Ancient Protector

More than ten days after the assassination attempt had ended, William received word that his two sons had returned from their martial arts instructor's home. Today, William's entire family had moved into Dark Night Manor, officially becoming members of the Merlin Family.

"Your Excellency, the Mage!"

The two boys, now dressed in clean martial arts uniforms, formally paid their respects to Donald, their liege lord, led by William.

"My lord, this is Eric, and this is Eli. And this is my youngest son, though he's still too young to have a name!"

Donald looked at the two boys before him, smiled with satisfaction, and nodded.

"Good. You've both worked hard!"

Then he turned his gaze to the toddler. Unlike his parents and brothers, who were so reserved, the little one was still innocent and wide-eyed. He wasn't very afraid; instead, he gazed at Donald, his lord, with keen interest through his round, dark eyes.

Donald had always loved children in his previous life, and couldn't help saying:

"Your youngest son is clever too!"

"Thank you for the praise, my lord. He's just a child and doesn't know any better!"

"Since he doesn't have a name yet, how about I give him one?"

William and his wife immediately bowed in gratitude. "Thank you for bestowing a name upon him, my lord!"

Donald thought for a moment, then said:

"Let's call him Clark. It's the name of a legendary hero. As vassals of House Merlinar, you should have a surname as well as given names. From today onward, your family will take Kent as your surname. That was the hero's surname, too!"

Though Donald kept a perfectly serious expression, he was secretly laughing to himself. Clark Kent! Heh! What a great name!

William and his wife were so moved by Donald's words that their hands trembled. With a noble mage of such high standing bestowing a given name and surname upon them, their family had essentially risen above the status of commoners. Moreover, the surname was legitimate. Commoners who adopted surnames without permission could be arrested and imprisoned for impersonating noble descendants.

Seeing how grateful and excited William's family was, Donald gestured to the steward behind him. Code immediately ordered several servants to bring out the items they had prepared.

Donald took a longsword and pointed its tip forward.

The opportunity to become noble knights' attendants and gain the status of quasi-nobles at once offered far better prospects than becoming commoner warriors. When William's sons, aged fifteen and twelve, had received the news, they had been so excited they couldn't sleep for two nights in a row. Now that they were old enough to understand, they naturally knew which path to choose.

The two boys knelt on one knee in the manner of knights. Donald rested the sword lightly on each brother's shoulder in turn and said:

"Do you swear to follow the will of the Merlin Family's honorable knights, become my, Donald Melina's, knight attendants, follow in my footsteps all your lives, and defend Merlinar's honor?"

"I, Eric Kent, swear here and now to be loyal to Sir Donald Melina. By the honor of a knight, I will never betray him!"

"I, Eli Kent, swear here and now..."

William and his wife watched from the side, weeping with joy. Their gratitude toward Donald, their lord, had reached its peak.

The status of a noble knight's attendant was fundamentally different from that of a commoner or servant; an attendant was practically a vassal. As a knight-in-training, if his liege lord had no heir, his knight attendant was entitled to inherit his noble title, estate, and lands. This showed just how exceptional the status of a knight attendant was.

Before reaching adulthood, the children of great nobles were often sent by their elders to serve another great noble or the royal family. There, they learned noble etiquette, received knightly training, and were educated in the arts and letters. Lesser nobles continued this fine tradition as well. It was one reason the noble class had endured, producing many capable people in every generation.

After the oaths, Donald had the servants bring over the equipment they had prepared, along with the warhorses, and personally handed them to his two young attendants.

"Now you are my official knight attendants. These are gifts from me, your liege lord!"

Although Donald couldn't yet provide much training for his two knight attendants, it was easy enough to prepare a set of knight-attendant equipment and a warhorse for each of them. Apart from receiving some basic noble education from the steward, the two boys continued training as they had before. The combat skills used on foot by warriors and knights were still largely the same.

"Thank you, my lord!"

The two boys eagerly accepted Donald's gifts. The two sets included everything from noble hunting clothes and knightly formalwear to half-plate armor. Preparing all that alone had cost at least a hundred gold sol, not to mention the two valuable purebred warhorses.

Donald had two reasons for taking such an interest in the boys. First, he had considered their father's competence. From the beginning, his purpose in taking the boys as attendants had been to win William over. Commoners like William, who could interact with many mages and were also quick-witted, were extremely rare. He was also upright in character, which made him relatively trustworthy.

Second, after meeting William's sons, Donald had been pleased with them. Neither boy had the very best talent, but both were quite capable; otherwise, they wouldn't have reached nearly the middle stage of Black Iron as warriors before the age of fifteen. With proper training, they could easily become junior knights before they turned eighteen. That would give his family two more capable men it could openly rely on.

As for William's youngest son, who was not yet four, he was still too young. Donald had no plans to test his aptitude just yet.

Realizing that, besides himself and his summoned creatures, only two half-grown boys in the manor had any real combat ability, Donald couldn't help feeling anxious.

I can't stay in the manor forever. There has already been an assassination attempt. If I leave now, there's no guarantee someone won't target the manor.

He was keenly aware that his forces were too weak to guarantee the safety of himself and his people.

The Tree of Life had the fighting strength of a level-five magical beast or better, but as a plant, its slow movement was its greatest weakness.

Donald's first thought for solving the problem was to use the permanent summoning ability granted to him by the Book of Truth. But he soon abandoned that idea. Although permanent summons had no limit on their number, the soul power required was far beyond what he could obtain by gathering the scattered souls of a few undead creatures. He couldn't yet meet the requirements for creating high-level units.

Permanent summoning didn't mainly rely on the energy in magic-core crystals. In fact, the energy needed by ordinary summoned creatures was enough to manifest their bodies. What creating creatures required most was the far more precious power of souls.

He had once asked the Book of Truth to calculate the requirements. It concluded that the soul imprints in magic cores couldn't be used for permanent summons. Their soul power was too weak and their structure incomplete, which would greatly affect the intelligence of the summoned creatures. After all, magical beasts had little intelligence in life, and the remnants of their souls were incomplete as well.

The best raw material for creating creatures was the soul power of intelligent beings.

So, until he found another source of soul power, Donald decided not to use his permanent summoning ability for the time being.

After dismissing his first idea, Donald thought of the Elves' defensive structures.

"Ancient Protectors? That's not a bad idea!"

Unlike the defensive towers of humans and orcs, Ancient Protectors, like the Tree of Life, were Treants of the natural races.

Creating an Ancient Protector required only a small amount of soul power—about one-twentieth of what the main base, the Tree of Life, required. That was equivalent to the cost of an ordinary level-one wild unit, which Donald could afford. Considering their strength, they were well worth the price.

So Donald went into the forest and found ten thousand-year-old trees. Using them as vessels, he summoned ten Ancient Protectors.

He spread these living defensive towers around the four sides of the manor, planting two on each side. He also planted two near the Tree of Life to guard it.

These ancient trees could draw on the power of the earth and the Tree of Life, then hurl stones of energy. Most of the time, they stood motionless like ordinary trees. But as soon as an enemy entered their range, they became tireless catapults, launching fierce attacks once every two seconds. With the Tree of Life's boost from the Force of Nature and its suppression of enemy strength, fewer than a hundred enemies below Bronze could breach the manor's gates.

With that, the manor's defenses were basically complete.

But this only allowed him to defend passively; he still lacked sufficient mobility. He would need to recruit guards and train them to help the Ancient Protectors keep the manor safe.

Fortunately, he still had some time before he had to leave. The humans had only discovered Orc scouts at the vanguard; the main force was likely still on the way, and the Kingdom's conscription order hadn't yet arrived.

A stretch of mountains and hills lay between the Northwest Wasteland and the Kingdom of Selt. Though the terrain wasn't particularly rugged, crossing it would still take considerable time.

Besides, in previous years the Orcs had focused on the wealthy human nations in the middle of the continent. They generally assigned only weaker tribes to the Kingdom of Selt, since it too lay in the Northern Lands and was difficult to reach.

That meant the Orc forces facing Selt's borders probably wouldn't be very strong, giving Donald time to prepare.

The next day, Donald began discussing with the steward the matter of hiring guards for the manor.

Although landed nobles were forbidden from training private armies, they were allowed to obtain private forces either by hiring guards to protect their manor and property or by earning the allegiance of knightly vassals.

Such private forces, however, couldn't be used openly to win military honors. This was a restriction imposed by the royal families and nobility of every country on landless nobles and merchants, lest they use times of war to seize their lands, lives, and property.

Moreover, without an official pretext, landless nobles and merchants didn't dare hire too many guards. First, the wages and provisions were expensive. Second, they feared that armed guards might turn on their employers.

There had even been cases of commoner Adventurers hired as guards looting their employer's home while the employer was away. Some had simply robbed and murdered their employers, then turned to banditry.

So when choosing guards for the manor, Donald's first consideration wasn't their strength but their character. He would rather hire a group of weak but honest and loyal guards than a bunch of ill-natured, cunning ingrates.