The Barbarians
The barbarian camp.
Chief Lamak of the Black Bear Tribe looked up at the towering fortress walls and silently clicked his tongue in awe.
Though he kept his face expressionless, the walls that had shot up so suddenly and the wide, deep moat possessed a grandeur that sapped one's will to fight.
By comparison, what was the environment the barbarians lived in?
Though they claimed to be the descendants of the War God, they lived in tribes clustered around straw-thatched hovels, and their fences were easily trampled by a cavalry charge.
When they went to battle, they had nothing that could truly be called armor.
It was standard for their warriors to fight bare-chested, wearing only animal hides that had been crudely skinned and tanned to cover their vital areas.
The chiefs had gathered hundreds of troops, but they knew that this number would never be enough to scale those walls.
Rumble!
The iron gates ground open.
From between them, a hundred well-armored cavalrymen came riding out.
The ten leading the charge were knights.
Reapers of the battlefield clad in full plate armor.
Many in the barbarian camp flinched at the sight of them.
The plate mail, high-quality helmets, greaves, and gauntlets worn by the knights were all made of solid steel.
Anyone who had fought them knew exactly how formidable that defense was.
No matter how brave the warriors were—men who considered dying in battle the ultimate honor—they were swept away like autumn leaves whenever they clashed with the knights.
And looking at them now, their equipment was even more substantial than it had been in the spring.
The forces exiting the gates quickly rode forward and surrounded them.
Even the regular soldiers were clad in iron gear, making the pressure all the more suffocating.
The knight commander leading the cavalry raised his visor.
"Are you Chief Lamak of the Black Bear Tribe?"
"I am. I lead the Black Bear Tribe."
"And this is Chief Macht, and you must be Chief Dalan."
"That is correct."
While the barbarians had their own native tongue, it shared many similarities with the continental common language. The chiefs, in particular, were generally fluent in the common tongue, so communication was not an issue.
"Follow us. However, if you truly wish to sign a peace treaty, only fifty warriors will be permitted to enter. Bringing any more than that will be considered an act of war, not a diplomatic visit."
"Ha! Chief! Let's just kill them all and plunder the place! Is this how people who want a peace treaty behave?"
"He's right! Let's wipe them out! If we die today, we will enjoy eternal glory in Valhaven!"
At the warriors' shouts, Chief Lamak immediately frowned.
Death on the battlefield?
The holy scriptures of Olgar only recognized fierce, worthy battles as true battlefields where death was honorable.
Charging the walls they saw before them now would be nothing but a dog's death.
Furthermore, starting a war here completely contradicted the purpose of the chiefs' visit.
We are short on food. If we don't sign this peace treaty, we will all starve to death.
Just yesterday, an envoy had come from the other side.
The envoy from the Farrow family had brought an escort of barely ten riders.
For the barbarians to bring hundreds of troops now was not only unreasonable, but it also made them look like cowards who were afraid.
"We will take only ten men from each tribe!"
"But Chief! Are you really going to listen to their demands?!"
"When they visited us, they brought only ten guards. Do you wish to disgrace the Heavenly God?"
"..."
It was a matter of basic reciprocity.
Once the comparison was pointed out, the warriors shut their mouths.
The chiefs immediately selected ten warriors from each of their tribes.
After sending the rest of the men back, they crossed the massive walls.
Seeing the walls up close was even more overwhelming and miraculous than seeing them from afar.
Throughout the battlements, monstrous machines capable of lifting giant stones were visible.
They were using those machines to finish the walls in the blink of an eye.
From Lamak's perspective, he couldn't even begin to comprehend the principles behind them.
Their technology is incredible.
It was a natural reaction, considering these barbarians were looking at cranes that hadn't even appeared in the kingdom yet.
The moat was so wide and deep that crossing it seemed utterly impossible.
And the interior of the territory?
Having only raided small villages until now, this was their first time seeing what a proper city looked like.
They had heard reports from spies that the territory was developing, but a chief could hardly sneak in as a spy himself to see it.
The territory was far more developed than the rumors suggested.
Cleanly paved roads, water channels, and neatly organized districts.
There wasn't a single piece of trash on the streets, and the residents looked clean.
They could hardly believe their eyes that such a clean city existed in the world.
"One!"
"Hah!"
"Two!"
"Hah!"
On the outskirts of the territory, soldiers were in the middle of training.
There were easily over several hundred of them.
Though the recruits were dripping with sweat, every single one of them looked like an elite. The sight of them thrusting their weapons in perfect, flawless unison was enough to give one goosebumps.
Even the recruits carried weapons that were on a completely different level from the wooden spears and bronze tools used by the barbarians.
The chiefs and their warriors did their best to maintain their composure as they passed the training grounds.
After walking for about thirty minutes, they arrived in front of the lord's castle.
As if to prove that its history as a county was no lie, the towering, grand castle was more than large enough to intimidate the barbarians.
Knight Commander James approached them.
"From here on, you must leave your weapons behind before entering. Only the chiefs may enter the conference room, while the rest will wait in the reception hall. If you agree, submit to a search."
It was only natural.
Even the barbarians knew they couldn't carry weapons when meeting the leader of another force.
Lamak and the other chiefs nodded.
"We shall do so."
***
Jeron had already returned to the castle before the barbarian chiefs entered the territory.
Just in case, he had armed himself in plate mail.
The envoys would leave their weapons behind, but one could never be too sure.
Though the likelihood of them actually attacking was extremely low.
They must have been intimidated by the walls.
If they had made it this far, they would know that attacking the territory was suicide.
To overcome the walls currently under construction, a force of a mere thousand men stood no chance. With the barbarians' level of technology, they would need at least five thousand men to even dream of it.
Even if they miraculously gathered that many troops, Jeron did not believe they could take the castle.
The barbarians had no proper siege weapons; crude ladders were the best they could manage. In the end, they would suffer catastrophic casualties.
Barbarians lacked civilization, but they were not stupid.
Any chief capable of leading a tribe would understand that reality.
Ultimately, trade was the best option.
That was Jeron's conclusion, and the barbarian chiefs were no different.
A moment later, the barbarian chiefs entered the great hall of the castle.
They wore raw animal hides draped over their shoulders, leaving their upper and lower bodies largely exposed.
With their bodies painted in all sorts of natural pigments, they looked far from civilized.
Jeron often complained about the Karen Continent being a miserable medieval world, but these men looked like they belonged to an era far older than that.
Of course, even if they looked primitive, these were people who had spent their entire lives on horseback. Their cavalry strength was not to be underestimated.
The chiefs took their seats in the chairs prepared in the hall.
"Welcome. I am Jeron, the lord of the Farrow Territory."
"I am Lamak of the Black Bear."
"Macht of the Green Mist."
"Dalan of the Red Moon."
Three chiefs of relatively powerful tribes had come.
When Jeron sent his messengers, he had thought it would be a success if even one of the five barbarian tribes responded.
Seeing three of them here today proved just how severe the barbarians' food shortage had become.
They had invaded earlier this year and had constantly attempted raids, forcing Jeron to withdraw all the frontier villages inside the walls.
But hunger left them with no choice. With no other way to survive, they had risked their lives to plunder.
Jeron saw right through their situation.
"I am well aware of your food situation. If you pay a fair price, I will open a market and sell you grain."
"A fair price?"
"Beyond the northern walls, monsters are common, and there are plenty of animal hides. I also know you have open-pit iron mines and a decent supply of ice troll blood."
"Hmm. You will accept such common things?"
"It is a trade of equal value. It won't be a loss for you either."
The barbarian chiefs nodded repeatedly.
Though they called it a peace treaty, their ultimate goal was to secure food through trade.
However, Jeron's definition of "equal value" was highly subjective.
The iron from the Great Snowfield contained small amounts of mithril. With a bit of luck, he could make an astronomical profit.
And the ice troll blood?
It was a raw material for high-grade potions.
The moment trade began, it meant massive profits for him.
From Jeron's perspective, he wasn't in any hurry for their goods.
On the other hand, the barbarians desperately needed food.
Jeron held all the cards, which meant he could buy their goods for dirt cheap.
In the beginning, it would practically be like extracting resources from a colony. Though prices might adjust later, the trade would always be overwhelmingly profitable for Jeron.
That was the entire point of this arrangement.
Chief Lamak took the bait.
"Do you have enough food?"
"Enough to sell to you without us having to fight. Think about the past. It was a constant cycle of daily deaths. Is there any need for neighbors to fight? You can sell your surplus goods and buy what you need."
The chiefs nodded in agreement.
For them, trading to escape starvation was the best possible outcome.
Having seen the walls, they could no longer speak of war so easily.
After consulting among themselves, the chiefs raised one issue.
"Trade is good, but we are the descendants of the War God. We cannot live without fighting. Our warriors' bodies will grow restless every day."
"I will hire you as mercenaries."
"Mercenaries?"
"You will fight on the battlefield in exchange for payment. Below the wall, fights break out constantly. We have monster subjugations planned, a territory war on the horizon, and a great war waiting for us. If you fight there and take your pay, you will become far wealthier than you ever were during your raiding days."
"Hmm!"
They might be ignorant barbarians, but their physical strength was monstrous. Born with robust bodies, they would be no different from human tanks on the front lines.
Paying them the standard rate for regular mercenaries, or even equivalent goods, would be more than enough. To them, it would still be a fortune.
If he could use the barbarians to spare the lives of his own soldiers, it would be an incredibly wise trade.
Just as the Romans had done, he could use them as auxiliary forces.
The chiefs, realizing this could be highly profitable, looked very pleased.
"That sounds like an excellent idea! May our friendship last forever!"
"Let's work well together."
Jeron shook hands with the chiefs.
He then guided them to the reception hall.
It might be a mere formality, but now that they had made peace, it was time to build rapport over drinks.
Once the barbarians had all left, Sir Garcia clicked his tongue.
"My Lord, trade is one thing, but absorbing them as we originally planned seems difficult. They are far too rigid."
"My thoughts are different. No one can resist the power of money."
"Pardon?"
"Just watch. Once they become dependent on our food, it will only be a matter of time before they become part of our forces."
His vassals did not yet understand just how terrifying "economic dependency" truly was.