The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations - Chapter 270
Chapter 270: It’ll Get Faster Soon (3)
“Uwaaaaagh!”
“It’s the Plunder King! The Plunder King has appeared!”
“Run away, quickly!”
The villagers screamed and scattered in all directions. The Plunder King’s infamy was so widespread that everyone had already packed their belongings in preparation for an imminent escape.
Since they were already planning to relocate, they fled without even looking back.
The village militia was no exception. They had also received strict orders from the lord to avoid engaging the Plunder King’s forces and to retreat immediately.
Ghislain, holding a club in his hand, shouted loudly.
“Destroy everything and take it all!”
“Yeahhh! Let’s loot it all!”
The knights didn’t fully understand why Ghislain was acting this way. They assumed he was simply bored or displeased with something again and brushed it off casually.
They paid no attention to the workings of the estate and spent their days solely on training.
Thus, they were preoccupied with blindly following Ghislain’s orders.
Recently, however, while raiding villages alongside Ghislain, a thought began to cross their minds.
“This is… surprisingly fun.”
“Could it be that I’m naturally suited for this kind of work?”
“I don’t know why, but I want to keep doing this!”
Most of them, being mercenaries or of humble origins, couldn’t live as rigidly as knights from other estates, even after earning the title of knight.
Although Fenris was considerably freer compared to the other estates, it still had rules, particularly under Gillian’s strict supervision. Despite his mercenary background, Gillian was stricter than anyone else.
He absolutely would not tolerate any disgrace to Ghislain’s reputation.
For so long, they had been bound by such discipline as knights, and now, indulging in these ‘bad deeds’ for the first time in ages felt liberating and exhilarating.
“Yeahhh! Smash it all!”
“All the food in this village is mine!”
“We are the Plunderers of the North!”
The knights became wholly engrossed in their roles, performing with unparalleled zeal.
“Heeheehee! Catch them!”
“Waaaah! Mommy!”
A masked knight let out a crude laugh as he chased after a fleeing child.
“Nooo! Not my child!”
The mother shrieked in terror. Sensing he was getting too close, the knight deliberately tripped over a rock.
“O-oh no! There’s a rock here!”
“Oh, thank the Goddess!”
Clutching her child tightly, the mother hurriedly fled while thanking the Goddess. The villagers, paralyzed with fear, failed to notice how awkward the knight’s acting was.
With such antics, the Plunder King and his 40 thieves eventually drove out the villagers and began demolishing the houses.
Boom! Bang! Crash!
Claude, also masked, urged the knights on.
“Quickly! Smash everything! What if someone sees us? It’s embarrassing!”
Despite his rough behavior, Claude was a scholar who had graduated as the top student of the academy. Engaging in such undignified acts was utterly humiliating for him.
“Ah, come on! It’s fun!”
The knights laughed and eagerly wrecked the village.
After thoroughly destroying the houses, they returned triumphantly to the castle with the food and materials they had looted from the village.
Of course, they changed into clothes they had hidden nearby to conceal their identities before returning.
Upon seeing Ghislain and the knights returning, the villagers looked at them with teary-eyed gratitude.
“Our lord chased away the band of thieves.”
“There were over 500 of them, but now it’s down to around 40.”
“Ah, how hard it must be for him to go out every day like that.”
Ghislain waved at them with a weary expression, and the villagers were overcome with emotion, cheering loudly.
“My lord, stay strong!”
“We will support you with all our might!”
“I’ll enlist too!”
With their lord working so tirelessly for their safety, how could they remain idle? Their peaceful lives were all thanks to him.
Ghislain, with a look of heartfelt gratitude, addressed them.
“Your words alone give me strength. You are the hope of this estate. Let us join forces to drive out the enemies who threaten us!”
“Yeahhhhh!”
Their cheers shook the castle walls. This daily occurrence caused the enlistment rate to rise steadily.
As soon as they entered the castle, Ghislain turned to Claude.
“Hey, how much did we get today?”
“…Not much. It was a small village.”
When Claude reported the amount of ‘loot,’ Ghislain scowled.
“What? Is that all? Hey, we need to move faster! Did they take off with everything?”
“…”
Claude looked at Ghislain and thought to himself.
“This bastard… he’s completely immersed in this banditry act.”
The lord had always been an unconventional individual, so this role suited him well. However, Claude couldn’t help but think that he wasn’t meant for such things.
Dragged into these antics against his will, he begrudgingly went along. Still, every time he participated, he was overcome with a sense of self-loathing.
Thanks to the Plunder King’s escapades, the perception that the estate was under threat had spread far and wide.
No one doubted the danger. The constant activity of soldiers moving between cities and fortresses made the situation look legitimate.
“Hurry up! The enemy is approaching!”
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
As they watched the soldiers bustle about, the villagers grew anxious.
“Are the enemies attacking again?”
“Our estate has plenty of food, so they must all want to take it. I can’t believe we didn’t think of this before.”
“Is it the raiders again? Or maybe reconnaissance troops from another lord?”
An elderly man approached one of the busy soldiers to ask.
“What’s going on? Are enemies attacking us again?”
“It seems so. We’ve received orders to quickly relocate to the estate’s borders,” the soldier replied with a serious expression.
Of course, the soldier wasn’t aware of the real situation. He was simply following orders without question.
That’s how armies worked. Soldiers didn’t need to know the reasons—they just followed commands.
Thus, the soldiers moved hurriedly, and the sight only deepened the villagers’ worries.
It was said the estate’s army, which they had relied on so heavily, was now facing significant difficulties. If the estate were to fall into enemy hands, they’d have to return to the impoverished lives they had lived before.
To them, it seemed the estate was already in a state of war. This belief drove enlistment rates to rise even further.
Eventually, after the soldiers had mobilized, new orders would arrive from above.
— “The lord intercepted the enemy at the border. Troops, return to your original stations.”
The soldiers would then breathe a sigh of relief and praise the lord.
“As expected of our lord.”
“We should be supporting him.”
“I heard other units fought alongside the lord.”
Even though they themselves hadn’t fought, rumors would spread that other units had. Since the upper command controlled information exchange between units, there was no way to verify the truth.
Watching the steadily increasing number of volunteers, Ghislain grinned with satisfaction.
“Good, there’s not much left now. Let’s give one final performance.”
The forced relocation of all villages was now complete. No small villages remained in the Fenris estate where spies could potentially hide.
All populated areas were limited to cities and fortresses.
This made rallying people during wartime far quicker and more efficient. The same applied to the transport of supplies.
It was a plan that was ruthless, focused solely on maximizing war efficiency—just as one would expect from Ghislain.
While boosting enlistment rates, he had also wrapped up the lingering relocation project.
“Let’s go! Don’t make any mistakes!”
Ghislain and his knights, returning from their final excursion, were covered in red-stained bandages.
Belinda had prepared the bandages using a special spicy seasoning that gave them a vivid, blood-like hue. The pungent smell rising from the bandages turned the knights’ noses red and left their eyes teary.
The villagers, upon seeing them, looked on in disbelief.
“O-our lord is injured.”
“Isn’t he rumored to be a Sword Master?”
“There were too many enemies this time. Maybe they had strong knights as well.”
The villagers stomped their feet anxiously, looking at the knights with worried expressions. Ghislain and his knights, their limbs limp and heads hanging low, seemed utterly exhausted.
When a large enough crowd had gathered, Ghislain concentrated mana into his foot and drove it into Black King’s side.
Hiiiiiing!
Startled by the gut-wrenching pain, Black King thrashed and neighed furiously. Taking advantage of the timing, Ghislain allowed himself to fall from his horse.
Thud.
“Urgh!”
“My lord!”
As people rushed toward him in alarm, Ghislain raised a hand weakly.
“I-I’m fine…”
At that moment, an enraged Black King snorted and kicked the fallen Ghislain with his hind leg.
Thwack!
“You little…”
Though Ghislain glared at Black King briefly as he rolled on the ground, he restrained himself. He was in the middle of a performance and couldn’t afford to break character. He transformed his anger and frustration into an expression of pain and let his head droop once more.
“My loooord!”
The people screamed.
Their lord—who cared for them with such love, who fed and sheltered them—was now in this pitiful state. It was heartbreaking to see him suffer so much.
Some even collapsed to the ground in tears. This was especially true for the elderly who had lived in the estate for a long time.
To them, the lord was their savior and the benefactor of their lives.
The Lord’s Calculated Masterstroke
At that moment, Ghislain mumbled, his voice oddly clear and piercing, as if it reached everyone present with unnatural precision.
“Ugh… If only we had a few more soldiers… Our estate’s forces are so severely lacking…”
With those words, he closed his eyes and feigned unconsciousness.
The knights watching clenched their lips in mock indignation.
“If I laugh now, I’m dead.”
“Hold it in, hold it in… Please, I beg you.”
“Mom, Dad, I miss you.”
Claude squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away, looking as though he were holding back tears.
“This is too embarrassing to endure.”
Beside him, Wendy bit her upper lip and stared up at the sky to suppress her laughter.
Soon, Belinda and the castle servants came rushing out in a flurry.
“Kyaaah! M-my lord! What should we dooo!”
Belinda’s scream echoed as Gillian hoisted Ghislain over his shoulder and strode into the castle. His face had turned beet red.
This kind of theatrics didn’t suit Gillian’s nature at all, but he couldn’t undermine what Ghislain was trying to accomplish.
Clamping his mouth shut, he remained utterly silent, determined not to make any mistakes. Thankfully, the estate residents mistook his rigid expression for one of barely restrained anger.
Nearby, Alfoi and Kane, who were moving construction materials, clicked their tongues as they watched the lord and his retainers pulling off this grand deception.
“Tch, tch. What a spectacle.”
Regardless, the rumor that the lord had been gravely injured while fighting spread like wildfire across the estate.
A Surge of Patriotism
A massive enlistment campaign sprang up among the residents.
“We must protect our lord! Let’s give him our strength!”
“We must defend the estate! If not us, who will? If we lose it, we’ll return to the lives we lived before!”
“Any able-bodied man should enlist in the estate’s army!”
The term of service for the estate army was 10 years—comparable to other estates.
Though this was a long commitment, no one hesitated. With determined expressions, they signed up in droves.
Astounding Numbers
Sometime later, Claude reported the results to Ghislain.
“…The number of soldiers, excluding knights, is about 12,000. This exceeds our target— Wait, dammit! What is this? How is this even happening?!”
Claude suddenly burst out, unable to contain his frustration.
He had known the lord was popular, but this level of devotion was beyond comprehension. It seemed like everyone in the estate loved, respected, and adored the lord.
What infuriated him even more was how such blatant theatrics worked so well. He couldn’t help but feel a surge of jealousy, wishing he could be as beloved.
“Ugh. Anyway, with the knights, elves, and the Labor Assault Team included, the total force exceeds 13,000.”
Currently, only Raypold and Harold Desmond’s forces in the north could muster larger numbers.
Taking into account the knights and the newly upgraded equipment, Fenris could now rival the two northern powerhouses in military strength.
Of course, most of the new recruits were little better than conscripts. They would need extensive training to become elite soldiers.
Ghislain nodded in satisfaction, a smile spreading across his face.
“See? I told you we have plenty of people in our estate.”
“Yes… You must be thrilled with how popular you are. Lucky you. Really lucky.”
“Are you jealous?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
Ghislain clicked his tongue at the grumbling Claude before continuing.
“Now, it’s time to begin full-scale training. Gillian.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“You’ll oversee training in the southern region, focusing on the Stonehaven Fortress. I’ll assign 100 knights to assist you. I’ll personally take charge of the northern region’s training.”
“Understood.”
Since the soldiers were spread across the estate, it was impractical for Gillian alone to oversee their training. Ghislain divided the estate into manageable zones and assigned tasks accordingly.
Stonehaven Fortress, located in the southern part of the old Cabaldi territory, was a critical stronghold. Any invasion would inevitably pass through it.
Though the zones were divided, Ghislain, as the lord, couldn’t stay away from the central castle for long. Thus, he assigned the more distant southern region to Gillian, providing knights to assist him with the overwhelming task.
The Training Plan
Ghislain laid out his ambitious goals without hesitation.
“All soldiers will be trained in horsemanship until they become proficient. From there, I’ll select 2,000 who are most comfortable on horseback for intensive archery training. They’ll then be organized into archers and mounted archers.”
For Fenris soldiers, basic horsemanship was already standard. However, Ghislain demanded a much higher level of skill.
“The rest will continue to train in spear techniques, swordsmanship, and shield tactics, just like our existing troops. The goal is to ensure they can adapt to any unit type and excel in combat under any circumstance.”
“What’s the timeframe?”
“Three months. I know it’s tight, but within that time, they must be ready for battle.”
“We’ll do everything possible to meet your orders.”
Though the timeframe was challenging, it had to be done. No one could predict when civil war might break out.
Ghislain exhaled quietly, making sure no one noticed. His actions were accelerating the timeline, pushing events ahead of what he remembered from his past life. There wasn’t a single day he could let his guard down.
Surveying his gathered retainers, Ghislain spoke decisively.
“For now, put all estate development and policies on hold. Focus entirely on supporting the soldiers’ training. Make sure they can devote themselves fully to it.”
With that declaration, Fenris Estate’s preparations for war officially began. The soldiers’ training was the first step.
Though the soldiers would find the training grueling, their high morale ensured they would endure. They had enlisted with the determination to protect the estate, and they were ready to give it their all.
Now, they had to be trained to fight on the battlefield.
Trained to stand against even Harold Desmond’s forces, considered the strongest in the north.
Ghislain grinned confidently and said,
“The day we become the strongest in the north is not far off.”
Step by step, preparations to conquer the north were falling into place.