Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party in Another World

Chapter 5: Building an Army in Lakeheart Town

Chapter 5: Building an Army in Lakeheart Town

TL: Etude

Paul Grayman spent nearly a week familiarizing himself with and adapting to the daily work and life of a lord, during which time the original memories of his body gradually recovered completely.

His domain was part of the Ordo Kingdom, located at the westernmost edge of the known world. To the east of the kingdom, numerous human nations spread out, among which the Gabella Empire was the most powerful.

To the north and east of the kingdom lay vast mountain ranges, home to many dwarven clans. North of the Rocky Mountains was an endless grassland inhabited by countless orc tribes, and further north lay the scarcely-trodden endless ice plains.

In the southern part of the known world, there were discontinuous vast rainforests, where the elves, known for their beauty and elegance, resided.

What concerned him was the existence of a massive religious organization in this world—the Church. It had different official titles in various historical periods, but later people simply referred to it as the Church.

Its faith was almost universal among human nations and even had followers among other races. The priest he met on the night he woke up was a clergyman of this religion.

With his current memory, he did not know much about the history of this religion and whether it had any dark past. However, it was certain that there were not a few fanatical believers among humans, as he had witnessed several with his limited experience.

The Church's directly controlled land was not vast, only slightly larger than a duchy, but its influence was enormous.

"This is such a cliché setting, isn't it? Every transmigration world seems to have its shadow." He was too exhausted to complain further.

Additionally, it seemed that magic existed in this world. Although, including the nobility, most people might never see a magic user in their entire lives, and many regarded magic as a myth.

Yet, his butler, Philip, earnestly claimed that as a child, he was saved from bandits by a mage. According to Philip, the mage gestured with his left hand, muttered words, and then a fireball burst from the staff in his right hand, striking the bandit's face with the speed of lightning.

Well, since there were fantastical races like dwarves, elves, and orcs, the existence of magic was not impossible. However, he was more inclined to believe that what the butler saw was some sort of magic trick.

On the first weekend after he woke up, the long-awaited military parade finally began.

As per his request, the soldiers were arranged into three squares and passed through the small square under the command of the knights.

"Is this... my army?" The young Count's face turned ashen.

The soldiers in the "squares" were dressed haphazardly in various attire, the only uniform element being a tunic emblazoned with the Grayman family crest.

Initially, the formation was relatively neat, but it soon fell into disarray as they marched. By the time they reached him, the formation was a complete mess, loosely scattered and hardly resembling a square anymore.

"Gentlemen, we need to raise our army's standards!" Paul declared, his face grim, after gathering the knights.

"Uh..." The knights exchanged glances until Bryce stepped forward, "Lord Count, our region is quite remote and has never been coveted by other lords. Combined with the simple local customs, we've been rather lax in military preparedness. To be honest, we never expected pirates to raid so far inland from the coast."