I Reincarnated As the Third Son of a Count’s Family, Only To Find a Series of Funerals

12 – Battle of Silverwood Stronghold (2)

Complete destruction of the food warehouse!

Only 3 days’ worth of food remaining!!

No idea when reinforcements will arrive!!!

This is f*cked!!!!

“Lord Viscount… I apologize. It’s because of my foolish suggestion to treat the soldiers with beer…”

Satricia, who could be seen as the culprit (?) of this incident, apologized to me.

“No, it’s fine. I accepted your proposal because I thought we should reward the soldiers as you suggested. Anyway, it’s not a good time to blame anyone for this accident.”

The moment we start deciding whether it’s your fault or mine, there will surely be division among our allies. Unable to hide my embarrassment, I replied to Satricia, assuring her that it was okay.

But seriously, what are we going to do about this?

“Was the arsonist in the food warehouse apprehended?”

“At that time, the entire Southern force on guard duty was intoxicated and in a daze, so they couldn’t catch the culprit. However, we obtained testimonies regarding the culprit.”

“Oh? What did they say?”

“One of our soldiers stationed on the wall claimed that there was a trio who woke him up while he was drunk, asking where the food warehouse was. According to his testimony, the trio spoke Urmagnian fluently.”

“… And did he just politely answer that?”

“… I’m sorry.”

I left Patricia, who bowed her head, rolling her eyes and hurriedly thought about the soldier’s testimony.

So, let’s clarify the soldier’s testimony

1. The three people who set fire to the food warehouse are intruders from outside

2. The intruders were very fluent in Urmanian, so much so that the soldier could not feel awkward.

I was truly fortunate that through the testimony, I could learn that the fire in the food warehouse was not caused by betrayal or accident among us, but was caused by the intruders sent by the West Ben people.

If I had not known this fact, the atmosphere in the castle would have been very bad in finding the culprit. There could be unjust victims in the process of exposure.

The problem is that those who set fire to the food warehouse are very good at Urmanian. And probably, these guys are of Urmanian origin.

It’s not strange. Although they take the form of a nation, they practically swagger within each other’s territory, and they are fighting against the other swagger rankers, pretending to be mere strangers. People who popped up in the chaos of shrimp fight are representatives of the losers in the fight.

These losers are usually the ones who become bandits. Since their very existence is illegal, they have no choice but to maintain their livelihood illegally.

The banditry groups that have already turned into banditry cooperate naturally with the Kamusians. There’s no reason to refuse, other than the fact that their religions are different, both of them live by leeching others…

There is no need for Kamusians to reject cooperative local people. Nomadic tribes easily accept cooperative locals because no matter what, they are united under the guise of their nationality. The Mongolian Empire, which flourished by bringing together locals, owes its rise to this very fact. How can muscle-brained kids who spoke nonsense all their lives handle such complicated administrative tasks?

The problem is that, while three people can cause trouble, the fact that there is a spy in the castle itself is unsettling.

It would be difficult to expose these guys. If there were no problems, it wouldn’t be difficult to expose the spy through accent, dialect, and knowledge of the area. The problem is that right now, the opinion of the Lord’s peasants for our Duchy army and the Red Rose mercenaries is not in a good state.

Who protected them, who would have that nerve to make such an ungrateful gesture, but the truth is, we were largely at fault this time. It would backfire and ruin when we dig up spies in this situation.

“… So should we start exposing the spies who might be hiding now?”

“No, leave them alone. Capturing them will only upset the Lord’s peasants. If you see a suspicious person, report it, but do not engage in separate exposure work.”

“… Alright, I will do that.”

Patricia felt that the atmosphere of the Lord’s peasants was not good right now, so she obediently followed my words.

“Now, what should we do? My Lord.”

“… “

I remembered the conversation I had heard between Patricia and Peter, Patricia’s sub-commander.

‘… If the food runs out and no external support comes until then, we really have to step back.’

‘… I will make a decision then as well. Of course, I prioritize my family above all else.’

The deadline Peter had told Patricia was forcibly advanced by the burning of the food warehouse. If they have a conscience, they should not have betrayed us because of this incident, but the problem is that when a person’s life is at stake, they don’t care about conscience.

“At least Satricia has a conscience and will try to keep her faith until the end, but Peter and his mercenaries who agree with his thoughts may do anything unpredictable.

“First of all, keep your mercenaries in check. It’s not just the people of the territory who are worried about the recent fire at the food warehouse.”

“… Yes. I’ll make sure to tell the members to be careful.”

After discussing with Satricia, I left the room. Then Shijong-jang came up to me waiting outside the room.

“My lord, the mood of the people in the castle is not good right now.”

“I already know that it’s somewhat tense.”

“It’s not just that, my lord. There could be a rebellion if things go wrong.”

“A rebellion?”

“Yes. There are complaints among the people in the territory directly targeting our Silverwood Viscount.”

The situation seemed to have become worse than expected.

People in this era don’t usually directly threaten their superiors. They may be afraid for their own lives, but generally they think that those who rule them were given authority from the gods, so if they speak ill of them, they will be pushing against the gods.

Therefore, even a king is untouchable because he is on par with the representative of the gods, and viscounts like me also do not easily threaten each other for this reason.

Especially, people of this era have a different mentality from that of modern citizens who are ready to fight back anytime if they are treated unfairly. They are more likely to obey orders without questioning from their superiors, and therefore when some citizens are attacking our viscount pinpointing their anger, this is indeed alarming.

“The problem is that some of the people in the territory are instigating dissatisfaction with you towards other people. The triggered ones are then passing it on to others creating a cycle.”

Did these bastards really stay inside the castle to create trouble instead of leaving?

It seems that the sons of b*tches who burned down the food storage are inciting the discontent among our territory people. In such a situation, trying to suppress people who express discontent may only worsen the situation and cause them to rebel in the burnt house.

Ultimately, as there was no perfect solution at present, I had to give vague orders to Shijong-jang to try to calm down the local people as much as possible.

“I’ll come up with a plan, so let just try to soothe their dissatisfaction for now. Do not use aggressive methods.”

“I’ll do my best to calm down the local people.”

“Master!”

Gerardkyung, who gained great fame among the people as the result of the previous battle on the outer wall, would be of great help in calming down the local people if he showed himself.

“If Gerardkyung follows suit, the local people should calm themselves down. I’m sorry that we always put a burden on you.”

“No need to apologize. If I had persuaded you better at that time, this wouldn’t have happened…”

Gerardkyung seemed to deeply regret his failure to persuade me at that time.

However, I didn’t want to criticize him too harshly, unlike Satricia. I opposed to the idea of ​​serving soldiers with alcohol, and I believe that this is largely due to my age.

How did my responsibilities get this big?

Anyway, I never thought that these Westburn guys would be so vicious and persistent. Especially, why are these crazy Karmoos doing so much for Westburn?

Anyway, I roughly gave orders to comfort the local people while fumbling with my teacher’s words.

Although the urgent fire was extinguished, this type of response would not work for long. We needed to find a way to turn the situation around…

Can I really overcome this life-threatening crisis?

**

Westvern Viscountcy.

A massive flag with the emblem of the Westvern family’s red bear, is a landmark and an icon of the Westvern Viscountcy.

However, today, the flag flying over the Westvern Viscountcy was not showing a red bear.

Instead, the flag displayed a black eagle symbolizing the royal family of Yurmania.

King Richard of Yurmania personally led his army to invade Westvern.

As the main force of the Westvern army was scattered far from the Westvern Viscountcy, they could not resist and surrendered to the king’s army.

“Damn it! Let go, you bastards!!!”

Crack!

A soldier who forced Viscount Gates to kneel, saluted the figure in front of him and said, “Your Highness, I have apprehended the criminal Viscount Gates!”

Viscount Gates, who was kneeling in front of the king, looked at King Richard with indignation as if he was unjustly accused.

“Your Highness, how could I, a craftsman, commit such a crime?! And I have not insulted the royal family. I don’t know what misunderstanding you have, Your Highness?”

Richard completely ignored Viscount Gates as if he had never existed and instead indulged in his own thoughts.

Seeing how indifferent Richard was to what he had said, Viscount Gates was crestfallen.

As the silence continued, Richard tossed a piece of paper in front of the Viscount.

“This… this is…”

“I’m returning exactly what you said, sir. How could you do this to me?”

The paper was a letter he had recently written to his daughter.

‘I can’t believe it’s in the hands of His Highness…!’

Viscount Gates was momentarily dizzy. He had clearly instructed his servant to deliver it carefully, yet how did it end up in the hands of the king?

Richard looked at the flustered viscount with amusement, got up from his chair, grabbed the viscount’s chin with his right hand, and shook it left and right.

“Ugh…!”

“What have I possibly not done for you? Huh? Answer me. I’ve reduced your taxes, I’ve given you important positions for your son, and I’ve overlooked the invasion of the surrounding territories. What on earth is the problem?”

“Your, Your Highness…”

Richard grabbed the viscount’s chin, shaking it back

Lord Gates collapsed on the floor, a pathetic sight that he couldn’t have imagined just a few days ago. He eventually gave up; his life was already doomed to die in any case once this letter reached the king’s hands. If that were the case, then he had to save his children’s lives.

Lord Gates begged Richard as he crawled between Richard’s legs like a wriggling bug, “Your Majesty… I will apologize with my life, so please have mercy on my children at least…”

The servants of Westburn, who watched the scene, were shocked by their haughty owner’s appearance. Lord Gates, who was once considered one of the most prominent aristocratic families in the Kingdom of Yurmania, met such a miserable end.

Richard, satisfied with seeing Lord Gates’s pitiful state, finally said to him, “A child will not die for the sins of the father, nor will the father die for the sins of the child. How can I disobey what Changsing has told me?”

“Th-Thank you…”

“But unfortunately, your children will live a life no better than that of a peasant.”

“Y-Your Majesty?”

“Take Lord Gates out and parade him through the streets, strip him of all his land and possessions!”

“Your Majesty!! Your Majesty!!! Please have mercy!!!”

Despite Gates’s desperate pleas for mercy, soldiers under Richard’s command dragged him mercilessly to the execution ground.

This is how Westburn met its downfall.