Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Himanshu02

Eurius shook his head without changing his expression.

“You can go back.”

“Excuse me?”

“Do I have to say it twice? You failed.”

The knight who was pointed out felt somewhat wronged. Eurius had only asked him to swing his sword a few times dryly.

‘Why did I fail?’

The level of the applicants was not much different. He did not do anything rude to the emperor either.

“Stop! You passed.”

“Thank you!”

He looked no different from himself, but he passed and he failed.

‘At least tell me the reason. Do you think I have nowhere else to go?’

He grumbled inwardly as he left the training ground attached to the Eles Palace.

He had some reason to be dissatisfied, but Eurius did not do that because of any feelings for him.

‘Anyway, the abilities of the applicants are mediocre. I need to recruit people who are persistent and mentally strong so that I can train them hard.’

“Your highness, are you saying that you personally examine all the applicants?”

The knights all frowned, but they could not stop him from doing so.

“Isn’t it better for me to see and choose them myself since they are the knights I will command?”

‘Maybe he wants to remember their names one by one since they are the knights who will serve him?’

‘But still, you could have left the first screening to us, Your Majesty.’

However, Eurius’s intention was a little different from that.

‘It’s a bit annoying, but I have to see it myself to pick them by looking at their stats.’

For example, the knight who just left had stats like this.

[Bill Wise]

Job: Intermediate Knight

Strength: B+ Agility: B Intelligence: C+ Mental: C+ Force Aptitude: B Force: B

Disposition: Cheerful, Arrogant

[Trait]

Swordsmanship (B)

‘His mental is a problem and his skill is so-so… But he is too confident and arrogant. Fail!’

Eurius’s judgment standard was simple.

Unless the applicant was exceptionally talented, he chose cases with diligence, sincerity, and high mental strength.

Of course, he met the basic standard of talent, but he thought it was better to choose people with growth potential than those who had achieved some level of success.

‘Anyway, I can provide a good training environment for them, so their skills will rise if they work hard.’

The knights who passed this time would probably suffer a lot in the future, so he selected only those who could endure it.

And of course, the person who could provide a good training environment for them was Wallace.

“It’s not someone else but between you and me, right? It will cost a bit to raise a knight order this time…”

“Hehe, how can I refuse Your highness request?”

‘He has no shame at all.’

It was no joke to make and maintain a knight order.

From custom-made armor for everyone to well-trained warhorses, and the costs of group training or operations!

On top of that, Eurius demanded a large amount of elixirs and force stones necessary for knight training.

It was a huge amount of money that would make even Wallace wobble in the long run.

Eurius thought it was a small revenge.

‘If you don’t like it, don’t mess with me from your previous life?’

Wallace had no choice but to accept Eurius’s request.

First of all, he was the second-in-command of the emperor faction on the surface, so it would be a problem if he did not support the emperor.

And Eurius was in a situation where he held his life line.

‘How did I end up like this? Sigh…’

He recalled when he was scolded by the grand duke.

“You know what? That bastard first prince turned out to be more cunning than the emperor or Marius. Now that things have come to this point, how are you going to take responsibility?”

Wallace had to kneel down and beg again in front of the duke.

He had to keep his head attached first.He had a grand dream of shaking up the empire’s market under him when he volunteered to be the Grand Duke’s spy.

‘The problem is not that I’m scolded by one side only!’

What made him more angry was that he had to report everything that happened here to Eurius.

The Grand Duke coldly pressured him and Eurius smiled and took everything from him.

Of course, both of them would not hesitate to get rid of him if they were annoyed.

“Sigh”

Wallace’s sigh seemed to last for a while.

***

Meanwhile, Eurius’s knight recruitment situation was not so good.

‘Unexpectedly, there are not many people left after I weed out the weak ones?’

In fact, his eyes for knights were ridiculously high.

He grew up surrounded by excellent imperial knights, and the knights he worked with in the north were also elites who were in charge of the main front of the empire.

And the important thing was that he realized the importance of power after experiencing the elite group like the ‘shadow’ of the Grand Duke.

‘They can’t be all of them. If I know the Grand Duke, he must have hidden at least twice as much power as that.’

Even considering his own strength, the level of the applicants now was far from what he wanted.

Generally, the empire’s knight order consisted of a hundred people and twenty people formed a squad.

‘I want to fill at least the squad leader and deputy squad leader with master level or close knights…’

The problem was that the standard was the level of the imperial knights, the best elite in the empire. It was a secret power that the Grand Duke had cultivated for decades with hard work.

He who blew up half of that power had such a thought. If he knew this, even the cold-hearted Grand Duke would draw his sword and rush at him.

“Fail!”

“Your Majesty! Please tell me why…”

“You have talent but you look insincere.”

“…!”

The knight became speechless. How could the first prince know his personality when he had never met him face to face?

It seemed like a baseless accusation, but he couldn’t do anything about it.

He just didn’t catch the first prince’s attention, that was all.

But there was another reason why the rejected knight was flustered.

‘It was a task entrusted by His Highness the Grand Duke himself… How can I explain this?’

When he heard that Eurius was recruiting knights, the Grand Duke also quickly reached out his hand.

‘I have to plant some loyalists in the First Prince’s knight order this time.’

The First Prince must be lacking talent right now.

He secretly sent some of his own men who were quick-witted and skilled to apply for the knight order.

Of course, it didn’t work.

They were also rejected by Eurius’s standards.

‘Those who look too talented and smart are also out.’

The knight he had just rejected looked suspicious at first glance.

He had enough skill to aim for a high position in the central knight order, and his personality didn’t appeal to him either.

Because of his strict criteria, he unintentionally got rid of the Grand Duke’s minions, which was a good thing, but the problem was that there were not many left as a result.

“Your highness, you have been interviewing for three days already. How about taking a break while you do it?”

“If they want to join my knight order, they should be willing to endure this hardship.”

He said it casually, but after three days, his complexion started to darken enough for the knights to notice.

Of course, it wasn’t because he was tired.

‘There is no talent. Really none.’

The ones who passed his direct examination were barely meeting the minimum standards.

It would take at least two or three years to train them properly before they could be called elites.

‘I thought there would be at least one or two who could be used right away, but it seems like I’m out of luck this time.’

He grumbled inwardly as he looked at the knights today.

Then, a young knight caught his eye.

Eurius’s first impression of that knight was this:

‘He looks unlucky and scrawny, doesn’t he?’

His face was handsome and he seemed to have trained well, as he had a toned aura. But from his slow steps to his languid eyes, he looked like he was dragged here against his will.

‘He must be some spoiled son of a provincial noble family. He looks talented, but I don’t need to see his stats to know that his mental strength is a mess.’

But the examination was still an examination. He lifted his eyes and checked his stats window. And then he couldn’t help but be slightly surprised.

[Bernard Keynes]

Job: Intermediate Knight

Strength: B+ Agility: B Intelligence: B+ Mental Strength: B+ Force Aptitude: A+ Force: B

Disposition: Lazy, Irresponsible, Kind

[Traits]Swordsmanship (B+)

It was rare to find someone with a force aptitude above A.

He looked like he was in his early thirties at most, and this achievement would put him in the category of a genius.

But what Eurius paid attention to was his name and disposition.

He looked at the document again.

[Bernard Keynes – Eldest son of Keynes Viscount from the south, graduated from the Knight Academy in the capital, no other special notes]

‘Is that Dull Sword Keynes Viscount? I heard he was lazy, but he has been like that since he was young?’

If you asked who was the strongest warrior in the continent, everyone would name the Superhumans. But even without them, there were many famous martial artists in the continent who had their own reputation.

In Eurius’s previous life, Dull Sword Keynes Viscount was one of those swordsmen who everyone would mention first among them, excluding the Superhumans.

The remarkable anecdote about him was that he only started to gain fame when he was almost forty years old.

That meant that he lived quietly in his territory until then and suddenly made a name for himself with an opportunity.

And that opportunity was a territorial dispute.

Sometimes there were conflicts between provincial nobles over their interests, and the simplest way to resolve them was through proxy duels.

They would accept the outcome based on the victory or defeat of the knights they sent as proxies.

Keynes Viscount’s territory was not large, but it was a prime land in the southern part of the empire.

He was lazy and entrusted the management of his territory to his steward while he enjoyed himself.

The greedy nobles around him couldn’t leave his territory alone.

As soon as he inherited the viscount title, they started to challenge him to territorial disputes over trivial matters.

But the one who came out as a proxy for the duel was surprisingly Keynes Viscount himself.

“Hmm, I have to finish quickly and take a nap, so I can’t keep you company for long.”

“…?”

The spectators who initially looked at him with disbelief were more astonished by the outcome of the duel.

Keynes Viscount had his sword on the opponent knight’s neck in a few moves.

“It’s over, right? The negotiations behind this will be handled by my representative.”

This happened several times, and Keynes Viscount never lost a single territorial dispute.

When he heard the rumor, famous martial artists from the continent came to find him.

Keynes Viscount was very annoyed, but he didn’t avoid the challenge.

And after that, his fame rose rapidly.

No one could handle his sword that seemed to swing casually.

There were only a few among them who could do that.

That’s why he got the nickname Dull Sword!

He was so lazy that he didn’t join the Grand Duke’s side even though he was a southern noble, but anyway, he was a proven person in terms of skill.

But Eurius was in a situation where he needed talent urgently.

He didn’t have time to consider other things.

“Pass!”

“What?”

It was like a bolt from the blue for Keynes. He came here with a blatant attitude of irresponsibility, but what was this?

The people who knew him also murmured.

“His highness has a good eye, but can he really adapt him to the knight order?”

“The instructors at the academy also had a hard time reforming him, tsk…”

“Well, he can’t be irresponsible in front of His highness, so maybe he’ll have no choice even if he’s like that?”

“No way. If he was going to change, he would have done it long ago.”

Among the people who looked at him with worried eyes, there was Heinz.

“Your Majesty, Knight Keynes is indeed a possessor of outstanding talent, but…”

“Do you know him, Knight Heinz?”

“He was my junior at the Knight Academy. He was quite a famous eccentric.”

“Is there any problem with that?”

Heinz had an expression of difficulty. It was hard to explain how lazy Keynes was with words.

“Aha!”

Eurius got a rough explanation from Heinz and smiled with interest.

“Then I want to see him in my knight order even more.”

“If Your highness says so, I have no choice, but I don’t have confidence in assimilating him into the knight order.”

Eurius smiled slyly.

“That’s my role to do.”

His eyes with a smile on them were directed at Keynes who was standing in the line of passers-by.

Shiver

Keynes felt an unidentified chill for a moment.

The first prince was looking at him with a smile.

‘There are many ways to reform a disobedient guy!’

Wasn’t he himself the epitome of a disobedient guy in his previous life as the crazy emperor?

Anyway, Eurius finally hit the jackpot and felt very good today.