Chapter 270
Chapter 270 – It Will Be Faster Soon. (3)
“Uwaaaaah!”
“It’s the Plunder King! The Plunder King has appeared!”
“Run away quickly!”
The villagers screamed and fled. The notorious reputation of the Plunder King made it so that everyone had packed a few belongings, ready to escape at any moment.
Since they were already preparing for migration, the people ran without even looking back.
The vigilante group was in the same situation. They had also received the lord’s orders to flee rather than fight when the Plunder King’s army appeared.
Ghislaine shouted loudly, swinging a club above his head.
“Smash everything and take it all!”
“Waaaah! Let’s loot everything!”
The knights were puzzled as to why Ghislaine was acting this way. They figured he was just bored or upset about something.
After all, they barely cared about how the territory was faring and were solely focused on their training.
So, they busily followed Ghislaine once again, without a clue.
However, a thought occurred to them while looting the village with Ghislaine recently.
‘This is… surprisingly fun.’
‘Am I perhaps suited to be a thief?’
‘For some reason, I want to keep doing this!’
Most of them were mercenaries or came from humble backgrounds, so even as knights, they couldn’t live as rigidly as the knights of other territories.
While Penris was much freer than others, there was still some discipline. Especially Ghislaine, who had a strict demeanor despite being a mercenary.
He would never allow anything to tarnish Ghislaine’s face.
Having lived bound by that name knight for so long, doing something so ‘bad’ again felt oddly liberating and uplifting.
“Waaaah! Smash it all!”
“The food in this village is all mine!”
“We are the raiders of the North!”
So they put all their strength into the act. No, they completely immersed themselves in their roles.
“Heeheehee! Catch them all!”
“Waaaah! Mommy!”
The masked knight let out a crude laugh as he chased a fleeing child.
“Kyaaaaah! No! Just my child!”
The child’s mother shouted in shock. The knight tripped as if he had accidentally caught his foot on a stone.
“Oh. There was a stone here?”
“Ahh, oh Goddess! Thank you!”
The mother, holding her child, hastily escaped while expressing her gratitude to the goddess. The people around, frozen in fear, failed to notice the knight’s awkward acting.
In such a manner, the Plunder King and his 40 thieves chased the villagers away, pretending to catch them just enough.
Bang! Bang! Boom!
Claude, wearing a mask, urged the knights.
“Faster! Break it all! Don’t be embarrassed if someone sees!”
Even though Claude was running wild, he was originally a scholar who ranked first at the academy. He really didn’t want to do such degrading things.
“Ah, why! This is fun!”
The knights giggled and diligently wrecked the village.
After smashing all the houses, they returned to the castle triumphantly with the food and materials they had looted.
Of course, on the way back, they changed into clothes they had stashed nearby to fool the people’s eyes.
And the people looked at Ghislaine and the knights returning to the castle with expressions filled with emotion.
“I heard our lord chased the bandits away.”
“They say there were over 500, but now it’s down to about 40.”
“Ah, how hard must it be for him every day to go out like that?”
Ghislaine waved back to the people with a tired look on his face.
Seeing that, the people couldn’t hold back their emotions and shouted loudly.
“Lord, hang in there!”
“We will be your strength!”
“I will enlist too!”
When the lord was struggling like that, how could they just sit still? Their current peaceful lives were all thanks to the lord.
Ghislaine also opened his mouth with an emotional expression.
“Just hearing your words gives me strength. You are the hope of this territory. Let’s join forces and drive away the enemies targeting our land!”
“Waaaah!”
The cheers echoed loudly, as this had become a daily occurrence, the enlistment rate skyrocketing day by day.
As soon as Ghislaine entered the castle, he asked Claude.
“Hey, how much did you gather today?”
“…Not much, it was a small village.”
Upon hearing Claude mention the amount of loot (?), Ghislaine replied with a discontented expression.
“What? That’s it? Come on, hurry up! Did we just take off with everything?”
“……”
Claude thought while looking at Ghislaine.
‘This guy is completely immersed in theft now.’
The lord was always the type to go wild, so it suited him well. But Claude wasn’t someone who would do such things.
He felt a sense of self-loathing for having been dragged into this against his will.
At any rate, thanks to the Plunder King’s activities, the perception of danger in the territory spread widely.
Nobody doubted it. In reality, cities and fortresses were overcrowded with soldiers on the move.
“Hurry, hurry! There’s news that the enemy is approaching!”
Dududududu!
Watching the busy soldiers, the people fell into worry.
“Is the enemy coming again?”
“Our territory has a lot of food, so everyone will want to take it. I hadn’t thought of that until now.”
“Is it raiders again? Or another lord’s reconnaissance team?”
A nearby old man approached one of the urgently moving soldiers and asked.
“What’s going on? Is the enemy appearing again?”
“It seems so. We’ve received orders to quickly move to the territory’s defense.”
The soldier replied seriously. Under these circumstances, they were just following the actual orders without knowing the backstory.
That’s how armies usually operate. They do as they’re told, regardless of what’s going on.
So the soldiers had no choice but to hustle, and the townspeople grew even more concerned watching them.
They could only vaguely think that the territory’s army was in serious trouble. If they lost their territory, they’d have to return to a life of poverty like before.
To them, it seemed their territory had already fallen into a state of war. Hence, the enlistment rate continued to rise.
Of course, after the soldiers moved, orders would eventually come down from above again.
— In defense, the lord intercepted the enemy. Return to original formation.
The soldiers would then breathe sighs of relief and hurriedly praise the lord.
“That’s our lord.”
“We should be the ones to help.”
“I heard another battalion fought alongside the lord.”
They hadn’t fought themselves, but other units had. Rumors like this circulated among all the units. Since there was a blockade on information exchange between the higher-ups, there was no way to check.
Observing the increasing number of enlistments, Ghislaine smiled satisfactorily.
“See, it’s working out. Our territory has plenty of people, doesn’t it?”
“Yes… It must be nice to be so popular. Gosh.”
“Are you jealous right now?”
“Of course not.”
Ghislaine smirked at Claude, who was sulking, and continued speaking.
“From now on, we’re going to enter full-scale training. Gillian.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Take charge of the training in the southern regions centered around Stonehaven Fortress. I will provide 100 knights to support you. I’ll take charge of training in the northern regions.”
“Understood.”
Since the soldiers were scattered all over the territory, one person alone, even Gillian, couldn’t train and manage them all. They had to share responsibilities over the areas.
The Stonehaven Fortress, as Ghislaine designated, was the largest and most crucial stronghold located to the south of the former Cabaldy region. Any invading enemy would inevitably pass through that location.
Though they had to divide the responsibilities, as the lord, Ghislaine could not be away from the castle for long. Thus, he left the training in the further southern regions to Gillian.
Of course, even if it was only the southern regions, it would be difficult for Gillian to manage thousands of soldiers alone. Therefore, he was also assigned knights of a higher level to assist him.
Ghislaine confidently articulated his training goals.
“The objective is to ensure every soldier becomes proficient in cavalry tactics. After that, I plan to select 2,000 who are accustomed to horseback and focus on training them in archery, then organize them as archers and archer cavalry.”
For Penris soldiers, cavalry was now a basic skill. However, it was still insufficient for the level Ghislaine desired.
“The rest will become familiar with spear techniques, swordsmanship, and shield tactics, so they can switch their roles in battle as needed.”
“What is the target period for this?”
“The target period is 3 months. I know it’s short, but we need to ensure they can participate in combat somehow within that time.”
“I will do my utmost to fulfill the command.”
It was a tight deadline, but it had to be done. One could never know when a civil war might break out.
Ghislaine quietly sighed, ensuring no one else noticed. Future events were changing rapidly due to him, advancing even faster than in his past life. He could not afford to let his guard down for even a day.
He looked around at all his retainers and continued.
“For now, I will set aside territory development and all policies, prioritizing soldier training. Focus on providing support so that our soldiers can concentrate solely on training.”
With that remark from Ghislaine, the preparations for war in the Penris Territory officially began. The training of the soldiers was the first crucial step.
The soldiers might grumble a bit, but they would likely endure the rigorous training. After all, they were people who had enlisted with the determination to protect their territory, so their morale was exceptionally high.
Now, they needed to be taught how to fight on the battlefield.
Enough to contend with the army of Harold Desmond, renowned as the strongest in the North.
With a confident smile, Ghislaine opened his mouth.
“The day we become the strongest in the North is not far off.”
Preparations to dominate the North were gradually nearing completion.
