17 Medium Barbarian Tribes

Chapter 19: 17. Medium-Sized Barbarian Tribe

After two or three days of rest, Landen led his entire team of knights and a single carriage eastward.

Over these past few days, Greyhound had thoroughly scouted the medium-sized tribe to the east. This tribe had at least ten resident barbarian magic-wielders, over thirty tents, nearly a hundred long-haired sheep, and more than forty pack beasts. The strength of this tribe could be said to exceed the sum of all the barbarian tribes they had raided previously.

Furthermore, this tribe differed from the others in that their vigilance remained extremely high, day or night, with cavalry always on patrol.

Landen led his knights, marching brazenly along the river toward the camp. Everyone was dressed in barbarian fashion, wearing furs over their iron armor; at a glance, they looked like cavalry from a large tribe.

For this operation, Landen had spared no expense. Every low-level knight carried two magic crystals, ready to consume them to replenish their battle qi for a charge the moment something went wrong.

Brown Rabbit was the younger brother of the tribe's chieftain and the leader of the ten barbarian cavalrymen left behind to guard the camp.

His brother had taken seven cavalrymen to attend a tribal alliance, leaving him with the task of watching over the human slaves and ensuring the camp wasn't targeted by other barbarians.

"My Lord," a patrolling cavalryman reported, "nine people are approaching us."

"Oh? Is it my brother and the others returning?"

"This... they don't look like the chieftain to me. They are dressed more neatly than the chieftain, and they haven't brought anything back, just a single carriage."

"What are they doing here?" Brown Rabbit was uncertain, so he took a few men to investigate the situation.

Stepping out of the camp, Brown Rabbit indeed saw nine cavalrymen and a carriage approaching at a leisurely pace. Most of them stopped 200 meters away, while only the leader continued forward to greet him in a friendly manner.

"Hey, we are messengers for Chieftain Gray Goose. The coalition of our tribes has conquered many places, and the Chieftain said he wants to distribute gold coins to the participating tribes. Come over and get yours!" the man said in common tongue with a barbarian accent.

"Distribute gold coins?" Brown Rabbit finally understood what was going on. "Hahaha, I suppose Chieftain Gray Goose is just giving us a little treat so we'll keep sending troops, right?" Although he spoke with disdain, his body was honest; he led four of his trusted men toward the carriage.

"My Lord, that's not quite right. The gold is right here on the carriage; the more troops you send, the more you get!" a cavalryman near the carriage shouted.

"What do you mean, the more troops, the more gold? Isn't this just trying to get us to send more men? Let me see how much gold one of our cavalrymen gets! Hahaha!" Brown Rabbit was now certain that this convoy was here to pay them to keep fighting, especially since he saw a slave on the carriage open a box, revealing a brilliant, golden glow inside.

Brown Rabbit couldn't wait any longer. Following his brother over the years, the tribe had grown larger, but he had never seen a box full of gold coins.

Brown Rabbit and his men jogged over, never noticing that the cavalrymen guarding the carriage had already circled behind them—barbarians shouldn't have turned their backs on strangers. "Come, little girl, tell me, we sent seven cavalrymen, how much gold should we get?"

"Boom..." The answer to Brown Rabbit was a figure from his left rear. This figure struck with imperceptible speed, slamming into Brown Rabbit and knocking him down, and then Brown Rabbit saw a flash of cold light.

Landen had used a magic crystal to initiate a Charge. After knocking Brown Rabbit down, he immediately drew his blade to strike. The other knights were not idle; they took advantage of the fact that Brown Rabbit's men had their backs turned to them and launched a direct sneak attack.

If the barbarians had been somewhat vigilant when Landen first arrived, their eyes were now glowing with greed at the mention of money. Five of the ten were taken out in an instant. Raul was the one who had first greeted Brown Rabbit in the barbarian accent, and less than ten steps behind him were Greyhound and Dante. The two immediately spurred their horses into a charge, slaughtering the two gate-guarding barbarians before they could even react.

The guarding barbarians were on foot, while the mounted knights were a meter taller and possessed incomparable speed; the barbarians without horses were no match at all.

The remaining three barbarians saw the situation was dire and tried to run into the camp to mount their horses, only to be cut down by the surrounding knights.

"We won! We won! We fought the barbarians head-on and won!" The one speaking was Greyhound's son, Fang Dante. At nearly twenty years old, Fang Dante had already become a low-level knight, and in terms of potential, he was far superior to Landen.

Although he had participated in sneak attacks on barbarian camps before, this was their first time facing barbarians in broad daylight, and Fang was exceptionally excited.

"Fang, what did I tell you? We could win! You have to believe in me, and you have to believe in yourself." Although Landen had personally devised the plan, he hadn't been confident himself when they arrived, but that didn't stop him from claiming the success to win the knights' trust.

"Yes, My Lord, your foresight is truly divine." In truth, Fang had used a local idiom, but Landen didn't understand the specific meaning, so he simply translated it as such.

At this moment, Landen and his men were in the center of the vast barbarian camp, and Landen saw numerous non-magic-wielders emerging from their tents.

Seeing that Landen had left none of their former masters alive, they knelt one after another.

Inside a tall tent at the edge of the camp, a tall figure suddenly appeared—this figure was taller than Landen.

Damn it, are there more barbarian cavalry?

A moment later, four more figures emerged. These people looked at Landen with numb expressions, then the ones who came out later looked at the first person, exchanged glances, and all knelt together to show submission.

After a sneak attack, the most exciting part was the looting of the chests; this was the same for both barbarians and humans.

Landen had Albert count the captives, while Raul and Iron Awl tallied the livestock, and he himself entered the large tent to search for valuables.

The advantage of a medium-sized tribe was that they had many precious items and enough guards that they didn't need to bury their wealth in the ground.

Landen found 35 gold coins, some silver and copper coins, two magic books, and a magic-sealing box. Inside the box was an enchanted longsword, over a dozen magic crystals, six rune plates—water, fire, wind, ice, two lighting plates—and an alchemical doll. Landen didn't know what it was, so he left it alone.

The livestock in the camp included 14 Black-Scaled Horses, 37 pack beasts, 97 long-haired sheep, nearly a ton of grain filling an entire tent, about 50 pounds of salt, some spices, a blacksmithing furnace, nearly 300 pounds of iron ingots, 500 pounds of coal, 30 large carts, and dozens of cubic meters of timber.

In addition, there were various iron tools, herbs, meat, Magic Beast meat, and surprisingly, besides the common livestock, there were over 20 birds like grouse and gray geese.

It seemed a medium-sized camp was indeed different from a small one; this wasn't just a tribal camp, but a trading point for nearby small tribes, where they could trade with currency or other goods, or exchange things like horseshoes.

"Landen," Albert entered, followed by several people. They were the very same tall men who had knelt to Landen last. They were undoubtedly magic-wielders, but not of this tribe.

"Let me introduce them. This is Knight Danico, formerly a guardian knight of the Frost-Wolf Chamber of Commerce in the capital. He was captured by barbarians three years ago and has been stranded here ever since. These other magic-wielders were also abducted during the barbarians' raids over the past two years."

"I, Danico, thank you for your rescue, Baron Landen. I will follow you to the death." Danico knelt on one knee to pledge his loyalty, and the other four magic-wielders knelt simultaneously.

No wonder this tribe had to keep so many cavalrymen on constant alert; they weren't guarding against outside invasion, but against the magic-wielding slaves within the camp. Landen finally understood.

"Knight Danico, please rise, and everyone else as well. I, Landen Gallop, welcome you all. Danico, you have truly suffered." Although Landen didn't say anything like "with you, I am like a tiger with wings," he performed the gesture of a leader who respects talent perfectly.

"My Lord Landen..." Danico had been held captive by the barbarians for three years, living a life that was barely human, let alone receiving any respect. Landen's approach was something Danico had never seen before; he was truly moved and filled with gratitude.

Helped to his feet, Danico recounted their ordeal to Landen.

Danico had originally been a low-level knight employed by a merchant caravan of the Frost-Wolf Family in the capital, specializing in trade escorts along the route from the capital to Bristle-Wolf City. He had been abducted by barbarians three years ago while escorting a caravan.

These barbarians were very strange; they had no interest in non-magic-wielders and didn't touch any goods other than money—they only abducted the magic-wielders.

After that, Danico drifted all over the Gallop Plains. He was first sent to a barbarian alliance meeting and sold like a commodity to a medium-sized tribe, only to be traded away like war booty when that tribe was later overrun by others.

Finally, Danico was sold to his current camp. When he saw Landen attack, Danico assumed it was just another inter-tribal conflict, never expecting that he might actually be rescued.

Danico explained that in the barbarian camps, the barbarians possessed immense strength and straightforward natures; they were experts at hunting and herding, but there was one thing they could not do: delicate work.

Camp tasks like pitching tents, herding, and repairing armor had to be handled by the non-magical, but tasks requiring both strength and technical skill—such as shoeing Black-Scaled Horses or blacksmithing—were different.

Medium-sized tribes would purchase human magical slaves to perform these duties. Once a tribe bought a magical slave, they would assign him specifically to this type of composite labor. A medium-sized tribe usually had three or four smaller tribes in its vicinity.

These smaller tribes could bring game, currency, or sheepskins to trade for the medium tribe's horseshoes or even the shoeing service itself. Thus, Danico had become the blacksmith for several surrounding tribes.

Landen showed great sympathy and immediately declared that Danico would become his family knight, and that the few other magical individuals would become his direct subjects, leaving the group moved to tears once again.

During the subsequent personnel tally, Landen specifically allowed Danico and the others to each choose five people from the 120 captured non-magical individuals to serve as their own family members, while the remaining 95 were counted among Landen's own subjects.

Although Landen was more accustomed to managing all magical and non-magical individuals directly, he knew that this world possessed a massive inertia. He could ride that inertia to secure benefits for himself, but he could not change the era single-handedly.

Fortunately, this camp contained both non-magical individuals who had served as stewards and magical individuals who were literate. Landen followed his original plan: caring for the children separately, selecting craftsmen, and mandating hygiene standards and the digging of latrine trenches.

The next day, the main camp 20 kilometers away arrived to rendezvous. Landen's direct subjects reached 200 people, matching the population of the barony and gaining new magical reinforcements.

Now, whether it was Raul, Grey Dog, Fang, Danico, Nila, or Mevenan, they were all deeply convinced that Landen could lead them back to the Gallop Barony, and perhaps even elevate Galloping Horse into a viscounty.

Albert, meanwhile, was already thinking about liberating the human magical individuals from every barbarian camp along the way, forming a brand-new force for the Gallop Family.

Landen had just finished arranging the affairs within the territory and summoned all the singing and dancing girls together—eight in total. These girls had been purchased by the barbarian chieftain for his own pleasure, including the two Albert had arranged to "take care" of Landen that day.

"Everyone, do you know why I have called you all together?"

The girls looked at one another. "Do you require our service?"

"No, I need you to sing." Landen counted the nights since he had arrived in this world; there hadn't been many where he could truly relax and enjoy himself without incident.

Landen knew full well that his current subjects were a patchwork of barbarian slaves. Each person carried habits formed in barbarian lands alongside mindsets from their time in human territories. If these thoughts were allowed to mingle without Landen creating a sense of identity of his own, various factions and cliques would inevitably emerge.

If nothing else, Landen had already decided that all the magical individuals who joined today would be mounted as cavalry; he had to separate them from the non-magical individuals to prevent them from forming factions during his battles.

Creating an identity required culture, and music was the carrier of culture. Landen taught all the singers the Gallop Folk Song on the spot; the melody was simple, and the lyrics were easy to understand.

"The subjects of Galloping Horse live a good life, Lord Landen resists the barbarian violence on the plains.

First, be determined to repay the kindness, second, do not hide your expertise.

Third, march while listening to the orders, fourth, dig latrine trenches when setting up camp.

Long-term encampment makes hygiene most important, keep the tents clean and wash your clothes.

Fifth, boil the stream water before drinking, sixth, check the river carefully to avoid poisonous weeds.

May every subject remember these details, protected by the Gallop Family knights.

Drive out the barbarians to return the plains, restore the kingdom to peace and happiness."

This song was originally a training march from the Bavaria region of Europa in Landen's homeland, which had later been introduced to his home and had seen many versions over the decades.

Landen chose this song and adapted one of the versions so that his subjects would know his family name and what was expected of them as his people.

Landen split the eight girls into two groups, each leading 100 subjects, and demanded that by dinner time five days later, each group of 100 would sing it collectively. From there, they would select the 30 best singers to perform it again. The two groups would be judged, with every knight having one vote; the group with the most votes would get extra meat that night.

"Protected by the Gallop Family knights... restore the kingdom to peace and happiness..." The simple melody kept mumbling in Albert's mouth, and Albert was truly bewildered.

No magical individual would ever care about the masses of non-magical people, regardless of the tribe, but Landen did. He didn't just care; he found a way to unite these non-magical people together.

At this moment, Albert truly suspected that Landen had been possessed by some legendary existence, but what legend would ever bother with non-magical people?