Chapter 102 : Chapter 102
Chapter 102. If It Can't Be Done, Make It Happen (6)
Roden, who was staying at the Strutzen Inn after leaving Betalin Castle, thought to himself.
‘Are they doing well?’
The thing Roden was currently curious about was, of course, the situation of the Special Task Force Company.
He had ordered the Special Task Force Company to seize the food of the Bazar family that the Sahar Caravan was transporting.
It was Roden who had given this order.
Moreover, he hadn't just told them to seize the food.
He had also entrusted them with the task of swapping this food for 3rd-grade food and selling it to the Vinchih garrison, pretending to be the Sahar Caravan.
‘That's the only way the Bazar family's suspicion will turn into certainty.’
Roden already knew everything.
He knew that even though he had scoffed, the treasurer would report what he had heard from Roden to Deniz.
And that he would start an investigation, suspecting the Sahar Caravan.
Normally, the Sahar Caravan would have been cleared of this suspicion.
After all, they hadn't swapped the Bazar family's food like they had with the Tyrkollu family's.
But Roden used a trick to make this suspicion a reality.
That was why the Special Task Force Company was taking action now.
‘If things go according to the plan, the Sahar Caravan will be retaliated against with a 100% probability. After all, the Bazar family is not a place that needs to be mindful of others like the Tyrkollu family.’
Then, the Tyrkollu family would achieve their revenge, albeit indirectly.
At the same time, the Billem Caravan would also get a chance to open a food trade with the Bazar family.
Moreover, the Billem Caravan had a very high probability of securing a deal in this opportunity.
This was because, from the Bazar family's perspective, the Billem Caravan would be a grateful entity that had informed them of the Sahar Caravan's problems in advance.
And so, Roden waited in Vinchih, hoping for good news.
And one evening.
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door of the room where Roden was staying.
“Who is it?”
“It's me.”
Roden immediately identified the person who had knocked.
It was Chevalier.
As soon as he heard the answer, Roden got up from his seat and flung the door open.
“It's been a while, Company Commander.”
“It has. It's really been a while. Have you been well?”
“Yes. I've been well. As I've already reported through letters, we have occupied all the villages as per your orders, Company Commander. We are currently managing the villages by squad.”
“In other words, it means the 3rd Corps has also occupied all the cities around Kroxen Castle.”
“That is correct. However, it seems we have not yet succeeded in capturing Kroxen Castle.”
“I've heard that story too. It seems they ambitiously attempted a siege once but failed.”
“How did they attack? Did they dig a tunnel or something?”
“Things would have been a bit better if they had. It seems they tried to win over someone from inside the Imperial Army, just like when we took the Aequor Plains last time. But they failed. In fact, it seems they suffered great losses by attacking Kroxen Castle, trusting in that.”
“I see. Was it by any chance the staff officer's plan?”
“That's right. It was my brother's plan.”
“Then the staff officer's momentum must have been dampened a bit.”
“I suppose so.”
Roden shared the information he had gathered while trading with the Vinchih garrison with Chevalier.
It was as Chevalier had said.
The 3rd Corps' capture of Kroxen Castle was currently progressing sluggishly.
And the reason for that was due to the great damage Michael had suffered after attempting to capture Kroxen Castle once.
But that didn't mean that the possibility of the 3rd Corps capturing Kroxen Castle was completely gone.
Only a few months had passed since they had besieged Kroxen Castle, and the morale of the Allied Forces was still high overall, so there was still a chance.
Of course, whether to seize this chance was entirely up to the 3rd Corps.
In any case, now that they had finished exchanging information once, it was time to talk in earnest.
The quick-witted Chevalier, knowing what Roden wanted, reported.
“I will report on the operation we just carried out. We succeeded in securing the Sahar Caravan's food without a single casualty. In the process, we beheaded Yakub, the brother of the Sahar Caravan Leader.”
“Oh.”
“Afterward, we met the Archery Platoon Leader in Gerna and swapped the 1st-grade food for 3rd-grade food, and there was no problem in selling the food to the Vinchih garrison while disguised as the Sahar Caravan.”
“You did well, according to the plan.”
It was no exaggeration to say that Chevalier had carried out the most difficult operation.
While Roden was satisfied with this fact, he also felt a sense of how much things had changed.
In the past, he would have had to do all of this with his own strength, but not now.
‘It was a good idea to share the training methods, secret techniques, and secret arts with the Special Task Force Company. If I hadn't, it wouldn't have been easy to trust others and entrust them with tasks.’
Roden was once again able to realize how important it was to nurture the Special Task Force Company.
At the same time, he also felt a sense of regret.
He thought that if he could command a larger unit, he could accomplish even greater things.
He certainly felt the lack of manpower while carrying out this task.
This was especially true of having to hire caravan employees from the Empire's people and mercenaries from the Empire's people.
It was while Roden was having these thoughts.
Swoosh.
Chevalier suddenly took something out from his bosom and held it out towards Roden.
It was a book.
Presumably a Superior Swordsmanship Manual.
“What's this?”
“This is something we obtained from raiding the Sahar Caravan this time. Yakub had it. I thought it would be better to give it to you, Company Commander, and share it with the entire Special Task Force Company than for me to have it.”
“Ah. Thank you.”
It was an unexpected reward.
He was just about to run out of research topics.
The reason for that was none other than this.
It was because the research topic he had intended to carry out during this operation had already yielded results.
“The level of the Archery Platoon Leader I met in Gerna this time seemed to have risen a lot. The levels of the Archery Platoon soldiers who were with the Archery Platoon Leader also seemed considerable.”
“You saw correctly. There were some research results.”
Roden had intended to achieve one secondary result while returning to Vinchih with the Archery Platoon.
That was to raise the relatively weak combat power of the Archery Platoon.
Should I call it fortunate?
Roden had a lot of time on his hands.
The task of opening Billem Meatball branches in Alan, Gerna, and Julias.
The task of traveling to six domains and securing food trade contracts.
The task of visiting Jengin Castle and Betalin Castle to push out the Sahar Caravan, etc.
Roden's movements were a series of movements and waiting.
For that reason, Roden was able to set up several hypotheses in his head and test them.
In conclusion, he succeeded in obtaining practical results with such thought experiments.
‘That's how I figured out a way for the Archery Platoon to raise their aura level while practicing archery.’
The method Roden had figured out.
This method was to make archery practice itself a way to raise one's aura level.
‘The concept was simpler than I thought. I just had to change the weapon from a sword to a bow.’
The reason the Archery Platoon was having difficulty raising their level was that they were training in archery and swordsmanship separately.
And this was caused by the fact that while aura could be imbued in a sword, it was impossible to do so in a bow.
‘But if aura can be imbued in a bow, there's no reason to train separately.’
So Roden pondered on how to imbue a bow with aura.
And to solve this problem, he first had to figure out why aura couldn't be imbued in a bow.
And the reason was simple.
The material.
‘The materials mainly used to make bows, such as elm, maple, ash, and yew, have too low an aura conductivity. That's why you can't imbue aura with a bow.’
That didn't mean he could make a bow out of steel.
Steel lacked elasticity and flexibility, making it an unsuitable material for making bows.
‘In the end, it's realistically impossible to make a bow imbue aura by changing its material.’
For that reason, Roden needed a new idea to overcome this problem.