Surviving as a Knight in a Trash Game

Chapter 185

A year passed in an instant, and Ellenhower had formed a certain degree of influence throughout the continent.

He had come one step closer to becoming emperor. Even during that long time, the Arthur Domain was quiet.

Of course, even in that situation, the number of people coming and going from the Arthur Domain had become much more than before, and the domain was continuing to develop day by day.

On a certain day when everyone was growing diligently in their own places, Ellenhower came to visit me.

“Have you been well?”

A meeting after a year.

The two of us sat down without any particular awkwardness.

“That’s a relief.”

“What is?”

“It seems you haven’t changed much.”

“It would be difficult for me to change when you’re standing firm like this.”

Ellenhower had not changed much from before. Even though he was the person closest to becoming emperor, he gave off a similar feeling to the beginning.

“We have decided to proceed with the coronation. I would be glad if you could attend as well.”

“Has it already come to that?”

“Haven’t I been moving like my life depended on it for a year?”

“You’ve settled things quickly.”

“I suppose so.”

I hadn’t thought he would settle the continent and ascend to the throne in just a year. It was quite fast.

“It’s thanks to you. If you hadn’t supported me, it would have been impossible to settle the continent in such a short time.”

“What have I done?”

I wasn't being humble; I truly thought so.

“A crisis will come to the continent.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I’m saying that after you become emperor, a crisis will come to the continent.”

The past year.

It might have been a turbulent time for Ellenhower, but in fact, from my perspective, the continent had been too quiet during that time. The progress bar displayed on the window before my eyes was at 80%, with 20% still remaining.

“Can’t you tell me what kind of threat it is?”

“I don’t know either.”

“…”

“However, I can tell that it won’t be an easy matter.”

“How can I believe that?”

“There is no proof, but I can tell that it will definitely happen.”

Ellenhower let out a groan. It was a strange moment to be hearing that a crisis would come to the continent when he was at the final gateway to becoming emperor.

“You always give me difficult homework, you do.”

At first, it was in their relationship, and now it was in the next situation.

“When that time comes, I will also move. However, there is no guarantee that I will be able to solve those problems well.”

Who was I?

Wasn’t I a great Grand Master and a Saint recognized by Essus? Such a person was saying he was not confident. The one who had been more confident than anyone else until now was wearing an expression of utmost uncertainty.

“For now, congratulations on the coronation. I will attend.”

Ellenhower returned to the capital with that unsettling news.

***

And so, a month later, Ellenhower’s coronation was held.

To congratulate him on becoming emperor, the named nobles, including Duke Yevgeny of the East, the nobles of the Central region, as well as me and Count Vito, all gathered in the capital of Gloster.

The prince who had protected the capital until now said he would gladly yield his position and handed over the emperor’s crown, which had never been worn, to Ellenhower.

He handed over the crown the day before the coronation and then disappeared without a trace. As if he had been waiting for this day.

“Under the blessing of all, I declare the birth of a new emperor.”

Ellenhower Somerset Gloster.

He chose to embrace the Gloster Imperial Family instead of overthrowing it. Although the emperor’s blood did not flow in him, the prince of Gloster’s bloodline allowed him to continue the imperial surname.

And so, Ellenhower took his first step onto the continent as emperor. And not long after he held his coronation, urgent news was delivered to the imperial palace.

“Your Majesty, it is reported that monsters are appearing all over the continent, regardless of front or rear.”

A continent-wide monster invasion had begun.

***

The invasion of the monsters, whose end could not be known, and whose scale could not be known, continued.

Without knowing why it started or where it started from, they began to invade the continent, killing people and plundering as they came across them.

Small castles found it difficult to survive the offensive of the large-scale monster onslaught and had no choice but to flee to larger castles. For origınal chapters go to ⓝovelFire.net

Naturally, the people of the West Continent gathered in the main strongholds of the North, East, West, and South.

At that time, when everyone was going through a difficult time, the Arthur Domain in the North, at least, was spending its days not much different from before.

It was the moment when the endless efforts of the past bore fruit. The grueling high-intensity training and the war-preparedness training that included all domain residents, including the nobles. It was an achievement created by blood and sweat that would not have even been attempted in other domains due to complaints.

Having gone through difficult times, including the attacks of the undead and the appearance of demons, the residents of the Arthur Domain had become stronger and stronger. The residents here were grateful for the training in preparation for a crisis.

The increasingly strong domain residents, coupled with the dwarf-made armaments, various defensive facilities, and the harmony of the races, and the number of experienced knights gradually increased. Thanks to that, the Arthur Domain in the North formed a safe zone incomparable to any other place.

Perhaps because of that, even though the path to the Arthur Domain was not easy due to the monsters that covered the continent, the movement of people towards the domain did not cease.

“My liege, the speed of population inflow is too fast.”

“The temporary residential areas that were previously planned are almost full.”

“What about the remaining areas under construction?”

“The work speed is fast, but at the current inflow rate, it will be difficult to keep up. And the defense measures are also a problem. There are no troops to protect the temporary spaces being built outside the outer walls.”

As Dexter said, if things continued like this, it was bound to burst. I began to rack my brain while checking the map of the entire northern region, including the Arthur Domain.

“How about utilizing Saraban Island more?”

Marquis Nigel was the first to express his opinion. If there was no other way, Saraban Island was what they had intended to use as the last resort.

If the population inflow was this fast anyway, using Saraban first was also a method.

“Increase the number of troops being trained on Saraban. From the newly incoming personnel, create intermediate soldiers through a training course for those who can be utilized as combat personnel, and use those who have finished training as external defense forces. How is the process of sorting out knight-grade personnel from the incoming personnel going?”

“We are organizing the primarily selected personnel into a knight order of 100 people. We have already formed two knight divisions.”

“Appoint the most skilled among the team leader-grade personnel of the Lighthouse Knights as the commanders of the respective knight divisions. Do not deploy them immediately, but have them train with the Lighthouse and Hospitaller Knights for more than a month. And exclude those who need to be removed from among them.”

Personnel who caused problems internally would only weaken the military strength.

It was good to use them as immediate combat power, but since there was still some breathing room, it was better to form a certain structure.

“This is a letter from Count Vito.”

In the middle of a meeting, a letter sent by Count Vito from the south arrived.

[The number of monsters in the vicinity is increasing more and more. It seems necessary to clean up the monster bases in the area in a cyclical manner.

The speed at which they are gathering is beyond imagination. The monsters are not acting by species but are forming groups in concert. If large, medium, and small monsters move in concert, the situation will worsen.]

It was something they had already experienced on Saraban. That was why the Arthur Domain had named this the ‘Wave’ and had been continuously preparing for the monster waves.

“We’ll need a special detachment to move and smash their bases.”

Bastien subtly appealed for himself, as if asking to be used.

“The old man is old, so he’s suitable for defense. I’ll go.”

Kelvin, who had grown up a lot now, took a step forward without losing to Bastien. I looked at the two of them and drew the overall movement of the army in my head.

‘At least one Master-grade knight must be included.’

In a situation like this, only a Master-grade knight could respond to variables. The reason why many knights with outstanding skills were being produced compared to before had to be seen as because a situation like this was coming.

The continuously reinforced number of the Lighthouse Knights was 300, and the number of the Knights Hospitaller was 500. The Knights Hospitaller were relatively weaker in military strength compared to the Lighthouse Knights.

It was not possible to take out all the Lighthouse Knights. Mobilizing soldiers was not a good method either. It was also much more advantageous for knights to withdraw in a dangerous situation.

Moreover, now it was not a single type of monster, but also large monsters were appearing.

“The soldiers will not move. A total of three knight orders will move. First, 100 Lighthouse Knights and 100 Knights Hospitaller will move as one team, with one side led by General Bastien and the other by Kelvin.”

After checking the map, I designated the direction for the two to move. The range was not too wide and was limited to a range where they could move from the Arthur Domain’s main base. The range would gradually widen as they continued to hunt anyway.

“Who will be in charge of the remaining team?”

Rogério looked at me with a hopeful gaze.

“Me.”

At my single word, everyone nodded in agreement.

“Who will you be taking?”

The 100 Lighthouse Knights and 400 Knights Hospitaller would be used to defend the main base.

“Including the elves, dwarves, druids, and Kirk. I will take only one of the most skilled from each race.”

A special detachment moving with a total of about 10 people was the core of the personnel I was moving.

As soon as the personnel were organized, the people of the Arthur Domain began to carry out their respective roles without a moment's hesitation. Without any particular words, they moved organically as if they had always done so.

‘The more I see them, the more amazing they are.’

Dexter, who was standing next to Marquis Nigel and supporting their work, felt a strange sense of relief at being a part of this place as he watched the many people working like machines.

***

The Lighthouse Knights and the Knights Hospitaller, moving in two prongs, began to quickly clean up the monster colonies in the north.

Having experienced real combat through numerous monsters on Saraban Island and having been supplied with suitable weapons for them, their monster hunting speed was far beyond the normal level.

“This place is also cleaned up.”

After cleaning up all the colonies where about 100 monsters were gathered, a knight finished his report to Kelvin.

“Let’s clean up here for today, set up camp nearby for now, and then proceed to the next course.”

“Understood.”

No matter how quickly they were cleaning up the monsters, in an environment where it was unknown what would happen, the stance of the Arthur Domain was that stable cleanup was the key to the operation.

“By the way, I wonder how far General Bastien has moved?”

“He must have moved at a similar level to us.”

From the main castle, they sent a map that was updated once every 3 to 7 days, showing the location of the monsters and the current operational area in detail.

The new type of map I had devised was extremely accurate, reducing damage during operations and making their next movements clear.

“By the way, my lord, isn’t this at the level of a natural disaster?”

In fact, the number of monsters I was cleaning up, moving with just 10 people, was much greater than Kelvin and Bastien, who were leading 200 knights.

“It was always like that, but these days, I often think that my liege is not human.”

There were times when I felt too distant from them from a certain point.

“By the way, I think it’s too easy. Haven’t we cleaned up almost 10 of their colonies so far?”

Embraga, the son of Definir and now firmly established as a pillar of the Lighthouse Knights, commented on the current situation.

“It’s certainly strange, but…”

Kelvin also had a feeling that something was strange, but the result of years of research on them was that while monsters might gather and attack, they couldn’t use strategy and tactics like humans, so it was difficult to find any particular abnormalities.

“For now, we have no choice but to expand the range carefully. It’s not like they’ll set traps and try to kill us.”

Kelvin’s conclusion was that there would be no major problems if they paid more attention to reconnaissance and scouting and were careful. And so, Kelvin and the 200 knights, who had taken a sufficient rest through camping, began to move towards the next target.

“Commander, we can clean up here quickly and take a little rest.”

Here, temporarily named the 2nd Knight Division, Kelvin’s official title was the 2nd Knight Division Commander.

“First, since we talked about it yesterday, let’s do some more reconnaissance around here and then move.”

For some reason, there was a nagging feeling, so he scouted the surroundings more carefully. After confirming that there were no abnormalities after the reconnaissance, the 2nd Knight Division finished its preparations for a charge.

“All, charge!”

The moment the 200 elite knights charged at the 100 or so monsters, everyone thought that they would be able to clean up those disgusting things and rest in a little while.

That thought did not change even when they saw the monsters collapsing as if they were being crushed after the first clash. But, the situation began to flow in an unexpected direction.

“Commander! It’s an ambush!”

Poison darts that flew from somewhere covered the sky and began to fly towards the knight order.