Free Web NovelChapter 235: Hatred Unchecked
I spent most of my time training with this new weapon, the halberd. Viktor and Fiel’s conditions had improved a lot, but it looked like they wouldn’t be able to return for a while. Fortunately, Anton was back.
The cavalry I led was finally down to 235 riders. The fact that over 300 had been reduced this far proved just how fierce the last battle had been.
Thankfully, the Gale Knights suffered no fatalities. freewёbnoνel.com
There were a lot of wounded, but that was a hundred times better than losing them. Setting aside those assigned to the reserves and stationed in Feuzen, only 22 of the 55 men I’d brought along remained. I took what comfort I could in still being able to operate two squads.
The Essenbach dragoons, who’d taken the most casualties, were as lively as ever. Befitting a group that had lived lives most intimate with death, rather than grieving their comrades’ deaths, they reveled cheerfully in the spoils their comrades had left behind.
That’s the mercenary way.
A few days later, Basel, which had surrendered, became the encampment of the Western Lords’ Army and a base for subjugating the remnants of the southern rebels. They said most of the supplies were seized, and in some areas plundering was permitted.
The crown prince had opposed the plundering, but he’d ended up allowing it as the lords pushed it through. He was probably tormented by guilt right about now, thinking of Lily. In any case, our side had taken control of the southern front.
And then Fried summoned me.
"I hear you’ve been training with a halberd lately. You must be quite bored."
"Please think of it as me striving to grow stronger."
"Haha, was the Executioner of Zurse that strong?"
He could say that because he hadn’t witnessed the man’s martial prowess firsthand. If he’d seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have spoken so lightly. Anyway, why had he suddenly summoned me at this late hour?
"Of all the knights I know, you were the strongest. If that Swiss mercenary can hold his own against someone like you, it might not be a bad idea to draw him into Euz."
"Hold his own? Who said that?"
"Hm? That’s what I heard. Was it not so?"
It seemed someone had spread a false rumor, probably because they didn’t want to admit that one of Beren’s foremost knights had been badly pushed back by a Swiss mercenary. What bastard is putting me to shame?
"Well, that’s not important, so let’s talk about it another time. Didn’t I grant you and Sir Bastern the plundering of three baronies the other day? Sorry, but I’ll have to change the plan."
Change the plan?
Fried said that over the past week he’d sent mercenary recruiters to the Duchy of Roden and Strasbourg. Upon hearing that he’d recruited mercenaries, my expression hardened instantly. It couldn’t be helped.
"Because if I leave it to you and the others, you’ll just plunder quietly and leave it at that."
"Is there really a need to wipe out their very foundations?"
"You know it too, don’t you? That my resentment runs very deep."
As he ground his teeth, I could read the deep hatred and madness in Fried’s eyes. The rivalry between Fried and the Euz nobles, they said, stemmed from a competitiveness dating back to childhood.
With Ingrid of the Glesia family as the catalyst, the relationship had spiraled to its worst, and in a situation where civil war could break out at any moment, the Euz nobles had drawn in foreign powers to attack Fried.
"When I stood on the battlefield at Meriant Plain with levies who were nothing but numbers to fill the ranks, that was the greatest nightmare of my life. General Bertrand and you and the others were there, but I still couldn’t stop trembling in fear."
"In the end, didn’t we win?"
"Yes, we won, so I was able to humiliate the Count of Basel. But at the same time, rage welled up in me. The reason I went through all that suffering was, in the end, because those bastards betrayed me."
And then Fried bitterly aired his grievances against Count Euz. He said that despite claiming it was for the peace of Euz, standing by while the heir and the Euz nobles clashed had ultimately only served to breed resentment.
"With the indemnity as collateral, I ended up in considerable debt to the Medici Bank. Damn Italian!"
"You used that money to hire mercenaries from the north? Did you really have to go that far..."
"I only paid half the hiring fee. For the rest, I made a contract for local procurement."
Seeing Fried grin made my head spin.
Local procurement for the mercenaries? Fried intended not only to devastate that whole region but to strip it to the bone so it could never recover. To the point where leaving it to Benjamin and me would have been merciful.
"It’s strange for me to be saying this, but is there no chance you’ll reconsider?"
"None. You may not like it, but I have to do it. Plundering alone won’t satisfy me."
Fried was utterly resolute.
So I couldn’t dissuade him any further.
Burning down an entire region just because you’d built up resentment with the noble who ruled it was impossible to understand from a modern perspective, but unfortunately, this was the standard medieval view.
Identifying a region with its family.
The expression "innocent subjects" carries no weight with a noble.
"I’ve thought this for a while, but you really are remarkably unlike a noble. This time I realized it for certain. That in the end, when it’s time to crush an opponent, you have to crush them thoroughly."
"Baron Valent and Baron Hildrant have already been taken prisoner."
"But they haven’t signed surrender documents, have they? Did Baron Valent say he’d surrender?"
Since there was no telling how the Basel–Euz battle would turn out, I hadn’t broached the subject at all. Baron Hildrant had been beaten viciously by Fried and was too busy nursing his wounds to do much.
Unlike with the Count of Basel, Fried hadn’t extracted a surrender from them.
It was so very different from the Fried I knew.
His disposition, as I remembered it, was originally honesty (neutral). That disposition hadn’t changed yet, but if things continued like this, there would surely be a great change within him.
Had this civil war affected him so profoundly?
"The affairs of Euz can be decided by the Euznirk family, but that’s something only Count Euz can do, strictly speaking. Lord Fried, you are in the position of heir, so I worry you’re overstepping your authority."
"Don’t worry. Father will understand it all. He might even say I did well."
Well, the Count Euz I know would be aghast, I think.
Fried had informed me unilaterally, and I had no grounds to object.
This is a real disaster.
It wasn’t the plundering and slaughter of three baronies that was the problem. What deeply worried me was that he would one day become the ruler of Euz. We were on friendly terms now, but what if this incident tipped him toward evil?
Someday Feuzen and Euz might clash.
No, some kind of conflict would surely arise. My worries grew deeper and deeper.
I secretly sent a letter to Count Euz. It was a last resort to stop Fried from running wild. Since Fried was still in the heir’s position, he had to obey if Count Euz commanded it.
This might fracture the relationship, but if he kept charging ahead with his hatred unchecked, our relationship was doomed to fracture someday regardless. So wouldn’t stopping it beforehand be the wiser course?
"This is a real disaster. I tried to prevent the slaughter of Valent and Hildrant, leaving Boeven aside, but the heir of Euz clearly anticipated it and hired mercenaries in droves."
"No. His resentment simply runs that deep. He means to step in himself."
"Unfortunately, we have no grounds to prevent this tragedy."
Benjamin found it deeply regrettable. So did I, but the fate of Euz could only be decided by the Euznirk family. Just as I could decide the fate of Feuzen.
Fried hired a Swiss mercenary company too. Originally it was an unwritten rule that Swiss mercenary companies weren’t rehired, on grounds of credibility, but the state council bureaucrat assigned to the company forced the contract through.
The reason was that the tribute the state council had set couldn’t be met with a single battle’s earnings. Of course, at the very least, they inserted a clause that the Swiss mercenaries wouldn’t fight fellow Swiss mercenaries, such as those in the Count of Basel’s army.
"Commander, is the state council more terrifying than the Swiss mercenary company?"
"Because they hold the families hostage. In a way, they’re the more terrifying lot."
Watching the mercenary company comply obediently without a single act of defiance, Anton clicked his tongue. The Swiss were very brave, but their attachment to family and homeland was tremendous.
That’s probably why they’d ended up being used however the state council saw fit.
You could tell just from how even the perpetually grinning Gedel’s expression had darkened.
"It is our fate to obey the state council’s orders."
"A shame. If it were me, I wouldn’t treat you that way."
"But what can you do? We have to push on for the sake of our families."
"..."
"This fellow is actually grateful to the state council."
Watching the taciturn Leto nod, I came to understand that he viewed the state council quite favorably. When I asked Gedel for the details, he said that the state council had made it possible for Leto, who’d been an executioner, to become a mercenary.
In terms of social standing, a mercenary was far higher than an executioner. The Swiss state council, they said, didn’t care about your standing as long as you could fight well. That’s rather innovative.
Germany was excessively rigid, so much effort had to go into laundering the executioner Stock’s status into that of a doctor, an Arzt. And it remained the region where status-based discrimination was most severe.
The hastily gathered mercenaries numbered 500, and when combined with the Swiss mercenary company the total came to around 1,000. At that point Fried ordered the subjugation of the three baronies. There was still no reply from Count Euz.
Fortunately, a messenger arrived just before the troops marched out.
