Ch.179Territory (5)

“What did you say..?”

The lord listens to a horrifically terrible report.

He had simply wanted to send an implicit warning to the king that if he continued such actions, there would be consequences that couldn’t be ignored.

“Not only did you fail to capture him, but you couldn’t even kill a single one?”

But they had failed.

The plan to disguise themselves as bandits, massacre the administrative group, and kidnap that insolent fellow to teach him a lesson hadn’t just fallen apart—it had been utterly shattered.

Now that shattered plan would become fragments, mercilessly stabbing into me. No, being stabbed would actually be considered fortunate at this point.

“How incompetent must you be to fail to kill even a single person when you outnumbered them ten to one?! Huh?!”

Above all, the result of the failure was utterly despairing.

The other side was just a handful of royal guards made up of ordinary soldiers, while our side had mobilized ten times that number.

No matter the difference in training quality, with a numerical advantage of tenfold, failing to kill even a single guard was an outcome that defied common sense by any measure.

“Where is the commander who led the attack unit? Bring him before me right now!!”

“About that… he was killed in action, Your Lordship.”

“What? Don’t tell me he actually led from the front?”

“No, sir. His body was found in the forest far from the attack site, with no signs of direct combat.”

“Then why on earth…”

The lord intuitively sensed what had happened.

His brain was simply trying to deny the fact because acknowledging it would mean realizing what he had done.

“…Judging from the many bodies with arrows in their backs, it seems the command group, including the commander, was ambushed and wiped out.”

“Huh…”

What this fact revealed was that their activities were already being monitored in real-time by the king.

For the command group positioned far from the battlefield to be exposed to the enemy, the other side must have been continuously tracking their movements.

“…Damn it.”

What should I do?

I thought he wouldn’t take my life… No, the king has executed every noble who opposed him. Whether they were his vassals or foreign nobles, it didn’t matter.

Should I simply admit my mistake and bow my head? If I say I wasn’t rebelling against the king himself but was angry at the administrators… No, that doesn’t make sense. Those people were executing administrative duties under the king’s orders, so raising a sword against them is no different from raising a sword against the king himself.

How… how should I—That’s it!

“You, die for me.”

“What? What do you mean—grrrkk…”

Without a moment’s hesitation, the lord’s blade precisely cuts halfway through his vassal’s neck. A chilling sound of bubbling gurgles fills the air, but the unhinged lord hears it with satisfaction.

Good, this will save me.

I’ll claim this man acted on his own and caused this disaster. As my closest aide, it’s entirely plausible that he could have manipulated orders and deceived soldiers into mobilizing.

Since the dead cannot be interrogated, killing him and pinning all charges on him solves everything.

Now I just need to explain the situation to the envoy who will come here, and send someone to Dijon to clear up the misunderstanding—

BOOM!!

“—Ugh?!”

The lord’s incessant thoughts scatter into the air at the sudden, tremendous noise.

It’s not just the noise. As if an earthquake has struck, the castle’s ceiling and walls shake, and items placed on furniture helplessly fall to the floor, creating a mess.

“What’s happening?!”

“Your Lordship, we must evacuate immediately—Eek?!”

A soldier who rushes in moments later to report is horrified at the sight of the blood-soaked room and his superior’s corpse.

With the lord holding a sword and the state of the room, it’s not difficult to guess what happened.

“Y-Your Lordship… this is…”

“This man used soldiers without permission, so I dealt with him. Is there a problem?”

“…No, there isn’t.”

The soldier knows what happened but pretends not to know.

Questioning too much here would arouse the lord’s suspicion and could jeopardize the escape plan.

“So what was that noise just now? Did you say something about evacuation?”

“Ah, yes…! You must flee immediately!! An unidentified army has broken down the castle walls with boulders and is charging in!!”

“…What? Army?”

The lord fails to follow the flow of conversation.

An army? What army?

Is he talking about the king’s army?

“…It hasn’t even been a day. What army… It’s too fast. The speed defies common sense. Even sending an envoy would take longer, so what army—”

“Your Lordship!! This is reality, please follow me quickly!”

“Ugh…”

The frustrated soldier shouts loudly at the lord to make him face reality, and the lord, who had been in denial, blinks his eyes and regains some of his senses.

“…Yes, right. An army. An army has come.”

“Yes, Your Lordship. We must quickly escape—”

“Why should I flee? If I show them the true culprit’s body, won’t they clear up the misunderstanding and leave?”

“…Pardon?”

However, the lord’s partially recovered mind makes a misguided judgment, and the soldier who hears it is shocked, wondering if he heard correctly.

Given the king’s nasty habit of finding excuses to kill nobles, such an excuse would clearly be ignored. Moreover, the fact that an army was dispatched so quickly proves that the king is fully aware of what’s happening.

Presenting such fabricated evidence to the king would only make the aftermath more terrible.

“I… see.”

“Yes, tell them immediately that everything is a misunderstanding, there is a different culprit, and I will reveal the truth of the incident. Then they will stop the attack.”

“…Understood, Your Lordship. Please wait.”

“Good.”

The soldier, having received the lord’s permission, doesn’t run to the Rotaring army but instead steals as many valuables from the palace as possible, changes into civilian clothes, and flees.

Not killing envoys is common sense, but for the Rotaring army, for the King of Rotaring, such common sense doesn’t apply, and delivering such a message could endanger his life.

Above all, there’s no benefit in maintaining loyalty anymore. Let those high-and-mighty knights do that.

……….

Though it was an army of just 1,800 men, the subjugation ended instantly due to their extensive battle experience and the enemy’s weakness.

Looking at it now, it seems bringing the cannon wasn’t necessary.

For rapid movement, they had disassembled one cannon and loaded it onto three carriages, with the heaviest barrel pulled by five horses, but after everything was over, it seemed like overkill. The castle gate was so weak that the local engineers could have breached it easily.

Everything ended well, except for one thing.

“…You expect me to believe this?”

The lord reportedly keeps mumbling and repeating specific phrases, shifting all responsibility to his close vassal, claiming his own innocence, and begging to meet His Majesty.

His gaze is fixed on empty space, completely unfocused, and he’s startled by loud noises and contact from outside his field of vision, to the point that the military doctor suspected demonic possession and called for a priest.

…It’s not demonic possession but seems like a mental illness involving denial of reality. While surgery and internal medicine have improved considerably thanks to rigorous university management, psychiatry remains at a medieval level, so this can’t be helped.

“How credible is this claim?”

“I can assert it has no credibility, Your Majesty.”

“I thought as much.”

The unrealistically perfect report from the intelligence department shows that the lord’s words are false, and including the testimony of deserters captured on site, it’s clear that his claim is completely fabricated.

Really… if he had just bowed his head and apologized, I would have ended things nicely by transferring his title to his son before taking his life. Why do nobles never think of that and always resort to such tricks?

Even in the medieval period where royal authority is at rock bottom, lying to the king can be considered an act of treason. In this situation, I can’t show leniency even if I wanted to.

Sigh… is honor and face so important? I’ve lived in this world for a long time, but I still can’t understand it.

“The lord’s title is revoked, and his domain becomes royal territory under direct control of the crown. The lord himself will be executed for treason. Since we’ve abolished guilt by association, his children won’t be killed, but as their father has lost his title, according to noble law, they can no longer claim any titles and are demoted to commoner status.”

Demoting the children to commoners might seem like guilt by association, but isn’t it the form and format that matters? If a father loses all his property to fines, we don’t consider it guilt by association when the children can’t inherit what’s gone.

If the father has lost his title and can’t claim any titles, then he’s no different from a commoner, so that’s what he is.

“And round up all the local nobles who cooperated with that lord for treason charges if possible. For instance, excessive gifts to the lord could be construed as providing funds for rebellion. Since we’re at it, we should completely uproot all traces of rebellion.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

When acquiring new territory, there are two things to do:

Either cooperate with local powers, or eradicate them.

And the former is only done when local powers are strong or when justification is weak. Since this is a case of treason, the justification is sufficient, and with a population of only 10,000-20,000, the nobles are likely insignificant, so there’s no need to show mercy.

The timing might be unfortunate, as other nobles might see this as intimidation, but it can’t be helped.

If their vassals committed tax evasion, rebellion, and lying simultaneously, they too would utterly destroy the culprit and all remaining forces associated with them to prevent such incidents from happening again.

Surely they won’t take issue with this. It’s a sensible response to an unreasonable situation.