Through Count Euz, I’d been informed of some Burgundian deserters who hadn’t been able to return to their homeland after the last war. They were causing trouble along the Euz-Burgundy border.

I remembered many of them being from Holland or Flanders.

But why were they still wandering around the area instead of going home?

Hilda, who had heard plenty from my father-in-law and Michael, cleared up my confusion.

"They probably can’t return home because of debt."

"Debt? Mercenaries take on debt to participate in a war?" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"They need their own funds to travel to a war zone, but mercenaries who love to spend lavishly aren’t likely to have saved any money. Most of them borrow from moneylenders to cover their travel expenses."

"So the plan is to earn money through plundering and pay it back when they return. But what if they die and can’t pay it back?"

"The moneylenders aren’t fools. Do you think they’d just lend the money? They’d hold collateral."

Right—the moneylenders, whom the Church, which classifies greed as a sin, considers the most evil people of all, wouldn’t simply lend money to mercenaries with a high probability of dying.

In the end, the recent war had ended very quickly.

Although it was small in scale, the war that should have lasted at least a month had ended in such a short time, so Euz suffered minimal economic damage. Thanks to that, the Euznirk family was quite favorable toward me.

I’d captured Count Épinay before the mercenaries even had a chance to plunder, and the whole army collapsed. As a result, the indebted mercenaries had nowhere to go and had taken to roaming around like bandits, committing acts of plunder.

So the mercenaries had their own circumstances.

But I couldn’t tolerate men who’d been reduced to bandits—especially ones daring to invade my fief. Winter was coming. They’d be desperate to procure food.

It was important to crush them before they reached Feuzen.

It was also a chance to see what level of levy my fief could muster. So I urgently rang the bells and had August summon every man capable of fighting.

"Eighty-eight Feuzen levies, all assembled!"

A total of eighty-eight men gathered in half a day, including seventy-five infantry and thirteen archers. There was a hunters’ hamlet in the densely forested mountainous region to the northwest. As it fell within Feuzen’s domain, its residents were included in the population of 278.

Within the Duchy of Beren, there were quite a few hamlets formed by small groups of hunters in the mountains and forests, as well as forest-keepers’ cabins. Hunters were elite troops, the first to be called up.

One of the manor’s storage rooms served as an armory, and the weapons and armor for the levies were stored there, but the equipment was in poor condition. Without a lord, the armory couldn’t have been properly maintained.

This was the first thing I needed to fix.

Given how close we were to the border, building strong soldiers was the most basic of necessities.

As expected, in times of crisis, problems that had been invisible became visible.

It was a mess, but a useful discovery in its own way.

The only soldiers equipped with chainmail were Chief Wentner and a few free men. These free men had served in the great war five years ago, but most of them now tended livestock.

The rest wore the thick leather combat outfits issued from the armory. They were armed with wooden shields, axes, and ordinary arming swords. They seemed even worse equipped than the Rosenheim soldiers I’d seen before.

The most promising thing was that there were thirteen archers, who are notoriously difficult to train. This was thanks to Feuzen’s location bordering Euz, with its many mountains and forests.

There had been quite a few archers in Euz too.

There had even been a battle where I’d protected them while blocking the enemy’s raiding force.

"Sir Einbeck, I leave Feuzen’s defense to you."

"On your behalf, my lord, I shall guard it without a single gap."

"Good. The rest of you, we ride out! Follow the order!"

Since I couldn’t completely empty the village, I left thirty men behind and took the remaining fifty-eight along with thirty-five knights of the order. Following Anton’s guidance, we moved northwest. We brought spare lances in preparation for a cavalry charge.

The levies’ faces were already tense.

Since I’d mobilized every fighting-age man in Feuzen, even a small disaster could shake the village’s very survival. August had been worried about this, but I considered it necessary.

I hadn’t brought the levies along to spend in combat, but to put them through campaign training. The main fighting force was still me and the Gale Knights. Of course, there might be times when they had to fight directly.

I entrusted command of the infantry to Oscar.

He’d proven his ability as a commander by leading the Rosenheim soldiers and earning merit. Ted assisted Oscar, and Wentner served as the bridge between the levies and Captain Oscar.

I’d thought the deserter band might flee while we were on our way, but they seemed to have made up their minds to fight. Fiel, who had been keeping watch, joined the command unit.

"What’s the situation?"

"They’re encamped in the forest. There’s been no notable movement yet."

"They went into the forest because they couldn’t outrun cavalry. Better preparation than I expected."

"They may be deserters, but as former soldiers, they’d have some training."

If they were just bandits, they’d be easy to handle, but our opponents had received some training and seemed to know how to deal with cavalry. The forest made cavalry operations difficult.

I checked the enemy’s information through the Commander Scouter.

Their combat power was 54, with morale shown in yellow. Our combat power was 75, with very high morale. By objective measures, it was a clear advantage for us, but the problem was that fighting in the forest put us at a disadvantage.

Meanwhile, the Feuzen soldiers were forming a clumsy formation under Oscar’s command. Flustered, Oscar personally positioned each man. Fortunately, the veterans among the levies came to his aid.

The veterans seemed at least familiar with infantry formations.

I’d had some hopes after watching them tenaciously hold off the bandits’ siege under August’s command at Feuzen before. But they didn’t seem accustomed to open battle.

"Their training is sorely lacking."

"It’s clear to me too. We’ll deal with that later. Send out the scouts first."

A lieutenant led a squad and made close contact with the deserter group. But the enemy didn’t attack. After confirming the enemy’s full positions, the lieutenant returned to report.

"Reporting, sir! There are many wounded, and their armaments are weak. However, they’ve formed a phalanx with sharpened wooden spears, so a forced breakthrough would be difficult."

"Hmm, they used their heads."

"There also appear to be prisoners."

"Prisoners?"

It seemed they’d taken prisoners while raiding here and there. But why drag prisoners around? If they couldn’t collect ransom, prisoners were nothing but cumbersome baggage.

I briefly considered whether I should rescue the prisoners on humanitarian grounds, but doing something reckless to save them might get my men hurt, so I had no choice but to set the prisoners’ fate aside for now.

If they survived, I’d send them safely back home.

"Does the enemy have archers?"

"It appears they don’t."

"Good. Time for the Feuzen hunters to step up."

After positioning Viktor’s and Fiel’s squads on the left and right, I advanced the Feuzen soldiers’ formation and gave the archers the order to fire. Since they were hunters accustomed to using bows in the forest, they hit their marks fairly well.

Block!

Aaargh!

The deserters tried to block the arrows with their shields, but as the number of comrades struck kept growing, their morale shifted from yellow to red. As a result, panic spread throughout the entire deserter group.

It was the perfect timing to deploy the cavalry.

I halted the archers’ fire, drew my cavalry sword, and shouted.

"Gale Knights, charge!"

When Anton waved the flag wide, the four squads led by Fiel and Viktor, who had been waiting on the left and right, surged into the forest with thunderous force. The deserters, their morale broken, collapsed completely.

Thud thud thud thud thud!

Aaaaaaah!

The Feuzen soldiers were overwhelmed by the sight of forty-some cavalry charging in to mercilessly trample the deserter group. Fiel, leading the vanguard with the banner-lance bearing the Streit crest of the Gale Knights, instantly shattered the right wing’s formation that had been desperately holding on with their wooden spears.

As expected of my prized vanguard commander.

His breakthrough power rivaled that of any cavalry commander.

Crack! Crack!

Aaargh!

This was the most textbook formula for victory: hit a demoralized army with arrows, and once the formation breaks, send in the cavalry to sweep them away. A few deserters who broke through came running at the infantry formation.

"Stay calm! Block with your shields and counterattack!"

At Oscar’s command, the infantry who had clashed with the deserters calmly eliminated them one by one. The expressions of the levies who seemed to be killing for the first time were a sight to behold. Fortunately, the veterans nearby steadied them. Calling up men without proper training would only lead to bloodshed.

If I wanted to use them properly, I’d need to design a good training program.

Rather than finding new occupations for the village’s young men who lacked proper jobs, it might be better to hire them as a standing army and train them as professional soldiers like the duchy army.

Watching the levies in action, I doubted they’d have much impact on the battlefield. I’d have to consult with Michael and ask him to dispatch a duchy army training instructor.

In any case, the standing army issue would require more careful thought.

As the battlefield was being cleared, one of the order’s members ran up to report.

"My lord! Vice Commander Falkenheim has rescued three prisoners!"

"Has he? They must have been lucky to survive."

To survive both a rain of arrows and a cavalry charge—they seemed to be fortunate prisoners indeed.