Chapter 51 – Territorial Dispute III
Translator: Isekai Shousetsu
“This is so bothersome…I want to quickly go home.”
“Don’t say that. This is our job, you know.”
“That’s right. We have to do this properly.”
Ron, Roswald, and Soyon are policing the border with the DeBell Territory.
The patrol force consists of 60 cavalry and 100 infantry. It’s a moderate scope.
There’s a reason they hand to send this much to patrol. That is… a pact with Regal DeBell.
From now on, in the case refugees came again, DeBell wanted the Ars Clan to intensify patrols so they could be caught.
In other words, they’re implying that they will overlook last time but the next time would be unforgiveable.
Almis doesn’t have any intention to completely antagonize the DeBell clan at present. That’s why we he conceded to the treaty and allowed the patrols.
“Captain! There seems to be a conflict at that direction between the DeBell Territory’s forces and a group that looks like refugees.”
“Is that so? Let’s head there immediately.” (Ron)
Ron and company gather together the light skirmisher soldiers and head out to the scene of the action.
The clear boundary that divides the Ars Territory and the DeBell Territory is a river. It’s a river that’s as high as a man’s waist in its deepest points. Roughly at the eastern bank of the river is the Ars Territory while at the western bank is the DeBell Territory.
Ron and company arrives quickly and conveys to the refugees:
“Citizens are barred from migrating arbitrarily. Be obedient and return peacefully to the DeBell Territory!!”
After hearing this, the refugees drop their shoulders and stop all resistance.
They did not immediately follow the DeBell soldiers straddling the border. But the story became different when it came to the Ars soldiers they were on the lookout for. The failure of their escape was decided.
From the very beginning, they went and fled after hearing the rumor that some people successfully fled to the Ars Territory. That the lord of the Ars clan accepted the fugitives.
Therefore, the shock was great. They couldn’t resist and got arrested by the DeBell soldiers.
By all rights, they would have been taken back uneventfully and that would be the end of it.
However, this time is different.
“Hey!! What the h.e.l.l are you doing!!”
Roswald shouts.
The DeBell soldiers begin to ma.s.sacre the refugees in plain sight of Roswald. Furthermore, they didn’t do so by decapitating them.
They kill the refugees by hitting them, kicking them, breaking their bones, and various other horrible means. It’s as if they’re putting up a show for Roswald and the others.
“Hey!! Isn’t that just a kid!!”
The soldiers begin to mercilessly kill even the little children. Little by little they cut off their bodies. Ron hears the children’s screams
“……How cruel.”
The soldiers rape the women right before Ron and the others. They strangled. They plucked out the eyes for fun. They violated the refugees as if they were toys.
Soyon reflexively buries her face on Ron’s chest. However, even if she covered her face, the shrieks continue to enter her ears. No matter how hard she tried to cover her ears, the shouts penetrate through the gaps.
However, they won’t be able to do anything about them. The reason is they couldn’t come over to the DeBell Territory.
The Ars soldiers don’t have the power to challenge jurisdiction. If Almis were here, then everything could have turned out differently but……
Roswald involuntarily bites his lips. They can’t do anything.
It would only hurt if they stayed here any longer. It’s time to decide to return.
“Save us!!!” They hear a little girl’s scream. Roswald reflexively looks back.
The little girl is being held down by several men. She was around five years old……she probably hasn’t even gotten her first menstruation.
Roswald’s hand moves on its own. A spear leaves his hands and after a while hits the heart of the raping soldier.
From that point on, the Ars soldiers attacked the DeBell soldiers one by one and began saving the refugees.
“We got ‘em, huh.” (Bermet)
“As expected of my Bermet!!” Regal is in high spirits.
It’s a case where they make the enemy do the first move because, after all, taking the mine away by force would appear untimely. It’s only natural to mobilize the army for defense if the enemy made the first move.
After that, they would make their own move after the enemy guards escape. After they secure the rock salt mines, they would send an emissary to Almis Ars in the confusion to make peace. They would ask for the control of the salt mine in exchange for overlooking the pre-emptive attack.
By Bermet’s estimate, they would probably be able to take about a third of the salt mine.
As expected, taking all of the mine would probably be impossible. The rock salt mine holds vast profits after all.
Nonetheless, there’s a huge controversial point in the plan. People will hear of the scandal that they ma.s.sacred refugees. Even if they were just refugees, people would fault you and argue that ma.s.sacring them was overkill.
So, what do you do about that?
If they were criminals that deserved to die, then there won’t be a problem.
In the DeBell Territory, there are a lot of villages that have defaulted on their tax payments many times over. In the DeBell Territory, the punishment for exceeding a certain number of years for tax defaulting is the death penalty.
Nonetheless, it’s not like dead bodies will turn into gold coins. You can’t get something from nothing so it couldn’t be helped. So, the custom was to just let them off.
They’ll be lent next year’s seed rice so that they could pay their taxes next year.
However, this time, they went with not forgiving the defaulters. Furthermore, they moved them to a prison with murderers and robbers near the Ars Territory.
A few will be executed in the village while the others will be threatened. After this, they spread a rumor amongst them through the soldier guards’ idle chatter.
That should they escape to the Ars Territory, they’ll be saved.
After that, the guards would end up drunk by coincidence and would carelessly forget to close the lock.
With this, the operation was complete.
‘In short, they were criminals so we killed them when they tried to escape. What’s wrong with that?’
Something like that.
As for Bermet, he actually wanted to stop the heavy taxation……but Regal’s relatives got in his way.
Something like “If the taxes went down, then our income would fall down too.”
He wanted to keep them away somehow but…Regal keeps on appointing his relatives so it couldn’t go well.
“Alright then, I’ll be heading out. Wait for the good news for me, Lord Bermet.” Said the head of those troublesome relatives, Gilberto.
Well, his physical strength was high and he is excellent and talented as a commander when leading a 100 person strong unit.
On the other hand you couldn’t say he’s cut out for leading an army bigger than that.
Having said that, he is less objectionable than the other relatives. They don’t have anything but strong spirit that says ‘Let us proceed to the battlefield with our own feet and take down the enemy.’ Other people, without doing their jobs properly, do nothing but play around to spend their time after all.
“Please be victorious. It would be a big problem after all if you fail.” (Bermet)
Gilberto is leading 320 troops this time. The opposing force probably has a 100 to 200.
Should he lose here, in addition to their despotic rule, rumors of their incompetence as soldiers would be born. He actually wanted to prepare a larger army but…if he brought an even larger army then it wouldn’t seem as if it were an accidental encounter. This much is the limit.
“Fufu, if the difference between our forces is this much, then these would be enough. From what I heard, the enemy commander is nothing more than a little brat before the age of 20. There’s no way he could win against me who’s run about in numerous battlefields.” (Gilberto)
“Don’t be reckless. The enemy managed to defeat King Ferrum.” (Bermet)
“Aren’t you worrying too much? Lord Bermet!!”
Gilberto bursts into laughter.
“How would you take responsibility? Roswald.” (Ron)
“Hey, don’t just push all of it on me. Didn’t you also do it!!” (Roswald)
Ron and Roswald starts to bicker as to who’s responsible.
Ron argues that it was Roswald who did it first so he’s responsible.
Roswald argues that since Ron joined in after him makes him responsible too.
Nonetheless, bickering here would just aggravate the situation.
“Tei!” (Soyon)
“ ‘Ouch!’ ”
The two crouches after they get hit on the head with a stick by Soyon.
“We couldn’t have helped but do it, don’t you agree? For the meantime, let’s bring everyone to a safeplace……after that” (Soyon)
It’s a sound argument. Thankfully, there’s quite a big mountain a kilometer from here that has a small village. It can be seen from here so walking there should be fine.
With this, the refugee issue is postponed for the meantime.
Next is……
“For the meantime, all the DeBell soldiers have been either captured or killed so the enemy shouldn’t have received any information, right?…” (Ron)
Ron and the others could clearly see the DeBell army before them.
They number around 200 to 300. Even if you were a little off in your estimates, the army in the distance was clearly larger than Ron and company.
“How many soldiers did we bring again?” Ron asks Roswald and Soyon.
“To cover a large area, we brought around 60 cavalry. The infantry is around 100 while the bowmen, 10.”
“We also have 40 bomb spears. Almis told us to bring it for protection just in case.”
It’s unreliable war potential when against around 300 enemies.
“Should we escape?” (Roswald)
“If we escape then saving these people would become for naught. Besides, the village behind is also dangerous. Also…” (Ron)
At the moment Ron cut his words, he looks at the enemy.
“We would be at an advantage in the negotiation table if we win here right? Won’t we then be able to overturn the situation? (Ron)
“You think so? Don’t you feel like that’s fundamentally flawed?” (Roswald)
Roswald looks at Ron with doubtful eyes.
However, Ron is br.i.m.m.i.n.g with confidence.
“Well, if we escape here and went home, then we would really be the aggressors. We have to keep that in check.” Soyon expresses her agreement with Ron.
For Roswald, if they preemptively strike here and defeat the enemy who came for defense, wouldn’t it become an unnecessarily big problem? Though he thought that, since both Ron and Soyon both thought it was fine so he gave his agreement.
Furthermore, since they did went and save the villagers then they also have the responsibility to see it through.
“Then should we go with that and win? We only have a small force though……” (Ron)
“It would be fine if we just use the cavalry, right?” Roswald suggests.
If they utilized the cavalry’s mobility, then it should be possible to flank the hoplites.
However…
“While it’s true that the weak point of the hoplite is the flank, …if we went with that then could we match them in numbers?
Because hoplites have unusually long spears, they have difficulty in changing course.
Under those circ.u.mstances, they should probably be annihilated if the cavalry with the same number strikes them at the flank.
However, Ron and company only have 60 cavalry while the enemy numbered around 300. With that difference, there’s a high possibility of having the tables turned on them.
They might win if they strike the enemy at the rear and not the flank without having to match them in numbers, but…
That would be impossible without the element of surprise.
“Hey, I thought of something. Can I say it?” Soyon proposes a plan.
After hearing it, Ron and Roswald both declare:
“’That’s it!!!’”