The Third Son of a Medieval Knight Family Chapter 46 - Tribal Conflict (11)

When the army finally passed through the nauseating marshland and entered the eastern part of the principality, Viktor didn’t particularly feel like he had returned home.

Since he had never properly traveled anywhere beyond the vicinity of his village, it was just as foreign a land as any other.

However, even considering that, compared to what he had heard in rumors about the eastern landscape, the entrance to the east was… truly worlds apart, no exaggeration.

The young priest Anton let out a groan.

“Mmm… it seems the situation in the east is more terrible than I thought.”

“They’ve really made a complete mess of things.”

Viktor also looked around with a grave expression.

It was fortunate that his emotions didn’t show easily on his face, because if he hadn’t had such a personality, he might have already been gathered together with those who were retching over there.

A middle-aged mercenary with considerable experience unconsciously muttered.

“Fuck… these crazy bastards… is this something humans would do?”

Along the path leading into the east, rotting corpses were hanging in rows.

A person was hanging from a wooden signpost indicating the way to the largest village nearby, and below it, human heads that had already begun to turn to white bone were neatly stacked up.

And the faces of the corpses characteristically all had nose rings pierced through the backs of their heads while their skin had been flayed off, creating a horrific sight.

Since all their clothes had been stripped away, it was difficult to guess their status, but they definitely didn’t look like soldiers or mercenaries.

It was clear evidence of the massacre of ordinary people regardless of age or gender.

Eventually, a young knight who had been holding back well quickly dismounted from his horse and began retching.

Mountains of corpses with their scalps peeled off and crows circling above them.

The east had already become a hell on earth.

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“These insane bastards are clearly massacring the principality’s citizens indiscriminately, going beyond mere plunder!”

“The barbarian bastards aren’t the type to act like this… something must definitely be wrong.”

When one knight spoke with a cautious expression, another knight whose face had turned red and who couldn’t contain his anger flew into a rage.

“Are you trying to defend those bastards who are worse than dogs right now! What kind of war is this! This is nothing more than killing people for fun. Those eternally cursed bastards!”

“Look here, aren’t your words too harsh right now! Do you think I’m not angry too? But the current situation is clearly strange! We need to investigate the circumstances properly.”

“Is that what someone calling himself a knight should say! Ah, right. You’ve always bragged about knowing the barbarians quite well. You’ve been hanging around with these kinds of people, haven’t you? No wonder you’d know.”

“Are you finished talking! Follow me! It’s a duel!”

“Stop!!”

When Mikhail brought his hand down, the makeshift table placed in front of him shook as if it might break.

When the excited knights quieted down, he looked around the room with cold eyes and continued speaking.

“Everyone calm down. Right now, no matter how much we discuss this among ourselves, it won’t have much meaning unless we know how the east is operating. Does everyone agree?”

When the knights couldn’t say anything, Mikhail nodded.

“Good. Then let’s move on to a slightly more constructive topic. Keep in mind that I need to bring up appropriate agenda items to report to His Excellency from this meeting, and I’d like everyone to think a bit more before opening their mouths.”

Mikhail, who spoke coldly and cynically unlike usual, began to continue leading the meeting.

By nature, the Count, who often enjoyed participating in meetings and leading people, was temporarily away.

Even that hearty and energetic Count couldn’t easily overcome the shock of witnessing such a terrible scene and had no choice but to take some time alone.

In fact, not just the Count, but most of this expedition force was in a state of shock in their own way, even if they couldn’t bring themselves to speak about it.

It was probably because they had seen an aspect too different from previous wars.

Within the principality, of course, and even with countries outside the principality, conflicts had always occurred, and therefore wars broke out quite frequently, but basically the people who died in wars were participating mercenaries or soldiers.

Cases of touching the people of villages or territories were extremely rare.

The reasons for wars in this era were mostly in the greed of the high-ranking people for territory or honor.

Wars would break out for trivial reasons to gain a span of territory and a fragment of honor, but since the fundamental reason for waging war was ultimately to gain wealth and honor, it was foolish to touch the serfs or commoners who could be considered the property of that territory.

Therefore, although there might be people who were plundered by wartime requisitions or killed or injured by some soldiers’ misconduct, organized large-scale massacres rarely occurred.

Even nobles who held ill feelings toward their opponents would do the same.

If they did such things, they could immediately be branded as a vicious ruler by surrounding nobles and face coordinated attacks.

Moreover, the fact that they believed in the same faith as brothers in faith also played a part.

Although the difference in status was absolute, even if they were the lowliest people, if believers were killed indiscriminately, there was a high possibility of being excommunicated by the church.

For these reasons, among those gathered here, even veterans with much battlefield experience had hardly any who had experienced such large-scale massacres filled with pure malice.

They had to acknowledge that a war completely different from previous wars was waiting for them.

Heathens who didn’t care at all about killing their opponents without restraint, who had a weak concept of territory and were cruel enough to not hesitate to massacre in order to reduce their opponent’s strength.

The barbarians they had to face were precisely such people.

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Viktor was quietly inspecting the blade of his axe.

Since he had entrusted his armor to Lukovich for maintenance, he was dressed in ordinary clothes.

Viktor lifted his axe to check if the blade was well-sharpened, then suddenly spoke.

“Father, is something wrong?”

“Ah… Sir, how did you know?”

When he turned around, he could see Anton standing there hesitantly.

“I could see you reflected in the axe head. Please sit for a moment.”

“…Thank you.”

When Anton wearily slumped down onto the ground, Viktor also quietly put away his axe and sat in front of him.

“…Sir, may I ask you something.”

When Anton asked a question while looking at the ground, Viktor nodded.

“If it’s something I can answer.”

“You said you were from the east.”

“…The very eastern edge of the principality, a small village at the very end of the Uley region was my hometown.”

“I see… then surely you must have experience frequently clashing with those barbarians.”

Viktor shook his head ambiguously and scratched his head.

“Hmm… I don’t know about frequently, but I have fought them before.”

“How can they be so cruel? Do heathens truly have no human hearts? What wrong could those people have possibly done…”

It seemed Anton had received quite a shock.

Viktor straightened his posture for a moment, then looked at the young priest with slightly more serious eyes.

“Father. Hmm… I don’t have that much experience either. But may I offer some advice?”

Anton raised his head.

Although they had spent only a short time together, during that time he had witnessed this knight achieve difficult feats several times.

However, Viktor’s current appearance was not that of the knight who had been shining among such great glory, but gave the impression of someone who had somehow come from far away.

“The barbarians are called by one name, but they are actually composed of countless tribes. There must surely be numerous conflicts occurring among them as well, and there would be differences between tribes.”

Viktor continued speaking while recalling the young fox beastkin and old wolf beastkin he had encountered when leaving the village.

“I don’t know why they carried out massacres, but there may be circumstances of their own within that. One tribe might have gone out of control, or those who held grudges against the eastern people might have planned revenge. They say the east has always grown while fighting with the barbarians.”

‘Lord Kobarov was always catching barbarians too.’

From the depths of memories that now seemed quite old, the face of Lord Kobarov, who had been his father, also came to mind.

“However, Father. I dare say that such things don’t matter at all. There’s no need to worry about them.”

At Viktor’s sudden words, Anton’s eyes widened.

“They are human too. Even if they’re heathens, they’re not horned demons. I don’t know the details, but the principality must have also killed many barbarians in the process of pioneering to obtain furs. And in that process, how their tribes were divided, who were soldiers and who were ordinary tribespeople probably wasn’t very important.”

“Sir, those words…”

“How would they be any different? Father, what’s really important isn’t whether they’re human or demons, but the fact that they are our enemies, and what our goal is.”

“…”

“I am a knight. I may be fundamentally different from you, Father. But at least I think this way. Nothing else is necessary. War has already broken out with them and we must fight from now on. If so, whatever they do, whatever nonsense they spout, we just need to win the war.”

“Sir Viktor…”

“It’s not a matter of needing to take revenge on them, or needing to completely exterminate them from this world. There’s no need to be consumed by such emotions. Kill the bastards in front of you, and keep killing them…”

Viktor muttered while looking at the well-sharpened blade of his axe handle.

“Eventually, everything you want to achieve will be accomplished. If the barbarians are truly barbaric and merciless heathens as the name suggests, couldn’t we educate them after winning the war? If they’re the kind who absolutely cannot be accepted no matter what, couldn’t we really exterminate them or drive them out?”

“…”

“Now you understand, don’t you? That such talk has no meaning. Father. Remember this. How to define them, how to treat them, and what price to extract from them only gains meaning after winning the war.”

A violent aura began to emanate from Viktor’s body.

“In the end, the most important thing is winning the war. If we achieve victory, we can smash everything we don’t like about them. A knight only needs to think about winning.”

In his previous life, he had never experienced it directly, but there had been many incidents several times, even dozens of times more cruel than this.

Nationalism, total war, great wars and hatred…

Compared to the hellish war history of the past that had been highly developed, this level would be nothing.

It wasn’t that Viktor hadn’t received a shock, but he had memories and experiences from his previous life.

‘If you don’t like something, just smash it all.’

And unlike modern wars where no matter how much an individual struggles, it’s hard to change anything, in this era there was the possibility of changing the aspects of war and its results with one person’s power alone.

‘I have the strength to match that.’

If so, there was no reason not to do it.

“We’ll win. Win, and just change all the bastards we don’t like.”

Anton’s eyes narrowed.

If another knight had said such things, it would have seemed like violent and thoughtless talk, but because this knight before his eyes had said it, the story was different.

It was no longer the typical ignorant noise of knights.

Those words, spoken coldly yet calmly, were ringing in Anton’s mind like a divine revelation.

The gazes of the two men began to look toward the same place as if by chance.

Their destination, Radovitz, was not far away.