Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: A Use for Traitors
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At the same time, on the outskirts of the Dustycloak Barony.
Paul and Shante. They were men who had been mercenaries alongside the previous Baron Leon's father, and when he received his title, they settled in this territory as retainers.
However, in the end, being a retainer was just a nice word for a subordinate. Rather, they found themselves trapped in this backwater territory, their movement restricted.
But it was too late to go back to being mercenaries now. They were already old, their skills had deteriorated, and they hadn't amassed much wealth, so they had no choice but to reluctantly work under Baron Leon.
"Wait a moment. I'll get things ready..."
Paul, now in his mid-fifties, and Shante, in his late forties beside him, both bore scars all over their bodies, including their faces, from their long years as mercenaries. Yet, true to their mercenary background, a murderous glint still swirled in their eyes.
However, their strength seemed diminished, having already passed fifty and forty respectively.
Currently, a young man with his head covered by a hood was kneeling before these two, and he accepted the paper Paul held out.
"Here, take this to Kanzel. This is today's and tomorrow's troop deployment chart. Shake things up nicely today as well."
"Hehehe, with this, it'll be so easy you won't even need to shake things up hard. It's one of the easiest jobs in my five years of banditry."
The man he was talking to was a bandit who had been colluding with this Paul, exploiting the weaknesses in the territory's patrol routes and defensive gaps to plunder to his heart's content.
Just as Beonald had predicted, they had an insider, so no matter how much they reinforced defenses or strengthened patrols, it was useless.
As the bandit tucked away the letter and was about to leave, Paul called out to him as if remembering something.
"Ah, and seeing as that bastard Leon is slowly getting angry... he'll probably send out an extermination force soon."
"Ooh? Really?"
"I know his personality well, I've seen it since he was a kid. Even if he endures it this time, if he gets hit one more time, it'll be certain. When it's certain, I'll let you know."
"Understood. Hehehe."
"Huhu, finally, we'll escape this damn backwater life."
Paul and Shante had joined hands with the bandits and planned to destroy this territory, take their cut, and move to a larger city territory.
"Damn it, if only I hadn't fallen for Brother Reshik's sweet talk! No matter how hard you work, this backwater doesn't even have a proper tavern!"
Reshik Dustycloak. The previous Baron Dustycloak and the ancestor of the Dustycloak family.
He was a mercenary who fought on battlefields and, by chance, saved a high noble, earning a title and this territory. He then lured them here. No matter how busily they worked, it was forever a backwater, and the compensation wasn't great either, so resentment had built up.
"Who was it that was happy when Brother Reshik first suggested settling down?"
"I didn't know we'd get such a backwater territory! How can there be a territory without even an inn or a tavern? Does it make sense to have to go all the way to the Callermain territory just to have a drink? And even though Brother Reshik kept alcohol on hand to drink with us, that fool Leon doesn't drink much, so he just stockpiles it for entertaining guests!"
"Anyway, it's about to end, so stop complaining. If you get excited, the plan might get disrupted."
"Right, Shante, it's good to have you. Anyway, let's make a big score this time, take our cut, and leave this damn countryside! Well, two-thirds of this territory's troops are practically our troops anyway."
Paul and Shante weren't the only ones who followed Reshik after his meteoric rise to nobility.
There were others who, due to age, physical strength, or injuries, needed to quit the mercenary life. They followed Reshik, who was at least an acquaintance and a fellow former mercenary, rather than other nobles.
The basic troops of this territory were initially the soldiers and mercenaries supported by the Callermain Earldom, Leon's maternal family, which he married into. But the absolute majority were still mercenary origin. The troops provided by the Earldom were old soldiers who soon died or retired.
On top of that, Baron Leon was not very suspicious. Even though they were stabbing him in the back like this, he didn't catch on and just moaned about his own incompetence, so the plan was proceeding very smoothly. All that remained was for him to propose organizing an extermination force.
"But what if he asks the Callermain Earldom for help?"
"Then Leon would only prove his own incompetence. So don't worry. Anyway, it's over once he organizes an extermination force and goes out. Hehehe."
Paul laughed, imagining a future where the extermination force would go out, kill Leon and his close soldiers, then join forces with the bandits to plunder the territory, run away, sell everything they could, and scatter to the cities. Shante nodded in agreement.
About 15 minutes earlier, at the Dustycloak family mansion.
Beonald first went to his mother's office, checked the map there, and then immediately rushed out of the mansion.
It was a rural territory to begin with, so there were hardly any guards at the mansion. Furthermore, most of the troops were currently deployed for defense due to the bandit attacks on the territory, so there was no one to witness or monitor Beonald's night outing.
'It's going very smoothly... but the map! The map was truly trash. Damn it! Even a child's scribbles would be better than that.'
Beonald frowned, recalling the map in his mother's office.
There was no scale or distance markings; it was practically a pictorial map a child would draw when asked to sketch their neighborhood.
Beonald grew even more curious about what had happened after his death.
'Haa~ I should hope there's a more proper map in the city. If I get caught, it'd be troublesome... well, not really, but anyway, let's move quickly.'
Everyone would think he was either training in the training room or sleeping, so it was doable.
If caught, he could just say he was getting some night air.
'Anyway, let's see... The first place to check is... that bastard Paul's house?'
Being in a position where he had to protect the territory, Beonald grumbled but carefully wandered through the village, comparing the scenery to the map and familiarizing himself with the surroundings.
Fortunately, this territory was not a complex structure, with all roads and locations radiating out from the mansion he lived in.
'No, no matter how I think about it, it's really hard to accept. That map was surely made by the maternal family, the Callermain Earldom.'
Beonald noted that the map bore not the cloak crest of the 'Dustycloak family' but the mountain range drawing, the symbol of the Callermain Earldom.
Then, doubts began to arise. At first, he thought it was simply because this was the countryside and technology or facilities were backward. But seeing that map gave him a strange feeling.
Frankly, the drawn map was much cruder than the ones he saw in his time.
'Is the Callermain Earldom... strange? Or was the person who made the map an idiot? 500 years have passed, so much better things should have come out by now. That's weird. No, maybe...'
The current continent, unlike the unified empire period he lived in, had entered a chaotic era fragmented into multiple countries.
'It's just a guess, but...'
If so, it was entirely plausible that knowledge, civilization, and technology had regressed due to a long Great War.
Historical records from Beonald's time also mentioned that glorious magical civilizations existed in the past but were lost to war.
'...So, did civilization regress while they were fighting? From a glorious magical civilization... to the Unified Empire, and then regressed once more to this era? At this rate, humans might really revert to primitives.'
While having these strange thoughts, Beonald quickly reached Paul's house.
A wooden house, a stable with two horses, and from inside, as if unaware of the outside situation, came a booming male voice.
'...His voice is loud, good for eavesdropping.'
"Ah, and seeing as that bastard Leon is slowly getting angry... he'll probably send out an extermination force soon."
"Ooh? Really?"
"I know his personality well, I've seen it since he was a kid. Even if he endures it this time, if he gets hit one more time, it'll be certain. When it's certain, I'll let you know."
'As expected... my prediction was right. And talk about perfect timing, to arrive and immediately hear them conspiring like this. Ah~ Looking at it, they must have been the ones moving with Father, so they probably thought they could rest easy upon returning?'
Whether it was truly good luck or not, Beonald was able to confirm right away that there was an insider among the retainers, just as he had predicted.
Meanwhile, the door to Paul's house opened, and a man came out, looked around, and quickly slipped away.
Beonald secretly followed him while thinking.
'Hmm... It's good to have tracked them, but what do I do about this situation?'
Finding out that not one but two of them were traitors and being able to hear them conspiring with external bandits on the spot was great luck, but he was a bit conflicted about whether to act immediately.
'Let's see... If I leave them be, the Baron, my father, will die and this territory will fall, right? Then I thought we'd become vagrants, but on second thought, escaping to the Callermain Earldom with Mother first isn't a bad choice either.'
His mother's maternal family, the Callermain Earldom, was a fairly large house, so it would be a decent place to go.
'They're blood relatives, after all... And since she's considered a talented woman, there would be some use for her. I could also show my talent in a bigger pond and start as a member of the Callermain Earldom, not as the young master of the Dustycloak Barony.'
Beonald, calculating coldly with a noble's sensibilities. In a way, letting their actions play out, allowing his father to die, and then escaping with his mother to seek refuge with the Callermain Earldom wasn't a bad option.
Of course, the status of an unexpected addition wouldn't be that great, but it would at least be better than living in this backwater. Also, internal strife within such a noble house was closer to Beonald's home ground.
'But the drawbacks are also not insignificant.'
Being the descendant of an upstart noble with a short history was already enough to cause talk. Adding the stigma of mismanaging retainers leading to betrayal would be a very troublesome problem.
Moreover, considering this rebellion was already quite advanced and would soon erupt, the label of 'child of the incompetent Baron Leon' would likely follow them for life.
'...Plus, at a point where I haven't grown enough as a swordsman and knight to be confident in my skills, there's a high chance I'd just be restrained even if I went there, likely getting caught up in headaches. At least here, I can do what I want without any restraint... It's decided.'
Having weighed the pros and cons, Beonald decided to crush these traitors' plans and protect his father and this territory.
In the meantime, he had been diligently tracking. The bandits were really good at colluding, easily bypassing the palisade and guards. After about an hour of traveling through the forest, he reached a campsite with lit fires.
'Is this the main base? Hmm... The bandits' main base, whether 500 years ago or later, isn't much different. And the people too... they're tied up. Planning to sell them as slaves, I see.'
"Here's the deployment chart Brother Paul gave us, boss."
"Well done. Hehehe."
In the campsite, 32 bandits were gathered around campfires, noisily drinking and carousing.
Nearby, there were carts that seemed to be carrying supplies. Next to them, slaves were tied hand and foot, huddled together and sobbing.
Having roughly judged the situation, Beonald began to ponder what to do.
'Is it impossible for me to save everyone alone? Hmm... But this is the best opportunity. Is there anything I can use?'
Not acting rashly, Beonald, who had been observing the situation, carefully looked around to see if there was anything he could use.
Fortunately, because they were busy carousing, they didn't notice as he stealthily moved around. He managed to sneak a single sword from their belongings.
'It's not a very good sword, but it can't be helped. The sword I brought from home isn't properly sharpened anyway. So now...'
"That's far enough, kid."
While he was deep in thought about the camp, an unfamiliar voice came from behind.
When he turned around, he saw mountain bandits aiming bows and weapons at him, already having him surrounded.
Yes, he had been perfectly ambushed.
"Huh? How did they know?"
"Kekekekeke, you followed us with such clumsy tracking skills, of course you'd be found out... Kekekekeke, we noticed you in the forest a while ago! You brat!"
'Indeed... I guess in my previous life, I had no connection with tracking techniques learned by assassins or bandits. It wasn't my specialty... Well, no choice then?'
He had tried tracking, but his skills were clumsy, so they found him. Beonald understood immediately.
It's not good to recklessly do things you're not experienced in. The mountain bandits, having already noticed Beonald's presence, shared his location among themselves with signals and glances, and while he was momentarily distracted, they set up an encirclement.
"Hmm, your skin is smooth and your face is pretty. You'll fetch a high price from those who favor young men. Hehehe, if you surrender quietly, we'll at least spare your life."
"At least spare my life? ...Pffft! Hehehe... Hahahaha!"
In response to the bandit leader's threat, Beonald started laughing as if he had heard a hilarious joke.
"Wh-what? What's with him?"
"Is he crazy?"
Then, Beonald stood up, swept his hair back, and looked at them with eyes full of arrogance and majesty, speaking to them in his original tone, not the childish act.
"Wh-what did you say?"
"If you were going to do it, you should have at least... done it before I picked up this sword. Ah, even if I hadn't picked it up, I have something else anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered... So, it's the difference between pulling out weeds all at once or pulling them out one by two by hand."
Beonald immediately drew his sword. One bandit, suspicious of his actions, shot an arrow at him, but he knocked it away lightly.
"...Th-that's impossible!"
"Starting to get a sense of it now?"
In front of the bandits with shocked faces, Beonald drew in mana. As a purple aura flowed from his body, they finally realized their mistake.
They thought they had outsmarted Beonald and surrounded him, but in fact, they had just gathered in a way that made them easy to clean up.