The Khan's First Lesson
We had just crushed the Sel Late army in a light stomp, and it had been about ten days since then.
The training ground on the plains was filled again, and we were wrestling while spreading out the knight training manuals that the lord bastards had gifted us.
“Temur, I did exactly as you said—closed my eyes and concentrated on my core.”
Beike wiped the sweat from his forehead and spoke with a sheepish expression.
“My belly got all hot, and I thought it was mana gathering… but it was just the fart I was about to let out after eating yesterday’s wild boar meat.”
“Puhahaha!”
“Beike, you absolute beast! This is too funny!”
The warriors training around us doubled over laughing and rolled on the ground from Beike’s honest confession.
I pressed my brows together and let out a sigh.
Even so, Beike was one of a kind.
Thanks to the detailed explanations in the manuals and the knowledge I had picked up from reading so many martial arts novels and fantasy books in my previous life, I had picked up mana quickly.
Orhan and Sarnai and I were starting to feel the flow of mana.
And the first one to sense it, Sarnai, personally checked our bellies and backs, pouring in mana and teaching us the sensations.
“Haha! Chief! Sorry, but I have no idea what the hell you’re saying! Can’t we just hit them hard and smash them?”
“That’s right! The knight brats’ sword techniques are way too flashy and don’t suit us at all!”
For these testosterone-overloaded animals, fine-grained mana control and precise swordsmanship was no different from a pearl necklace around a pig’s neck.
My head understood it, but my body instinctively rejected the delicacy and wanted to smash everything with raw power—it drove me insane.
How am I supposed to do this… The bones are perfect, but there’s no way to cook them.
The manuals were excellent, but we desperately needed a specialized instructor who could control these beast-like warriors and sharpen them to knightly standards.
Even the warriors who had awakened their mana were still beginners, after all.
That was why I was seriously pondering how to cram mana into these stupid idiots when—
“Temur! I mean, Chief! Guests have arrived!”
One of the warriors on guard ran up panting from the training ground.
“Guests? Who in the middle of the plains suddenly showed up?”
I headed toward the tent with Beike and Sarnai, curiosity thick in my veins.
And the moment I saw the unexpected face standing in front of the tent, I froze in genuine shock.
It was that foreign merchant from the Sel Leysia raid, the one who had been shaking like a leaf and peeing his pants in the corner.
The principal of Remer Trade, dressed in a flamboyant silk turban and loose-fitting clothes that evoked the Middle East from my previous life, stood there with a genial smile.
“Great warrior of the plains! It has been some time—three weeks, roughly?”
Remer cupped his hands in an exaggerated gesture and bowed deeply.
I returned the greeting casually and asked bluntly.
“You survived by the skin of your teeth, yet here you are again. Did you write your will and crawl back out?”
Despite my harsh tone, Remer’s face didn’t even twitch. He kept that warm smile intact.
In that short encounter he had completely read the plains people—our straightforward, somewhat simple nature.
He skipped the excuses and got straight to the point.
“Ah, no way. The great warriors of the plains have taken an interest in the vast amounts of gold and silver and countless spoils taken from Sel Leysia and Sel Iritas.”
He openly displayed greed for wealth.
“Oh? So you’re proposing a trade with our Ibin tribe?”
“It would be an honor if you grant it. At the time I was so terrified I had to beg for my life in a most shameful manner, but even so, I own the principal of Remer Trade, a recognized trade house in the northern Tonekante Kingdom.”
Remer shrugged with pride.
His jewelry and aura of wealth were definitely not the mark of a common wandering merchant.
That only made it more suspicious.
“If you really are the head of a massive trade house, what reason would you have for crawling into the plains with just the goods from two of our raided territories and even staking your life on it?”
Remer smiled faintly under my skeptical gaze.
“Exactly as you observed. It is not merely a transaction. Consider it an investment.”
“Investment?”
“Yes. The Silk Road is the golden pathway through which we alone can trade with the rulers of southern Nertei. I wish to use a portion of that route—slightly more comfortably and safely—by offering a ‘gift,’ or rather, an investment.”
“Using the Silk Road comfortably… Indeed, if we exert influence over Sel Leysia and Sel Iritas, the central powers who must trade with the Kingdom Alliance will certainly have a headache.”
With complete control over the single greatest artery.
His scheming mind had penetrated the underground life of the plains with perfect accuracy.
And having already calculated that the western lords’ order was collapsing and I would become the new ruler at the entrance to the Silk Road.
He had rushed forward first to stake his line.
I found myself liking this clever merchant’s proposal more and more.
“Fine. Calling it an investment isn’t bad at all. So, what kind of investment can your trade house offer us? Food or gold coins are not what we need right now.”
“Anything you desire is possible. Weapons, rare specialties, the best—simply name it.”
Remer thumped his chest confidently.
I glanced sideways at the still-idiotic warriors on the training ground, then spoke.
“Is there any chance you could send a superb knight instructor who can hammer mana breathing and aura manipulation into the skulls of these unintelligent beasts so thoroughly that even a fool could understand it?”
“Hmph… To a fool, swordsmanship.”
He pretended to consider it seriously, then smiled broadly.
“Of course! Immediately, I will dispatch a portion of the finest escort guards under my trade house to the plains. And… I will add my eldest daughter as well.”
“Daughter?”
Remer’s sudden mention of a daughter made me frown, so he hurried to clarify.
“Haha, no misunderstanding. The girl is the real deal—a former Third Knight Commander of the Tonekante Kingdom, where wars erupt at any moment. She is more than capable of handling and training rough men.”
“……”
A trade house principal’s daughter serving as a kingdom’s knight commander.
It was a subtle flaunt of power: not a mere large trade house, but one backed by a national army.
But what bothered me even more was something else.
“Even if she is well-off, sending your daughter to a distant place doesn’t make sense. The west is more dangerous than the north.”
At my openly warning glare aimed at his so-obvious scheme, Remer simply smiled without a trace of embarrassment and rubbed his hands together.
“Ah, you must understand. This precious daughter I have raised with the utmost care… compared to her becoming a concubine in some stupid noble house, wouldn’t it be far more valuable for her to become the concubine of the great warrior who will rule the true west?”
An answer that was honest to the point of brazen.
And I found it to my liking, so I laughed heartily.
“Kihahaha! I like it. Far better to lay the scheming bare than to spin sweet words like the nobles.”
“I will take that as praise.”
“Good. The deal is sealed. Summon my eldest daughter and the guards here immediately. However.”
I wiped the smile from my face and stared at Remer.
“If that instructor cannot fill the levels of our warriors, your entire trade house will never set foot in the west again.”
“I shall remember, great warrior. You may rest assured.”
***
Exactly one week later.
From the distant plains came a massive dust cloud as the Tonekante trade caravan appeared.
Surrounding it were dozens of heavily armed men guarding dozens of carts overflowing with the so-called “small gifts” Remer’s trade house had sent.
They were not ordinary caravan guards. Even from a glance, they radiated an aura of elite soldiers who had mastered proper mana breathing and aura manipulation.
Yet what caught my eye most was something else.
To be honest, I had secretly suspected Remer—such a cunning old man—would not so easily send his own daughter as a concubine.
She came from the rugged northern desert kingdom and had even taken the position of knight commander…
I had imagined she would be as towering and manly as an orc, or with skin like charcoal.
But the moment the carriage door opened and a woman stepped out, my crude preconception shattered like glass.
Smooth bronze skin, lightly tanned by the desert sun.
Sharp yet deep foreign eyes, and a body of perfect proportion.
She wore a semi-transparent silk veil over her face and mouth, but the beauty beyond that thin fabric was so overwhelming it could have slapped the cheeks of the heroines in any romance novel.
With a gracefully curved shamshir at her waist, she approached with knightly discipline yet elegant grace.
“Amira, former Third Knight Commander of the Tonekante Kingdom. It is an honor to meet the great western ruler, Chief Temur.”
Amira—her voice was as captivating as her name.
I nodded as casually as I could, hiding my surprise.
“Welcome. Thank you for coming so far.”
“Save the praise for after training. As you have heard… the warriors of the plains have excellent spirit, but they have no idea how to refine the vessel for mana.”
Amira’s gaze swept over the training ground where the beast-like warriors screamed and chopped the air with crude axes and swords.
“That is why I have been summoned. Please teach these wild stallions the breath of mana.”
“Understood.”
Amira bowed briefly, then gestured to the escort knights lined up behind her.
Before the order finished, dozens of elite knights spread out in perfect unison.
They began correcting our tribe warriors’ stances and drilling basic breathing.
Truly the perfect control of a royal knight commander.
“Then I will leave the basics to my subordinates… and personally instruct Chief Temur and the two gentlemen here.”
Amira’s gaze moved to me and then to Beike standing beside me, and to old Toghrul.
Old Toghrul stepped forward with his characteristic boisterous laugh.
“Kihahaha! A royal knight commander woman! This is interesting! Are you ready to have your bones broken? Show me your swordsmanship, woman!”
“……”
Amira didn’t even blink an eyebrow at the old man’s provocation.
Instead, her eyes sparkled with pride—as if she was acknowledging herself as one of the strong ones recognized by the plains people.
“Very well. Though it is no boast, my skill is that of the first squad leader, had I not been a woman. I will demonstrate.”
She slowly drew the shamshir from her waist. Brown aura flared along the blade.
Beike, who had been staring blankly at the exotic beauty until a moment ago, broke out in cold sweat and gripped the axe handle tightly with both hands.
“This… looks like it’s going to be a brutally difficult lesson, Temur.”
“Shut up and grab your weapon. If you don’t want to get beaten up by a woman.”
I could feel it instinctively.
While training under her, there would be no days of rest.