17 – Bandit subjugation (3)

“So, who is the boss?”

Then the guy who looked like a boss answered in a creeping voice.

“It is me. Bocchan… please save me.”

It is disgusting to see women who seem weaker than the rest of us commit crimes like that, and crazy people ask for their lives.

No, no great One said, ‘The only people who are qualified to shoot are those who are prepared to be shot.’ You said that

It really annoys me that these crazy things lived as bandits without any resolution.

“That is decided by me. So, why did you start a bandit life?”

“We are… serfs who lived in a village next to Windheim ruled by the Baron of Heidenburg. He was a serf, but he was forced to pay too much tax, so he ran out. My wife and children were on the verge of starvation right away.”

I put down my anger for a moment and tried to make an expression that didn’t look angry.

Fortunately, that worked, the bandit commander looked at me with a desperate expression and said,

“So I settled here in the wild, because I thought I wouldn’t starve to death if I lived here. At first, I was able to live just fine, but I stopped… As I ran out of food, I had no choice but to become a bandit. They kidnapped serfs from surrounding villages and sold them to slave traders.”

Hearing that made me feel a little pity for these guys.

Because the way these guys ended up here because they were heavily taxed reminded me of Windheim back in the day when I picked up Ella.

Windheim is indeed a nice place to live for serfs now, but back then it was an uninhabitable hell.

Therefore, in order to survive in a neighborhood like this, the ant’s tears that he had no choice but to step into crime were convincing.

“……”

As I listened to this story without saying anything, hope began to appear on the faces of the other bandits.

Now that I’m personally listening to these guys, they seem to think that at least we won’t be killed.

But I had no intention of saving him from the beginning…

Then, while tied up, the bandit boss managed to hit me in the head hard enough to bleed in front of me.

Following this, all the bandits and the women who were thought to be members of the bandits’ families also hit their heads.

“Old man, no young boy. Please, save me just once… If you accept me as a serf, I will live faithfully…”

“Save me! This is all because of the Baron of Heidenburg. It’s true that we did something wrong, but I don’t think we committed a mortal sin.”

“If we die, what will our children and our wives do? I became a bandit to save my rabbit-like children… Please forgive me.”

Looking at these guys, only one thought ran through my head.

‘disgusting’

Seriously, these are disgusting things, I’d rather admit all of our crimes, so please just ask for the kids to be spared…

At least there was room for thought.

The children would have been brought by their parents, and they would not have joined the bandits, so it would be acceptable to increase the population.

But these wicked people, without thinking at all about the women and others they have hurt, shamelessly say with their mouths that they will live faithfully again.

These servants should not be left alive as lords, no, just as people.

“yes. I heard you well.”

After hearing that, the bandits seemed to think that they could live now, and their faces began to brighten.

To them, I said with a sneer.

“Helmut, Balt. All women presumed to be the bandit’s wives will be taken to the manor and prepared to beheaded, and the men will be executed with a wheelbarrow. As usual, it’s Balt’s job to do, but I’ll extend your contract, so can you help me?”

Helmut nodded quietly.

“Contain these guys in the basement of my mansion on the estate. If you don’t have energy, you might be less sick when you die, so give me something to eat. On the evening before the death penalty, feed yourself with the leftover meat and bread from the festival.”

“Yes, I understand. young master.”

**

After cleaning up the bandit fort and all the work, including the settlement of the loot, I held a festival for the mercenaries as promised.

At first glance, the loot was converted to 100 gold coins.

He paid a reasonable price to the peasants, bought pigs raised in the village, and ate and drank with the mercenaries…

The response of the mercenaries was much better than expected.

‘Usually, after completing a request like this, all we have to do is serve a small piece of meat for us to eat, but this lord invited the villagers to participate, so he gave us something to eat. Thanks to that, it was great that we, who were active in the war, were given a place to be praised by the villagers.”

Since I’ve been talking like this, maybe a few people will settle down after thinking about it seriously.

I can treat them to that extent if they become soldiers of this town, no, of Kreutel, which I will rule.

And at the same time, since I could not execute not one or two, but dozens of bandits with my authority, I sent a letter to the baron.

Unexpectedly, the reply came within a few days.

[The death penalty is acceptable, but behead all except the bandit leader. All of their children may be sold as slaves.]

It was a letter that could be written by a baron who cared for his serfs, unbecoming aristocrats of this era.

They say there is a desperate story, so I didn’t dare to ask for the punishment of breaking bones and internal organs by putting them on a cart wheel.

And finally I called the serfs to the town square and ordered the execution of the bandits.

**

The serfs were summoned to the outskirts of the village, and soon the bandits and their wives in shackles began to shout.

“Please save me!!”

“Bocchan, please… please save me!!”

“I don’t want to die!!”

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My ears hurt from the desperate screams, but I pretended not to hear and signaled the mercenaries to line them up and put them on the scaffold.

The serfs began to cheer as the bandits who had tried to harass them were on the scaffold.

“Kill!”

“That’s right, long live the lord!”

“Does anything less than that dog dare to kidnap women like that? You have to kill them all!”

After getting to the scaffold in order, the bandit leader, who had been sentenced to the long-awaited wheel sentence, came up to the scaffold.

As the bandit captain climbed to the scaffold, two mercenaries followed him with large maces.

cried the captain.

“Please save me, no, please just kill me comfortably!! young master!! Wrong!!”

Seeing the bandit leader shouting like that, the serfs in our territory, instead of taking pity on them, began to laugh openly, saying that those who die die well.

As the atmosphere matured to some extent, Balt, who was standing next to me, spoke.

“Bocchan, the time has come.”

I quietly opened my heavily closed mouth and spoke.

“Execution.”

With those words, the mercenaries raised their hammers high in order to execute the sentence of the bandit commander who was placed on the wheel first.

Then, with a ‘bang’ sound, he broke his foot.

Next, the calves, thighs, pelvis, waist, etc… gradually began to break the upper part of the body.

Every time I hammered like that, sometimes the bandit captain lost consciousness…

“Sprinkle with water.”

Every time I lost consciousness, I would douse myself with water to wake them up somehow and make them suffer more.

After hammering for about 10 minutes and breaking bones and organs, the bandit leader finally died.

Then, the bandit leader was lifted by the mercenaries on wheels and put into a pre-dug pit.

And the mercenaries who played the role of executioners, regardless of gender, struck the necks of the bandits who had gone up to the scaffold with axes.

With each ‘thump’, the bandit’s wife or bandit’s head fell, spattering blood almost to the end of the pit.

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Just like that, an hour of execution continued.

As soon as the execution was over, I was a little bit dizzy, maybe because I had seen too much blood.

Nonetheless, since he is the lord, I ordered the minimum clean-up and returned to my mansion.

“Put all their corpses into the pit, clean up as much blood as possible and throw it into the pit. Then sprinkle all the lime powder I bought. Then, after about four hours, cover it with soil so that wild dogs and other animals do not come in.”

…. I think I did my job, but I really feel like throwing up.

What was the spirit of the politicians of the past to stage such a massacre…

**

And several months have passed since the execution was carried out.

After that, no particularly conspicuous criminals appeared, and farming was really good.

Thanks to the use of farming tools I made in advance and the cattle and horses I bought, the yield of our manor nearly doubled compared to the previous year.

Thanks to this, whenever the serfs see me, they say, ‘Now, even if it’s not a festival, I’ll eat rye and wheat bread.’ It was about to say goodbye and go.

Previously, I could only eat like this on festival days in the year of good harvest, but now hearing that I can eat like a regular feast day made me feel really new.

At first glance, I heard the story of another Creutel’s territory, and because the harvest has increased by about 5 times, there is no warehouse to store the harvested food, so they are screaming for joy as they are making new ones.

The baron’s letter read:

[Because of the incredible yield, I didn’t even think of building a warehouse by mobilizing soldiers. No one will starve to death this year.]

As I was sitting in the office so happily, continuing to do the paperwork, Helmut came in and said:

“Bocchan, they say they have finally harvested the radish you said.”