Chapter 237: Buying Boeven
They were still nobles, but they were about to lose all the power and standing of vassal families, so they were as good as finished. How foolish, to have been gripped by the delusion that they could control Euz.
In the end, hadn’t their rebellion simply handed over the perfect justification for stripping their titles? Perhaps the reason Count Euz had left the Euz nobles to their own devices was precisely to lead them into ruin like this.
Princes are more than capable of such things.
Fried had stopped just short of crossing the line.
"Let me know the outcome later."
"It’s just getting interesting. Where are you going?"
"To train."
Now that I’d developed a taste for halberd practice, I had no desire to waste time on this clown show of a negotiation. So while I spent my time drilling the halberd’s basic stances again, Valent signed the surrender document.
Thanks to General Alexander’s active mediation, Baron Valent’s life was spared; in exchange for being sent to Strasbourg, the lives of his clan would be guaranteed. Baron Hildrant chose the Duchy of Roden.
Nobles sometimes send relatives to neighboring territories, and in cases of ruin like this, the practice served largely as insurance—a place to seek refuge. In the end, having that insurance paid off.
And since Baron Valent and Baron Hildrant were officially my prisoners, they would have to pay not only reparations but also ransoms to me before they could be released. They were about to be shaken down to their last coin.
I still harbored lingering resentment over being stiffed on Count Épinay’s ransom, so when I factored all of that in and set their ransoms, the looks on their faces were quite a sight. Baron Valent trembled with rage.
If I hadn’t intervened, his entire clan would have died miserably at the mercenaries’ hands, but knowing none of that, he apparently found this unreasonable situation hard to swallow.
Fried found it deeply satisfying.
"Twenty gold coins?! Am I a prisoner on Count Épinay’s level?"
"You don’t have to pay it. I can simply sell the claim to the Medici Bank."
To the Medici Bank, a fallen noble family was nothing but an easy interest-generating machine. Since Count Euz hadn’t officially stripped his title yet, Baron Valent still ranked above me in the noble hierarchy.
So I was treating him with proper courtesy, but apparently that made things even more humiliating, and the glare he fixed on me looked ready to throw sparks. Naturally, it didn’t scare me one bit.
"Baron Hildrant has already sent word to his clan. Don’t try to pinch a few coins and end up learning a hard lesson—pay the ransom properly. Strasbourg is a region where the Medici Bank holds considerable sway."
"Verdammt nochmal! I will never forget this!"
"Before you nurse your grudge, I suggest you tend to your fallen family."
With that, the ransoms were settled. The total amount I had earned from this Euz–Basel campaign, quests included, came to a whopping seventy gold coins. Once the knights still held prisoner were added, it would grow even larger.
The Count of Basel’s ransom was set at forty gold coins. The plan was to collect it after capturing Baschurten and handing the count over to the crown prince. Benjamin clicked his tongue in disbelief at the ransom ledger.
It listed ransoms for the Count of Basel, Baron Valent, Baron Hildrant, the Lord of Birsfelden, and forty-two other knights. If I collected all of it, my total earnings in gold would come to around 130 coins.
The civil war wasn’t even over yet, and earning such an enormous sum from ransoms alone put me in an excellent mood. It looked like I wouldn’t have to worry about gunpowder costs for a while.
Combined with the seventy-five gold coins I had stored at the Medici Bank, the total came to over two hundred. Rather than indulging in luxury like a proper noble, I planned to invest it heavily in training gunners and developing my territory.
Beyond that, there were mountains of goods in kind.
What I secured most of, in particular, were war horses.
I rounded up some fifty horses and sent them to Feuzen.
I felt bad for Winter, who was still rebuilding the horse ranch, since I was only piling more work onto him. But if he could raise the war horses well and establish us as a proper supplier for the duchy’s army, it would become a stable source of income.
"Baron Boeven has set a condition: he will surrender if his position is guaranteed."
"What? He should be begging for his life, and instead he’s setting conditions?"
Fried set out to invade Boeven with a thousand mercenaries. General Alexander, with a handful of his men, took command of the mercenary force and kept it on a tight leash so it couldn’t recklessly spin out of control.
The Swiss mercenaries remained at the front and center.
And the Executioner of Zurse stood not as an escort but at the vanguard.
Benjamin and I waited on the outskirts. Boeven had hunkered down for a siege, so there was nothing for cavalry to do. I don’t know why Baron Boeven chose to hole up, but because of it, a legitimate justification for plunder had been created.
General Alexander seemed to intend to make an example of Boeven to placate Fried. This time, I brought my halberd along. Apparently, the sight of me—a knight and cavalryman—holding a halberd was very strange.
Plenty of cavalrymen kept sneaking glances at me.
Did I look that awkward holding a halberd?
The halberd was heavy, certainly, but as I trained with it, I had come to enjoy the feel of it. We even hauled the siege weapons over from Euz Castle and rained stones down on Boeven Castle without mercy.
Boom!
Built of palisades, the fortress slowly began to crumble under the merciless stone bombardment. On the third day, one section of the palisade finally collapsed, and the mercenaries succeeded in breaching it.
"Aieee!"
"S-spare me! Aaagh!"
Indiscriminate plunder and slaughter followed. The Boeven barony, which had flitted from side to side like a bat before finally landing with the rebels, fell just like that. If Alexander hadn’t reined things in, Boeven might have burned to the ground.
Benjamin and I entered Boeven only after the plunder and slaughter had subsided. No one could stop the mercenaries from occupying homes and committing every kind of crime as occupiers.
"Please spare me, sir! Please, I beg you!"
A nearly naked woman clutching a child ran toward me. A few mercenaries followed behind her, grinning foully. As the woman threw herself down before me, begging for her life, the mercenaries moved to drag her away.
"This woman is our rightful spoils of war. Why don’t you mind your own business, Sir Knight?"
"Stupid wench, don’t you know this knight is on our side? Begging him won’t help."
Seeing the despair in the woman’s eyes, I couldn’t look the other way. I swiftly slammed my halberd down, splitting the ground between the woman and the mercenaries. They flinched, startled by my sudden move.
I tossed them ten silver coins.
"That should be plenty. Now get lost."
The mercenaries glanced at each other, then took the ten silver coins and left. The woman, eyes brimming with tears, thanked me over and over. I summoned a nearby mercenary captain.
"My lord, what can I do for you?"
"I’ll buy the people of Boeven at ten silver coins a head."
"Pardon? What do you mean?"
"I’ll pay the price, so don’t touch them any further."
Those killed in the course of battle couldn’t be helped, but I couldn’t ignore the suffering of commoners still being plundered and raped even after the fighting had ended.
Ten silver coins per head was a decent sum, and the mercenaries, having already enjoyed themselves plenty, agreed to sell at that price. The surviving people of Boeven numbered 672 in total. I paid a clean seven gold coins.
Buying 672 people for a mere seven gold coins.
Is a human being, reduced to spoils of war, really worth so little?
"You made quite a purchase, I hear. You bought the rights to the people of Boeven for seven gold coins?"
"It was hard to look away from people in such suffering. I acted on my own, easing my conscience for a mere seven gold coins."
"Is that so? I figured you would, Sir."
Fried didn’t pay it much mind.
He simply fixed a cold glare on Baron Boeven and his clan, who stood before him.
"Did you hear that, Baron? The Lord of Feuzen, an outsider, took pity on your people and spent seven gold coins on them. If you’d surrendered quietly, your people never would have suffered this much."
Rich words from the man who had planned to hire mercenaries and flatten all three territories, but since that plan had been scrapped, he used the incident as ammunition to condemn Baron Boeven.
Baron Boeven, the last holdout, signed the surrender document as well. With all three baronies that had led the rebellion now surrendered, the forces capable of leading a revolt in Euz had effectively collapsed.
Murbach and the other territories that had joined the rebellion still remained, but with all the major powers fallen, their surrender was only a matter of time.
Boeven gradually settled into some semblance of stability. Since I had bought all rights to the people for seven gold coins, no mercenary plundered or raped them any longer.
"My lord, please take us with you!"
"The Lord must have sent you to deliver us—there’s no doubt!"
"Oh, please! Please don’t abandon us poor wretches!"
Unexpectedly, some of the people of Boeven began clinging to me.
It had been nothing more than simple compassion on my part, but it seemed to have left a profound impression on the people of Boeven.
