Two Golden Geese
What was even more outrageous was that there was no way to answer. The Order had struck the Republic precisely where it hurt.
From Johan's position, suspicion was unavoidable.
Even if they had been in Johan's shoes, they would have doubted too. What could the viscount's envoy possibly have come to talk about?
These men who claim to believe in a god are playing some truly foul games!
The envoys bit their lips.
Arguing that they should be allowed to face the viscount's envoy in person would accomplish nothing. If the envoy became a problem, they could simply kill him. The Order was more than capable of that much.
The Republic had long been accused by its neighbors of being sly and underhanded, but from the Republic's point of view, the Order was no better. Both would use any means to any end, without discrimination.
"You cannot answer? Then I shall take it as an admission that the Order's report is true."
"No, my lord! It is a misunderstanding! Allow us to face the envoy!"
"And what would change? Truly disappointing. I thought the Republic understood friendship and spoke the truth. Instead, I find such pathetic lies."
Johan spoke in a tone that had already rendered its verdict, his face fixed in the certainty that the Republic and the viscount had conspired together.
Had they reported from the beginning, they might have had a defense against this attack, but once concealed, there was no escaping the blows.
"I will restrict the Republic's passage through the lands of Yeats and revoke its tax exemptions. The rights to the harbor will be reclaimed as well."
"!"
Whatever else happened, the port in Count Culia's domain absolutely could not be lost. It was essential for securing smooth control of the Edene Sea and its trade.
"M-my lord! Please reconsider. If you do, then the trade routes of Dorak and Palmon that you possess will also..."
"Are you threatening me?"
"N-no, of course not."
"I can bear that much. Better than entrusting my back to men I cannot trust."
"......"
The envoy spoke up in desperation.
"My lord. Whatever else, please wait on the harbor. We understand that you have been misled. A wicked devil has woven a scheme between us and torn us apart. We will prove our innocence."
"And how, exactly?"
"We will lead a fleet and attack the Emperor's domain."
Attacking the Emperor's domain, currently governed by the viscount in his stead, was not a particularly difficult task.
It would not mean storming a castle — merely plundering a few nearby villages and claiming credit for it.
Of course, relations with the Emperor would turn insanely bad, but the Republic had never been on warm terms with the Empire to begin with. A little worse here would change nothing.
"Not enough."
At Johan's words, the envoys nevertheless glimpsed hope. Despite the Order's sowing of discord, Johan appeared to have no intention of severing his relationship with the Republic entirely.
Yes. The advantages that come from cooperating with the Republic are hardly trivial.
And Count Yeats is hardly a man who wouldn't know that...
"My lord. What must we do to prove our innocence?"
"You claim to be so very close with the viscount, so I shall assign you a task befitting that closeness."
"......"
At the barbed weight of Johan's words, the envoys broke out in a cold sweat.
"And what would that be?"
"Convince the viscount and his vassals. Have them swear oaths of fealty to me."
"...?!"
At Johan's words, the Republic's envoys were thrown into confusion. It was a proposal no one had anticipated.
Certainly, the situation in the south was extremely favorable to Johan at the moment. Most of the vassals had already sworn fealty to him, and the viscount's domain stood surrounded like an island on dry land.
But going there to persuade them was another matter entirely. No one could say whether the viscount and his vassals — men who had given their loyalty to the Emperor's family for generations — would surrender so easily just because the odds were against them.
"Th-that is..."
"Such close friends should have no trouble persuading them."
"......"
"And one more thing."
At Johan's words, the envoys nearly cried out in horror. What they had already heard was headache enough, and there was another?
"Do not worry. This one is hardly difficult. Send envoys to the County of Zhillirid and say that I wish to collect the ransoms of the county's nobles captured in this battle."
"Ah... yes."
Fortunately, it truly was easy. They need only pick a few men fluent in the Eastern tongue and send them over with a couple of ships. The other side had had the marrow chilled from their bones by this battle, so they would pay the ransoms obediently.
"If you accomplish these two things, I will consider the matter of the harbor rights."
"Thank you, my lord. We are truly grateful for your grace!"
Envoys in a position of weakness had no choice but to express their gratitude first. Johan nodded with a satisfied expression.
For something extracted with a single viscount's envoy as leverage, it was a truly satisfying result. The passage rights and tax exemptions had been quietly reclaimed — as if two geese that laid golden eggs had been plucked from under their noses in broad daylight.
The Order had continued to slander and insult the Republic, but the chapter's paladin knights had not seized the viscount's envoy. There had simply never been an opportunity.
And the Republic's envoys passed over Johan's lie without a trace of suspicion. It was possible only because relations between the two were so poor.
If the Republic can talk the viscount around, things will get several times easier...
The viscount and his vassals were in a wretched position, so there was certainly a chance they would come over through persuasion. Besides, was the Emperor not locked in a desperate struggle against that empire up north?
But Johan did not know Viscount Ginolene well. Persuasion requires knowing one's opposite. He could only hope the Republic's envoys, who knew the man, would do their work capably on their own.
Perhaps surprisingly, Johan treated the captured heathen pirates of high standing quite well. Pirate or not, the leader of any sizable band usually held at least a minor knighthood.
It was custom that nobles did not kill one another but took each other prisoner, though that custom did not extend to heathen pirates. No one would have said a word if he had killed them.
But Johan held back.
These are men who'd fetch a handsome ransom.
Thinking of the ransom he would collect from the county, he was already looking forward to it.
"Count. We thank you for your honor."
"Honor is one of the rarer things I hold dear."
At Johan's words, several of the chieftains bowed their heads in respect. They had to read the room with the man holding their lives in his hands — all the more so for being heathens.
"You sent envoys to the county, so men will return soon, won't they?"
"That is to be expected."
Johan gazed at the Nusad brothers with a genial expression.
At that look, the Nusad brothers felt fear. The monstrous strength Johan had shown when he kicked the door open was still vivid in their memories.
Seeing that, they had thought, those heathen bastards are raising an Auger half-blood — only to learn later that the man was the Count himself.
It was absurd, and it was terrifying, and...
But contrary to their worries, Johan was in a remarkably cordial mood.
"By the way, the noble of House Mulke and his retinue are still unaccounted for. Do you truly not know where they went?"
The marcher lord who knew every inch of this terrain had been caught, while Ahir, a foreigner from far away, remained at large — a genuinely astonishing turn of events.
At Johan's question, one of the chieftains nearly leapt out of his skin.
"If we knew where Lord Ahir had gone, why would we hide it? Especially when you've shown us such grace, my lord!"
"Getting that worked up only makes you more suspicious."
"No, my lord! If I could split open my chest to show you my sincerity, I would have done it already!"
The pirate knight pounded his breast as he shouted. He was genuinely aggrieved.
That one looked like the most expensive of the lot...
House Mulke seemed to be a fairly famous family over in the east. Thinking of the ransom, his mouth could not help but water.
Did they flee into the mountains or the forests?
Frankly, in this world, if someone was determined to hide, they were hard to find. There were simply too many untamed forests and mountains.
Of course, hiding in such places was hard on the hiders too. They had to face monsters and beasts with nothing but their own two hands...
But desperate men went in regardless. Just as Johan had escaped through the forest, so could the noble of House Mulke have.
"My lord. The Republic's envoys have returned."
"Oh. Good."
At the servant's words, the faces of the hostages brightened as well. Soon they would be released and allowed to go home.
"...What in the world happened to you?"
Johan stared at the Republic's people with utter incredulity. Their heads had been shaved completely bald, and tattoos had been etched into their foreheads. They trembled and burst into tears.
"My lord! Avenge our humiliation!"
At Johan's command, the Republic's envoy had departed for the county without much deliberation.
The Order could froth at the mouth all it liked about not trafficking with heathens, but few powers on the peninsula paid it any mind. The city-states drew enormous revenues from Eastern trade, and even the imperial nobles coveted the wealth of the East.
Naturally, the Republic had connections with the County of Zhillirid. Sending an envoy was no trouble at all.
...But upon arriving and standing face to face with the Count of Zhillirid, all such confidence evaporated.
"—From what gutter-crawling whelp, blood still wet on his sword, does this Zhillirid house receive threats?"
"—C-Count Zhillirid, Emir, sir. These are no threats. We demand ransom by rightful claim..."
"—A wandering sellsword I've neither seen nor heard of comes begging, does he? Very well. Fill that mouth of his with coins."
"—Mmph! Mmph!"
To the Count of Zhillirid, the newly emerged Johan was nothing but an unheard-of mercenary captain who had been lucky in his rise. When a man with no roots in the south's old noble houses insolently demanded ransom, of course the man bristled.
The Republic's people, their mouths stuffed with coins, were dumbfounded. The Count of Zhillirid seemed to have a profoundly mistaken grasp of the situation.
Did he not know that the wandering sellsword he had just insulted was the warlord of the south?
Even a rootless mercenary captain, with an army of ten thousand behind him, held the power of a king. How much more a noble of Johan's legitimacy — hardly a man the Count of Zhillirid could afford to insult.
Everyone from the Order down to the vassals was standing united in support of him. Where did the man find the gall?
"—Go and carry the words of House Zhillirid. Not a single coin of ransom will be paid! Among Zhillirid's vassals there is no fool who would give money to the threats of you wandering sellswords. If you wish to go on living even a little longer, you would do better to release the hostages and beg for mercy."
"...That is what he said."
"......"
Johan snorted. Sometimes, when a man was confronted with something too absurd, laughter came before anger. This was one of those times.
"That son of a bitch... I'll kill him!"
"If I do not tear out his heart and lay it before you, I am no warrior!"
Ferocious roars burst from the warriors who followed Johan. Their eyes had gone savage with rage. If the Count had been before them, they would have torn him apart.
"Calm yourselves. There is no need to react to every insult that drops from a heathen's mouth."
"......"
Has that Count lost his mind?
Unless he simply wanted to fight and die, there was no reason for such provocation. Johan found it truly baffling.
Why was it that nobles never thought of the consequences and simply did whatever they pleased?
"If he wants a war, then a war he shall have. Do not worry! This grudge will be repaid, without fail."
At Johan's words, a great shout erupted among his men.
The vassals' armies had returned to their own domains, but there were still mercenaries who had pledged their loyalty to Johan. And they were furious at the insult Johan had received.
...I said all that, but I can't very well start a war right now.
He had declared it firmly before his men, but Johan was not the sort to live on impulse the way the Count of Zhillirid apparently did.
It was winter, and the matter of Viscount Ginolene had not yet been settled. He had no intention of abandoning that to launch an expedition.
In the end, the core of everything was stability. Johan had no intention of ruling his domain in that perilous, hand-to-mouth way other nobles did. Leaving everything to stewards and village headmen while squeezing out taxes and then tearing his hair out over a revolt — he would pass on that.
So through the winter, Johan hunted down the remnants of the pirates, bands of bandits, and monsters, while drilling the serfs. It was possible because he had mercenaries to spare and mountains of plunder to spend.
"My lord. They say a vampire has been found in the Viaso Forest."
"!"
Midway through those rounds, a tantalizing report came in. Vampires were usually nobles of the Eastern Empire. It was undoubtedly that fellow from House Mulke who had fled.
"Guide me there. I must catch him myself!"
My lord truly despises heathens, doesn't he?
The servant thought so. Judging by all the clamoring of the priests around him, there seemed no other reason for Johan to take the field himself. Surely it wasn't because the ransom had tempted him.