Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Restore the Territory (3)
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Two days after summoning the territory's influential figures.
I ordered all the territory's people to gather in the square before Bruno Castle.
Normally, when issuing such a command, even serfs accustomed to absolute obedience to the lord's orders often showed clear signs of reluctance.
But the serfs gathered here showed no trace of annoyance despite setting aside their essential farm work to come. Instead, they let out cheers.
"Damn it, is that bastard Curtain Sergeant finally getting his head chopped off? I knew it from the moment that son of a bitch laid hands on someone else's precious daughter. I said his neck would fly!"
"Milton Corporal, you fucking bastard!!! Make your trip to hell as painful as possible!"
"The new lord is really something else! Yeah, those sons of bitches need to be beaten to death!"
Once they started passing around and drinking the alcohol I'd provided, the execution of the corrupt soldiers turned into a full-blown festival.
Watching that frenzied scene, I thought in shock, 'Fuck, come to think of it, medieval executions were basically festivals, weren't they?'
But as the lord of Bruno Territory, commanding over five hundred soldiers, I couldn't very well interrupt the celebration of these wicked bastards getting their heads lopped off.
Right on cue, my subordinates dragged in the thirty soldiers who had led the brutal exploitation of the serfs, and an enormous cheer exploded from the crowd of peasants.
"Kill all those wicked, filthy bastards!"
"Once your conscription ends, you're just serfs like us, but you strutted around acting like big shots in some foreign place away from home—serves you right!"
"Executioner, sir! Only give their necks three chops each!! They're too precious to send off in one swing!"
The condemned men's faces drained to ghostly white as they sensed their deaths more keenly amid the ecstasy, and some even started pissing themselves.
My soldiers serving as executioners paid no mind to any of it and hauled them up onto the scaffold one by one.
Next, the village priest arrived to lead a brief prayer service before the executions, after which the executioners laid the condemned's necks on the block.
At that moment, all the prisoners shouted in perfect unison at the top of their lungs.
"I was wrong! I was wrong!! Please, just spare my life!"
"If you let me live, I'll become a new man!"
"Merciful Lord Jaeger, show us your mercy! Frankly, what crime could lowly soldiers like us have committed? We were just following orders from above."
The crowd unleashed a massive wave of jeers at their pleas, and I raised my hand toward the masses to quiet them down.
Then, I addressed the audience before me in a booming voice.
"The late lord, Tito von Kok, sicced his soldiers on you to plunder your cattle, seized your daughters and wives to use as playthings, and under the guise of taxes stripped away so much food that your neighbors, families, and little children starved to death. He's a dogshit bastard of the highest order. Hell, even calling him trash is too generous."
If he'd taken serfs' wives and daughters and kept them as concubines or maids while at least taking some responsibility for his desires, that 'plaything' charge wouldn't have stuck.
But that damned lord jacked up the chastity fee from one silver—enough to buy five kilos of flour for a wedding—to one gold coin, which could feed a family of four for a year if rationed carefully...
And if they couldn't pay that brutal tax of one gold, he'd drag off the bride and claim her first night.
Those poor new brides were raped by the lord in the most tyrannical ways, and some of them snapped completely. He's a trash bastard beyond words.
And on top of it all, he plundered wealth without restraint, so he's not even trash...
'You shouldn't exist at all.' That fits better.
"That's why His Imperial Majesty the Emperor conveyed his deep regret and sorrow over these disloyal acts in this territory. And he personally commanded me to govern it well."
Neither the Emperor nor the Crown Prince ever said that to me directly or expressed any regret.
Strictly speaking, it's like forging an imperial decree, but if they heard this place—meant to be a forward base—is a total shitshow on the brink, they'd absolutely regret it.
So my words aren't wrong.
Besides, those scarred by losing family and food to the previous lord desperately need the Emperor's attention—something higher than even a lofty lord...
What I said might not be a lie; it's practically the truth.
"And today, in service to His Imperial Majesty's command, I, Peter Jaeger, shall execute these thirty soldiers and NCOs who sowed chaos in the territory. Executioners, check the edge on your axes."
The executioners obliged with deliberately grand swings of their axes, putting on a show for the crowd reveling in the upcoming neck harvest.
The criminals flinched at every motion, while the serfs unleashed fervent cheers.
"Great swing! Kill them!!!"
"Hit 'em twice!"
Next, I drew the command baton from my belt—the one I'd received commemorating my promotion to battalion commander—and swung it as I declared.
"Chop their heads!"
With that, the soldiers acting as executioners hoisted their axes high before bringing them down in powerful arcs for the executions.
A wet squelch echoed as the blades bit into the necks of the soldiers who'd eagerly joined in the crimes, blood spraying in all directions.
Yet not a single soldier lying on the scaffold died from the first strike.
In the end, the executioners had to swing two or three more times each.
Normally, multiple swings would sour the mood with how brutal it looks...
"Make those bastards suffer more!"
"It's a shame your parents can't see you like this!"
But they'd been wronged so badly that everyone cheered wildly at their pathetic deaths.
My subordinates swiftly cleared the corpses and scaffold, and I climbed onto the platform that had just served as the execution block to speak.
"His Imperial Majesty will strictly reprimand and judge the wicked late lord and the honorless officers who served as his lackeys. And by slaying before your eyes the soldiers who tormented you so harshly, I've avenged your grudges. Furthermore, the 472 soldiers with comparatively lighter crimes will serve as criminal slaves for terms matching their offenses to aid in rebuilding the village, in lieu of execution."
Deep down, I wanted to behead another hundred or so from that 472—the ones who rampaged through villages extorting goods and food, embezzled taxes, or abused their rank to force serfs into mock military drills.
But even dumping every coin and scrap of knowledge I have, turning this place into a livable hub that can store and manage wartime supplies in just two years is a monumental challenge.
Instead of slaughtering everyone with murky guilt, it's smarter to channel their marrow into building up the territory.
That said, the locals might gripe seeing these 'criminal slaves' still breathing, so I'll order their overseers accordingly.
'Dress them in sackcloth, chain them with weights, and put them to grueling labor.'
Once the serfs see them choking down slop and suffering through the backbreaking work they themselves would have done, any resentment will fade naturally.
After all, while a quick beheading feels good, watching criminals writhe in ongoing agony is a real gut-punch of satisfaction.
"In addition, recognizing the unjust exploitation you've endured until now, I, Peter Jaeger, will lend one cow per household next month and grant two hundred kilos of wheat."
The serfs' lifelong dream of a cow per home, plus actual food to stave off starvation—it hit them hard. They erupted in cheers, hugging neighbors and jumping for joy.
Gazing at them, I continued.
"On top of that, considering how the previous lord's atrocities made scraping by impossible, I'll pay fair wages in food if you work for me during idle seasons like winter or early spring. Work steadily through five such seasons, and the lent cow becomes yours outright. Winter work won't be easy, but follow my lead and... no one starves this year. Trust in me, Peter Jaeger."
Under normal circumstances, rounding up the peasants for a speech like this would've gotten blank stares or outright skepticism.
But fresh off witnessing the harsh punishment of the corrupt soldiers, they were buzzing with excitement and drank in my words with fervent praise.
"Long live the lord!"
"Thank you for the cows and grain!"
"We're alive—we made it!"