Chapter 73: Gathering Interest (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 73: Gathering Interest (2)
A Royal Knight.
As part of the personal guard serving the king, it was the highest honor a knight could ever achieve.
It wasn't a position offered to just anyone. Bentner’s voice brimmed with pride as he elaborated. "To be entirely honest, offering a direct appointment as a Royal Knight is highly unusual. Normally, one must pass a rigorous royal exam testing both character and skill to even grasp at the honor. However, we intend to make an exception for you, Lord Roman Dmitry. If you travel to the capital right now, kneel before His Majesty the King, and swear your allegiance, you will be inducted into the Royal Knights without a single test."
Had Roman been some greenhorn youth ignorant of how the world worked, he might have accepted the offer with tears of profound gratitude.
But his reaction shattered those expectations.
"Is that all?"
"...Are you refusing?" Bentner asked, visibly flustered.
Roman smiled. "Isn't it only natural to refuse? I have never once desired the honor of being a knight. As the eldest son of the Dmitry family, I live without want here in the northeast. Why on earth would I travel all the way to the capital to play the sacrificial pawn as a Royal Knight? Your offer was flawed from the very beginning. If you knew the Dmitry family was the wealthiest powerhouse in the northeast, you shouldn't have come with an offer that grants nothing but empty honor."
It was a completely unexpected response.
Bentner was at a loss for words. It was a glorious position that every swordsman coveted! He had fully expected the Dmitry family to accept it with tears of joy, yet Roman’s reaction was cynical to the point of being ice-cold.
In his heart, Bentner wanted to flip the table and storm out. But remembering the dire circumstances of the king who had given him this order, he swallowed his pride.
"...If there is something you desire, please speak. His Majesty the King sincerely wishes to appoint you, Roman Dmitry, as a Royal Knight. Do you want a noble title? Once you prove your loyalty in the capital, the Dmitry family will be bestowed a new title. A grand mansion will be prepared for you, and you will enjoy not just honor, but countless other privileges. Think carefully. The moment you agree to become a Royal Knight, you will live a life you could never experience here in Dmitry."
He had taken a massive step back. To recruit Roman, Bentner had laid out all his best cards.
Even so, Roman's response remained utterly cynical.
"Is that the royal family's best?"
Bentner's expression stiffened.
The first rejection, he could understand. A simple offer to become a Royal Knight might not entice the wealthy eldest son of the Dmitry family.
But this was too much. He had just promised immense wealth and a higher status in exchange for serving by the King of Cairo's side. Yet Roman's gaze—still silently asking, Is that all?—grated on Bentner's nerves.
"You seem to be gravely mistaken about something," Bentner snapped. "The reason His Majesty wants you is because he highly values your future potential, not your present self. A position as a Royal Knight, a new title, a mansion in the capital—these are incredibly generous rewards, far more than you currently deserve. And yet, you give me such an answer? Just how great of a person do you think you are to harbor such bottomless greed?!"
His patience had finally snapped. To him, Roman's attitude was sheer arrogance.
Just because someone became a 3-Star Swordsman in their twenties didn't guarantee they would ever reach the realm of a 5-Star Swordsman or higher. The Royal Knights were the strongest military force in the Cairo Kingdom, yet this countryside noble was overestimating himself far too much.
The atmosphere turned icy. But despite Bentner's furious glare, Roman's expression didn't shift in the slightest.
"You are the one who is mistaken, not me."
"...What do you mean by that?!"
"Five days ago, a representative from Count Gregory's family came to see me. In exchange for swearing allegiance to the Gregory family, he promised me a mansion in the capital, thousands of pyeong of land, and mountains of gold and silver. Furthermore, they offered to bind our families by blood through a political marriage."
Gregory.
Bentner's face twitched.
The Kronos Empire faction has already made a move?
Count Gregory was not part of the Royal Faction. He openly aligned himself with the Kronos Empire, making him a despicable traitor in Bentner's eyes.
Roman wasn't finished.
"Three days ago, the Denver family sent an envoy. They offered to become my patron. In exchange for fully providing all the resources I need to develop as a swordsman, they proposed an equal partnership rather than a master-servant dynamic. Do you think that's all? Just yesterday evening, I met with someone from the Benedict family. They made an even more extraordinary offer. They promised to forge a solid bond with my family through a political marriage and elevate Dmitry to a Viscount family within a month. Naturally, rewards like a capital mansion and treasures were included as basic benefits—so obvious they barely needed mentioning."
The Denver family belonged to the Valhalla Empire faction.
And the Benedict family went without saying. They were the core of the Noble Faction. In reality, they posed a far more direct threat to the royal family than the forces of either foreign empire.
The traitors' clutches have already reached him.
It was devastating. Bentner felt his vision going dark.
He thought he had moved as quickly as possible the moment he confirmed the rumors, but Cairo's traitors had beaten him to the punch.
Now he understood why Roman had rejected the offer and why he hadn't even blinked at the supposed rewards. If Bentner were in Roman's shoes, the royal family's proposal wouldn't have seemed the least bit attractive either.
Roman spoke again.
"The reason I am rejecting the royal family's offer is not simply because it lacks substance. While three other factions made their moves, the royal family remained completely oblivious to what was happening in Dmitry and naively presented an offer far inferior to the rest. That is why I asked you: Is it truly right for me to reject those three previous offers for the sole, empty honor of becoming a Royal Knight?"
At those words, Bentner's heart sank.
It was over. There was no way to persuade Roman now. With his side's incompetence laid bare, Bentner had no choice but to accept reality.
"...We were a step too late."
He let out a heavy sigh. With a defeated expression, he looked at Roman. "I admit our incompetence. But for the royal family, this was the best we could do. Marquis Benedict's Noble Faction, Count Gregory's Kronos Empire faction, and Count Denver's Valhalla Empire faction—they are all heinous traitors trying to swallow the Cairo Kingdom whole. They have seized power from within, blinding and deafening the royal family so we cannot properly govern. The only reason a full-scale rebellion hasn't broken out yet is because the Commander of the Royal Knights is renowned as the First Sword of Cairo. But no matter how hard we struggle, it is impossible for us to outpace those three factions."
Since it was already a lost cause, he poured out the miserable truth. His previously confident attitude had clearly been a facade; he now looked as though he might burst into tears at any moment.
"Cairo is a weak nation. In truth, even with the rewards I offered you, if the Noble Faction opposes them, there is no telling when we could actually bestow a new title upon your family. Yet, the reason I traveled such a long distance to find you is because only absolute martial strength can protect His Majesty the King of Cairo. I beg of you one last time. Will you not lend your strength to His Majesty? If we defeat the traitors and firmly establish the royal authority, we will never, ever forget your choice today."
A distant future. An uncertain promise. Appealing to emotion was the only option Bentner had left.
One kingdom, four factions.
It was a familiar dynamic.
The Heavenly Demon Cult. The massive organization that ruled the Demonic Cult had been divided into numerous factions, all viciously vying for the peak.
From the moment Baek Joong-hyuk, the 12th son of the Heavenly Demon, revealed his true worth, he had received endless offers from his older brothers. They all put forward incredibly attractive proposals in an attempt to recruit him, forcing him into a corner where he had to make a choice.
Back then, what choice did Baek Joong-hyuk make?
Did he grab the strongest lifeline? Or did he display his rebellious nature and react with open hostility?
It was neither. He knew from bloody experience that choosing any side would inevitably lead to trouble.
Roman spoke.
"The three previous offers, as well as the royal family's offer, hold little attraction for me. Therefore, I have no intention of accepting any of them. If the day ever comes when I choose a faction and swear my allegiance, it will be because I have experienced their worth firsthand and judged them worthy of my sword. So, please leave for today. If you want my loyalty, show me through actions, not sweet words you cannot guarantee. When that time comes, I will personally visit the royal palace to swear my allegiance."
Neutrality.
Roman had rejected every single offer. Since they were not yet in a hostile relationship, he deliberately avoided drawing a definitive line in the sand. He left a sliver of possibility open for all four factions, the royal family included.
"Do you truly mean that?"
"Yes."
Bentner's expression brightened. The fact that the door for dialogue remained open—that alone was a massive victory. Having thought it was completely over, Bentner spoke, his voice trembling with a shred of newfound hope.
"I understand. The Cairo royal family will fight to the bitter end to protect this nation's sovereignty. So, we will wait. When the day comes that you are ready to swear allegiance to His Majesty, we will welcome your choice with open arms."
Bentner refused to give up until the very end. Even at those words, Roman only offered a faint smile; he did not take the desperate hand reaching out to him.
*
Four offers. Four rejections.
The reactions of the other envoys had varied wildly. Ending things on a hopeful note like Bentner was relatively mild; some factions had even tried to pressure him with thinly veiled threats.
However, Roman maintained his stance regardless.
In the end, I have no intention of swearing allegiance to any of them. Since we are bound to become enemies anyway, leaving room for doubt is the best way to buy time. Until my true purpose is revealed, I need to use these ambiguous relationships to stall them while I build my strength.
Leaving a glimmer of hope for every faction came with a risk. The obvious downside was that once he finally chose a side, he would draw the intense, concentrated resentment of the other three factions who had wasted their time and effort on him.
But that problem did not apply to Roman.
By the time they realized he was impossible to recruit, all his preparations for war would already be complete. In that sense, the volatile political climate of the Cairo Kingdom was highly advantageous to him. Even though he had revealed a portion of his power, they couldn't easily crush him because they were too busy keeping each other in check.
It was a precarious tightrope walk, and Roman had just stepped onto the stage.
Blissfully unaware that Roman was an uncompromising predator, the factions would continue trying to woo him.
One thing was certain: the impact of the kingdom's ranking system was truly immense.
Even though he was still an unofficial ranker, the Dmitry estate was buzzing with envoys trying to recruit him almost every single day, as if they all shared the same secret informant. This was exactly why martial artists aspired to become rankers. The moment a person's name was etched onto that list, wealth and honor were guaranteed. It was why people struggled so desperately to secure even the lowest spot.
Eventually, the initial commotion settled down.
For now, Roman felt there hadn't been any truly extraordinary offers. Everyone had made proposals within the safe bounds of common sense; there were no true gamblers willing to bet everything solely on his potential.
That was, until a few days later—when a representative from the Valhalla Empire came to visit him once again.
