Chapter 453: Single Punch
The uncle was dragging things out way too long, so I smacked him across the face. The sudden blow sent him sprawling. His startled guards drew their swords, and my angry men stepped forward.
"Drop your swords!"
"How dare you! Do you know whose presence you’re in?"
Shing! Clang, clang!
"Aaargh!"
The guards trying to save the uncle were subdued in an instant. The baron was my prisoner, and they were drawing their swords? These men weren’t the baron’s soldiers but private soldiers who took orders only from the uncle.
"Can’t you see the prince who has taken Landschaft?"
"What on earth are you doing? Since when is it acceptable to strike a nobleman who has surrendered?"
This so-called uncle seemed to be seriously confused about something. With thick killing intent, I thrust my halberd right under his nose. Only then did the baron’s uncle realize he’d messed with the wrong person.
No matter how much of a scumbag someone is, you don’t disrespect the head of the family.
It’s an act that defiles the order of the noble world.
"The one who surrendered to me is Baron Landschaft, head of the Grossent family. Who does a mere cadet-branch member think he is, spouting such nonsense before a prince and the head of his own family? You’re nothing more than a member of a surrendered house."
"P-please forgive me! I overstepped my place!"
"Good. If you know your place, don’t ever step out of line again."
What a pathetic little creep, getting on my nerves like that. I put him in his place with ease and was about to enter the lord’s castle when Baron Landschaft burst into roaring laughter at the sight of his uncle. It was an incredibly hearty laugh.
"I’ve never felt this satisfied in my entire life. The man they called the real power in Landschaft, who enjoyed every kind of wealth and luxury, can’t even move after a single punch! Baron Rosenheim, I have a favor to ask! If you grant it, I’ll give you everything I have."
What he asked of me was to drag his uncle’s whore out into the plaza and humiliate her. As it turned out, the baron had originally had a fiancée, but his uncle had unilaterally broken off the engagement and forced him to marry the woman who was now his wife.
And Baron Landschaft called that wife his uncle’s whore. Their family drama was every bit as messed up as that of the Hagenhausen lord’s household, so I ended up unintentionally sorting out the Grossent family’s domestic problems.
When she was dragged out, the baron’s wife insisted she was innocent, but the Manager Scouter showed her state of mind as deceit and indignation, which told me her husband was telling the truth. Tsk, tsk, tsk, what kind of dysfunctional mess is this?
In other words, the massive scandal between the uncle and the wife had blown up right in front of the townspeople. My men were hardly fazed by it, but Ted, who’d never seen such a train wreck before, stood there with his jaw on the floor.
"Throw that so-called uncle, who committed such outrageous acts against the head of the Grossent family, into prison along with his entire faction. As a fellow lord, I cannot tolerate their wickedness."
"Thank you for granting my request."
Baron Landschaft seemed very pleased with the measures I took. Not only the uncle but all of his supporters were crushed in one fell swoop. Besides, I’d gotten intel that they had amassed a great deal of wealth.
Once everything was completely settled, the baron led me deep inside the lord’s castle and showed me a chest full of gold coins. The head butler looked like he was about to lose his mind over the unfairness of it all, but the baron was grinning from ear to ear.
"I’ll give you all the money in this chest."
"No need. I’ll take half."
"It’s my way of thanking you for granting my favor. Take it."
"Sorry, but I only ever take exactly half."
Watching a plunderer insist on taking only half while the victim smiled and told him to take it all, the head butler seemed completely lost as to what on earth was going on. I stuck to my principle and had no intention of changing it.
"You must be the only lord who’d turn down something being handed to him."
"I’ll take only half of your people’s property as well."
"That’s none of my business. Do as you please."
Apparently his relationship with his people was pretty rotten too, because Baron Landschaft actually egged me on, saying I was free to plunder them as brutally as I liked. This twisted, broken man held a grudge against Landschaft itself.
Because of his uncle’s influence, even his own people had looked down on him. So he’d tried to prove his worth in this battle, and it had blown up in his face. No, with his uncle’s faction ruined, maybe it was a blessing in disguise.
Anyway, the plundering wrapped up without a hitch.
On the way to Birsfelden, we spotted mercenaries raiding a village there too. Naturally, we went over and crushed them. All the loot they’d been carrying fell into our hands.
So whenever my men went out scouting, they searched high and low for bands of deserters, eyes blazing. And they came across just as many destroyed hamlets. Handendorf, who ruled this land, was in agony.
Baron Landschaft mocked him.
"This is what we get for the Lightning Knight’s beloved great liege inviting Baron Rosenheim into this land."
"..."
Handendorf kept his mouth shut even in the face of the baron’s mockery. If even he, one of the Count of Basel’s core supporters, broke away, the Count of Basel’s influence would be confined to Basel alone.
That was exactly what I wanted. And that change of heart finally got Handendorf, who had refused to hand over any information on the Count of Basel, to open his mouth.
"Sir Handendorf, isn’t it about time you told me? Where did those 2,000 troops come from?"
"...Most of them were mercenaries who came over from Zurich."
"Hmm, just as I figured. Do you happen to know anything about the Count of Basel’s grand strategy?"
"I don’t know the details, but the key was to lure you into a trap, Baron."
"Do you know why he wanted to trap me?"
"..."
It seemed he didn’t know anything beyond that. Well, the count had staked everything on this top-secret strategy, so he wouldn’t have told even his own vassals. Had he been worried it would leak? That distrust was what ended up isolating the Count of Basel.
Baron Landschaft sneered again.
"Some loyal vassal you are, and you don’t know a thing."
"Baron Landschaft, that’s enough."
When I warned him, he clicked his tongue and turned away. Handendorf was utterly devastated. He had seen far too many bodies of his people, killed by what looked like mercenaries or bandits.
His people had suffered more at the hands of the mercenaries he’d brought in than at the hands of the invading army. Could anything be more ironic? And while I took my sweet time moving through his lands, the Count of Basel didn’t show so much as his face.
So Handendorf was pretty disappointed in the Count of Basel too. Even so, the reason he hadn’t turned his back on the count completely was that the Brist family was the rightful ruler of Basel.
With a justice (good) disposition, betrayal was probably unthinkable for him.
I didn’t expect much from him either.
"My lord, it’s a reconnaissance unit."
"Well, now they’ll know we’re coming."
Birsfelden’s reconnaissance unit confirmed our position and fled in a hurry. Barosi and Herto gave chase, but they couldn’t easily catch men who knew the terrain that well.
"Their reconnaissance unit is pretty good."
"..."
The closer we got to Birsfelden, the gloomier Handendorf became. He no longer reacted at all to Baron Landschaft’s taunts. His eyes were filled with nothing but worry for his domain.
As the bells rang out, the garrison came out to meet us in perfect order.
I approached the castle gate with Handendorf.
"My lord! You’re alive! It’s by the grace of the Lord!"
The exhausted soldiers cheered wildly once they saw their lord was alive. No one had known whether he was dead or alive since the Battle of Basel, so their joy seemed twice as great. When Handendorf raised his hand, the cheering stopped.
"I have become Baron Rosenheim’s prisoner. So..."
It went dead silent.
Handendorf squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.
"Open the gate!"
This was the moment even Birsfelden knelt before me. With this, I had managed to plunder four of Basel’s five major domains. All that remained was Basel itself, held by the Brist family.
I was looking forward to the peace negotiations with the Count of Basel.