This world was steeped in bloodshed and treachery. Being too kind could easily get a person killed, especially a noble. Field no longer had the patience or goodwill to deal with the bastards of this world.
Let iron and blood do the talking! Despicableness was a noble's passport.
As it turned out, humans found it far easier to attack their own kind than to fight corpse ghouls. At least their own kind didn't look terrifying.
A human slave let out a howl and lunged forward, pinning down the soldier with the severed arm. He drove the sickle in his hand deep into the man's neck, then gave it a vicious yank, tearing his head clean off. The soldier's terrified expression remained frozen on his face.
"Well done. This is yours." A smile curved Field's lips as he took a silver coin from his pocket and tossed it to him. "I allow slaves to own property, and the harder you work, the more you earn!"
The surrounding slaves' eyes burned with envy. A silver coin was no small sum. It could buy a hundred loaves of black bread and keep them alive for a hundred days! In an instant, money stirred their bloodlust.
With Ashina's giant wolf leading the charge, the slaves had nothing to fear. Gripping their weapons, they charged into the fray together.
"What an effortless slaughter."
Against a Chosen One, such a small number of fully armored infantrymen were a joke. A single swipe of the wolf's paw flattened the heavily armored soldiers. Blood flowed from their "two-dimensional" corpses, gathering into a gurgling river.
Ignoring their pleas and cries for mercy, Field quickly finished off the mutinous garrison. Then he picked his way carefully into the bunker on tiptoe, avoiding the severed limbs scattered across the ground.
"This is... an armory!"
When Field saw the fortress's armory, he could no longer hide his delight.
Before him stood mountainlike piles of armor, neatly bundled together and fragrant with the tung oil used to maintain them. The racks beside them held standard-issue halberds, steel blades, and iron-reinforced shields. Bows and crossbows hung on the walls, while barrels of arrows offered every kind of specialized use.
There was enough to arm five hundred men to the teeth, with armor for every last one of them.
No baron could afford so much military equipment. These supplies had been shipped in from all over the empire. Every year, the great lords had to contribute a portion of their supplies and gold coins to support construction along the border and prevent invasions by corrupted monsters and orcs.
"Ka Mountain Fortress has this much stockpiled when it's only an outpost. I can't even imagine how rich those massive fortresses farther back must be."
"Did we just strike it rich?" Ashina took down a cavalry bow, admiring it so much that she couldn't put it down.
"We made a little money. This is only the beginning." Field was actually ecstatic. He waved a hand. "What are you standing around for? Get yourselves equipped first."
"Yes!" Hearing that they could wear expensive protective gear, everyone rushed forward to untie the bundles and pull on suits of lamellar armor. For the first time, these slaves felt the power of armor. It was heavy, but it made them feel utterly safe.
The only drawback was that the slaves were too thin and scrawny. The armor hung loosely on their bodies and wobbled as they moved.
"Heh, that'll teach you to screw with me, Richard." Field rubbed his hands together and summoned the slave who had attacked first. "What's your name?"
"My lord, my name is Wildcat." Wildcat looked very nervous.
In an age when knowledge was monopolized, commoners generally had haphazard names. Of course, they had little choice. If their names happened to offend a noble lord, executioners' blades and horses' hooves were no laughing matter.
"I have a task for you. Let's rehearse it a couple of times first." Field called Wildcat closer, speaking in a conspiratorial tone while gesturing.
Since he had already pocketed Baron Bull's weapons and equipment, he might as well take things a little further.
After sending Wildcat away with twenty men, Field began considering the equipment before him.
"Take it all. We have to take it all, or it'll eat away at me." Field paced a few steps back and forth. "Ashina, have Kao bring everyone here. Lower the equipment over the walls. We'll pick it up after we get through the pass. It already belongs to Nightfall Territory."
It wasn't enough! Weapons and equipment alone couldn't satisfy Field. Going to Nightfall Territory was a huge gamble, and he had to go all in.
Ka Mountain Fortress received supplies from nobles across the country, but the villages under its jurisdiction still had to pay every last bit of their taxes. Six large villages supplied the fortress. Thanks to their fertile land, they delivered a steady stream of cattle, sheep, wheat, and tax money to the baron's castle every year.
Across the rolling hills and gullies, a squad of well-equipped soldiers carrying Baron Bull's family banner marched through withered vines, weeds, and crumbling ruins.
Bullhorn Village was known locally for its two towering watchtowers. In truth, they were only four meters tall, roofs included, but they were still the village's pride. Crude as the towers looked, hunters stationed on them could work with the outer wooden wall and the militia to fend off bandit attacks.
Just the night before, they had shot and killed three corpse ghouls, supposedly ones that had slipped through from beyond the wall.
Heavens, monsters had appeared even inside the fortress defenses. The situation reminded the elderly villagers of the terrifying orcs.
Three or four villagers in hemp clothing sat at the village entrance with pitchforks and bowls of vegetable soup, chatting about how many rounds the widow in the eastern village could last against a green-skinned orc. Every so often, they burst into vile laughter.
"They're the lord's soldiers!" The villagers recognized the banner, but none of them knew why the soldiers had come. Everyone looked bewildered.
Soon, the slave guards led by Wildcat came into view.
"Open the gate!" Wildcat swore. Beside him, the soldiers played along by planting their halberds on the ground, their infantry lamellar armor clattering sharply. Imitating a noble's manner, Wildcat bellowed arrogantly, "Do you want us standing out here freezing our asses off? You damned idiots!"
The villagers snapped to their senses and hurried to bow and scrape as they welcomed the group inside.
"My lord, is this about the corpse ghouls? Our village repelled their attack. Thank the gods! And of course, we must thank the baron as well. We'll offer up young girls and make sure the baron is satisfied." The village chief came forward eagerly, his smiling face wrinkled like a blooming chrysanthemum. But when he saw Wildcat, he visibly faltered. "Officer, I don't believe I've seen you before."
Wildcat was nervous, but he remembered Field's instructions: if he encountered a question he couldn't easily answer, he should simply start swearing.
"Fuck your mother, you snake's lackey! What's with all the bullshit?" Wildcat drew his blade. "I'm here to collect taxes, not meet relatives, understand? I don't give a damn whether you've seen me before!"
Spattered with spit and frightened by Wildcat's drawn blade, the village chief nearly tumbled to the ground. "Of course, my lord. It was my fault."
"The farm tax, head tax, household tax, faith tax, land tax, service exemption tax, breathing tax, and whatever the hell else there was. You know, the usual taxes we pay in Bull Territory."
Medieval taxes came in an astonishing variety. There was always one perfectly suited to the dear little peasants.
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