Victory and Spoils

Victory and Spoils

"Ha ha ha ha! Didn't expect this, did you? The three Knight Potions I spent so much money on have finally helped me break through."

"Now that I possess battle aura, what do you have to fight me with?!"

With a savage laugh, Knight Walter still had the leisure to poach Baron Hatton's people.

"White, we've known each other for years. Why not follow me instead? Stick with that useless Haton, and you'll never become a noble in your lifetime."

In the distance, Ryan was somewhat surprised as he watched black battle aura emerge from Knight Walter's body.

"Knight Walter is actually a Bronze Knight?"

"He's got some nerve." He spoke quietly. To break through from a Formal Knight to a Bronze Knight, Walter must have paid no small price. He might even have emptied out his Knightdom.

Beside him, Haton became completely nervous and asked somewhat incoherently, "Ryan, what do we do now? Should we retreat?"

Ryan ignored Baron Hatton's words and continued observing the battle aura around Knight Walter. After a moment, he relaxed.

"Rest assured, Mr. Hatton. Walter does not cultivate the Mayers Grand Ducal Family's Nightmare Knight Breathing Technique. Even as a Bronze Knight, his strength is limited."

A Formal Knight could probably slaughter a hundred slaves, but against a hundred soldiers, he would only die. The gap between low-ranking knights was not that great.

"But..." Baron Hatton gritted his teeth. No matter how incompetent he was, he did not want to see the few soldiers in his Baronial Territory spent here.

But in the next instant, his eyes widened as he stared over a hundred meters away.

At some point, Brandt had appeared before Walter. He tossed aside the Iron Sword borrowed from Baron Hatton, gripped a dagger sharpened from antler, and drove it hard toward Walter.

Battle aura clung to him, and his armor was tough, yet Walter revealed fear at that moment. He could feel that Brandt's strength was actually greater than his own.

After a brief moment of resistance, the sharp dagger pierced through the armor. Knight Walter grabbed Brandt's hand in disbelief, but his strength steadily ebbed away.

His eyes met Brandt's, which had turned slightly bloodshot. Vaguely, Walter heard the roar of a stag in his mind.

Bang!

The heavy Knight's Armor crashed to the ground, and blood flowed out from beneath it.

The first to react was not Knight White beside them, but Walter's soldiers around the battlefield. They were on the perimeter, yet the thirty Knight Retainers from the Frozen Earth Territory had held them firmly outside, leaving them unable to rush in and save their lord.

As Knight Walter fell, some soldiers despairingly dropped their weapons and knelt. Others had yet to react before the surrounding soldiers swarmed them and killed them.

"Lord Knight is dead!"

Amid terrified, despairing cries, the entire battlefield came to a halt at an unbelievable speed.

Upon hearing that a knight had died, the serf soldiers on both sides almost simultaneously stopped fighting, even though they had not understood which lord knight had died.

"D-Dead?"

Baron Hatton's eyes widened. With the eyesight of an Apprentice Knight, he too saw Walter fall.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Haton burst into laughter, but he quickly began to feel uneasy.

He looked at Ryan. "Ryan, this..."

Though he would never admit it, deep down, he acknowledged that Knight Walter had a future among the nobility. Once the Empire's internal political struggles ended, with Knight Walter's Knightdom and personal strength, along with some further connections, a baronial title would be inevitable.

But now, a future baron had died here, in a war against his territory.

Even Baron Hatton could not help feeling uneasy, worried that other nobles would condemn him.

"What is Mr. Hatton worried about?" Ryan smiled.

"As long as Walter is a Pioneer Knight, he can only be a Pioneer Knight. A Pioneer Knight died in war—who can use that to accuse the two of us? Even Pioneer nobles have died in significant numbers over the past few decades."

He emphasized the words "the two of us." Sure enough, Haton calmed down after hearing it. There was strength in numbers everywhere.

"That's right. Walter was merely a Pioneer Knight. Even the Mayers Family cannot make an issue of this."

"That's right, exactly. Knight Walter merely married a woman from the Mayers Family. I, Ryan, am still a descendant of the Clayton Family."

Ryan gave Haton confidence once again.

"Then shouldn't we consider another matter now?" Ryan's voice tempted Baron Hatton like the words of a devil.

The latter's breathing grew rapid.

What did the victor in a war between territories do?

Plunder. Plunder everything from the loser—money, women, slaves, all of it was fair game.

"Go! Quickly! We're going to Knight Walter's territory!"

With that, Haton could not even be bothered with this place anymore. He led his people charging toward Knight Walter's territory.

The Iron Ore and the slaves from this war could not run, nor did they have the ability to run. But the people of Knight Walter's territory were another matter.

The village in Knight Walter's territory was closer to the Iron Ore mine than Baron Hatton's town. Moreover, in their excitement, Haton and Ryan brought only Apprentice Knights, so they soon arrived at the place called Rota Village.

Walter had given the village a name, which showed that his ambitions were not small.

Rota Village could become the future Rota Town, Rota City.

But now, everything here belonged to Ryan and Haton.

The soldiers rushed into the village, and Knight White was the first to shout.

"Walter is dead! From now on, everything here belongs to Lord Haton... and Lord Ryan!"

The villagers who heard this had yet to fully react, but no one dared question it.

It seemed that, in matters like this, there had never been an example of lying anywhere on the continent.

Leading the way, White kicked open Walter's knightly manor. Before long, the entire village erupted into chaos.

Naturally, Ryan and Haton did not need to do anything personally. They only needed to wait.

"Gold Punk? Why are there so few Gold Coins?"

Haton roared as he questioned whether the soldiers had hidden some away for themselves.

But soon, two female beast slaves with cat ears drew all his attention.

His eyes nearly stuck to the two female slaves, as though stripping away what little clothing they wore.

In the end, their gains were not as plentiful as the two barons had imagined.

There were only seven or eight hundred Gold Punk, stored in a pinewood chest, seven or eight glittering gemstones, more than three hundred Silver Coins, and over twelve thousand copper coins.

Such a fortune was not wealthy for a knight who was almost certain to become a baron.

The few warhorses belonging to Baron Hatton were worth more than all of it.

"It seems Walter paid an even greater price to become a Bronze Knight than we imagined."

Of course, wealth did not consist only of these things. In this regard, Haton seemed even more practiced than Ryan.

"Take it apart! That tree is a Winter Mist Pine. Dig it out—I'll have it planted in my manor later. And those houses are built from magically carved oak. Tear them all down too!"

Real estate was also a major part of noble wealth. If fields and The Forest could have been dug up and taken away, Haton probably would not have spared them either.

And besides all that...

Haton looked at the several hundred commoners and slaves, then waved his hand.

"From this moment onward, you are all slaves of Lord Haton!"

Upon hearing this, most people were numb, while some changed expression. Among them, an even smaller number stepped out with ingratiating smiles.

"Lord Haton, our entire family are Freemen. Please see, this is our proof of freedom."

Haton did not even glance at it. "Walter seized my Iron Ore mine, and I have yet to settle the score with him. He owes me thousands of Gold Coins. Naturally, I must recover them from this territory."

"Selling you will at least let me recoup some of my losses."

The commoners who heard this were not overly panicked. Their expressions remained fawning as they somehow produced several Silver Coins and presented them to Baron Hatton.

At this sight, Haton finally smiled.

"It seems you truly are commoners."

He ordered the soldiers around him to collect all the Silver Coins into a chest, while the commoners' eyes could not help growing dim.

Whether one was a Freeman or a slave was often merely a matter of a noble's word, especially for commoners in a territory whose lord had died.

Nobles had many ways to exploit commoners and turn them into slaves.

"You became Freemen, so it seems you have some skill. Do you want to follow Lord Haton to the Baronial Territory and make a living there?"

Haton asked casually.

At once, a group of people eagerly pledged themselves to him.

There was not much choice, though quite a few also saw that Knight Walter's territory was now without a master and intended to remain, hoping to build up some wealth.

Gold, silver, jewels, houses, trees, commoners, and slaves—anything that could be stripped away was stripped away.

After that, Ryan and Haton could finally divide the spoils.