The Dungeon Master's
Chapter 203 - Training
...Farna Kingdom...
...Outside the Walls of a City...
“Smear up your ranks! What are you guys doing! Lift the shield to the level of the person next to you!”
“What are you doing! Attack it right! You won't be able to hit anything with such an ability!”
“Shoot well! Shoot!”
Thousands of people are practicing in some places.
Some appear to be practicing in forming a formation line. Some of them were practicing sword fighting against a wooden scarecrow. Others appear to be practicing with arrows.
They all trained hard.
Not only because they were afraid of a very cruel and terrible coach, but also because they were filled with the desire to repay Arlond's kindness.
“Your Majesty the King is truly extraordinary. Pay this much to be a soldier. Even giving retirement to Soldiers.”
“You're right. Not only that, I still remember the story of His Majesty the King defeating one of the demon higher ups. The fight...”.
When they were busy talking, the coach who noticed their behavior seemed to start approaching and shouting.
“If you have the energy to talk, then train hard!”
And so….
The entire place in the Farna Kingdom was now busy training new Soldiers. Everyone looks promising. There were even some rare talents that were immediately personally trained by the Veterans Coach.
In the Royal Palace….
Reinard city.
“Yang Mulia. Here is a report on the recruitment of soldiers who have been done for more than 2 weeks.”
“Yang Mulia. The following is a financial report that..”.
Arlond seems to be busy dealing with various things. He has not even Log Out after being in this game world for more than 7 days.
“Explain the details to me.” Reply Arlond briefly while looking at another file.
“North Region managed to recruit around 80,000 new Soldiers thanks to Clever charisma. While the Northeast Region managed to recruit 50,000 new Soldiers.” Obviously the Secretary of Defense.
“A little bit…. It was nowhere near the target. What about East and South?” Asked Arlond while giving a look filled with annoyance.
The Secretary of Defense who heard this looked terrified. How not, Arlond was very rare to show this kind of cold attitude even to his subordinates.
“Me-about it…. The Eastern Region had only obtained 20,000 new Soldiers. While the South Region..”.
He stopped his words for a moment as if unable to convey them to Arlond.
And Arlond? He only glanced sharply at the Defense Minister while saying.
“Less than 5,000 right? I just heard it from some administrator in the military section this morning.”
‘Glek!’
The Minister of Defense gulped down his saliva as he felt he had failed to live up to his Master's expectations.
But Arlond just ignored it.
“Continue with defense wall report and heavy equipment.” Speak Arlond briefly while flipping through the file in front of him.
“Ba-okay, Your Grace. For the defensive wall, we are deploying as much manpower as possible to build or improve it. It is likely to be completed in a month given how large the workforce is deployed.
As for the heavy equipment, we managed to make about 300 Onagers, 500 Balistas, and 80 Trebuchets. Special forces to operate and maintain all heavy equipment are well trained and ready to fight at any time.” The Minister of Defense was at length.
Until finally….
“Good work. Increase the recruitment of troops. I don't want to do something like forcibly mobilizing people to fight. Therefore, do well and train them as best you can.” Reply Arlond while continuing to pay attention to the file in front of him.
“Thank you very much for the compliment. We will work with all our might to meet your expectations, Your Majesty.” The Defence Minister replied and left immediately.
Then, now it is the Minister of Finance's turn to give his report.
“Yang Mulia. Of the 9,745,800 gold coins that have been allocated to the military…. There are only 4,132,000 gold coins left. That is all included to pay all troops including those who have just joined for 1 year. If it continues like this..”.
He seemed to tremble in explaining it. Not a trivial problem because now the Kingdom of Farna must issue about 4,500,000 gold coins every year just to pay for his entire army. Not included to address other needs such as the development of other sectors, infrastructure care, salaries of Kingdom employees and so forth.
While the annual income of the Kingdom of Farna from taxes?
With a total population of 16 million people and fairly low taxes, the Farna Kingdom only obtained about 4 million gold coins per year from taxes.
Although there are other revenues from the mining sector, crafts and so on, the total amount only reaches about 2 million gold coins because now the Farna Kingdom is in a bad condition.
Hence….
“This expenditure is too large. I know it. But based on the information obtained, we must sacrifice this to maintain the existence of the Farna Kingdom in this world.” Reply Arlond with a firm voice.
“But Your Majesty! With all the honor! If it continues like this then the Farna Kingdom will soon collapse!” Shouted the Minister of Finance.
Hearing that, Arlond fell silent.
How not. That's because he is well aware of it.
Now, the Farna Kingdom is faced with two equally tragic fates.
Destroyed in the invasion of the Kingdom of Salvation….
Or destroyed by running out of money….
...***...
...The Holy Forest...
...The Southwest Region of the Celestine Holy Kingdom...
In this very lush forest with towering trees…. There were 5 people walking leisurely. Although during the day, sunlight has difficulty penetrating the dense trees in this forest.
“Mr Eric. Relief in this place..” Cathy said as she watched the rock with the strange carving. He found the rock buried in the ground.
“Try me.” I said as I approached Cathy's place.
While Lucien and Elin were on standby from the attacks of wild animals that were here. Despite being called beasts, their apparitions were more akin to sacred animals.
“Eric. We can't linger here.” Said Elin with eyes that moved to and fro.
Meanwhile, Rianne was flying through the trees that had a height of more than 50 meters. He served as an eye to determine the direction in this sacred forest.
By the time Rianne returns….
“Mr Eric. To the north, there is an area that is experiencing severe fires. It's possible..”
With Cathy's information capital, and Rianne's additional information, I understood it.
“Damn it! We're late! All of them! We have to get there!”
With that simple shout, everyone came running in the direction indicated by Rianne.
And that's….
At first we knew a small part of the truth in this world.