NOVEL NEXT chapter 16
16 – Bandit subjugation (2)
“Okay, how did it go?”
The mercenary who came running as a messenger smiled and said.
“This is our victory. There are no dead or seriously injured.”
No matter how confidently Helmut and Balt talked, I was worried because I didn’t know how the battle would go…
I’m glad no one got hurt.
I patted the messenger on the shoulder and continued talking.
“Yeah, it was hard. Thanks for the good news.”
“thank you!”
“Is there any message from Balt and Helmut?”
“I had to take care of it, so I took only about 10 serfs and asked them to come up to the place where the bandits live.”
“Don’t do that. Please wait a moment.”
Then, he handed the messenger a pouch containing several silver coins that he had prepared in advance.
After the messenger withdrew from my presence, I called out loud enough for the serfs to hear.
“No one gets hurt, our team wins! Let 10 follow me and the rest go home and rest! I’ll be back as soon as the clean up is over. More than!”
There was silence for a while, and shouts began to rise from here and there.
“hurray!!”
“The bandits are all dead!!”
“I told you. Everything will be safe!!”
“Ah, if I knew it would be like this, I would also follow the mercenaries… If you follow me, you’ll get some loot.”
The serf who said he would follow the mercenary over there was a guy who was afraid he would die while standing guard, but it was funny to see him bluffing when the victory was confirmed.
When he goes home, he grabs his wife and children and now bluffs.
He said he had to cut the bandits’ heads, but unfortunately he couldn’t because of the lord’s orders.
“Everyone disband!”
As soon as the word was spoken, the serfs began to return home, each carrying farm implements that could be used in place of the weapons he had brought with him.
I also went up alive following the messenger to finish the subjugation of the bandits.
**
The road to the mountain was tougher than expected.
In this era when the roads are not well paved, the road was secretly used only by bandits, so there were bumpy stones rather than stairs.
Even, I almost lost my footing several times because I couldn’t even see the hole because of the shadow of the tree.
The serfs following me were watching, so I couldn’t help but scream that I was startled, or show signs of exhaustion…
If I had come alone, I would have taken several breaks.
After climbing the mountain path for about an hour, looking only at the messenger’s back, I saw mercenaries holding spears and standing guard.
As soon as the mercenaries on the lookout spotted us, they straightened their spears and saluted.
“Your lord, you worked hard to come! The captain and Sir Balt are living in the deepest part.”
After patting the mercenaries on the shoulder, I moved to where they said.
That’s how I went inside the sanchae, but the place was… more terrible than I thought.
On the dirt floor, dark red bloodstains formed puddles here and there, and lumps of flesh that must have been the flesh or intestines of bandits rolled around here and there.
Some bandits clutched at their wounds while groaning as if they weren’t dead yet.
Rats and flies were crawling on the bodies that had already died and gnawed at them.
I’m glad it doesn’t smell like rotting corpses…
A little further in, Balt and other mercenaries were kneeling in the center of the mountain with the surviving bandits tied with ropes.
When I roughly counted, there were about 10 men, 20 women, and about 50 male and female children who survived.
As soon as I counted the people, Balt greeted me with a smile on his face.
“Ah, Bocchan, are you here? Look, didn’t I say I could smash them all without a problem?”
Seeing Balt boasting, I accepted his words with a smile.
“It is as you say. It’s supposed to be a bandit subjugation, but not a single person died anyway, and it was dealt with so quickly… I guess I was worried for nothing.”
“Still, since it’s your first battle, it’s much nicer to look at than rashly. If I thoughtlessly said that I would go to the front line, I was going to stop it.”
“yes?”
Balt erased his smile from a while ago and said with a serious expression.
“Yes, we are somewhat accustomed to fighting that kills people, so we don’t die in an easy battle like this. However, a young boy who is playing for the first time can be defeated by these bandits. Oh, in case you misunderstand, even the youngsters who came out of the Knights Academy die a lot in their first battle from things of a lower level than this.”
“I see.”
“Yes, please come inside. The loot and the slaves inside were left intact.”
**
Following Balt and Helmut’s guidance, I entered the prison where the slaves presumed to have been abducted by the bandits were located.
The inside didn’t look that big, about 20 to 30 pyeong.
Inside, there were two shabby wooden chairs for bandits acting as prison guards to sit on, and wooden bars were set on the left and right sides of the room.
Inside the wooden bars, there was a floor covered with straw bales, a wooden bucket for collecting excrement and urine that the prisoners would have used, and wooden blocks that were supposed to be used as pillows.
And what’s shocking is…
There were dozens of women who were probably abducted from nearby farms or cities.
Everyone’s face looked black as if they hadn’t washed for days or even months, and everyone was wearing old cloths.
As I looked at it with a surprised expression, Helmut next to me spoke in a dark voice.
“Hey, Bocchan… Actually, these women were inside here with their clothes off. Maybe… it was used as a plaything for these bandits…”
“Right…”
I knew that bandits, roughly speaking, were scum that raped women and killed people, but honestly, I never thought they would do crazy things like this.
No, I vaguely guessed it, but the impression I felt when I actually saw it was more than that.
I almost threw up at the actions of these evil guys, but I managed to hold it in and spoke.
“Protect all the women here and send them to Windheim. No, because all the women here are in bad shape, so they might not be able to go down the mountain path. Helmut, ask the serfs to bring a cart that can be burned.”
“Yes, I understand.”
I looked at Balt in a sharp voice and asked.
“Balt, what loot these guys have packed?”
“It is in a large hut in the middle of the mountain range. Please follow me.”
**
Enter the hut in the center.
The structure inside the cabin was luxurious enough to rival that of Bayleaf’s mansion.
There was a fireplace and a fire pit, and the bandits’ beds were wrapped in a rather soft-looking cloth.
In addition, there were boxes in the walls and corners where various treasures or weapons were placed.
When I opened a box, I saw some gold and silver coins, copper coins and weapons in it.
Considering that there are dozens of gold coins in this box alone, equivalent to one serf’s food for 100 days…
The bandits must have done it quite a bit, ah, these crazy bastards are the little ones who even kidnapped people and used them as playthings, right?
I looked at Balt next to me and said.
“Really, this is all there is, right? The mercenaries didn’t take anything.”
“Yes, Bocchan. I have dried them all, and I have ordered not to take them because the young master will distribute enough.”
He’s a mercenary, but he’s very commendable and listens to orders well.
As far as I know, ordinary mercenaries are the ones who plunder when they are bored and plunder even when they don’t have money…
Huh… can’t we attract friends like this?
“They say that the loot in this box is all distributed to the mercenaries, regardless of the salary. Ah, Balt, take the sword inside here. It’s a pretty good-looking knife.”
Balt looked at me with a dumbfounded expression and asked.
“Are you really okay? Beyond giving generously to the mercenaries, this is enough.”
“Because you and the mercenaries are doing well, our territory is no longer threatened by guys worse than this dog, so we have to do this much. take it Instead, let’s take care of the aftermath together.”
“all right.”
**
After loading all the booty and the women held as slaves on a cart and sending them to my mansion, I headed to the plaza in the center of the sanctuary to interrogate the bandits.
When I entered the plaza and sat down on a nice-looking chair prepared by the mercenaries, the bandits started making sarcastic remarks.
“Twu, you’re like a fucked up youngster! Did you pretend to be nice and let the slaves go without touching them? Are you a eunuch? A eunuch, right?”
“No, young boys don’t taste women before they get married. So it must have been. Hey tsk tsk, hey, boy! I didn’t even touch some of them for the boy to use, but it’s really unfortunate!!”
Things that weren’t even trash, I had no intention of saving them…
No matter how much it was, it was great guts to pretend not to be scared even in the midst of life or death, and to curse at him as if to eat shit like that.
If that’s the case, you’ll have to match your guts.
“Hey spearman, someone over there, give me a hand.”
“Yeah.”
Saying that, the spearman put his spear on the ground for a moment and drew out the sword he was wearing.
Then he went up to one of the bandits closest to him and struck him in the left shoulder with his sword.
Then, the left arm of one of the bandits was separated from the torso and blood began to spurt out.
The bandit whose arm escaped looked at the place where his left arm was at first, as if he did not understand what was going on.
Soon after, he started screaming.
“My arms! My arm was cut off!!”
… I thought I would break several if I told them to look after me, but these gentlemen cut off their arms.
I was very surprised at the moment, but I pretended not to be surprised and continued talking.
“Okay, are you ready to talk now? If you want to live, answer straight, bandits.”
The bandits only nodded their heads with their smiles wiped from their faces, as if they were ready to talk.