Chapter 440: Walls or People

I’d threatened to burn the place down, but I had no real intention of doing it. My target wasn’t Heindel at all. It was the young heir standing beside him, whose face was so flushed with agitation it looked ready to burst.

I was young myself, but office life had put me through the wringer and taught me that losing your cool only costs you. That’s how I ended up with a temper that doesn’t flare easily, except maybe in bed with Hilda.

Heindel, though, didn’t so much as blink.

The old man’s expression was full of suspicion.

"Do you mean that? Aren’t you the one with a reputation as a righteous knight?"

"I’m not ruled by my reputation. This is war. Burning an enemy’s land is perfectly lawful. It will take a good while, but since your liege seems to have no intention of showing his face to me, I’ll take my time. If the farmland and settlements around here are destroyed, won’t that put you and your people in a very difficult position?"

"It would ruin this year’s harvest, but that’s better than handing the castle over to you, Baron."

Hm, he wasn’t taking the bait easily. A man who’d been a lord for decades had clearly seen through what I was after. But my target wasn’t him. It was the heir at his side.

"Unfortunately, taking your castle with the force I have doesn’t look easy."

"Then why not return to Rosenheim and leave it at that?"

"I can’t do that. With nothing but cowards like you and your liege around, riding through Basel and plundering is far more profitable. Don’t forget it was your liege who brought me into this land."

"Father! Are you just going to stand there after hearing that?!"

Being called a coward finally set off the hot-blooded young heir. Heindel frowned and scolded him. Interrupting a conversation between a prince and a lord was rude, after all.

"Rudolf! Do you know where you are? Hold your tongue!"

"Wischelbach has been a house of strong knights since ancient times! Why should we be any lesser than the Gale Knight? There’s no reason to hole up behind these walls and be called cowards! Look at him! That pitiful band is his entire army! Our knights could..."

"You do not face the Gale Knight in an open field, for any reason whatsoever! That is madness!"

Heindel’s bark shut the heir’s mouth.

Then, wearily, he said to his son,

"At Euz, I saw the Gale Knight fight with my own eyes. He was fierce and terrible, far beyond anything this old man could stand against. In that battle, our liege suffered the humiliation of being taken prisoner."

It seemed he hadn’t seen me fight Leto. I’d been a genuine mess then. I’d teamed up with Fiel just to have any chance of winning, and when Leto’s monstrous halberd landed on me, I thought I was dead.

The heir wouldn’t back down.

Go get him, kid. No parent ever wins against their child!

"But that doesn’t mean we can just watch him burn our land!"

"Not one man in the duchy has beaten the Gale Knight, so why do you take him so lightly? Our liege himself has been defeated by the Gale Knight’s army twice!"

"You know what I can do! Is there a knight in Wischelbach who’s my match? As I am now, I can bring down the Gale Knight! So give me permission to ride out, Father!"

Oh? He seemed confident in his skills.

Not many knights come at me swearing to put me down.

"You fool! That is exactly what the Gale Knight wants! Be silent!"

The heir sulked, but his father’s icy fury quieted him. Push a little more, though, and he’d blow up spectacularly. Heindel had surely caught on to my intent.

"Baron Rosenheim, I beg you to generously forgive the boy’s rudeness."

"If it’s your son, I’ll face him myself. Go on, send him out."

"Baron! Provoke my son no further!"

Heindel didn’t take the bait, and somehow kept his hot-blooded heir on a leash. Hmm, even needling him wasn’t working. I had no intention of getting tied down at Wischelbach, so I turned my horse around.

"Nothing for it. They have no intention of coming out at all."

"My lord, what now?"

"We go to another holding. There’s no reason to stay chained to this place."

It was a shame we couldn’t strip Wischelbach, but if we hit other holdings, the day might come when they had no choice but to fight us. If we captured them then, Wischelbach would fall easily enough.

Just as I was leaving, Herto came riding up.

"My lord! We’ve found a group of refugees on the outskirts."

"Have we? Then it’s time for one last push. Bring them all in."

We hauled in every last one of the refugees who’d been stranded outside, unable to get into Wischelbach. They wailed in terror and begged for their lives. The women looked ready to faint under the glares of my rough riders.

It was probably all the more frightening because the Hungarians couldn’t even speak their language. I took the lot of them back to the walls of Wischelbach. Seeing his own people held hostage, Heindel let out a deep sigh.

"Baron Rosenheim, have you now sunk to taking hostages?"

"Shouldn’t a man use everything at hand to take a castle?"

"That the Gale Knight, who prized honor and justice, has fallen this far!"

Heindel kept invoking my reputation, trying to steer the situation toward branding my actions unjust. Did he think that would make me flinch? I’m not the type to be chained by my own reputation.

"If you don’t want to watch these refugees die in front of you, surrender."

"I’m sorry for my people, but I cannot give up the castle."

"Hm. The obvious choice for a lord, I suppose."

At a glance from me, Barosi and the riders drew their swords.

The refugees screamed and shrieked, half out of their minds.

"My lord! Spare us!"

"Merciful lord! Please!"

"Aaaagh! I don’t want to die!"

"Father! We have to attack that butcher before he kills our own people!"

"Do not move! It’s a ploy to drag us out of the castle!"

"But you’re the one who taught me to cherish our people!"

"My lord! We must save our people! If we don’t, their hearts may turn against you! Please allow us to ride out with the young master!"

"..."

Even the knights stepped forward in outrage. From the moment I took the refugees hostage without caring what it did to my reputation, Heindel had been caught in the current. He’d been checkmated, hadn’t he?

"...Baron Rosenheim. I will pay their ransom."

"I don’t want ransom. Open the gate."

Heindel finally shut his eyes.

Refusing to trade a castle for the lives of his people was perfectly sensible, the obvious call for a lord. But emotion has a way of overriding reason. Just look at his heir.

"Baron Rosenheim! If you kill our people, you will pay for it!"

"If you wanted me to pay, you should have come out and faced me instead of hiding."

I turned my eyes to the refugees. Shaking with fear, they were pitiful to look at. Maybe they were still clinging to a thread of hope because of my righteous reputation. Barosi asked,

"I’m not sure where this is going, but should we let them go?"

"Ha ha ha, you finally understand my methods. Release them."

Barosi and the riders sheathed their swords. When the bloodlust vanished as if it had never been there, the refugees finally realized I had no intention of killing them. I spoke to their stunned faces.

"The Lord of Wischelbach abandoned you to hold his castle. He chose the safety of his house over his own people, so if you want to blame someone, blame your lord, not me."

"Y-you’re letting us live?"

"That’s right. Go to the gate."

Steadying their shaking legs as best they could, the refugees ran for the gate to save themselves. It turned into pandemonium, with everyone screaming to be let in. Nobody spared a thought for the old or the children. That’s human instinct for you.

Heindel watched it all with hollow eyes and said to me,

"...You are truly cruel, Baron."

"Cruel, when I didn’t kill anyone? This situation clearly doesn’t sit well with you."

"As a lord, choosing Wischelbach is only natural. Had you stood where this old man stands, you would have done no differently. And still you condemn me?"

"No, I would have done differently."

"..."

"I would have crushed the enemy before a situation like this could ever arise, and I would have protected those refugees. That is the difference between you and me. Hiding behind walls is what cowards do. Open the gate and take your people in. I won’t attack while you do."

The Lord of Wischelbach was overwhelmed, in a different sense this time.

Holing up in a castle when the odds are bad is a valid strategy too.

Condemning him was, of course, a provocation meant to drag them outside those walls. I even dropped the courtesies I’d been showing him out of respect. The heir looked ready to come flying out at any second.