Ch.49Bar (5)

“Heh heh… His Grace the Duke is truly cruel this time.”

General Aras, leading the subjugation forces, both admires and is slightly unnerved by his lord’s actions in pushing those rebels to the edge of a cliff.

No matter his position as commander of the subjugation army, he too is a nobleman.

His lord had made compromise impossible for those rebels by imposing absurdly harsh conditions on top of embezzlement charges.

Above all, hadn’t those who recently advocated for a noble assembly all died in “accidents”? That incident with the mysterious assailant claiming it was all staged probably had connections to his lord as well.

This way, the lord’s servants, including himself, can only tremble in fear of being harvested once their usefulness diminishes.

Regardless of his duty to be loyal, he can’t help feeling slightly apprehensive.

“…Sound the trumpets.”

“Yes! Sound the trumpets!!”

But from his lord’s perspective, this is literally a golden opportunity.

He can sweep away those unstable elements who until recently were vassals of the Caroling Kingdom, while also seizing their territories.

Moreover, Barr is a passage from the inland regions to the coastal areas, from the Caroling Kingdom to the Holy Empire, giving it tremendous growth potential.

Until now, it couldn’t develop properly due to the proliferation of minor nobles, but if the entire Barr region falls completely into his lord’s hands, that potential could be maximized. It would become a great asset to the Duchy of Bourgogne.

Having reached this conclusion from a broader perspective, General Aras decides to focus on his job—battle, and killing the enemy.

“Truly pathetic.”

The enemy has numbers, but their quality is extremely poor. Even with his aging, dimming eyes, their weakness is all too apparent.

Of course, not all are like that—roughly 30% are decent regular troops, but the remaining 70% are so poor that it hardly matters.

If it were him, he would have positioned that 70% as meat shields where lack of skill wouldn’t matter much, then used the 30% for tactical maneuvers. But the enemy, true to their nature as a noble coalition, seems to lack clear command authority, with the 30% and 70% all mixed together.

It’s like salt and sand poured into the same bottle and shaken around.

In such a state, even that 30% won’t be able to properly demonstrate their capabilities.

“This will make a fine gift for His Grace.”

Victory is certain. There’s no need for detailed orders; a simple charge command will crush them all under a wave of iron.

His lord, who has decided to harvest them, won’t particularly need prisoners. Since everything will become his anyway, there’s no way they could pay ransoms.

“We don’t need noble prisoners.”

After this is over, he’ll probably be able to rest comfortably for a while. Before that, he might as well rack up as many achievements as possible.

……….

“Formation! Maintain the formati— Gah!?”

CRASH!!!

Eeeeeeeeeee—

My ears hurt terribly.

A stone from a catapult landed right beside me, and now I can’t hear anything. The world is filled with a ringing sound.

The painful cries of those stabbed by swords, desperate pleas for help, terrified screams—all are drowned out by that eeeeeeeee— sound.

‘How did it come to this…?’

I knew about their military superiority from the beginning.

With the succession war having occurred until recently, no one is unaware of the Duchy of Bourgogne’s military strength.

‘But… I never knew they would be this strong…!’

The enemy approached slowly, maintaining their formation with wings extending forward and the center slightly concave.

It was obvious that if we engaged their center, their wings would close in from the sides, so we charged at their flank first. But suddenly, an enemy ambush emerged from the side and severely pierced our flank.

While we were responding to the ambush and trying to regroup, the enemy’s opposite wing and center moved like a giant revolving door, enveloping our side and rear. Eventually, we were completely surrounded with nowhere to go.

Ptooey!!

‘Damn it… damn it…!’

After rolling on the ground several times, sand and dirt pour into my mouth.

I wanted advancement, not to be buried in this dirt pile.

Ugh…! Is showing resilience before surrendering the best option now?

“Ptooey!! Everyone, hold on a little longer!!”

The baron spits out all the sand in his mouth before shouting loudly.

Surrender is most valuable when the sides are evenly matched. When victory is certain, accepting an enemy’s surrender offers no benefit.

With just a little more time invested, they could gain everything, so no one would foolishly accept surrender and negotiate.

Therefore, I must show that we can still fight to gain the upper hand in surrender negotiations—

“What?!”

But the baron’s plan instantly evaporates.

As the battle line collapses, the hastily conscripted serfs throw down their weapons and prostrate themselves on the ground. The enemy, seeming to recognize them as peasants, doesn’t harm them much.

I never expected anything from those lowborns anyway, so it’s not particularly surprising. The problem is the mercenaries. Even the hired mercenaries are raising their hands and surrendering to the enemy.

“Fulfill your contract! Mercenaries! Hey!! Where do you think you’re going?!”

The baron’s empty cries don’t reach the mercenaries. Shouting, he fails to notice his fellow nobles approaching from behind, their faces drained of color.

Shortly after, those nobles begged General Aras for their lives, offering the baron’s head as payment, but they too soon followed the baron’s fate under Aras’s sword.

……….

“Of the enemy’s 5,000 men, about 1,000 were killed or wounded, and the rest all surrendered.”

Victory naturally went to our side, and most of the surrendered enemy troops were mercenaries. Paid to enter the battlefield, they promptly surrendered when the tide turned against them.

Most mercenaries, considering the possibility of future contracts with the enemy, normally fight to the end until their commander calls for surrender, even when defeat seems imminent. But they didn’t.

Literally, disorganized nobles hired disorganized mercenaries. Really…

Although the Duchy of Bourgogne executes all captured nobles, it’s customary not to do the same with surrendered mercenaries, so Aras kept them alive for now. But judging from Aras’s use of “for now,” he was quite displeased as well.

“And you killed all the captured nobles?”

“Yes, brother. This was entirely General Aras’s independent decision. Aras questioned why he should spare those who rebelled despite not having strong forces.”

“Is that so? I never gave such an order.”

Chloe is filling in for the head butler Leclerc on his day off.

Instead of her usual maid uniform, Chloe is wearing a neatly tailored female butler’s outfit, exuding an incredibly sharp and attractive aura.

In the past, I would have purely admired Chloe’s appearance, but… given our relationship now, I can’t help but feel somewhat excited by her look… well…

“…Yes, it was completely the general’s independent decision.”

Beside me, Ines says this while kneading my arm.

She seems quite displeased with my interest in Chloe.

Stroke—

“Hehe…”

Noticing the discontent in her voice, I stroke Ines’s head with my hand, and only then does she smile with satisfaction.

Though I feel a bit sorry for Ines, I can’t afford to be distracted by her when there’s still much to do.

While stroking Ines, I think about what comes next.

‘Hmm, Aras. You’re quick-witted as always, which I like.’

Killing them after the war would require some troublesome extra effort, but killing them on the battlefield like this poses no significant problems.

They surrendered? So what?

This is the medieval era. Whether to accept prisoners is the victor’s exclusive right.

The culture of sparing prisoners’ lives exists primarily because keeping them alive for ransom or slavery is more profitable.

If the benefits of killing them outweigh those of keeping them alive, they should rightfully be killed.

Of course, regardless of profit, the social reputation of someone who massacres prisoners would plummet… but as I’ve repeatedly said, even though I might have given some hints, this was entirely Aras’s independent decision.

“Issue a disciplinary confinement order to Aras. The battle is over, and it’s hot in the coastal region, so tell him to take a vacation. I’ll provide one of my villas.”

“…Yes, brother.”

Chloe frowns as she looks back and forth between Ines and me, then sighs and walks out the door to relay my orders to the servant waiting outside.

She seemed to want to separate Ines and me immediately but reluctantly fulfilled her duty as acting head butler.

No matter how aggressive Chloe’s true nature might be, I’m glad that her desire to be helpful to me seems genuine.

Hmm… First, I’ll immediately reclaim the territories of Barr where the lords died without heirs, and for territories with heirs, I’ll incorporate them into my lands after going through the formality of treason trials—

“What?!”

“…?”

Just then, a short, startled cry from Chloe rings out from beyond the door.

At first, I was a bit startled by the sudden loud noise, but the cry was so cute that my startled feeling instantly vanished.

“Um… brother.”

“Chloe, what’s wrong?”

“Some cra— woman claiming to be a saint who received divine revelation has appeared… She’s been occupying churches one by one and causing disturbances. All the property of the occupied churches has been distributed to surrounding farms.”

What is this nonsense now?