Chapter 401: Epilogue: How to Establish a Legal Armed Organization

Epilogue: How to Establish a Legal Armed Organization

Amid a backdrop dominated by conflict and chaos, violence is the primary measure of an individual’s or group’s value—and the foundation of everything.

To speak bluntly, most kingdoms are no more stable than joint-stock merchant associations. At least merchant associations usually share common interests, whereas kingdoms are essentially alliances of various military factions.

These military factions generally have limited governance capacity, leading many to adopt a “colonial” style of rule—centered on castles and fortresses, ensuring control over transportation hubs and major towns, while delegating the rest to vassal knights.

This crude method of parceling out land, population, and taxes brought rapid short-term growth in standing professional armies, but severely eroded territorial control.

This awkward situation often makes lords seem like farmers with good intentions but little power, periodically harvesting the fruits of freely growing crops on their own farms, rather than truly governing the land and its people.

Even if the people on the land are replaced, as long as the castle remains untouched, it barely affects the ruler. A farmer cares only whether the grain is full—he doesn’t care about the straw variety, unless the straw mutates and hinders harvesting.

This means that between the seemingly pieced-together territories divided among various lords, vast power vacuums actually exist; only the directly governed key towns are considered true subjects.

Even these urban classes are gradually rising, seeking partial autonomy from lordly control. Some gain sufficient influence and force through accumulated wealth; others through alliances with the Church, forcing local traditional powers to concede.

Thus, free cities emerged, forming alliances to consolidate their self-rule, trading economic and tax capabilities for compromises from high nobles or the king.

The entire situation is chaotic, yet one crucial point is undeniable—violence.

Violence is the pedestal of the king’s crown, the foundation of a lord’s rule, and the guarantee of free cities. Everyone needs it.

Armed forces outside traditional armies arose accordingly: city-organized militias, mercenaries accepting diverse payment methods, brotherhoods and peacekeeping groups with complex compositions but shared goals, as well as rogue knights, bandits, and deserters—anarchic armed groups.

Most of them exist objectively but lack formal recognition.

Is there, then, a flexible, legally recognized organization that enjoys autonomous decision-making and financial independence, possesses reliable military competence, meets ideological standards, is permitted to hold territory, and assumes special functions?

The answer is yes: those in need may consider forming a knightly order.

Of course, this is not easy. A knightly order is not a simple army, but a special organization with religious, military, and administrative dimensions, requiring numerous complex and difficult prerequisites and navigating a long, tedious, yet indispensable process.

In Kraft’s view, the entire process resembles applying to establish a student club at a university.

First, a club needs a positive and healthy mission; a knightly order must also have a clear, at least nominally noble purpose—such as defending holy sites, participating in wars, or resisting foreign enemies.

Undertaking medical work or opposing all desecrations of life is not impossible, but it lacks specificity.

Second, as a “legal” organization, a club requires school approval; a knightly order must gain recognition from either the Church or secular authorities, preferably both, as a prerequisite for legal status and resources.

Secular authority is not too difficult—the Duke of Westmin’s endorsement carries sufficient weight; no one would dare offend him. The Church side is slightly more troublesome, but with mediation, consensus was surprisingly reached.

The bishops and archbishops were willing to grant permission but refused to meet in person or hold any formal ceremony; instead, the documents were delivered by Green’s superior, a somewhat gloomy old man.

After securing authorization, the next step is drafting internal rules and recruiting members. A successful knightly order must establish a reasonable structure and regulations, recruit members, and build its foundation brick by brick.

Kraft roughly decided to divide the structure into a medical and administrative department responsible for research and technology transfer, and an operational department tasked with resolving specific problems.

Recruiting administrative staff was not too difficult—he could send letters to colleagues in Wenden Port, Westmin Castle, and Rivers University; even if his acquaintances had no personal interest, they would recommend students or juniors for screening.

High-quality operational personnel were hardest to find. Among those he knew, those with military training generally had low education levels, while those with higher education typically had poor physical fitness and were unsuitable for specialized work.

Fortunately, a new source had emerged. The Church was willing to release people, and those with personal interest were few—only twelve—but sufficient.

To his surprise, one of the monks under Green who had participated in the lake expedition suddenly decided to change careers. His joining might be more significant than that of five or even ten new recruits.

Filling the core ranks alone is far from enough; many more support staff—servants, craftsmen, etc.—are needed to handle daily chores.

For these roles, peripheral tasks can be filled by common civilians, but those with specialized skills are not easily recruited—they must be paid significantly more than normal to secure their loyalty.

The knightly order would also solicit volunteers, such as wealthy nobles, who would donate funds and equipment. The Sigor family was eager to cover this portion in exchange for sharing new medicines and detailed usage guides.

Both student clubs and knightly orders must have their own activity venues. The venue can be requested from above or secured through ingenuity—it need not be large, but it cannot be absent.

The Wood family’s castle was too small to meet this need; the venue was naturally set within the monastery granted by the Church. That hilltop, along with the surrounding land previously serving the monastery, was theoretically more private than private property—they held rights from collecting firewood to collecting taxes.

After resolving the venue issue, the next concern was securing stable funding—relying solely on allocations would accomplish nothing.

Although the newly established knightly order currently possessed wealth beyond ordinary imagination, it was not particularly abundant for an organization, especially since actual liquid funds constituted a small portion.

They needed to develop their own industries, creating sustainable revenue streams to cover inevitable daily supply and maintenance costs, as well as certain expenditures that would never appear on official records.

Finally, a club must occasionally hold events to demonstrate its value to the student body; similarly, a knightly order must participate in certain necessary activities—such as Church ceremonies or medical charity services—to strengthen influence and gain reputation and support.

Perhaps they could establish the first comprehensive medical institution, with a name as long as possible: “First Hospital Affiliated with the Hospital Knights’ Order,” “Rivers University Affiliated Integrated Internal and Surgical Hospital,” or “Designated Teaching Hospital for Tuberculosis and Rare Diseases.”

He had even designed the emblem: replace the circular motif in the Church’s insignia with a serpent’s body, using a winged ouroboros as the symbol—retaining religious elements while incorporating the familiar serpent motif.

To be honest, Kraft was not skilled at these tasks. Compared to indirectly communicating with countless individuals through endless paperwork and influencing their thoughts and actions, he preferred frontline clinical work—though busy, it felt more tangible.

He was immersed in his work until an expected visitor arrived.

“You even poached Raymond from me! Raymond?!” Father Green burst into the clinic, slamming a transfer application onto the desk.

While still handling paperwork for Kraft within the Church, the latter had quietly picked up his pickaxe and stolen one of the Church’s few remaining talents who had withstood the most grueling trials.

This monk had accompanied them to the lake’s heart, resisted the corruption of the subterranean evil, yet suddenly decided to change his life path and join this group that, by all accounts, was riddled with problems.

Yet the knightly order is half a Church organization; the monk’s transition is merely switching departments—not abandoning faith—and thus theoretically indefensible.

Remembering that he himself had contributed to the order’s founding, the priest nearly declared an immediate end to cooperation.

“Don’t be like that, my brother.” Kraft ignored Green’s fury, even changed his address, fully aware of his new identity: “Is this not correct? As lambs of the Heavenly Father, we are one family, equal and inseparable—who can restrict a brother’s freedom of choice?”

“What kind of lamb of the Heavenly Father are you?!” Green slammed the desk, sending the water cup tumbling off.

The faith environment was ruined by people like him. These days, even a medical college professor practicing forbidden arts could brazenly dig at the Church’s walls and call himself a faithful member—imagine what the world would be like in a few years.

He was wrong. He had thought he could easily tolerate Kraft’s existence. But when this man, wearing the title of knightly order mentor, wandered about claiming Church-certified piety, he realized he had been terribly mistaken.

“Honestly, I was going to ask whether you and Vadin would consider serving for a while—having someone familiar with Church operations would make the early stages smoother, allowing the Gospel to spread through the knightly order’s affiliated hospital to more people…”

“Kraft, stop.” The priest cut off the professor’s relentless pitch. “For the sake of our precious friendship, can you grant me one request?”

“Of course. It is my duty.”

“Pack up your people and belongings. Before next Sunday, I expect your caravan to be traveling on land where the Mother Cathedral’s spire cannot be seen.”

“But isn’t the cathedral’s spire visible from all of Dunling?”

“Precisely. That’s exactly my point.”