The cavalry sword was a weapon that handicapped the cavalryman himself.

A longsword is hard to put to great use on the battlefield outside of armored combat.

As I swung the halberd freely, killing routed troops, I noticed there was someone commanding them. A knight of Basel. A knight leading a band of routed troops around to plunder?

Common enough, really. Nothing special about it.

When there are even masterless robber knights about, what’s a little plundering?

I had to give him credit for not having fled by the time he caught my eye.

I spurred Mont Blanc’s flanks and charged at the knight like an arrow. Spotting me, the knight raised his cavalry sword to try to block, but it was no match for the heavy halberd.

Crack!

"Gaah!"

It wasn’t enough to turn his breastplate to paper the way Leto would, but this one blow was plenty to unhorse the knight. In the old days I’d have traded a few blows with the cavalry sword to force him off his mount.

Preconceptions are a terrifying thing.

Living as a knight, it seems I’d become a sword fanatic without realizing it.

[You have acquired the F-Rank Warrior title (Stamina +20%, Strength +20%)]

Huh? F-Rank Warrior? I’d gained a new title out of nowhere.

Did I acquire the Warrior title because I used a halberd instead of a sword?

[Two titles that reach S-Rank can be combined to advance your class]

[S-Rank Warrior + S-Rank Knight = Berserker & Paladin]

Raising ranks already takes an insanely long time, and now there’s class advancement? But come to think of it, Medieval Knight did have a class advancement system.

Anyway, S-Rank alone would make you considerably strong, so what kind of monster do you become combining those two? Don’t tell me the system’s ultimate goal is to turn me into something beyond human?

After the battle, I took some twenty prisoners. Most either died unable to resist or surrendered, so the fight ended faster than expected.

I gathered up the dozen or so survivors who’d been trying to scatter.

They were terrified of us, but since it was a fact that we’d saved them, they followed our lead.

They simply stared blankly at their burning hamlet.

The man who appeared to be the eldest among the survivors spoke to me.

"Thank you for saving us, Sir Knight."

His sorrow ran as deep as the wrinkles on his face. War is not the romantic clash of two armies vying for supremacy. You can see hell like this all too easily.

"I’ll take you to Öderlen. They won’t turn a blind eye to a neighboring village’s tragedy."

"Thank you for showing kindness to ignorant wretches like us. Hngh."

I fixed a cold glare on the routed troops who’d been taken prisoner and gathered in one spot.

They demanded to be treated as legitimate prisoners.

Men who aren’t even mercenaries, demanding to be treated as prisoners?

What a joke. My patience had already run dry.

My compassion exists for victims, not for perpetrators.

"One prisoner is enough. Kill the rest."

When I gave the order to spare only the one of knightly rank and kill the rest, the prisoners turned ghastly pale and resisted fiercely. But I showed no mercy.

"K-killing prisoners is! Aaaagh!"

"S-spare me! I have a wife back home! Aagh!"

The mercenary cavalrymen, already worked up from the sight of blood, killed the prisoners without hesitation and cleaned house. They were satisfied with the gains, helping themselves to the dead men’s worn arms.

"Khh, and I was going to let them line their pockets before sending them home."

"I’m genuinely delighted to be able to ruin that plan."

"Damned Western bastard, may you fall into purgatory!"

Thwack!

From now on, I’ll just use the cavalry sword to shut people up. After taking the survivors back to Öderlen, I found and annihilated additional remnants of the routed troops.

This time there were no prisoners at all.

Because I killed them all.

Even if plundering occupied territory through battle is considered legitimate, the remnants of a defeated army committing plunder all over the place is an entirely separate matter. They had no legitimacy anywhere.

So I executed them without the slightest hesitation.

After completing the quest, I continuously dispatched scouts southward.

Yet not a trace of Baschurten’s army was to be seen. The regent had clearly resolved on a siege and was concentrating the nearby forces in Baschurten Castle.

I dispatched a messenger to Fried with all of this included.

And before long, Fried arrived leading the invasion force.

"Taking Öderlen without spilling a single drop of blood. Your skill is as remarkable as ever, Sir."

"It’s thanks to the people of Öderlen making a wise decision."

"Good thing they’ve got more sense than those idiots in Boeven. No time wasted, so it’s a fine result on your part, Sir."

His tone had grown oddly rough. I could trace the cause to Benjamin, who stood beside him, his expression also very stiff.

What had happened?

Fried said to me,

"You won’t have heard the news from the eastern front yet, I take it?"

"Has some news come in?"

"While you were off at Öderlen, a messenger from Father arrived. Unfortunately, the grand duke’s army was defeated in the third battle."

The grand duke’s army had won the first and second battles, and just when victory seemed assured, the duke’s army staged a comeback in the third battle.

I worried whether my father-in-law and Michael were all right, but since I had to take Baschurten, all I could do was pray from afar that they were safe.

"Commander!"

Having no aides around had left me feeling rather lonely all this time, which seemed to double my joy at seeing him. Anton had sent the migrants safely to Feuzen and delivered my letter to Hilda.

But then Anton, watching my reaction carefully, added a word.

"Um, but...the lady read the letter and cried a great deal."

...What? Hilda cried?

It was hard to picture the ever-dignified and beautiful Hilda crying. She hadn’t shed a tear even at the tournament, so it must be the influence of the pregnancy.

My heart ached.

What a foolish, careless husband I am.

Hilda misses me terribly, and yet why am I in a place like this?

I should be by her side while she’s pregnant, but this damned civil war has broken out and I can’t even do that. It pains me deeply. I want to rush to her side this very instant, and I hate that I can’t.

Anton handed me Hilda’s letter as I sat there despondent.

The moment I unfolded it, the first words caught my eye.

[To my beloved noble wolf]

I suppose a smile was unavoidable.

I read Hilda’s letter slowly.

While her careless husband was off waging war in Euz, the tale of Feuzen, which had regained its peace, came through vividly in this letter. A smile rose to my lips unbidden.

Lily and Angela had pulled off some eccentric antics that drew laughter, and Daniel had collapsed from overwork, sending Sabine into a panic for a while.

Hans had been lightly wounded capturing an escaped prisoner at an absurdly fortunate moment, and the news that the ever-composed Priscilla had bawled her eyes out over it was quite surprising.

Had I been there to see it, it would have been a rare spectacle indeed.

A band of routed troops had appeared at Feuzen too. Under August’s command, even the Feuzen gunners were fully mobilized to gain real combat experience. Hm, August apologizes for using so much gunpowder?

It’s fine.

What’s the point of having it if you don’t use it?

Ted had made a name for himself as a marksman, and Oscar had earned August’s recognition with his steady command. The letter also said Winter was pouring so much passion into rebuilding the Feuzen ranch that it was worrying.

And Bodo, hm? He’d gotten into trouble with Nora at the watermill?

A ten-year-old brat, and what’s this now? You’re getting re-educated when I get back.

Maria, the orphan girl I’d brought from Euz, had been placed with Father Andreas, and the painter Aachen still painted his grotesque pictures and chuckled darkly now and then, which the girl in white had taken to imitating, much to everyone’s dismay.

The Arzt couple, running the field hospital, had become doctors trusted by the commoners, and Simon and Natalie, the couple who assisted them, had recently started studying medicine.

Ralph was so vexed over managing the firearms and gunpowder that he’d grown gaunt devising a more stable system, prompting Stella to grumble about it.

Viktor and Fiel’s injuries had healed considerably.

Apparently Elisabeth, seeing Fiel wounded for the first time, had flown into a rage.

Am I going to get scolded by my wife’s friend when I return?

Small everyday moments, but a place full of happy little happenings.

It made me want to go back to Feuzen.

The last part contained Hilda’s assurance that she’d help the migrants settle in and that I shouldn’t worry. With new migrants joining, Feuzen too would be in considerable disarray.

Having read the whole letter, I struggled to hold back the sting at the bridge of my nose.

I swore that once the civil war ended, this time I’d truly go nowhere and stay by Hilda’s side.