Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

"Seriously, what’s going on with this whole thing?" Aljom followed behind Ataf, feeling uneasy since the beginning—they had previously thought that this kid was just an assistant priest from the Church, someone whose name they’d heard, albeit someone who the Church and the Mowish family were likely just trying to gild. Such things were common these days, and over a dozen commanders of the defense legions had already agreed that if this kid didn’t act sensibly on the battlefield, they’d just kick him to the side—As a commander of the Guards Army, Ataf brought a division here, they were guarding both flanks, with several groups from the Western Province deciding to take the lead in the central army.

The division under Ataf couldn’t be completely worn down, they were heading north to fight the Chaos, dying in a battle with the Black Orcs would be a pointless loss.

Then things turned out to be somewhat unexpected—they got word that this youngster was leading an army for the first time.

This gave everyone a headache because leading an army among the young Nobles of Farole was the most important ’ritual’, where the leader of the army was typically the progeny of a Great Noble, unmarried, and they must have their fiancée present alongside them.

This was usually arranged for the fiancée’s family to confirm whether this marriage alliance was promising, and if the performance on the battlefield was not up to standard, then the woman’s family had the right to call off the engagement with no blame attached.

Vice versa as well: if the man felt that the woman could not help him on the battlefield, or even worse, hindered him, he too had the right to call off the engagement,

However, not following the ritual and not sending the daughter over in the first place was the fault of the woman’s family, and it would result in scorn from nearly all families. If due to this the man decided to start a war, the woman’s family’s allies would not join—their actions would betray the interests of the entire Nobility.

These commanders had no choice, nor did they know how to explain to Mr. Malin, and nobody could really understand what their sovereign meant by having Malin lead the army while not allowing his daughter to come.

Were they supposed to have him killed?

Not to mention whether the commanders had the heart to do so, just looking at commander Ataf made it clear it was impossible. He not only knew this kid named Malin but also seemed to have a very good relationship with him, making them suspect that this kid might be from some Major Noble family in the North.

Then, not long after, a Paladin of the Church of Justice joined them, riding a sacred warhorse.