Your votes keep this climbing.
Thanks!
Field was dumbfounded.
What kind of person was this?
“Fuck!” Field was pissed.
Butler Kao shrank back.
What he’d been holding his tongue about was exactly this, Baron Bull and his son were both bad news.
“Wait!
You’re the Baron of Nightfall Territory?
Perfect.
Finally someone to act as a buffer for my fortress.
Hope you can survive a couple more days!
But when the Rotting Corpses come chasing you down, don’t come bothering me.
I’m not opening the gate.”
The man on the city wall, prompted by his advisor, had remembered Field.
Unfortunately, all he’d thought of was using Field as a strategic buffer for Kashan Fortress.
The butler couldn’t hold it anymore.
He leaned in and murmured, “Baron Bull’s only son, Richard Bull, is known as ‘the Coward.’ Let’s just not engage with him.”
“Well said.
No point arguing with a fool.” Veins rose on Field’s forehead.
He stepped back slowly.
“So that’s how everyone wants to play it.
Fine.
I won’t hold back either.”
“Open the gate to Nightfall Territory yourselves!
It’s perfectly safe in there.” Richard called out, then retreated into the castle.
“Now get out of my sight!
Filthy outsiders.”
The advisor beside him wiped cold sweat.
“Young master, deceiving them like this, isn’t it…”
“Shut up!”
Field put some distance between himself and the fortress, then told everyone to wait.
“I now understand why Rotting Corpses have appeared here.” The corner of his mouth twitched as he straightened the longsword at his waist.
“Thank the gods the Orcs are blocked by the Gray Mist and bound by the Peace Treaty.
Otherwise the Empire’s proudest defensive line would be a joke.”
“So, esteemed Lord…
we’ll be taking our leave now.” The villagers gathered around, awkwardly nudging each other.
None of them wanted to court disaster, Baron Field looked furious.
In the end, not daring to simply bolt, they shoved one person forward as a spokesman.
“We’re leaving.
Thank you for your help.”
Field was still seething.
Just because he’d come from modern society didn’t mean he’d let people walk all over him.
His eyes dropped low, cold and hungry, like a wolf about to lunge.
His voice came out soft and dangerous.
“Did I permit you to leave?
Your lord abandoned you.
So I’m taking you in.”
Free labor.
Perfect.
“Ah?
No, no, my Lord, please — we’re Freemen.” The villagers were completely unwilling.
From what Richard had just said, Field was heading to Nightfall Territory, a cursed land soaked in death.
Going there meant dying.
That was just a fact.
“I can let you go.
Five gold coins each as a ransom fee.
I saved your lives — this is what I’m owed.” Field drew his longsword without a hint of courtesy.
“Either come with me to Nightfall Territory, or pay up.
Otherwise I’ll chop you into minced meat and feed you to the dogs.
Do you hear me?”
“Heh…
so he really is a noble after all.”
Ashina, standing to the side, breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
These past few days, Field’s warmth and gentleness had made her deeply uneasy, like she was living in a dream she’d wake from any moment.
Now, seeing him bare a noble’s vicious and shameless teeth, she finally felt settled.
The villagers had the same reaction.
Threatened, they buckled.
One by one they dropped to their knees and asked to go to Nightfall Territory.
Going meant death, staying meant death.
Might as well try their luck.
“Spineless wretches.”
Field sheathed his sword and covered his face, sighing to himself: a fist has always been more convincing than a mouth.
“My Lord, please don’t give up!” Ashina, seeing his expression, moved carefully to his side to comfort him.
Field glanced at her, and froze.
He stared long enough that Ashina’s expression shifted to unease, edging toward fear.
Only then did he catch himself and flash a quick smile.
“I’m fine.
Just spaced out for a second.”
They pressed on.
As Field neared the fortress gate, the mass of skull markers blanketing his mini-map stopped him cold.
“And this is what Richard called ‘perfectly safe’?”
That useless idiot took the money, delivered nothing, and was even trying to use Rotting Corpses to ambush me.
If I’d walked through that gate without checking, whatever was packed inside would’ve had us before we even knew what hit us.
Field was furious.
But something else was already turning over in his mind.
He ran his fingers slowly along his chin.
“Baron Bull’s idiot son is holed up in the inner city and abandoned all the outer outposts.
Doesn’t that mean there’s a fortune just sitting here for the taking?
It’s not like anyone’s watching.”
He thought it, and he moved on it.
Field was no saint.
Propriety, righteousness, integrity, honor, none of that applied to people like these.
Rob them blind.
Field flicked his cloak.
“Kao.
Remember those who picked up weapons and actually fought back against the Rotting Corpses?
Round them up.
If there aren’t thirty, fill the rest with able-bodied men.”
Kao was a coward, but he was efficient.
Within minutes, 30 slaves of various races stood assembled.
“Before we start — there’s a certain horseshit-eating nuisance who needs to be dealt with.” Field glanced into the distance.
Connor’s expression was sour.
“Valiant Knight Connor,” Field called out, schooling his face into something earnest.
“Though this is not my fief, I am a noble of Martial Virtue, and I intend to help these peasants by slaying Rotting Corpses.
Will you join me?”
Is he out of his mind?
Connor stared blankly.
He’d already lost one man killing Rotting Corpses.
He was still fuming over the compensation.
And now this idiot Baron was volunteering to clean up someone else’s Corruption Tide.
He couldn’t believe his own ears.
“No.
I’ve escorted you to the border of Nightfall Territory.
It’s one gate away.
I need to return to the Count and report.” Connor refused flatly.
But as he spoke, something cracked in his composure, and he burst out laughing.
“My apologies, but I think leading this ragtag mob against Rotting Corpses would be worse than bringing pigs.
At least the pigs would make the Rotting Corpses overeat.”
Field shook his head with a look of deep disappointment.
“What a shame.
I thought you’d come share in the glory.”
“Don’t forget the Empire’s laws and your family’s tenets.
Report for duty on time.”
With that parting warning, Connor wheeled his horse and galloped off with his cavalry.
Field didn’t even get a chance to remind him he still hadn’t eaten the horse manure.
“Are we really going to go provoke the Rotting Corpses?” Kao asked, trembling.
Field had no intention of sending the butler into a fight.
He waved his hand.
“You stay here and watch the slaves.
Don’t let anyone run off.
If someone tries to escape, use the slave contract and burn them to ash.”
He said it loud enough for everyone to hear.
The slaves went very still.
Kao looked like a man who’d just been pardoned.
Field armed the slaves with sickles, dung forks, and logging axes, then set off with Ashina.
10 minutes out, he looped into a deserted grove.
Using the mini-map from his Lord ability, he swept the surroundings, nobody nearby.
Then he reached into the bundle on the right side of his warhorse and withdrew a beautiful crystal ball.
Ashina’s panel had changed.
The reason he’d spaced out back there was to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.
➤ Next: Winter!
The Goddess’s Blessing