Chapter 42: Seizing Calpion (1)
“This way, Young Master.”
“Alright.”
Under a cloudless, sunny sky, I walked along Calpion’s road, following Gadolph.
“Wow, they built these buildings well. Don’t you think so, Gadolph?”
“Ah, yes… I suppose so.”
When I asked in a slouched, dismissive tone with my arms crossed, Gadolph awkwardly nodded his head.
The ground was paved with neatly cut stones, and all around stood buildings of white brick and blue roofs, creating a rather picturesque scene.
It was quite a contrast to our own family’s lands, where wooden structures teemed with rats and spiders.
‘These bastards… They’ve been living quite well, haven’t they?’
Seeing this pathetic display made me feel… somehow…
My brow furrowed on its own, and my lips twisted involuntarily.
‘They were once vassals of the Daphne Ducal House, but now they’ve completely forgotten how we helped them, only caring about their own prosperity?’
Even if I conceded a hundred steps and let that go.
At the very least, they shouldn’t have stabbed us in the back.
‘They’ll be struck by the wrath of the heavens…’
I shook my head for no reason.
At that moment, Gadolph stared at me and asked.
“Why are you like this, Young Master? Your face… it looks frightening.”
“It’s nothing. Don’t mind it.”
I waved my hand dismissively as a simple reply.
‘Well, all’s well that ends well.’
We’d won this war and swallowed up Calpion’s estate whole.
Sure, there had been casualties, but we’d taken this estate that had twice the population.
In the old days, acquiring another scrap of land like this wouldn’t have felt like much of an accomplishment, but…
‘Honestly, for now, even this is something to be grateful for.’
No, to be honest, it was quite a significant achievement.
With this one result, we’d managed to grow more than double at once.
With this much, things would certainly be more manageable than before.
I smirked to myself, wondering how much further we had to walk.
“You… what’s wrong with you?”
I asked.
The entire way here, Gadolph had been glancing nervously around as if he’d seen a ghost.
“Th-that is… you never know what dangers could be lurking. Bandits, or perhaps thugs…”
“Bandits? In broad daylight?”
You coward, always so skittish.
I let out a heavy sigh.
‘Still, these people must have been living several times better than us—did he really think something like that would happen in the middle of the estate?’
…Or so I thought, when suddenly.
“Uuuuu…”
“I’m so hungry…”
From inside an alley came the sound of groaning voices.
I turned my head in that direction and saw homeless people crouched in the shadows.
Their faces were utterly drained, cheeks sunken, looking in terrible shape at a glance.
It was a scene in stark contrast to the clean, beautiful streets.
My eyes narrowed.
‘What the hell? Beggars…?’
But that wasn’t the only problem.
“G-give it here!”
“Don’t make me laugh, bastard! Why are you taking my food?!”
A group was even brawling over potatoes and bread.
‘Hmm…’
Well, I supposed such things could happen. They could indeed.
Hardin folded his arms and nodded.
Right after a war, scenes like this often appeared.
I’d heard that territorial wars in the first place consumed enormous amounts of food, money, and manpower, so it wasn’t unusual for vagrants to emerge and public sentiment to turn grim.
Well, our family in the past had been an exception.
Back then, the Daphne family had overwhelming wealth and strength to rely on…
‘And Eldest Brother was always perfect at postwar cleanup.’
This scene wouldn’t last long.
The men of our house wouldn’t be sitting on their hands, so things would be tidied up soon enough.
Yes, certainly.
Just as I was nodding to myself,
…
One of the men standing nearby slowly extended his arm toward my back pocket.
Crack!
“Aaaagh!”
When I grabbed his wrist and twisted it, he let out a pained scream, his face contorting.
“…You’re really trying to steal in broad daylight?”
“I-I’m sorry!”
As much as I wanted to smack him,
The way he was on the verge of tears, cheeks so hollow he looked like he’d die from a single tap…
“Huuuh… Get lost.”
“Y-yes!”
As I released his arm, the thief scurried away toward the end of the alley.
I scratched my head.
Something felt off…
‘Just by looking at my clothes, it’s obvious I’m a noble, yet he dared to steal so openly?’
You’d have to have nerves of steel to do that…
While I tilted my head in puzzlement,
“Hey, you bastard! I’ll kill you!”
“Th-thief!”
“Kyaaaah!”
Screams erupted again from the alley beyond.
A frown formed between my brows.
‘What the hell is wrong with this place?’
In the end, I turned to Gadolph and asked,
“Gadolph. Why is the atmosphere here such a mess?”
“If I explain, it gets a bit complicated…”
“I don’t care if it’s complicated. Tell me.”
“…That is…”
Just as Gadolph parted his lips,
Crash!
Suddenly, a shop window across the street shattered.
“R-robber!”
“Catch that bastard!”
A thug with a scar across his face burst out, clutching a huge loaf of bread, and charged straight toward me.
“Out of my way, you bastard!”
He held a dagger in one hand, eyes bloodshot like a rabid dog as he rushed forward.
I looked at him with an expressionless face, slowly straightening my posture and walking toward him.
…
“Young Master, it’s dangerous!”
Gadolph shouted urgently.
“Die!”
The thug thrust his dagger straight ahead.
“…What a life I lead.”
Whoosh!
I lightly deflected the dagger to the side.
Smack!
“Ghk!”
Then drove my fist into his jaw.
The thug’s body floated clean off the ground before crashing into the dirt, foam bubbling out of his mouth as he convulsed.
“In broad daylight, first a thief, now a robber… What the hell?”
I looked around, dumbfounded.
“Halt!”
From afar, a familiar face came running toward us.
A young knight with a broad, rugged face and a clean-cut bearing.
“Huh…? Oh, Y-Young Master?”
When he reached us, he looked back and forth between me and the fallen thug.
“…You’re the training instructor, aren’t you?”
“Ah, yes, that’s right! I’m Manton!”
Manton gave me an awkward salute.
There was a brief silence, then Manton glanced around nervously before asking,
“A-are you unharmed, sir?”
Then, I waved my hand dismissively and asked again.
“Enough of that—why the hell is this place such a mess?”
“…What do you mean, exactly?”
“It’s been three days since we occupied this territory, so why does the atmosphere still feel so tense? What have you been doing all this time instead of cleaning things up?”
When I lifted my gaze slightly, Manton looked back with eyes full of grievance as he replied.
“W-we are working on it.”
“You’re working on it, and it still looks like this?”
“Yes, but… there just isn’t enough manpower… It’s not easy.”
“Not enough manpower? How short are you?”
“T-the thing is… Most of the knights were severely injured, so the number of available men is…”
“Damn it, what are those bastards whining about—how badly could they have been hurt?”
When I spoke with clear displeasure, Manton hesitated, then carefully opened his mouth.
“Th-there are still knights clinging to life…”
“Ah… Is… Is that so?”
I awkwardly turned my eyes aside and scratched my cheek.
Standing next to me, Gadolph cleared his throat and spoke.
“I think that was a bit harsh, sir. They fought with their lives on the line…”
An uncomfortable look came over my face.
‘It’s not like I could’ve known that…’
Damn it, he could’ve said something sooner instead of making me feel like an ass.
My eyebrow twitched as I sighed and asked Manton again.
“Anyway, how many men are usable right now?”
“Counting Sir Mulgybson and myself, six.”
“Six? That’s all?”
“Yes, sir. We also have to leave at least a minimum garrison back at the main stronghold…”
For a moment, I was struck speechless.
‘…Right, our knight order was tiny as rat shit.’
Altogether, the knights only numbered thirteen. Subtracting the wounded and those assigned to guard the main keep… there were six left.
Trying to manage an estate twice as large as the main territory with just that many was bound to end in this shitshow.
It wasn’t even a matter of competence—physically, it was impossible.
I pressed my fingers against my aching forehead.
When I’d been Varlach, the knight order alone numbered in the hundreds, plus the standing army besides, so I’d never experienced anything like this.
More precisely, I’d never in my life felt what it was to lack manpower…
Swallowing back my bitter thoughts, I asked again.
“Then what about those Maw mercenary bastards? They’re all still healthy—what are they doing?”
“Well… Sir Mulgybson did assign them some tasks…”
“Tasks? What tasks?”
At that, Manton began tying up the fallen robber with rope as he spoke.
“Would you mind coming with me for a moment? I think it would be better for you to see it yourself rather than me trying to explain.”
What now? Damn it, you’re making it sound ominous…
Worry crept over my face.
---
A short while later, in front of the knight order’s building, located between the infirmary and the Calpion mansion.
Normally, this wide open space would have been used as the knights’ training ground, but now, wooden cages—like the kind you’d use to pen up animals—had been set out in neat rows.
The problem was what was inside them…
“Let me out! Let me ouuuuut!”
“Just kill me already! Aaaagh! Gyaaaah!”
It wasn’t beasts or livestock—but people.
At least fifty or sixty of them were jammed inside those cages, their eyes bloodshot, screaming in voices that were nearly shrieks.
And…
“Shut up, you bastards!”
“Then let us go already!”
“Beryl! Come help hold these bastards down!”
“No can do! I’m busy over here!”
Inside and outside the cages, the Maw mercenaries were swinging their clubs through the air, struggling desperately to keep these maniacs under control.
Some were trying to break out, others were smashing at the cages, still others were thrashing around, refusing to be locked up.
A pandemonium of every kind of scum mixed together.
“What the hell… is this chaos…”
My jaw dropped wide open at the sight.
In that instant, a conversation I’d once had with Eldest Brother suddenly resurfaced in my mind.
[Varlach, it’s important to win a war, but postwar cleanup is no less important.]
[Come on. Winning is what matters. How hard can cleaning up be… You’re exaggerating again, Brother, aren’t you?]
[There are countless houses that won battles but were ruined because they couldn’t manage what came after. That alone shows how difficult postwar cleanup really is.]
[Tsk… Fine, if you say so.]
Eldest Brother had often lectured me about the importance of handling things after the fighting was done.
At the time, it went in one ear and out the other.
I just thought he was exaggerating because he wasn’t the one on the battlefield himself.
Honestly, how could cleaning up be harder than the war itself?
But now, right in front of my eyes…
“Let me out! Let me ouuuut!”
“Stay still, you bastards!”
“Aaaagh! Aaaaaagh! Just kill me! Kill me!”
Hell had unfolded.
The Calpion lot were locked up in wooden cages, shrieking like monkeys.
Just watching it made my head throb and my brow crease.
I opened my mouth but couldn’t find any words to say, then squeezed my eyes shut.
‘Ah… Brother. I finally understand.’
So this was the future you saw when you spoke those words…
“Goddamn it all…”
I pressed my fingers against my forehead as hard as I could, massaging the ache.