The Village in the Territory War (1)
The Village in the Territorial War (1)
The last priest of the Celine Cult, Lestiado, pulled his horse to a stop in front of us.
Seeing Balea beside me, he addressed me differently.
"Alex, I hope I am not too late."
I sighed inwardly.
Being called Alex felt even stranger.
In any case, I would be traveling with Balea from now on.
Besides, Balea had already seen me obtain the Divine Sword.
Since I intended to make another contract with her, there was no need to worry about secrets getting out.
"We can just make a contract, so you can speak to me as usual."
There was no longer any need to hide my identity from Balea.
At my words, Lesty nodded.
"Understood, Holy Knight."
At Lesty's words, Balea's mouth formed an 'O'.
"Oh! Holy Knight!"
It was an exclamation of half-surprise, but it also sounded as if she were teasing me.
Ignoring Balea's exclamation, I answered Lesty's initial question.
"You are not late. You arrived just in time."
Lesty had arrived at just the right moment.
He hadn't been spotted by the Duke's party, which had left ahead of us, and we hadn't had to wait long.
I also hadn't needed to inform him separately that the Duke's party had departed.
That was because there were followers of Celine even among the Duke's party and the employees of the Duke's estate.
Thanks to them, Lestiado had been able to arrive at just the right time.
Today, I could be certain once again: in this kingdom, where a civil war had broken out, no one had a better information network than me, Alex.
There were believers in the First Prince's faction, the Second Prince's faction, the royal palace, and even the Gracia Ducal Family.
And thanks to my position as a Holy Knight, I could receive help from those believers.
Of all the help they offered, information was the most useful.
While high-level secrets might be difficult to obtain, I could get decent, usable information more easily than anyone else.
Even now, without the believers of the Celine Cult, it would have been difficult to part ways with the Princess and my mother like this.
With my ability to turn back time and the Celine Cult's rapid flow of information, I could protect my mother and the Princess even from a great distance.
Balea wore a peculiar smile at the mention of 'Holy Knight,' but, as always, she didn't ask any questions.
She simply mounted the horse Lesty had brought.
I wondered when she had learned to ride; Balea seemed no less skilled than Lesty, who was a mercenary.
I mounted another horse as well.
There wasn't much time left before we reached our destination.
On the way to the Duchy, we also had to stop by Morena Territory, where a territorial war was said to be taking place.
"Is our first stop Morena Territory?"
At Balea's question, I nodded, and we galloped north.
Our first destination was Morena Territory.
I had something to collect from Ivana, the First Prince's younger sister, before it was too late.
Even as we headed toward Morena Territory, I expected to arrive after everything was already over.
And for good reason—the Second Prince had said the application for the territorial war had been made the day before the Council.
In most territorial wars, forces gathered at the domain border, and the march into the opposing territory began the day after the application.
Since Morena Territory wasn't a large domain, the war would likely be over by the time we arrived.
Honestly, it was too late, but since it was on the way to the Duchy, I decided to stop by just in case.
If Ivana was alive, I might be able to collect her debt, and even if she wasn't, I thought I could at least see how the territorial war had played out.
Although I had read about it in books and listened to lectures, seeing it with my own eyes was bound to be different.
We rode hard, and before long, we arrived at Morena Territory.
As soon as we crossed the domain border, we could tell that a battle had taken place.
Countless hoofprints and wheel ruts marked the road and fields.
There were destroyed houses here and there, too.
These were all traces of a military force sweeping through.
It seemed we were moving in the same direction as the advancing troops.
Judging by the tracks on the ground, the troops didn't seem to have plundered other places. Instead, they had marched straight toward the central village, where the Lord's manor was located.
We, too, rode along the road, following the tracks left by the army.
Before long, we arrived at a village surrounded by a half-ruined wooden palisade.
Outside the palisade, as expected, there were abundant traces of battle.
Corpses, and weapons and arrows stuck in the ground.
Soldiers and knights alike lay scattered across the field as corpses.
The palisade was also more than half destroyed.
It wasn't made of ironwood, but it was built from sturdy logs, and yet it had been shattered like that.
It made me realize once again what it truly meant to wield mana.
Behind the palisade, smoke was rising from the village.
And the smoke wasn't coming from just one place.
Black smoke, as if houses were burning, billowed from several locations.
But contrary to my expectations, the territorial war was not over.
"Are they still holding out?"
Territorial soldiers stood guard atop the remaining palisade, with knights stationed at intervals.
Now that I looked, a force had gathered at the edge of the forest, far from the barricade.
It was no small force.
Nearly a thousand soldiers and dozens of knights.
They had set up a wide encampment next to the forest and were keeping watch.
"It looks like a standoff, doesn't it?"
I nodded at Balea's words.
It was clearly a standoff, with neither side able to secure a victory.
But that didn't mean they were simply staring each other down without fighting.
Judging by the corpses scattered everywhere, they had fought a fierce battle.
Looking at the bodies strewn across the field, it seemed the attacking side had suffered greater losses, but the defenders hadn't escaped unscathed either.
The palisade was broken, and houses in the village were burning.
Which meant the defenders had been pushed all the way inside...
How had they managed to push the attackers back out?
Seeing me lost in thought, Lesty spoke up.
"It is difficult to grasp the situation just by looking. Shall I go gather some information?"
I shook my head at Lesty's suggestion.
He meant he would ask the believers hiding in the village or among the soldiers.
It sounded like a decent idea, but on second thought, it was just as dangerous.
To meet the believers, he would have to sneak into the village or slip among the soldiers to find them.
In that case, it would be safer to secretly scale the palisade at night.
Besides, some people who could explain the situation to us had just caught my eye.
A short distance from the road, soldiers and a knight emerged from a half-ruined house.
"You three, don't move! If you show even the slightest sign of fleeing, you will all die!"
The knight leading them shouted at us.
About fifty meters.
Indeed, a knight could easily cover that distance, even if we tried to run.
Seeing the knight and soldiers emerge from the house, Lesty nodded.
"I thought it was strange that there were no soldiers guarding the road. So they were hiding in a house like that."
He meant they were setting a sort of trap.
But to my eyes, they weren't so much hiding as fooling around.
Every finger of the approaching soldiers was crammed with rings.
On top of that, several necklaces were absurdly draped around the neck of the knight clad in plate armor.
Most likely, the knight had been inside the house with his soldiers, gleefully trying on rings and draping necklaces over his armor.
Then, after spotting us, they must have rushed straight out without even having time to hide their loot.
They were indeed troops meant to guard the road, just as Lesty had said.
But as a side job, they were also scavengers stripping valuables from the corpses.
And since they had been caught in the act, there was no way they would let us go peacefully.
"Yeah, good job not running. I didn't want to waste my energy for nothing."
As expected.
The knight strolled over casually and only then drew his sword.
Then, without even looking at us, he barked orders at his soldiers.
"Boys, kill them all. They look like they have some money... Wait, hold on, it's a woman!"
But his command ground to a halt the moment his eyes landed on Balea.
"Fuck! This is the jackpot! I never expected to see a woman like this here. Cancel the order to kill them all. Let's inspect her first before deciding whether to kill her."
With his massive build, menacing appearance, and blood-stained armor, his words sounded incredibly threatening.
But neither Balea nor I felt even a shred of fear.
I sighed and gripped my sword. I couldn't stand listening to any more of the filthy words spewing from this excuse for a knight.
But before I could swing my blade, Balea stepped forward and waved a hand behind her back.
It was a signal to wait a moment.
I lowered my hand again.
While Balea was signaling us, the knight came right up to her.
"Oh, so young and fresh, just perfect. And she's gorgeous! It's been ages since I've seen skin so clean!"
The knight growled with a delighted expression, but the soldiers who had come with him looked slightly worried.
"Could she be a noble?"
This was because Balea's beauty was far too exceptional for her to be a commoner.
At the soldiers' words, the knight flared up in anger.
"Why would a noble come here! No, even if she is a noble, it doesn't matter. A noble lady traveling down a road like this with only two servants is practically begging to disappear!"
Even as he spoke, the knight stealthily glanced at Balea's reaction.
He seemed tense at the mention of her being a noble.
At the knight's words, Balea spoke, her eyes full of anger.
"Would a knight speak like that, staking his master's honor?"
She was completely different from her usual self.
To anyone else, she would have looked genuinely furious and as if she were shouting, but I could have staked my abilities on the fact that she was acting.
Sure enough, the knight failed to see through her performance.
Seeing Balea's angry expression, the knight smirked.
Her fragile appearance seemed to have put him completely at ease.
"Hmm. So you really are a noble lady."
Resting his sword on his shoulder, he began to deliver a grand speech.
"Well, who cares? It's allowed here. We're in the middle of a territorial war. A traveling noble lady getting caught in the crossfire and dying isn't even worth gossiping about in a place like this."
"How could..."
Balea went pale, as if she were utterly shocked.
Then, clenching her fists tightly, she spoke with a look of firm resolve.
"If I do as you say, will you spare our lives?"
At Balea's words, the knight grinned widely.
"Of course, of course. Why would I kill you if you don't resist?"
It was a lie, of course.
I was curious.
Balea's acting was truly superb, but I couldn't understand why she was going through such a tedious charade.
She could have easily killed or subdued them on the spot.
"Then, please let us move to another spot. On this main road, I simply cannot..."
With a sorrowful expression, Balea pointed toward the forest on the opposite side of the road.
Only then did I realize why Balea was engaging in this troublesome charade.
"Haha, don't worry. I'm not that much of a scoundrel. I have the honor of a knight. Why would I do such a thing on an open road visible even from the palisade?"
It was a laughable response, but, just as the knight had said, this was an entirely open road.
It was visible from the village palisade, and even from the distant encampment, the silhouettes on the road would be faintly visible to a knight.
'I see. If we kill or subdue them here, everyone will notice.'
"You bastards! Bring the men and follow us! The Princess is feeling shy! Bwahaha!"
The knight excitedly followed Balea as she walked toward the forest with a pitiful posture.
The soldiers pointed their spears at Lesty and me, forcing us to move.
Watching Balea today, I learned what it truly meant to captivate someone.
The knight and his soldiers were completely bewitched by her words.
Even as they followed her into the forest, they hadn't even disarmed Lesty and me.
To manipulate people like that without even using an ability...
Balea's charm was terrifying, even to me.
Once everyone had entered the forest, a low scream echoed from within.
Then muffled screams continued to ring out, and after a long while, we emerged from the forest once again.
We had gathered all the necessary information—how the battle had progressed and whether the people we were looking for were in the village.
Fortunately, Ivana was in that village.
And her father, Viscount Morena, who had rushed over to save her from danger, had arrived there as well.