Patriarchal Kindred

Chapter 5 Knight

The atmosphere in the Bearded Tavern was still noisy and lively.

However, the atmosphere in the corner where Saru's few people were was instantly frozen.

"Riding ...... knights?" The old mercenary's mouth opened wide as he looked at Colin in surprise.

He knew that Colin's identity was not simple, but he had never thought that he was actually a knight.

One should know that the knights in this world were fundamentally different compared to the rotten warriors.

Any commoner who could afford to eat meat and was well-developed could become a warrior's apprentice by learning how to stimulate fighting qi in the warrior union as long as he could afford a few silver coins.

But knights are different.

To become a knight's apprentice, one must first have a certain amount of talent and, more importantly, undergo a baptismal ceremony conducted by a priest of the Church of Light.

Unlike the baptismal rituals on Earth, which are merely symbolic and sprinkled with water, the baptismal rituals in this world are performed by the priests of the Church of Radiance to communicate with the Lord of Radiance and engrave a sacred brand on the recipient.

This process is very taxing on the priest, so there is a limit to the number of baptisms each priest can perform in his lifetime.

As such, such baptismal places are extraordinarily valuable, and have basically been completely monopolised by the nobility, and are almost impossible for commoners to access.

As you can imagine, knights were scarce.

For example, there were only three loyal knights under the Baron of Anglet, and with the Baron himself and his son Colin, there were only five knights in the whole barony.

One of them, Colin, has not even entered the rank yet, and is currently only an apprentice knight.

In this world, professionals can be divided into nine ranks according to their strength, with the first rank being the weakest and the ninth rank the strongest.

Of course, there is also an apprentice level below the first rank, which is for rookies who have not yet officially entered the rank.

The difference between a knight and a warrior of the same rank is not particularly great, and it is true that the knight has an advantage, but in a head-to-head fight, it is not always possible to beat a warrior, as there are still factors such as martial skills, will, weapons and equipment to consider.

The real reason why nobles are attracted to knights is because of their potential.

The pinnacle of the warrior profession is the sixth rank.

That's right, throughout the entire continent, there has never been a warrior of the seventh rank, be it human, troll, beast or elf .......

According to the first Pope of the Church of Light, Coronet Peter Miser -

"For a mortal to enter Sanctuary, he needs the gift of a deity."

Above the seventh order is the Sanctuary, and thus a knight of the seventh order is also known as a paladin.

So, according to this statement, warriors who have not been baptized, of course, cannot obtain the gifts of the gods and have no connection with the seventh rank.

At present, there are only five professions in this world that can break the sixth rank.

Without exception, all of them believe in a particular deity.

They are the Human Knight who serves the Lord of Radiance, the Troll Warrior who serves the God of War, the Elven Ranger who serves the Goddess of Fate, the Naga Royal Guard who serves the God of Storms and the Beast Skullcrusher who serves the God of Destruction.

Even those spellcasters who claim not to believe in gods, but only in the truth of arcana, cannot break the sixth rank.

However, they could release forbidden spells with the power of the Seventh Order or even above.

But releasing such a forbidden spell required an extremely terrible cost for the caster, and could not be considered a conventional attack.

Of course, the Holy Realm is by no means easy for knights to enter.

Once a paladin is born to a family, the whole family becomes more prominent than ever.

All families that have given birth to a paladin are given the honour of having the word "Saint" precede their family name.

For example, the Hildes, masters of the Northern Kingdom of the Shining Empire, are descendants of the founding Paladins of the Empire and are therefore known as the Holy Hildes.

In the entire history of the Radiant Empire, there have only been seven Paladin families.

The difficulty of entering the Holy Realm is thus evident.

As for the eighth rank, it is known as the Legendary Realm.

The founding emperor of the Radiant Empire - Garner Lorenzo - was a legendary realm paladin, and the only one ever recorded.

In the thousand years since him, there has never been another paladin who entered the legendary realm.

Not to mention the Ninth Order.

The Ninth Order, also known as the Demigod realm, is said to have been reached only by the dragons that once dominated the world. After their extinction, no race has ever been able to produce another demigod powerhouse.

As for above the ninth rank, that is the realm of the gods ......

In short, a noble and rare profession like knight, which can even be said to belong only to the nobility, should obviously be found in castles rather than places like the Bearded Tavern.

Nor would any knight normally choose to follow a mercenary regiment to another city. After all, they have their own squires, servants and even armies.

Colin's appearance therefore seemed particularly odd.

Just as the atmosphere in the corner was becoming more and more frosty, a small furry head suddenly burst out of Colin's blouse.

"Meow..." the little cat growled at the bearded man, seemingly unhappy that his good night's sleep had been disturbed.

With a small smile, Colin tucked the rather wakeful creature back into his shirt and then turned to the bearded man and asked, "How did you know I was a knight?"

Actually, Colin thought he had been careful enough.

He had no armour, his sword was just a one-handed sword, and his clothes had been "borrowed" from a guard of his own size.

Moreover, according to the memory of his predecessor, although it is true that a warrior and a knight have different combat performances, there should be no difference when they are not fighting.

What's more, for an apprentice knight like Colin, who had not yet entered the rank, there was no difference from an apprentice warrior even if he really fought, as he could not inspire holy light to assist in combat.

Was there really a way to distinguish these two professions at a glance?

Colin thought that this might be a blind spot in his predecessor's knowledge.

But who knows, Saru smiled wryly, "Guess."

Fooled!

Colin immediately reacted that he had been tricked by this seemingly reckless and naive bearded man.

Saru should have only suspected, but Colin's subconscious reaction made the other man sure of his knighthood.

It was mainly Saru's appearance that was so disorienting.

It was this that made Colin less alert, and as a result, he was tricked into revealing his true profession.

The Fire Fox Mercenaries.

No wonder it was called that.

They looked like bears, but were in fact as cunning as foxes.

"I've been in the mercenary world for over forty years, I don't know how many people I've seen with these eyes. Hey hey, you kid, although you are dressed plainly, you don't look like a civilian at first glance. Sure enough, the moment you swindle, you're exposed!"

Colin took a deep breath and kept reminding himself in his mind that he must be careful and careful again when dealing with a seasoned veteran like Saru.

On the surface, however, Colin acted calm and collected, not at all nervous about his identity being revealed.

First, he took out ten coins and threw them to the old mercenary in front of Saru, indicating that he could leave first.

Then he pulled out the chair beside Saru and sat down with a natural look on his face: "I admit that my previous gesture was inappropriate, and I apologise to you. However, you should not refuse a knight to accompany you, should you?"

"Your name?" Saru asked as he put away his smile and stared into Corin's eyes.

Colin looked straight into Saru's eyes and returned in the most sincere of tones:

"Karn, Karn Sudor."