16. Chapter 16
The battle continued even after the main force of the enemy had been destroyed and 3000 soldiers of Ferrius Kingdom had surrendered. The exhausted troops disarmed the prisoners of war and made the occupied hills a temporary headquarters. The remaining troops, the nimble cavalry battalion and the light infantry battalion, pursued the remaining Ferrius troops who attempted to retreat to their home country.
Even now, after the loss of the commander’s head by Walm and the destruction of the five battalions, the strength of the two battalions was still there. If it left unharmed, it would surely affect future diplomacy.
Under these circumstances, Liguria’s light infantry battalion received orders not to remain in the hills but to proceed to Aidenberg, the capital of Myard. The reason for this was that there were Ferrius and Myard soldiers hiding in the city who couldn’t join the main army, and their mission was to annihilate them.
There were no major defenses in Aidenberg, as Myrad concentrated on defending the borders. This was one of the factors why Ferrius and Myard chose to fight on the plains. Rivers were flowing out of the city and one could only enter the city from the plains.
If one wanted to enter the city from a river, they had to cross it by boat or by bridge, only these two options. The bridge, a central point, served as a means of defense, and even now, when the victory of the Highserk Empire was certain, the garrison continued to fight. Fortunately, the weak resistance was quickly crushed, but one of the two bridges was destroyed by Ferrius soldiers.
The Liguria battalion had several priorities. The first was to secure an area where troops had accumulated. Myard territory, a fertile breadbasket, was actively exporting grain to neighboring countries, and Aidenberg, the center of trade, had a large number of grain storages as well as food storage that supported the army’s stomach.
The second was the capture, protection, and murder of influential and powerful people. Reigning wouldn’t be successful simply by killing all the hostile humans. Walm was taught when he first joined the army that a certain number of influential people in Myard were needed in order to efficiently annex them into part of the Highserk Empire.
Important posts would be given to feudal lords and aristocrats who had been informed in advance, but the remaining rulers and chairs of concession would be given to the influential people, as a sign of mercy. Although it was a so-called “carrot and stick” procedure, in this way the Highserk Empire unified the area called the Crucible of Chaos, where small nations were scattered and divided into groups.
The third was the maintenance of public order. Many defeated soldiers were desperate in the city and continued to hide, while repeatedly plundering and forcefully raping the citizens. In addition, some Highserk soldiers were also plundering, disregarding military rules.
Although the world was more tolerant of plunder and humiliation than Walm’s previous world, Highserk suppressed it at important locations. After all, overly violent wolves could hinder the future of the Highserk Empire, which tried to keep the land and people as they were by replacing only the head.
Of course, there were unprotected beings on whom the soldiers could vent their rage. They were the influential people who should be removed from the head’s chair.
The now-deceased Youth Myard, a former Kanoa nobleman who became the King of Myard, was also the target. His old-fashioned yet elegant mansion, which could be hundreds of years old, was ravaged by a large number of soldiers.
“These people are… it must be those Myard soldiers, right?”
Said Noor, looking at the stacked corpses.
“For the soldiers who lost their country, it must’ve looked like a treasure trove without a guard dog.”
Jose glanced at the corpses, but immediately turned to the mansion, uninterested.
“Even if you have power and wealth, nothing matters when it collapses.”
Is it because of the merchant’s blood?
Walm’s eyes looked sentimentally at the cheerful Jose.
“It’s not that I don’t understand where it’s coming from, but to value those things more than their own lives, it’s pathetic.”
Those who were smart either got together early and pretended as civilians in the city and were hidden by their relatives, or they tried to escape outside the city. Those piled up were the ones blinded by their greed and were too late to escape.
“I know that they’re their former lords, but what ungrateful bastards. According to the surviving servants, the relatives were killed by the plunderers before we came. Some of them weren’t only soldiers but also citizens.”
Disdain resonated in Squad Commander Duwei’s voice.
“There are enough hands in the mansion. We’ve been ordered to patrol the city. Did you have what you needed?”
The backpacks and waist bags of the squad members were packed with spoils of war and food left in the food storage. Walm, who was ordered to maintain security, was on patrol while conducting some legal plundering in the meantime.
Although he was acting according to national and organizational rules, this would not be morally permissible.
There were no civilians in the streets of the city. Only Highserk soldiers. Occasionally they dragged the defeated soldiers who had been captured.
If the soldiers offered even the slightest resistance or displayed bad manners, these prisoners became a brand-new stain on the street and were carried by wheelbarrows pushed by their compatriots who became prisoners of war.
“Wait! I’m not a soldier.”
A man being dragged out of the building shouted an excuse, but the hands of the soldiers didn’t loosen, instead pulled off the man’s clothes.
“There’s a trace of iron on his bleeding. Take him.”
There was a mark on the man’s back that was almost certainly from an arrow. It was one of the wounds Walm had often seen on the battlefield. He would never make a mistake.
“No. When I was outside, a flowing arrow flew in. I’ve never been on the battlefield.”
The man continued desperately to make excuses, but the soldier continued on without caring.
“Do you want to be treated like them?”
The wheelbarrow the soldier pointed to with his chin was full of bodies. Walm could even understand where the fresh blood dripping from the loading platform came from.
The man still tried to open his mouth, but gave up when he saw the soldier put his hand on the sword at the final warning.
As the man hung his head, he glanced at the building he was being dragged out of. A young woman and a child, who seemed to be his family members, looked after him in frustration.
“You should be thankful for not getting killed. Well, you’ll be freed if you work for a few months. Walk, fast.”
The man looked one last time at his family and quietly joined the line of prisoners. Such a scene could be seen all over the city. Brand new lacerations, bruises, and burns that could have come from the war were also seen on their bodies.
Some of them were just civilians. Walm felt depressed at this sight, but there was no way for him to give special treatment to just some of them. After all, this could hinder the maintenance of public safety, and even rebels with military experience couldn’t go unchecked, no matter what.
Moreover, Walm looked to his homeland, the Highserk Empire, which, for better or worse, had a clause stating that even human life would be considered a resource. If they came from a country still in combat, most were used as hostages for ransom, and the low-rank prisoners of war were sold domestically and internationally.
There were several paths that the enemy soldiers would follow after the annexation. For a certain period, they would be engaged in the restoration of cities and facilities damaged by the war, or civil engineering work at home and abroad. This was how the rivers and roads in Highserk were created.
Depending on how hard-working the individual was and how the supervisor was, they could be released as early as after several months or as long as after several years. Many of them were appointed to the supervisor’s seat as they were, or joined the Highserk army, mainly for those who had nowhere to go.
As the Duwei’s Squad roamed the city, a hustle and bustle echoed down one street. Walm was reflexively holding his halberd.
“Battle noise…?”
Barito was ready, but Squad Commander Duwei denied it.
“That’s a strange sound for a fight. Is it a skirmish?”
Upon hearing the sound, Walm rushed to the center of the turmoil. It was a typical citizen’s house. At the entrance, was another squad that was supposed to be patrolling.
“What happened?”
Walm asked the elderly soldier blocking the entrance.
“They’ve done too much. They broke into the house and raped the woman. And her husband was also beaten to death. Besides that, they also rampaged when they were arrested.”
When Walm looked in, four young soldiers were pressed against the ground and held down. On the other side lay a woman who had sat down and was crying, and a man whose strength had left his eyes. Perhaps he had been hit in the face, his nose and teeth broken.
“They’re stupid guys. Even though they didn’t have that kind of permission. Crazy idiots.”
They were men who somehow looked familiar to Walm. He searched his brain and remembered where he had met them. Yes, they were the ones who had forcibly taken the woman into the fort on the border.
“What will happen to these guys?”
Thinking, the soldier folded his arms.
“Usually it’s a decapitation, but we won the battle. And they’re from the Sarria Battalion who often fought against Myard soldiers. I guess just a whipping and labor with the prisoners.”
Hearing this, the young soldier from Sarria Battalion tried to curse, but when he was kicked in the face several times, he kept his mouth shut.
“Is that enough?”
Involuntarily Walm let out such words, thinking that the sentence was too light for someone who killed a civilian.
“It’s a common story. If you killed them every time for such a thing, Highserk would’ve lost a lot of their soldiers.”
Squad Commander Duwei who was listening next to Walm also joined the conversation.
“The whipping ain’t that easy you know? The soldier screams at the first whip, cries at the second and third whip. The skin peels off and the flesh falls off. Even fainting won’t help. The next whip will just wake you up again… Faint again, wake up again. Some of them even die. I wonder if those guys can bear it?”
Said Squad Commander Duwei, looking down at the Sarria soldiers as if looking at filth. On the other hand, the faces of the Sarria soldiers became quite rigid at the idea of the whipping.
“Did you hear that, idiots? You should thank the Squad Commander for the advice. If you want to reduce the number of whips, stop resisting and move quietly.”
They looked like hungry young wolves, but they were taken by older soldiers like obedient dogs.
Although Walm was wary of the attack, no battle occurred in the area he was in charge of. What happened was a small quarrel while holding the defeated soldiers, also plundering and forced rape, by the Myard soldiers and the Highserk soldiers who disregarded the military rules.
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Read all the way through from chapter one. Seems quite interesting. I hope the tone of the story won’t go too soft in the future.
Wish those soldiers were executed but at least they’ll suffer