67 – Pig Hunt (8)

It has been 200 years since His Majesty the Emperor of Elaine overthrew the corrupt Franchi’s Caffeine dynasty and received the title of ‘Countess of Nantes’ from Bremen von Nantes, the founder of our family who played a big role in it.

In the meantime, our family has fought honorable battles, boasting the dignity and prowess of countless counts of Nantes, leading valiant retainers.

And the great me, Schwein von Nantes, who inherited their blood, also rewrote the history of the Nantes family by dealing with a mad dog named Ciel von Creutel who did not listen to the owner’s orders.

That’s right, we captured the county of Hellsman, the Count of France, an old nemesis.

At this time, the knights around me and countless loyal… no, the vassals I thought were loyal were busy praising me.

“Hey, His Excellency is really amazing. You gave a chance to Ciel, who had negotiated peace without daring to ask His Excellency’s permission, and took over the castle without shedding a drop of blood!”

“That’s right! You may have made some mistakes in your first battle, but the results are everything! The Kreutel family’s nose must have risen, but it can’t be helped. I just need to give away enough territory and completely dampen the momentum!”

“It seems that the family of the Counts of Nantes has gained a reputation that surpasses that of the founder, His Excellency Bremen!! Sleep, Your Excellency. Let’s have a drink! This is the fine wine I plundered from other serf villages!”

So at that time I thought I could do anything.

In reality, all the barons and vassals listened to every word I said, and if I wanted to die, there were those who would rather die than pretend to die.

Also, in bed, as a hero, ‘my possessions that are as beautiful as flowers to be loved’ always wanted only my love and affection, and showed all sorts of charms.

But now, of course, there are no women who only sought my love, and the knights and vassals who had sworn to die for me had already run away.

Bad guys, to think Ciel’s chariot, which was made by weaving wooden planks together, bounced right away as soon as the charge was blocked…

With such thoughts in mind, I commanded the infantry and started a strategic retreat to return to Nantes.

If those guys who are left behind die for me, then they die well enough…

You’ll understand, but I’ll take good care of your families if I protect Nantes instead.

If, after death, I heard that my daughter became my concubine because of her pretty face, heaven would surely like it.

This would be enough to repay their loyalty.

When I got away from the knights to some extent, I heard the sound of our knights charging at the enemy with shouts.

“charge!! Charge!!”

“His Excellency Count of Nantes is watching us!!!”

“I’d rather die than surrender to the enemy!!”

With those words, my loyal knights, not knowing that I had already left the front line, were charging at the firm Ciel bastard’s spearmen.

Thank you for dying for me, you guys are precious too, but you will fall short compared to me…

But I must swear that I will repay you for that deserved sacrifice.

That is also the image of an ideal knight from chivalric literature, and I am a generous leader.

After that, I continued to ride to the foot soldiers.

I’m not sure, but there are bastards from knight families among the foot soldiers, and even though they’re half-assed, they’re nobles…

If you follow me and make an achievement in the war, and if I return safely, if you give them the right to live as knights and nobles, they will fight harder than the soldiers of Creutel.

Compared to Ciel Nome, who is only a baron, I am the head of a count family with a history that has been passed down for hundreds of years.

Half knights are honored to die for me, for serfs are, of course, cattle in human form.

Like cows and horses, of course, they will die for their owners. In the case of those guys, they will die if you release ‘barley’ just like giving more feed to cows and pigs.

**

True to the term two-legged cattle, the serfs were armed with farming implements such as pitchforks, hoes, long forks and flails, and wore only ripped and tattered clothes worn by ‘zacries’.

In particular, the serf right in front of me looks half-transparent because his chest and crotch are worn out… Ugh… It’s dirty.

In the first place, you won’t find discipline like knights in an army composed of serfs, but these guys don’t even know how to stand properly.

After all, they look like lowly peasants who only look like humans, but anyway, Deus also said ‘don’t regard the cows and horses that work for me as dirty.’

It would be right for me to show them a little more tolerance and dignity.

So I asked the serf in front of me while on horseback.

“So, Zachry, who is the greatest among you?”

Upon hearing this, the serf, whether he knew his subject or not, answered with a hunch over me, overwhelmed by the majesty of me wearing splendid armor.

“Sir, the highest among us is Georg, the leader of the 100. But how did you find it…”

You dared to vomit at my words as a serf subject, which would normally have been cut with a sword for dishonoring my honor…

As an aristocrat, I kicked the gauntlet in the shin to show the generosity of not killing him even though he dared to vomit at my words.

Then I felt the shinbone of the Zacri crush to powder at the tip of my foot, and the Zacri grabbed his leg and began to roll in front of me.

“aaah…”

When I showed my aristocratic arrogance, another serf got down on his knees next to the serf I kicked and slammed his head into the mud.

“Senior, that Zachry has committed a mortal sin. If you go inside here, you’ll find Chief Lincoln. He will know more.”

Of course, sometimes not, it’s really important not to lose your noble dignity even if you lose… The guy just before was also defeated by Kreutel’s army, which consisted of only soldiers, because my knights were incompetent.

If I show my great ability, I will be able to make the soldiers and knights follow me like now.

Thinking like that makes me feel good, so I looked at Zacri and laughed and said,

“My name is Schwein von Nantes, the legitimate lord of you lowly people. It is my natural duty to have summoned you here, but it is especially my grace! If you go back to Nantes Castle from here, I will give you barley!! Thank you for my mercy.”

Then I signaled to one of the Zacri beside me, got him to lie down next to my horse, and then stomped him and mounted himself.

When I, as a count, ride a horse, being stepped on is a natural behavior for a ‘serf’.

No, it must be the greatest luck for him to be able to reach me, a noble count.

**

After riding a horse and walking for about 20 minutes, there was a tent that was quite luxurious and large for half-sized people.

And there, half-nobles were actively discussing the strategy.

“Damn it, Captain Georg! We are doomed! I’m about to be arrested for disobeying orders!”

“What do you mean? Arwin Centurion! If you get caught, everyone will die!”

“Let’s report that this case was just to provide the serfs who needed military supplies. Then we will be punished for not reporting when procurement of military supplies, and then we will be able to live. Wouldn’t surviving be the greatest filial piety?”

“Hyodo freezes to death! already!!”

The idiots went on talking for a while more before they found me.

As soon as they found me, all the men in the tents, from the rank of Centurion George down, saw me and knelt down in salute.

Even if they are of the same half, they seem to be dignified in front of me…

“Who is Georg in charge here?”

At my words, a knight in his 40s who was standing in the best seat in the tent answered cautiously.

“This is me, how is the war now…?”

“I won’t be able to tell you all about that! what a child i am!! Why are you asking me to explain all those things?”

“I’m sorry, but our advance was delayed… Do you think you must have suffered a lot? Stop, I wanted to help even now.”

Even if you’re a half-penny aristocrat, you’re on a different level than Zachry, who hasn’t learned much. Did you say Georg? I’ll have to take a good look.

But that was then, and now, even if I let the knights die, I will somehow return to my territory before the enemy.

“It is too late. Your soldiers are late for looting because they have only received four months’ wages. What a pitiful thing… Serfs like worms… aren’t they?”

“That’s right. dismissal…”

It seems that Georg’s face was slightly shaded when he said that, but it must have been his surprise that he hadn’t been able to carry out the operation properly even though I had come.

So I tried my best not to see it and continued talking while giving consideration.

“I charged the wall made of carts with 1,600 knights, but I couldn’t overcome it in the end. So I came to this unit in order to survive and to preserve your strength. If the nobles listen to my orders and participate in the defense of the castle, I will give them proper salaries and lands, and the serfs… I will feed them barley to their full, especially for them. How is it?”

As Georg listened to my words, he continued to mutter, ‘1600 knights, 1600 knights’, as if he was bothered by the 1600 knights.

It sounds like a magic spell.

So, after more than 30 minutes, Georg smiled at me and said.

“Your Excellency, it is natural to win or lose a war. So don’t worry, get some rest for now. I will depart tomorrow, and I have prepared some food for you to eat in my barracks.”

… Georg is pretty useful. To think that I was going to be tired and even prepare something to eat on purpose.

Normally, I would have put my hand on your shoulder and rewarded you, but right now I don’t have the time or space to do that…

“I was hungry, but that was fine. Thank you, Georg.”

Having said that, as I was about to go to Georg’s barracks to rest, I suddenly felt a tremendous shock in the back of my head.

What, what?

And as soon as I fell forward with a thump, Georg called the other infantry commanders and said:

“Kill that child. If the knights are all dead, it’s already over. Do you want to be killed by dogs following a lord who has no honor?”

When I heard that, I thought, ‘Such a caregiver bastard!!’ I tried to shout, but my mouth wouldn’t move.

“Hey, listen up. His Excellency Kreutel holds a lot of grudge against us. And since this guy is in our arms, we must kill him and bring him back. You know why?”

“If you go to see Mr. Creutel and find out that the foot soldiers saved ‘that idiot’, they’ll point their spears at us.”

Hearing that, Georg smiled and said,

“Going into work. After taking off the armor, break the arms and legs step by step. Killing as brutally as possible is the way to ease the sorrow of being discriminated against by this bastard and to receive more rewards from His Excellency Ciel.”

Georg bastard, how dare you betray your lord when you have half aristocratic blood flowing in you…

However, as expected, my body did not move due to the ‘shock of being hit hard in the back of the head’, and before I knew it, other soldiers completely stripped my limbs and even the armor of my body.

Then, at my toes and fingers, those evil soldiers swung their maces.

With a crackling sound, my fingers and toes burst open.

I can’t move my body, I can’t even make a sound… I still feel the pain…

After a while, I was able to make a voice out of my mouth.

And what came out of his mouth…

“aaa!!! aaa!!!”

It was just a loud scream that made no sense, and without considering my circumstances at all, those guys calmly swung their maces in the order of my ankles, wrists, calves, wrists, arms, calves, elbows, knees, shoulder blades, and thighs.

At that time, a tremendous pain that I had never tasted in my life ran through my whole body.

I didn’t know the pain would go away, and I wanted to live when I was hit for the first time, but now I just want to die.

It hurts so much… I can’t express it in words…

“aaa!!”

Those vicious guys now slam their maces into my torso.

Along with the feeling of my backbone being cut, I didn’t feel any sensation in my broken leg before I knew it, and from being beaten a little more, only my back hurt…

I didn’t feel any pain in my hand or arm.

So these kids are laughing…

“Your Excellency, you normally ignore our bastards as half a penny, and you only drive them into places like this… It’s an honor to be able to send them to you with our own hands. Now, follow me soon. The neck goes in!”

Then I felt the terrible pain of cutting my throat, and after that… I couldn’t think of anything.

The last feeling, the pain, is the pain of a person’s head exploding with a ‘pop’, like a dry clay ball that has fallen from a high place…

**

The war was perfect.

Even though 300 out of 5,000 of our soldiers were seriously injured or killed while trying to block the knights’ charge, this amount of sacrifice to defeat 2,000 knights was really worth it.

Of course, they ate it for free only in terms of shame, but if you think about it from the point of view of the ‘family waiting for them’…

I don’t feel comfortable.

And ha, there will be a ‘siege of Nantes’ that requires more sacrifices…

Then how many more soldiers would die in a war they would not have fought had I been a little more perfect…

As I gazed at the distant horizon, lost in thought, I heard a messenger shouting behind me.

what the messenger said.

“Lord Balt said that since Schnitzel is here, he wants you to come to the Military Council and see for yourself!!”