Ch.131131. War (7)

“········You fucking idiot.”

As I looked down at the baron’s cooling corpse, the first words I uttered contained nothing but contempt for this man called Baron Lefante.

According to Enerval, he was in his early forties.

Not young by any means, but not particularly old either—a middle-aged man who, objectively speaking, had been living the life of a successful victor.

His leadership and governance had transformed the Lefante Barony from just another old baronial territory into an outstanding domain with power and economic strength befitting its long history.

Moreover, he had no major flaws in terms of personal reputation or character.

To think that a man who could have enjoyed all the privileges of ruling this large city would end up in such a miserable state due to his greed.

Frankly speaking, I can somewhat understand what motivated his actions, but that doesn’t mean he made a wise decision.

It was all well and good that he had experienced repeated successes by overcoming crises throughout his life, but the problem was that in the process, he became far too confident in his own abilities.

Of course, it wasn’t that he lacked ability.

The baron had boldly implemented the four-field crop rotation system with an eye toward the future, dramatically reducing fallow land to promote agriculture—the foundation of his domain. He also developed iron mines, creating enormous employment opportunities and wealth for his territory.

But such success can sometimes become poison. With his confidence reaching its peak after consecutive successes, the baron acted according to his desires.

In the end, he meddled with something he shouldn’t have, and that’s why he ended up as a corpse.

“········”

The battle—the war—had long since stopped.

As I dismissed and released my troops, the fighting ceased, and those who looked around in confusion at this sudden change fell silent when they looked in my direction.

That is, when they saw the fallen knight and the baron’s corpse on the ground.

A strange, truly bizarre atmosphere engulfed the castle walls.

The barony’s soldiers stared at me with terror-filled eyes, while some who appeared particularly loyal knelt in tears or stood in shock.

A few knights who had presumably served as vassals for a long time looked at the soldiers with complicated expressions, while a newly recruited knight seemed to be watching for an opportunity to slip away, gauging the situation.

But if I had to point out one commonality among all these people, I would say that every single one of them was watching me carefully.

Me—the only one holding the initiative to lead events in this space.

[Soldiers and knights! Hear my words!]

I began speaking with a voice that resonated powerfully, infusing my vocal cords with magical power and imbuing my voice with the mysteries of flora and fauna.

[I have no intention of conquering or destroying this domain! I merely exercised my rightful claim because the baron trampled my manor and tried to ruin my homeland!]

While it might sound like I’m trying to persuade them, in reality, this is far from persuasion.

The real reason I’m speaking this way is to provide them with a plausible justification.

From the beginning, I had no intention of persuading them.

What matters is expressing that I have no intention of killing them or getting entangled in these complicated political circumstances.

I have no desire to possess this domain, and I detest the idea of getting involved in strange political machinations due to unnecessary greed.

And humans are fundamentally creatures who can become selfish and self-centered as needed.

So when I made such a bold declaration, the knights and soldiers on the other side began whispering among themselves.

Seeing them seriously discussing the future—conversations filled with self-interest—I could be certain.

‘Yep, this is 100% going to trigger a civil war.’

In other words, there would be no peaceful days ahead for the Lefante Barony.

※ ※ ※

Afterward, I moved quickly to handle the aftermath of this war.

Of course, while I call it “aftermath,” there was actually very little I needed to do.

All the soldiers I had mobilized were either summoned beings or entities of similar nature.

They would disappear on their own if left alone, so there was no need to arrange for encampments or anything similar.

However, I couldn’t just abandon the baron’s castle—this fortress I had temporarily occupied.

First, I disarmed and disbanded all of the barony’s forces that might turn their blades against me, though this inevitably created some issues with public order.

“Hehehe! What a perfect opportunity! Now, let’s go…”

[……….ZZZZZAP!!!]

Of course, I maintained some semblance of order by releasing my rat-like creatures to subdue anyone causing disturbances—a rather extreme method.

Although continuing such tactics for too long might lead to various side effects, it wouldn’t last long anyway, so there was no real problem.

And during this time I gained, I worked diligently to collect the spoils and rewards I had earned through victory in this war.

Before discussing the rewards, there’s one thing I should mention first.

The fact is, from the moment I killed Baron Lefante, most of the rewards I could have claimed became essentially meaningless.

Typically, when conquering someone else’s domain by force, one would take the domain itself as spoils, but once I renounced ownership of the domain, all reward-related elements completely fell apart.

To be frank, what spoils could possibly be more valuable than the Lefante Barony itself?

An enormous domain containing more than a dozen villages and vast farmlands. Iron mines with tremendous commercial value.

Basic rights included ownership of authority to control and govern the serfs bound to the land and free people belonging to the domain.

Additional rights followed, such as the legal right to create an armed force as a lord, taxation rights over free people under one’s rule, and taxation rights over the manors of vassals.

Moreover, most titles of this era—knight rank and above—were “territorial nobility” titles tied to land, which applies to all those commonly known as barons, counts, and so on.

Therefore, the owner of the Lefante Barony automatically becomes the Baron of Lefante, meaning there’s absolutely no compensation to be had for giving up this territory as spoils.

Of course, since there was no need to get involved in troublesome politics at this point,

I simply finished the compensation process by completely emptying the barony’s treasure vault and taking away the soldiers who had come under my command, along with Enerval’s family.

The value of the various magical tools in the treasure vault alone made this annoying war worth the effort.

And as I learned later, a civil war broke out in the Lefante Barony after I left.

A civil war between the baron’s wife and children—who could be considered the rightful heirs—and the military faction that effectively commanded the troops and soldiers.

At first, this civil war was like a blood-tinged sport to determine who would become the successor, but due to various variables and the intervention of ambitious military leaders, it inevitably transformed into a full-blown civil war within the domain.

While there were broadly two major factions, the actual number of subfactions easily exceeded several dozen, with mysterious sponsors attaching themselves to various factions and attempting to interfere in internal affairs.

The complete absence of a mediator to determine victory and defeat through clear standards created a problem far greater than anticipated.

Even as they fought among themselves in civil war, without a referee to mediate and determine the outcome, they ended up fighting to the death, gradually eroding the strength of the domain in the process.

And one important thing to note is that this civil war could not be easily resolved.

Slowly consuming themselves through all manner of political maneuvering, internal strife, civil war, schemes, and conspiracies, they eventually forgot how to achieve victory in the civil war, and that was the end of it.

Ultimately, decades later, the war over interests would never stop—until the completely devastated domain split into dozens of pieces.

Even after such division, peace would never come because the separated factions couldn’t let go of their lingering attachments.

This was the backstory of how a single domain became a permanent conflict zone.