Chapter 112: The Bay (2)
Chapter 112: The Bay (2)
Cassandra was a woman overflowing with ambition.
Leaving her maternal line at a young age to follow her paternal line, and beginning her career as a warrior in the Black Hand Tribe, had both been entirely her own choices.
This was because, while Cassandra's blood was noble, blood even more noble existed within the royal palace, meaning she could never ascend to the position of queen.
Rather than spend her life in the palace as the tail of a dragon, she wanted to challenge for chieftainship in the matriarchal Black Hand Tribe.
A young lady who loved power and was fiercely driven by a longing for upward mobility, she was also highly wary. And having lived in the royal palace as well, she could not help but find Eugene's audacity perplexing.
'Is that knight not even afraid of rebellion?'
As far as Cassandra knew, the castle lord's direct subordinates amounted to only two people: a squire and an elf mage.
Looking more broadly, there were the human mercenaries who had accompanied him from the beginning, and the dwarf mercenaries famous for their loyalty, though their acquaintance had been short.
Even counting all of them, they were effectively surrounded by dark elves who vastly outnumbered them.
No matter how close he was to Rex and his closest associates, Cassandra found his willingness to accept tribespeople so quickly rather complacent.
-I thought he would be wary of us to some degree, even if not to the point of surveillance.
-That's what I'm saying. He's completely uninterested, isn't he?
The way he let them freely do whatever they pleased anywhere in the castle was bewildering even to Cassandra and her subordinates.
But they soon came to understand the source of Eugene's overflowing confidence.
-This area is reserved for the Castle Lord.
-Did he hide gold or treasure in there?
When the newly joined female warriors showed curiosity about some restricted areas, the existing mercenaries stopped them.
-It's not that. The castle refuses entry to anyone other than the Castle Lord.
-???
Aside from the chamber containing the castle's core, there were several places only Eugene could enter, mostly areas containing secret passages reserved for the Castle Lord.
-The Castle Lord didn't forbid it, but if you go in on your own, you'll regret it.
-Hmph!
The mercenaries, grinning and speaking provocatively, somehow had a way of pricking their pride.
-Aaaagh!
Several warrior women charged in boldly, only coming to their senses after a storm that shook both body and spirit left them battered.
[We will soon leave this place. Everyone return to the castle and take a headcount.]
Even Eugene's way of announcing an imminent teleportation was unusual. There was no need to send loud-voiced servants around shouting or to blow trumpets.
His voice echoed throughout the castle through the ventilation shafts. It felt as though his will had become a spiritual wave crashing against everyone's soul.
FLASH!
In a single moment, the enormous castle was transported across the desert and mountain range.
RUMBLE.
The massive castle gate, which would normally take many strong warriors to haul open, moved by itself at a single gesture from him.
The desert vanished and a blue sea spread out before them, leaving Cassandra's subordinates staring blankly.
Hearing about it was one thing; experiencing it firsthand was truly wondrous.
'He is on a completely different level from other lords who merely sit on thrones and pretend to be rulers.'
The title of Wandering Castle Lord did not originate from genealogies written on paper or the acknowledgment of the castle's residents.
It all came solely from the power Eugene wielded, and he was also a terrifyingly formidable warrior in his own right.
In a situation like this, there was no need to worry about usurpation.
Eugene walked toward the wide-open castle gate.
"My beloved residents. Behold the blue waves out there. It is a true sea, of an entirely different caliber from the freshwater lakes of northern Roman."
At the light-flooded entrance, the Castle Lord pointed toward the shore.
"The sea of Barsia is cold, and the sea of Gord is exceedingly rough. But the sea of Samur is warm and peaceful. I hope you will fully enjoy it during the time we are granted."
As Eugene finished speaking and gestured, everyone rushed out in a crowd.
They had come here for a purpose, but grasping the surrounding geography was always an important matter.
According to protocol, the dwarf warriors stood guard around the perimeter, and the mounted scouts departed for reconnaissance.
The rest laughed and chatted excitedly about seeing the southern sea for the first time in their lives.
As Cassandra quietly watched, a single word came to mind.
Legitimacy.
Eugene was not a king, but she could think of no better word to describe what he represented at that moment.
'No rebellion will ever occur in this castle.'
Cassandra shook her head from side to side and followed the subordinates who were urging her on from ahead.
It was Cassandra's first time seeing the true sea as well. For a moment, her ambition and competitive spirit subsided, replaced by the curiosity and playful anticipation of a young woman.
A gentle smile, which she herself did not even notice, bloomed on Cassandra's lips.
Kree! Kree!
The cries of seabirds were distinctly different from those of the mountain birds inland.
"They cry quite peculiarly."
"Right?"
Hearing the tribal warriors' excited voices, Eugene turned and saw them already nocking arrows and taking aim.
"Wait!"
"Why?"
"Why are you trying to shoot them?"
"Because they're game...? We're curious what they taste like, too."
"..."
Their innate hunter's instinct seemed to fuel an eagerness for new hunting, more than any interest in the unfamiliar scenery and creatures.
Eugene bent down and grabbed a crab crawling across the nearby sandy beach.
Crabs roaming the beach were usually small, but the ones visible here were a bit larger than Eugene's palm.
"Bird meat's all the same. This one'll taste better."
"Ugh."
The tribal warrior made a disgusted face at the crab's underside, its many legs writhing.
"This is seriously delicious. Once you try it, I bet you'll change your mind."
"You're trying to pass up something this good."
While the mercenaries who had been with him since Bonyard defended Eugene, some of them dispersed and went about collecting crabs. It was a habit ingrained from their long life as mercenaries.
Under Eugene's command, they ate well every day and lived in comfort, but most mercenaries subsisted on miserable field rations.
Dried-out bread, unidentifiable gruel, and cheap jerky as hard as stone with sinew still attached—that was about it.
Even that came out of their wages, so they seized opportunities like this to procure food for themselves.
They picked wild fruit, set traps around camp, and sometimes tore handfuls of crops from the fields of unlucky villagers.
"It's fine to watch, but tell them to watch their heads. There are people who die after getting hit by those fruits."
"Understood."
Where Eugene pointed, several mercenaries skilled at climbing were scaling a palm tree.
"Amazing!"
"How can they climb when there's nothing to grab?!"
Tribal children gathered around, cheering as they looked up with excited faces. Even the rough mercenaries looked proud, smiles appearing on their fierce faces.
It made them feel as though they had settled down in a village even while working as mercenaries.
A sense of stability and belonging to a community that mercenary life normally could not offer.
This was an element that the mercenaries working at the Wandering Castle found just as satisfying as their wages or plunder.
SHHHHH!
"Eek! It's cold!"
"Ptooey! Ptooey! It's really salty!"
The tribespeople, who had waded into the seawater up to their shins, were running about here and there.
"It's nice not having any pollution."
Every stretch of beach Eugene could see was clean. None was littered with the kinds of trash he remembered.
There was only yellow sand, conch shells, and crabs fleeing for their lives from the mercenaries. No one would cut a foot on a shard of broken glass here.
Hop!
Homi leaped backward as if dodging an incoming wave, then chased after the receding water.
"The wind's cool, but the sun's warm. This feels nice."
Varda wore a straw hat and tidied her wind-blown hair.
Being with the two of them made him feel as though he had come on a family trip. A mature older sister and a cute younger sister. Was this how it felt when close-knit siblings traveled together?
Thump-thump.
Eugene placed a hand on his chest. This was neither a splendid banquet nor a moment of great victory. It was nothing more than an unremarkable stretch of scenery.
Yet it filled Eugene's heart with an irreplaceable, wistful happiness.
Given the era, slave traders existed in every country. However, even the slave trade had its rules.
There had to be a justifiable reason: a person with no backing house taken prisoner on the battlefield, someone incapable of repaying their debts, or one sentenced for a grave crime.
Betraying perfectly good mercenaries, luring them into a trap, and trying to sell them was beyond the pale even by slaver standards—especially when the target was a group like the Black Hand Tribe, practically minor nobility.
"This is the place the adventurer spoke of."
The mercenary who had conducted the interrogation reported. Eugene's army had surrounded an abandoned temple situated a fair distance from the nearest city.
"They say even the people from the nearby village won't come anywhere near this place."
"The rumors attached to it are thoroughly bad—wolf howls heard at all hours, people going missing, and the like."
Eugene and Rex smiled at the additional report.
That was the sort of story that would frighten away ordinary travelers or merchants. To them, however, it only reinforced their certainty that this was the enemy's hideout.
"It seems we've come to the right place."
"Wolf howls, was it? Enough to scare common folk, but it's utterly sloppy. There isn't a trace of a wolf pack actually settling in the area."
In the wild, even the most unremarkable tracts of land were fiercely contested.
If a wolf pack had settled here, the expected signs should have been present, yet none were. Lesser predators that should have been driven away still openly maintained their own territories.
In short, the rumors had been artificially manufactured.
Of course, this was something only those possessing sufficient martial strength, confidence, and a hunter's wisdom could see through.
"Be that as it may, it's fortunate. If they'd been the sort to operate out of the city through bribes and graft, it would have been more troublesome."
"That sort would never dare lay a hand on our tribe."
Establishing a base of operations in a city required far more funds, time, and effort than one might imagine. Even those operating in the shadows naturally chose ventures that carried less risk.
Only those who could abandon their stronghold and flee at any moment were capable of hatching this kind of foul scheme.
"Shall we attack at once?"
The mercenaries were itching with anticipation for an easy victory and the spoils to follow. Unlike the temple Cassandra had defended, this place's defenses were utterly meager, and there were not even guards posted at the entrance.
"It looks almost too poorly defended. Could it be a trap?"
Indoor combat had too many variables. Unlike open ground, it was hard to pull back if something went wrong, and the defending side held a decisive advantage.
Given that these people had been bold enough to plot the kidnapping of the Black Hand Mercenary Company, they might still have something hidden up their sleeves.
"I'll grant that they've got plenty of nerve, but they're still just slavers. Even for the actual abduction work, they outsourced it to an outside mercenary company. There's no need to worry excessively about the likes of them."
Rex spoke with confidence.
Those who worked in the shadows preferred, whenever possible, to handle everything themselves.
Since secrecy was their lifeblood, having too many outside connections did them no good. The fact that they had to coordinate with a mercenary company therefore meant they had no other choice.
"That does make sense. Move in."
There was no battle cry. Only synchronized footsteps and the clatter of iron armor could be heard.
"Damn it! How did they find out about this place?"
Inside, utter pandemonium had indeed broken out.
They abducted travelers or nearby villagers who approached and regularly made their tamed wolves howl to keep others away.
The only visitors were occasional adventuring parties driven by curiosity. Never before had an army numbering in the hundreds descended on them like this.
Raising and moving an army all cost money, and this was a location of no material value whatsoever.
Most of those adventurers had been captured while camping on the temple grounds or nearby and ended up in slave collars.
"Just who in the world are these people?"
"A mixed force of humans, dwarves, and dark elves."
"What in the..."
The slavers ran through the names of rival organizations, then stared in shock at enemies they had never anticipated.
One of them, zeroing in on the mention of dark elves, scowled.
"Could it be that the Condor Mercenary Company's job went wrong?"
"What did I tell you? I said no matter how big the score, you don't lay a hand on the pointy-ears."
"But the Condor lot aren't the type to handle a job that sloppily..."
The Condor Mercenary Company had collaborated with them on numerous occasions up to now.
Their knack for not simply pouncing on an easy target, but luring it to favorable ground before devouring it—even the slavers had to admire their skill.
"Has the Black Hand Mercenary Company come for revenge?"
"Even if things went sideways, them getting here this fast makes no sense."
"Enough! Enough! The fire's at our feet right now—what good does it do to rehash the past? That can wait for later."
The enemy appeared utterly certain that they were inside the temple. They had to gather their valuables and baggage at once and flee through the secret passage.
"What about the guests and the merchandise?"
The guests were outsiders who received clandestine pleasures here and granted favors in return. The merchandise was, needless to say, the slaves who were the objects of trade.
"Take them all! Prioritize the guests above all. We can always acquire new merchandise, but if things go wrong with the guests, it's the end of us."
If that happened, they would never be able to establish roots in this region again.
People for sale were plentiful. Connections were always their most valuable asset, especially for men like them who were welcome nowhere.
"Tell the priests to evacuate at once!"
"Understood."
The problem was that the army surrounding them outside had arrived with excessive speed and had already launched its attack.
"Kill every last one that resists!"
"You—you wretches, do you even know where you are?!"
"What's this? That one doesn't look like a slaver."
"Is this your first time at this? Grab them all first!"
As shouts, screams, and the clashing of weapons rang out, the faces of the leadership turned the color of ash.
An army this size should have lost time stopping at multiple bases to arrive, camp, and set out again.
The entire sequence of countermeasure protocols they had drawn up, on the premise that their spies would send warning in the interim, had been rendered useless.
"How in the world?!"
No matter how they thought about it, an invading army seemed to have simply dropped out of thin air. For the slavers, all they could do was wail in despair.