Vale

Vale's story began two years ago, on the day the Barbarians attacked his village.

He was only ten then, a child who knew nothing of the world, yet he lost all his family and friends, and the home he had once known was reduced to ruins.

Only his mother managed to drag her exhausted body into the forest, taking Vale with her.

Without food or a source of water, they could only cling to life by gathering fruit.

Yet their misfortune did not end there.

Before long, a group of passing slave traders captured them.

His mother tried to help Vale escape, but in the end, they were taken to the slave market.

Vale remembered only being displayed like merchandise before those cold-hearted buyers.

He wore coarse cloth, his stomach ached with hunger, and even his most basic dignity had been stripped away.

His mother held tightly to Vale, silently enduring it all.

Then came a turn of fate: the great Lord Louis appeared at the slave market and bought several hundred slaves, including Vale.

Louis brought them to the Red Tide Fief and gave them a warm home.

For the first time, Vale ate his fill, put on warm clothes, and felt a sense of safety he had not known in so long.

His mother began working at the Red Tide Fief's Smoked Fish Workshop.

Every morning, she set to work washing, curing, and smoking fish, never neglecting a single step.

Though the work was hard, she struggled to survive through her own labor and finally gained a measure of dignity and stability.

Her efforts did not go unrewarded.

After hearing of her performance, Louis decided to free both her and Vale from slavery and grant them the status of Freemen.

That day, his mother, who never shed tears, held Vale and sobbed her heart out.

From then on, Vale had a purpose in life-to become someone who could repay Lord Louis's kindness.

Vale stood in the crowd, his eyes fixed on the Blood-Drop Stone.

His chance had come. Lord Louis was selecting knights.

If he could be chosen, he could serve the great lord and repay everything Louis had given him and his mother.

Only then could he stand at Lord Louis's side and change his fate.

At last, his name was called.

"Vale," the teacher called softly.

Vale's heart nearly leaped out of his chest as he walked toward the platform on heavy feet.

The great lord stood right before him, almost dazzling.

Following the rules, he gently cut his finger with a dagger and let his blood drip onto the Blood-Drop Stone.

I have to succeed. I have to succeed... he repeated silently, barely able to breathe.

The instant his blood touched the Blood-Drop Stone, some subtle reaction seemed to take place.

The stone's surface glowed faintly, red light flickering across it.

Vale's eyes widened. He could scarcely believe what he was seeing.

"I did it. I did it," he murmured despite himself. Tears of excitement welled in his eyes, and he instinctively dropped to his knees.

"I... I really did it... my great lord, I pledge my loyalty to you!"

Louis gently helped him up. "No need to get so worked up."

Vale's voice trembled. "Thank you... thank you, my lord! I'll do everything I can to protect the Red Tide Fief!"

Louis had long known that Vale possessed the potential to become a Peak Knight.

The Daily Intelligence System had informed him of it while Vale was still a slave.

Vale was a knight candidate with extraordinary talent, capable of becoming a Peak Knight and destined to be one of the Red Tide Fief's strongest fighters.

The testing lasted an entire morning. Of more than two hundred children, eight were ultimately chosen as possessing the talent to become knights.

"Eight knights..." Louis murmured, a flicker of satisfaction in his eyes.

Though the number was not particularly large, it was already a considerable gain for a newly established fief.

In truth, training knights required vast resources. Though the Red Tide Fief's resources were stretched thin, it could still afford the expense with his family's support.

Even the minor nobles in the south who had accumulated wealth over several generations might have only a few dozen Apprentice Knights, a dozen or so Official Knights, and a handful of Elite Knights.

With his family's support, Louis's current military strength was already on par with that of those minor nobles.

The only difficulty was that the Red Tide Fief lay in the Northern Frontier, a land both desolate and dangerous.

Barbarians, bandits, and even the neighboring lords were all potential threats.

For example, according to the Daily Intelligence System, the Snow Oath had been frequently raiding fiefs in the Northern Frontier Province lately, as though they had gone mad. Fortunately, they were far from his lands.

To survive in such an environment, Louis had to be even more cautious, relying on the troops and resources at his disposal to gradually secure his foothold here.

Louis stood on high ground overlooking the training field, gazing at the eight children.

These children would be not only the Red Tide Fief's future knights, but also his closest supporters-his future Guard Corps.

Louis entrusted the eight exceptionally gifted children to Barnes, an Official Knight.

With his extensive combat experience and teaching skills, Barnes was the ideal choice to train these future knights.

Their first lesson was practicing a breathing technique.

"Breathing techniques are the foundation of a knight's training. They determine how far you can go."

Barnes demonstrated how to use the Breathflow Breathing Technique, a method that originated with the Calvin Family.

Though inferior to the Tide Breathing Technique, which only the family's core members could practice, it was still powerful enough to rank among first-rate breathing techniques.

"The human body has seven qi meridian nodes. By activating them through a breathing technique, you can convert the energy in the air into battle aura, draw it into your body, and awaken your bloodline."

As Barnes explained, he demonstrated the breathing motions, inhaling deeply so that his chest rose slightly before slowly exhaling.

"Every deep breath draws in energy from the atmosphere. That energy will eventually become your battle aura."

The children carefully imitated Barnes's movements, trying to sense the changes within their bodies.

At first, they felt nothing, but as time passed, some finally noticed subtle changes taking place inside them.

Vale was the first to feel it. He said quietly, "I... I can feel energy entering my body!"

Barnes nodded in satisfaction. "Good. That's the first step."

During the training that followed, Barnes required the children to keep practicing and continually deepen their understanding of the breathing technique.

He stressed, "A breathing technique isn't just a way to increase your battle aura. It's also a process of tempering your minds and your will."

By the end of several days of training, all the children could sense the changes in the flow of air within their bodies and had gained an initial grasp of the Breathflow Breathing Technique's core principles.

Barnes expressed his satisfaction with their performance. "You've already taken your first step toward becoming knights."

This was only the beginning. Only by continually honing these children could they produce truly loyal and capable knights for the Red Tide Fief.