Reborn: Demon Core Read Free Page B

On the other hand, the Heavy Knights were extremely
expensive as they needed horses, swords, lances, and heavy armor.
Thankfully knights received no coin. If they needed anything, they
simply had to show their knight identification card and Emelia
would be sent the bill. If the knights wished for their own coin to
buy something outside of what they were allowed, they had the
option to work for the adventurer’s guild when they didn’t have an
official task. They were also allowed to sell half of whatever they
gained from the monsters they killed while the other half was
reserved by the duchy. As long as the knights trained hard and
there was not much trouble within the duchy, it was possible for
the duchy to make a profit from their knights.
    Along with the new squires came a second
problem and that was their training. Knights trained their squires
in a number of ways but the most common was in the labyrinth. That
meant that soon the city would be filled with knights who needed a
place to stay and so the inns would be filled to busting and still
there wouldn’t be enough room. That meant that Ash had to find a
place for them to stay while not spending a lot of coin.
    “Why don’t we have them build their own
knight training facility within the city?” Ash asked as he went
over the numbers again.
    “What do you mean?” Emelia asked tilting her
head.
    “Well from what I see, other than the capital
the knights have no real place of their own,” Ash said as he
flipped through the papers. “There is a guild hall here, but it is
small and only has a place for one or two knights to stay and the
training yard is barely big enough for a horse. If we build a place
for them to stay for long periods of times, then when they aren’t
on duty they could stay and train in the labyrinth.”
    “That’s not a bad idea, but building a place
that large would cost a large amount. Something that large would
rival one of the outpost forts.”
    “That is the point,” Ash said while shuffling
through the papers again. “The duchy has been in three wars with
other minor nobles over the past two hundred years. Each time they
were only barely able to win. If you kept a well-trained and larger
group of knights, that wouldn’t be as much of a problem. As for
that, it could also be used if worst came to worst and you had to
endure a siege. It would cost a lot up front, but keeping a large
contingent of knights where they could fight in the labyrinth would
turn a profit once it is finished,” Ash said as he handed over the
paper that he had been working on over the past two weeks.
    The cost for the fort and castle would cost
over one hundred thousand platinum coins and thanks to magic could
be finished within seven years. The walls and temporary barracks
could be finished within six months.
    Emelia read over the papers as her face was
pinched in concentration. “I think it could work but there is one
problem…Someone will have to take on this project. None of the
nobles I can trust have the time to do it and the ones who do I
can’t trust.”
    “I could do it,” Ash suggested.
    “It could work, but how would the King take
it,” Emelia said with a slightly worried voice. “You aren’t a
noble, but you could do it under my authority. The problem is
getting the funds for the construction. We are one of the more
prosperous lands within the kingdom, but even the king has trouble
paying for a new fort to be built and manned.”
    “The initial cost will be staggering but
unlike the other forts, once it is finished it can make money with
the knights constantly fighting in the labyrinth. You said so
yourself, that the labyrinth is better than a gold mine since it is
constantly filled with magical power.”
    “That is true. Some people say that demons
live at the bottom of a labyrinth, but since no one has ever made
it to the bottom in the past thousand years that is just a rumor.
Older books said they were created when fragments of the