Chapter 16

Chapter 16 — Refugees and Bandits (2)

Magic was expensive.

If I brought in a mage from a major city in another territory, it would cost a fortune.

For the poor Marcel Territory, hiring a mage was far too burdensome.

“A mage? That’s way too expensive. We need to save our budget.”

For now, we could survive on tax revenue since it had not been long since the harvest.

But starting early next year, we would enter a budget deficit.

At that point, I would have to issue bonds, and unless I offered them at a steep discount, no one would buy them.

Either we had to earn a lot of money, or we needed to cut expenses and prepare for next year.

“No, my lord. Something as simple as the [Silence] spell should be relatively cheap. I’ll look into it.”

“Where are you planning to look?”

“There are magic-tool shops in town, aren’t there? I heard the owner of one of them is a mage.”

“There’s a mage in town? That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”

Mages were highly skilled specialists usually found only in the magic towers of major cities.

There were low-level practitioners who learned one or two spells and operated magic tools, but those people were normally called magic-tool technicians.

As far as I knew, Marcel had plenty of magic-tool technicians, but no actual mages.

“I didn’t know either, but Captain Adrian told me about it. He said a witch lives in one of the magic-tool shops.”

“A mage and a witch are completely different things. The only thing they have in common is that both use mana.”

“Ah, is that so? I thought a female mage was simply called a witch...”

Martin’s face turned red when he realized his mistake.

Still, it was understandable.

There was almost no chance of seeing witches in the Empire. I had heard the Church of the Sun God had driven nearly all of them away long ago.

“Either way, she’s worth meeting. Witches use magic too, after all. Everyone, follow me. We’re going to the magic-tool shop.”

We immediately headed toward the commercial district.

We stood in front of a magic-tool shop in the middle of the commercial district.

Martin pointed at the sign.

“This is the place.”

The sign read:

Winnie’s Magic-Tool Shop

There was also another sign saying they sold digestive medicine, so apparently it doubled as a pharmacy.

—Ring, ring.

When we opened the door, a wind-chime-like bell rang, announcing our arrival.

“Welcome. What are you looking for?”

A woman who looked around twenty greeted us.

“We’re here to meet the owner. Is the owner available?”

“Oh my. Aren’t you the lord?”

“...”

I had planned to meet her without revealing my identity, but she recognized me immediately.

This was all because of the blessing from the God of Abundance.

After walking around with a glowing hand raised all day, almost everyone in the territory knew what I looked like.

“Ahem. I am Eric Marcel. Are you the owner of this place?”

“Nice to meet you, my lord. My name is Winnie.”

Winnie politely greeted me.

I was curious because she was supposedly a witch, so I used [Low-Rank Appraisal].

[Winnie (185 years old)]

[Daughter of Emily, the ‘Witch of the Black Forest.’]

Guh!

This was the first time in this life that I had met someone so old.

What surprised me even more was that Winnie was not some long-lived race.

She was simply an extremely old human.

I hid my surprise and asked calmly,

“Are you a mage or a witch?”

“I’m a witch.”

No luck.

Still, some witches could use regular magic, so I continued.

“Can you use [Silence], or anything similar? I’m planning to hunt down a group of bandits, but whenever we approach noisily, they all run away.”

“Oh my. Are you finally going after those nasty people?”

“Yes. They’re a major obstacle to settling the refugees.”

Winnie smiled faintly before making a proposal.

“If you let me examine your body, I’ll help you.”

Pascal, the Chief of Civil Affairs, who had been listening behind me, suddenly exploded.

“You shameless woman! How dare you lust after His Lordship!”

“Pascal, what are you talking about all of a sudden? And that’s hardly polite.”

“But, my lord! She looks barely twenty, yet she’s saying something like—”

“Shh. She’s not twenty.”

“Pardon?”

At that moment, Winnie winked at Pascal.

Perhaps sensing some unknown terror, Pascal shuddered.

I held out my hand toward Winnie.

“Here. You want to circulate your mana through me, right? Go ahead.”

When I was young, several mages had examined my body.

They had been trying to see if there was any way to awaken my talent as a knight or mage.

Of course, all of them had failed.

Winnie was probably trying to do something similar.

She was likely curious about the nature of the power I had received through the blessing.

“Hoho. Thank you.”

Winnie took my hand.

Then she sent her mana into my body.

“Hmm... As expected, you’re quite unusual. I’ve never seen anything like this before. Let me take a deeper look.”

Winnie frowned as she tried to do something I couldn’t understand.

At that moment—

[System Alert]

[An attempt to hack the server through the Hunter System client has been detected.

Eliminating the hacking source.

3

2

1]

“Danger!”

—Slap!

I smacked Winnie’s hand away from mine.

[System Alert]

[Failed to eliminate the hacking source.

Any repeated attempt will result in immediate elimination.]

“Whew. That was close. Winnie, stop spacing out and pull yourself together.”

Winnie stared at me with wide eyes.

She looked somewhat shaken.

“W-What? What was that?”

“You don’t need to know. You almost died.”

“Was that... some kind of divinity?”

“Something similar. Pretend you never saw it.”

“...Understood.”

She said she wanted something warm to drink so she could calm herself.

Winnie led us to a table and served hot tea.

Martin stopped drinking midway and spoke.

“But what about the [Silence] spell?”

“Oh, right. Winnie, can you help us deal with the bandits?”

“Of course. As long as there’s a little something in it for me.”

A profit?

We had come here specifically to save money.

“I cannot spend the territory’s budget carelessly. I’ll pay you with something else.”

“What would that be?”

I remembered that Winnie sold medicine.

“I’ll teach you how to make a certain medicine.”

Winnie’s eyes immediately lit up.

I had never heard of a witch who was obsessed with money.

Then again, witches normally lived alone deep inside forests. There was little reason for them to care about money.

This witch was probably just unusual.

Still, I couldn’t hand over a profitable business idea just for a few uses of magic.

“In exchange, you’ll establish a company in which I hold the controlling stake. The dividends from my shares will go toward the territory’s budget.”

If I held a controlling stake, that meant Winnie herself would still own shares.

Her expression immediately brightened.

“As you wish. But may I ask what kind of medicine it is?”

“For starters, I’ll teach you how to make antidiarrheal medicine—medicine that stops diarrhea.”

In this world, diarrhea was a frightening illness.

Many people died from it.

It caused dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and malnutrition all at once.

Antidiarrheal medicine was one way to stop that.

Winnie looked slightly doubtful.

“If such an amazing medicine existed, wouldn’t someone have already discovered it?”

She had a point.

But knowing the method and actually producing it were two different things.

As the illegitimate son of Westfalen, I had never possessed enough authority to accomplish much.

“I simply never had the opportunity to make it before. Naturally, we’ll need some clinical testing, but the production method itself is simple, so don’t worry.”

Apparently, she found my words convincing.

Winnie nodded.

At that moment, Axel, the Knight Commander, revealed his impatience.

“Ahem. Lady Witch, does that mean you can help us subjugate the bandits?”

Winnie made a circle with her fingers.

Seeing it, Axel cheered.

It was finally time to hunt down the bandits.

A few days later, deep in the night.

More than a hundred horses quietly left through the northern gate of the lord’s castle.

Riding alongside me were knights, soldiers, Chief Bodyguard Martin, Chief of Security Raul, Knight Commander Axel, and the witch Winnie.

For this expedition, we had selected soldiers who knew how to ride.

Over the past few days, we had also borrowed many horses, corrected the soldiers’ riding posture, and trained them to charge in formation.

Martin looked at the mounted soldiers and complained.

“Isn’t it a little too quiet?”

“It’s perfect because it’s quiet.”

This was on a completely different level from an ordinary [Silence] spell.

I had no idea what Winnie had done, but the horses galloped without making the slightest sound from their hooves.

There was not even any vibration.

Even the horses’ breathing was completely silent.

For Martin, who had been trained as a knight, this silence must have felt strange and uncomfortable.

When cavalry rode together in formation, there was normally a pounding rhythm that made the heart race.

Now there was none of that.

“Do we really need to stay quiet even when leaving the castle?”

“Of course. There are probably bandit spies inside the lord’s castle as well. They could inform the bandits of our movements with carrier pigeons or something similar.”

That was why we had secretly slipped out through the northern gate in the middle of the night.

“We’ll move quickly toward the target. Speed is everything in this operation.”

I urged my horse forward faster.

The others followed closely behind.

About two hours later.

After reaching the destination, the group gave the horses beans and water while taking one final rest.

Even the sound of the horses chewing beans remained completely silent.

I called Winnie over to ask when we should remove the [Silence] spell.

“Winnie, how long will this magic last?”

“About three more hours.”

“When the warhorses charge, I want the sound back. Remove the spell at that point.”

The earth-shaking thunder of heavy warhorses charging forward could crush the enemy’s morale and scatter their will to fight.

And our enemies this time were nothing more than an untrained mob of bandits.

It should be extremely effective.

“Understood, my lord.”

After a short rest, a knight emerged from the darkness and reported.

“We’ve found their mountain camp. There’s no wooden palisade around it, so a warhorse charge should be effective.”

I immediately ordered the knights and soldiers to mount.

“Everyone, move out.”

More than a hundred horses silently approached the mountain camp.

The bandits probably could not even imagine that a subjugation force was already closing in on them.

It was late at night, when even the moonlight felt like a lullaby.

The bandits’ mountain camp had fallen into deep sleep.

Even the bandits standing guard were nodding off.

Only a few campfires burned nearby to provide some light.

Meanwhile, in a field near the camp—

“Prepare to charge.”

At my order, the knights and soldiers formed their lines.

It didn’t matter if some of the soldiers were inexperienced riders.

The well-trained horses knew how to maintain formation on their own.

Once everyone was ready, I turned to Winnie.

“Remove the [Silence] spell.”

“Yes, my lord. [Cancel the Magic].”

The [Silence] magic surrounding the horses disappeared.

At once, the rough breathing of more than a hundred horses filled the field.

The warhorses had realized that the charge was about to begin, and they became excited.

They snorted and scraped the ground with their hooves.

Hearing those sounds, the knights and soldiers also became fired up.

I could hear their heavy breathing even from where I sat.

Everything was ready.

All that remained was the charge.

I raised Soul Harvester high into the air, then slowly pointed it forward.

“Charge.”

My voice was quiet.

But not a single soldier failed to hear it.

“Hyaa!”

More than a hundred horses surged forward at once.

—Rumble...

The bandits in the mountain camp heard the earth trembling.

“What’s that sound?”

“Sounds like someone beating on something.”

“It’s not an orc or troll, is it?”

“Do those bastards even use drums?”

The bandits woke up and began emerging from their crude wooden huts in small groups.

They strained their ears.

“Doesn’t that sound like horses?”

“No way. If it were horses, we would’ve noticed them ages ago.”

—RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE!

The noise quickly turned into an earth-shaking roar.

Along with the ground, the bandits’ hearts began to tremble.

“W-What the hell is happening? An earthquake?”

One bandit who had once served as a soldier let out a sigh.

“Ah... We’re screwed. Those are knights.”

“What?”

At that moment—

Warhorses burst out of the darkness.

“WAAAAAAH! CHARGE!”

Axel, leading the vanguard, roared at the top of his lungs.

Only then did the bandits realize that a subjugation force had arrived.

Trying to resist now was like a candle struggling against the wind.

Some threw away their weapons and ran around in panic.

“Run!”

“Where?! Damn it! We’re all dead!”

Some tried desperately to escape.

Others simply collapsed onto the ground and waited for the end.

There were campfires, but visibility was still poor in the middle of the night.

I immediately called out to Winnie.

“Winnie! Give us some light!”

“[Light].”

A sphere of light rose into the air and illuminated the surroundings.

With clear visibility, the soldiers quickly completed the encirclement exactly as they had trained.

The knights knocked down the few bandits who attempted to resist.

To the bandits, the strength of a disciplined army must have looked like a host of grim reapers descending upon them.

“We surrender! We surrender!”

“Please, my lord! Spare my life!”

Cries and groans came from all around.

There was no reason to slaughter every last one of them, so I decided to gather them together first.

I raised my voice so that everyone could hear.

“Drop your weapons and gather in the center of the camp! Do that, and I’ll spare your lives!”

The panicked bandits immediately began gathering together.