The Amber Sword

Chapter 208 – Rose, brambles, and lust for power

================ Royal Faction ==============

Madara was here.

Not only that, Count Randner had gathered an army of twenty thousand men in just two months in the Palas region, including three retainer knights with land deeds and soldiers.

With the addition of the mountain natives and other tribal forces, this force was no longer looking like a simple subjugation, but a show of force towards the people who dared to mock the Count.

This level of mobilization proved that Count Randner was a long way off from ‘retirement’.

He was still like a tiger that was narrowing its eyes, and once it opened them, it would be able to cause the entire southern mountainous region in Aouine to tremble, which happened several decades ago.

============= Trentheim =============

Hadsh sneezed after a yawn. He rubbed his face and tried to stave off the cold from his face. Even though it was a new year, the freezing cold did not seem like it was going to end soon. It was instead getting colder, and the Gris river had a layer of ice over it from time to time. Trees were becoming as hard as stone.

He was standing on top of a watchtower and placed his hands on the walls while he looked out to the forest. Part of the forest had been cut down and the land was tilled, but the seeds had not sprouted yet. The farmers had already left the area, and there were only soldiers and mercenaries along with a number of knights. These military units were the best professionals from the various regions.

The watchtower he was in was a short distance away from Trentheim. There were many people who knew there would be a great battle ahead, and they thought there was no doubt at all in terms of their strength.

Even though Count Randner was slowly becoming an old man, his vigor had not decreased at all. His orders to the various retainers that he had were still seen as authority. An army of nearly twenty thousand was gathered in a short period of time. Most of Trentheim’s men also knew that there were tribal natives and undead assisting Count Randner as well. Even the northern lords would take pause at Count Randner’s strength.

But Hadsh and many natives had a different view from the other nobles watching the fight between the Count Randner and the rebels. There were twenty men that came to this watchtower in the past three days. But what was surprising to Hadsh and the others was that these men were true veterans.

He was formerly one of Graudin’s ‘private knights’, and though he could not compare to the knights working for high-ranking nobles, he was still considered as a skilled warrior, and there were no more than fifty of his caliber in Firburh. Private soldiers or militia were no match for him.

In this era, the fights between nobles were usually a bloody affair.

These nobles did not really directly participate in such battles, though there were unlucky ones who were shot by stray arrows. The soldiers and knights working for them were killed in great numbers, and Hadsh had experienced several such battles.

People like him who survived the battles would be seen as veterans, and they tend to look down on new soldiers who had trouble wielding a sword correctly and saw them as fodder.

A noble of considerable influence would have roughly a hundred men consisting of them and knights. That was the limit for a noble.

First of all, these lords could not afford to pay them.

Paying for the Knights’ armors and swords already required a considerable amount of resources, let alone paying off a seasoned knight like Kodan.

Secondly, there were not enough talented men. A small lord could not attract people with such skills, as the ones with even a little talent would rather go to Count Randner or someone else with similar clout.

In truth, a lord with a hundred knights could be seen as someone powerful.

Even someone like Graudin who was given excessive power as a Baron had no more than a hundred knights.

Yet Brendel was the exception that broke all common sense.

The men under this youth were gathered by coincidence, comprised of mountain warriors and mercenaries from a faraway region.

Even though they did not participate in a battle of a large scale, they fought bloody battles throughout the year and had keener senses than the typical soldier.

Jana, Raban, and Cornelius were the cream of the crop. Raban’s subordinates were formal cavalry from the Karsuk Highlands and they were elite scouts who had fought off Madara’s undead. Each member was more formidable than the ordinary mercenaries.

But they were not the strongest unit.

Leto and the mercenaries under him were even more impressive. They were not as strong as Raban’s men due to their old age, but it was precisely because of their age that they had exceptional combat experience. Their identities were suspicious, and Hadsh suspected they were actually veterans who survived the November War.

This conclusion was a little frightening but it was also the most likely hypothesis.

There were also other men from Bucce, soldiers and cavalry from Fortress Riedon who fought against Madara. There were even Lord Macsen’s knights who surrendered to Carglise who had joined Brendel.

Therefore Brendel had close to three thousand men after recruiting new soldiers from Firburh, and eighty percent of his men were veterans who had enough fighting experience who would not lose to the knights under Count Randner.

The outsiders thought that Trentheim’s rebels were a disorganized mob, but Hadsh knew there was at least two thousand knights under the young lord.

[Marsha above, two thousand knights could easily lead a hundred thousand men…… King Erik had only two hundred knights when he founded Aouine.]

“There’s movement in the forest.” A voice suddenly called out behind him.

Hadsh jumped and turned around.