It's a pain in the ass I can't wait to get home.
　Don't say that. It's my job.
　Yeah, yeah. Gotta get the job done.

　Ron, Rosward, and Sojourn were guarding the territory's border with Dibel territory.

　The guards consisted of sixty cavalry and a hundred infantry.
　That's a decent size.

　There is a reason why they are mobilizing such a large number of guards.
　It's the treaty with Rigal Dibel.

　In the future, if there are any fugitives, you are to reinforce your own security so that you can catch them in your territory.

　In other words, he said outright that he would let it go this time, but that he would not allow it in the future.
　Almus does not intend to antagonize the Dibel family in any way at the moment.

　That's why he agreed to that condition and let them take charge of the security.

　'Captain!　There's a clash between a group of refugee-looking people and soldiers from the Dibel territory in that direction!
　Okay. Let's head out.

　Ron and the others gathered their thinly scattered soldiers and headed to the scene.



　The clear boundary that separates the As territory from the Dibel territory is a river.
　The river is as deep as an adult's waist, even at the deepest point.
　Roughly speaking, the east side of the river is the Ass territory and the west side is the Dibel territory.

　Ron and the others informed the refugees as soon as they arrived.
　''It is forbidden by law for territorial residents to move around without permission. Return to the Dibel territory in a docile manner!''

　When Ron and the others threw out their voices, the refugees stopped resisting as their shoulders slumped.
　If they straddled the territorial boundary, the Dibel soldiers couldn't come after them.

　But it would be a different story if the As soldiers who were cooperating with the Dibel soldiers were waiting for them.
　The failure of their escape was confirmed.

　Originally, they had escaped after hearing rumors that there were those who had succeeded in escaping to the As territory.
　The lord of the As territory would accept the fugitives.

　Hence the shock was so great that they were captured by the Dibel soldiers without any resistance.

　Normally, they would have brought them back without incident and that would be the end of it.
　But this time it was different.



　''Hey, what are those guys doing!
　Rosward shouted.

　The dibel soldiers began to kill the fugitives in front of Rosward and his men.
　And it wasn't just by cutting off their heads, either.

　They beat them, kicked them, broke their bones, hurt them a lot, and then killed them.
　It was as if Rosward and the others were watching.

　'Hey!　That's a child!
　The Dibel soldiers began to kill the children without mercy, too.
　Little by little, they cut off the flesh and their screams entered Ron's ears.

　''It's ... terrible.''
　A woman is gang-raped in front of me.
　She is strangled, her eyes are plucked out for fun, and she is raped like a toy....
　So-yeon involuntarily buries her face in Ron's chest.

　But even if she buries her face, the screams enter her ears.
　No matter how much they cover their ears, the screams invade through the cracks.

　But they can't do anything about it.
　Because this is what is being done on the other side of the Dibel territory.

　The Ath soldiers have no authority to blame them for it.
　If Almus was here, that might have been a different story, but........

　Rosward bites her lip involuntarily.
　There's nothing I can do about it.

　It's just hard to stay here forever.
　That's when he decided that and was about to leave.

　'Help!'
　A little girl's scream is heard.
　Rosward can't help but look back.

　The little girl is being teamed up with several men.
　Her age is about five years old - she probably hasn't even had her first menstrual period.

　Naturally, Rosward's hands were moving.
　A spear was released from Rosward's hand and pierced the heart of the man he was about to rape now that it had passed.

　With that, the As soldiers pounced on the dibel soldiers one by one, rescuing the refugees.






　'You fell for it.
　That's Vermette!
　Rigal is in a good mood.

　The bottom line is that it's not a good idea to take it away by force of arms if you're the first to get your hands on it.
　It's inevitable that they will get their hands on it and send out an army to defend it.

　After this, we defeated the enemy's guards and marched on.
　After securing the rock salt mines, he made peace with Almus As, who would send messengers in a hurry.

　Then, in exchange for not questioning the matter of the first strike, he cedes the possession of the rock salt mine to us.
　Belmet's prediction is that we can certainly take a third of the mines.

　It would be impossible to take all the mines.
　The rock salt mines are enormously profitable.


　There's a big problem with this plan, though.
　The rumors of the massacre of the fugitives would be spread.
　No matter how many fugitives they are, they will be blamed for the massacre.

　So what should we do?
　It doesn't matter if you are a sinner who is willing to kill.

　There are several villages in the Dibel territory that have been delinquent in paying taxes for years. In the Dibel territory, non-payment of taxes over the years is a death penalty.

　However, killing them doesn't turn the corpse into gold coins.
　It's customary to be forgiven, as if it can't be helped since what's not there won't come out.

　We'll lend them next year's seed chaff so they can pay their taxes next year.

　But this time we decided not to allow it.
　Then we will transfer them to a prison we built near As territory with the people who committed murder and robbery and their families.

　In the jail, he would make them listen to the soldiers' futile stories in the form of watchful soldiers after they had threatened to execute them or execute them.
　If you escape to Ass territory, you'll be safe.

　Then, by chance (...) the watchman will have a drink and forget to lock the door.
　This completes the operation.

　In short, he only killed the guilty person because he tried to escape. What's wrong with that?


　As for Vermette, he wants to stop that heavy taxation but Rigal's relatives are getting in the way of that.

　It's because if they cut taxes, they'll make less money for themselves.
　I would like to keep my relatives away somehow but Rigal values his relatives so much that it won't work.

　''Then I'll go kick the shit out of them. Lady Vermette will have to wait for a good report.
　Gilbert, the first of those troublesome relatives, said.

　He has a strong arm, and is an excellent person to lead a unit of a hundred men.
　Well, to put it another way, I can't say I'm suited to lead an army larger than that.

　However, it's better than other relatives who have the guts to go to the battlefield with their own feet and try to defeat the enemy. As far as the rest of us are concerned, they don't do any work, they just play and live.

　''Make sure you win. If you fail, you're in big trouble.''
　This time Gilberto had three hundred and twenty soldiers under his command.
　On the other hand, the enemy is about one hundred to two hundred.

　If we lose with this, besides the oppressor, the ugliness of weak soldiers will be created.
　Actually, I wanted to prepare a larger army, but if I brought too many soldiers, it wouldn't be an accidental military conflict.
　This is the limit.

　Huh, this much is enough. I've heard that the enemy general is less than twenty years old. I've been through the battlefield many times, so there's no way they can beat me.
　Be careful. The enemy is the same men who defeated King Ferrum.
　Are you being too attentive?　Lord Vermette!

　Gilbert laughed outright.





　'How do you take responsibility?　Roseword.
　Hey, don't put the blame on me. You've done it before!

　Roseward and Ron were pushing the blame game.
　Ron's claim is bad because Rosward did it first.
　Rosward's claim is bad because Ron joined in afterwards, and so is Ron.

　Nevertheless, the blame game only made things worse.

　TEI!
　Ouch!

　So-young hits them on the head with her cane, and they stare down.

　'What you've done can't be helped, right?　In the meantime, let's get these people to a safe place... and then...

　It is a good argument.

　Luckily, there is a decent sized mountain a kilometer away from here and a small village there.
　It's within sight from here, so we can walk to it.

　This postpones the refugee problem for now.
　Next up....

　'In the meantime, all the Dibel soldiers have been captured or killed, so I'm sure the information isn't getting through...'
　Ron and the others had a firm view of the Dibel army.

　There were roughly two to three hundred in number.
　At least, it was far more than Ron and his team.

　''How many troops do we have?''
　Ron asks Rosward and Sojourn.

　'Sixty more cavalry to cover a large territory. The infantry is one hundred. Of which there are ten archers.'
　There are also four explosive spears. Mr. Almus told me to take them as a good luck charm, just in case.

　That's an intimidating force to take on an opponent of about 300 men.

　"Run?
　If you run, there'll be no point in saving those people. Besides, the village behind you is in danger. Besides...

　Ron cuts off his words once and then looks at his enemy.

　'Negotiations are more advantageous when you win the battle, right?　If we win this one, we can overturn it, right?
　Really?　What's that, it seems to me, is fundamentally wrong?
　Rosward looks at Ron with quizzical eyes.
　But Ron is full of himself.

　It's true that if we run back, we'll be invaded. We've got to stop them.
　Sojung agreed with Ron.

　Wouldn't Rosward have an extra problem if we attacked first and smashed the opponent who came to its defense?　I thought, but since Ron and Seo-yeon looked okay, I decided to agree with them.

　Besides, I saved them once, so it's the responsibility of those I saved to protect them until the end.

　'So that's how you win?　We're the ones with fewer men, but...
　Why don't we just use the cavalry?

　Rosward suggests.
　With the mobility of the cavalry, it is quite possible to flank the heavy infantry.

　But.........

　It's true that heavy infantry has a weakness on the flanks, but... well, I can handle some of that if I want to, you know?
　The heavily armed infantry have very long spears, making it difficult to change direction.
　If the same number of cavalry hit the flanks in that situation, the heavy infantry would be destroyed.

　But Ron and his cavalry were sixty and the enemy was three hundred.
　With a difference of that much, there was a high chance that they would be returned.

　If they attacked from behind instead of from the flanks, and in a situation where the other side couldn't handle it at all, they might be able to win, but.......
　That's impossible unless you have an ambush army.

　"Hey, I've got a few ideas, okay?
　Sojourn proposes a plan.

　Hearing this, Ron and Rosward said.

　''That's it!''