Lord of the Truth

"General, please understand. If we don't send them for support now, our army there will be annihilated in two or three months, what are we going to do then? We are confident that your training will save their lives to a reasonable degree, please agree and lead them there." The patriarch replied in a calm voice and polite manner.. although Edward is younger than him, he is much stronger.

Everyone turned to silence, the situation was really confusing to them...

At least the soldiers who are currently in the new lands are considered elite because they fought a few battles, and they still have some categorized weapons, armor, and a few warhorses, and yet they are still dying at a high rate!

So what will happen when a new army is sent without equipment, without experience, without even completing the basic training?

Saint Edward rejected the idea entirely, he is not just like the rest of the saints who care about their personal training... since his childhood, he had a special love for leading armies and inventing tactics, and he considered his veteran soldiers to be part of his family

And now he is under pressure to send the 50,000 soldiers he trained himself to their deaths!

He understands the demand of the patriarch, if he does not send them now, the soldiers in the new lands will be killed and then they will have to send the new army anyway...

This was certainly not an easy decision.

But the silence was suddenly broken by Robin's voice, "This won't solve anything... I thought at first that it would be a simple rejection for our rule and that it will be suppressed and get it over within a few weeks, 

But the circle is widening and Control is being taken away from us, I'm sure that the noble bastards of Dolivar are interfering to stir up chaos and supply the citizens with weapons and the information.."

The Patriarch nodded, "That's definitely what's going on, but what might we do? We can do nothing but continue to suppress rebels by force...."

Robin shook his head, " If this works, we wouldn't have been here talking about it! 

The small victories of the rebels obviously attract more volunteers to their cause, which will draw us into an endless war of attrition...

even if we send in the new army it wouldn't intimidate them, it would only confirm the rebels' idea and would draw more to their cause... it will be a few tens of thousands against tens of millions of potential rebels!"

"... You are right, this is one of my fears, Our soldiers there are dying in vain... At this pace, we will prepare an army every year to be sent just to be killed." Saint Edward nodded

Silence is back in the room again... Sending armies without proper weaponry to kill tens of millions of angry citizens... It is as if a small child wants to subdue a raging bull!

"We don't- um..."

A voice broke the silence, causing everyone to look at its source. 

It was Zara... but when she saw that she became in the spotlight, she fell silent again and lowered her head.

When Robin saw her acting like this, he smiled and said, "Speak, there is no reason for you to be afraid, what do you want to say?"

"Yeah, we.. we didn't occupy that land to loot it and kill its people, right? Isn't it supposed to be our New Lands now? Why are we trying to kill them in the first place..." Zara spoke in a low voice as she nervously moved her fingers.

"Hahaha, kids are really lovely." The Patriarch laughed out loud and then began to have side consultations with Billy and General Edward... He obviously didn't take her words seriously.

But it was Robin who furrowed his eyebrows upon hearing Zara's words, and for a few seconds finally spoke, "...she's right."

" hmm? " The patriarch turned to look at Robin

Robin continued, "It does not matter who is bulling the strings behind this rebellion, the blood that sheds will be on our hands forever... 

It isn't too late for us, it is still a man-for-a-man situation, no major massacre took place... we can fix this! but if we continue to send in armies and shed more blood, we will lose the people of the new lands forever! No, we shouldn't call it the new lands anymore, but let's call it the farm as long as we will kill its citizens and steal its wealth!"

Billy shook his head, "It's not like we can push a button and it happens, Robin. Shall we let them attack our men there and standstill? Or do we leave them the whole land and call our army back to Jura so they join back with Dolivar and we become the laughing stock of the world? If you have a new idea, please tell us" 

"... If you hit your child repeatedly when he is young on the pretext of disciplining him, he will grow up to hate you, even if you become nice to him then, he will still hate you... There are other better ways to discipline children, such as... enticing them with certain rewards if they behave well!"

Everyone starts looking at each other upon hearing this, and it's clear that Robin compares the rebels to children for some reason.

The patriarch knows that Robin is unaware of the methods of war and how to rule, they have taken the land and the right to self-rule from the indigenous people of Dolivar, what would they give them to forget this?

He didn't want to directly silence Robin so as not to embarrass him, so he asked with a smile, "And what can we use to persuade those rebellious into our judgment in your opinion?"

" ... " Robin was silent for a few seconds, why did he look in Saint Edward's direction, "What makes a weapon worth a category rank? And why are they not common?"

The saint was taken aback by the question that came outside the topic, but he replied anyway, "The weapon is valued primarily according to the manufacturing materials, the stronger and sharper the metal from which the blade is made, the higher the value of the weapon... 

of course, there are other measures like the craft itself, if you gave the same block of metal to a genius blacksmith and to a random dude, do you expect the outcome to be the same? no! but this makes deference within the same category, as you can find a 20 gold coin or 200 gold coins swords that both have the category rank {low}, they are made of the same material but the strength they held are far apart.

So, your question is a bit tricky, not as simple as you think... But if you are asking only about the qualification for a weapon to be categorized, then the answer is the raw material.

as for the reason why categorized weapons are scarce, is that the number of knights And Saints is not that high either! of course, and those who work in the field are very few!"

Robin opened his eyes wide, "What do the Knights and Saints have to do with it?"

"The tempering of high-level metals depends on the physical strength of course! Fire can liquefy simple metals like iron, but the swords made of such metals are easily broken in the hands of the cultivators, and the higher the level of the wielder these weapons become more useless!

As for the higher-level metals, they cannot be melted by fire, they can only be heated to become a little soft and then the knights will bang on them, cut them, and flatten them until they form what they want, and if the metal is even more high-leveled and stronger, then a saint will have to shape it himself...

Knights often form these weapons only to be used by their families. thus why any noble family rarely sells their categorized armaments to other families. 

Each and every one of these categorized weapons, armors, shields, bow, etc... are considered a treasure of their own that will be inherited by future generations.

As you can see, this task is long, tiring, and unprofitable for those who do it for their families, so there are not many knights who choose this direction... or maybe they would make a few to repay their families for the support they had when they were young, then they stop.

only a very few knights and Saints choose to become professional blacksmiths and all of them are famous, but we all know they are doing it for fame and riches, and ignoring their true inner desires.. otherwise, which Saint would spend his days hitting a damn block of metal with the strength he gained by hundreds of years of training?! 

who in his sane mind would start his cultivation journey saying to himself *oh, I want to become stronger to hit a fvcking hard rook* !?

therefore the demand for this type of weapon never ends, it is impossible to find a family that has more than what they need, even your Burton family that has about 6000 years of history as nobility, didn't have more than 10,000 pieces combined!"

A look of astonishment appeared on Robin's face, both for the many new facts, and for the *love* that Edward has in his heart for the blacksmiths...

but then something crossed his mind and asked, "What do you mean that fire cannot melt these metals? There is nothing that fire cannot melt."