Reincarnated as the fourth son of a noble and tamed an SS-rank dragon-Chapter 65: The Army Needs You

Darius was holding a piece of paper with the names of all the winners, the paper was in A3 format and was rolled up like parchment.

"Before I give out the awards, I want to thank everyone for their participation, even though you may not have passed our test, it doesn’t mean that your skills aren’t useful or aren’t suited to combat. It just means that at the moment we don’t need it, but we might in the future, so I want you to keep training," Kaly said.

Darius unrolled the paper and began to read the names.

"Caely," Darius simply said the name and then asked her to come up.

Caely took first place among the archers, she was a dark elf, her long white hair making her youthful face even more beautiful. Her clothes also matched her skin tone.

"As a prize, you receive this bag with 3,000 gold coins and this bow. The bow is made entirely from mythril and has several improvements, such as increased speed, it can shoot flaming arrows, and has increased impact strength."

Caely stared at the bow; it alone was worth more than the prize money. Dark elves are very proud, but she bowed and thanked Darius for the prize.

"Do you accept the invitation to join Count Lucian Lestor’s army?"

"I accept."

Then he called Aefara, who came in second, she was human and had red hair that was short, she considered that cutting her hair this way gave her an advantage.

Darius handed over the bag with the 2,000 gold coins and another bow, with the same attributes, he couldn’t think of any differences from the swords, which each had different attributes.

Aefara thanked him and accepted his invitation to join the army.

"He’s surpassing the other more experienced nobles every day, don’t you agree?" Elara asked Kael, who was watching a broadcast.

Elara possessed some artifacts and magical items that allowed her to make transmissions.

"I can’t stop him from doing what he wants to do, imagine trying to contain that boy?"

"You’re not afraid of him, you’re afraid of his teacher."

"She single-handedly broke into the castle and managed to get my brother out of that room, which was being protected by all twenty court mages, as well as the knights he considered the strongest, however controversial that might be."

Kael said this because the Knight of Hearts had an affair with the former King, there were rumors that he had affairs with other women and as a favor he gave this position to these knights, but they were only rumors.

In the arena, Darius spoke the third name, Corw, he had dog ears and was very muscular, anyone who saw him would say he was a fighter, or someone who did manual labor.

Darius handed him the bag with the money and the bow, then asked him if he would take the job. He did.

So far everything was going as expected, it would be difficult to find someone who refused the job.

The fourth name was spoken, Orti, he was an elf with long blond hair, the hair was braided and was highlighted by the green clothes the elf was wearing.

Darius repeated the process and the elf accepted the job.

Darius began to call each of the spearmen, in order: Isandro, Evander, Perse and Ulri. They were all given spears that could be set ablaze, but the flames were only on the part where the spear caused damage, so people who didn’t know how to use fire magic could use them without getting hurt.

The four accepted the job.

When it came to the mages, something happened that Cassandra hadn’t imagined: Clav, the weakest adventurer, lost to Bryn, the weak man. Ursula, the witch of gravitational magic, came third. In fourth place was Ysabel, an ice mage, whose blue hair matched the style of magic she used.

Clav could unconsciously control fate, so he always won, even without the slightest effort. But Bryn could move very quickly, so Clav lost, just because he had no combat experience and couldn’t see the attacks, that was the skill’s weakness.

Everyone accepted the job.

When it came to the knights, Bryn came fourth. He was weak in muscle, but his speed allowed him to finish in the top four.

The tournament didn’t have any entry rules, so anyone could enter all the categories, there were some who entered and passed all four categories, but came last. These people learned several skills, but didn’t specialize in any.

The first places went to: Kaida, Ald, Tori, and Bryn. All of them accepted, but in Bryn’s case, he could choose to stay only as a mage or as a swordsman, as it would be difficult for him to play both roles. Each received a staff made from the wood of treants, which are tree-like monsters.

Darius was surprised to see that Ald had accepted the request, as he was the son of Baron Emberfall, who was known for his army, which was twice the size of Lucian’s. The Baron’s domain was very prosperous. The Baron’s domain was very prosperous and he had a large army. Darius didn’t ask Ald his reasons for accepting.

"Now I have twenty coin purses, each one containing 100 gold coins, this is a secondary prize. The people who somehow stand out will receive this money and be called up to the army, but they can refuse the invitation and keep the money if they want."

"We ended up forgetting to show you what our army facilities look like," Cassandra said.

A screen appeared above the arena, it was split so that you could see everywhere in the arena. The military base was a large mansion, fit for a nobleman to live in, several parts of which were being shown to everyone.

"Our army is small compared to other nobles, but we have the most qualified people working, so each soldier receives a salary of 20 gold coins, plus their own room. We’re not like other nobles who treat the military like animals, we treat all our employees like people and reward them accordingly."

"How long have they had this facility?" Kael asked.

"I don’t know, they’ve always invested a lot, plus they have a village with houses that could be mistaken for the houses of lower nobles."

"Are the houses that good?"

"The head of the village lives in a mansion similar to what a Baronet would have, and the other houses are well done."

"So they’ve invested heavily in the domain. It’s wrong that I didn’t know this before, I could have rewarded Lucian and Darius more."

In the arena, Darius spoke each person’s name in no apparent order. He handed out the prizes and everyone agreed to work for Lucian.

The working conditions were good and the pay was very high, not even the King paid so many coins for the work of his soldiers.

Kael thought to himself, this was a bit of a bad thing, as they gave better conditions and better pay, it would only be a matter of time before Lucian had the biggest army, but that would be complicated, a lot of people hired, means a lot of money spent. So there must be a limit.

"Again, I thank each and every one of you for your participation. See you next year."

"Next year?!" Kael spoke louder than usual.

"I don’t see a problem with that, you’re just a bit confusing to understand. At times you support Darius and at others, you consider him an enemy."

"I’m just doing my job, I can’t blindly trust anyone, has he shown that he’s not someone who would betray us?"

"Not directly, he could have taken your crown as soon as you usurped it from the old King, but he didn’t do that, so I don’t think he’s an enemy."

Kael was different, Elara was noticing this controversial behavior.

At the factory, Darius gathered all the adventurers and gave each one a gift, including Cassandra. He gave them weapons that were better than the ones they had been given as prizes.

"I felt bad about not letting you take part in the competition, so I ask you to accept this gift as a way of showing that I appreciate you and the work you do."

The summons would be the next day, each would receive a letter and could go to the Lestor family’s military base.

Kael was also preparing, he called the adventurers who were in the city for the mission in the forest, but few accepted. They didn’t want the mission, as much as it paid well, there were some rumors that it would be dangerous, since the best adventurers came back badly injured.

He couldn’t convince any more people to go on the mission, so he accepted the few who showed up.

They entered the forest, Elara leading the group. The royal knights were already in the forest on a reconnaissance mission, as there might be some changes.

The next day, Elara’s group met up with the knights, and they went together to the structure, which was completely broken.