Ch.592Portable power bank

After returning from the meeting, I devoted myself to training with Hersella while waiting for my companions to return from their monster subjugation mission away from the island.

This combat method involved transferring control of my body to Hersella while manifesting the power of my achievement to further amplify physical abilities. Thanks to consistent training, the duration was gradually increasing, but I couldn’t confidently say it would be enough to defeat Orhan.

The time I could maintain the manifestation of my achievement had increased to about 20 seconds, but the enhancement efficiency was still inferior to when I directly used the power while in control of my body. Moreover, Durandal wouldn’t manifest its full capabilities when Hersella was in control.

Above all, this method wasn’t meant to be sustained for long periods. Hersella could only maintain control of the body until her Karma of Murder was depleted. Each time she used techniques that consumed significant Karma, the duration of the personality switch would shorten.

While her ability to utilize Karma was several times better than usual when she was in control… I couldn’t be certain that would be enough to win.

‘This seems insufficient…’

It wasn’t a matter of mastery or skill, but purely one of duration—meaning the total amount of power was lacking.

Unlike Hersella, who had accumulated Karma of Murder through repeated slaughter, I had avoided accumulating it by only facing those tainted by evil and Dark Mana.

[Killing about a thousand people would be enough… but you’d vehemently oppose that.]

Hersella also complained about the lack of power but didn’t try to accumulate Karma of Murder against my will.

Well, it wouldn’t matter even if she tried.

Accumulating Karma of Murder by killing a thousand people would destroy everything I had built so far, which would be disadvantageous for her as well. Such an act would turn even allies against us. Hersella understood this much.

—-

Three days later, I gathered my companions who had returned to the island after clearing out monsters and explained about the eastern region and Nidhogg.

“Jahan and Nigel will naturally come with me to the east, and I’ll also take Leonore. Leonore, how’s the Rose Cross Knights’ condition? Do you think they’ll be helpful?”

“Well, I’ve trained them to exceed the average Imperial Knight in overall skill, but given their numbers… at best, they could tie down one Master.”

The Rose Cross Knights consisted of forty-five members. I had left everything from recruitment to operations to Leonore, but it seemed difficult to recruit new members, perhaps because it was an all-female knight order.

Her standards might also be quite high.

Judging by her confidence that forty-five knights could tie down one Master, the individual skill level must be somewhere between the now-extinct Imperial 1st Knight Division and the Royal Guard.

If they had just five times the numbers, they could have been called an elite knight order that wouldn’t be outmatched anywhere. But with only about forty, they wouldn’t make much difference in a large-scale war, though they’d be fine for monster subjugation.

“How are they as cavalry?”

Leonore shook her head as if it was hopeless.

“I’ve trained them as you advised, but they’re no match for Ka’har. In close combat, they could manage with improved skills, but cavalry battles depend heavily on physical abilities.”

She meant that while they might hold their own fighting on foot, they’d be immediately overwhelmed if they attempted cavalry charges on horseback.

She was right, of course. In cavalry clashes, what determined superiority wasn’t precise swordsmanship but horsemanship and physical strength. At the same level of mastery, female knights would inevitably be at a disadvantage due to weight and strength issues.

“Besides, I’ve already sent them to the Barony of Median. Until now, the Imperial Knights have been protecting the territory, but that’s only due to Leopold’s goodwill, and they’ll soon depart for the east. Your territory should be protected by your knights. That’s only natural, right?”

…Come to think of it, that’s true.

It was an irrefutable point. The Barony of Median was awarded to me for my contributions to the Empire. I’d been so busy that I hadn’t even visited it, leaving its management to a proxy, so I’d half-forgotten about it.

So Leopold’s knights had been responsible for the territory’s defense until now? I should thank him.

“That’s… correct. Well done.”

“I understand you’re busy, but you should pay more attention to your territory. After all, we’re living off the income it generates—both you and us.”

As Leonore advised, the Median territory was my core source of income.

I did have territory in the north gifted by the Duke of Faelrun, and the rewards from monster subjugation weren’t small either, but those alone couldn’t cover the expenses for the Rose Cross Knights and Épée de Ciel.

If money was really tight, I could cut salaries, but it wouldn’t be right to underpay Master-level forces, even if they were friends. The closer the relationship, the better one should treat such matters.

—-

After informing everyone gathered at the mansion about what they needed to do for the time being, I departed for the east with Jahan, Nigel, Leonore, and Lena. It wasn’t an ordinary journey but a full-speed mobilization.

Not us, but our horses.

– Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

The sound of hooves thundered like a downpour. Speed like a gale. Bloody foam flowed between the bits. It was a gallop that disregarded not just stamina but life itself.

“Hmm…”

Jahan glanced at Nigel’s warhorse running alongside him with a disapproving look. Bloodshot eyes with burst capillaries and foam dripping out. It looked like it would die at any moment.

And it actually would.

Thanks to the tonic Ophelia had prepared, they were galloping without rest, but that medicine was an extreme drug that would burn through the horse’s entire remaining lifespan in just a few days.

In contrast, Jahan’s warhorse was in relatively stable condition despite maintaining the same speed. This was thanks to a technique that infused the Champion’s Karma into his mount to enhance the horse’s physical abilities.

I already understood the principle from Hersella’s tiresome explanations, and apparently, he had completely mastered it while roaming around for monster subjugation recently.

Since Jahan himself was bearing most of the burden placed on the horse, there was no need to give it the tonic.

Leonore was riding Cascador with Lena.

She couldn’t use a skill like Jahan’s, but Cascador was a type of summoned beast that could function without eating or sleeping, so there was no problem.

Me? Well…

“No matter how I look at it, I can’t get used to this. Is it even possible for a human to do that?”

Leonore glanced at me and let out an incredulous laugh. Nigel and Jahan simply expressed admiration, saying “As expected of Lord Haschal.”

“I can hear you.”

I retorted to Leonore’s joke while kicking off the ground. The earth beneath my feet shattered into pieces, scattering debris behind me.

Yes, I was simply running on my own feet!

Initially, I had planned to ride the unicorn with Lena, while Leonore would procure another warhorse like Nigel…

But I realized there was no need. My top speed exceeded that of most fine horses.

The only problem was that, being human after all, I couldn’t maintain top speed while sprinting all day long. But I solved this problem with what I considered a genius idea.

“Screech! Screech!”

“Stay still if you don’t want to die.”

The monster clutched in my left hand let out a shrill cry while squirming.

With its limbs severed by Durandal, leaving only the head and torso, its resistance was meaningless. I had even cut out all its teeth with the gums, so there was no worry about being bitten.

I slightly tightened my grip on its windpipe with my left hand and continued running, feeling continuous vitality flowing from Durandal gripped in my right hand.

Yes, this was the solution I had discovered. Instead of killing a weak monster, I captured it to use as a tool to continuously activate Durandal’s power.

When I actually tested it, as expected, while I couldn’t use spatial cutting, the power that provided nearly infinite vitality activated as I had predicted.

Thanks to this, I could maintain a speed exceeding that of most fine horses without tiring, able to run endlessly!

Though I couldn’t run for days on end since it consumed Karma… but that was the same for the other horses, so it wasn’t a problem.