A Swift Retaliation
"Damn it! What in the world is going on?!"
Pecigen bit his lip, trying to make sense of the situation.
"How far... how far did those bastards get?"
The fact that Arcteria's army had defeated the mercenaries wasn't particularly surprising.
Ask anyone in Grifort, and not a single soul would have believed that the military might of Arcteria would fall to mere sellswords.
"Forgive me, my lord! We lost control of the situation!"
"Of course you did! No matter how crazed for plunder those bastards were, who could have guessed they would push so deep into enemy territory?!"
Grifort had never intended to go to extreme lengths to hide their connection to the mercenaries.
Still, Pecigen had no desire to leave behind irrefutable evidence.
The deal had been struck in the shadows. Pecigen had tried his best to conceal the process, and he had been largely successful.
Officially, Pecigen and the nobles of Grifort bore no responsibility for the mercenaries' rampage. Officially, they had no idea what the sellswords were up to.
"Damn it all..."
In his haste to sever any links between himself and the mercenaries, Pecigen had lost all control over them.
After all, assigning targets or receiving reports would only serve as evidence linking Grifort to the raiders.
"What was the Arcterian army even doing? Did they vanish into thin air? Did they step into some portal to the future and just pop back out?!"
It made no sense. Yet, the reality was already unfolding before his eyes.
"Curse it..."
The situation had slipped entirely from his grasp. Pecigen let out a long, frustrated sigh.
"L-Look on the bright side, my lord. Hasn't this proven that Arcteria's defenses are weak?"
"It did until now. But it won't from here on out."
If the mercenaries had fought valiantly beyond expectations and left Arcteria in ruins, Pecigen wouldn't be agonizing like this.
But that wasn't how it ended.
Faced with the counteroffensive of the Arcterian army, the mercenaries were being hunted down one by one, unable to put up any semblance of a proper fight.
"What a waste..."
If only he had sent Grifort's own soldiers instead of testing the waters with mercenaries, the outcome might have been much better.
If regular troops had ravaged Arcterian soil, they could have held the captured territory. They wouldn't have died so pointlessly.
"Whew..."
The opening move was a disaster, but there was no turning back now.
"First, the mercenaries are dead. That is a fact. Summon the neighboring nobles and envoys. Prepare to secure their backing."
At this point, the only way was forward.
Arcteria's territory had been breached. If he dragged his feet, Edrin would hold all the political justification.
He had to secure an overwhelming victory now, while the other lords were still trying to figure out what was happening.
"About that, my lord... The response from the other nobles, starting with the Holy Order, is rather lukewarm."
"Why?"
"The Holy Order claims they will remain neutral. They have no intention of aiding us."
"After all the donations I've given them, they change their tune this quickly?!"
It was a rather worldly complaint, but Pecigen felt genuinely wronged.
Grifort was a wealthy fiefdom, and Pecigen had used that wealth to build a vast network of connections. Having those he trusted turn their backs on him in an instant was not a scenario he had anticipated.
"It seems one of the bishops who has been uncooperative with us... was in Arcteria at the time. He witnessed the atrocities committed by the mercenaries with his own eyes..."
"Damn it!"
Everything kept tangling up. It felt as though he were sinking into a deep quicksand.
Pecigen had to make a decision.
"Gather the soldiers as quickly as possible. Round up every remaining mercenary. Do not spare a single gold coin."
Fortunately, the damage Pecigen had suffered so far wasn't crippling.
"I didn't want to go this far from the start... but I have no choice."
Pecigen was not foolish enough to dismiss everything happening around him as mere bad luck.
Edrin's hand was in this. He couldn't tell where the planning ended and the bad luck began, but there was no way things would align this perfectly if the young lord hadn't orchestrated it.
"I will take everything from them. They are fools who couldn't even stop a pack of mercenaries. There is no way they can stop a proper army."
Pecigen was confident. He believed in the power of his wealth and the strength of the mercenaries that wealth could buy.
"I must teach that young lord his place. We march immediately. Our objective is the fall of Arcteria's main castle, and the capture or death of Edrin Silverline."
"B-but the casualties for such an operation..."
"Did I not tell you to hire mercenaries?! Whether it is sacrifice or death, it is those sellswords who will bear it. This is exactly why I amassed all this wealth. To use it when it matters!"
"U-understood, my lord!"
"Prepare to march within a week. Promise the mercenaries an exorbitant reward, and scrape together every soldier we have! This time, we will truly crush Arcteria!"
Pecigen had made his decision.
An army stood lined up before me.
The achievements they had already secured were by no means small. They had swiftly annihilated the mercenaries who ravaged Arcteria, claiming victory without suffering any casualties of their own.
But I had no intention of stopping there.
"Arcteria has been invaded," I declared, my voice carrying across the ranks. "I trust you are all well aware of the heinous crimes the enemy has committed."
The soldiers' morale was already sky-high. They were fully prepared to march into battle.
"Thanks to your valiant efforts, we have already reclaimed our lands. The mercenaries have been captured and await their execution, and peace has returned to our territory. But tell me, are you satisfied with just this?"
"NO, MY LORD!!!"
Having tasted victory once, the soldiers had no desire to settle for such a minor triumph.
"Indeed! The nobles of Grifort, and Count Pecigen himself, are likely laughing right now! They probably think they've gotten away with it, glad they don't even have to pay the mercenaries they hired!"
Rage rippled through the ranks. At this moment, they did not think of themselves as mere individuals, but as proud citizens of Arcteria.
"We have only repelled them once. Grifort already views us as an enemy, an obstacle to be crushed."
I could not stop here.
Of course, using this incident as leverage to pressure Grifort might yield decent political concessions.
But such lukewarm methods would never make us truly strong. If we couldn't even handle a single city-state like Grifort, claiming hegemony over the Empire would remain a distant, impossible dream.
"They will do this again. Twice, thrice, as many times as it takes!"
We had to fight. We had to completely subjugate them before Grifort could call upon their allies or summon reinforcements.
"We must show them, and every other lord watching us, how foolish it is to threaten Arcteria! We must show them the price they will pay!"
If all of this had been done merely for minor political gains, I wouldn't have started it in the first place.
Even if it was a staged play, and even if there were no civilian casualties, the physical damage Arcteria had suffered was not negligible.
Farmlands had been trampled, and numerous buildings lay in ruins. Building shelters to evacuate the populace had cost a pretty penny, and mobilizing the army had consumed a vast amount of gold.
The enemy, not I, would pay that bill.
"March! Make it so that Pecigen and the nobles of Grifort will never dare look upon Arcteria again!"
"YEAAAHHH!!!"
Pecigen would undoubtedly be preparing for war. Knowing his personality, he was the type to take a gamble rather than retreat in a situation like this.
Therefore, we needed to move faster than them.
"The moment we cross this border, we will be stepping onto Grifort's soil, not Arcteria's. Are you prepared?"
"WE ARE READY!!!"
"Good. Then, let us march."
Soldiers like these were rare—men who obeyed orders, were not crazed by bloodlust or plunder, yet felt absolutely no hesitation in invading another territory.
In this era, soldiers were fundamentally tied to their local regions. Standing armies composed of professional soldiers were scarce; most were conscripted peasants.
Such men would fight fiercely if their own homes were invaded, but they showed little enthusiasm for invading foreign lands.
Just as nobles did not view commoners as human beings, commoners did not view nobles as human either.
Unless their own villages and homes were burning, commoners couldn't care less whether their lord's territory expanded or shrank.
But these men were different.
"YEAAAHHH!!!"
Because I had deliberately let the mercenaries run amok to maximize the perceived threat, my soldiers and citizens now harbored a deep, burning hatred for Grifort.
They were fully prepared to endure long marches and grueling campaigns just to plunge their swords into the enemy's throats.
"Advance."
The army began to move. They were incomparably larger and stronger than Grifort's border guards.
"Keep moving. If you encounter an enemy fortress, demand their surrender. If they refuse, tear it down immediately!"
Speed was of the essence. We had to strike before they could react, before they even realized their territory was under attack.
"Bring me victory."
My soldiers marched forward, straight toward Grifort.