Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Chapter 168: The ways of the old (part 1)

**Half an hour earlier**

"Come on, boys, keep it up! The princess is watching!"

Luan rolled his eyes when he heard the major's encouraging words.

"He could stop reminding us," Luan muttered while fixing his hold over the reins. "It doesn't make it any easier to ride while maintaining a formal position."

With their backs straightened and legs only loosely sitting in the stirrups, a rider could hardly compensate for the movement of the horse's back. And with how their legion's cavalry used the evolved horses for the mounts…

The effects of not cooperating as well with their horses only grew harder and harder to endure.

And with the shifting body of their mounts below their asses wasn't enough of a bother, keeping a perfectly straight back and looking ahead with their chin raised at all times…

It was a recipe for a dental disaster!

"Shush, you moron," Carl, riding to Luan's left, scolded his friend. "Do you want him to hear you?"

The noise made by the hooves of their mounts could easily drown even the most whiny of Luan's remarks.

But just like their horses, the legionaries themselves prided themselves on being the best of the best of what humanity had to offer. One could only gain the entry and then the ranks within the legion by the way of merit, not money or social status.

What it boiled down in the moment, though, was that their major, one of the highest charges a common man could achieve anywhere in the army… Had to be one hell of a monster of a man.

And expecting him to miss Luan's remarks over something as insignificant as the general noise of five hundred massive beasts running down the old, decrepit road…

"He won't care," Luan muttered in response… but with a much shallower voice. If not for the formal requirements of his position, all in the bid to impress the golden princess, he would likely lower his chin and hide his face.

With his haughty words contrasting with his meek physical reaction, Luan pursed his lips.

He had enough of letting his company pass time at the expense of watching him get punished for his loose lips. And after serving as the company's entertainment for some months by now, he finally started to grow a little bit restrained when it came to his words.

"As long as I keep the formal posture, ma…" Luan gulped down his saliva. "Sir Major shouldn't complain."

"And that's why you started to refer to him per sir?" Carl laughed out, his shoulders shaking a little as he carefully maintained his straightened back.

In the empire, the general idea of nobility and their ranks was in an all-out retreat. Most of the potentates shifted from their formerly ducal lands to profitable businesses all over the empire, simply changing the type of yoke they held the general population in.

The smaller nobles were losing their privileges left and right, suppressed by the strong-armed laws of the golden throne.

Some transitioned to different forms of power to maintain their influence while others simply faded into obscurity along with the times that passed. And at the end of it all, in the current reality, only the royal loyalists and the high-ranking legion officers retained their right to be called sirs and madams.

'Not like Major cares,' Luan thought, glancing towards the center of their travel formation.

Riding slightly to the back and at the center line of the group, the major wore no spare decorations save for the mark of his rank engraved on a small plate sown to the shoulder of his uniform.

Surrounded by men in full, plate armor, he looked like some sort of a retainer, a mere connecting officer not responsible for the brawl whatsoever.

'In reality, any sort of armor would only serve to slow him down,' Luan thought, a hint of jealousy bursting out in his heart.

Sir Major reached the absolute pinnacle of how far could a simple commoner grow. Due to the nature of the elite unit he commanded, his career growth perfectly reflected his personal strength.

Him shedding off his iconic plate armor of the unit wasn't a sign of recklessness but an overwhelming confidence in his ability to keep his skin safe.

No ordinary man would ever gain enough merit to reach that high of a rank in the unit, after all.

"Do you think we will ever grow anywhere as strong as him?" Luan asked, forgetting about his whines as he pondered over the possibility of a bright future.

After all, with most of its enemies now gone and integrated into the empire, there was hardly any war left for the empire to fight. And without wars, sooner or later, the legion would have to change.

Without wars, there would be no battles. Without battles, no one could gain great merits in the old and trusted way. And that means…

'Sooner or later, it will be our turn to wear his mark of rank,' Luan thought with a small smile forming on his head. And like in a vicious cycle, the smile on his face only served to invite more positive thoughts, turning his smile even brighter and so on.

'Hardly any battles left to fight with, respectable position, good pay,' Luan shook his head. 'I need to take care not to grow wicked over how good I have it in life.'

"We might reach his rank one day," Carl spoke out a long time after Luan posed his question.

'Did he take an entire minute to answer that?' Luan thought, his friend's words distracting him from the dreamy future that awaited as soon as his current deployment was over.

And with just a bit of luck, he might even be able to claw his way to the rank of lieutenant! For that to happen, though…

Luan looked to his left, giving his friend a long, thoughtful stare.

'I guess he will be the one I will be competing for the promotion with,' he thought.

They were both sergeants, commanding a small unit of nine each. And as long as they could bring glory to the empire on the battlefield, they just might be able to jump a rank higher by the end of the campaign!

"His strength, though?" Carl continued to speak, more to himself than to his friend.

His eyes were absent, locked on something far, far beyond anywhere Luan could see.

"The great war is over, all that's left for us is to rot some…"

*BOOM!*

A huge explosion shook the air right as a cone of fire suddenly filled the leftmost quarter of Luan's vision.

Thrown off the saddle by the discharge, he shifted his body mid-fall, ensuring that his armor would take the brunt of the damage, as opposed to his joins or vital parts.

'Wha…'

Luan's reaction was fully automatic, based on nothing but muscle memory alone. His mind, though...

His mind stopped.

It wasn't the first time for Luan to get thrown off his mount during an attack.

But the last time it happened was at Lunagar fortress, not in the…

Thud.

Falling down to the ground, all thoughts escaped Luan's mind along with the breath that squeezed out of his chest and escaped through his lips in a dull sigh.

And the last thing he saw before his vision started to go dark, was the lower body of Carl, his friend, casually sitting down on his horse's saddle…

With everything above the man's belt cleanly severed off, the blood spewed by the attack seemingly exploding in flames and leaving a burning trail along his mount's path.