𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬 (2)
Johan thought so, but in fact it was not the priest’s fault.
It was a common tale that the miracle of healing wounds with the touch of a noble saint’s hands was recognized as a miracle by the church itself.
Of course, the church did not seriously believe that a petty nobleman could perform the miracles of a saint. But the church always had to be mindful of the feudal lords.
They could say that there was divine value in the bloodline of noble nobles.
“Yeah. Grab it.”
“Oh oh. . . Oh oh oh. . .!”
Johan’s divinity was not formed by such noble bloodline, but by his own mythical feats. It was natural that the mercenaries who saw him up close believed so.
“I. . . Can I also. . .”
“Where did this rude guy come from!”
“Were you crazy about getting hit!”
The mercenary from the Walgyesu Mercenary Group had to hear vicious curses mixed with words for even saying one word.
Johan’s mercenaries did not want to share their employer’s divinity, much less in a situation like this where they had to deal with curses.
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𝕒𝔴𝕖ḃ̇s𝚝𝚘𝘳𝚒𝕖𝚜.𝔠ȯ̇𝐦
“They are pirates. Should we hit them from behind?”
“Let’s hit them. It can get annoying.”
When he spotted pirates moving carts full of loot in the distance, Johan immediately gave orders.
The pirate guys wouldn’t mess with a cavalry troop either, but if they went back and reported it, a tail could be attached for no reason.
‘𝘉𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘛𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥.’
After the battle with the minotaurs ended, Johan kept his promise. Not only that, but he showed more mercy. He released them in return for telling him that there was one more minotaur.
At Johan’s command, the merchants of the republic took the pirates as if they were going to sell them as slaves, then released them at a midpoint.
‘𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘩.’
The pirates were not valuable enough to fetch a high price.
Of course, slaves were always selling well in republics and cities, but even slaves had different grades.
To sell at a high price, the slave had to be talented, learned, or beautiful. The pirates were none of these. They were most likely to be sold cheaply as laborers.
In a situation where selling them wouldn’t make much money and killing them wouldn’t leave anything behind, keeping them would only drain food supplies.
In such a situation, Johan had little regret in showing mercy. On top of that, there was Caenerna telling him that Tamir seemed to be a nobleman. He thought that showing mercy might come back around someday.
Of course, Caenerna did not like such vague calculations. She preferred the cash that came directly into her hands. It would be easier to just sell some nobleman they didn’t even know and forget about him. In fact, that wasn’t a completely wrong thing to say.
“Enemy!”
By the time the pirates were panicking and pulling out their weapons, the mercenaries had already arrived ahead of them. Johan’s cavalry guards, all mounted, had superior mobility from the start.
Crossbow bolts pierced through a pirate’s head and Johan’s spear pierced two men at once. Realizing they were facing elite mounted soldiers, the pirates panicked and tried to flee.
“You idiot! Come back!”
One pirate who seemed to have some sense desperately called out to his comrades. What good would running away on flat ground like this do with cavalry behind them?
However, the terrified pirates scattered every which way. It was the belief that of course they would be chased down.
“Kill everyone except one of them!”
Thanks to that, Johan could hunt comfortably. They all fell except for the one who seemed to have some sense. That one was also hit by a sword while resisting.
“Where are you from?”
Geoffrey took over the interpretation. He wasn’t very fluent, but he could speak the eastern language to some extent. The pirate answered in pain and fear that he was from the Marquis territory.
“Ask how many there are, what they do, and why they came here.”
The pirate obediently answered. There were over thousands of pirates gathered in the Marquis territory, he was a squad leader level, and they came out here to plunder.
As the main Marquis castle did not fall and only accumulated damage, some pirates started deserting.
‘𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵.’
Sieges in this world overwhelmingly favored the defenders. Marquis Crucho was an experienced commander, and although he may have lost soldiers during the landing, he had elite troops with him.
With replenishments as well, he would have enough to defend the castle.
‘𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭.’
Even though Johan regretted it, there was nothing he could do about it. It wasn’t as if he could make the Marquis make mistakes from afar.
The pirate groaned and muttered something.
“Please show mercy. Just end it in one breath. . .”
“End it.”
The mercenaries showed their mercy. Fortunately, they were stragglers who had come out. There would be no tail.
“I wonder if there really could be thousands of pirates gathered?”
“I don’t know. At best, a squad leader level guy wouldn’t have accurately grasped the scale, but still it wouldn’t be that weird.”
Pirates scraped together as many as they landed and often relied on numbers. They would also arm kidnapped serfs and slaves and make them comrades.
With groups of such guys gathering and banding together, thousands was not a surprising number.
The old mercenary, Khan, opened his mouth.
“If so many pirates have gathered, I suspect they are being led by nobles.”
“No, Mr. Khan. What do nobles regret that they would turn to piracy?”
“Don’t talk nonsense. You’ve seen nobles leading mercenaries. Those pagan nobles below directly lead pirates, plundering merchant ships and capturing slaves.”
“Goodness. The deeds those pagan guys do are really despicable.”
‘𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘺. . .’
Johan thought so to himself, but did not interrupt the mercenaries’ conversation.
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ᴀ𝚠𝚎𝘣𝕤𝕥𝚘𝕣𝕚𝘦s.ᴄ𝚘ṁ