My Villains Episode 510
67. Lord of Icebowald (3)
As the soldiers approached with a threatening atmosphere, the faces of the men from Brinst turned white. At that moment, someone from the table shouted out loud.
“Darrete bastardus! Non gacem pales chosum!” It was ‘Iron Gloves’ Taggart who shouted in an unfamiliar language.
As his eyes focused on the table, the young boss sitting next to him bruised him in a low voice. The captain waved his hands as if he was tired of it, then shouted again.
“Stop fussing! Don’t turn like a dog. Come and work!”
It was a bit clumsy Gellan, but it wasn’t difficult to understand the meaning. The skilled soldier, who had strode closer to Alban, who was slandering his superior, timidly protested.
“But Captain, these country bastards are like bandits to the Captain-”
“What a joke! Bandit or thief, carry firewood!”
“ancient!”
At the captain’s awkward and funny pronunciation, the soldiers scattered with stiff faces. Taggart was once a loyal soldier of the Red Knight and is now a vassal of Dfelken. It wasn’t very wise to laugh at such a man.
“Be lucky.”
A soldier passed Alban and Egon with a low muttering. While the tall boy shrugged his shoulders as his bones grew brittle, the middle-aged man with a thick beard trembled for no reason.
“Hey, I survived thanks to the Milanol mercenary.”
Egon frowned and glanced at him.
“You were about to get beaten up, but you say that again?”
“There’s nothing I can’t do.”
Called in by the captain’s shouts, the soldiers handed out folded tents to all the recruits, or helped carry bundles of firewood tied with ropes. Perhaps confirming this, Alban’s voice grew a little louder.
“I am a man from Obdorf. Grandpa and brother were killed by Milanese bastards, can you keep your mouth shut?”
” ah.”
Egon, who had been looking at the middle-aged man with pitiful eyes, quickly became sad.
“I am so sorry. May they be at peace in eternal light.”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Was it only the blade war?”
“No, before that. My grandfather defended the plateau, and my younger brother attacked the plateau and died.”
Obdorf became the new eastern border of the empire after it was taken over by Lionel II, the King of Knights. For decades since then, large and small fights have continued, so the recent Bay of Blades War was not new either.
“If only the blade had lost my family in the war, would I have come here?”
“I guess so.”
Egon nodded obediently, but thought Alban was contradictory.
No matter when Alban’s grandfather and brother died in battle, the royal family of Zeore must have contributed greatly to their deaths. Of course, the wars that have been fought in the highlands and Obdorf for the past half century have not been ended by Zeore every time.
Starting with Lionel 1st, the ‘Baeknyeon King’, Lionel 2nd, the ‘King of Knights’, Adumir, the ‘Winged Lion’, and Aloth, the ‘Silver Prince’ Ulkar. All were Zeore.
And the red knight is one of the famous ‘Seven Knights of the Silver Prince’.
Few fools believe that the oath of vassalage that a red knight gave to the Imperial Prince is true loyalty. Everyone knows. That the red knight does not serve neither the king nor the emperor. He still serves the Silver Prince, who died in the spring of the year before last.
The story that one day, led by the Red Knight, Prince Silver’s subordinates would raise a large army to save the imprisoned princess, was already gaining popularity across the continent.
Alban is participating in training for such a red knight. Egon, of course
, had no intention of criticizing Alban .
If you were to criticize him, you would have to curse all the men gathered in front of the North Gate of Eisbo Balt.
Excluding the silver prince and his ancestors, well over a thousand people of Obdorf lost their lives to the red knight and his group. It was Obdorf’s blood that blossomed the red knight’s legendary reputation.
Even in the case of Egon right now, it was the same. During the last war, twenty-seven men were conscripted from his hometown, and fourteen of them lost their lives.
However, most of Egon’s subjects obey the new prince. Even those who are dissatisfied like Alban do not dare to resist.
The winter before last, several nobles and landlords hastily revolted, but since they scattered without fighting a proper battle, no one has drawn their swords.
Everyone bowed their heads at the terrifying bravery.
…No, that’s not all.
Taxes and compulsory labor were reduced, and churches and priests were established in the villages. Many manors collapsed and 30,000 serfs became free citizens. The conscription has expanded, but the chances of getting ahead have also increased.
The prince spent half of the year on the road. After the lord riding on the two-horned beast swept the entire territory, the thieves and monsters disappeared. Circuit judges and magistrates went around the village to watch the chief mareum. Three or four times a day as I walked along the Dayval Road, I would come across cavalrymen patrolling.
In this way, the people of the village succumbed to the rule of the enemy.
“Next!”
Egon suddenly came to his senses at the shout of a sergeant. It was the young sergeant’s kind voice that greeted the timid men of Brinst.
“Come on. Where do these people come from?”
“This is Brinst, Sergeant Major.”
“Aha Brinst. Wait.”
He started rummaging through the box full of papers.
“Wait a minute, Kratzen Soriff Bather Suende… uh no no-ah here it is. Brinst.”
The sergeant, who found a document full of lines, drew ink with a quill and gestured toward the men.
“Could you come out one by one and tell me your name? I need to check the roster.”
It was very fluent Gellan, though with an odd accent. While Brinst’s men went to the table in order, Egon took a close look at his boss.
Although he was very large, he seemed to be around twenty years old at the most. His chin was square, but his expression was innocent, and his light brown eyes were said to be as large as those of a calf.
Even though it was quite windy, he was wearing only a thin leather jacket and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. The exposed forearms were thicker than Egon’s thighs. Because of his large chest and back, the shoulder belt with the rank insignia was pulled tight.
“Here you are, Mr. Wolf. I like Toby. Mr. Albert… I found it. Next. Mr. Adan-”
The hand playing with the quill is not very skillful. It might seem awkward to see a muscular man the size of a bear perched on a small chair and fiddling with papers, but Egon didn’t feel uncomfortable at all.
“Adan Adan? You don’t have a name?”
“Yes yes? Is something wrong, sir?”
“well. It’s the data I got from the cathedral in Brinst, but I might have missed something…
As the young boss slurred through the documents, a young man named Adan cautiously opened his mouth.
“That’s because I was originally a serf in Barsabi, so I was baptized there.”
“Barsabi? Was it Romon’s manor?”
“Yes, that’s right. Sir Romon.”
After hearing the answer, the boss clicked his tongue as if he remembered something.
“What, sir, is just a greedy rat… Then, is Mr. Adan from the village that was attacked by the ‘Free Regiment’?”
“Yes, sir. The ‘devils of the blue flame’, those cursed heathen slaves, burned down the entire church.”
Ugh. Those people are too.” The boss sighed and muttered something in Milanese. Judging by the tone, it seemed like an insult. The captain who was sitting silently next to him also spat out harsh words, but the sergeant warned Adan instead of answering.
“Devil pagan slave. You’d better use those three words carefully. All three are not true, and the lord doesn’t really like insulting the ‘Blue Flame Battalion’ like that.”
“Ugh- I’m sorry Nari.”
“If you’re sorry, go to worship services. Yes, I wonder if this kind of troublesome work will be reduced
… Call your family members by name first. Oh, you are a farmer, right?”
“No, no. The logging and the charcoal mill alternate between jobs.”
“Aha, you must have been a great force in the Zellntree Pioneer Project. Aren’t these days the busiest time? Why in peacetime training?”
The serf, who became a freedman, replied hesitantly.
“That’s because I want to try a city tour.”
“So you came with both sides.”
The boss asked a lot of questions and filled out the documents before letting Adan go. The sergeant who was waiting put the men into pairs of four and distributed tents and firewood.
Egon hoped that he would have a chance to talk to his boss, as Adan had. But the young boss found the boy’s name all too easily.
“Sovanhaltz? They come from afar.”
“ah. Yes Nari.”
“Okay next.”
Egon licked his lips, remembering that a circuit judge had once visited the village and had set up an office, and that his sister had been the first to run up to the village to list the names of the family members and receive a bag of oats.
And instead of quietly stepping aside, the boy looked at the captain and the sergeant alternately and opened his mouth.
“Those men.”
“Hmm?”
“I want to join the combat brigade.”
“To the combat brigades?”
“yes. Officially as a soldier.”
Before the young boss could answer, Taggart snorted.
“What about a baby soldier?”
“…I am 17 this year. He is a grown man.”
“I can’t even use my strength because I’m skinny. Teaching something like you is a waste of money.”
As the boy froze at the ferocious gaze, the young sergeant stopped the captain with an awkward face.
“Brother, what are you saying? I also served the lord since I was seventeen.”
“Golman, you are a monster. I am not this skinny.”
“…Golman?”
Only then did Egon realize that the young boss in front of him was the ‘monster seed’ Golman.
A merchant with monstrous strength and a member of the ‘Security Guard’, which is known to have only twenty members. In addition to that, I heard that he was the closest aide to the lord, befitting his nickname.
“Not that skinny. If you eat well, you will gain muscle in no time.”
Perhaps misunderstanding the boy’s surprised expression, Goleman quickly comforted him.
“After training, visit the recruiting officer in the city. Then you’ll get a chance. Because the Red Army is always open.”
“I see.”
Egon nodded eagerly, noticed the sharp eyes of the sergeants directed at him, and moved hurriedly.
The sergeants of the training battalion mixed up the men who had gathered from all over Baekryong in the Defelken room and assigned a place to open the tent. Then they paired up with a nearby tent and formed a squad.
The four men, including Egon and Alpan, formed the 1st squad of the 1st Platoon of the 3rd Company with the 4 men from ‘Sore Reef’ in the east. As expected, the squad leader and deputy squad leader were soldiers with rank insignias for skilled soldiers and ordinary soldiers, respectively.
In less than an hour after Egon and others set up the tent, the 3rd Company was all occupied. There are a total of 140 soldiers, including the direct command of the company commander and three platoons.
In the case of the battalion under the combat brigade, a platoon of archers and a small number of cavalry, combat wizards, and chaplains were added to fill the total of 200 people.
Meanwhile, the platoon had a total of 40 people, including the platoon leader’s squad and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd squads. Egon’s platoon leader was a sergeant who looked to be in his late twenties. Since the sergeants were mostly young, they were older than that.
After the organization was finished, around the sun went down, the north gate of Eisbowald opened, and dozens of carts poured out. Half of the carts were filled with bread and pickled fruits, and half were filled with shabby iron helmets and spears. Conscripts received meals and equipment along with the soldiers’ instructions.
The day passed without hesitation, and the full-scale training began the next morning.
