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Chapter 495: Deserters

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Each era has their own unique mark, which was an objective truth. In the feudal middle ages, antagonizing the bourgeois revolution was the same as seeking death. If everyone advocated for the equality of socialism, that would be asking for death.

But in Eich, the society was so deeply rooted in feudalism mainly because of the cruel natural environment. Weaklings needed to depend on strong fighters to survive.

Vicious and violent magical beasts roamed everywhere outside. Humans had always been living within this cruel natural cycle. Those who lived outside in the wild meant they were putting themselves right into the food chain. And under most circumstances, normal humans could only become food.

A pack of ordinary wild wolves could devour an entire family of six, and large wolf packs most probably couldn’t go up against a single winterwolf magical beast. Packs of winterwolves were nothing more than frost giants’ pets. When the harsh winter approached, white dragons especially favored hunting frost giants as frost giants tended to store abundant amounts of food and had warm caves. While doing so, the white dragons would also use the frozen humans there as backup food sources.

Of course, societal realities would change. Sometimes, changes were for the better; other times, they’d be for the worse. Although there were limits to one’s power, some people could change the world one bit at a time.

Did that sound contradictory? In my original world were the discoveries and inventions of Darwin, Bruno and other “scientists”. Didn’t they also declare the end of an era of ignorance with their discoveries? And in this world, the birth of magical engineering, elemental users, and the ease at which one could use the power of Law was also reducing the difference between the strong and the weak. In another sense, ever since the holy light’s authority began to fall, this also meant that the days of the divine rights of kings were about to end.

Alright. Someone could most probably have known that all these changes had something to do with a certain someone. He had indeed played a difficult game of chess.

“There were some things that could only be done and not said. When it’s time, the ones who should come will come, but if there’s not enough time, then the idiot who cried, ‘Come. All the crowns are about to fall upon the mortal realm’ will only be crushed by the wheels of history.”

All this time, a certain someone talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk. He knew that there were some things in which all he could do was go with the flow. For all his life, he never planned to incite others and become the sworn enemy of all the rulers. After all, that would be practically the same as committing suicide in this era of feudal kings.

This certain person only hoped to scatter some seeds. That way, after his body died, that endlessly soaring power of production and social trends would improve the world a little more.

But at least now, there was nothing to brag about the world’s changes as usual. The troubles that existed still didn’t lessen one bit.

“Bandits? Why would there be banditry in this season? This is a government road.”

I’m afraid that the people who were most shocked by this news came from the Northern Trio.

“...Perhaps it’d be better if I reworded things. I heard the news from the Marquis Stanley’s rebel army just a few days ago. They’ve started fighting again.”

Old Barton, who used to be a mercenary in the past, was now the boss of the bar. Of course he would know about news like this.

“A rebellion at a time like this? We’re in the middle of a holy war! This’ll drag down the whole human race’s war of justice.”

Mary, a newcomer to Sala Dukedom, was really stunned, but from what she said, it seemed like she most probably only knew what she read from the data.

“They say that the Marquis is a devil disciple. His banner is an evil snake head swallowing a skull. The leaders of the Holy Church declared him a heretic a long time ago, but they didn’t have the spare forces to crusade against an enemy so far away.”

The gargoyles’ field of sight far surpassed the scope of normal scouts. By collecting a short report summary, I received some updated news that made me feel rather helpless. After I shared the information with the others, there were endless disagreements and discussions in the horse carriage.

“This time, did a devil meddle? This devil can’t possibly be one of our allies.”

This kind of thing happened many times this year. Humans weren’t very strong creatures; especially those lazy nobles who had higher status’ because of their bloodlines. There were quite a few of them who wanted to be immortal, wanted to obtain even more power, and wanted to achieve higher ranks. “Devil’s allure” and “evil demon’s muttering” were merely analogies in the past, but now, they were actual threats.

Invaders from other planes needed a stronghold, sacrificial items, and enough souls; especially after the ruler of the lower plane’s abyss disappeared, quite a few major lords fell in love with this extremely rare festival of no restrictions whatsoever. Evil demon worshippers and dark disciples were at least over a hundred times more active than they were ten years ago, and with the youth and power gained by offerings, even more “people” walked down this so-called shortcut of no return.

Not long ago, Marquis Stanley, one of the strongest nobles of Sala Dukedom, raised his banner in betrayal. It didn’t matter if there really was a demon behind it all or if it was merely to scare his own cowardly underlings to work for them, as he drew a devil’s mark upon his own banner. He obviously didn’t see himself as an ordinary human or Sala’s subject anymore.

Naturally, the kingdom sent the eldest prince and his crusading army. Several important royals gathered and fought against Marquis Stanley. I think this all happened last winter. Both parties fought in about a dozen small-scale battles but never came to an eventual conclusion with a victor.

This originally didn’t have much to do with us. Afterall the main battles were in the major domain lords’ territories, which were quite some distance away from us. Also, as long as there was war, there would definitely be defeated troops and deserters. These defeated troops and deserters were actually more dangerous than even regular bandits.

If these defeated troops and deserters ran back to their hometowns, the most likely result would be getting hung for treason. If they were traitorous deserters, then they would also have several bounties on their heads, so they didn’t even dare go to normal cities.

This group of ex-soldiers also needed to eat. Upon facing the pressure to survive, they who were desperate and had no other options had no bottom line at all, so they figured that best and only way to survive was to become bandits and rob passing traders.

Under normal circumstances, as long the internal war was over, the winner would then have the strength and time to start hunting down the deserters turned bandits. However, the internal war had went on for over half a year now without any signs of them coming to a conclusion any time soon.

The scale of the fight wasn’t considerably big, as there were no more than ten thousand people participating. I was accustomed to such epic fights before me that this could only be considered a small dispute. Even so, this small dispute was enough to generate several hundred to even several thousand deserters. Also, a group of bandits made of a dozen soldiers gone rogue would be more than enough to bring tragedy upon any small merchant group or village.

Perhaps, this was a tragedy born in this era; a tragedy which belonged to the mortals.

“They had dozens of ordinary people, who must’ve been captives. There were quite a few of them injured too. Are there any villages nearby?”

“...On the map, there’s a village called Lanty. There’ll probably be just a hundred residents at most. A few dozen ex-soldiers would definitely be able to take it easily.”

“What about the local lord? Does he not send out armed forces to eliminate the soldiers turned bandits?”

“It looks like he’s a newly appointed, second generation knight who earned his title by donating money. He only has a few dozen guards, so he may not react in time. Even if he did, he may not be able to even defeat the bandits. Looks like, there’s a local among the bandits.”

As a local professional mercenary who has been in the business for almost thirty years, the almost-Legend Winston knew a thing or two about the lordship situation of the surrounding area. Afterall, the local domain lords were the most common employers of “mighty” mercenaries like himself..

Protecting the safety of one’s land was every lord’s mission. It would practically be a declaration of war for other lords to do it in their stead. If they lacked in strength and needed to come forward in a fight, it was simply inevitable for them to hire some trustworthy mercenaries.

And if it weren’t for having already accepted this mission, Winston who was a rather righteous type would have already run over to this new lord to recommend himself for taking this task. Winston would have then led his brothers-in-arms to eliminate these deserters-turned-bandits that were terrorizing the villages.

I nodded, as Winston’s judgement made perfect sense. Those deserters weren’t stupid. It was easier to pick on the weak, so the deserters settled down in the territory of the single weakest domain lord in Sala Dukedom. It was highly likely that there was a local among the deserters to know about the local domain lord’s weakness.

I asked the gargoyles to take a long and broad look in the direction of Lanty Village. They could indeed vaguely see the glow of fire and black smoke. It looks like bandits had just raided the village and were still on the road back to their base.

The bandits were now lying low on our path to the peak of the mountain, waiting to ambush us. It was likely that they saw our horse carriage from a high vantage point and must have thought to get one step ahead of us.

The white horses and the luxurious carriage were practically signs of royalty. Those warriors that didn’t march in formation and had scrappy equipment were obviously hired troops, which altogether, looked like a big piece of high quality fatty meat.

“I’ll go and quickly resolve the situation so we can get on the road. I just happen to be lacking some skeleton soldiers and zombies. Since they’re ex-soldiers, they probably won’t disappoint me once they’re undead.”