I'm Not a Horse Bandit

I'm Not a Horse Bandit

Early March in the Northern Kingdom was still bitterly cold, and the dense pine forests lining the road remained blanketed in snow.

The newly appointed Baron Roman led a squad of ten through the biting wind, trudging with difficulty along the frozen dirt road.

"Damn this endless winter!"

Roman sat astride his horse, gazing at the unchanging white landscape on either side of the road as he cursed aloud.

He was originally the second son of the Cold Wind Family and second in line to inherit the earl's territory.

As long as his damned older brother died an untimely death, he could rightfully inherit the family lands and become a respected earl.

But just as he was plotting and making preparations, his distant cousin suddenly suffered a hunting accident—and fucking died without an heir.

So the current Cold Wind Earl, his father, had kicked him straight to the northernmost edge of the Northern Kingdom to inherit this barony that had lost its owner.

Only half a day's journey remained before they reached the territory.

At the thought of spending the rest of his life in the far north, watching bears bare their fangs, Roman became increasingly despondent and irritable.

The two knights accompanying him had no idea how to comfort their baron and could only sigh along with him.

Little did they know that, within the snow-white forest to their left, a finely crafted steel crossbow bolt and a pair of hawk-sharp eyes had already fixed upon them.

Lynn was a Horse Bandit.

And he was a Horse Bandit leader with a wanted notice on his head.

After being sent to another world by a truck, he had opened his eyes to find himself facing a gambling father, a sickly mother, a young sister, and a broken home.

Some people were born in Rome, while others were born to be mules and horses.

Lynn's father had been a lowly mercenary, and his grandfather had been one too. They had all barely scraped by, gambling their lives for a living.

In a medieval age that placed enormous importance on one's birth, no matter how hard Lynn worked, he might never escape the fate of a mule or horse in this lifetime.

He did not want to inherit his father's trade and remain a mercenary, much less place his fate in someone else's hands.

Lynn possessed knowledge beyond his era.

More importantly, he had a cheat.

So he chose to Become Outlaw, targeting wealthy nobles, monasteries, and merchants.

He never robbed the poor.

After two years, his group had grown ever larger, and its name had become increasingly notorious.

Not only had he made it onto wanted notices, but he had repeatedly been hunted down by nobles across the land.

As his business approached a bottleneck, Lynn decisively relocated to the least developed territory of the Marsh Duke in the Northern Kingdom to break through old trade barriers and open up new markets.

This place lay at the northernmost edge of the Northern Kingdom. It was covered in swamps, bitterly cold, vast, and sparsely populated.

Just after he had familiarized himself with the northern routes, he received some good news.

The second son of the Cold Wind Family was heading north to take over a barony. He had few guards with him, only around ten men.

What else was there to say?

Just do it!

Lynn was not afraid of a trap. In his eyes, this newly appointed baron might as well have been standing naked.

[Roman Cold Wind★]

[Command: E] [Strength: E+] [Constitution: E+] [Intelligence: E] [Administration: E-] [Charisma: E-]

[Loyalty: 0 (Cannot be recruited as a follower)]

[Trait: Cowardice—All attributes decrease on the battlefield]

A piece of trash like this was worthy of being a baron?

In his previous life, Lynn had played a game called Lord.

Its content was complex, involving follower development, territory management, diplomacy, warfare, family inheritance, and many other gameplay elements.

When the truck had sent him to this medieval-like world, the game had reincarnated alongside him.

Through the game's follower development system, Lynn could freely view anyone's attributes, traits, and loyalty toward him.

Since he had no territory, most of the game's functions had not yet been unlocked.

But the ability to freely inspect attributes and loyalty alone had helped Lynn become a Horse Bandit who roamed the Northern Kingdom with impunity.

He quickly glanced at the two useless knights beside the baron, only to see two bare dark-blue panels.

That meant neither knight even had a single star. They were not even worth the system's effort to read.

As for the remaining seven mounted attendants, there was even less to say. They were naturally just insignificant fodder.

Lynn patiently lowered his breathing, tightened his grip on the steel crossbow, and quietly waited for the prey to enter the trap he had set long ago.

Baron Roman remained on horseback, grumbling endlessly, completely unaware that he had been targeted.

"That damned old bastard! Kicking me out of the family wasn't enough—he was stingy enough not to give me even one gold coin!"

"And he said, 'You're a lord now. You should support yourself with your territory.'"

"Doesn't that old bastard know that traveling costs money too?"

"If we had money to stay at an inn, why would we be braving this damned snowy weather—"

Pfft!

A cold flash streaked through the air with a shriek, plunging straight into Roman's chest and completely cutting off his chatter.

"En-enemy attack! Prepare—"

The two knights beside Roman had some experience, at least. The moment blood sprayed through the air, their right hands had already reached for their sword hilts.

But they had never expected an ambush on such a secluded road!

Even more fatal, their chainmail was in the wagon at the back of the group!

Who wore armor while traveling in winter?

Before the two knights could finish shouting, more than a dozen Horse Bandits threw off their white camouflage and charged out of the forests on both sides of the road, clad in chainmail, wearing steel helmets, and gripping longswords.

"Kill!"

Lynn lowered the steel crossbow, threw off his camouflage, drew the longsword at his waist, and rushed into the fray.

A prepared side against an unprepared one, armored men against unarmored men—the battle was naturally a dull, one-sided slaughter.

Before long, not a single member of the ten-man squad remained standing.

"Boss, we searched everything. Five sets of chainmail, ten longswords, twelve horses, two wagons. Not much money, but there's one survivor left. Should we kill him?"

Standing beside the wagon, Lynn listened as Second Brother reported the spoils and felt once again that robbing nobles was the fastest way to make money.

A well-made, undamaged set of chainmail could casually sell for more than ten gold coins in the Northern Kingdom. Longswords were worth somewhat less, but even the cheapest could fetch three or four gold coins.

Compared with those metal goods, horses were far more valuable. A quality warhorse capable of carrying a knight in a charge cost at least fifty or sixty gold coins.

As for the sole survivor, it was Roman, who had been the first to fall.

"Take everything! I'll pay a huge ransom too! Just spare my life, please!"

The crossbow bolt had missed by a little, merely piercing the lower part of his left shoulder blade.

After being struck, he had immediately fallen to the ground and played dead, not daring to make a sound until the Horse Bandits dragged him out from beneath the corpses of the two knights.

After only a little questioning, he spilled everything like beans from a bamboo tube.

He had even confessed the private matter of sleeping with a fourteen-year-old maid.

Now, he had become a cowardly lizard who could do nothing but beg for mercy, utterly devoid of noble bearing.

Was this what it meant to have the [Cowardice] trait?

He had one-star attributes, yet when faced with an attack, he had not even possessed the courage to draw his sword.

This kind of vermin was actually an earl's biological son?

Even raising a piece of barbecued pork would have been better than this thing.

No wonder he had been kicked into the far north like garbage.

"A ransom? By your own account, your father has abandoned you. What are you going to use to pay it?"

The tall, lean Second Brother stood beside Lynn, toying with a sharp dagger. His narrow eyes behind the faceplate narrowed slightly, cold light seeming to flicker within them.

Lynn's small Horse Bandit group naturally had a hierarchy. He was the boss, followed by five brothers.

Second Brother was fierce by nature, bloodthirsty and murderous—the sort who would stab someone at the slightest disagreement.

He happened to complement the quiet, reserved Lynn.

Seeing the cold gleam reflected by the dagger, Roman was frightened out of his wits. He completely forgot about his still-bleeding wound and desperately begged for mercy.

"I have money, I have money! I'm about to take office as baron! Once I take office, I'll have money! I'll have money!"

"How long?"

"One year."

"We're supposed to fucking wait for you for a year?"

"Half a year, half a year! If I'm lucky, one month will do!"

Second Brother neither approved nor denied Roman's answer. He merely put away his dagger and stepped back.

"Your men are all dead. How will you explain that?" It was Lynn's turn to speak.

As the boss, he naturally saw matters differently from his underlings. He went straight to the question of how to deal with the aftermath.

"They were all my private soldiers. No one in the territory has ever seen them, so no one will investigate!" Roman wanted revenge, but at the moment he was more submissive than a grandson. All he wanted was to stay alive.

"Oh?" Lynn removed his metal faceplate.

"Don't take it off, don't take it off! I know the rules! If I see your face, I won't live!" Roman hurriedly lowered his head and covered his eyes. "Let me go, and I'll take office as baron. I'll give you all the money I earn!"

"Raise your head."

"No, no, no, no!"

"What? Don't you want to see clearly who killed you?" Lynn drew the longsword at his waist once more.

"Huh?" Roman did not process it at first, but when he opened his eyes and saw the gleaming blade, he instantly came to his senses and cried out in terror, "All my property already belongs to you, and I promised to offer you the wealth from my territory too! Killing me won't benefit you at all!"

Lynn merely shook his head lightly. "Foolish. If I kill you, I'll become the baron. That money will all be mine anyway."

At those words, not only did Roman freeze, even the other Horse Bandits around the wagon were stunned.

"You're a Horse Bandit. How could you possibly—"

Before Roman could finish, Lynn asked, "What, I can't be a baron?"

"No, I... I didn't mean—"

Roman was already incoherent. He had considered every possibility.

But he had never imagined that this Horse Bandit leader, who killed without batting an eye, intended to impersonate a baron.

Could a Horse Bandit become a baron?

"Have you seen clearly?" Lynn did not wish to explain much to a dying man. His longsword was already drawn.

"I—"

Roman still wanted to argue, but the sword flashed, and a terrified head flew high into the air.

Until his death, the person Roman hated most was not the Horse Bandit who had killed him, but his earl father who had refused to give him money.