Homesteading in a fantasy world

Slowly but steadily the convoy started to reach the snow that wasn’t that thick anymore. In the centre carriage, the only one that was heated lounged a young man who looked at his food disgusted. Like he always did he started to complain about the lack of acceptable food to the other occupants of the carriage.

With him were his sister and two other women that used to be a part of smaller noble houses. His sister was in manacles to stop her from trying to run away. The other two women were half-naked so he would have something good to look at besides the awful snow outside.

He wanted to take the women fully, but he couldn't otherwise the oaths that constrain his knight would break, but he could still have some fun with them. He was just glad that he could kill and torture peasants without the oaths breaking.

This was thanks to his ability to charge them with anything he wanted and then declare them guilty. When he thought back to the stupid scouts that were able to get away because they had gotten too far for him made him subconsciously squeezed the knife in his hand until his knuckles were white.

The young girl that was in the carriage and was this monster's sister tried to keep the smile from her face. Anything that made her brother mad was the sweetest of gifts. Still, as she looked at the other girls in that carriage that amusement quickly died down.

Next, she looked at the guard commander that was riding beside them. She wished that he could do anything to save them but even he had to endure whatever this madman that was supposed to be her brother wanted to do.

The man that currently was the guard commander could only sigh whenever he thought about his former master and what had become of his life. When he watched himself in the mirror, he could already see the grey in his beard. But currently, he did not dare to look into the mirror as he know he couldn’t bear to see his eyes being so lifeless. That image would break the last of his willpower.

He started to notice that the snow was getting shallower. It seemed that his dream of the snow being never-ending and them all freezing to death would not come to pass. He just hoped that whoever they come across will be strong enough to kill them all.

When the man looked behind him and saw the villagers still walking with them, he still could not believe it. He did not know what spurred them on and kept them moving. How have they not given up? He did not know and that was the only thing that still gave him hope that he might see this nightmare end with him hopefully still alive.

If you looked at the convoy people and their eyes all the soldiers and the people that were part of the noble house all had lifeless eyes wishing everything was all over one way or another. Yet if you looked at the eyes of the villagers you would see determination and hatred that fueled their life and let them keep putting one leg in front of the other.

The way to the village was not completely clear and while this wind-swept part of the countryside barely had any snow this didn't continue for long and from a bird's eye view, you could see two tunnels that will connect to this part of the countryside.

One of those tunnels was not yet connected and that was the convoy that was escaping from the undead. On the other side, the tunnel was already finished and the company that occupied the village had set up some rudimentary defences in hopes that they will be used against the undead and not the people that were part of the convoy.

Amongst those people that were waiting for the convoy was Falyr. He looked around quite worriedly as the reinforcements had not yet arrived meaning they were badly outpowered by the potential enemy.

Even Rich had not yet come which was unusual as he was quite punctual. Their biggest advantage was Bert, who had worked quite hard to put up some defence that could be used if anything happened and a fight broke out.

When the two wizards that were in the front carriage finally saw more than 20 feet in front of them, they were both disappointed and glad. While they also wished that they died from the winter so they didn't have to follow this madman they were still glad that at least for a little while this exhaustive job would be over. What they didn't expect was to see a group of people where the snow started to get deep again.

They didn’t call for this out for the convoy simply because they didn’t care and hoped that the people out there were strong enough to put up a resistance or even possibly help them break free.

A few moments later commands could be heard that instructed everyone to keep moving. This Falyr did not expect to happen, they just kept coming and no one ran ahead to parley with them and that made him a lot more worried about the situation.

It took about an hour before the convoy reached where the company was. Only then when they were close enough did a small group of knights on horseback move towards the front to meet the other group.

Everything was tense as the strongest knight who was the guard commander examined the group in front of them. He was glad to see that there were powerful people amongst them yet he was disappointed there weren’t more.

“Greetings, we are from the thorn rose company and we had noticed your presence about a day ago. At first, we were quite pleased to see a possible trade caravan but when we found what was chasing you, we became a bit more cautious as to your intentions,” said Falyr in a clear and loud voice.

“I’m afraid we are not on a trade mission. We are simply trying to survive the winter and the undead that seem to have found themselves chasing us.” There seemed to be a pause before the guard commander continued.” We seek your strength and hospitality in these trying times. We seek hospitality and trust you can accommodate us.” said the head commander almost unwillingly.

Falyr was glad to hear those words, but he did not like the tone of them. He didn't understand what was wrong with the head commander and when he looked at everyone else his suspicions grew, but he couldn't do anything to challenge the claims at least for now. He expressed that they were glad to give hospitality and hoped that they could continue this conversation with the leader of the convoy.

Falyr didn’t get his wish immediately. As everyone was tired of walking and some were quite hungry they all started to set up behind the defences and started to rest with the sun still up something they haven't been able to do in a long time.

When the noble got out of his carriage a lot of time had passed so everyone was waiting for him. All Falyr could do was let out a heavy sigh when he saw the boy. That boy just oozed madness and bloodlust. What was even worse were the artefacts that were on him. If he had to guess they were all to save that sorry excuse of a man's life.

The noble was quite pleased with his appearance as he had to take quite a while to get back into presentable order. But when he looked around, he was disappointed about the rabble that was there. He had hoped that there was someone that was close to his calibre but there didn't seem to be.

The smell of the peasants made him angry, but he was pleased that no peasant dared to look at him. He had trained them well. The guard commander came to lead him to the leader of the other group, but he was disappointed at what he saw.

Did that person even have a drop of noble blood? Was he just a peasant that got lucky? Falyr could see the disgust on the young man’s face. He just had hope that he would be able to please him long enough for the reinforcements to arrive and then they could do what they want. Before the conversation could begin, he heard a loud voice.

“Look at all of this. It's all so disappointing. I was hoping that the undead would already be here so I could cut them all down myself.” The voice was arrogant and full of confidence and when Falyr turned around he could see Rich and his three apprentices who were behind him like servants.

He looked taller than he remembered, and Rich held himself like he was above everyone, something Falyr had never seen before. Even Rich’s eyes looked awfully similar to the noble that was beside him.

When he looked at the noble, he could see the smile on his face. He looked like someone that was finally glad to see someone worthy of his attention. Falyr was utterly confused at what was happening.

He had never seen Rich act like this. Had he been waiting for an opportunity like this? Had Rich orchestrated everything so he could get so many people here and then take all the riches we brought? What was happening even that didn't make any sense. Before he could do anything he saw the noble quickly walk towards Rich and greet him.

“Good day knight, I am Lurd Lauso leader of the noble house of Gelld. It is a pleasure to meet someone as regal as you.” Before he could continue with his questions he was interrupted by Rich.

“Ha, it’s great to see someone as prominent as you. I will win glory for us today against the undead and then we can celebrate with a feast that will quench all our thirst.” Rich then laughed again putting his hand onthe noble’s shoulder as the noble laughed with him.

Everyone in the convoy was surprised that Lurd Lauso had allowed someone to touch him without permission but when they heard him laugh a colder shiver ran down their spine. How were they so unlucky that they found another man amongst so much emptiness that was similar to Lurd?

The Guard commander was worried about everything happening and then it got worse as he saw the man in weird armour lead Lurd away more towards the coming undead and a bit towards the villager. This all made him quite worried.

He had hoped that the people here were good but now he was no longer certain but when he looked at Falyr he could see the confusion on his face that was mirrored by everyone else. “There is no need to worry the undead will come in a line out from the snow. The speedy bastards among them will run at us long before the other undead could even get close to us. We will all be able to deal with them easily,” explained Rich in a loud voice so absolutely everyone could hear.

The guard commander was uncertain why Rich said that. Most hordes will stick quite close to each other. Did they know something he did not? “Do you have any more information about the undead that would make you guys believe that the undead will act like this?” He asked Falyr who just shook his head.

Falyr had a hard time understanding what was happening. “Then when we deal with the runners that came at us, I will charge the middle and hold and kill everything that tries to come near. At this point, everyone else will start to taunt smaller groups of the undead which you will all be able to handle quite easily. Like that, we will easily win this fight and then the celebrations can begin.” Rich’s confident and overbearing voice spread to everyone.

However, no one understood why Rich was so confident. The ones that didn't know about warfare thought he was crazy and the ones that know about war were even more dumbfounded. “What’s happening?” Asked Falyr whose brain was barely working. Everything they had planned just came crashing down. Then the confusion was replaced by horror.

“Rich you seemed to have good noble blood and you are obviously a member of a prominent knight academy, but are you associated with any noble house?” Asked Lurd in a happy tone. He could not remember the last time he was so glad to meet another member of the nobility.

To that Rich grabbed Lurd shoulder again before laughing. “Ha ha as you can see there are no noble house markings on my armour meaning I am a completely free agent at the moment.” This made Lurd extremely happy but before he could continue Rich spoke up again.

“But I have not been to any knight academy nor am I nobility. If I would put a name to myself, I would be a farmer or possibly a scavenger some might even call me a peasant I would guess.” Rich still had his hand on Lurd’s shoulder and kept talking without noticing or pretending not to about the complete shift Lurd had gone through.

The surroundings went completely silent as everyone from the convoy and the company could feel the shift of mood and were absolutely scared of the outcome.

Then Rich was able to somehow make it even worse. “You see all of this that I currently am is only possible thanks to the nobility around here dying. Nobility truly is worthless ha ha ha. I could only imagine a world where such stupid people didn’t exist. I wonder where we could have made it if this was the world we lived in.”

The guard commander was the first to act but even he was too slow simply because even he was completely taken by surprise by Rich’s change of attitude. Because of that, he was not able to get to them fast enough to stop Lurd’s rapier. He could only watch it starting to glow with the power of abilities and plunging towards Rich’s chest.

The guard commander had found it a bit weird when he first saw Rich and his two-handed sword that was unsheathed and rested against his shoulder held by his right arm. He wasn’t able to figure out why the position of it was weird but what happened between Lurd and Rich made him forget about that fact.

But now he was reminded again because Rich’s armour glowed with the power of ability and he could see the rapier only able to scratch the armour before it was turned and harmlessly started to move down the armour.

Everyone had expected for the rapier to pierce the chest and heart of Rich so they hadn’t thought of what might happen next. There was a small pressure wave that was released when Rich’s two-handed sword started to move and glow a lot brighter than the rapier ever did. The sword moved so fast that for the regular villagers they didn't even see what happened before it ended but people with combat experience saw it all.

Rich was able to move the sword with one hand with ease and speed. The sword was infused with so much energy that when it came into contact with the first defensive artefact it didn't even diminish the light of the sword by a fraction.

The next two defence artefacts were a lot stronger, but the glow still remains strong. The 4th artefact took the most out of the glow but even then, it still kept going and then the 5th almost extinguished the light but somehow it still had power. Lurd’s look of disgust has changed to astonishment and then into absolute fear.

The sword entered his shoulder and cut almost halfway through the body but before the noble could give his last command to his sworn protectors another surge of energy enter the sword. The sword exploded with energy roots that quickly dug their way through the body of the noble quickly spreading to every vital part of the body including the brain killing the noble instantly and leaving only mangled flesh behind.