Chapter 439: Gale Plunderer

I swung the halberd at Rupert as he desperately tried to get up. Unterhau, a technique that rises from below like a golf swing, slammed into his helmet without mercy.

Whump!

Rupert went limp.

I’d hit him with the flat of the axe head rather than the edge. I spared him because I wanted a prisoner. Noble captives are pure profit, so why would I kill one? His men finally gave up resisting.

"I’ll take good care of your captain as my prisoner. Go to the Lord of Wischelbach and tell him the Lord of Rosenheim is waiting here. If he doesn’t come, we’ll hit another village."

"Grrr. You’ll regret this, I swear it!"

I let Rupert’s men go.

Swallowing their fury, they vanished into the dark.

What would the Lord of Wischelbach choose once he got their report? He would either come here to face me or report to the Count of Basel. Or perhaps he would simply do nothing at all.

"My lord, do you mean to lure the Lord of Wischelbach out here and crush him?"

"Whether he comes or not, it’s fine either way. If he doesn’t, we move on to the next village and do the same thing. By then, the Count of Basel will have realized we’re here."

"...It sounds like an enormous number of enemies will come down on us."

Barosi swallowed hard. The enemy would throw everything they had at catching us; that much was certain. The only reason we could be this relaxed now was that the Count of Basel didn’t know about us yet. He would soon enough.

The long night passed, and around daybreak we broke camp and moved out. The enemy attack I’d hoped for never came. I had no idea how the Lord of Wischelbach would respond, but I wasn’t going to wait any longer.

[Gale Plunderer I Quest]

[Plunder Wischelbach]

[Reward: 50,000 points, 500 gold coins]

[Danger rating: ★★★★☆]

[Gale Plunderer trait acquisition condition]

[Plunder five major holdings of Basel]

[Progress 0/5]

Now that was a quest with a seriously good payout. Ooh, a plunderer quest. Maybe that was why the reward started out so high. Still, the Gale Plunderer trait was what interested me most.

When I acquired the hidden domain trait Harmony, I received 100,000 points and 1,000 gold coins as a reward. On top of that, the villagers who’d been hostile toward outsiders turned neutral, which made settling newcomers far easier.

Could this plunderer trait be the kind that grants an even bigger reward whenever I plunder someone? Major holdings would mean places like Wischelbach, not little villages.

Plundering a walled holding was no easy thing, but it was at least worth attempting. The problem was that I didn’t know Basel’s geography well. We only learned we’d drifted south of Wischelbach after stopping a traveler.

The trembling traveler honestly pointed us in the right direction. If the Scouter had read deception in his mindset, I’d have hung him upside down. According to him, we’d strayed much too far south.

Then we spotted a unit heading in the same direction we were.

It looked like reinforcements bound for Wischelbach.

"My lord, how do you find the enemy with no scouts out?"

I had suddenly announced an enemy sighting in the middle of the march and led the men straight here, and the look Barosi gave me afterward was something else. It was the look of a man gazing up at something not quite human, an awe that bordered on the sacrilegious.

"Sir Szolnok, my sixth sense guided me to where the enemy was."

"I see, my lord. I’d like a sixth sense like that myself."

Like the rest of my men, Barosi seemed to have given up on understanding. Whatever. I kept my attention on the enemy data the Commander Scouter laid out. Hm, archers and infantry, but no cavalry.

The Lord of Wischelbach had clearly requested reinforcements from somewhere to hold his castle. In that case, it was only natural to smash his hopes to pieces, wasn’t it? For the sake of smart plundering!

"Sir Debrecen, open with your mounted archers. If they counterattack, don’t engage; just hold their attention as long as you can. Sir Szolnok and I will hit their flank while they’re occupied."

Debrecen Herto’s mounted archers launched the ambush. The enemy relief force had been hurrying along the road, and the sudden appearance of cavalry threw them into a panic. Elite mounted archers, no less.

"Enemy cavalry! Aaagh!"

"Why are there enemies out here?!"

"A-arrows?! Horse archers!"

Arrows arced high and rained down, tearing into the infantry. The enemy archers scrambled to shoot back, but the mounted archers casually drifted out of range.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

The main body, which had quietly circled around and hidden in the trees, came crashing in like a storm the moment the enemy exposed its flank. The Halberd of Hades carved a crescent through the air, and two or three soldiers went down spraying blood.

We trampled through them like a herd of enraged bison. Our gear was lighter than that of heavy cavalry, but cavalry we were, and running down unprepared infantry was easy work.

"These are the plunderers the Lord of Wischelbach warned us about!"

"Sir Payne! The formation’s broken! We can’t, we can’t hold!"

"Stop them! Stop them no matter what!"

The knight leading the relief force screamed himself hoarse trying to keep his unit from crumbling, but most of the infantry were already running or throwing down their weapons to surrender. A pity, Sir Knight.

I rode down on the next meal for my blood-soaked halberd. Spotting me, the knight bravely swung his sword to meet me, and a single blow from the haft knocked him out of the saddle, just like that.

"My lord, do we chase the ones running?"

"No need. That one is enough."

A single noble prisoner is worth more than hundreds of commoner soldiers, so we disarmed the captured soldiers and let every one of them go. They were so bewildered that they actually asked whether they were really allowed to leave.

Only after my men snapped at them to get lost did they start running, one after another, tearing off as fast as their legs would carry them. I expected the freed soldiers, scattering in every direction, to spread the story for me.

"Your unit was headed for Wischelbach?"

"That’s right. Cough! Cough!"

The fall from his horse must have hit him hard, because he broke into a coughing fit. I handed him a wineskin to settle him, and he took it and drank in long gulps. Then he looked at me with complicated eyes.

"The Gale Knight I’ve heard of is a man of noble character, far removed from plundering. I never imagined it would be the Gale Knight who trampled my homeland."

"Trampled isn’t the right word. I haven’t killed anyone."

"...What do you mean?"

"I’ve killed no one and violated no one. I simply took half of what the villagers owned. If that’s hard to believe, go see it with your own eyes later."

The knight fell silent. His eyes were full of confusion and disbelief. Soon my men bound him and led him away. He’d be dragged along with us as a prisoner for a while.

After a short rest, we reached the outskirts of Wischelbach before noon. There wasn’t a soul to be found in the nearby villages or settlements. It seemed they’d all taken shelter in the castle.

When the castle came into view, we saw the garrison posted all along the walls, keeping a watch with no gaps. The moment they spotted us, they scrambled to ring the bells. It had to be pandemonium inside.

"My lord, are we attacking Wischelbach?"

"Assault a defended castle with what? Let’s try talking first."

"Pardon? How?"

Under a white flag, I took a small escort of riders and approached the walls. Archers drew their bows and took aim at me. Every last one of them was white with fear.

An old noble appeared atop the wall.

"What business brings the Lord of Rosenheim to a place like this?"

"Are you the Lord of Wischelbach?"

"This old man is Konrad of the Heindel family, vassals of the Brist family."

Another Konrad? It was a common enough name.

Mort’s name had been Konrad, and Wittelsbach’s handsome king was a Konrad as well.

"Well met, Sir Heindel. I see you made preparations after hearing your men’s report."

"I doubt we can hold out long against you, Baron, but taking this castle won’t be easy."

"So it seems. I have no wish to force an attack, either."

I had the captured knight named Payne brought forward. Konrad of the Heindel family recognized his face and visibly lost his composure. Then, realizing his slip, he pulled himself back together.

"I happened to strike your relief force before it arrived. Are there other reinforcements besides these men?"

"Ahem. O-of course there are. My liege will be here shortly with a great army!"

"Hm. Sir Heindel, you aren’t much of a liar."

The Manager Scouter saw straight through his bluff. No support was coming from the Count of Basel; Payne’s unit had been the only help on its way. Had Basel’s internal troubles left the Count with nothing to spare?

"Sir Heindel, surrender. I take no pleasure in slaughter, so no one will be killed. I have no interest in taking women, so no one will be violated. I give you my word on my honor as a noble."

"A promise from the Gale Knight can be trusted, but my duty is to defend Wischelbach, so I must refuse your offer. I ask that you withdraw peacefully."

So he had no intention of surrendering quietly. I was turning over how to attack Wischelbach when a good idea came to me. In truth, it was less a strategy than a blatant threat.

"If you don’t surrender, I’ll burn every village and every field in sight."