Chapter 54: A Bird That Cannot Be Caged (2)
Chapter 54: A Bird That Cannot Be Caged (2)
"Is it a village under effective control?"
By land, four noble families bordered it. By water, it touched so many factions that counting them was meaningless.
"For now, yes. But holding on by our family's name alone has its limits."
Even an emperor held no power beyond his own domain, so a count could hardly be any different.
"Too far to defend, yet too valuable to abandon."
"This is not a question of profit. What would happen if I neglected a territory I acquired scarcely a year ago?"
"When we next try to lay claim to a fief with a disputed succession, our rivals would have an easy argument against us."
'You could not even manage the last territory you took. What business do you have taking another?'
If a rival noble attacked them with that logic, they would have no answer.
As a count, he needed a capable lord who could defend such a distant place independently, without any substantial support.
"If you were to receive this territory, I would exempt you from the duty of summons."
"Are you truly certain about this?"
"The distance is so great that even if I called, you would struggle to reach here. And from this side as well, I could do little to aid you when you were in danger."
"That is true."
A vassal contract was a reciprocal transaction. The liege lord held the right to summon, but at the same time bore the duty to protect his vassal from perils the vassal could not handle alone.
Of course, that was the theory. Objectively speaking, the count had indeed made a considerable concession by granting a fief on such terms.
"This is an important matter, so you need not answer me at once."
"No. I have already made up my mind."
"You want North Fork, I take it?"
"How did you know?"
Count Morad allowed a faint smile.
"A bird of prey cannot be kept in a cage. I thought a man like you would prefer a place where opportunity and danger coexist over a few peaceful villages."
"I am merely grateful."
"You will become entangled with many factions from now on, but I ask that you consider your ties to our family first. For the present, that is enough to satisfy me."
When Eugene returned and explained the situation, Varda nodded.
"Not a bad choice. The count is the best connection you could ask for, but being tied down too tightly would be troublesome."
A vassal relationship was like a mercenary contract. Its core was the summons a liege could issue in an emergency. Without that, the other minor obligations amounted to very little.
"You are practically an independent lord, so building relations with those around you will be easier as well."
"To those who wish to connect with the Morad family, I can emphasize that I am a vassal. To those who find that off-putting, I can point out that I bear no duty of summons."
It might look conveniently inconsistent, but vassal relationships were never absolute in the first place.
Viscount Boldwin, who had secured the main army's safe withdrawal at Goldford, had originally sworn to another house before switching banners. Nobles contracted to two or more lords were hardly uncommon.
"If things go well, the count may be able to build ties with the northern families through you."
"...That is far too distant and excessive a notion. I am still only a knight leading a speck of a force."
Still, even as he said it, Eugene suspected the count did harbor such expectations. The west, after all, was already firmly in his grasp.
Afterward, he looked for mercenaries to form a new unit. With men withdrawing from Codon and Goldford flooding the market, he had plenty to choose from.
"What numbers are you thinking of? You've earned a good deal, so you could afford to push it somewhat."
"I intend to keep the force elite. The more men I have, the harder they are to supply."
Thus, he reorganized the unit into roughly forty cavalrymen.
'When it comes to hunting dangerous monsters, I have to step forward myself anyway.'
No matter how much experience or equipment a mercenary had, he was still a mercenary. Unless he was a knight, he could not stand shoulder to shoulder with Eugene against a monster.
It was more practical to have them ride, harassing the creature with massed ranged weapons. If they were lucky enough to land a hit on the eye, all the better.
In accordance with that combat doctrine, he equipped the majority of the troops with heavy crossbows.
"I set aside the ones in good condition from the plunder taken at the fall of Codon Castle."
"They've been well maintained. Are you really lending them to us?"
"I'll issue them in advance. Deduct the cost at your convenience."
"Thank you!"
The mercenaries accepted them eagerly. To men whose bodies were their livelihood, a ranged weapon was the best companion they could ask for. Eugene even rented expensive mounted reloading devices to the skilled marksmen.
"Had you been an ordinary knight, you would have taken the villages further inside. Swaggering about as lord of some comfortable place, staying close to my father."
When Roxane heard that Eugene had chosen North Fork, her expression said she had expected it all along.
"I even engaged a native-born steward just in case, but I'll have to deliver the news of his unemployment. He'll have been grinning ear to ear — I wonder if he'll shed a tear or two."
Where the tiger is absent, the fox is king. In the lord's absence, a steward wielded absolute power. It could be called the highest post a commoner could reach through the bureaucratic route.
"Congratulations on your appointment as Castle Lord and commander."
"The commander's post only until my fool of a brother returns, though."
Roxane had taken over the army previously led by Timothy.
Count Morad was not without military talent, but his true gift lay in diplomacy and domestic administration. He concentrated on logistics and securing troops from the rear, allowing his child to gain experience at the front.
"Watching the retainers and the count, they don't seem especially enthusiastic about recovering Lord Timothy."
"He's the eldest son of the house, so for the sake of face, they'll retrieve him. They simply won't negotiate from the position of the weaker party. They refuse to bow their heads to those Duran bastards."
A negotiating delegation had already come and gone.
-There is no precedent for exchanging one hostage for one castle. Demanding we surrender Codon Castle is too harsh a request.
-Your heir is in our hands. Does it not frighten you to take such a stance?
-We trust in House Duran's honor. Surely you would not harm a nobleman simply because negotiations displeased you?
-Think of Lord Timothy's humiliation and torment, living as a prisoner in enemy territory.
-He too will endure, thinking of our house's future. We are of one mind, and we believe in Lord Timothy's strength of will.
-...
House Duran's envoys had been forced to depart in fury at the Morad family's unyielding negotiating stance.
In truth, Timothy was spending his captivity in safety. Personal enmity between the houses aside, he was the highest card in the negotiation. And the sole prize House Duran had reaped from this war.
"May the Goddess's protection attend your path."
The farewell handshake she shared with Eugene was, befitting a knight, exceedingly firm.
"Are you all truly content not returning to Bonyard?"
Eugene asked the mercenaries who had been with him from the start, more to confirm than to question.
Leaving a place where one had built a name over so long was no easy thing. And a city as pleasant to live in as Bonyard made it harder still.
"If not now, when would we ever leave that backwater?"
"A man ought to play in the big waters, after all."
The mercenaries who remained were still hungry. The pay was unmatched, the treatment was good, and victory followed wherever they marched — there was no reason to fall away.
At the same time, they were curious. Curious to see how far that knight who strode at the vanguard, black cloak billowing, would reach.
If they were still behind their knight when that time came, what sight would stretch before them? Every one of them wanted dearly to see it.
That conviction only hardened when mealtime arrived. With the party's numbers reduced, supply had grown far more substantial.
"It truly eases the mind to have the feeding of one's men entirely under one's own management."
When he had led over a hundred souls, including those seconded by the Morad family, he had been forced to feed them meals provided by camp merchants.
"Were grapes always this sweet?"
"Hey! Hoffman! One at a time! One at a time! You stuff them in your mouth and suck them clean — a quarter of the bunch vanishes every time."
A mercenary tasting fresh grapes for the first time exclaimed in delight. Most of them had only ever had cheap wine on rare occasions.
In an age when refrigeration and distribution were abysmal, fresh grapes were a rare delicacy that only wealthy nobles could taste. As an honored guest of House Morad, Eugene had been able to receive a few boxes for free with the harvest season.
"You are a strange knight indeed. In your martial might, and in your disposition."
"Is it not natural to wish to see one's men enjoying good food and taking pleasure in it?"
"It is, admittedly, a noble virtue. But it is usually no more than tossing them the scraps left over after indulging in one's own luxuries."
And so the small but tightly knit force headed north.
THUNDER-THUNDER-THUNDER.
With scores of mounted heavy infantry following behind, the sound was thunderous. Eugene felt his success more keenly in the hoofbeats behind him than in the fief he was to receive.
"Whoa—!"
"Straighten your back. Grip hard with your legs."
"Uwaaah!"
"Don't yank at the reins! Panicking and doing that only makes it more dangerous."
Those who could not ride were busily learning to do so. Since he was bringing along a number of spare horses, he had issued the order as a matter of course, and all threw themselves into the instruction with fervor.
It was an opportunity they would never dare to enjoy under any leader but Eugene. Being able to ride gave a clear advantage even if one left the company to join a merchant caravan or a city watch.
'Mounted combat may be beyond them, but even just for marching, they'll be far better off.'
With so many cavalry now attached to the force, procuring provisions through hunting also grew much easier.
SQUEEEAL!
Struck by bolts flying from all directions, the boar collapsed.
As the mercenaries hoisted the beast onto a nearby tree, Eugene drew his dagger. It was plunder taken from the heretical mage's altar during the bandit subjugation.
"That is no task for a knight, sir. Leave it to us."
The startled mercenaries tried to dissuade him.
"It's fine. I wish to test the magic dagger."
"A magic weapon? It certainly looks extraordinary."
As befitted a dagger used in sacrificial rites, even the rough mercenaries could tell it was something special.
Bleeding was essential to remove the gamey smell from meat. It worked best while the animal's heart was still beating; once it was dead, as now, the process was less effective.
But what if the magic of bleeding were to activate?
SLICE.
When Eugene slashed open the dead boar's artery, blood began to pour forth.
"Whoa. It really drains well."
All the mercenaries under him had hunting experience — either doing it themselves or assisting under a knight. So they recognized at once that the bleeding was far smoother than usual.
"Hm."
Meanwhile, Eugene sensed the flow of magic that activated from the dagger the instant he cut. It felt as though the weapon concealed some secret beyond simply forcing bleeding.
Turning the dagger this way and that in his hand, Eugene followed the prompting of instinct and drove the blade into the boar's heart.
STAB!
THUMP!
As the blade sank in, the dead heart shuddered and began to beat. The dagger's magic had become an invisible hand that seized it.
SPURT!
"Whoa!"
The mercenaries watching up close hastily scrambled back.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
As though performing CPR, the magical hand forced the dead heart to beat. Blood surged through the boar's veins and began pouring onto the ground.
"Ho-oh. So that is how it is used."
Having confirmed the true application of the bloodletting dagger, Eugene let go.
The whispers of guidance that came to him were not solely a warrior's instinct.
The blood he had inherited from his mother also whispered arcane counsel whenever he encountered a mystery.
The newly joined mercenaries grew even more wary of a knight who handled magical weapons without the slightest hesitation.
"Have you no thought of taking a knight into your service?"
"I did look carefully, but none caught my eye. Anyone worth taking already has a liege, and taking on an unproven knight recklessly is far too expensive."
Two or three knights would cost as much in wages as all the mercenaries he currently led. Even for the newly wealthy Eugene, the sum was enough to make him choke.
"For now, I provide enough offensive power on my own, so I think a large number of obedient mercenaries suits me better. Whether it is holding the line with shields or cranking crossbows, knights and mercenaries do the same work."
"That is not exactly wrong."
Having seen Eugene batter wendigoes, bugbears, and bandits alike, Varda found it difficult to argue.
"Even so, you need to be conscious of your position as a lord now. When you negotiate with someone, having mercenaries standing behind you and having knights behind you are worlds apart."
"Thank you for the counsel."
Even if he could not act upon it immediately, there was nothing to lose and everything to gain by keeping Varda's words in mind.
"First, I intend to reach North Fork village, gauge the income, and decide after that."
Expenditures that ticked on with every breath had to be carefully aligned with fixed income.
Though it was common for nobles in these lands to live in debt, Eugene had no desire to live as a debtor, not even for a moment.