The Conscript Wants to Be Discharged!

Boris Begtawen.
The son of the former lord of the eastern region near Sordan Fortress, and now the head of the Begtawen family, he was in a very bad mood right now.

“Damn it, that’s why I said we shouldn’t have sided with Baudouin back then.”

His father had defected to King’s brother Baudouin’s forces. Out of greed to become a great lord ruling the entire east rather than just a lord governing a small land in the east, he lent his strength to the faction trying to enthrone Baudouin as king, along with nobles who had territories close to the north. But last winter, when Sordan Fortress fell to the royal army, they had to flee to the cold northern lands to survive, without houses, land, or possessions.

Given the nature of nobles who divide their superiority in proportion to their power, his father, who had nothing and was being ignored by lords of the same faction due to soldiers deserting almost daily, passed away two months ago in a strange land. All he inherited was a suit of armor and a few loyal retainers and soldiers who remained by our foolish side until the end.

As a minor power, he was always ignored by surrounding lords, and even reached the point of being ignored by eastern nobles who had turned to Baudouin’s side together. He even led a separate force into the heart of enemy territory, taking on the mission of disrupting the rear, risking his life to infiltrate what used to be their territory.

“What?! Are you telling me to go die now!”

“I’m not telling you to go die, but to disrupt the enemy’s rear. Isn’t your territory conveniently located in the rear of Sordan Fortress? Oh, I mean your former territory.”

“This bastard, really!”

“If the head of the Begtawen family has any shame, instead of getting angry at me now, you should feel ashamed of your situation consuming our military provisions like cattle.”

“Eeek!”

Fortunately, Boris remembered that the bandit hideout his late father had secretly dealt with was in the rear of Sordan Fortress. He led his soldiers to occupy the mountain hideout abandoned by the bandits, and then quickly succeeded in repairing the hideout and erecting a palisade to fortify it.

They massacred the bandits who returned to the hideout, and while building the palisade, they used the bandits’ corpses to lure ghouls to nest near the village to prevent villagers from approaching the area. Although it was quite arduous to build a fortress where hundreds could be stationed in less than a month, Boris finally succeeded.

“Now we just have to wait for support from those damn northerners and advance on the fortress.”

Boris thought that now, all that was left was to wait for the arrival of reinforcements and supplies from the separate force that would come before Baudouin’s northern forces advanced on Sordan Fortress.

Until he heard the report from a soldier who came running urgently.

“What? Is that true?”

“Yes, smoke rose from the direction of the ghoul’s nest inside the forest.”

“How? Did the villagers hire mercenaries? Did they exterminate the ghouls?”

He had settled here remembering that the village near this former mountain hideout had no neighboring villages, few people living in the village, and no money to hire mercenaries to exterminate ghouls. But they exterminated the ghouls and destroyed their nest?

Boris’s mind became complicated.

‘The plan was to appear with the separate force when the fortress recapture battle began, exterminate the ghouls and win the villagers’ hearts, but did the village have that much wealth? Wasn’t it just a poor small forest village?’

Wondering if his plan had been too naive, Boris sent a few soldiers to reconnoiter the location where the smoke had occurred, and shortly after, he heard shocking news.

“Lord Begtawen, I report: We found many footprints at the point where the smoke occurred, and following them, we discovered a large number of soldiers stationed in the village.”

“A large number of soldiers? Their attire? Numbers?”

“Their attire seems to be conscripts of the royal army, as it’s not uniform. The number is roughly around 100, similar to ours.”

“This is driving me crazy.”

They ran to ask for help from the invaders who had driven out their masters with whom they had shared joys and sorrows, just because they were in danger? This is complete betrayal! It’s adultery!

‘How dare you do this!’

Of course, Boris himself knew that the relationship between a lord and his subjects is a symbiotic one where they give and receive much in exchange for protecting and being protected, and that it’s natural to seek a new protector when the protecting side loses power. He also knew that since he had used ghouls to harm the village, if he shouted and got angry here, he would just look like a madman alone, so Boris just swallowed his anger inside.

“Lord Begtawen, should we start preparing to flee by gathering our supplies?”

“…Have they noticed our existence here?”

“We found human footprints around the fortress, not in the direction where we patrol, but found inside the forest, so they must be theirs.”

More bad news.

‘The royal army has pinpointed our location, and you’re saying we should flee carrying all our supplies? We’d be pursued and ambushed by those stationed in the village before we could even go half a day.’

Although they were well-armed thanks to support from other nobles as they were a separate force, and there were even a few knights, it was impossible to flee while moving supplies against enemies who could pop out at any moment from anywhere. If they were ambushed, no matter how excellent the knights and soldiers were, they would suffer great losses if they fought while protecting the supplies.

‘And we shouldn’t underestimate them just because they’re conscripts.’

When Sordan Fortress fell last winter, they were the ones who captured a fortress defended by 500 garrison troops with about 1,000 soldiers, knights, and mages. Even if siege equipment like catapults and the presence of mages played a big role, as far as he remembered, it was a crudely armed conscript who was the first to climb the castle wall and slaughter the garrison.

“As the war continues, even conscripts’ skill level is very high. We must not underestimate them even if their armament is poor.”

“Then, are we just going to suck our thumbs and wait until they storm the fortress?”

Someone cut off Boris’s words and reacted sharply.

“Sir Hendrik.”

“Lord Begtawen, as far as I know, reinforcements will arrive in at least a week. Surely you’re not making the ‘mistake’ of missing the chance to escape because you’re scared of mere scarecrows who were given weapons after being rounded up from commoners?”

Hendrik, a knight provided by the north for this separate force, walked out from between the tents and grated on Boris’s nerves.

“It doesn’t matter whether they’re commoners or nobles. They are sufficiently threatening and well-trained. And how dare you carelessly mention the date of reinforcements’ arrival, which is confidential?”

“It seems Lord Begtawen doesn’t trust his subordinate soldiers. These are loyal soldiers of His Majesty Baudouin, there’s no need to worry about them leaking confidential information.”

‘What His Majesty Baudouin, he hasn’t even sat on the throne yet, let alone entered the capital, how can you use the title His Majesty?’

It’s true that Baudouin’s northern forces have become a bit stronger with part of the east turning, but the eastern front is still being maintained with both sides locked in a stalemate. The current king of the Kingdom of Flanders is still alive. According to the latest rumors, it seems his days are numbered, but he’s still alive anyway, so until he enters the capital and sits on the throne, Baudouin is just a claimant to the throne.

“I have faced them at Sordan Fortress. Although they are poorly armed conscripts, their prowess is excellent due to much real combat experience, so we cannot attack recklessly.”

“Isn’t that because the men of the east are weak?”

“What?”

“If our strong northern men had been guarding the fortress, they wouldn’t have shown the disgrace of losing the fortress to a royal army mainly composed of mere conscripts and fleeing, abandoning their homeland.”

“You bastard! What did you just say!”

When Boris got angry at Hendrik’s words about fleeing and abandoning their homeland, Hendrik snorted.

“People living in the south think of us as on par with barbarians, but judging by the way you speak, it seems the people of the east have even less dignity than those of the north.”

Just as Boris’s hair was about to stand on end and the lid of his head felt like it was about to open at the sight of Hendrik sneering along with his snort, a fact crossed Boris’s mind.

‘Baudouin isn’t from the north, is he? You bastard, I’ve got you now.’

With a deep sigh, calming his boiling insides, Boris looked at Hendrik with a smile full of mockery on his lips.

“Is Sir Hendrik saying that people outside the north have no dignity?”

“Well, not all…”

Hendrik, who had wondered why he was suddenly smiling, tried to back out slightly, but Boris didn’t let him escape.

“To borrow Sir Hendrik’s words, since King’s brother Baudouin was born and raised in the region below the north, you’re saying he has no dignity and thus is unfit for the throne.”

“What?! How can you interpret it so exaggeratedly! And I have never once said that His Majesty Baudouin is unfit for the throne!”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“It’s different!”

Hendrik was horrified and denied Boris’s counterattack, which implied that according to his own words, Baudouin, who lived in the southern part of the north, was an undignified loser unqualified to sit on the throne.

“I will turn a blind eye to your statements that cast doubt on your loyalty with my great magnanimity, so it would be best to watch your mouth next time.”

“Are you insulting me now!”

“Has your honor been tarnished? Then draw your sword, I’ll accept an honorable duel.”

At Boris’s words, the surrounding soldiers encircled the knight. Although they received knights and soldiers as support from King’s brother Baudouin and northern nobles, the majority here are private soldiers of the Begtawen family.

“Eek! To cause internal division when we don’t know when the enemy might appear, given the situation, I’ll back down this time. However, if you insult my loyalty again next time, I won’t let it slide easily!”

Seeing the soldiers surrounding him, Hendrik disappeared with a snort, and Boris, who had been watching him with a sardonic smile, let out a deep sigh when he disappeared.

“Whew… what am I doing?”

“Are you alright?”

Boris, telling the soldier who was worried about him that he was fine, tried to calm his burning insides while watching the sun setting on the mountain ridge.

‘Even if a knight insulted me, it might not have been right to confront him in a situation where we don’t know when the enemy might attack.’

Although he came here as the overall commander of the operation to create a fortress for the separate force to be stationed, he was a fugitive who had abandoned his homeland and fled, and out of the 150 or so soldiers, a third were northern soldiers, and the reinforcements to come would also be northern knights and soldiers.

‘But how could I show weakness when my people are watching?’

Even though he was in a position where he would lose both command and real power once the reinforcements arrived, how could he show weakness in front of the private soldiers who had followed them after they lost everything? They weren’t following to see their lord bow his head to a mere knight who couldn’t even use a sword properly.

“The sun will set soon.”

Boris closed his eyes as he looked at the sunset gradually dyeing the edge of the sky purple. Surely by now, in the forest beyond the palisade, royal army soldiers would be waiting for them to come out like a pack of hungry wolves. And the next day, their numbers would double with their reinforcements.

“If we can just hold out until reinforcements arrive.”

Even if the royal army soldiers surround this place, if we target their rear, we might create a chance for reversal.

“Is everyone ready?”

“Yes, we’re ready.”

“We can fight anytime.”

Looking at the subordinates of the Hundred-man Unit full of resolve, I nodded.

“Good, from now on we’ll divide into reconnaissance teams doubling as decoy teams. Two teams will separate from the main force to act as reconnaissance and decoys, luring nearby, and when they come out, we’ll lure them deep and attack simultaneously.”

“What if they don’t come out?”

“Then we’ll have to hold out here until reinforcements arrive.”

I’m not sure if the commander in charge of the fortress is aggressive or defensive, but at least until their reinforcements arrive or our reinforcements arrive, we’re similar in terms of strength.

“They know that too, so they might choose to deal with us and flee to survive.”

“And that’s when it’ll be their death day.”

“That’s right, we have to make sure of that.”

From now on, it’s a time of patience.