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9 – The Ryan Family

9 – The Ryan Family

I rode towards the end of the migrant procession where I heard screams.

Upon arrival, I found about six knights and a dozen people.

The problem was the appearance of those dozen people.

Their hands were bound, and they had gags in their mouths.

“You are not knights of our territory. Where are you from!?”

At my words, the knights turned their heads towards me.

Then, the lion emblem was clearly visible on their armor.

There was only one family that bore the lion emblem.

It was the Prince Faction, located to the east of our family, led by a lord who had two fathers, a lord like a fierce warrior.

It was the “Lion Family.”

They spoke to me with great confidence.

“We are knights of the Lion Family. We have come to capture runaway slaves.”

“You’ve come to capture runaway slaves?”

“Ugh! Ugh!! Ugh! Ugh!!”

At their words, the people with gags began to make sounds as if they wanted to say something.

Seeing this, Noah asked the knights of the Lion Family.

“Are they really runaway slaves?”

“Yes.”

At their words, Noah glared at them intently.

For a moment, they hesitated, but Noah spoke without any hesitation.

“My lord, they are lying.”

Noah’s assertion, made without a moment’s hesitation, surprised not only me but everyone present.

No matter how much Noah was my vassal and the heir of the White Family, if those people were not slaves, it would be an insult to the knights of the Lion Family.

“You bold girl! Who do you think you are to interrupt this conversation!!!”

But there were even more insane ones.

Did those madmen just insult my vassal Noah right in front of me?

Suddenly, I felt my blood pressure rising as I recalled the subordinate manager from my previous life who used to bully me.

“Who do you think has the audacity? Are you insulting my servant right in front of me!?”

As I shouted, it seemed they finally realized their mistake.

I shouted to Ricain, who was beside me to guard me.

“Ricain! Remove their gags!!”

“Yes! My lord!!”

Together with Ricain, the knights removed the gags from the people.

Though their gags were removed, they still trembled in fear, and I asked them.

“Are you free people? Or are you slaves?”

“We are… um… that is…”

They seemed to want to say something to me but kept glancing towards the knights of the Lion Family.

Their demeanor reminded me of my own experience being bullied in front of the school after being called in by the bullies in my previous life.

Even now, thinking about it makes me irritated, and I spoke in front of the knights of the Lion Family.

“I swear by the Goddess of Protection, ‘Lupia.’ Your safety and well-being will be guaranteed by me, Calix, lord of the Crones Family. You can speak honestly. Are you free people? Or are you slaves?”

The goddess Lupia, who raises a shield to protect the weakest.

As I shouted my oath so that everyone could hear, I could see a glimmer of courage in their eyes.

And they shouted.

“We are!! We are free people!! We want to migrate to the Crones Family! Please accept us!! Lord Calix!!”

“Please!! Please!!! Accept us!!”

“I accept. From this moment on, you are all subjects of the Crones Family.”

At my declaration, they cheered as if they had been liberated from hell.

Leaving behind the joyous new subjects, I glared at the knights of the Lion Family, whose expressions had soured.

“Are you trying to kidnap free people who have the freedom to migrate like slaves?”

“They are not slaves, but they are the property of our great lord, Baron Hadem of the Lion Family.”

While free people are not slaves, there are certainly wicked lords who ignore such things.

The current lord of the Lion Family, ‘Hadem Lion,’ was one of those wicked lords, and it seemed that those who had been caught were no longer trying to hide it.

I was dumbfounded by their brazen words and asked Hart.

“Hart!!”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Is there a law in the Empire that allows non-slaves to be treated as slaves?”

“I have seen it for decades, but there has been no such law.”

Hart looked at the knights of the Lion Family with the gaze of someone disgusted by cockroaches.

It seemed Hart was quite angry about their attempt to kidnap free people trying to come to our territory.

“Hart, the expert on imperial law. Do you think you know imperial law better than Hart?”

No matter how feudal this world was and how the power of imperial law had weakened due to the emperor’s illness, law was law.

At my words, the knights of the Lion Family could no longer hold back and shouted.

“Are you really going to go this far, Lord Calix!?”

“These bastards!!!”

At their insolent behavior, Ricain and the knights were about to draw their swords, but I gestured for them to hold back.

Then I calmly continued.

“Now that they have been accepted into my territory, they are already my subjects. If you want them back, make them want to return on their own.”

The knights of the Lion Family understood my words, and their expressions soured.

What I had just said was essentially, “Go back and take care of your territory, you fools.”

Understanding this, the knights did not hide their rotten expressions and said.

“Today’s events will be remembered by the prince and our lord.”

Honestly, I didn’t think the prince, who was good at managing the kingdom, would care about such things.

However, I was a bit concerned about the lord of the Lion Family.

After all, he was one of the top lords among the Prince Faction, known for his strength like a fierce warrior.

But seeing the eyes of those ordinary people who had fled here with hope, I could not just stand by.

As I was thinking this, they tried to turn their heads away with shameful expressions.

Where were they trying to go?

My calculations were not yet finished.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

When I shouted, they looked back at me.

I pointed at Noah and said.

“Apologize to my vassal before you leave.”

“Apologize? To that girl?”

“She is not just a girl. She is my ‘treasurer’ and my ‘vassal.'”

At my words, Noah looked surprised, as if she had heard something completely unexpected.

And the knights of the Lion Family wore genuinely incredulous expressions.

“I will apologize for my rudeness to the lord. However, I cannot apologize to that girl who interrupted our conversation.”

I had been the same in my previous life and still was now.

I could tolerate being insulted, but I could never stand for my people or my family being insulted.

Yet they casually touched my sore spot.

“Do you still think I am trying to settle this situation with a reasonable conversation?…Ricain!!!!!”

As I shouted, Ricain and the knights all drew their swords and quickly surrounded them.

Humans are truly strange creatures.

Even when they are on the brink of death, they do not think they will die until the blade is at their throat.

The same was true for them.

Only when the situation escalated did they begin to understand that I might genuinely kill them, and fear started to bloom on their faces.

I quietly said to them.

“Let me say this one last time…”

One knight commander and about ten knights, along with dozens of subjects, gathered around.

Their eyes were filled with a murderous intent that felt as if my single word could turn them into minced meat.

“Leave with your honor, or leave with your heads.”

Whether it was my words that frightened them,

or the swords of the knights that terrified them,

or perhaps the gazes of the surrounding subjects that scared them.

One thing was certain: their eyes were filled with fear, and they chose their lives over their honor.

“I… I apologize. To the nameless treasurer… I acted rudely. Please forgive me.”

“I will accept your apology. To the nameless knight, please do not lie in the future.”

Noah accepted the knight’s apology with a cold smile, and the knights of the Lion Family fled in a hurry, mocked by the free people.

And from the next day, the song of “The Lord of the Crones who protected the free people and his vassals” began to spread among the bards.

What is this, not even YouTube, and the updates are this fast?

I began to feel a bit scared of the bards.

Those who saw the territory of the “Lion Family” for the first time were surprised by three things.

First, they were astonished by the ‘knights’ and ‘soldiers’ visible everywhere.

Second, they were shocked by the ‘people working like slaves’ visible everywhere.

Finally, they were astonished by the absence of ‘laughter’ visible anywhere.

The territory, which was more suited to a military base than a fief, was described by the bards as:

“Innocent subjects have been captured by a lord driven mad by war.”

A territory that exists solely for the upcoming war,

that was the territory of the Lion Family.

“My lord! I have something to report!!”

The knights who rushed to the main estate of the Lion Family reported everything they had experienced to their lord, ‘Hadem Lion.’

He listened to their story while calmly sharpening his axe.

His demeanor was more fitting for a knight, or rather a warrior, than a lord.

With bulging muscles and a face covered in scars, and a bald head shining without a single hair, he sharpened his axe while listening to the knights’ report.

“So… that brat from the Crones came out like that?”

“Yes! Lord Hadem!! It was truly humiliating!!!”

Hadem listened to the news calmly while examining the state of his axe.

After confirming that it was satisfactorily sharpened, he turned his head towards the knights who had fled.

“And you just ran away after enduring that humiliation?”

“What!? So… that is…”

Hadem, who was looking at the fleeing knights with a calm expression, casually swung his axe, which was as large as a grown man’s.

Swish-!

The motion was reminiscent of a middle-aged man trying out a new fishing rod.

The knights were so taken aback by his natural action that they could not even react.

Moments later, the body and head of the leading knight were severed cleanly.

Thud-!

“Hiiik!!”

Calmly wiping the blood off his axe, Hadem stood up.

He then approached the terrified knights beside the fallen knight commander and quietly said.

“Under the ‘Valiant Lion,’ there is no need for ‘Frightened Sheep.'”

With those words, Hadem entered his room.

Following him, a man who appeared to be Hadem’s aide ordered the remaining knights to dispose of the body and then followed Hadem into the room.

“What should we do about that brat from the Crones, my lord?”

“What to do? I am not so petty as to get angry over the antics of a young brat.”

To Hadem, Calix of the Crones Family was truly just a brat.

A young brat who became the heir after the sudden death of the previous lord.

A weak brat who relied on cunning tricks like doubling the pay for workers who were like slaves or lowering tariffs.

It was infuriating for Hadem that such a brat would come at him so strongly.

“However, I am worried.”

“Worried about the lord?”

Hadem casually downed a shot of liquor that his aide had poured.

Then he spoke calmly.

“As far as I know, the runaway free people often become bandits.”

Hadem extended his cup for another drink.

His aide, ‘Ragos,’ filled the cup with liquor according to the lord’s wishes.

“It seems that the territory of the brat who accepted too many free people will have ‘bandits appearing’… don’t you worry about that in our neighboring territory?”

“…I see. I am worried too, my lord.”

Hadem did not issue any orders.

But Ragos understood all of his intentions.

A word from the author (Author’s note)

The protagonist’s charisma was explosive!

Thank you for reading today!!