Musou Knight: Crow of Cinders-Chapter 58: New Feature

Chapter 58 – New Feature

Louis Zen snorted. "No."

Sylveria pouted. "Father, I’m serious."

"Then give me your reasons."

Her lips curled into a sly grin. "Fundraising. He’s perfect for fixed matches. I’ll transfer him to the underground arena to raise our army fund there."

Paul and Alfred exchanged looks. Garrick rose to his feet and raised his voice.

"As we’ve all witnessed, the young man deserves elite treatment. But it’s far too soon to enlist him in the army. He hasn’t learned a proper cultivation method. Let him undergo baptism through the academy and prove himself there."

He turned, glaring at Sylveria before addressing Louis.

"His skills and performance at the academy will determine which division he joins. It’s premature to decide now."

Sylveria folded her arms. "But I can vouch for his future performance."

Garrick snapped. "Nonsense. If you insist on hoarding talent, you’ll break the laws of order. Chaos will follow, and every division will fight over promising recruits. In the future, this might cause us to fight amongst ourselves."

Louis raised a hand, silencing them both. His eyes lingered on me.

"The academy. That is where his path begins. If he truly has talent, it will shine there. And only then will we decide his place."

Sylveria’s bashful expression disappeared from her face, but she said nothing more. The decision was final.

Louis waved his hand, addressing me.

"You may leave."

"..."

The meeting and the test were over. Louis Zen had made his decision, and my fate was sealed.

I wished to request the promised stipend, but the cold eyes of the generals here were too intimidating. I bowed and retreated.

As soon as I exited the meeting hall, I let out a long sigh of relief. Being in the same room with four late-game bosses and a secret heroine was too suffocating. I boarded the carriage and returned home.

.

The next morning, a caravan arrived at my mansion’s gates. Multiple chests were unloaded and escorted inside by the staff. Dorothy, accompanied by several butlers, carefully recorded the inventory. By noon, she reported to me.

"We have received one hundred gold coins, one thousand silver coins, one hundred stones of mixed provisions, five rolls of cotton cloth, and five patches of fine leather. The rest are sealed chests bearing the army’s seal, reserved for Sir Crow."

I inspected the silver chest and raised an eyebrow. "Why are they sending me change?"

Dorothy smiled. "Those funds are designated for the wages of the servants. Please allow me to manage them."

"...Alright."

I picked thirty gold coins and tossed them into the silver chest. Then I coughed.

"You people seem underpaid. Add that to the calculation. Make sure wages are distributed fairly. And if possible, increase the number of maids... preferably combat maids who can protect my women."

Dorothy’s eyes widened. She bowed deeply. "Everyone will rejoice. We are most grateful."

The game had depicted Frogine Fortress with a cost of living on par with Tokyo, yet wages here were barely enough to survive. A meat bun cost a silver coin, rent was ten to fifteen silvers a month, but the pay was only one silver.

Had Louis Zen already paid them? If so, it wasn’t nearly enough. Cutting corners on wages for the hundred or so employees at my estate would be disastrous in the long run. A little generosity now might win their loyalty and perhaps turn them into double agents later.

"Take everything else to my bedroom," I ordered.

"The clothes too?"

Dorothy was confused. Nobles usually disliked the smell of raw leather, preferring to store it away or hand it to craftsmen. But I had other plans.

"Yes. I’ll trade them for something else later."

"Understood, sir."

The servants carried the chests and supplies to my third-floor bedroom.

.

After everyone departed my room, I turned my attention to the sealed chests. Though not locked, their lids were bound with thick red wax. I sliced through the seals with a letter opener and lifted the covers.

Inside lay scrolls and bundles of parchment. Curious, I picked one up and unfurled it.

The scroll glowed, flooding the room with light. Strange alphabets or symbols I had never seen rose from the paper and floated around me.

My jaw dropped. What is this, Hogwarts?

The letters swirled, forming a wall of text before shrinking and vanishing into my forehead.

Déjà vu.

I had seen something like this before.

My consciousness sank into a dream world, where I was forced to watch a clone of myself repeat an action for what felt like a hundred years.

This time, the clone sat cross-legged in a tub of boiling water, meditating. He didn’t move.

I wanted to squint and pull my hair out, but the trance held me captive.

"Is that it?!" I shouted into the void.

At first it seemed meaningless until I noticed his breathing. He inhaled the hot vapor while enduring the scalding heat.

It was suicidal. Any doctor would condemn it, yet the clone persisted.

A century passed in the dream. The clone aged, then finally turned to me with a grin. He pointed at my forehead, and knowledge surged into me.

The trance shattered.

As I woke up, I dropped the scroll. It rolled across the floor. Outside, the sun hung low in the west.

I collapsed onto my bed to gather my thoughts.

The clone had shown me a dual-element cultivation method by combining heat and water to reinforce my musou core. My clone’s strength stalled at level 4 because I lacked water-element musou energy. For me, this method was useless. I learned something from it, though.

I glanced at the remaining parchments and scrolls. Louis Zen and Sylveria had sent them for one reason.

"Testing me before the academy, huh? Fine. I’ll bite."

For a normal knight, this experiment and research would have been overwhelming. They would spend years chasing the correct method, only to realize too late it didn’t suit them. By then, they would age past their prime, lessening the chance to reach level six or seven.

But unlike them, I could cheat.