My villains episode 505
interlude. 2 years⑴
“It must be a goblin, you fool!”
The young man put on an absurd expression as he looked at the middle-aged man who was very excited and yelled at him.
“So… the goblins appeared on the old man’s ranch?”
“That’s right!”
“That’s amazing.”
“Interesting? Are you curious? Fucking goblins ate three of my goats and sheep. Is that what a man named Daegwan would say?”
The young courier’s left arm had been cut off from the shoulder, and his neatly knotted sleeve dangled short.
“It is strange, it is strange. I heard that greenskins are very thin even in Baden or Winland to the north… How did they come to our manor?”
“It’s Booni’s job to find out right away!”
“Hi go.”
Bonnie let out a deep sigh. Then, with a skillful use of his only hand, he organized the stack of papers on the table.
“You slow, ungrateful bastard, can you do this to me? Do you know how much your father owes us to our ranch?”
“What do you owe my father to doing the delivery work for you?”
“How generously did I pay you? Seeing your brothers, they gave me an extra penny and did that.”
“Well, it must have been because my father did the job without saying anything.”
“But this guy-”
The middle-aged man’s name is Oron, and he is a rancher who raises about 100 goats and sheep.
The goat’s milk cheese and wool produced on his ranch sold quite well in the nearby big cities, such as Ollo Rinnech’s Earls Castle, so he was a wealthy man doing his own thing in this little manor.
“So what are you going to do?”
Booney, the one-armed governor of Lavalton, pushed the pile of papers aside.
He was checking the tolls collected from the three gates surrounding the manor and the roads leading to them. It had been delayed for nearly two weeks, so I wanted to deal with it quickly, but it seemed that I would not be able to concentrate on my work unless I got rid of the rancher who was running rampant in front of my eyes.
“What do I have to catch and kill?”
“A goblin? I heard it bounced along the Perth River to the back mountain.”
“So, do you want to leave those who preyed on Yeong-min’s precious property?”
“Do you search the hills after the goblins just because a few sheep are dead? Then people die
.”
“You can just order the mercenaries you have. Didn’t you hire them for this situation?”
“The mercenaries were captured to protect the village, because vigilantes alone are uneasy. Besides, there are only five of us,
so what?”
“The vigilante kids are busy too. And I’m sorry for just patrol for free, but do you hunt goblins? No, they are mercenaries and vigilantes in the first place, and if we send them all out, what will the village be like?”
“Why is this kid being so picky today? When I was catching a herd of kobolds not too long ago, they ran around so fast!”
“At that time, it even attacked the road and caused a commotion… Go and fix the fence. I’ll ask Uncle Waltham to check over there more often.”
“Because that’s not going to happen. And what kind of night view is an old man who can’t even take care of himself?”
“You have Pat.”
“He’s a pure slacker!”
Oron thought of Lavalton’s rich night watchman and blamed Booney while clicking his tongue.
“If Dylan had been there, would this have happened? He said he was very strong and agile even though he didn’t have cheap things. It’s not like guys these days, it’s heavy. If this had happened, he would have rushed to the mountain at once. If you’re going to send it, the other half will send the same older brother. Why did you send Dylan? Eh tsk.”
As the disgruntled rancher’s words got longer and longer, the one-armed governor sighed again.
It was Gunjuk who served as the crown prince of Lavalton until Bunny returned to his hometown with the letter of appointment he had received from the knight Nari.
As the son of Daegwan Jeon, he led thugs and almost exploited the manor. In those days, there were no residents who behaved like this.
Booney was the Marm appointed by the owner of the manor and was the one who rallied his friends from his hometown and hired mercenaries to drive out the Gunjuk gang. Nonetheless, the residents of Lavalton regarded the new crownee as Muldaebuni, the third son of Paul, the cartman of the lower town.
‘If this is a government post, it’s a government post, but it’s because it doesn’t have this much authority.’
It was natural for the residents of the manor to feel a sense of closeness as the young man who had left for mercenary work with his friends suddenly returned as a high official. Bunny didn’t necessarily hate it, but people like Oron in front of him tried to wield the young crown as if they were their masters.
‘I can’t. Even if it’s a little overbearing, I’ll have to fix it first.’
Booney was sitting in a small brick building next to the bell tower of the church. When they fight against the Gunjuk gang, they are temporarily indebted to the original Minister because they were burned.
Booney thought that the reason why his authority as a high official did not live was because of this shabby residence.
‘Since the day after tomorrow we are collecting the fees for using the mill and common stove, so I’m going to buy materials with it and start construction as soon as the harvest is over. Earl’s Castle also hired a couple of masons- no, then the cost would be too high…. I’ll have to ask my boss and decide. It’s time to write a letter.’
Bunny, who was lost in other thoughts for a while, found Oron whose face was gradually turning red and bluish, and quickly opened his mouth.
“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t think it was a goblin thing… It’s been several years since the great subjugation, and the greenskins have come down here. It must have been a few stray wolves.”
“How are you? Does anyone in Lavalton not know that my goats cry ferociously? They are not the ones to be bitten by wolves.”
“Anyway, it’s a goat. And if a real goblin came down, he would have been snooping around the wheat field or the laundry room.”
“That’s something you don’t know. If you know about goblins, how much do you know?”
“Anyway, I know better than you. There are well over thirty greenskins whose heads were broken with a pole hammer when my arms were fine.”
When Daegwan mentioned his mercenary days, the rancher was silent. It reminded him of the fact that the one-armed man in front of him was once a subordinate of the famous ‘bloody swordsman’.
And to Oron, the bloody swordsman was a person to be feared. Even aside from that notoriety. It’s a very natural thing. He was the owner of Lavalton.
Booney raised his hand toward a friend who had just opened the wooden door and walked in.
“Oh my dear. You came just fine Is there any house where the baby is missing?”
The young man hurriedly kicked in the door and narrowed his brows.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“A goblin appeared on Uncle Oron’s ranch.”
“A goblin?”
Lavalton’s vigilante leader, Wheat Farmer Jebern, burst into laughter. Then I glanced at Oh Ron.
“Do it in moderation, man.”
“what? What do you do in moderation?”
“Through the boonies, they feed the villagers.”
“When did this guy say I did that?”
“It was like that when the warehouse collapsed in the summer when it rained. You made a fuss so much that I helped you once, and you’re doing this again?”
“What warehouse? It was used jointly by the residents, so of course we should fix it together!”
“For common use, we only piled up wool from Mr. Horned Man’s ranch. Pay attention when others brush it off. Even the textile merchants from Linnech know that as your workshop.”
When Zeven, who has a strong personality, confronted him, Oron became very angry and began to rampage even more. When the two showed signs of a physical fight, Boonie swallowed curses and broke them apart.
“Stop it, stop it. I’ll figure out if it’s a wolf or a goblin.”
“how?”
“I’ll ask Mr. Gringore to search the area around the ranch with some mercenaries.”
“Ah, that’s not enough.”
“If we find traces of the goblins, we will mobilize vigilantes to catch them, so please wait for now. If you want to dig through the mountains quickly, the uncle hires a mercenary.”
“My son, that’s easy to say.”
Even though he is one of the richest people in Lavalton, he is Oron, the owner of a rural ranch. Even if he ran the ranch all year round, after deducting taxes and various other expenses, only about eighty silver coins remained.
But mercenaries were a bit expensive. Because the ransom price has risen since the War of Blades, skilled mercenaries are in a situation where they receive one silver coin per day.
Oron, who had no intention of spending such a large amount of money, continued to force himself, but Bunny shook his head resolutely.
“okay. That’s it, that’s it! You look like a mean person.”
The rancher, full of dissatisfaction, stormed out the door in a huff. Booney, tired in an instant, slumped down on the chair and slapped Jeban as if he felt sorry for him.
“That’s why he acted so easily from the beginning. If it’s a dwarf, you’ll have to gather up the cubs who don’t listen like a dwarf and beat them up until they’re about to be searched for.”
“Then what makes me different from Gunjuk?”
“Why should it be different? Isn’t your job after all to extract money from the manor and give it to the owner, sir?”
“No. If that was what you wanted, why would you return the money every time?”
At Bunny’s question, Zevon shrugged his shoulders without saying a word.
Since starting his duties around this time last year, the one-armed governor wrote three letters, and Phoenix, the owner of the manor, answered all three times.
Bunny collected the tax and rent collected from the manor each time and enclosed it in a letter. I wanted to be of some help to the owner who was out on the battlefield. It was for that reason that he sent Dylan, the manor’s most useful warrior.
However, Phoenix returned the money every time. It was also accompanied by a large amount of money, which is difficult to describe.
Phoenix ordered the money to be used for the manor and the people, and Booney complied with the owner’s wishes. They built gateways in the elements, built armories, rebuilt roads, expanded markets, and created new settlements.
It was thanks to him that the manor’s population, which had been less than six hundred, exceeded eight hundred this fall.
“So what happened to Orlodo?”
“Oh right.”
Zevon rummaged in his arms and continued talking.
“There was not much news from the royal capital. About the fuss over preparations for the coronation?”
“okay? Was it a rumor about a civil war or something?”
“civil war? Ah, that the second prince rebelled against the crown prince?”
“uh.”
“It sounded like bullshit. What kind of civil war is this guy who went all the way to Oakford to meet his brother’s arrival?”
The one-armed official nodded with a somewhat relieved expression.
After Prince Ulkar’s tragic death a few months ago, his territories, which had spread throughout Southernshire and elsewhere, were recovered by King Lionel III. And not too long ago, the king died of old age, and his successor, Zacharys, inherited all the lands.
Since Lavalton, where Booney was the crown prince, was a manor belonging to the Southernshire region, the entire area around it became Zachary’s domain.
Of course, Phoenix, the owner of the manor, never swore an oath of allegiance to the Crown Prince and even became a foreign lord. However, as a result of the complicated land situation, Bunny has to look after the governor who Zacharis sent down to Orlo.
“What’s this?”
The one-armed official accepted the note handed to him by his close friend and expressed his doubts.
“A man called the stable keeper of the monastery gave it to me. I didn’t even open it because I told you to look. I can’t even read it anyway.”
“A stable keeper? Which monastery?”
“Arras. I didn’t say who it was, but I noticed it was sent by a high-ranking person. Do you know anyone in the church?”
“no. I have no business with a priest.”
Bunny tilted his head and unfolded the note. As he read the text slowly, he opened his mouth as if his jaw had fallen out.
“why? what’s the matter?”
“Uh no.”
Bunny quickly crumpled the note and shook his head. His forehead was wet with cold sweat.
“never mind.”
“Isn’t it nothing?”
“It really is nothing. I’m just not feeling well.”
Jebbon narrowed his brows and asked again and again what was going on, but Bunny didn’t open his mouth to the end.
The unidentified note contained information that the Church of El Ganore would excommunicate the Red Knight within this month.
