Forming a knightly order

Another two days passed, and the preliminary negotiations with the Carian Family finally yielded concrete results.

The terms were more generous and lenient than Horace Loux had expected, even taking him somewhat by surprise.

First came the question of land.

The Carian Family formally agreed to assign that vast stretch of wasteland on the Eastern Tableland to Horace Loux's tribe as its territory.

Nominally, they were "permitting settlement," but in reality, that barren, remote land was almost worthless to the Carian Family, who controlled the fertile areas of the lake region, the lands surrounding Caria Manor, and some of the glintstone veins.

To the Academy of Raya Lucaria, that region had neither rich glintstone deposits nor proximity to their research areas and True Magic nodes, so they likewise treated it as worthless.

In effect, this gave the tribe a sufficiently large "shell" without encroaching on either side's core interests.

The real substance lay elsewhere.

The Carian Family agreed to open part of their repositories of True Magic knowledge to Horace Loux himself, allowing him to study Carian True Magic-primarily practical, combat-oriented Glintstone Sorcery, along with some basic principles of Moon True Magic.

They would also send artisans to teach more advanced metalworking, weaving, and basic construction techniques, as well as some simple herbalism and knowledge of calendars.

This was help when it was needed most. It meant the tribe could leap straight from an almost primitive society of fishing, hunting, and gathering to a stage with rudimentary crafts and agricultural civilization, bringing a qualitative leap in productivity and social organization.

This was not merely the "feudal age." They were practically being taught, step by step, how to establish a stable, settled society.

The "price," or rather the "requirements," proposed by Caria seemed rather casually understated, even carrying a hint of scheming on behalf of "one of their own."

First, the tribe was required to cooperate with Caria in turning the Academy of Raya Lucaria's schemes back on them.

Specifically, they would use the tribe's label as a "powerful newcomer" to attract the Academy's attention and overtures.

Caria predicted that, upon seeing them so "generously" accept and support a barbarian tribe, the Academy would inevitably grow wary and attempt to court the tribe as well, if only to keep it from siding entirely with Caria.

Caria wanted Horace Loux's tribe to "go with the flow," accept the Academy's overtures, and even "demand the moon," asking the Academy for as many benefits as possible-knowledge, supplies, and even concessions in certain specific areas.

The more the Academy gave, the more Caria would "profit," because it meant the Academy's resources would be diverted, while the Academy would misjudge the tribe's position and appetite, potentially leading to further friction and expenditure in the future.

Second, Caria wanted Horace Loux to use his Great Runes Rituals as soon as possible to train or assemble a force with special combat capabilities for them.

They clearly valued the fast, stable, and controllable means of increasing strength offered by the Great Runes, especially among rank-and-file warriors.

This force could nominally belong to the tribe, but it would have to prioritize answering Caria's summons or cooperating with their operations.

On the face of the terms, Caria was practically making a "losing deal"-giving precious knowledge, techniques, and a measure of political protection in exchange for what might amount to uncertain assistance and making trouble for the Academy.

But Horace Loux understood that Caria's confidence in being so "generous" rested on several key judgments:

First, in Caria's eyes, Horace Loux's own trait of having "encountered the moon" already placed him naturally in the "moon's camp."

He had a fundamental conflict of allegiance with the Academy, which rejected the moon and revered glintstone and the Primeval Current.

As long as Horace Loux was in his right mind, he could never truly side with the Academy.

Thus, "accepting the Academy's overtures" essentially meant "fleecing" the Academy, not genuinely cooperating with it.

Second, the tribe's size and the strength Horace Loux had displayed did indeed make them a potential force worth investing in and courting.

On the chessboard of Caria's confrontation with the Academy, another powerful piece was always welcome.

Even if that piece was still crude, Caria was willing to spend resources "polishing" it into something more useful.

Finally, and most importantly, Caria—Rennala in particular—did not seem to regard Horace Loux and his tribe entirely as "outsiders" or "tools."

That subtle "resonance with the moon," along with the complex report Rellana had brought back, might have given Rennala some deeper ideas and expectations.

That feeling of treating them as "their own" was the fundamental reason they were willing to place such a "heavy bet."

"Taking from both sides?" Horace Loux rubbed his chin.

This suited him perfectly. He could learn precious True Magic and knowledge from Caria and raise the tribe's level of civilization, while also extorting... no, reasonably seeking more resources from the Academy to accelerate development.

As long as he handled it properly, playing both great powers to his advantage and quietly making a fortune was precisely the ideal situation in his plans.

With the agreement reached, Horace Loux immediately returned to the tribal camp on the Eastern Tableland and began tackling the two most important tasks: forming his own core fighting force and establishing a stable channel for "energy withdrawals."

He gathered all his tribespeople, including the shamans who had been rescued, announced their cooperation with Caria, and began selecting personnel.

Several low-ranking mages and artisans sent by Caria arrived at the same time and began teaching their knowledge and skills.

Horace Loux had long had a concept in mind for building his core fighting force.

He named it the "Order of the Great Rune Knights."

Applying powerful combat Great Runes to every warrior individually, as he had before, would not only consume enormous amounts of energy but also be extremely cumbersome to manage, while subjecting each warrior to considerable pain and risk.

He needed a more efficient method.

In a flash of inspiration, he thought of a possible "loophole" in the Great Runes system: there had never been any stipulation that Great Runes could only be applied to "individual living beings."

Could concepts, organizations, or even an oath itself also serve as vessels for Great Runes?

He decided to take the risk and try.

Taking the entire soon-to-be-established "Order of the Great Rune Knights" as his target, he attempted to construct overarching Great Runes on a conceptual level.

The process was harder than he had imagined. Applying the power of Great Runes to the abstract concept of an organization rather than a concrete soul required more energy.

This was equivalent to creating a "True Magic item" with special rule-based effects out of thin air.

Fortunately, he had his "cash dispenser girl" backing him-the bank manager's own mother.

As Horace Loux worked out the design, he used that faint connection to "confide" in the Formless Mother that, in order to "create more wounds and conflicts under order," he needed an enormous amount of energy to establish a "sacred framework of vows."

The Formless Mother was very interested in this kind of "large-scale" plan and generously paid for the "goods" once again.

Although the expenditure still left Horace Loux's soul faintly aching with pressure, he ultimately succeeded with the continuous support of the outer god's energy.

He imposed two core Great Runes on the organizational concept of the "Order of the Great Rune Knights":

First, [Uphold the Knightly Virtues].

Horace Loux used the "eight virtues" he knew—humility, honesty, compassion, valor, justice, sacrifice, honor, and loyalty—as the content of the Great Rune.

Members of the order had to strive to practice these virtues.

In exchange, the entire order would receive comprehensive bonuses to their "knightly abilities"-including but not limited to greater strength, endurance, aptitude for horsemanship and swordsmanship, teamwork, and even talent.

The more thoroughly and consistently the members practiced these virtues, the stronger the bonuses the order as a whole would receive.

This was intended to shape the order's character and discipline at their roots, preventing the future emergence of dishonorable, plunder-hungry thugs like the "Cuckoo Knights."

The first step in shaping a civilization was to establish moral standards, then spread them outward step by step, transforming a barbaric tribe into an advanced people.

Second, [Never Take a Life].

This was an extremely strict Great Rune, requiring that, as a matter of principle, members of the order must not actively take lives in battle.

In exchange, the order would receive what could only be called terrifying collective bonuses to defense-increased poise and impact resistance-and recovery-automatic health regeneration in battle-making them less likely to break or lose their ability to fight after taking heavy blows.

(Low damage and no executions, but high resistance, high poise, and automatic health regeneration-did that count as bullshit?)

The purpose of this Great Rune was extremely clear: to strengthen survivability to the extreme.

Horace Loux could not bear to let these tribespeople of his become expendable fodder on the battlefield.

His ideal Inquisitor Knights would be heavily armored, high-poise "battlefield fortresses" that could tank, fight, and heal, working with other sources of damage to achieve low casualties or even none at all.