Designing Armor

The plates of scale armor were somewhat smaller, requiring more plates to cover the entire body. However, they offered fairly good resistance against attacks such as slashes. Against blunt-force strikes, though, they were no better than chain mail and offered almost no resistance. Scale armor also had one fatal flaw: when faced with attacks from below, its plates could easily be flipped up, compromising its defensive capabilities.

The other type, lamellar armor, had plates that were considerably wider than those of scale armor, giving it much stronger resistance against blunt weapons. Moreover, because lamellar armor required two layers of cord to secure it, it did not have scale armor's fatal weakness of flipping outward.

The two types shared one trait: both achieved the strength of double-layered or even triple-layered armor through overlapping construction. However, this also gave them a major flaw—their weight was excessive.

Without a strong body, one could not bear such weight. Fortunately, the Rhodok Sergeants... the Morland Soldiers were all tall, powerfully built elite soldiers, and they could withstand the burden.

These two types of armor left Reiner struggling to choose. Scale armor was somewhat cheaper to produce, but its resistance to blunt weapons was lacking. Lamellar armor cost more and consumed more iron, but it offered a considerable bonus against blunt weapons. With the chain mail worn by the Morland Soldiers, it could almost be said to complement them perfectly.

In the end, he chose to manufacture full-body lamellar armor. A somewhat higher cost was no issue; if a soldier died, the loss would be far greater. Reiner had spent a tremendous price to acquire every one of those soldiers, and their value far exceeded that of a suit of armor.

He began designing the armor blueprints on the study table. In his previous life, he had been a fan of real-time strategy games and had studied armor to some extent, so he was able to design the armor himself.

Holding a charcoal pencil, he sketched and wrote across a yellowed sheet of parchment. It took Reiner more than an hour before he finally completed the blueprint.

This was iron lamellar armor similar to the Footman Armor of the Great Song Dynasty from Reiner's previous life. However, he had omitted certain parts. Copying it in full would have made it far too heavy. Combined with the armor worn by the Morland Soldiers, the protective equipment alone would have weighed an astonishing fifty kilograms. That was not a weight one should carry on the battlefield. In his lamellar armor design, he had not added too much extra protection around the chest, instead opting for simple full-body coverage.

The lamellar armor covering only the front of the chest, the arms, and the legs hung from the main body of the armor and was connected to it, giving it a highly aesthetic appearance.

Looking at the blueprint, Reiner nodded in satisfaction. He rolled up the parchment and left the castle, bringing two retainers with him to the blacksmith's workshop inside the castle.

The blacksmith's workshop and the iron-ore smelting workshop were separate. The smelting workshop was outside the castle, near the iron mine, where the ore was smelted. Once it had been processed into iron, it was sent to the warehouse inside the castle, and the blacksmiths would fetch it themselves when needed.

The warehouse at Morland Castle already held more than three thousand kilograms of iron. It was all stock left behind by the Moreland Family. Although the value of gold coins was usually quite stable, steel and grain remained even harder currency than gold.

Goer Castle also had a considerable stockpile of iron. The combined reserves of the two places could reach roughly six thousand kilograms. Goer Castle's iron mine had a relatively high output, so even after selling a great deal of it, plenty still remained.

Thus, Reiner entered the blacksmith's workshop with his retainers. Several blacksmiths were busy at the time, weaving full-body chain mail or struggling to forge spearheads thirty centimeters long.

When the Morland Soldiers had been summoned, they had not brought spears with them. Much of the time, they guarded castles, carrying greatswords or longswords as ceremonial guards. It had to be said that the lords of the Rhodok Kingdom were truly wasting a precious resource by using soldiers with such powerful combat abilities to guard castles.

Reiner would never do such a thing. He intended to send these terrifying soldiers, who had come from the battlefield, back to the battlefield where they belonged.

Therefore, recreating high-quality spears was inevitable. He planned to have the Morland Soldiers fight on the battlefield wielding four-meter-long spears. Combined with their iron-like discipline and formations, those long spears would be tremendously effective in their hands.

Reiner entered the workshop and handed the blueprint to a blacksmith. "Can this kind of iron armor be forged?"

The blacksmith extended a hand covered in calluses and burn scars and respectfully accepted the parchment from Reiner. After examining it carefully and thinking for a moment, he said to Reiner, "Yes, but it will consume a great deal of iron. If we are to achieve the strength you want, we will need at least twice as much raw iron as the finished product!"

Reiner nodded. Losses during the manufacturing process were perfectly normal. Although these Junior Blacksmiths could not be called master smiths of exquisite skill, they were quite capable.

After handing the blueprint over to the blacksmiths, Reiner left with his two retainers and headed for the barracks. The Morland Soldiers were currently conducting coordination drills under the command of Sir Reiland, whom he had appointed as a knight.

The soldiers possessed exceptional discipline, awareness of formations, and obedience. Under Sir Reiland's command, they constantly shifted between formations, with long-forgotten spears now in their hands once more.

Their spears were currently being forged in the blacksmith's workshop. At the present rate of production, fully arming them would probably take several months.

"How are these young men, my Sir?" Reiner asked Sir Reiland as he watched the soldiers forming ranks on the field.

"Very well, Baron. They are considerably stronger than the soldiers I commanded in the past! They carry out my orders with ease. They are an outstanding and extremely formidable group of soldiers!" Sir Reiland praised them enthusiastically.

"Good. In the future, they will be my main force on the battlefield. Not just them—you must also train my original soldiers well. They will take on a role similar to that of the sergeants. Even if they cannot reach the level of the sergeants, they must not fall too far behind!"

"Yes, Baron. I will train them according to the methods used to train the sergeants!" Sir Reiland said.

That evening, Reiner returned to the castle and ate dinner. At the table, Little Wend looked at Reiner excitedly and said, "Brother, were they really emissaries sent by the Holy Father? They looked so strong and powerful!"

He gestured animatedly as he spoke to Reiner, looking extremely fervent. Clearly, he was both fascinated and amazed by everything.

"Yes. The Holy Father told me in a dream that he would send emissaries to help me, and they really did appear!" Reiner shrugged.

"That's wonderful! If there's a battle next time, I want to join too!" Little Wend looked at the others at the table before saying this to Reiner.

The child was clever. He knew that nobody else's words carried any weight in this matter. Only Reiner—his elder brother—had the authority to decide.