the food.

After breakfast, the soldiers assembled under Reiner's orders and once again set out for home.

There was not much road left. That afternoon, Reiner led the army back to Morland Castle. Strangely enough, even though he had only been away for three days, he felt as if he had returned after a lifetime.

When Morland Castle appeared on the white horizon—hardly imposing, but sturdy—the soldiers spontaneously broke into cheers.

Reiner had left ten soldiers stationed at Goer Castle to control the place. His forces were already stretched thin, but there was no alternative. Maintaining several dozen regular soldiers was already Morland Castle's limit.

For a fief, taking one man from every ten adult males to serve in the army was already an extremely dangerous situation, one that was almost on the verge of collapse. Reiner could directly control only a little over fifteen hundred residents. Being able to maintain this many standing troops was already quite impressive. Although he had acquired Goer Castle and its residents, turning them into soldiers was not easy.

Arming an army cost money. For lords in this era, as long as they maintained a modest force of regular soldiers to ensure they would not be instantly defeated by a sneak attack, they could summon serfs and freemen to fight for the rest.

Besides, sneak attacks were not common. Not to mention that private warfare had already been forbidden within the Empire for twenty years, even when clandestine wars broke out, most of them involved both sides submitting declarations of war, arranging a battle, and then deploying all their troops for a single engagement.

Reiner, however, disliked that model. Just imagine it: when playing Mount & Blade, you led a group of Swadian recruits, while the other side also led a group of Swadian recruits, and the two sides simply engaged in a chaotic melee. To Reiner, that was completely unacceptable.

He did not know what tactics other people used in Mount & Blade, but he still preferred fifty Swadian knights sweeping straight through everything and running rampant across the world.

At the same time, he understood that instead of wasting valuable productive manpower in battle, it was better to let those people continue producing where they were, then arm a group of well-equipped, well-trained professional regular soldiers to fight.

Following that method, there were many countries and lords that kept winning battles while growing poorer and poorer. This was not difficult to understand. The able-bodied laborers in the country had all been taken away to fight. With no one farming and no one working, how could they not grow poorer the more they fought?

Reiner felt it was not worth sacrificing a huge amount of labor just to save a little money. Establishing his own elite regular army had to be put on the agenda.

For now, however, his most urgent task was to redeem a troop from the system. Reiner was not worried about whether he could afford the soldiers' wages. The extra iron produced by Goer Castle's iron mine could easily be shipped by merchant caravans throughout the Empire. He could even process the iron into chainmail and sell each piece for as much as ten gold coins.

All he wanted was to have a powerful army under his command to defend his territory.

The soldiers received their rewards. After feasting in the barracks, they returned home. They would have three days of leave, after which they had to return to the barracks.

Because Reiner had resolved to overhaul his army completely, after redeeming Basic Infantry Drills, he had merely thrown it to the army and let them train on their own. The results were there, but they were not particularly significant.

This time, Reiner planned to personally take charge of the army's training. What had happened had given him a warning. He needed a stronger army. Moreover, he had to complete the Main Quest issued by the system. Without a powerful army, what could he use to complete it?

Even taking the most pessimistic view, a powerful army was essential if he wanted to ensure his own safety amid the turbulent situation.

Wendell was extremely happy about Reiner's return. Reiner had left home to travel when he was still a boy, and after returning, he had won three battles in succession. This had pushed the young boy's admiration for Reiner to its peak.

"You're so cool, brother! You beat those Krad People until they were running for their lives!" Wendell waved his fists, practically jumping off the ground as he spoke to Reiner, every feature on his little face dancing with excitement.

Reiner smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Sooner or later, you'll appear on the battlefield with your own longsword and your own armor too! Cherish these peaceful days while you can!"

"That's great, brother! I should be making a name for myself on the battlefield right now! Next time there's an opportunity, I want to go to war with you!" Wendell grinned and mimed swinging a longsword as he spoke.

Reiner: ...

So that was what this kid had been waiting for. When had he become so sly?

While the two brothers, Reiner and Wendell, chatted and laughed, tonight's banquet had already been prepared. After a victorious war, there had to be a victory celebration feast.

The servants were extremely busy, and the cooks were frantically preparing the day's dishes in the kitchen. The kitchen maids assisted them from the side. Jar after jar of honey was carried out of the storeroom by the servants, while stacks of dried meat were placed on the dining tables.

Precious spices were added to the meat stew. For this banquet, Reiner had slaughtered five sheep. The entire hall was filled with the rich aroma of wine, as if a single breath would be enough to make someone drunk.

The knights had brought their families from their fiefs to attend the banquet. At the same time, they were eagerly anticipating the main event of the feast: the distribution of rewards according to their achievements.

Some Squire Knights were eagerly awaiting their own rewards. Unlike before, even when they had distinguished themselves in past battles against the Krad People, there had been no surplus territory available to grant them fiefs, so they could receive only material rewards.

This time was different. The Moreland Family had taken Goer Castle into its possession, and some of its subordinate villages would certainly be granted as knights' fiefs. When that happened, they would become true knights with fiefs of their own, rather than ordinary knights who had to rely on the Moreland Family for their daily support.