Samuk County Mayor Freddle Bundle was brought in tucked up in a noose.

　Freedle is a man with a long beard.
　It is not a very clean beard. He is quite shaggy.
　His height is average.
　His build is muscular and he looks strong when he fights.

　According to the Clan, this man is not going to be on our side no matter what we do.

　Killing him could cause trouble, so he is likely to be kept alive for now.
　It's difficult to judge if he's escaped from jail or something like that, but that's a troublesome thing to do.

　This time I decided not to appraise it because the end seemed to be fixed.

''Well, Freddle I don't know if I need to ask you this, but are you interested in becoming my vassal?

　The Clan seems to ask in passing.

''If it's okay with me I'd like to share the battlefield with Master Clan.

　Fradele gave an unexpected response.
　The Clan also looks a little surprised.

　Not wanting to be seen to be too upset, the Clan quickly returned his expression but would be quite surprised on the inside.

　After that, Freddle explained the reasons why he wasn't actually getting along with his cousin, or that he had no end of questions about Basamark's methods, and so on.

　But I'm surprised, I didn't expect you to get on our side...

　No ... wait ...

　Right.

　As Pham had reported earlier, there was a trap set in that Samuk Castle.
　Perhaps Freddle doesn't know that the trap was disarmed by Pham's hands.

　It seems that he plans to go on and do a lot of things to lead the Clan into the castle, and then explode it into a dead man. He's prepared to throw away his own life as well.

　But unfortunately, the trap has already been lifted, so that plan will not be fulfilled.

I understand how you feel. From now on........''
Do you have a minute?

　I said, interrupting the Clan's statement.

'What?'
''These are the clandestine mercenaries I've hired, but I've heard that there were some ridiculously dangerous traps set up at Samuk Castle, and they've successfully disarmed them all.
What?

　When I said this, Freddle was astonished and exclaimed.

'So it's no use trying to lure Master Clan into the castle and make him a dead man.
I mean, that's ridiculous.

　When the Klan saw Freddle getting upset, they told me that I had to

Could you be more specific?

　I said.

　I explained the details of the trap and then Freddle's plan.

'Hmm. Judging from Freddle's appearance, he must have been right. I didn't know there was such a trap. We can't be too careful. We'll have to give your hired spy mercenaries a special reward.
G.....

　Fradell's face went pale at once.
　The castle was dropped in one night, but he thought that if he could set the Clan up with that trap, he could snowball that stigma to death.

''I guess that means everything I just said is bullshit, right?''
..........

　Fradell just glares at the Clan with a hateful look in his eyes.

　If I were to be directly confronted with such malice, I would be upset, but the Clan seems quite unconcerned.
　It's a good thing that he's been living in this politically unstable country called the Samaforce Empire for so many years.

I'm not going to be able to get rid of it. "Lock Freddle up in his cell and don't let him out no matter what.
Yes, sir.
"The other vassals, those who swear allegiance to me, I will appoint. Those who do not swear, Ars will appraise them as before, and those who are competent will be locked up and kept alive.

　Then all the vassals, except Freddle, were brought in one by one.
　Some tried to flee to Belzud, but many of the vassals were captured.
　It seems that not all of them were brought in, as some escaped and then some died in the battle.

　A few were ready to pledge allegiance to the Clan, but most of them rebelled.

　Moderately, Freddle seemed to be adored by his vassals.

'Then you'll have to do an appraisal.
Yes, sir.

　There are obviously more people than at Fort Wakmacro, so it's a pretty tough appraisal to do, with a lot of hard feelings.

　I finished appraising everyone.

　Again, no one was capable by an order of magnitude, but I found a powerful warlord with an average in the upper 70s and a martial prowess of 88.
　Besides that, there were seven others that he felt were too good to kill.

　After all, they were hard to find. Those who are a cut above the rest.
　It's just a fortuitous thing that I met Rietz and the others when I was a child.

　I'm going to tell you all about it.

　It has been decided that those who do not comply will be executed in due course.

　We were to rest our troops at Samuk Castle for a while, while we planned our next strategy.