Northern-Style Relocation (1)
The next morning.
The knight who had been sent alone from the Lontes Viscountcy felt that the soldiers' equipment looked a bit too new.
'Did someone mess with them?'
But knowing how absurd that thought was, he just snorted and decided to forget about it. If someone had actually touched them, it would only make sense if the quantity had decreased or the condition had worsened. What kind of thief in this world would take old gear and replace it with new stuff?
Regardless, he didn't have time to worry about the soldiers' weapons. The knight had a clear purpose for this dispatch.
'I have to butter up the Finance Officer and somehow get a watermill built on my manor this time.'
It was hard to expand the size of the manor, but if a mill were installed, the yield would jump several times over.
"Ugh, ha-hum. Ow, ow, ow, my back!"
"Finance Officer, are you awake!"
Hearing the Finance Officer wake up with a groan, the knight sprang up like a coiled spring.
"Oh, Sir Taff."
"I will order breakfast to be prepared immediately. We caught a few rabbits while passing through the road yesterday."
"Rabbit! That's wonderful!"
It was common knowledge that the Finance Officer loved rabbit meat. He was such a picky eater that if he ever attended a party without rabbit meat, he would grumble endlessly about it—it was practically common sense for anyone working at the Lontes Lord's castle.
"Um, Finance Officer. The soldiers haven't had a warm meal in days. So, how about you hold off on that for today?"
Just then, Roland, the adjutant who had also emerged looking disheveled, threw in a protest.
"Adjutant! That’s disappointing! If someone heard you, they’d think I was starving the soldiers! They should be grateful that I feed them regularly, morning and night!"
"Still, if the smell of meat wafts over, the soldiers' morale..."
"Our Lontes soldiers aren't so flimsy that their morale would break over something like that, Adjutant."
The knight immediately stepped between the two and took the Finance Officer's side. The young, timid official who had just graduated from the academy was no match for the sharp, piercing gaze of a knight obsessed with inflating his own wealth.
Sizzle-.
In the end, there was no stopping the rabbit meat from cooking on the iron plate.
Gulp-.
As the greasy scent of meat filled the air, the sound of people swallowing their saliva filled the field. The chef brought by the Finance Officer even set up a makeshift kitchen at the campsite and performed the feat of preparing a course meal.
"...Are we having bread again?"
"Can't be helped. Though they said we're getting sausages today."
"Really?"
"Well, they're about the size of a pinky finger."
"Still, that's better than nothing."
Just then,
Clatter-clatter-!
"...Is it raining?"
"What nonsense are you spouting?"
The violent sound that made a few Lontes soldiers talk nonsense was, without a doubt, Jamie's doing.
"Come on, come on! Everyone, gather 'round!"
"Hahaha! As expected of the Adjutant! I keep telling you to quit being an adjutant and come to the barracks already."
"Why does a man with such talent always sit in front of a desk that doesn't suit him?"
"Shh! I'm better at using my head than my body!"
"Wahahahaha!"
The Northern laborer had flipped over a few large steel shields and started grilling chunks of meat on top of them. The massive slab of meat, enough to feed dozens of soldiers, was a deer Jamie had gone out to catch at dawn.
Unlike the Lontes Finance Officer's chef, there were no proper cooking utensils or fancy recipes. Just a few chunks of rock salt crushed and sprinkled on, some common herb leaves plucked from the field, and no plates or sauces—everyone just sat in a circle and shoved the meat into their mouths as soon as it was cooked.
"Northern-style barbecue!"
"A barbarian's meal!"
Well, opinions might vary. The Finance Officer shook his head as if he had seen something unsightly and retreated into his tent to wait for his elegant rabbit course meal. One couldn't call it 'cooking' when they didn't even use proper plates and just flipped shields to grill things, like a pack of beggars.
The only knight followed the Finance Officer, and Roland hesitated before eventually disappearing into the tent as well. All that remained were the soldiers, clutching their humble breakfast and gripped by an unidentifiable feeling. To think they would feel envious of the Northern barbarians they had always looked down upon.
Sizzle-.
"Make sure it's cooked through, cook it well!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Grill some vegetables over there and eat them together. Something about nutritional balance being important!"
"Oh my, our Adjutant. You've gotten quite naggy since I last saw you!"
"Heh."
The Northern soldiers, who had set up camp at a slight distance, looked natural as their high-ranking Adjutant mingled with them. Meanwhile, their own superiors were nowhere to be seen.
"...Let's just eat. We have a long way to go today."
"...Yes."
A veteran soldier tried to salvage the mood. Just then,
"Bring that over here, quickly. If you wait, all the meat will be gone!"
Jamie called out to the Lontes soldiers.
"U-us, sir?"
"Didn't our Administrative Officer take responsibility for the food? So come over here and eat."
It was an unexpected stroke of luck. They had been wishing they could taste that sizzling deer meat just once! The youngest of the Lontes soldiers, who had been hesitating, seemed to make up his mind, picked up his plate, and walked over to sit among the Northerners. He was a growing boy, and he was always hungry due to the meager rations.
"Thank you for the meal!"
"That kid's got a good set of lungs. Eat up!"
Jamie cut off a large, greasy piece and plopped it onto the soldier's plate.
"Wow, it's delicious! It's for real! *Nom, nom!*"
"Heh. Looks like the others should come over quickly, too. If they're not careful, this kid's going to eat it all!"
"Ah, w-well, then we'll have some too..."
Once the dam broke, the Lontes soldiers and the Northern soldiers were soon intermingled. Everyone got a generous portion of meat. The Lontes soldiers shoved the meat into their mouths, burning the roofs of their mouths in their haste. It was meat that hadn't even been properly bled. Since it was a wild animal that had been running free in the field just moments ago, the gamey smell was significant. It hadn't been aged, so it was tough, too. But all these were drawbacks that could be easily offset by the simple fact that it was 'meat'.
"Um, this is my first time eating deer meat!"
"Eh? Are there no deer in Lontes?"
At the Lontes rookie's words, the Northern soldiers talked nonsense.
"The forests where wild animals live are all the nobles' land, so if commoners like us try to hunt and get caught, we get our arms cut off."
But the Northerners were speechless at what followed.
- Are they joking?
- You get your arm cut off for catching one deer?
They just blinked at each other. They couldn't tell if this was a tease or the truth.
"Um, by the way, is it okay for us to eat this deer?"
As the Northern soldiers remained silent, not knowing what to say, the Lontes soldiers' faces turned pale. They slowly put down the meat they were eating and asked with anxious eyes.
"Ah, of course it's okay! I'm the Adjutant of our Lord's castle; do you think I'd do something that would get your arms cut off?"
"Aha! The Northern nobles are merciful!"
"That's not it; there are no nobles in the North."
"...Pardon?"
"Heh heh. What noble would live in the North?"
However, the heavy atmosphere was soon broken by Jamie's easygoing nature.
"We're poor and starving because farming doesn't work here, not because the high-and-mighty folks are squeezing us dry."
"The Adjutant is right about that! We're just living like this because the weather is shitty!"
"Still, if you hunt and fish, you can taste meat. It's just a bit dangerous."
"I heard from my relatives living down south that bears are less dangerous than nobles. Bears don't break down your door and invade your house, do they?"
"I suppose that's true?"
"Hehehehe-."
As the Northern soldiers chimed in one by one and chuckled, the expressions of the Lontes soldiers, which had already been strange, grew even more rigid. They had begun to compare their own lives with the lives of the Northerners they had always looked down upon as barbarians.
'The North is definitely poor...'
'And it's true that life is hard...'
'But isn't that the same for us?'
While the Lontes soldiers were filling both their stomachs and their heads, at the Northern Lord's castle:
"Do you think Jamie is doing well? I keep worrying that I should have gone instead."
"The sense of familiarity that comes from his visuals—you can't ignore that. Jamie is the right person for this, so let's trust him."
"...Yes, Administrative Officer."
Aiden had taken off the uncomfortable new silk clothes and returned to his usual daily attire. It wouldn't do to be uncomfortable while planning how to strip the Lontes bastards clean, down to the last ten-won coin.
"Then, shall we start as originally planned?"
"Yes. But you need to warn them again. It'll be troublesome if there are actual casualties."
"Of course."
Aiden began to review the plan, checking once more to see if there was anything he had missed. This project was quite important. A long-term project, you could say.
'Labor is starting to run short again these days.'
In regions where population supply isn't steady, no matter how hard the civil servants work, development is difficult. After all, the strength of a region comes from the number of people. Of course, if living conditions improve, the birth rate will increase, leading to a natural population growth, but—
'That's too slow.'
What Aiden needs right now is labor he can use next year, not labor that will increase in 20 years.
There is only one plan needed for times like this.
If we can't procure labor on our own, we can just swipe someone else's!
However, you can't just grab people from another town and force them, saying, 'You live here now!' That's what a slave hunter does, not a civil servant. There is a more sophisticated method that a civil servant can use.
***
Back to the soldiers.
Just as they were passing through a grassy area that reached a grown man's waist.
Squeak, squeak-!
Rustle-rustle-!
The sound of a swarm of rats could be heard from somewhere. At the same time, the grass began to shake violently.
"W-what is that?!"
"It's Giant Rats, form up!"
"Flatten the grass on the sides, now!"
"What are you doing! Pay attention! Lontes bastards, do you want to die? Wake up!"
The Northern soldiers formed a formation in perfect order and began trampling the surrounding grass without mercy. At the same time, they grabbed the Lontes soldiers, who were still dazed and unable to grasp the situation, by the collars and shoved them into the completed circular formation, listening intently to the sound of the rat swarm ahead.
The experienced veteran soldiers finally came to their senses, gripped their weapons, and stood between the Northern soldiers' formation.
"W-what's going on? Giant Rats?"
"Rat monsters. Each one is weak, but the problem is they swarm in groups. If you get swept up by mistake, there's no guarantee of survival."
"T-then what do we..."
"They're cowardly, so they don't like open fields where their bodies are fully exposed."
"So that's why you're flattening the grass."
"Exactly. And if you keep the formation well, they won't attack recklessly, so don't get excited and think about charging out of the formation."
"Yes, yes!"
Squeak, squeak, squeak!
As soon as Jamie finished speaking, red glints began to flicker in the grass. The beasts had appeared.
Gulp-.
The sound of dry swallowing filled the air. No, that's what should have happened.
"U-uaaaaaaah!"
An unexpected event occurred. The Finance Officer, who had been left alone in the carriage because he couldn't get out after the rats appeared, was in trouble. The carriage he was in began to move entirely on its own.
- *Neigh-!*
The horses were running wild, and the carriage was on the verge of overturning, but—
Slash-!
Someone had cut the rope connecting the horses to the carriage. However, no one saw who it was.
Scritch-scratch!
Uaaaaaaah!
The sound of the rat swarm moving. And the Finance Officer's scream, which was clearly audible, grew more distant.
"F-Finance Officer!"
"Are you crazy?! If you leave the formation now, you'll end up just like him!"
"B-but...!"
The Lontes soldiers had no choice but to hold their ground while trembling.
Ten minutes later.
Thud.
The veteran soldier who had been the first to regain his composure and was aiming his weapon at the grass beside Jamie finally collapsed, his tension released. Now, there were no rats. ...And no Finance Officer.
Shing-.
"When we return, I will hold you all accountable for your crimes!"
The knight, who had been hiding in the circular formation the whole time, pointed the sword he hadn't even been able to lift against the rats at the veteran soldier's throat.