Time had come for the order to return to camp to be given, but strangely, nothing had been said. The knights had found it weird and had proposed for them to return, but the only response they had received was:

“Madam hopes we can remain in Vallon castle for a while longer.”

“But why? Things have mostly been settled here, so shouldn’t we go back……”

“I don’t know exactly why, but Madam said there is some more work to be done. So there is probably something that is still unfinished.”

“Some more work?”

It seemed Madam was up to something again. What in the world was she getting up to this time?

The Winterfell vassals put their heads together to try to figure it out.

“I heard Madam order the dwarves to make something……”

“Oh! Will we finally get to use Dwarf weapons? They say there is a lot of iron ore in this area.”

“Don’t go getting ahead of yourself, you punk.”

“But there is only one thing she could possibly ask the dwarves to do. It’s not like she will ask them to paint portraits or something, no?”

“It could end up being something we never imagined though.”

“Umm…… that’s true too.”

Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait too long. One peaceful afternoon, Giscard, who had received an order from the Marchioness, entered the knights’ lounge.

“Raise your hand if you are confident in your archery.”

“In archery, it’s Luke and I, Commander. Is there something for us to do?”

“Madam asked me to bring two or three archers to her. You don’t have to be very accurate, you just have to be very strong.”

“Huh?”

What could it be this time? Besides the four that Giscard finally selected, many other knights followed Giscard [to find out what it was]. When they arrived at their destination shortly after, the first thing they saw was the Marquis and Marchioness standing to one side of the drill hall. On the opposite side of the drill hall stood a suit of armour.

There was no one wearing the suit of armour. It was standing on its own. There was a solid, wooden prop behind it to make sure it didn’t fall.

The gathered knights gazed at the scene in bewilderment.

But come to think of it-

“But wait, that looks a bit strange, doesn’t it?”

“It seems so.”

The armour standing in the drill hall was made in a very unfamiliar fashion. First of all, the entire suit was covered with smooth sheet metal. However, it was exquisitely made such that the joints could bend.

“It is so unusual.”

“Is that what Madam asked the dwarf artisans to make?”

At this time, knights generally wore armour made of chain-mail. More advanced techniques were needed to make plate armour, so even if Nadia was the first to raise the idea, they would not have been able to build the armour in such a short amount of time if they didn’t have the dwarf artisans’ skill.

As the knights lost themselves in examining the odd armour, Nadia’s voice rang.

“Oh, you’re here. You should have said something once you arrived.”

“Forgive me, Madam. It’s our first time seeing armour like this so……”

“We’ll have to test the performance of this sample. Form two groups and stand here”

“Huh? Ah, yes. Understood, Madam.”

Each of them held a bow and two arrows. Despite being puzzled, they followed Nadia’s instructions accordingly.

“Shoot your arrows at the armour, two people at a time. The group behind should shoot immediately after. Then while group 2 shoots, group 1 should stand at the ready again.”

“Where exactly should we aim?”

“Anywhere is fine. Just try to hit the armour.”

“Yes, Madam!”

It wasn’t such a hard task. In a short while, four arrows cut through the air in succession.

Ping- ping-!

But different from the impressive momentum with which the arrows cut through the air, the arrows bent on impact when they hit the protective metal. Nadia and Glenn mumbled to themselves when they saw this.

“As expected.”

“It’s a success. There are no punctures at all.”

The weakness of chain-mail was that it was vulnerable to stabbing weapons like arrows and spears. In fact, on the battlefield, stabbing weapons were used more often than weapons that cut people down, unlike in one-to-one combat. With armour that was made from sheet metal they could remedy that.

Glenn looked at Nadia who was standing in front of him, and wondered.

‘How did she come up with this?’

He couldn’t get what exactly this woman was, or even what kind of thoughts ran through her mind. However, that did not change the fact that she had once again made a great contribution. Glenn spoke to express his gratitude.

“When did you start thinking about this?”

“I first thought about it a long time ago, but there was never any opportunity to actualise it. There are many iron deposits around Vallon castle, so I thought it was as good a time as ever.”

“No matter when or how you came up with the idea, you have made a great contribution. If it could be distributed to the army, it would drastically improve the troops’ defence.”

“That’s not all.”

Nadia replied to Glenn, shaking her head slightly. The reason why they tried to occupy this land that was rich in iron was not just to enhance their defence.

“That’s not all?”