Reiner stood where he was, brimming with confidence, while the others watched him with a mixture of doubt and anticipation.
"Why haven't they appeared yet? Could it be that the Baron's dream really was just a dream?" Some people grew suspicious, their hearts beginning to waver.
Watching everyone whisper among themselves, Reiner did not bother to explain. Once the army manifested by the system appeared, that would be more convincing than any explanation. By then, they would be even more astonished.
Time passed second by second. Finally, the time came for fifty Rhodok Sergeants to materialize. A white light suddenly appeared out of thin air before everyone, radiating an incredibly soft glow that cast a warm, comfortable light over their bodies.
Reiner had not expected this, but realizing that it was the system helping him, he was not overly curious. He had not expected his system to be so intelligent and so humanized.
When the white light flashed, everyone immediately fell to their knees, completely disregarding the bone-chilling snow on the ground. Their reverence for the Holy Father had already penetrated deep into their hearts. If this miraculous scene, which should have been impossible in this world, was not the work of the Holy Father, what else could it be?
Those who had fallen to their knees kept muttering something under their breath. Reiner could not hear them clearly, but he guessed they were praising the Holy Father and asking for His protection.
A moment later, the light faded. A troop of fifty men appeared before them. They were not wearing the green heraldic armor from the game, but instead wore the red Iris Lion Banner of the Moreland Family.
Beneath their heraldic surcoats, they wore fine suits of full-body chainmail. They also had iron vambraces on their arms and silver-white, fully enclosed helmets on their heads. Every one of them looked imposing, stood at least around 1.7 meters tall, and, even wrapped in armor, could not conceal the knotted muscles that rivaled those of the Crimson Gryphon Knights. Though they carried no weapons in their hands, each had a fine-looking longsword at his waist.
They appeared before everyone in an incredibly orderly formation—a neat rectangular phalanx. Based on Reiner's impression, only the armies of China in his previous life could probably compare.
The ranks were utterly silent. Not a single person made a sound, and whispering among themselves was even more impossible.
As soon as they materialized, they immediately knelt on one knee before Reiner. The entire movement flowed like water, and the whole troop moved as though they had rehearsed it hundreds of times. Even the sound of their armor rubbing together merged into one short clatter.
Touching their left chests, they shouted in unison, "Please accept our allegiance, our great master! You will be the sun of our lives, and the sole meaning of our existence is to fight for you!"
Everyone was captivated by the fifty formidable soldiers who had appeared. The messengers sent by the Holy Father were indeed extraordinary. Though they were not the immortal, ageless angels with wings and glowing bodies that people imagined, an army like this could probably belong only to the Holy Father and the Baron, the Holy Father's favored one.
Reiner was extremely satisfied with the Rhodok Sergeants' conduct. Looking at the fifty powerful soldiers, a rare surge of ambition rose within him.
Perhaps becoming an emperor and standing at the very pinnacle of power wouldn't be a bad choice after all! Reiner thought silently, but he soon gave up on the idea.
Forget it. That would be exhausting. Besides, with my little body, I wouldn't be able to withstand those great nobles' schemes. I might as well honestly enjoy the rest of my life here. Twenty years of life... Maybe I can live to be a hundred. Even if thirty years are deducted, I'll still have eighty years left!
Reiner wrestled with himself like this, deceiving himself at the same time and completely forgetting the fear and panic he had felt when thirty years of his life had been deducted.
Still, the fifty manifested Rhodok Sergeants had made him extremely happy.
"Very good! I accept your allegiance!" Reiner said to the kneeling Rhodok Sergeants, no longer thinking about it.
Amid the crowd, Reiland watched this group of disciplined and powerful Rhodok Sergeants, and excitement welled up inside him. Even though they wore the heraldic armor of the Moreland Family, he could recognize them at a glance. These were the elite troops of the Rhodok Kingdom.
Even when he had been a marshal commanding the entire Rhodok Kingdom, he had controlled at most a hundred or so Rhodok Sergeants. Now, fifty had been brought to him all at once, and this filled him with excitement.
Putting aside the commotion caused by the Rhodok Sergeants for now, Reiner had Reiland station them in the barracks. Their wages were not low, either; maintaining each one required a full silver coin per month.
Fifty men cost five gold coins a month, or sixty gold coins a year. The Moreland Family's annual income would have to increase by a full sixty percent to support them. It seemed that manufacturing armor and selling it within the Empire was now absolutely essential.
The exchange for the Junior Blacksmiths was much more low-key. They appeared silently in the blacksmith workshop at Morland Castle. In just a few days, Goer Castle had also been fully brought under Reiner's control, and its iron mine had resumed operations. However, the blacksmiths there still could not meet the output Reiner expected.
After sending two of the five Junior Blacksmiths to the blacksmith workshop there, Reiner began working on the soldiers' equipment.
The Rhodok Sergeants' attributes were quite good. Although they could not compare with the monsters who had fused with the Gryphon Bloodline—the Crimson Gryphon Knights—they were already an elite army in the ordinary world. After all, the Crimson Gryphon Knights existed in a fantasy world and were powerful enough to suppress formidable nonhuman races.
However, Reiner was somewhat dissatisfied with the soldiers' equipment. As a strategy game enthusiast, he fervently worshiped the strategy of heavily armored elite troops. Using the best equipment and strongest combat power to bulldoze and crush everything in his path was his favorite approach.
Even when playing Red Alert, he would build up his forces until he had an overwhelming military advantage before launching a decisive attack on the enemy. Naturally, he was dissatisfied with the soldiers' suits of chainmail.
Although chainmail offered quite good defensive performance, Reiner still felt inexplicably displeased. The Crimson Gryphon Knights had a layer of Plate-Chain Composite Armor on their outermost surface, and even under those circumstances, he had forcibly required them to wear a layer of leather padding underneath for additional protection.
This alone showed how obsessed he was with protecting his army.
In the blacksmith workshop at Morland Castle, Reiner was discussing with the Junior Blacksmiths what armor should be given to the Rhodok Sergeants—or perhaps they should now be called the Morland Soldiers.
They were discussing what kind of armor would be most suitable for the Morland Soldiers. Scale armor and lamellar armor were Reiner's two choices, and he was somewhat uncertain which type to equip them with.
Both had their own advantages, so he was deeply torn and did not know which would be better.
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