Valentino also looked at Robson curiously, wondering what he was up to.

Robson found his seat and sat down, and Valentino naturally sat beside him.

Fortunately, the table was round. Had it not been, Lord Robson would have had to carefully consider the seating arrangements for the day.

"Since you’re all here, I’m sure you know about my plans. After the army’s expansion, our military structure is bound to change.

So, I want to make a few changes within the army, mainly concerning Non-commissioned Officers and rations.

I plan to promote some of our top-performing soldiers to be Non-commissioned Officers. Along with better rations, they can also receive monetary rewards.

The army’s rations won’t remain as they are. In the future, the army will be organized into regiments of one thousand men. We will establish the rank of Centurion, with companies of fifty and squads of ten.

The First Regiment will be composed of elite soldiers and will receive the best rations. The Second and Third Regiments will be second-tier, and later additions will form the third tier. Viscount Fuman will be in charge of laying out the specifics," Robson said.

In truth, with his current prestige, Robson could have pushed these reforms through with a single command. He was telling these noble officers mainly because he needed people to actually implement the changes.

Robson was busy all day now and had no time to manage these details. Of course, when it came time to actually bestow the Non-commissioned Officer ranks, he would undoubtedly handle it personally.

"Non-commissioned Officers? But those are just peasants. They can’t even read." The speaker was the commander of the Second Regiment, Augustus, a powerfully built, towering giant of a man.

His background was similar to Claude’s, though his circumstances were even more humbled. Claude was, at the very least, a Baron’s son. Augustus’s father, however, was only a Knight, and Augustus himself was not the heir.

Therefore, Augustus’s father had sent his son to serve under Robson.

For now, at least, Robson was a bona fide Baron. It was only a matter of time before he was granted a fief, and that was enough for some to gamble on him.

Augustus had no other real flaws. He had the aptitude of an Intermediate Knight and was destined to reach the Silver rank at minimum. He just seemed to have a low opinion of commoners.

Just like Viscount Leo. But what Robson found strange was that Viscount Leo was, after all, a Viscount...

"That’s not an issue. I have a method for teaching them basic literacy quickly. They only need to understand the most basic orders, listen for the horn, and watch the flags," Robson said.

"You just mentioned military merit? Are we to share military merits with commoners in the future?" This was one point Viscount Fuman couldn’t understand. Robson’s reforms were truly exceeding his expectations.

Robson nodded.

"In the future, I will implement a military merit system within the army. The exact rewards are still to be determined. For now, the highest-ranking teams and soldiers will share a weekly prize of twenty Gold Coins amongst themselves."

Twenty Gold Coins was no small sum for commoners, to say nothing of these peasants who had to budget every single Copper Coin.

Twenty Gold Coins was exactly twenty thousand Copper Coins.

As for what the military merit rewards would be later on, Robson hadn’t decided yet. In truth, what he most wanted to grant his soldiers was land. If he could use land to bind them to his war chariot, they would become his unswervingly loyal followers. Unfortunately, Robson had no land to give.

"I will release the formula for calculating military merit. Ideally, we can have our first distribution in a few days’ time," Robson said.

Viscount Fuman nodded.

"If it’s only a matter of a few dozen Gold Coins, then it is acceptable," Viscount Fuman said.

Since Robson only intended to give the peasants Gold Coins and had no plans to grant them true military honors, Viscount Fuman was happy to go along with it. After all, it wasn’t his money being spent.

What Viscount Fuman valued was his own political gain. If Robson wanted to let commoners carve up political power, the Viscount would absolutely refuse to be a part of it—even if it was Robson’s own political capital they were carving up.

This was determined by the very nature of the Frank Kingdom. A nation ruled by the nobility would never allow slaves to participate in politics.

Valentino, on the other hand, was somewhat surprised. For some reason, Robson’s idea reminded her of a naval awards ceremony she had once attended in the Ocean Kingdom or the Cretia Kingdom.

However, they weren’t appointing Non-commissioned Officers, but full-fledged Officers. Those who received appointments were also commoners—to be precise, maritime merchants.

Before she left the Algeria Royal Academy, a fierce debate was erupting there.

The Royal Navy of Algeria had lost to the Cretia Kingdom’s so-called "First Fleet," and the kingdom’s political theorists were all debating whether they should emulate the Cretian military system.

Of course, in Valentino’s eyes, the proposal was patently absurd.

’Letting commoners into the army might be beneficial to the King in the short term, but for the nobility, it brings nothing but harm.

The kingdom doesn’t belong to the King alone. In essence, the royal family is just the most powerful noble house in the nation.’