Chapter 187: Plunderers

Men who heavily exuded the smell of earth were gathered in a tavern, chattering away. They were residents of a village not far from the Arten outpost.

"Seems like the empire's troops aren't coming these days."

"Isn't it better if they don't come?"

"Hmm, I guess so. I heard that people have been dying building that strange bridge of theirs, huh?"

"Yeah, even the butcher's eldest son went to earn some money and died."

Occasionally, imperial soldiers would come down to the village to recruit workers, but the last time that happened was three months ago.

"Burp, that was a good meal. I got the bill today," a portly man said as he stood up and.

"Again? Did you find a treasure chest or something while you were plowing the field?"

"Haha, how nice would that be? Well, I’m happy as long as we all enjoyed a good meal."

The portly man just laughed off the comments and left the tavern to stagger back to his home.

"My goodness! Did you drown yourself in booze again?"

The man's wife who had been waiting at home frowned as he walked in.

"Did you feed our precious little pot of gold?"

The man chuckled as he sat in a chair, throwing his coat carelessly on the floor.

The wife sighed, picking up the coat from the floor and hanging it on the wall.

"Honey, it still feels like a dream. Never in my life did I think I'd hold so many gold coins in my hands," the man said coarsely.

"We should have never taken that money. How did this man become so lazy..."

“Ehem, don't say that. Anyway, did you feed it nicely?"

The wife only nodded at the man’s question. The man smiled contentedly, took another drink, and headed to the stable.

"Our little gold pot—oops, that’s not right, is it! Our precious Kylios."

The man said, looking at the horse in his stable.

Prrr.

Kylios glared fiercely. The attitude of this horse was so nasty that it took the man a whole month to get it to accept his hand.

"Man, if it weren't for the money, I would've already..."

Regardless, the man took good care of Kylios.

About two years ago, a wealthy warrior visited the man. Introducing himself as Urich, the warrior gave him a pouch full of gold coins and left this horse in his care.

‘He said that he’d pay me again just as much when he comes back to get the horse, hehe.’

The man became rich overnight but didn't spend the money willy-nilly. Bragging about money would have definitely attracted robbers. If the lord of the area heard of it, he could have very well found any excuse to confiscate the wealth.

‘Worst case, I could even sell the horse.’

The man sat on a stump in the yard, gazing at the stars. The pouch of gold that Urich had given him had given him massive financial relief.

The cool night air swept away the drunkenness.

Step, step.

Footsteps sounded in the darkness. The man flinched and grabbed a pitchfork that lay next to the stable.

It was always better to be safe than sorry. Life outside the city walls is fraught with danger. Even though there were guards who patrolled the area, it wasn’t like they could stop every single thief or bandit anyway.

A large shadow moved in the darkness.

"Remember my face?"

Urich the barbarian emerged from the shadows.

"Ah, good sir!"

The man dropped the pitchfork and welcomed Urich warmly. Urich was the very man who had brought him all this luck.

"Seems like you’ve taken good care of Kylios like you promised. It even looks like you’ve fed him well enough for him to gain some extra weight."

Urich slowly looked in the stable. Kylios neighed softly, greeting Urich.

"Of course, sir. I've fed him only the best. Even if I went hungry, I made sure this one didn’t..."

The man clung to Urich, flattering him.

"As you should! If you had mistreated Kylios, your head would be rolling on the ground by now."

"Ha, haha."

The man laughed awkwardly and looked at Urich. Since he was wearing a rather roomy cloak around him, it wasn't clear if he had the money pouch on him.

'D-does he have the money?'

When he actually thought about it, the man he was dealing with was a warrior of unknown origin. Who would catch him if he decided to kill a farmer on a random night and run away? The guards dozing off inside the city walls wouldn't know a murder had occurred until the next day.

"Seeing you makes me nostalgic."

Urich murmured as he stroked Kylios' muzzle.

'Mercenary Urich.'

There was such a time. Urich once mingled with the civilized people, feeling joys and sorrows. He shared friendships through his exchanges with them.

"Life is so unpredictable. We don’t even know what’s gonna happen tomorrow, isn’t that right?"

Urich said to the man standing beside him.

"Of course, sir. But, about that thing you promised..."

"Ah, I know. Yes, that's the most important thing."

Urich reached into his cloak.

The man tensely focused on Urich's hand with all of his senses alert. He was ready to run away at the sight of any weapon.

Ssssh

.

Urich pulled out a pouch of gold coins and tossed it to the man.

"T-thank you, sir! May Lou’s blessings be with you! If there's anything like this next time, j-just leave it to me again!"

The man checked inside the pouch.

'So many hundred-thousand-gild gold coins!'

It was much more money than he had expected. The man dropped all of his suspicions and bowed repeatedly to Urich.

"Ah, and since you took such good care of Kylios, I’ll let you in on one thing."

Urich said as he saddled up. The man, who was busy counting the gold, looked up.

"Yes?"

"Pack your stuff and leave this village tonight."

"What do you mean...?"

Urich mounted Kylios without answering the man. He rode off into the darkness.

Jingle.

The man stood dazed, watching the direction Urich had disappeared to.

'It doesn't sound like empty words.'

He went inside to wake up his wife, who had just fallen asleep.

"Honey."

"We're too old to be getting up in the middle of the night to do that stuff."

"No, that’s not... We need to leave here before dawn. Let's spend the night at the hunting cabin."

"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"

"The man who left the horse here came back to give us the rest of the money and warned us that we’d better leave the village. It’s the warning of a man who casually throws around hundred-thousand-gild gold coins like it’s nothing. We can’t just ignore it."

The man opened the pouch of gold and showed it to his wife. After seeing the money, his wife quickly got up.

"I knew it wasn't right to receive that kind of money. Who gives away such a fortune for just looking after a horse?"

Although she was muttering complaints, the wife quickly dressed up.

The farmer couple, with their ten-year-old son on their back, fled into the night. They spent the night in a cabin deep in the woods far away from the village.

"A-ah."

The man was dozing off, then gasped upon opening his eyes. He saw a bright light spreading from his village.

The village was burning.

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

* * *

Perhaps, the eastern advance of the alliance army was inevitable all along. The west, not yet settled into agriculture, always suffered from a shortage of resources. If the military force that was united under the name of the alliance did not eventually venture out, they would have had to resort to turning against their own kind again.

The villages on the outskirts that didn’t belong to a kingdom barely had a thousand residents. The only law enforcement they had was the patrol sent occasionally by the lord, and the order within the village was maintained by local militias similar to a youth league.

The tribal warriors knew that the darkest time of the day was just before dawn.

Schring.

Warriors gazing into the village from a distance armed themselves. The metallic sound was clear and resonant.

The armament of the warriors was significantly better than in the past. Instead of crude tribal armor made of wrought iron, they used high-quality armor that was made in the empire. Some of the higher-ranking warriors even wore steel armor.

'I am stepping foot onto this land once again, but this time, I’m doing so with my brothers.'

Urich had entrusted Kylios to the civilization mercenaries. He stood side by side with the other warriors.

‘I didn’t think this would be how I made my return.’

Urich smiled faintly. The warriors came here for plundering and destruction.

"Let's let them know that we have arrived!"

The warriors stood up and roared.

"Oh, ooooooh!"

"Woahh!"

The warriors were ruthless. They had been invaded by civilized people. A blood reprisal was only natural.

"Urich, there is no need for you to step in. It's a trifling battle."

Samikan stopped Urich, who was about to join the fight. Urich was born a warrior, and he was fully intending to fight alongside his brothers.

"Even a trifling battle is still a battle."

"Now, you and I are no longer merely the chiefs of our tribes. I am the Great Chief and you are my brother and the Son of the Earth. We are symbols to these warriors. Participating in every small battle won't help us draw the warriors' morale for the big battles. We need to refrain from these small battles and preserve ourselves for the significant ones. That way, we can give the impression that if Urich and Samikan are fighting, then it must be a significant battle of great importance."

Samikan spoke calmly. Urich loosely dropped his tone and sheathed his sword.

"That makes sense."

Urich nodded in agreement without a fuss.

'Indeed, there's much to learn from Samikan.'

Samikan had more experience than Urich. Unlike a typical tribesman, his perspective was especially broad, making him adept at political scheming. He would manage to survive even if he was thrown into the society of nobility.

"Woooaaaaaah!"

"We are here!"

"No mercy! No mercy!"

The warriors raided the village as they roared. Soon, the village was ablaze and screams spread far and wide.

"Kill the men and take the women!"

The village was completely taken over by the warriors before the dawn broke.

"How pitiful. Do they not have a single warrior among so many people?"

Urich, Samikan, and the other tribal chiefs entered the captured village.

The warriors had already gathered loot and dragged the fleeing women by their hair into the houses.

"Most of these people are farmers. Except for professional soldiers, civilized people rarely get a chance to handle weapons in their lifetimes. At most, they are conscripted and sent to the battlefield to serve as mere arrow fodder. Even that has become rare with the long peaceful times."

Urich explained calmly. Initially, he had the same thoughts as the other tribesmen.

'They’re probably thinking that civilized people are weak and fragile. In terms of being a warrior, they’re not wrong. Even if a hundred able-bodied men gather, it would be hard to find one who knows how to fight properly.'

Having grown up in a society where being a man equated to being a warrior, Urich too viewed non-warrior civilized people with disdain. However, being strong in civilized worlds didn't just mean muscle and metal.

'Every farmer who is dying right now sustains countless lives. Unlike warriors, who at most support their own family, one farmer feeds other civilized people who then contribute to society in other areas. This is what leads to the advancement of civilization.'

Urich was obsessed with agriculture for this very reason. A civilization settled in agriculture was always Urich's object of envy. The golden wheat fields produced by the farmers were more beautiful than any jewel that he had ever seen.

Even the mercenaries from civilization participated in the looting like the barbarians. Although they were civilized people, they were slaves with little to no education. If they hadn't joined the alliance army, they would have ended up as bandits, anyway.

Urich walked through the village filled with madness and chaos. He checked if the farmhouse where he had left Kylios earlier had safely evacuated.

'There are signs they packed up. They took my warning.'

Urich felt no moral qualms about looting. Looting was simply one of the many ways of making a living by shedding blood.

"Ughh."

There was a sound outside the farmhouse. Urich, holding his axe, walked toward the source of the sound.

"Please, please, please.”

A murmuring voice came from a wooden barrel that was sitting in the corner.

Click.

Urich opened the lid of the barrel to check inside. Inside the barrel, a girl was huddled up, shivering.

Urich and the girl's eyes met. The girl looked at Urich as if she was about to faint, soaked in urine.

"...If you can't keep your voice down, bite your hand to stifle it."

Urich advised, then closed the lid of the barrel again. However, the sobbing sound didn't go away. If the warriors came here, there was no chance this girl was going to make it through the night in one piece.

Urich looked at the warriors running in from the opposite side.

"I saw some of them carrying stuff and running that way. Go after them, there might be something."

Urich said to the warriors. He then started smashing the nearby walls and throwing furniture around to make it look as though the area had already been plundered.

‘I must be going insane. What a meaningless thing I just did.’

The village was being plundered anyway. People were dying in droves, and such events were only going to repeat countless times in the coming future.

‘

...But maybe, to this girl, it’s probably not meaningless.’

Urich closed his eyes. A piece of mercy that he had learned from the civilized world was added to Urich's scale.