290 – Four-horse chariot (2)
“On the battlefield, villagers must also be careful.”
Since the village has been devastated by the war, the villagers can easily turn into thieves. Instead of just bandits roaming the streets, the entire village could have turned into a village of thieves who set up camp in the village and prey on the troops or people who come to the village.
In fact, Lorwan was caught off guard several times because he was a villager.
You can use your little knowledge of life to attack them by secretly mixing unknown weeds from the fields into their meals to upset their stomachs and then catching them, or you can try to sneak in and kill them while they are sleeping.
Some people are thinking of taking off the soldiers’ swords and armor and selling them to exchange for money, while others are thinking of taking the captured enemy soldiers to the lord and receiving rewards.
“The scariest thing about war is that everyone becomes desperate and moves. “Did you see the deserter?”
Monia nodded her head at Lorwan’s words.
Now that they were on their way to the village, Lorwan was telling them what to watch out for in a village at war.
“Ordinary people don’t really move desperately or exert all their might unless they are really crowded. But war is different.”
This may not be the case at the beginning of the war.
However, the moment the war prolongs, the entire country quickly begins to become dry and impoverished along with supplies being rapidly consumed.
If it continues for a long time, everyone will naturally become desperate to survive in the extreme environment of war.
“Especially in this area, the war has been going on for several years. This is too long. In some cases, I can’t bear it. “I was able to hold on because the land was rich.”
However, there are limits.
A war of aggression that does not end with a civil war but is waged by foreign enemies. In addition, the embers of the war, which was about to end, grew rapidly due to the Duke’s army, which was suddenly revived when it was thought to be over, and gave a strong shock to the hearts of the relieved people.
This has crossed the line where public sentiment becomes uneasy. The Kingdom of Viend is currently in a state of turmoil, with various forces clashing with each other without a proper ruler or even a leader to lead the situation.
“You know that in a situation like this, it’s nonsense to stop by the village and resupply normally, right?”
“You know that.”
“Do you still plan to enter the village?”
The reason Lorwan explains it this way is because Monia, who discovered the village from afar, said she would enter the village.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“The nobleman who manages that village is the one who flattered and fawned over my father. “I was wondering if I could get something out of him.”
“…… In this situation? Hey, the war got more intense because of you.”
“All you have to do is look at the face and enter the mansion. “There’s Chester, Urgo, you, and Rex, so what are you worried about?”
“Ah.”
Only then did Lorwan understand Monia’s strategy.
‘This woman is planning to threaten the nobleman and steal his supplies!’
As long as she could catch wild animals and have a stable supply, Monia would not have thought of that. As long as Chester, Monia, and Rex had the hunting skills, feeding this many people wouldn’t be a big problem.
However, in a situation where she did not know whether or not she would be able to reliably catch wild animals, she had no intention of relying on unstable hunting.
So what? You can get it from a place where you can get plenty of supplies. And in the current situation, where is the best place to get supplies? Isn’t this the back pocket of a nobleman who would have accumulated a lot of various things by exploiting commoners?
“Aren’t you too fearless? A nobleman?”
“What do you know? You won’t do it? “Then we can do it without you.”
Lorwan shrugged her shoulders at Monia’s words.
“No, I will. Are you going to do it too, Mr. Urgo?”
“This is the second time we’ve attacked a noble.”
“Have you ever tried it?!”
“Rather, Lorwan, it’s even more strange that you’ve never done it before. Have you ever fought a knight on the battlefield? “They must all be nobles too.”
“I think fighting on the battlefield and going into a noble’s mansion and raiding and plundering are a little, a lot, a lot different… ….”
Unfortunately, there was no one here who would listen to Lorwan’s words of common sense. The only people here were people who lived as if they were leaving their livers overboard.
“You can do anything if you try. “Don’t worry too much about it.”
“If you put your mind to it, you can do anything. If you try to fly, you’ll be able to jump on top of the clock tower. Instead, it just falls.”
Urgo chuckled at Lorwan’s words that doing something because you want to do it and being successful are two different things.
Monia said as she painted to her heart’s content on the walls of her carriage using the art supplies she had received from William.
“Let’s live positively. “Why are people so gloomy?”
“It’s not gloomy, it’s realistic. “For mercenaries, if they make even the slightest mistake in judging risks, it’s a big problem.”
“Monia, what are you drawing?”
In response to Chester’s question, Monia showed the picture she had been drawing.
“Ta-da.”
Unlike usual, Monia’s painting, drawn in a cute style, was of a little child riding a unicorn around a flower field.
“Who is that little girl?”
“Our child!”
Monia confidently answers Sena’s questions. When she said those words, people looked at her Monia’s stomach without realizing it.
“I’m not pregnant yet! I was talking about a child who will be born later. hehehehe.”
“Man? Female?”
“Both! “If I draw a girl and a boy is born, I feel sorry for the boy, and if I draw a boy and a girl is born, I feel sorry for the girl, so I drew it in an androgynous way on purpose.”
“…… “Why don’t you just draw both a boy and a girl?”
“What if the child is disappointed because he or she is born alone?”
“…… What if the child who was born as a twin and was not drawn becomes sad?”
“…… !!”
At Sena’s words, Monia opened her eyes with a shocked expression.
“Ugh.”
When Lorwan saw that and sighed as if he was pathetic, Chester kicked Lorwan.
“Oops! “You bastard!”
“You go out and pull the carriage.”
The one pulling the carriage now is Rex. He learned how to pull a carriage from Sena, and she said she wanted to pull the carriage, so she started pulling the carriage.
Fortunately, the horses, perhaps because they were scared of Rex, listened to Rex’s words and drove the carriage safely.
At that time.
“Sena! Sena!”
Rex called out to Senna, screaming at her with a tearing scream.
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“Rex?! Why?!”
At the sound of Rex’s voice, everyone in the carriage tensed, holding their weapons in their hands, but Rex screamed again.
“There’s a puddle ahead! What should I do?!”
“… ….”
“… ….”
Unlike the cries that sounded like the world was ending, the group members who heard a trivial problem that was really not a big deal looked at each other with expressions of not knowing what to say.
“Hmm. What. “Because Rex is still a child.”
“It’s like that when you run into problems when you’re doing something for the first time. Are you embarrassed by even the smallest things? “Well, when I was first abandoned on the island, I was embarrassed because I couldn’t find water.”
“Monia. I know she’s trying to defend her son, but it’s not trivial. Sena, please answer me quickly.”
“Ah, yes.”
While Chester, Monia, Lorwan, and Senna each said something, Urgo was holding back his laughter.
To Urgo, Rex looked like a child from a tribe who was riding a horse for the first time.
Children who are excited because riding a horse increases their visibility like adults do, and when they drive the horse fast, they become excited again at the speed. However, if the horse gets too excited, it will not listen to the words of a child who is weaker and smaller than itself and will start galloping on its own.
When the words start to run wild, the excited children quickly start crying. No matter how brave a child is, it is the same.
Rex was like that too. No matter how strong they are, they are still children with little experience, so if they encounter a situation they haven’t learned or an unexpected situation, they become embarrassed and look for an adult.
‘It’s a little surprising that they called Senna instead of Chester or Monia.’
Sena opened the door of the running carriage and went out to comfort Rex, and the people remaining in the carriage chatted happily while talking about Rex.
* * *
The village was in an ambiguous position, being a bit large to be called a village but a little small to be called a city. The lord did not build a proper wall and left it to stand out in the open field.
Of course, the village, which was weak to the invading army from outside, had to hastily build a fence soon after the war began, and since they did not know when the war would end, they could not even begin to build the walls and only repaired the fence using wood and mud. As time went by and it was being repaired, it got to where it is now.
Fortunately, while the repairs were repeated, the thickness of the fence became thicker, and although it only looked crude, it became usable as a barrier. Thanks to this, it was able to be maintained until the embers of war were rekindled after the embers of war subsided once.
However, as the war had just begun again, the village was generally engulfed in tension and anxiety.
You never know when an army might appear from beyond the horizon and burn down the village.
With such worries, the soldiers who were watching intently on the wooden fence today were taken aback when they saw the luxurious four-horse carriage approaching from afar.
If the enemy is coming, we will contact them and take a stance, but what on earth are we supposed to do if they come with just one carriage like that?
While they were panicking, the carriage carrying the Chester family was quickly approaching the fence.