398 - Leonardo's Perspective Empire Soldiers and Bandits 2
...I want that horse, weapons aside.
While keeping watch on the bandits tightening their encirclement, I let my thoughts wander to the laws concerning thieves and bandits in the Zugari Empire. In the Kingdom of Ivizia, it would be left to the discretion of the lord governing the territory where the outlaws appeared. Bandits would be captured alive whenever possible, and their crimes would be confirmed. If there was room for rehabilitation or mitigating circumstances, they would be sentenced to hard labor. Otherwise, they would be executed to prevent further victims, or else sentenced to life imprisonment and forced labor in mines or the like.
When it came to the Zugari Empire, the response was simpler. There was no atoning for crimes through labor. Bandits were permitted to be executed on the spot upon capture, and even if handed over to the lord's knights or soldiers, they would be put to death by beheading. Accordingly, even if the attacked party killed the bandits in self-defense, they would not be charged with murder. It felt a bit harsh to say they were allowed to kill bandits, but rather than saying the victims had the right to protect themselves, the aim was to reduce the workload of those tasked with policing bandits. In other words, deal with the bandits yourselves before the lord's knights or soldiers arrived at the scene of the attack. Naturally, few commoners who had never received combat training could fight back against bandits, and by the time the soldiers arrived, the bandits would have finished their looting and vanished from the scene.
...No need to hold back, then.
If this were land I governed, I would capture them and give them treatment befitting their crimes, but this was the Zugari Empire. I had no authority to judge bandits, nor did I have a place to detain them until a sentence was decided. Which meant, if I encountered bandits now, the only future awaiting those bandits was to flee or be killed.
"I will say this once. I will still let you go if you leave now."
"Hah! We got numbers on our side, why the hell would we turn tail and run?!"
"I see."
Before I could even finish saying "That is a shame," I closed the distance to the man who seemed to be the bandit leader on horseback. I drove my spear straight into the bandit's throat and broke his neck. No death cry.
With a motion to fling off the bandit impaled on my spear, I lifted him from his horse's back and threw him at the other bandits. One bandit, struck squarely by the leader's corpse, fell off his donkey.
"Surrender or die. Pick whichever you like."
Around the time the number of bandits who had attacked us was reduced to about half, I managed to hear some interesting information. Because of that, some among the bandits who had lost half their comrades to just two mercenaries turned their backs and tried to flee, but I chased after them and finished them off without mercy. Once all the attackers fell silent, the bandit threat was gone, but a new problem arose.
"Now, what to do..."
"As mercenaries, we could search the pockets of the bandits we drove off..."
"No, that is not what I am talking about."
Even if we were the ones attacked, searching the pockets of corpses made me feel like I had become a thief myself. That was its own problem, but what I was troubled by now was not whether to search their pockets.
"We can sell the live donkeys or let them loose, but we cannot leave the bandits' corpses like this."
If I left them on the highway, they would get in the way of other travelers, and if things went badly, they could become a source of disease. They needed to be dumped in the forest off the road, or buried by the roadside, but either option was heavy labor for the three of us. Considering the risk of beasts eating them and acquiring a taste for human flesh, if I dumped them in the forest, I would need to go deep. If I buried them by the roadside, I would need to dig a hole deep enough that beasts could not dig them up.
"Speaking of which, how about we notify the border soldier-sama about this?"
"That would work in Ivizia, but... this is the Empire. They will not come even if we tell them."
"You are not wrong."
According to what the bandits said, the border soldiers and the bandits seemed to be connected. The border soldiers had told them that Cody's wagon contained high-value goods that could be called his entire fortune, which was why they attacked us. I thought, soldiers and bandits having connections? but Jean-Jacques seemed convinced instead. They must have been turning a blind eye to the bandits' crimes in exchange for a cut, and keeping an eye on travelers who looked like easy marks to tip them off, he said.
"Empire soldiers... what are they supposed to be protecting and from what?"
"At least it sure as hell ain't foreign merchants or their own country's people, that is for damn sure."
I wanted to think, how could there be soldiers like that? but they actually existed in the Zugari Empire, so there was nothing I could do about it. I understood that the stance of the king and nobles was different, but I had not expected the character of the soldiers themselves to be so different too.
"Taking the horses for our use..."
I swallowed the words I had been about to continue with, what to really do about the bandits' corpses. The area had gone quiet, and Cody was about to stick his head out of the wagon, but Jean-Jacques stopped him.
...Just how many bandits were there in the Empire?
I could tell someone was holding their breath, but I felt several pairs of eyes from the darkness beside the highway. They were not giving off bloodlust like the earlier ones, but they were definitely observing us. Considering the earlier bandits had not come out even when they were at a disadvantage, these were not likely their friends. Which meant we had been attacked by two different bandit groups in a single night.
...Something is strange.
There were more of them than the earlier bandit group. And yet, they showed no sign of attacking despite their numbers.
"If you are not friends with these guys, could I ask you a favor?"
As a test, I pointed at the bandit corpse at my feet and spoke toward the presence lurking in the darkness. There was a presence, but no bloodlust. It would be unnatural to think of it as bandits' behavior before prey. If they were going to attack their prey, they would not need to announce their existence beforehand. Rather, they would circle around behind us without being noticed and strike all at once when we had an opening.
"I will take two of the horses and go, but I will give you everything else. In exchange, I want you to handle cleaning up after these guys."
I would give them most of what could be called loot, the money left in the bandits' pockets, the axes and hatchets they had been swinging, the donkeys. So please, whether by carrying the bodies deep into the forest or digging a hole and burying them, I want you to dispose of them. As I threw those words into the darkness, after a brief silence, footsteps sounded and a small but well-built man emerged from the dark.
"We are bandits. Bandits are supposed to kill you and take everything."
"Well, you are not wrong there... Huh?"
Half-resigned to another fight, I tightened my grip on my spear, then immediately furrowed my brow at the sense of wrongness. For some reason, the voice sounded familiar.
...Who is it? I should not have any acquaintances among bandits.
Wary, I narrowed my eyes. The face of the man who had emerged from the dark was illuminated by the moonlight.
His head was shaved clean, a splendid bald pate, and I could not tell his eye color. But I could make out his features.
"...Why, of all people, you?"
At the man's face illuminated by the moonlight, my natural speech slipped out despite myself. I had been consciously trying to speak roughly, but this could not be helped. It was the same as how Cody could not easily speak casually to his elders. For me, this was someone I reflexively adjusted my speech for. A former Black Knight who had taught me swordsmanship as an instructor during my time at Virup Fortress appeared before me.
Since we had much to discuss, we decided to change locations, and under the bald-headed bandit's guidance, we moved the wagon. The earlier bandits' corpses were left to the other bandits lurking in the darkness.
The bald-headed man was named Marco, a man who had once served as an instructor at Virup Fortress. He had already retired from being a Black Knight by the time he was an instructor, but I never imagined he would have crossed over to the Zugari Empire and become a bandit.
When I said as much along the way, Marco laughed cheerfully. His face was exactly the same as the one I had seen at Virup Fortress.
Laughing, Marco told me his story after leaving his post at Virup Fortress. The borderlines had shifted due to a war during his active duty, and his homeland had become territory of the Zugari Empire. He had left home as a young man to become a Black Knight and did not have much attachment to his homeland, but as he got older, he found himself worrying about his parents and siblings. So on the condition that he would never set foot in the Kingdom of Ivizia again, he crossed the border, and upon returning to his homeland, he learned the current state of those who had become Imperial citizens. Just as I had been surprised by the differences from Ivizia's towns and villages on my journey so far, Marco too seemed to have been shocked after crossing into the Empire.
"I understand being surprised by the differences between the Empire and Ivizia, but how does that lead to becoming a bandit?"
"Hey, it is not like I am a bandit all year round."
We were led to a dark, abandoned village, and we tied up the horses in the livestock shed. It was clearly an abandoned village where no one lived, but the fact that it was maintained in places was probably because Marco and his group used it. When I asked what kind of place it was, he said it was a village where the villagers had finally died out due to the lord's harsh tax collection. If you looked at it in the daytime, the fields would be overgrown with weeds, apparently.
"I spend most of the year tending the fields back home. I only become a bandit... after the harvest is done, in autumn and winter, and when your close friend asks me for a favor."
"...I see. So the information source you had in the Empire was you, after all."
Alfred sometimes picked up information from within the Zugari Empire, and he had even tracked the trail of the sold Teo into Imperial territory. He had a mysterious information network. Alfred had said that this area was once part of the Kingdom of Ivizia, so there were still some connections, but that must have referred to Marco's existence. A former Black Knight, now living within the Empire. If you could prepare a means of communication, that made for a fine spy.
"I was starting to think it was about time to start the bandit work this year too, but then word came from your close friend. Said to lend a hand, so I figured I would show my face."
He seemed genuinely taken aback that we had encountered bandits attacking right away and beaten them all down, just the two of us, before he could even step in to help. My epithet as the incarnation of the War God Herkeles was famous even within the Zugari Empire, but Marco apparently thought it was just an exaggeration. He had not expected we could handle twenty bandits, just the two of us, while protecting someone.
"That kid who did not even know how to hold a sword got ridiculously strong."
"If I were not ridiculously strong, they would not have entrusted me with four fortresses."
"...So that bit about being entrusted with four fortresses ain't just a rumor either."
"It is the truth. I am entrusted with four fortresses, Grenore, Restham, Mandez, and Lugmilama."
Incidentally, I also once won the capital's martial arts tournament, but that was not information worth adding, so I kept quiet. As long as I was a Black Knight, whether I was the strongest Silver-White Knight or not, it had nothing to do with anything.
"That said, no matter how ridiculously strong you are, you have only got two eyes. Even counting your companion, that is six. You are going to be a little short on hands for searching, are you not? I will give you a contact to liaise with me. Use him as you like."
Having been dragged around as a bandit for years, he would have local knowledge, said Marco, introducing a giant of a man named Jimmy. He looked more suited to swinging an axe than being a contact, but apparently he was fast on his feet and useful. A gentle giant, better at mending things than splitting firewood, so he said.
"...Are bandits light on their feet? Say, if they needed to travel across the country."
"Light as can be. Light in the sense of no knightly discipline, and light in the sense of no ties. They can hop across all sorts of territories easy as pie."
I had disguised myself as a mercenary because I thought it would be less strange for crossing the border with a merchant, but once across the border, becoming a bandit seemed easier to move around than staying with the merchant as a mercenary. In the Zugari Empire, bandits were executed on capture, but I had no intention of getting caught. I just wanted to look into Tina's whereabouts. I did not need to attack towns or villages.
...Still, a knight becoming a bandit, huh.
I did not want to choose my methods when it came to Tina, but since I was usually on the side of policing them, becoming a bandit myself, even as a means to an end, felt wrong. I thought it would let me move more freely, but I felt like I would not be able to return to the Kingdom of Ivizia with my head held high.
...No, I had no intention of going back unless I got Tina back, so it was the same thing.
I had what could be called real internal conflict, but in the end, it came down to Tina. I was not sure about it as a knight, but I had aimed to become a knight because I admired knights who could save people. What kind of knight would I be if I could not save even one little sister? Besides, in the sense of becoming a knight, my dream had already come true. I did not want to cling to an ideal of knighthood and lose sight of my family (Tina).
"Well then, I will go ahead and do as I please as a bandit."
"No, I will be the bandit. You keep guarding Cody."
To me, hesitating, Jean-Jacques seemed to be showing consideration. He started saying he would move as a bandit, so I stopped him. I thought Jean-Jacques was better suited for it than me, but once turned loose as a bandit, Jean-Jacques might become a genuine bandit for real. For my part, it was enough to get Tina back. I did want revenge on the culprit, but I did not want to do anything that would bring backlash even to unrelated Imperial citizens. Besides, when it came to facing soldiers, Jean-Jacques would be harder to recognize anyway. If I were to act in the shadows, it was better for me to hide.
We decided to use the abandoned village Marco was using as a base when needed. If anything happened, as long as we could reach this abandoned village, we could contact Alfred.
After seeing off the wagon carrying Jean-Jacques and Cody, I led the bandits who, like Marco, were originally citizens of the Kingdom of Ivizia, moving through Imperial territory. It was not exactly a place I could easily see with my own eyes, so I did not forget to gauge the situation. The villages I saw from a distance from the shade of the trees were poor, even though there had not been a famine in recent years. I sometimes saw children going into the mountains searching for nuts and wild vegetables, but they were skin-and-bones, gaunt and emaciated. I wondered if it was like this because it was a poor village, but apparently this was actually the better side of things. Normally, towns and villages far from the capital seemed like they would be more neglected and desolate, but in the Zugari Empire, it was the opposite. The closer a town or village was to the imperial capital, the more it was exploited. Heavier taxes were imposed on the nearer areas, and people who could not pay were sold as slaves or sent to the mines as migrant laborers. When the village lost its people like that, they would then forcibly bring people from slightly farther lands, it seemed. This was how the people of the Zugari Empire continued to be used up and discarded.
"Why did the first emperor build the capital in a place like that?"
"Beats me. That is high-and-mighty thinking for ya. Like us bandits would ever understand."
The imperial capital of the Zugari Empire, Tralbach, was located almost in the center of the Erath Continent, halfway up the Erath Mountain Range. Snow did not fully melt even in summer. It was land unsuited for building a city, but the Zugari Empire had moved its capital to the Erath Mountain Range two hundred years ago, when it had grown to nearly its current size, and successive emperors had lived there ever since. Even thinking about it for a moment, just moving the capital out of the Erath Mountain Range would save on heating costs and reduce taxes. Lower taxes would make the people's lives easier. It was the kind of measure the Kingdom of Ivizia would likely have taken immediately, but the Zugari Empire had been wasting taxes and firewood for two hundred years without change.
...Really, just having different rulers made this much of a difference.
Leonardo's titles were so extravagant that his very existence was often thought of as fantasy.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.