Emperor of Steel

After his training, Luke headed back to the Fortress.

Seeing him use the Fly magic around the Fort was no longer strange to the soldiers.

It was because Luke had gone out for patrol every day.

“Salute! Did you have a good time out during the patrol?”

The officers in the administration asked Luke upon his arrival.

“Yeah, nothing happened in the fortress while I was away, right?” Asked Luke.

“The Northern Army Command sent supplies, arrows, and other military necessities.”

“Did the Gigant come?”

“This time too, they haven’t sent it.”

‘Huh, I knew it!’ Thought Luke to himself.

The Army Command sent them other needs and supplies shortly, but they were very stingy when it came to supplying the Fortress with a Gigant, which was considered to be the game-changer in wars.

They didn’t even bother sending the parts of them.

They had sent the excuse saying that the Fortress didn’t need a Gigant and that the other units needed them much desperately, but it was definite that something was going on.

A lot had changed in the Fortress over the past 3 months.

The walls of the Fortress, which seemed like they would crumble at any moment, were built again, and the strong walls were holding soldiers on them.

It wasn’t just that.

“Haab!”

“Hat!”

The roars of the knights and the sharp movements of their swords showed that they weren’t resting any time soon.

‘Huhu, the knights are getting better.’

The knights who were terribly smashed in the match had recently set to practice.

However, the underlings of Luke were under extensive training when compared to the other knights.

A month ago, Luke had made an offer to a few.

Just an hour a day, silver sword would be taught.

The Silver Sword was a skill that belonged to the Knights of Rakan and wasn’t better than the Gold Sword, yet it still had a class of its own.

Knights who were thirsty for higher swordsmanship like the nobles eagerly welcomed Luke’s offer and were engaged in training from dawn to late nights.

‘Even the officers come out and practice together?’ Thought Luke.

Some officers who were knights joined the other knights who were in training.

As the knights’ officers joined in, the parade looked full.

‘I’ll have to keep an eye on them and use those who are good.’

Thinking so, Luke moved to his office.

Philip was looking over at some papers when he welcomed him.

“You have come, Lord.”

“Yeah, how’s the Gold Sword teaching going on?” Luke asked.

“At first, they seemed very baseless and hard to follow, but now they seem to have grabbed the technique.”

The ones like Kaper and those who took the offer were practicing Gold Sword in the Commander-only airfield.

Just like Philip himself in the past, the knights weren’t able to fully understand the Gold Sword initially, as it emphasized the flow of mana over the form of a swordsman.

But with the detailed explanation from Philip and the practical matches, they were beginning to understand and use the skills.

“They are faster at catching than one might think.” Said Luke.

“Weren’t these the ones that Lord had himself picked? If they can’t do this much, then they would get killed right away.” Said Philip.

“Huhu!”

A few moments later, Philip reported,

“Oh one more, there was a report from the group which went to scout the North.”

At the Torlot Fortress, scouts were sent to Volga Republic every two days.

The knights and soldiers mixed with the surroundings, and the ones who examined the situation in their land and had returned, such people had a strange story.

“It has been stated that enemies are gathering at the Krom Fortress, the number has been said to be over 10,000 units… will the war start at last?”

“Gathering soldiers and units don’t exactly have to mean that war would start. But knowing in advance isn’t bad, so let’s send in more scouts.” Told Luke.

“Understood.”

“By the way, what about the defense of the Fortress?” Asked Luke.

Luke had stated before that a war might break out and asked for the defense of the Fortress to be enhanced.

“Large caliber artillery for the large Gigants were placed on the walls, and the outside walls were placed with large scale magic circles, such Explosion Mines. Erwin had helped out a lot.” Said Philip.

Erwin never stepped out actively, she never did anything except for going around by staying next to Luke.

But she did most of what Luke had asked of her.

One of them was to install a large-scale magic circle outside the Fortress.

“The performance upgrade of the Gigant?”

“She improved all of them by using the magic stones that Lord has regenerated. The wizards keep asking me whenever they see me about why the magic circles have been installed.”

After all, if a war would break out, the enemy would attack the Fortress with Gigant power.

In preparation for that, Luke had attempted to maximize the performance of the Fortress by installing large scale magic circles.

The magic circle used, had some of the schematics used in the Veritas Magic Tower’s new Hero-class Gigant.

“Well, it’s a shame that Erwin would have been much helpful if she was a professional Iron Mage.” Said Luke.

“Yeah. If she was a 7 circle Iron Mage, then she can easily make a Knight class.” Responded Philip.

Luke staring at the defense plan of the Fortress, looked over at Philip and asked,

“Would you come out if you’re done with everything?”

“I like it. Would you like to use your body or ride the Gigant?”

Philip asked the question almost immediately as if he had been waiting for the question.

They always went for a fencing training whenever they had time.

Sometimes they used swords, and the other times they used Gigants.

In any case, they had fought dozens of times to develop their skills and fill in the gaps the two had.

“Today, we do Gigant.” Answered Luke.

After leaving the office, the two headed to the Gigant Arena.