Crossroads (4)
The baron’s expression as he greeted Fiore’s group was rather complicated.
If the visitors had been mercenaries, he could have simply paid them a set fee and treated them like subordinates without much trouble. If they had been troops dispatched by the royal family or the empire to support his territory, he would have responded according to the commander’s rank and status. But the people who had come to offer help were students—young ones, or at least they looked that way to a baron already past fifty. And the one stepping forward as their representative, bypassing all the promising noble heirs, was the daughter of a merchant family whose reputation in the Spero Kingdom could hardly be called favorable even in flattery.
The composition was a chaotic mess, and the hierarchy seemed entirely arbitrary. After much deliberation over how exactly he should treat them, the baron had settled on mutual respect. As a result, Fiore’s party was able to hear the explanation in an extremely businesslike atmosphere.
“It’s not that we haven’t attempted to subjugate the bandits. But those scoundrels cunningly flee the moment our soldiers advance, only to return and settle back in the moment we withdraw.”
“In that case, wouldn’t it be fine to simply station soldiers in the village?”
“You think I haven’t tried that? Of course I stationed troops in the village to block their approach. I even built defensive positions in case their comrades launched a counterattack. Instead of coming to reclaim the village they lost, those bastards began taking revenge.”
As the baron vented his frustration, Fiore asked, “What exactly did this revenge entail?”
“They began harming travelers and merchants moving between this territory and others. When I expanded the soldiers’ patrol range to protect them, the bandits started setting fire to buildings and fields in the territory. And when I pulled the soldiers back to prevent the fires, they went right back to attacking travelers.”
“So it was a cycle. Exactly as you described.”
“Precisely. Only after withdrawing the soldiers from the occupied village did their rampage finally stop.”
From behind, listening to the conversation, Freliya turned to the two people from the Grand Duchy.
“Are bandit groups usually this troublesome?”
“Well… In the Grand Duchy, we would never have withdrawn soldiers regardless of whether they set fires or not. Even if they have hidden supply bases, they still have limits on their logistics.”
“The moment you show weakness, they grow even bolder. You must approach them with the attitude that you will crush them no matter what they do. Only then will they recognize their place and tuck their tails.”
“Ah, I see.”
I should never ask these two anything again, Freliya vowed to herself. At that moment, Fiore spoke up.
“Then how did you come to learn that some of them are magic users?”
“Several of our territory’s knights disguised themselves as ordinary travelers and joined merchant caravans. The plan was to strike back the moment the bandits attacked. Instead, they were the ones defeated. According to the survivors who managed to escape, only three bandits had launched the assault.”
One of the fallen knights had been the strongest in Baron Breen’s household, skilled enough to handle most magic users without difficulty. For the baron’s elite forces—including that knight—to be beaten by just three bandits made it perfectly reasonable to suspect the enemy included magic users.
Originally, they had planned a surprise attack with a small number of troops that the bandits would be unlikely to detect, but that plan had been canceled after this incident. There was no guarantee of victory in a fight on equal terms.
“…Please, do not push yourselves too hard. If necessary, I will request aid from the kingdom once more.”
Some time later, the reunited party exchanged the information they had gathered.
“Still, he was more honest than I expected. Nothing he said contradicted the information we collected in the village.”
“He probably didn’t want to risk future trouble by deceiving people in our position. Or rather, in this case, he might have actually wanted us to get scared and back off?”
“Ah, I see. That makes sense.”
Watching the Midas siblings nod in mutual understanding, Freliya asked, “Midas… No, not the younger one. Yes, you. Could you explain it so that I can understand as well?”
The boy with the monocle answered.
“Hmm. Lord Magnus, what thoughts did you have after hearing that story?”
“What thoughts…?”
“Just give us your honest impression. Whether it seems easy, or on the contrary, like a difficult problem.”
Freliya thought for a moment. If she were to give her impression of this incident—well, honestly—
“I have no idea how to solve it.”
If they sent a large force, the enemy would nibble away at them bit by bit. If they sent a small group, they would be defeated. She supposed the members present might be able to handle it through sheer force, but since she wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about combat despite not being completely ignorant of it, even that wasn’t certain. Besides, if the current lord and his soldiers couldn’t solve it, wasn’t it unreasonable to expect students to somehow manage?
“Yes, that is the correct answer. It is too difficult. We don’t know what to do. To put it more extremely, the lord’s goal is to make us think, ‘Wouldn’t it be better to just give up?’”
“But isn’t that strange? If we give up after coming to help, wouldn’t the lord be the one in trouble?”
Chase voiced his doubt.
“It would be troublesome for him, sure. But think about it. What if we challenge them here and end up getting beaten by the bandits? What do you think would happen? For me, Fiore, or you, Chase, it might be one thing, but for the others… especially someone like Lord Magnus, who comes from a high-ranking noble family of the same kingdom? Even if they don’t openly criticize us, dealing with the aftermath would become incredibly annoying, wouldn’t it?”
Freliya suddenly imagined how the Magnus family would react if such a thing actually happened. They probably wouldn’t rampage in grief over losing their daughter, but they would certainly see it as a golden opportunity and try to exploit it in every way possible.
“…From the lord’s perspective, it would be better for us to quickly withdraw and give up rather than attempt to subjugate the bandits and get ourselves killed.”
“Exactly. Then he could claim it was too much for students and request help from the royal family again.”
“However,” Chrome added, “this only holds true under one prerequisite.”
“And what is that?”
“That the baron still has some breathing room.”
“What?”
Facing the puzzled looks around him, Chrome explained, “If we raise the white flag and leave, and the baron claims it was too much for students before requesting help again, how long do you think it would take for actual reinforcements to arrive? If this were truly an urgent matter, he wouldn’t have time to worry about the risks of failure. He would be desperately clinging to any help he could get.”
At that moment, the two from the Grand Duchy stepped forward.
“But Midas. What does that have to do with us?”
“Yeah. Whether the baron has breathing room or not, whether he wants us to give up and leave or not, from our position it honestly doesn’t matter.”
Even after hearing all the explanations, the two showed no sign of giving up. As Freliya began to resign herself—So we really do have to fight? Maybe I should keep some medicine in my mouth just in case—Fiore opened her mouth.
“No, the fact that the lord has breathing room is extremely important information. Brother, what was the atmosphere like in the village?”
“It was a bit tense, but otherwise fairly normal. At the very least, it didn’t feel like the locals were glaring at unidentified outsiders with killing intent.”
“That’s strange. Their fields were burned and travelers were killed by the bandits.”
Chase asked, “Are you saying the damages the lord mentioned were lies?”
“No, those are probably true. However—”
Fiore tilted her head, looking both puzzled and amused.
“Why are they called a ‘bandit group’?”
—They haven’t stolen anything, nor have they attacked people first.
Freliya wore a puzzled expression. “Huh? But earlier they said people traveling between territories were attacked, didn’t they?”
“That’s putting the cart before the horse. Both the fires and the attacks were retaliation after the lord’s soldiers first invaded the village they had occupied. In reality, after the soldiers withdrew from the village, they haven’t caused any damage to the surrounding area. That’s why the lord can afford to be relaxed enough to send us away and wait for new support to arrive.”
“That…”
At Fiore’s words, Freliya fell into thought.
A bandit was someone who stole property and lives from the innocent. But could someone who caused no harm to the surroundings when left alone truly be called a bandit?
The reason Freliya—and the rest of the party—had thought of them as a bandit group was simple. Because the lord, Baron Breen, the very person who had requested help for this matter, had referred to them that way.
“Of course, they are guilty of illegally occupying territory… but we’ll understand more once we hear the story.”
“Hear the story? From whom?”
“Why, of course—”
“—from the so-called bandit group themselves.”