Mudfish, Enemy

His decision was absolutely correct. The pirates had long since strapped all their essential provisions to themselves, so the only things they needed to throw away were those that had never belonged to them in the first place.

Horus naturally was not naive enough to think that throwing away these stolen goods would earn them mercy. But if they did not discard their belongings and enter the woods, these people might not survive even a single cavalry charge.

Because they had been pushing wheelbarrows to transport their loot, the roads they had taken were, strictly speaking, all extremely suitable for mounted pursuit.

Now they had entered the steep, dense woods on the slope.

Although the woods were not so dense that horses could not gallop through them, it was certainly no longer as easy as traveling along a road.

Once they entered the woods, they had to flee for their lives along paths no one had ever cleared, forcing their way through the undergrowth. Their speed would definitely drop considerably.

But at least it would be difficult for the cavalry to properly charge their horses through that chaotic forest.

"I hope they leave some people behind to sort out the things on the ground!"

Without anyone needing to teach them, all the pirates knew to scatter the discarded goods as messily as possible.

Horus and his pirates disappeared from sight just like that.

In theory, no matter how far they ran, as long as their tracks remained, Ergons could catch up with them. But this group of pirates was clearly about to run out of Tevalinburg's territory.

They could not pursue them without limit.

Quite apart from the relationship between the two sides, which was already extremely tense,

even if they belonged to the same faction, bringing troops into the other side's territory without reason was forbidden and could be viewed as an invasion.

Therefore, to avoid provoking trouble, these people had to die within Tevalinburg's territory.

Old Adam was not merely good at managing the household. He was also practically a living map. He surveyed the shabby little hill before him.

Pointing at a path on the side that clearly did not look like a path, he said, "If we go down here, we should be able to circle around this hill and cut them off after spending a dozen or so minutes. If William Adena takes some people to block them, our light infantry can deploy at the foot of the hill."

Old Adam still had some concerns he had not voiced.

Because the two sides often engaged in skirmishes, there were outposts along the border. He simply did not know whether anyone would be stationed here now that autumn had arrived and the previous lord's Private War had only just ended.

If they truly attracted the attention of this hostile force, that would be the most serious problem of all.

Ahead lay the territory of Rafael Garcia Cortez, the minor soldier who had killed the heir of the previous Baron—in other words, the father of Sir Davis Tervain, the elder brother of Baron Nordsa Tervain.

To reward Rafael, the hostile viscount Rafael Garcia Cortez had ennobled him as a lord and bestowed his own surname upon him.

Thus, Viscount Garcia Cortez gained a Lord Rafael Garcia Cortez who shared his exact name.

This lord understood perfectly where everything he had obtained came from, so he was the most enthusiastic and diligent when it came to striking at Tevalinburg.

Old Adam had a very deep scar on his hand. It had been inflicted by this Lord Rafael Garcia Cortez, who could not even ride a horse.

Old Adam very much did not want to run into that reckless fool.

That was why he actively led the dismounted light infantry in a swift pursuit.

Once they crossed this small hill, which covered only sixty or seventy mu, they would arrive at the hostile viscount's territory.

William Adena quickly led the nine heavy cavalrymen, including Adamson, along the path. That left only Ergons behind to watch the horses.

He was not deliberately avoiding the battle. It was simply that he truly did not want to get involved in a fight of this scale. If he joined the pursuit, whether by circling around this hill covering sixty or seventy mu or by dismounting and following after them,

either option would be somewhat undignified.

It would be better to leave the chance to earn merit to these young people who desperately needed experience to improve their strength.

He only needed to have a few enemies left for him to practice on at the end.

When a knight's lance pierced an enemy's body and lifted him into the air, who would care whether that was the first enemy killed in the battle or the last?

Ergons herded the horses together, drew Old Sir Tervain's sword, and casually began sharpening it with an oilstone.

In reality, this sword's value as an heirloom and ornament far exceeded its value in actual combat.

In a normal knightly family, it would take at least half a year of savings to afford a sword like this. But to Ergons, it was genuinely worth only 130 Denars.

Watching the two groups of people steadily approach each other on the map, Ergons felt as though he were in a game.

In reality, if he had not needed to set an example, and if the Cheat System had not wanted to absorb the souls and vital energy of the slain nearby,

he could have simply arranged for William Adena to lead the pursuit.

If the Cheat System had not demanded it so urgently, he had even considered not hunting Horus's group of pirates at all. Driving them away would have been enough.

That way, he would still have an explanation to give the Church.

After all, the purpose of letting them come was to have them wreak havoc in the region. With the previous battles and Looting, plus the fact that they had successfully killed some of the pirates and driven them out of the territory,

from any angle, this would have been a perfect answer.

But the Baron's attitude had become far more important.

Moreover, his Cheat System truly was desperately in need of energy. So this group still had to die!

Horus had never imagined that a Tracking expert could follow them all the way down by relying on the traces they had left behind.

Nor could he have imagined that these knights would be able to run so quickly after dismounting.

Even as they moved through the dense forest and weeds, stumbling over uneven ground without any proper path, they were gradually closing the distance between them.

They no longer even had the chance to scatter and flee, because the woods on this small hill were isolated.

What made them even more desperate was that every one of these "knights" actually carried a crossbow.

Although the forest might have affected their accuracy, making it far from ideal, they still placed enormous pressure on the pirates.

Every so often, some unlucky man was struck in the torso or limbs. During a life-or-death escape like this, such men could only be abandoned, because there was no possibility of saving them.

When they fled to the other side of the hill, they suddenly discovered a group of knights waiting for them.

They could neither leave the woods nor remain inside.

However, at that moment, a group of people rode over from the direction of Rafael Garcia Cortez's territory.

If Old Adam had been there, he would have recognized them at a glance. It was their greatest enemy from Tervain Village—Igli Tal.