Ch.207War’s Influence

As the Empire’s order stabilized, war was merely a distant tale for ordinary villagers.

Most foreign invasions were repelled by the Margraves and Imperial Army, and battles between lords weren’t frequent either.

To wage territorial wars required Imperial approval, and without justifiable cause, permission was rarely granted.

Even powerful lords with strong private armies didn’t welcome those who brought unnecessary discord to the Empire.

Consequently, most conflicts between lords were resolved through small-scale engagements using only private soldiers, or even through duels between knights.

Naturally, disputes typically ended with the defeated party paying compensation, without losing territory.

Not all lords were rational beings, and some did wage battles staking their domains, but they were generally regarded as gamblers or undignified ruffians.

Thus, for ordinary subjects who hadn’t volunteered as soldiers or knights, the horrors of war remained an abstract concept.

This didn’t mean they lived in complete comfort.

Sudden monster attacks on villages, or troublemaking criminals and deserters could happen anywhere.

However, such threats only required evading or enduring until knights were dispatched.

But now, that was no longer possible.

—-

“Horrible… This village seems lost as well.”

On the road to Landenburg.

Nigel, who was driving the carriage, reported the situation outside with a sigh.

She hadn’t been the driver from the beginning.

I felt bad using a Master-level knight as a driver, and it seemed inappropriate to have the former princess sit in the driver’s seat, so we hired a coachman…

But within two days, he ended up like a porcupine, and we had no choice but to bury him by the roadside.

It was the work of deserters turned bandits.

By the time I sensed their presence and jumped out of the carriage, the coachman was already falling beneath the carriage with an arrow shaft sprouting from his solar plexus.

Unfortunately, he fell toward the wheels… by the time the carriage stopped, he was already a well-crushed corpse.

While I protected Lena from the arrow barrage and returned fire, Nigel and Leonore charged the bandits and slaughtered them cleanly… but that didn’t bring the coachman back to life.

If anything, he looked worse than before.

While we weren’t paying attention, dozens of stray arrows had pierced him like weeds in a field.

The best we could do was gather his remains, bury him by the roadside, and have Lena pray for his soul.

Afterward, Nigel volunteered to be the driver.

I offered to drive instead… but she seemed very uncomfortable with either me sitting in the driver’s seat or sharing the same space with Leonore, so I had no choice but to give up.

Two more days passed like that.

We were attacked by bandits once more, but we subdued them in less than two minutes.

We sliced their limbs and tied them upside down to trees, ensuring they wouldn’t accumulate any more evil Karma for the rest of their lives.

Though that life wouldn’t be very long.

—-

“That’s the third one already. I expected it, but to this extent…”

Leonore stepped out of the carriage and looked around with a sigh.

Though her expression was hidden behind her black helmet, it was probably deeply furrowed.

The same went for Nigel and me.

“We’ll look around inside the village. Lena, wait quietly in the carriage. Nigel, please look after her.”

“Leave it to me.”

“Was this village attacked too…?”

“It seems so. It’s better if you don’t see it.”

In the village where not a single survivor remained, only wild animals prowled about looking for food, and the stench of rotting corpses was overwhelming.

Just like the other two villages we’d encountered over the past four days.

Atop the crumbled embankment, dozens of crows celebrated their feast, cawing loudly.

Half-rotted eyeballs dangled from their beaks.

What had happened was all too clear.

Broken arrows were scattered throughout the blackened, collapsed houses.

The ash-covered streets were filled with half-decayed bodies.

Men cut down, boys with arrows in their backs, elders with bodies shattered as if beaten with blunt weapons.

Wild animals drawn by the smell of blood growled at the unwelcome guests who appeared during their meal.

A minute later, they became our food instead.

The women’s corpses were all stripped naked, with branches or broken spears thrust into their lower bodies.

This wasn’t the work of monsters.

Once again, it was an attack by looters taking advantage of the security vacuum.

—-

The sight we encountered at the well in the center of the village was unspeakably horrific.

Dozens of stakes circling the well.

The bodies of young girls we hadn’t seen while walking around were all gathered here.

Still-hungry crows perched on the ends of stakes protruding from mouths, pecking at half-eaten heads.

Putrid fluids ran down their immature naked bodies, forming black puddles on the ground.

It was like a nightmare.

So dizzying to behold.

We chased away the crows and took down the girls.

While Leonore pulled out the stakes and threw them away, I dug graves for the children.

“…Sometimes it seems humans are more vicious than monsters.”

All the villages we had passed through so far had been reduced to ruins.

Though not all were as horrific as this one, the pattern was the same everywhere—men killed, women violated.

If this had happened before, the lord’s private army or Imperial troops would have tracked down the perpetrators with burning determination…

But now, with lords engaged in civil war, the Imperial Army alone couldn’t fill the security vacuum across the entire country.

This was the result.

Unless it was prime territory near a lord’s castle, small settlements on the outskirts of domains now had to defend themselves.

…Most failed.

“The deeds of evil people are all similar, whether they’re Ain, monsters, or humans. Humans only seem righteous because… evil people simply had fewer opportunities to run rampant.”

Leonore made the sign of the cross while looking down at the girls’ graves.

That’s a more cynical view than I expected.

Her response surprised me somewhat.

Given her childhood stories of begging to become a knight, and her usual behavior, I had thought her more romantic in nature.

Well, with a pedophile father and Isabella as a mother… any romanticism probably withered before it could grow.

—-

We searched the village further, but found no survivors.

Even if there had been any, they would have fled long ago or been killed by wild animals.

By the time we buried all the identifiable remains, about an hour had passed.

We had to dig deep graves to prevent animals from digging them up again, which took longer than expected.

“…Could this be the work of those bandits we saw before?”

I asked Leonore as we returned to the carriage.

If they were responsible, I was willing to delay our journey by half a day to go back.

They would still be alive… and I wanted to make them regret not dying quickly.

But Leonore shook her head, suggesting it wasn’t their doing.

“I doubt it… They couldn’t have wiped out a village of this size. They would need at least fifty men to attack a village like this.”

…She’s not wrong.

Unlike the other villages we’d passed, this one was of considerable size.

At least large enough not to be helplessly massacred by a small group of bandits.

Then who?

What kind of people would do this…?

[Regular troops, I see.]

A familiar voice echoed in my mind as I pondered.

“What did you just say…?”

Hersella’s voice, breaking her silence after nearly a week.

The timing was unexpected, the content even more so.

I blurted out my response without thinking.

“Hm? I said they probably couldn’t have done it. They would have been wiped out themselves if they’d tried to attack this place.”

Leonore repeated what she’d said, tilting her head in confusion.

She must have thought I was talking to her.

“Ah, yes. You’re right. There were only about ten of them after all.”

I glossed over it casually.

If I explained I was talking to a voice in my head, she’d think I was mentally ill.

I slowed my pace to create distance from Leonore and addressed Hersella.

‘What do you mean? Regular troops? Are you saying the Empire’s army did this?’

I lowered my voice to its limit, just enough that Leonore couldn’t hear.

It was barely more than a whisper, but… being part of me, she seemed to understand.

[Yes. Look at the arrows and weapon fragments scattered throughout the village. They’re all of identical specifications, aren’t they? A ragtag band of bandits wouldn’t have such uniformity. And it’s unlikely a hundred men deserted simultaneously. So this was done by a properly organized army acting under orders.]

Glancing around… indeed, as Hersella said, all the weapons were of the same size and shape.

As if mass-produced in the same place.

[You mentioned territorial wars breaking out across the Empire over succession claims. This must be the work of one such faction. Slaughter one village to spread terror, and three more will surrender without resistance. Whoever did this understands the essence of warfare well.]

‘…You didn’t know me very well, it seems.’

I had no intention of letting this go.

Someone who commits such acts once can easily do so again.

Leonore and Nigel would surely agree.

Our arrival at Landenburg might be delayed by a day or two… but nothing would happen to the Wall in just two days.

[Do you intend to intervene? Do you even know whose side they’re on? It would be quite a spectacle if you went to punish them only to find they’re Leopold’s vassals.]

Hersella mocked me with a chuckle.

‘…A noble allied with Leopold wouldn’t do this. He’s already troubled by rumors of being a patricidal prince; committing massacres would only legitimize Isabella’s position. Besides… given Leopold’s character, he’d dispose of such people even if they were on his side, and anyone supporting Leopold would know that.’

[Hmm… you have a point. Well, do as you please. Even if they’re a lord, anyone who attacks villages like this can’t be that powerful. Their forces probably number less than three hundred, so punishing them shouldn’t be difficult.]

Three hundred.

Indeed, that shouldn’t be a problem.