Just a single precedent.
It was important.
Those who watched Lucas’s turn realized from that moment that using underhanded tactics was acceptable.
And naturally, people resorted to any means necessary to endure for just one minute. “Aaaah!” Bang! The seventy-second turn.
A burly man screamed as he swung a large sword.
However, such grand movements could not catch Roman off guard, and the man, instead, picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at Roman’s face.
A surprise and irregular attack.
Roman turned his head to dodge the stone and then kicked the man’s face as he charged again.
Thud! “Cough.” Blood splattered.
The man’s pupils dilated, and he crashed face-first into the ground.
“Next.” Cheating.
It wasn’t a condition for disqualification.
But the moment he crossed the line, Roman showed no mercy.
In that regard, Lucas was clever.
If Lucas had not given up on the duel, Roman’s sword might have broken his body.
The test continued.
The eightieth, the ninetieth, and then the hundredth.
Even as the people changed, no one managed to endure the one minute Roman had mentioned.
At first, those who had laughed at the rules of the secondary test began to look at Roman with faces filled with horror.
This situation was incomprehensible.
Roman had spent a hundred duels, over an hour of time.
At a time when one should be gasping for breath, Roman still showed a stable breathing pattern as if it were the first duel.
There was no sign of physical strain.
Such a sight instilled fear in the applicants, and as the end approached, they no longer dared to think of winning.
They did not know about Roman.
A mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
On the brink of death, there was no mercy for those whose stamina had waned.
If one could not manage their breath, their movements would slow, and then they would end up like the corpses sprawled on the ground.
Thus, Baek Jung-hyeok learned how to fight until the end.
One breath.
Then exhale again.
The mana gained through this process of breathing circulated within, adequately recovering the body’s fatigue.
Roman’s body was still weak.
After a hundred duels, it would be normal to feel physical strain, but with proper management of his now strengthened body, Roman continued the duel as if he were in the same state as at the beginning.
This was a fight without using mana.
For Baek Jung-hyeok, who had fought for three days and nights during the era of conquering the martial world, such light battles could not exhaust his stamina.
Therefore, the applicants’ judgment was wrong.
They thought it would be advantageous to delay their turns, but instead, fear weighed down their steps.
“Next.” The last.
It was the one hundred twentieth turn.
He stepped onto the stage with a face resigned to defeat, and as everyone expected, he could not endure even ten seconds, let alone one minute.
A single strike.
The applicant knelt.
When the wooden sword broke in a single clash, he voluntarily declared his surrender.
The test was over.
As the grand journey of one hundred twenty turns reached its conclusion, people looked up at Roman with blank faces. “... What on earth are we witnessing?” Even having witnessed it firsthand, they could not comprehend.
Roman Dmitri.
His transformation had surpassed the realm of common sense.
All tests had concluded.
Defeat did not mean disqualification.
Chris sent all the despairing applicants away and informed them that he would announce the results in two days.
The next day, Roman handed the list of successful candidates to Chris. “Here is the list of successful candidates. From now on, you will train these thirty individuals.” “Understood.” Tap.
He received the list.
As he turned to the first page, a familiar name appeared. ‘The name was Vulcan, right?’ The first challenger.
He had boldly stepped forward but was knocked out in an instant.
Though his performance in the duel was insignificant, he was still qualified to be among the thirty successful candidates. ‘The lord must have highly valued Vulcan’s courage.
It was clear that the one hundred twentieth turn was advantageous, yet Vulcan stepped forward without hesitation as the first challenger.
And he was thoroughly smashed.
However, considering his courage to take the initiative and his physical conditions, he is an exceptionally talented individual for a private soldier.’
Rustle.
He turned the page.
Most of the names were understandable individuals.
Even if they did not show significant performance against Roman, those with will and conditions passed.
And then, ‘...
Henderson?’ There was an unexpected individual.
Henderson appeared to be an ordinary person by anyone’s standards.
He barely passed the first test and showed a passive attitude during the duel with Roman, ultimately being eliminated.
Therefore, Chris thought he would naturally be disqualified.
Unlike the other successful candidates, he lacked the will and conditions to deserve a place on the list.
Still, he swallowed his doubts, thinking of the lord’s decision.
He knew that Roman would not select successful candidates without reason.
However, on the next page, he could not help but question. “Lucas also passed?” “Yes.” “I acknowledge that Lucas is a B-class mercenary and possesses sufficient qualifications. However, he is a cowardly and despicable man. Not only did he throw a dagger and sprinkle sand during the duel, which was meant for testing, but he also declared surrender without fighting to the end when he deemed he was defeated. Such a person acts as poison on the battlefield. How can other soldiers trust and fight alongside a coward who might abandon them at any moment?” Lucas was the archetypal mercenary.
A type that would do anything to survive, forsaking honor.
Chris despised that.
He understood honor as a knight, and if he were in the challenger's position, he would not have cried surrender even if it meant death.
If he were to lead soldiers in the future, he wished to exclude individuals like Lucas.
Roman said, “That’s why I passed him.”
“... What do you mean by that?”
“As you said, Lucas might be a cowardly man who abandons his comrades. But in a situation where no one even thought of cheating, he was the one who realistically thought of a way to confront me and executed it. Such individuals shine on the battlefield.
They always seek a way to survive and will find a way out somehow. Let me ask you this. Just because Lucas confronted me in a different manner, does that mean he is certainly a coward who would abandon his comrades?
He only cheated because cheating was not restricted, and he has not yet shown any behavior that would betray trust.”
Chris was left speechless.
Roman’s words were correct.
Lucas had only thought realistically; there was no basis yet to evaluate his character.
Suddenly, he recalled the words of his master, Jonathan. “Those who survive on the battlefield are not knights like you and me who can use aura. It is those who can calmly assess and judge the situation amidst the chaos of blood and screams at the brink of death who can survive as humans until the end. So always remember this. No matter how strong you become as a swordsman, you can still fall prey to those hyena-like humans who lie in wait like corpses beneath your feet.” He nodded.
As Roman said, it was still too early to judge Lucas.
However, he had a question. “Is there a reason for recruiting thirty private soldiers this time? Thirty is not a small number, and managing them requires a lot of money and effort. Doesn’t the Dmitri family already have soldiers and knights?” Chris’s question was within the realm of common sense.
In five months, Roman would head to the battlefield.
However, that was a future matter, and there was no reason to prepare by recruiting private soldiers already.
The central government was not a cruel group that would indiscriminately throw noble soldiers into the fray just because they were conscripted.
The conscripted troops were primarily meant for emergency situations.
They would spend time in a standby area just below the front lines and would be called upon to support when dangerous situations arose.
Thus, there were many cases where they would finish their service without ever seeing combat if they were lucky.
Roman, too, was in a situation where he did not know where he would end up, so there was no need to nurture private soldiers.
Moreover, Dmitri was a border area.
Since battles were not frequent there, maintaining thirty individuals while paying each of them eight silver from five months ago was a considerable burden.
Chris, who had served as the deputy commander of the knight order, understood that managing people and accounting was not simple, and he realized that the significance of thirty was not so straightforward.
It was a question that had to be asked eventually.
Roman said, “As I said in front of everyone, I have no intention of settling in the border. One by one, step by step, I plan to climb by stepping on what is in front of me. So, who do you think my immediate enemy is?” The initial target.
At that question, Chris suddenly thought of one. ‘No way.’ He wanted to deny it.
He knew that Roman had become aggressive, but he never expected him to have such dangerous thoughts. “Yes.” Roman’s death.
The root cause of that death. “We will now prepare for war against the Barco family.”
At that moment, the Barco family, having received approval from the central government, officially announced the start of the war with a declaration.
“We have believed in the promises of the past and waited for Lawrence’s decision. However, they have thrown the honor of the nobility to the ground and betrayed our trust, and after a long period of patience, we have made the decision to draw our swords. Lawrence’s crimes are clear.
They have not repaid the debts left by their ancestors, and they have shown an attitude of refusing to return the land that was put up as collateral. Therefore, through this declaration, we will inform the people of the Cairo Kingdom.
If Lawrence does not repay the debt or return the land put up as collateral within a week, the Barco family will declare a territorial war against Lawrence with the approval of the central government.”
Territorial war.
A fierce battle fought over each other’s possessions.
By receiving approval from the central government, the Barco family gained the justification to legally declare a territorial war.
In the world of nobility, justification is crucial.
Because of this justification, the nobles in the northeastern region of the Cairo Kingdom would watch the war between the two families from the sidelines.
If Roman and Flora’s marriage had not fallen through, the Barco family might have acted with a bit more caution.
The marriage between the two families would signify a blood relationship.
In the world of nobility, blood ties provide a strong justification, so even if it were Lawrence’s matter, there would be a strong justification to intervene directly.
However, the marriage had fallen apart.
And now, it was time to pay the price for a moment’s mistake.
“Lawrence is advised to choose wisely. If he remains silent in an attempt to protect his family’s wealth, the Barco flag will soon be planted in the heart of Lawrence. We do not desire war. However, if necessary, let it not be forgotten that Barco is the one who can become more brutal than anyone else.” It was a one-sided notification.
Finally, war was looming on the horizon.