“Master, this is our latest adjusted knight’s equipment,”

Little Tru blushed with excitement as he introduced it to Derek.

This was a standard knight's armor, even more exquisite than Baron Ferreira’s.

The blacksmiths’ skills had improved, and the number of them had increased, resulting in high-quality products.

Though it wasn’t the heavy armor, nearly everything, from the warhorse to the knight, was wrapped in steel.

The joints were also covered in cowhide, balancing both defense and flexibility.

At the same time, the warhorse was draped in chainmail, making it difficult for ordinary swords and knives to cause damage.

“The entire set of knight's armor costs more than twenty gold coins. It requires a master blacksmith and seven or eight blacksmiths working together. It takes about half a month to produce one set. At the moment, we can only send out two teams, so the production is a bit low.”

“Let me try it on.”

Derek, with the help of his attendants, put on each piece of armor. With his current physique, he could still feel some pressure.

As he walked, the chainmail connections clattered but without being overly loud.

After trying a few movements and pulling out the knight's sword to swing it,

He found it reasonably flexible, though some martial skills might be limited.

However, the enhanced defense allowed one to ignore some of the danger, giving it more of a deterrent effect.

“With the physique of an elite knight, it can be worn all day. Except for blunt force trauma from heavy weapons, it’s very hard for ordinary light weapons to cause effective damage.”

After evaluating it, Derek found it to be a great value.

Compared to the much more expensive heavy armor, the cost of a single piece probably exceeds twenty gold coins, and a full set would likely exceed forty gold coins.

But for the moment, it wasn’t necessary, and few could afford to fight in it.

Derek took off the armor, very pleased with Little Tru’s recent work.

“Now design a set of heavy infantry equipment, with the weight similar to this one.”

Although it was called heavy infantry armor, it was really just leather armor with iron plating, which, for this era, was already an unprecedented level of quality.

Derek was preparing to create an elite spearhead unit.

He assigned Little Tru and the others a series of new tasks, stockpiled some weapons, and gained resources through external trade.

Then he checked on the warhorses, looking at the horses gathered through various channels.

Most of the horses bought were low-quality draft horses, as regular riding horses of average quality were rare.

Warhorses might be hard to find, but low-quality draft horses were abundant.

The northern lands themselves had a certain capacity for breeding warhorses, and many of the horses from the civilian population were retired.

This part was all under the management of his most loyal subordinates, as discovering the secret would cause great trouble.

Derek even checked the panel every day to ensure everything was correct.

Because this time, with preparation and planning, Derek had chosen the northern breed of horse, which had good endurance, was capable of carrying heavy loads, had decent speed, and good sprinting ability.

Though not of the highest quality, these traits wouldn’t change even with quality improvements.

Currently, he had raised over a hundred horses, and each month around ten of them were trained and sold as high-quality warhorses.

A portion was kept to breed better horses.

This number had reached the human limit.

Adding more would not only be hard to manage but could easily expose his operation.

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A single horse’s food cost three silver coins per month, and the annual cost was at least two gold coins.

But draft horses only cost three to five gold coins, with very little profit and high risk.

Of course, if he cut back on the food and used more hay as a substitute, the cost would only be one-third.

For the northern people, it was still a bit profitable.

But for Derek, the cost didn’t matter much. He could afford more horses, but he couldn’t guarantee their safety.

So, he reluctantly left the idea aside.

This made him even more eager to secure a completely independent territory, preferably in a place where the kingdom's power was weakest.

The barbarians seemed to meet all his requirements perfectly.

Derek gathered his strength, preparing to strike hard at the barbarians.

Finally, he went to another estate.

At this point, it had completely turned into a training ground.

Baron Ferreira kept his word, not only sending half of the family’s army but also most of the cavalry and supported knights.

Under the leadership of his older brother Mark, the knights under Derek’s guidance were sweating heavily in training.

In addition to these regular soldiers, every week a new batch of militiamen was added.

The best of them were inducted into the army, and the eliminated ones were sent back to the fields to farm.

A few months later, the baron had already assembled an army of more than three hundred soldiers.

Even without Derek's help, they could still train a reasonably capable army.

And such armies were being trained across the northern lands by nobles of all sizes, even by middle-class families and merchant families.

News of the impending war seemed to spread quickly, and every northern person was preparing.

Derek watched for a while and checked his panel.

The family’s soldiers mostly appeared on the panel, clearly taking orders from Derek.

Several knights had reached levels five or six, which was quite impressive.

The family’s long-time soldiers also reached this level, and even the newer recruits had made quick progress, with some reaching levels three or four.

This was still with Derek going easy on them; otherwise, their progress would have been even faster.

It was precisely because of this that Derek discovered a small secret on the panel.

Accumulated experience points would shrink when leveling up. He had once considered a trick, like accumulating a hundred points and using them when reaching a higher level.

But that hope was now shattered.

His older brother Mark was also actively training, and Derek noticed that Mark’s skill was better than expected.

After allocating enough points to his older brother, Derek waited for him to finish training before moving closer.

“Derek, how long have you been here?”

Mark took the handkerchief from the attendant and wiped the sweat from his face.

Here, he paid no mind to noble etiquette, doing whatever was most comfortable.

“I just arrived a while ago. Older brother, you seem to have made great progress. I’m sure Father will be surprised when he sees you.”

“It’s all thanks to your training. Honestly, where did you find these people? Their skills are better than the family’s knights.”

“Nothing impressive, it’s just the hard training. Look at my attendants— their training load is even greater than yours. If you stick with it for a few more years, you’ll catch up,” Derek changed the subject.

Mark thought this was very reasonable.

From his observation, his third brother’s soldiers really did have a much higher training intensity.

They moved past the topic.

Suddenly, Mark dropped a piece of news:

“I heard that the king has issued a mobilization order. After the spring plowing, the southern and central regions have already begun assembling legions, preparing to march north.”