That evening.
The moment Kaon heard that a rebellion had broken out at his new post, he stopped advancing.
The destination was still a week away.
There were several territories nearby, so no matter how bold the rebels had become, he doubted they would come all the way out on an expedition just to strike at him.
Besides, the justification Viscount Arkal had put forward was supposedly for the sake of the empire.
His claim was that if a scoundrel took office, the empire would be endangered, so Kaon doubted he would do anything that would amount to tightening a noose around his own neck.
He summoned his commanders and devised a plan of his own, but before putting it into action, he decided he needed to think it through at least once more.
“Twenty thousand from the Northern Army and ten thousand from Arkal's territorial forces. A frontal battle would be reckless.”
The overwhelming majority of the rebels in the south had been peasants.
By now they had probably been reorganized into frontier territorial troops, but when Kaon had defeated them, their defenses had been extremely poor.
The rebels in the north, however, were a proper frontier army.
Fighting was practically a daily occurrence for them, and they trained brutally hard every day.
Trying to challenge a region like that head-on when it even had fortresses was idiotic.
In the end, Kaon had no choice but to rely on tricks and dirty schemes.
“If I retreat, the Second Prince and his lapdogs will be too busy laughing at me. Even the Crown Prince Faction, with whom I have finally built a decent relationship, will be disappointed and cut ties with me completely. My great-uncle will be the same.”
This would not be easy.
But if he succeeded, there would be plenty to gain.
There were several reasons that bastard author had sent Kaon north, but one major factor was that the people and soldiers there were notoriously tough and difficult to control.
It was obvious he was supposed to suffer like hell, but if he turned the crisis into an opportunity, he could purge every opposing force in one sweep.
Kaon decided on a strategy.
There was no rule saying battle had to be fought with swords.
Once he had made his decision, Kaon summoned Sir Chester.
“You called for me?”
Even though it was late, Sir Chester had not gone to sleep.
The same was true for everyone else.
Word that a rebellion had broken out at their destination had already reached the civilians, so unease was only natural.
Kaon usually joked around often, but now he was extremely serious.
“A chance has come for you to earn merit.”
“If it is something my lord commands, I will do anything. A great reward has already been promised to me, so I require no further compensation.”
“Good. Before carrying out the plan, I want to ask you something. What exactly is Viscount Arkal like? I do not mean the obvious stories about him tormenting his subordinates and people.”
“Just as my lord expected, he is fiercely devoted to his family. In particular, when his heir was born, he was generous enough to hold a celebration for an entire week.”
“So that piece of trash absolutely adores his child?”
“To be precise, he is especially attached to his eldest son.”
“Can you kidnap him?”
“I believe I can.”
“Why do you think so?”
“He once invited some academy classmates over and proudly showed them a secret passage.”
“What an idiot.”
“His territory lies far to the north, so he has more reason to watch for foreign enemies than threats from within the empire. It seems he thought revealing the passage would earn the trust of his classmates, but it failed miserably. That was because they learned there was another secret passage as well.”
“…….”
Kaon scratched his head.
No matter how he looked at it, Arkal simply did not seem like a man with the nerve to start a rebellion.
Would soldiers really follow a man who beat subordinates to death on a whim and treated maids' lives like flies?
Kaon might be infamous as a scoundrel, but Arkal's reputation(?) was hardly any better.
‘If not for that bastard author's interference, he probably would have lived his whole life without ever losing his head. What an unfortunate man.’
Still, hearing that he was genuine trash made Kaon feel a little better.
If he had been forced to execute a decent noble, even success would have left a bad taste in his mouth.
“Would there not be guards at the secret passage?”
“Even if there are, I expect them to be lax. Would anyone imagine that Your Highness would use a method like this? Bringing ten thousand territorial troops north means he took everyone except the bare minimum needed for defense. Security is bound to be weak.”
“True. Under normal assumptions, no prince would personally order a kidnapping.”
“I do not believe there will be a problem. An issue is only as important as how it is framed.”
They would bury the issue of kidnapping beneath the larger issue of suppressing a rebellion.
Unlike the imperial knights, Sir Chester's way of thinking was extremely flexible.
After spending years moving from battlefield to battlefield against every kind of enemy, he had used far dirtier tactics countless times.
Even now, he confidently said the kidnapping was possible without caring about honor.
“How many troops will you need?”
“I think it would be better to go alone.”
“Alone? Can you manage it?”
“Bringing more people would only make the job harder. I can enter through the secret passage, go straight to where the young lord is, and come back out. The enemy will probably not realize he is missing until late the next day.”
He meant to carry it out in the middle of the night.
“How many days will it take?”
“Five will be enough.”
Two days there, two days back.
And one day for the operation itself.
Even though failure could cost him his life, Sir Chester's resolve remained firm.
“I trust you.”
“I will succeed without fail.”
After receiving Kaon's order, Sir Chester departed for the Arkal Territory first thing the next morning.
***
Two days later, on the outskirts of the Arkal Territory.
On the way there, Chester had rehearsed the plan again and again in his head.
He mapped out the best route and even worked out how he would abduct the target and bring him back.
Kidnap him before dawn, then escape and ride hard.
The young lord, Blow, was apparently busy drinking himself senseless every day, so the knights would not realize he was missing until morning.
By then, Sir Chester would already be far enough away that even cavalry would have little chance of catching him.
The plan was perfect.
The only problem was the soldiers guarding the secret passage.
In the worst case, Chester thought they might even have sealed the passage completely.
Why was a secret passage called a secret passage?
Because no one knew when or what kind of enemy might attack, so it had been built as an emergency escape route.
Since they also had to consider the possibility of enemies infiltrating through it, Chester estimated there was an eighty percent chance it had either been sealed or heavily guarded.
But.
‘Only two?’
Chester clicked his tongue.
There were only two soldiers guarding the entrance, and even they were dozing off.
That meant the secret passage itself had not been sealed.
‘If it were me, I would have sealed it without question.’
The purpose might have been to defend against foreign enemies, but once someone raised a rebellion, they also needed to consider the possibility of people from inside the empire infiltrating from outside.
No matter how much Chester thought about it, he could not understand why Viscount Arkal had rebelled.
Had he simply lost his mind one day?
He had no history of mental illness, or he would never have become Northern Commander in the first place.
It was truly baffling.
Chester approached the guards carefully without making a sound.
He dealt with the guard on the left first.
“Ghk!”
A short cry escaped him.
The other guard woke in a daze, but dealing with him was just as easy.
Chester knew the human body's weak points intimately, and he had spent his life commanding or personally participating in countless operations.
Something like this barely qualified as a mission.
Once inside the secret passage, he got lost for a short while.
There were three exits.
The first was useless.
It led to the lord's office.
The second led to the lord's bedroom.
The last connected to the young lord's room.
When Chester emerged through a wardrobe, the sharp smell of blood hit him.
‘Good grief.’
He let out a low groan at the state of the room.
Blood stained the room, starting from the bed.
For a moment he wondered whether assassins had come through during the night, but that was not the case.
Empty liquor bottles lay scattered around, and two badly beaten maids lay injured on the floor.
The man responsible was snoring drunkenly nearby.
“…….”
He had heard that father and son were notorious for brutalizing maids, but seeing it firsthand was something else.
Anger briefly rose inside him, but he calmly forced it down.
In war, he had seen far worse.
An army was a gathering place for every kind of human being.
‘How am I supposed to drag this one back?’
He thought for a moment.
He could carry the man by force, but he would quickly exhaust himself.
The fellow looked as though he weighed at least a hundred kilograms.
Chester first gagged him, then struck him with his scabbard.
THUD!
“Mmph!”
Young Lord Blow's eyes flew open.
“If you do not do exactly as I say, you will end up like them.”
Once he fully woke, the man understood the situation.
He trembled and nodded.
Chester was dumbfounded inwardly.
A man whose hobby was tormenting people weaker than himself had turned into a docile lamb the instant his own life was in danger.
Watching a so-called young lord get dragged away without offering the slightest resistance was pathetic.
As Sir Chester entered the secret passage again, he sighed and muttered,
“It has been a long time since I met someone who suited the words ‘fucking idiot’ this perfectly.”
***
Five days later.
Kaon still had not moved.
In the meantime, the weather had grown even colder.
The surrounding lords had already finished their harvests and begun preparing for winter.
During that time, Kaon continued training and sent people to nearby territories to purchase plenty of winter gear.
He also bought food and inspected the arms and equipment.
To an outside observer, it would have looked as though he were simply reorganizing his forces before heading north.
Of course, news that a rebellion had broken out in the north had already spread throughout this area.
He could have mobilized the nearby lords, but that was not a good option.
Viscount Arkal's justification for rising up was that he refused to accept the rule of a scoundrel. The northern lords aligned with the Second Prince Faction would probably send weak, half-hearted levies.
It would also be a mistake to have allied forces harming one another, so it was better to handle the matter himself.
While everyone waited anxiously for Sir Chester to return, Sir Mitchell hurried into the tent.
“My lord! Sir Chester has brought back some kind of pig!”
“Arkal's eldest son?”
“Yes!”
When Kaon stepped outside, he immediately understood exactly what Sir Mitchell had meant.
There really was a pig of a man tied to a horse.
The powerful warhorse was foaming at the mouth and collapsed the moment it arrived.
THUD—!
“Oink!”
“Hahahaha!”
When the man rolled off and made a pig-like noise, the knights burst into laughter.
Blow trembled with a gag in his mouth.
After spending five days sleeping rough and eating poorly, he looked terrible.
Sir Chester gave Kaon a military salute.
“I have returned after carrying out my lord's command!”
“Well done! You must have suffered greatly.”
“It was hardly any trouble. The security was lax, and that piece of trash was sleeping after abusing his maids.”
The knights frowned.
The rumors had been widespread, but some had not believed them.
No matter what kind of man he was, they had wondered whether he would really mistreat his own people so easily.
Now the renowned Sir Chester had confirmed it himself, and there was no reason for anyone to feel pleased.
Kaon already knew from the original novel what kind of men that vile father and son were, but even he felt disgusted.
Kaon kicked the pig-like man's face, then shouted,
“Prepare yourselves! We are going pig hunting!”