Chapter 14: Victory and Spoils

"Hahahaha! Didn't expect this, did you? I used up three entire knight's potions to finally break through."

"Now that I possess battle aura, what do you have to fight me with?!"

Knight Watt laughed wildly, even finding time to try poaching Baron Hatton's allies.

"White, we've known each other for years. Why not join me instead? Following that useless Hatton, you'll never become a noble."

In the distance, seeing the dark battle aura rising from Knight Watt's body, Ryan was also somewhat surprised.

"Knight Watt is actually a Bronze Knight?"

"He's got guts," Ryan murmured. Advancing from a regular knight to a Bronze Knight must've come at a steep price—he may have emptied his entire fief.

Beside him, Hatton grew completely tense and stammered, "Ryan, what do we do now? Should we retreat?"

Ryan ignored him, eyes fixed on Watt's aura. After a moment of inspection, he relaxed.

"Don't worry, Mr. Hatton. Watt doesn't practice the Nightmare Knight breathing technique of the Meyers ducal family. Even as a Bronze Knight, his strength is limited."

A proper knight might be able to kill a hundred slaves, but against a hundred trained soldiers? He'd be dead. The strength gap among low-tier knights wasn't insurmountable.

"But still…" Hatton gritted his teeth. No matter how incompetent he might be, he didn't want to see his already limited forces consumed here.

But in the next moment, his eyes went wide with shock.

At some point, Brand had closed in on Watt. He had discarded the iron sword borrowed from Hatton and now wielded a dagger crafted from a stag's antler, plunging it toward Watt with force.

Though battle aura clung to his armor, and it was solidly built, a flicker of fear crossed Watt's face—he realized that Brand's strength actually surpassed his own.

The sharp dagger, after a brief resistance, pierced through the armor. Watt grabbed at Brand's hand in disbelief, but his strength rapidly drained away.

Their eyes locked—Brand's bloodshot gaze meeting Watt's bewildered one—and in that moment, a stag's roar seemed to echo in Watt's mind.

Boom!

The heavy knight armor crashed to the ground. A pool of blood flowed out from beneath.

It wasn't Knight White who reacted first, but the surrounding Watt soldiers. They had been stationed just beyond the perimeter but were completely held back by the thirty knight retainers from the Frozen Wasteland and couldn't break through to save their lord.

With Watt down, some soldiers dropped their weapons in despair and fell to their knees. Others, still confused, were quickly cut down in the chaos.

"The knight is dead!"

Panic and hopeless cries rang out across the battlefield, and in an almost surreal moment, the fighting ground to a halt.

Even the peasant soldiers, unsure of which knight had died, stopped fighting immediately.

"He... he's dead?"

Baron Hatton stared wide-eyed. Even he, who lacked true knightly strength, could see Watt's fall.

"Hahahaha!" Hatton burst into laughter—then quickly grew uneasy.

He turned to Ryan. "Ryan, this…"

Though he wouldn't admit it aloud, in his heart he had acknowledged that Knight Watt had the potential to become a noble. Once the Empire's internal struggles settled, Watt, with his strength and knightly domain, could've easily earned a baron title.

But now that potential baron had died—in a war with his own domain.

Even Baron Hatton couldn't help but worry about repercussions from other nobles.

"What's there to worry about, Mr. Hatton?" Ryan smiled calmly.

"As long as Watt remained a frontier knight, that's all he'd ever be. A frontier knight dying in battle? Who's going to hold us accountable? Many such nobles have died over the past few decades."

Ryan deliberately emphasized "us", and sure enough, Hatton calmed down. Safety in numbers—an eternal truth.

"Right. Watt was just a frontier knight. Even the Meyers family can't say anything."

"Exactly. He only married into the Meyers family. I, on the other hand, am a blood relative of the Rimehart family."

Ryan reinforced Hatton's confidence again.

"Now then, shouldn't we be thinking about something else?" Ryan's voice was like the whisper of a devil, tempting Hatton.

The latter's breathing grew heavy.

What happens when one fief wins a war against another?

Plunder. Everything the loser had—gold, women, slaves—all fell within the spoils of war.

"Let's go, quickly, to Knight Watt's domain!"

Without another word, Hatton left the iron mine behind and rushed toward Watt's territory with his men.

The slaves and the iron mine weren't going anywhere, but the people in Watt's domain? That was another story.

Watt's village was closer to the mine than Hatton's town, and in their excitement, the two barons brought only squires with them. Soon, they reached the village called Rota.

Watt had named the village himself—a sign of his ambitions.

Rota Village could one day become Rota Town, or even Rota City.

But now, everything here belonged to Ryan and Hatton.

The soldiers stormed into the village. Sir White shouted loudly:

"Watt is dead! From this moment forward, everything here belongs to Lord Hatton… and Lord Ryan!"

The villagers were stunned at first, but none dared to protest.

It seemed that across the continent, no noble had ever lied about such a thing.

Charging in, White kicked open the doors of Watt's knight estate, and chaos quickly erupted throughout the village.

Naturally, Ryan and Hatton didn't need to get their hands dirty—they just waited.

…

"Only this much gold?!" Hatton roared, furious, accusing his soldiers of stealing.

But soon, two female beastkin slaves with feline features drew all his attention.

His eyes practically glued themselves to their scantily clad forms as he began tearing at their clothing.

Ultimately, the spoils were far less than the two barons had hoped.

700–800 gold coins in a pinewood chest

7 or 8 sparkling gems

300+ silver coins

Over 12,000 copper coins

For a knight on the verge of baronship, it wasn't much.

Hatton's few warhorses were worth more.

"Looks like Watt paid an even steeper price than we thought to become a Bronze Knight."

But wealth wasn't limited to currency. In this, Hatton was even more experienced than Ryan.

"Tear it down! That tree is Winter Mist Pine—dig it up and replant it at my estate. And those houses—built from enchanted oak—take them apart too!"

Real estate and materials were part of noble wealth. If fields and forests could be hauled away, Hatton wouldn't hesitate.

Beyond that...

Hatton looked at the several hundred villagers and slaves, then waved decisively.

"From now on, you all belong to me, Lord Hatton!"

Most people reacted with numb silence. Some faces turned grim, while a smaller number ingratiated themselves immediately.

"Lord Hatton, our family are free citizens—look, here's our free citizen certificate."

Hatton didn't even glance at it.

"Watt stole my iron mine. I haven't even settled that debt. He owed me thousands of gold coins—I'll be reclaiming that from this domain."

"Selling you off is just breaking even."

The civilians didn't panic. With fawning expressions, some even pulled out hidden silver coins and offered them to Hatton.

Seeing this, Hatton finally smiled.

"Looks like you really are free citizens."

He ordered his soldiers to gather all the silver into a chest. The villagers, though still standing, now wore expressions of despair.

Free citizen or slave—more often than not, it was simply whatever a noble declared. And in a domain where the lord was dead, civilians had no protection at all.

Nobles had countless ways to exploit civilians and reduce them to slaves.

"You must have some ability if you were free citizens. Want to come live in my barony?" Hatton asked casually.

Immediately, a crowd pledged allegiance.

They didn't have much choice. Still, some saw opportunity in the lawless state of Watt's former domain and stayed behind to try their luck.

Gold, silver, jewels, timber, buildings, people—everything that could be stripped, was.

Only then did Ryan and Hatton begin dividing the loot.