Chapter 216: Plundered by Allied Forces
The fact that I had to leave my pregnant wife behind and set off on a campaign didn’t sit well with me at all, but as someone responsible for both Feuzen’s stability and one axis of the civil war, I had no choice but to head for Baschurten.
For a lord’s sense of duty, and for my ambition.
When Hilda first learned she was pregnant, she was very flustered. The joy seemed to outweigh everything else, but what flustered her was the fact that she’d fought fiercely against the enemy while carrying a precious heir.
It was a relief that her plate armor had been sturdy enough that she hadn’t taken a direct blow. Just thinking about what might have happened had she been struck in the belly made both Hilda and me shudder.
After she was examined by Madam Arzt and a midwife, the pregnancy was officially announced, and the retainers and Feuzen townspeople rejoiced greatly, calling it a happy occasion. For a moment they forgot the time they’d spent steeped in grief, mourning the war dead.
I could only hope it would have a positive influence on Feuzen. The handmaids would look after Hilda, but I took reassurance from the fact that Elisabeth and my sister-in-law were by her side.
I could only hope her friends would fill the void left by her husband. Lily eagerly declared she’d look after her older sister figure herself, but anyone else, maybe; you, please just stay quiet.
The field hospital had now settled into a stable state.
Most of the wounded had been treated, and now it was time to bury the corpses strewn across the fields.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
As we advanced toward the northern village called Leben, which served as a supply base according to the Baschurten map, the number of cavalry I led had dropped considerably from the outset. Nearly a hundred had fallen away.
About eighty had died, and the only troops I could trust to guard the prisoners were the Gale Knights. I’d mobilized every last man of the reserve unit that had been training at the order headquarters.
Operating a reserve unit had been a godsend. The truth was that countless cavalry had applied back when the Gale Knights were recruiting, but because I’d selected based on character, there hadn’t been all that many skilled cavalrymen.
The current members had at least become elite through training and real combat, but the reserves were reserves in the literal sense. Using them as a fighting force right away meant their skills would fall short, yet it would have been a waste of good character not to invest in them.
That number was about thirty, no small figure.
So the number of order members guarding Feuzen came to about fifty.
The members who volunteered for the Baschurten assault numbered about twenty-two across two squads, and the reason they were so eager was that they’d seen with their own eyes that I’d compensate their families even in death.
Most came from common families who’d raised them with everything they had, so they had a desperate need to earn enough money to match. Besides the order’s pay, I separately set aside war pay and spoils for them, so their faith in me was extremely high.
The other borrowed cavalry were purely after spoils. At least it was a relief that they followed orders obediently. The authority of a lord knight, who was neither a count nor a prince, was not as high as you’d think.
Of course, the courtly nobles without territory weren’t worth a second thought, but there was no guarantee that cavalry serving under a prince would obey a lord knight’s orders. At least it was a relief that I was a lord with prestige.
The Euz cavalry cooperated actively, and the Belfort cavalry, being related by marriage to a count I was kin to, tended to follow my orders well, though occasionally they’d deliberately ignore one. Even so, that was decent.
The problem was the Essenbach dragoons.
These men were the biggest problem. It was because they weren’t regular soldiers.
"Since we are mercenaries, we have the right to refuse any order except those given by our employer."
"I suppose so. Then will you lot at least head back to Rosenheim?"
"But if you offer us a suitable price, my lord, we’ll follow."
When that price turned out to be twenty gold coins, I nearly cracked his skull open but barely held back. Mercenary fees had jumped dozens of times over since the Hundred Years’ War. It was all the fault of those French and English fellows.
When the levies ran short after a hundred years of beating each other up, they poured in mercenaries, and that’s how the fees shot up like this. They say modern war is a war of money, but the same was true in the medieval world.
Whoever could secure more mercenaries with greater wealth decided the outcome of a war. At any rate, I couldn’t bear the cost for these men, so I’d intended to send them back to Rosenheim.
There were about 150 dragoons, but I was confident I could take Baschurten even without them. When I came out so firmly, the rattled dragoons instead offered a deal to cover the cost locally.
In the end we settled on controlled plundering. Legal plundering would be allowed except for rape, murder, and arson, or to put it simply, the sacking of the enemy’s supply bases.
In the medieval world, war was a livelihood and a means of making money.
And mercenaries were rabid to wring profit from any battle.
I made a dual contract with the Essenbach dragoons and so brought them under legal control, but naturally Fiel and Viktor were furious at the mercenaries’ conduct.
I barely talked them down, and I have no idea why I had to go through all this trouble. Even among allies, clashing interests are unavoidable, and managing them well is probably the mark of ability in those at the top.
"Commander! There’s a burning hamlet up ahead!"
"What? A burning hamlet? Did you check properly?"
"I doubted it at first too, but it’s clearly been raided by someone."
Confirming it through the scouts ahead, I picked up the main force’s pace, wondering what in the world was going on. It was a place where about twenty households lived clustered together, and according to the map, this hamlet was called Moltheim.
But the entire hamlet was ablaze.
To commit plunder to this extent. Just what kind of bastards were they?
While I stared in bewilderment at finding the place plundered before I could even attack, a cavalryman searching the surroundings dragged over a family presumed to be survivors. A young couple and three children.
The cavalrymen’s gazes when they saw the woman were anything but ordinary.
So the family trembled with fear and begged for mercy.
"What on earth happened to this hamlet?"
"Th-the soldiers who’d gone east suddenly burst in. Ugh!"
"...You’re saying you were plundered by allied forces?"
"Yes! Sob, everyone except us was killed!"
The survivor was telling me the truth. And this time I knew it for certain. They were allies, but those bastards weren’t Baschurten men. They were probably troops summoned from the southern princely territories.
The armies of this era felt no guilt whatsoever about sacking land other than their own hometowns. Baschurten’s misfortune was that the Lord of Birsfelden, who could have reined these men in, had been captured by me.
And the supreme authority, the Count of Baschurten, had been purged, while the Count of Basel, who at least controlled the detachment, was in Öderlen in the Euz border region. So the rest of the troops had fallen into an uncontrollable state.
Decisively, because they’d lost the Battle of Feuzen, the surviving remnants resorted to plundering to grab their share, and this tragedy unfolded. It was only a matter of time before all of Baschurten was engulfed in flames.
Fiel voiced his concern.
"Commander, don’t tell me the remnants are stirring up northern Baschurten like this..."
"It looks like some bastards we never expected beat us to the punch."
"Even if they’re the enemy, it’s a pity to see allies suffer this kind of damage."
"Vice Commander Steinhof, for us it’s also a chance to take Baschurten with minimal losses."
Viktor, by contrast, saw it as a good opportunity. It was unfortunate for the Baschurten townspeople, but it wasn’t a bad situation for us. The only problem was that there was nothing worth taking as spoils.
The proof was that the dragoons’ expressions had turned very grim. They were the ones meant to plunder, but with others having beaten them to it, they were extremely displeased. They no doubt felt their rightful claim had been violated.
If they found the plunderers, they’d try to take it back tooth and nail.
After sending the survivors off, we advanced rapidly toward Leben. There was not a single force to obstruct us. Strolling so boldly through enemy territory, and still not a single force to stop us.
Baschurten had failed to properly control its domain. Following the map and navigating the terrain, we arrived at Leben. Leben had been engulfed in flames by plunderers, and screams echoed.
Kyaaah!
"Hahaha, kill them! Have your way with them!"
"H-help me!"
What an utter mess. The enemy was approaching, yet they were absorbed in plunder without even keeping watch. What kind of nerve was that? I’d once annihilated a Burgundian mercenary band absorbed in plundering an outlying village of Euz.
[Gale Knight V Quest]
[Defeat the Plunderers of Leben]
[Reward - 5,000 points, 5 gold coins]
[Item Reward - Training 200% Boost Scroll (one week)]
[Danger Rating ★★☆☆☆]
Hmm, a two-star quest popped up. They were obviously easy prey, which is probably why the quest level was low. Even so, 5,000 points and 5 gold coins is by no means a small reward.
