The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 847 The First Batch of Knights Graduate!
Roland's brainwashing of Denesor II was very successful. His clever scheme was so effective that even the learned Adolf Heinrich couldn't find fault with it. Meanwhile, Stream City was also thriving under Queen Nyx's rule.

……

"Greetings, Your Excellency Adile, what brings you here?" Nyx sat upright in the head seat, looking at the old man Adile who was paying his respects below. This old hero, who was nearing the end of his career, would not usually take the initiative to come to them, which made Nyx a little nervous. She couldn't help but sit up straight and look at the old man below, wondering what important matter could have prompted this old man to come and pay his respects to her.

“Your Majesty, the knights are about to graduate this year, what do you think…” Adile asked hesitantly.

Looking at Adile's aged face, Nyx felt a sudden realization: the seed she had planted five years ago had now borne fruit!
Five years ago, under Roland's guidance, the Kingdom of Lagrange took the lead in establishing the knight profession system! From the most basic knight school to the advanced knight arena, a complete system has been built, and now it's time to reap the rewards!

"How many professional knights will the Temple provide for the kingdom this year?" Nyx asked curiously. After all, education and the establishment of a professional system is a slow process. Neither Nyx nor Roland expected quick results. Yet, five years later, the kingdom's first truly systematically trained knights were born! These weren't the war-mongers that Adile had hastily trained using haphazard methods. These knights were trained from the outset with emphasis on cultural and combat skills. In other words, these knights would become the cornerstone of the kingdom's future (after their retirement), and they would be the future sheriffs of the kingdom and even the empire!
“This year we can provide five outstanding graduating knights! Each of them has been trained by the kingdom's system and has the potential to become junior officers. The only thing they lack is practical combat experience,” Adile said calmly, as if having five knights was a great honor.

"Only five knights?" Nyx frowned slightly. She hadn't expected that after five years of refinement, the knight system, which allowed the entire kingdom to select and train any boy with knight potential, could only provide five regular knights a year.

“Um…only five knights can actually graduate. The others are either apprentice knights or haven’t even reached the knighthood threshold yet…” Adile said with a bitter face. Building something from scratch is already a great test of a person’s ability. It’s already quite good that he was able to achieve this using Roland’s broken ship.

"After all, we are training the backbone of the future kingdom, elite knights who will fight bravely and conquer new territories for His Majesty, not just brutes who know how to kill..." Adile explained. If it were just about manpower, it would be too easy! But those cannon fodder knights have no future. He believed that Roland and Nyxfe were not going to go to such lengths just to get a group of cannon fodder that would be quickly exhausted.

“You are right! Since His Majesty is not here, I will exercise the authority of the Queen!” Then Nyx lifted her skirt and stood up solemnly.

“I will formally knight them as knights of the kingdom and witness their oath of loyalty!” Nyx’s voice was calm and dignified.

"Yes, sir!" Adile was excited but remained calm.

As Roland's wife and Queen of the Lagrange Kingdom, Nyx had the right to exercise the rights of a queen. After all, in the Lagrange Empire's political system, the emperor and empress were essentially dual rulers, each possessing their own legitimate political rights and able to restrain each other. However, empresses rarely ruled in the name of empress, though they did not lack this right. Now, Nyx would exercise her royal authority to bestow titles upon these newly minted knights. Nyx did this because, although knights were not nobles, they still needed the recognition and bestowal of titles by lords to be legally valid. Although many lords could witness the bestowal of knights here, Nyx was present, and according to her rank and status, it should be Nyx who performed the ceremony. Besides, she felt it was unnecessary to trouble Roland with such a small matter, so she took care of it herself.

……

"Oh? The first batch of knights from the Knight Academy have graduated?" Roland looked at the briefing sent from Swiftstream City, which clearly recorded the successful establishment and birth of the knight system and the fact that Nyx had conferred knighthoods and accepted their allegiance.

"So few? Only five?" Darian Nightblade was eating cheese when he suddenly heard there was something interesting to watch, so he quickly went over and was immediately disappointed when he saw what he saw.

"Few? The kingdom should be grateful it can train strategic talents like knights systematically and self-sufficiently!" Roland said irritably. He was already amazed that Adile alone, along with a few retired knights, could keep the entire Knights' Temple system running. And these were the Empire's all-around knights! Not the hastily assembled "pseudo-knights" (although they were also knights, their skills were far inferior to the well-trained Temple Academy knights! Their only purpose was combat! Academy knights, on the other hand, could do much more!).

"The Knights aren't in a hurry to expand. The Swift Stream Road has been under construction all along, hasn't it? That should provide the candidates for sheriffs in the towns along the route, right?" Roland tapped the table, setting the tone. These knights, skilled in both literature and martial arts, would be a criminal to keep the Knights in the Order company watching the sand with orcs. The vast vacant grassroots positions in the kingdom are their true calling! (Although the knights the system gave him are also academic knights, Roland wouldn't be foolish enough to do something as brain-dead as dismantling his own Knights.)
"Yes, that's a good idea!" Adolf Heinrich nodded in approval. There was no other way; Roland, who was short of grassroots officials at the time, almost decided to disband the mage corps to become sheriffs. Although a forbidden spell mage squad was very tempting, Roland didn't need that forbidden spell now. As the kingdom developed faster and faster, de-urbanization was an inevitable trend. A large number of people would leave the cities to cultivate villages and towns. These villages and towns, which sprang up like mushrooms after rain, would inevitably require the kingdom's officials to devote their energy. Compared to the expensive law enforcement officers, knights were much cheaper.

"Finally, we've resolved a potential future problem, so we won't be caught off guard later!" Roland said easily. Don't be fooled by the fact that there are only 5 people now; this is a continuous training system, not a one-off deal! As long as Roland doesn't do anything reckless, this system will continue to exist. Of course, he needs enough knights to pass on these things.

"Tell me about our plans!" Adolf Heinrich asked Roland, then looked at the others.

“It’s clear that Mordor will no longer wage war. Thanks to His Majesty’s plan, I think Mordor is probably going to fight Gondor to the death and won’t have time to deal with us. The Eastern Barbarians’ chariot people were also crushed by our battle and are now licking their wounds. So what should we do next? This is something you need to decide!” Adolf Heinrich tossed the problem back to Roland.

"I suggest we focus on improving the capital first. From now on, we should prioritize recuperation and not initiate any wars. As for bleeding them dry, let our allies and vassals handle that!" Roland smiled at everyone.