A Realistic Mount & Blade Game

Internal strife only arises when there's a genuine social hierarchy and abundant material wealth.

Therefore, when Nalot mentioned that Lady Isolda wanted Shen Mu to help him restore his kingdom, he understood that the Mount \u0026 Blade world should be treated as a real world, not just a vague backdrop.

"Let's leave it at that for now. No need to answer them. Just focus on doing a good job with the ironware smuggling trade," Shen Mu said to Nalot. After all, he didn't want to get involved in the internal conflicts of Calradia in the Mount \u0026 Blade world.

"Understood, Lord Shen Mu. I understand the situation and won't reveal anything to them," Nalot nodded.

After all, he was just a merchant and understood how terrible it would be to get involved in political struggles. In the past, even those high-ranking lords or nobles would find themselves in a difficult situation if they meddled in political struggles that were above their station, let alone a merchant who wasn't even a noble.

He feared that if he angered certain people, his end wouldn't be good, even with Shen Mu backing him.

Political struggles are life-or-death battles, comparable to life-and-death struggles on the battlefield.

Shen Mu was quite satisfied to see Nalot's thoughtful expression and his decision to remain silent and not say more. He preferred people with tight lips to work for him, and now that he understood that the Mount \u0026 Blade world was a living world and couldn't be treated as a mere backdrop.

He realized that if he wanted to gain more benefits in those Mount \u0026 Blade worlds through the Mount \u0026 Blade system, and develop further in the future, he should consider establishing better relationships with certain forces in the Mount \u0026 Blade world.

Thinking of this, Shen Mu also thought of King Harlaus, whose goodwill towards him had plummeted after he received some supplies that should have belonged to him, even to the point of a near-cold state.

Furthermore, the system also hinted that due to insufficient relationship value, certain things related to the Swadian kingdom would likely be much less than those from other kingdoms.

This made Shen Mu thoughtful: "Moreover, the key to having a good or bad relationship with a certain force seems to lie with the highest commander of that force."

Thinking about it, it makes sense. After all, the highest commander of a force is the helmsman who controls the force's progress, the absolute commander. If this commander can't even control his own force, then it's equivalent to being useless. The force is the same with or without him.

"However, in the subsequent prompts, I also saw that the nobles and lords of the Swadian kingdom had united to overturn King Harlaus's decree, not choosing to stand idly by because King Harlaus's relationship value with me had decreased, but rather being very enthusiastic about continuing to maintain a good relationship with me, and even actively gifting me a lot of supplies."

Shen Mu stroked his chin, thinking of King Harlaus in the previous game background, who was also a very wise king.

He would use various reasons to exile lords in the country or punish certain nobles he didn't like.

He would even dare to declare war on other kingdoms based on meaningless rumors, and then lead his troops to attack the territories of those perished kingdoms. After seizing villages, towns, and castles, most of the benefits would only be kept for himself, and even if a small portion was distributed, it was only because he had no choice but to give some compensation to those meritorious marshals, generals, and great nobles.

As for those small lords and nobles, he simply wouldn't even look at them, treating them with disdain, as if he regarded them as cannon fodder.

He had long aroused public resentment in the Swadian kingdom. It can be said that he was the worst king in the background.

Moreover, you should know that the reason why the Rhodok kingdom split off on its own was due to this King Harlaus's doing.

This also allowed Swadia, which once relied on heavy infantry to defend, skirmishers to harass, and heavy cavalry to directly sweep the battlefield, Swadia's invincible battlefield 'three axes,' to lose the most important heavy infantry capable of holding the line and the skirmishers harassing the enemy.

As a result, although the current Swadian kingdom still relies on the combination of Swadian heavy cavalry and knights to sweep away all enemies on the plains battlefield.

However, it is much inferior in terms of city defense or siege warfare, as well as rugged terrain.

This has also greatly reduced the strength of the Swadian kingdom.

He was already extremely annoying in the game, let alone now that the Mount \u0026 Blade world has become a real world. Then how could those nobles and lords who already have their own thoughts, and the soldiers below, truly and completely be convinced by Harlaus, this king who was not justified in his position?

"Lord, if there's nothing else, then I'll prepare to set off again now. When I came just now, I saw that there are still a lot of captured spoils in the warehouse that are made of ironware. Moreover, the war between the Swadian kingdom and the Vaegir kingdom is still continuing, and the price of iron is still soaring. If I don't go back as soon as possible, I think it would be a pity if it delays making money," Nalot interrupted Shen Mu's contemplation at this time.

"Yes, that's what I'm thinking too. You and I are thinking the same thing. I also plan to let you set off as soon as possible and return to the Swadian kingdom to sell these ironwares," Shen Mu nodded.

Moreover, because he is now severely lacking in denars, Shen Mu plans to use the power of faith to speed up the progress of the caravan's round trips, allowing Nalot to quickly transport these ironwares to the Swadian kingdom for sale, and then return to Dehrim to continue filling them with these ironwares, and return to the continent of Paradia again to complete a round of ironware smuggling.

In this way, Shen Mu has already estimated that it only takes 14,000 points of faith power to complete a round trip.

And for Shen Mu, who now has more than 30,000 points of faith power, he can perform two rounds of operations.

According to each round trip, Nalot can obtain a profit of 5,000 denars in the Swadian kingdom, so two rounds would be a profit of 10,000 denars.

This money has already made Shen Mu quite excited.

After all, all his current denar balance adds up to no more than five hundred dollars.

For Shen Mu, he was already running on fumes, desperately needing denars to replenish his small treasury. Even exhausting all of his Faith Power was a worthwhile exchange for Shen Mu, as Faith Power could be continuously obtained, while denars could only be acquired through trade.

He now had over thirty thousand Blue Star humans living within his Dertherim. As long as he ensured their safety, he could continuously harvest more Faith Power.

Therefore, for Shen Mu, Faith Power was a relatively easy resource to obtain.

Its primary use now was to accelerate town construction, expedite soldier recruitment, shorten caravan round trip times, and accelerate plant growth.

A 'Journal' system, absorbing the rules of the Blue Star world and the crystal wall system of the fantastical to aid him.

It should be used in this way.

"Nalot, I need you to load up the wagons as quickly as possible and get moving," Shen Mu said to Nalot.

"Understood, Lord Shen Mu. I will go immediately," Nalot nodded without hesitation, respectfully bowed with a hand on his chest, and then turned and left the meeting room.

He arrived outside the noble's residence and called out to his caravan guards and hired crossbowmen, who had already eaten their fill and were resting, as well as the caravan members, urging them to start moving and head back to the warehouse to load the wagons.

This naturally caused opposition from the caravan members who had just arrived in Dertherim and hadn't had a chance to rest properly.

Especially the caravan guards and hired crossbowmen, who were mercenaries hired to protect the caravan, couldn't help but frown and express their protests.

The mercenaries had already received their denars and naturally wanted to relax and rest in Dertherim to alleviate the fatigue of their journey and the anxiety they had felt along the way.

They didn't want to set off again so soon, back to the continent of Calradia, which was full of bandits and robbers.

Indeed, they believed that although there were undead monsters here, they were blocked by the city built by Lord Shen Mu, making them feel very safe and relaxed.

Returning to Calradia was not as easy as being here.

Here, they only had to face the undead monsters, which they were capable of fighting. Moreover, Lord Shen Mu was here to provide them with spiritual and morale boosts.

However, if they returned to Calradia, they would not only have to face robbers lurking in the shadows or bandits encountered in narrow areas, but even when they entered villages, castles, or towns, they would be attacked by criminal gangs.

It could even be said that even under the protection of the town guard and the lords' forces, they had to be vigilant to prevent any mishaps.

After all, these town defense forces and the lords' troops, who were nominally supposed to protect them,

would directly remove their flags and armor that identified them and put on the armor of other factions, essentially becoming rogue soldiers or bandits from other factions operating in their territory.

Then, after robbing them, they would quickly leave and change their identities again, becoming regular troops, nominally their own people protecting them and investigating the case.

And then extort another sum from them.

In the end, they would only receive a cold 'go back and wait for notification' response, leaving the merchants with nothing.

This was quite common.

Therefore, doing business in Calradia was extremely dangerous. Without significant capital, influence, and sufficient courage and resources, any merchant would ultimately face a tragic end.

This was why many merchants worked for the nobles and lords, earning denars for them.

If they engaged in commercial activities on their own, they would only become lambs to the slaughter, targeted by the lords and nobles.

In the end, not only would the merchants lose everything, but the hired soldiers would also suffer fatal injuries.

This was also why mercenaries could find work even if they weren't hired by lords and nobles, and why they liked to spend all their earned denars, indulging themselves in a life of pleasure.

If they didn't spend all their denars, and they died in the next battle, it would be a truly miserable end.

The most tragic thing in life was to be alive but without money.

These mercenaries didn't want that.

After all, they were now working for the caravan, and the caravan could pay them a salary.

Of course, if they were working for Lord Shen Mu, it would be different, as they had a very positive view of Shen Mu. They considered Shen Mu to be a savior, and fighting for him would give them a chance for redemption.

Of course, what Nalot had to face now was how to get these hired soldiers to move.

However, his problem was not a problem at all, because Shen Mu didn't care whether these hired soldiers were willing to return to Calradia for smuggling trade.

He directly activated the power of the rules to force them to do so.

[Ding! You have selected the Nalot Caravan to once again engage in the smuggling trade of iron products to the Swadian Kingdom in Calradia.]

[This caravan has now set off.]

As the content in these dialog boxes appeared on Shen Mu's retina,

Shen Mu's eyes also gained some determination.

"Use Faith Power to speed up the Nalot Caravan's round trip time," Shen Mu directly activated the power from the Faith Power and the rules to help the caravan.

Then, a new dialog box refreshed on his retina in front of him.

[Ding! You have chosen the Nalot Caravan and started caravan acceleration, rule-level enhancement.]

[Ding! You have chosen to pay seven thousand Faith Power points to speed up the Nalot Caravan by seven days. They have now arrived in Calradia.]

Shen Mu didn't make any extra movements.

He just closed his eyes again, communicated with the system, and threw out another seven thousand Faith Power points to accelerate the return trip in the first round trip.

At this moment, a new dialog box appeared again.

[Ding! You have chosen to pay seven thousand Faith Power points to speed up the Nalot Caravan's seven-day return trip. They can now see the walls of your Dertherim and are preparing to return to your territory.]