Chapter 19 — Refugees and Bandits (5)
“Waaah!”
The knights and soldiers cheered when they saw the golem I had created.
The earth golem stood around seven or eight meters tall.
If Anton, the leader of the bandits, swung his sword once, he could probably destroy it. But its massive appearance alone was enough to raise the morale of the punitive force.
“Golem, return to earth in front of the village’s main gate.”
—Kuu, kuu.
The reason I gave that command was to fill in the trap in front of the gate.
If I sent the golem alone, it might be destroyed before it reached the entrance, so we would charge alongside it.
“Everyone, charge!”
“Waaaah!”
At my shout, the punitive force rushed forward.
The earth golem ran at the front, while Axel, Martin, Raul, and I formed the tip of the wedge behind it.
The sudden charge seemed to catch the bandits off guard, but they quickly began preparing their defenses at the main gate.
They had abandoned the villagers on top of the wooden barricade now that they were no longer useful as hostages.
While running, I gave Raul an order.
“Raul, rescue the villagers on top of the barricade!”
“Yes!”
Raul split away from us while the rest of the punitive force reached the front gate.
Then the earth golem returned to ordinary soil right on top of the trap.
—Thud! Thud!
The collapsing earth poured into the pit and filled it.
That was when Anton's voice rang out.
“Damn it! I never expected them to have a mage!”
He rushed toward the main gate with two of his subordinates and drew his sword.
They were trying to stop us from destroying the entrance.
Both of Anton's men were around the level of Sword Users.
“Come at me, you brats!”
“I'm coming!”
I shouted and pretended to charge straight toward Anton.
Then I suddenly changed direction.
“Martin! Axel! Hold him back as long as you can!”
The instant I finished speaking, I passed one of Anton's subordinates and sliced through his throat.
“Grrk...”
The sound of blood bubbling from his severed throat reached my ears.
The bandits, who had been looking down on me, were stunned.
Of course they were.
The young lord they had underestimated had killed someone with the fighting strength of a knight in a single strike.
Well, even if my current level was only similar to an advanced Sword User, the skill and experience from my previous life hadn't disappeared.
Against trash like these guys, I was confident I could turn them into corpses in an instant.
Seeing his subordinate collapse, Anton roared in fury.
“Lord Eric! I'll tear you apart with my own hands!”
I didn't bother answering him and ran toward the gate.
The punitive force couldn't enter until I destroyed it.
I could only hope Martin and Axel could keep Anton occupied.
As soon as I reached the village entrance, I placed my hand against the main gate.
“Golem Creation.”
—Crackle!
The enormous gate, made from thick, sturdy wood, transformed into a wood golem.
And naturally, with the gate itself gone, the path ahead of the punitive force was now completely open.
I touched the wooden barricade beside it and created another wood golem.
I immediately gave them an order.
“Golems! Kill those bandits!”
—Kuu, kuu.
At that moment, the punitive force behind me surged through the open entrance with loud cheers.
“Waaaah! Long live the lord!”
“Charge! Charge!”
The two wood golems crashed into the bandits alongside the punitive force.
—Kwa-gagagak!
When one of the wood golems swung its long arm, more than ten low-ranking bandits were sent flying.
And then the knights, practically human tanks, charged into their formation as well.
They tore through the bandits like tigers rampaging through a flock of sheep.
The sight drove the bandits into despair.
“Aaaagh! It's a monster! Run!”
“They brought a mage! We're all going to get turned into frogs!”
“Someone save me!”
The wood golems only had combat power comparable to low-ranking knights, but their visual impact seemed overwhelming.
The bandits' formation completely collapsed, and they began scattering in every direction.
Surprisingly, the battle looked like it would end very easily.
But then—
—Thud!
Martin suddenly flew past me and crashed into the ground.
He immediately jumped back to his feet, only to collapse again as if he had gotten dizzy.
I stared at him in disbelief.
“What are you doing? Did you just get your ass kicked?”
“Ugh! No, my lord! I'm going back!”
Martin barely managed to get himself up.
He gripped his longsword with both hands and rushed back into the fight.
I looked behind me and saw Axel exchanging blows with Anton.
Damn. I'd better help them.
Someone could get killed or badly injured at this rate.
I raised Soul Harvester and ran after Martin.
“Martin! Use consecutive attacks to force Anton's arms upward, then retreat!”
“What? What are you planning to do?”
“Just do what I tell you!”
Martin grumbled under his breath as he charged toward Anton.
“Back again, brat?”
Anton leisurely blocked Martin's sword.
Apparently, he didn't care in the slightest whether his subordinates were being wiped out.
Well, he used to be a knight.
He probably couldn't care less about what happened to a bunch of miserable bandits.
Just as I'd instructed, Martin repeatedly attacked from above, forcing Anton to raise the position of his sword.
That was when I leaped out from behind Martin.
Anton saw me and smirked.
“Heh. Resorting to cheap tricks?”
I lowered my stance and swung Soul Harvester horizontally.
Anton immediately lowered the tip of his sword to block it.
He probably thought he could stop my strike easily.
But the Soul Harvester I had been swinging had already shortened.
“What?”
Anton hurriedly tried to pull his sword back.
But since he had to reverse the direction of his strength, it was difficult to block in time.
Soul Harvester reached Anton's abdomen.
For the brief instant his aura prevented the blade from cutting straight through him, I poured mana into Soul Harvester and extended its length.
At the same time, I concentrated all my mana into the blade and swung with all my strength.
—Slash!
“Aaaagh!”
A long wound opened across his stomach.
His aura protected his internal organs, but his skin and core abdominal muscles had been cut deeply.
It would be difficult for him to continue fighting.
Anton glared at me and shouted.
“Damn it! Where did a monster like you come from?!”
“You should never let your guard down, Sir Anton of Dijon.”
“What? How do you know that...? Did you torture Sir Charles?!”
It was easy enough to guess that he had once been a knight, but apparently, hearing that I even knew where he came from shocked him.
“What are you talking about? Axel! Martin! I'll leave the rest to you!”
I'd already given Anton a massive handicap.
If the two of them still couldn't beat him, that would be ridiculous.
Axel and Martin attacked him again.
Unable to hold them off anymore, Anton shouted while blood poured from his wound.
“You bastards! Fight me one at a time, fair and square!”
I was so dumbfounded that I pointed at him.
“What the hell did you just say? You took my innocent people hostage, and now you're talking about fighting fair? Fair and square? Screw you!”
I angrily raised my sword and was about to charge him again when—
—CRUNCH!
Anton’s head was crushed.
—Thud.
Anton, who had instantly become a corpse, collapsed onto the ground.
Standing behind him was Raul, holding a hammer glowing with a deep blue light.
“...”
Axel and Martin, who had struggled so hard to hold Anton back, looked completely deflated.
Judging from their expressions, both of them had probably wanted to be the one to cut off his head at the end.
Raul, on the other hand, laughed loudly and puffed out his chest.
“Hahahaha! My lord! I defeated the enemy leader!”
“...Yeah. Good job.”
There wasn't really anything I could say about it.
I patted Axel and Martin on the shoulders and headed deeper into the village.
The punitive expedition ended with only minor casualties.
With two ten-meter-tall wood golems rampaging around the battlefield, most of the bandits lost their will to fight.
However, the furious punitive force wasn't willing to accept the bandits' surrender so easily.
There were too many villagers who had suffered at their hands.
As a result, more than half of the bandits lost their lives.
Only those who desperately begged for mercy managed to survive.
“Move! Hurry up unless you want your heads cut off!”
The knights searched through the village, dragged out the bandits who had been hiding, and gathered them together.
More than fifty bandits were captured alive.
“Please, my lord! Please spare me!”
“You know what you've done, and you still think we'll spare you?”
A knight raised his sword to kill one of the captured bandits, but I stopped him.
“Enough. We need people to cremate all the dead bandits, so stop killing them.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Anger directed at a large, undefined group usually faded rather quickly.
I calmed the soldiers down and stopped them from massacring the remaining bandits.
Then I ordered the surviving bandits to go outside the village and gather the corpses.
Bodies killed in battle often suffered severe damage and decomposed quickly, so it was better to gather and burn them as soon as possible.
I called Knight Commander Axel over and gave him another set of instructions.
“Tell the soldiers to help the villagers repair the damaged buildings and remove the traps. Also, leave the bandits' food and supplies here for the villagers.”
“Then what about the spoils we're supposed to distribute among the punitive force?”
“Take the weapons and valuables. That will be enough.”
“Yes, my lord.”
This expedition had barely managed to avoid becoming a financial loss.
Hobion Village had suffered so much damage that a large portion of our spoils had to be used to compensate its residents.
Fortunately, the bandits had many animals pulling their wagons.
Cows and horses were useful for farming, so I transferred all of them to the village.
I looked away from the soldiers cleaning up after the battle and carefully examined Hobion Village.
After becoming lord, I had reformed the taxes, so I had expected the villagers to have at least a little breathing room.
But the situation was worse than I'd thought.
The residents looked malnourished, and even the children were painfully thin and lacked energy.
It was better than the slums, but the difference between this place and the frontier village of Comanceville was enormous.
Most of the villages in my territory probably look like this.
I'll have to work even harder.
But first, I needed money.
Without a proper budget, there wasn't much I could do to help them.
I needed to finish the bandit suppression as quickly as possible and start taking care of the territory's finances.
Once things had settled down to some extent, I left the remaining work to Axel and prepared to depart.
“Martin, come with me to Comanceville.”
“Why are we suddenly going there?”
“I can only maintain two golems at a time. Since I created two here, the golem in Comanceville must have collapsed. I need to go make another one.”
“Ah, then we should hurry. Goblins could appear.”
Martin and I mounted our horses and urged them forward.
The development of the Great Forest couldn't afford to stop even for a moment.
After the hostage incident at Hobion Village, every subsequent bandit subjugation ended successfully.
The power of the bandit groups had weakened significantly after rumors of what happened spread.
Now, only one group remained.
A gang of mountain bandits stationed in the farthest part of the territory.
They operated near the border with Ronalp territory and had grown their power by collecting tolls from traveling merchants.
Refugees without money were often beaten.
Some were even dragged back to the bandits' mountain stronghold and forced to work.
I called a lord's council to discuss their suppression.
“Their stronghold is practically a fortress. They've surrounded it with wooden walls and dug a moat around it. And since it's located uphill, a cavalry charge would be difficult.”
That was Knight Commander Axel's conclusion after returning from reconnaissance.
The senior members of the knight order fell into thought.
If we couldn't break through with a cavalry charge, then the knights would need to take the lead and clear a path.
Or I could use golems again, just like during the operation to retake Hobion Village.
The problem was that the enemy wasn't weak.
“There are rumors that they have three intermediate Sword Experts among them.”
“This won't be as easy as last time. There may not even be enough time for His Lordship to create those golems.”
“It's too dangerous. If His Lordship is exposed, we won't have any way to protect him.”
The knights began to worry.
If we brought the retired Sir Pierre with us, our knight order would still have much greater overall strength.
But if someone asked me whether it was worth grinding down our own forces just to defeat these bandits, my answer would be an immediate no.
Losing even a single Expert-level knight would be an enormous loss.
Training one skilled and loyal knight required a tremendous amount of time and money.
The knights continued thinking.
Even though this was supposed to be a meeting, no one spoke.
That was when I cleared my throat.
“Ahem.”
Everyone looked toward me.
“I think you're all misunderstanding something. Are we at war? Do we need to occupy enemy territory? Do they have hostages we need to rescue?”
“No, but... I'm not sure what you mean, my lord.”
“There's a story called Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. It has a part where the thieves are captured by putting drugs in their alcohol.”
At my words, Martin—the honorable knight and poster child of righteous living—frowned.
“Isn't that far too cowardly and disgraceful? Where did you even read a story containing such a vile and underhanded scheme?”
“A children's book.”
“...”
“Anyway, my point is that we only need to capture them. We'll mix a paralyzing poison into some alcohol. Then we'll load it onto a merchant caravan and let the bandits steal it.”
One of the knights offered an objection.
“Those men have survived this long because they're cautious. If they force someone to taste the alcohol first, we'll only end up sacrificing innocent soldiers.”
He had a point.
“Then I'll go myself.”
The knights sprang to their feet all at once.
“Absolutely not! I'll go instead!”
“My lord, please protect yourself for the sake of the territory!”
I waved my hand and calmed them down.
“Stop making such a big deal out of it. If things go wrong, I'll just run away.”
They probably didn't know exactly what I meant by making such a big deal out of it, but judging by how they quieted down again, they understood the general idea perfectly well.
They had seen my abilities with their own eyes during the subjugation campaign.
They probably figured that, at the very least, I was capable of escaping if necessary.
“We're just going to try it once. If it doesn't work, we'll think of another plan.”
With that, I ended the lord's council.
I needed to finish the bandit suppression quickly before moving on to the next stage.
I didn't have time to sit around hesitating here.
