Grandmaster (3)

“I plan to create a knight order myself.”

Ian would found the knight order personally, select companions, set missions, and determine its administrative and operational direction.

That way, Ian could prepare for war with the grand dukes of the demon realm much more proactively.

“What? Yourself!?”

Yuria’s face brightened oddly.

“No wonder! Even when you got so many tempting offers, you turned all of them down. Wow! So you had that in mind!”

She seemed secretly happy that Ian hadn’t joined anyone else’s order as a knight.

If he became the knight of another direct descendant or vassal lord, Ian would inevitably grow distant from Yuria.

“But what about approval? You need it to establish a knight order, don’t you?”

To found a knight order affiliated with House Hisperion, one needed the approval of the Heavenly Sword Lord, or a direct or collateral elder, or the lord of a vassal family.

And the one who granted approval would become the liege lord of that order.

If you received the approval of the Heavenly Sword Lord, it was a knight order directly under the Lord.

If you received approval from a collateral elder, it would be under that elder’s direct command.

If you received a vassal family lord’s approval, it would be directly under that vassal family.

Even if Ian would command and operate the knight order, the one with the highest authority over it would be the person granting approval.

In that sense, it would actually be far freer to establish a mercenary band rather than found a knight order.

But having received all sorts of support from the Heavenly Sword Lord and Aris, and monopolizing all the top rewards at the Sword Dragon Hall, to now suddenly form an independent mercenary band?

That would be betrayal toward the Lord, and Aris would surely be furious.

If Ian were already the head of House Greysel, he could have established a completely independent knight order, but that was impossible at present.

Therefore, even if there were some limitations, he needed to establish a knight order as part of Hisperion with someone’s approval.

“Whose approval will you ask for? Have you decided?”

“Yes.”

Of course.

“I was planning to ask you, lady Yuria.”

“Huh! What!”

Yuria released her back-hug and stepped forward.

“Really!? If you’d planned that, you should have told me sooner! I had no idea!”

Yuria grabbed Ian’s hands.

“Truly? You mean you were going to join me?”

Saying he would form his knight order with Yuria’s approval was the same as swearing loyalty to her.

“Yes. If you allow it, milady.”

“I, I’d love that, of course! Everyone in Hisperion wants you! I’m no different! But…”

Compared to other direct descendants, Yuria had less.

She was the youngest, and she didn’t have a birth mother supporting her from behind.

Wouldn’t Ian regret choosing her later?

Ian could easily obtain approval directly from her father and establish a knight order under his patronage.

That would guarantee much more support and stronger authority.

‘… But…’

Could she just give up on Ian so easily?

Could she just stand by and watch as he went to someone else?

‘No!’

Of course not.

After living with Ian for three years, he had become truly indispensable to Yuria.

She didn’t want to grow distant from him, much less to see him go to another direct descendant.

She wanted him to stay as the person closest to her, and in order to do that, she had to seize this opportunity.

The chance that Ian had chosen her.

She had to.

‘That’s right…!’

Yuria shook her head to shake off her stray thoughts.

‘I just have to make sure he’ll never regret this!’

She would never let Ian regret choosing her.

“Good choice! Ian! You’re a genius! Choosing me!”

Ian smiled.

“You flatter me.”

After graduation, the rumor that Ian had become Yuria’s knight spread quickly.

Ian established a knight order with Yuria’s approval.

He named it the Dawn Order.

It meant they would drive away darkness when the deepest night descended, and simultaneously symbolized a new beginning and hope.

And a month later.

As winter reached its peak, February arrived.

Ian started his new life, no longer as a Sword Dragon Hall student, but as the commander of the Dawn Order.

* * *

Quite a lot had changed.

First of all… Charlotte left.

“Young master Ian…! Thank you so much for everything…!”

The disciplinary action imposed by the Heavenly Sword Lord had ended.

“No, I’m the one who received much help. Thank you, for all this time.”

“Bwaaah… Lady Lotte…!”

Sophia wept, hugging departing Charlotte and rubbing her cheek against her in sorrow.

Sophia was having a particularly hard time parting with Charlotte.

Sophia was already affectionate, and having lived together for four years, her attachment had grown deep.

“It’s not like we’ll be apart forever… Sophia.”

Surprisingly, Charlotte’s eyes also welled with tears.

Though her pride kept her from showing it, she too seemed to find it hard to part from Sophia.

In their previous lives, the two were almost unrelated, but in this life, who would have thought they’d grow so close?

“Then, I shall see you again another time…! Young master Ian! And if… if you ever need my help, you must come to Heavenly Gold Palace!”

For some time, Charlotte had repeatedly suggested Ian go to Heavenly Gold Palace with her.

In the end Ian refused until the end, and Charlotte seemed quite disappointed.

“Yes. Lady Charlotte, please have a safe journey.”

Spending four years together, Ian’s ill feelings from his previous life had largely faded.

He’d learned that Charlotte was much more timid than she appeared, and that her prickly exterior in fact stemmed from a fear of being underestimated.

That’s why she had become so close to Sophia, who offered her boundless acceptance and affection.

And the betrayal in their past lives…

Given the circumstances then, maybe Charlotte’s betrayal of Yuria wasn’t entirely her own fault.

Timid Charlotte was just afraid.

So she betrayed Yuria, and in the end, she too died miserably at her siblings’ hands.

Now, Ian understood her.

Not that his heart had opened completely to her—far from it.

But Charlotte was now Sophia’s best friend, and still the Heavenly Sword Lord’s beloved child.

Therefore, out of duty and responsibility, not simple affection.

Charlotte was now also among those Ian needed to protect.

― Drrrrr…

After a brief farewell like that,

Charlotte rode her carriage back to her own villa, Heavenly Gold Palace.

Now, as a direct descendant, she would participate fully in politics and oversee family affairs.

‘I have work to do—it’s busy.’

As commander of the Dawn Order, Ian had a mountain of things to do.

He needed to recruit new companions as knights, and find a building for their headquarters.

Once the order was properly established, preparations for war against the demon realm’s grand dukes would begin immediately.

Catch those who needed catching in advance, kill those who needed killing beforehand, and obtain in advance anything necessary to counter their evil magic in the future.

‘The most urgent priority is…’

To reach Grandmaster.

It had been three years since Ian began private training with Aris, but he hadn’t reached Grandmaster yet.

‘I knew from the start this wasn’t a task that could be settled in a year or two.’

No matter how talented, reaching the supreme realm wasn’t so easy.

But now everything was nearly coordinated.

With just a little more adjustment to the ratio of the ten attributes in his dantian, he felt he could finally break through the wall to Grandmaster and reach the supreme realm.

‘It’s just a matter of time.’

The hard parts were done; all that was left were simple trial and error.

At the latest, within three months, he’d finish fine-tuning and become a Grandmaster.

‘And then, next…’

He needed to find a headquarters for the Dawn Order.

Now that he was no longer a guest of Hisperion but a knight of Yuria, he couldn’t rely on staying at Lunabreeze forever.

Of course, the Heavenly Sword Lord had welcomed his continued stay as long as he wanted, but it was a matter of Yuria’s honor.

If a direct descendant, now an adult, continued living in a guest annex without a personal villa, many vassals and collateral branches might see that as incompetence and look down on Yuria.

So he had to get a castle.

One that maintained Yuria’s status, and could comfortably house a great number of companions.

‘And I need to hire staff and cooks to manage the household.’

He planned to get all the basics set, so companions could come without worry.

‘I also need to build facilities to imprison and exploit demons—to start now if I want to use them properly later.’

Capture demons, lock them up, feed them cheap elixirs to produce demonic energy, extract that, and process it into magic power—a magic power farm.

This would require collaborating with the mages of the Heavenly Tower for design.

There was a lot to do.

‘Diligently… better hurry…!’

There were only about seven or eight years left until the demon realm’s grand dukes began their full-scale invasion.

A short time.

* * *

Two months later.

Ian successfully achieved resonance between aura and will, reaching the threshold of Grandmaster.

“I did it…!”

Ian gazed with satisfaction at the pure white condensation of enhanced energy that bloomed at the tip of Flostilla’s sword.

‘Now all I have to do is amass aura massively.’

To break through to the demigod realm would require a special enlightenment, but since the wall to Grandmaster was down, all he needed to reach Grandmaster’s highest rank was immense mana and simple repetition.

Of course, it wasn’t just a matter of “a lot”—the required aura was truly astronomical.

Simply calculated, even the legendary celestial elixir, the Millennial Gold Essence, would require at least 265 pieces, at the bare minimum.

That would mean attending Sword Dragon Hall for 133 years and earning first place at least 265 times to collect enough.

Even if one swept up all the world’s rare elixirs, it was questionable whether they could amass enough in a lifetime.

And the price was so astronomical that it would take the wealth of a whole nation—or still might not be enough.

But for Ian, this was no problem at all.

On the contrary, it was an incredibly easy task.

‘Because I have the Authority of Projection.’

Currently, Ian’s rank was the threshold of Grandmaster.

The magic power required to duplicate one Millennial Gold Essence with the Authority of Projection was exactly that of a early-stage Grandmaster.

In other words, Ian could duplicate one Millennial Gold Essence per day.

‘To gather all the elixirs needed to reach Grandmaster highest rank…’

It wouldn’t even take a year.

Moreover, Ian didn’t just have the metallic Millennial Gold Essence.

Fire attribute’s Phoenix’s Heartblood, water attribute’s Deepsea Dragon’s Pearl, wind attribute’s Wind God’s Orb Shard, earth attribute’s Terramorg’s Heart, wood attribute’s Three Hundred Year Fruit of the World Tree, darkness attribute’s Millennium Dark Crystal…

Heavenly Dawn Technique for the light attribute, Sky Thunder, Deep Clouds technique for the lightning attribute, Celestial Frost Spirit Art for the ice attribute…

With all these various elixirs and techniques perfectly collected, there was no problem with coordinating the elemental aura in his dantian in the future, either.

In other words,

‘The time needed to reach Grandmaster’s highest rank will be, at the very longest, two years.’

The moment of Ian’s great leap had come again.

————-= Clacky’s Corner ————-=

I’m guessing something is going to happen that will fast track the arrival of the demons…

Will there be a Hisperion civil war before that like the last life?

Also changing Sky Thunder, Deep as the Clouds to Sky Thunder, Deep Clouds…

It sounds more snappy…

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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