Virgin Knight Who Is the Frontier Lord in the Gender Switched World - Chapter 92

In the great hall of Lord Polydoro’s manor.

There are two long benches, each capable of seating about five people, placed on either side of a table.

Lord Faust and I sit there, facing Helga-dono, the commander of the retainers, and four other retainers seated across from us.

During the time Lord Faust was absent, having stayed back in the royal lands alone, I was looked after at Helga-dono’s house, provided with meals and training.

This is the first time since our visit to Virendorf that I am meeting the other retainers.

The five retainers have been provided with crossbows and chainmail, clearly distinguishing them as professional warriors.

Typically, the fields granted to their houses are farmed by their sisters and families.

This lifestyle is likely unchanged in both small feudal lands and in towns or villages alike.

“Regarding the mock battle tomorrow,”

“The villagers are all looking forward to it. As usual, 50 villagers will participate.”

Helga-dono answered while eating bread, meat, and some northern pike fish.

At this dinner, a discussion unfolds between Lord Faust, myself—a squire—and the five retainers about the mock battle scheduled for the next day.

Normally, besides training, my former mother, Caroline, also used to train with the retainers.

However, I had never seen a mock battle involving commoners.

Generally, everyone is too busy with their roles as producers.

“Shall we proceed with the formation drills again this time?”

“It seems so. Things are not going well currently.”

In the Polydoro lands, a large-scale mock battle involving the villagers is held once a week.

The people of Polydoro are descendants of a pioneering group, with the Polydoro family historically leading them, a fact I learned at the church.

Polydoro is a borderland near the borders of the Anhalt Kingdom and Virendorf, facing a real fear and sense of crisis about potential land seizure.

This is not something to be compared with the old homeland, the Bösel lands.

“What exactly is not going well? I can’t quite understand.”

Although I shouldn’t interrupt much, as a squire, I pose the question.

My mother, Caroline, once confronted Lord Faust, and during that time, including commoner retainers, 70 people died.

Of course, I bear no resentment, but everyone involved perished.

Conversely, there have been no combat deaths among the Polydoro villagers.

Their level of training seems insane, and from an outsider’s perspective, it’s hard to see what isn’t working.

“The fundamental mistake I made was the cause.”

“And what would that be?”

Lord Faust frowns and murmurs.

“There’s a formation called Tercio. I placed the five retainer crossbowmen in the center as commanders and marksmen, surrounded by militiamen armed with spears and swords. The truth is, with only 20-30 soldiers mobilized by the Polydoro family during military service, it’s embarrassingly incomplete as a formation. Nevertheless, I adopted it.”

“Hmm.”

It’s a defensive formation.

Essentially, it’s about guarding long-range troops with pikemen from enemy soldiers.

Lord Faust’s approach can be quite flexible.

During a march to Virendorf, Helga-dono adjusted the formation several times upon seeing fit, allowing me to observe the changes.

The retainers could line up in a row or column on command.

Though it’s incomplete, the quick mobilization of the villagers showcased their high level of training.

What could be going wrong?

“I hoped that by adopting this formation, the number of villager casualties would decrease. I prayed that the defensive formation would show its effectiveness.”

“Hasn’t it decreased?”

Since Lord Faust took over as acting lord, I’ve heard that there have been no deaths among the Polydoro villagers.

“It has decreased. But something still feels off. I think I’ve fundamentally misunderstood something.”

Lord Faust showed his worry.

I somewhat understand.

“Upon reflection, setting up the formation is good, but there’s essentially no meaning to it. Indeed, there are no deaths. However, the initial purpose of setting up the formation seems completely pointless now.”

Typically, Lord Faust’s combat style is not defensive but rather a hyper-aggressive strategy aimed at charging at the enemy’s strongest piece, decapitating their commander, and causing a morale collapse among enemy troops, leading to a one-sided slaughter by all villagers.

“However, Lord Faust. Since there are no deaths, perhaps it’s not necessary to abandon this strategy. If it’s working well as it is, isn’t that good enough?”

One of the retainers raised an objection, but Lord Faust remained skeptical.

“But it feels pointless. It truly feels meaningless.”

Lord Faust tends to be self-deprecating.

In terms to personal valor, he was trained by the previous Lady Marianne, and in this, he holds absolute confidence.

However, he seems to harbor doubts about his capabilities in other areas.

“Actually, I may have been misunderstanding everything. I had a preconception that all soldiers must stick to direct combat. The reality is different. Everyone runs when they see me. We end up frantically chasing the fleeing enemies, and the reality is just us slaughtering them all. The formation breaks down almost immediately once the battle starts.”

Lord Faust, resting his elbows on the table and covering his face with both hands, seems to have come to a stark realization about his own tendencies in battle. It was not the enemy, but rather himself who was insistent on direct combat.

“Retainers shoot with crossbows from a distance. I charge and kill the enemy commander. The demoralized enemy troops are then slaughtered by everyone. This has been the basic pattern when dealing with bandits, who are desperately trying to escape. It’s infuriating how much they refuse to engage. Moreover, bandits don’t have money. They are, after all, just a group of destitute people.”

Well, that does make sense.

“Until about the age of 18, I dreamed of making money by killing lots of bandits, but unless there’s the rare luck of bandits like ambushing a merchant convoy and killing the guards, taking everything including the wagons, or stealing the royal taxes from the tax collectors on their way to the capital, it’s just not feasible. A bandit group that can be suppressed by the small force we can mobilize in the Polydoro territory wouldn’t have any money. Why did I even think that ordinary bandits would have money?”

“Bandits who have money are usually those who were mercenary groups that could attack small feudal territories. Even then, saying that stealing a mercenary group’s entire operational funds would be profitable is far-fetched. Or maybe if you could rob the wealth of a robber knight before feuds were officially banned. Both seem a bit off from being purely bandits.”

In the past, it was common for robber knights to plunder valuables from churches.

Feuds are officially banned—well, as I said “officially,” some knights still engage in it.

They misuse feuds for duels that are nothing more than robbery, extortion, highway robbery, and profit-driven kidnappings.

Especially notorious are the profit-driven kidnappings.

They are definitely not duels by any stretch of the imagination.

To mention one of the worst scenarios, they kidnap a man and then threaten his family to either engage in a feud or pay a ransom.

Otherwise, the man would be sold off somewhere for money.

The challenge to a duel is sent after the kidnapping has already occurred.

If they weren’t knights—if they didn’t have that status—they would be seen by everyone as nothing but criminals.

If Lord Faust were to become a robber knight, with his strength, he would quickly amass wealth.

But that’s not in his character.

“Yet, I owned a crossbow. I managed to capture five of them. Conversely, it means I was shot five times. I don’t understand the meaning behind it.”

Indeed.

That’s an excessive armament for a poor band of bandits.

Whether that’s good or bad luck.

Well, for now.

“The widespread use of muskets in the Holy Gusten Empire is thought to be because the number in circulation increased, leading to a decrease in price and more opportunities to acquire them. Moreover, the workshops of the Cologne sect in the city, despite the Pope’s ban on crossbows, continued to produce them and distributed them throughout the country…”

I voiced my thoughts.

Trying to induce a sense of resentment in Lord Faust towards the Cologne sect, I blamed everything on them.

“Ah, I see. If it’s the fault of the Cologne sect, then it can’t be helped.”

With an utterly nonchalant tone, Lord Faust accepted the situation.

He’s too straightforward, which is troublesome.

I think there are various complex reasons behind it, though.

It seems difficult to corner the Cologne sect with this approach.

—

He grumbled about his own foolishness. “Let’s get back to the main discussion. Anyway, the whole mess started with my misunderstanding. Everyone, my apologies. That imperfect Tercio imitation was my mistake. Let’s re-evaluate it.”

“What exactly do you intend to do? First of all, what is your ideal?”

—

I asked, though I roughly anticipated his answer.

“It’s a one-sided shooting.”

Lord Faust does specialize in direct combat abilities, but he seems to dislike relying solely on them.

“Not just crossbows, ideally, muskets would be preferable. And the proportion of the Tercio should maintain a defensive nature with enough pikemen present. If I were to speak frankly, the more riflemen the better.”

The attendants, being mostly yes-women, hadn’t asked much, which seemed to heat up Lord Faust’s response a bit. He elaborated on his goals.

“The true ideal would be, as when Martina’s unfamiliar island nation trained its militia, arriving at a form of unilateral shooting with longbows, superior in rapid-firing and effective range if there’s enough time to train and enough men. Although, the island nation ultimately lost. Anyway, it’s natural to aim for unilateral slaughter, from a position out of the enemy’s effective range. Holding a spear longer than a sword, throwing stones, shooting arrows, firing guns, it’s all the same. Of course, this answer is just a simplistic solution derived from my shallow knowledge. But undoubtedly, it’s inevitable that not just riflemen but also cavalry will bear guns.”

How much does he wish to slaughter one-sidedly?

Lord Faust, with his simple and gentle nature, seems to act bloodthirsty on the battlefield.

It must be to minimize losses among his allies, a commendable action on their part, though excessively harsh.

In contrast, his knightly honor, as when he defeated Reckenber, the commander of the Virendorf knights, is stubbornly preserved and celebrated in heroic songs, and at times, he has even prostrated himself for my pleas for mercy.

Is this the pride of a knight born as a superhuman warrior?

His actions during war and peace are so incongruous.

It’s hopeless.

I don’t understand.

But as I ponder, one thing comes to mind.

—

“Have you been influenced too much by the Cologne sect?”

Yes, the Cologne sect.

That mad sect has twisted this kind man’s thoughts and inclinations.

If it’s to save himself and his kin, anything goes.

It’s permissible on the raging battlefield, even if not in peacetime.

This way of thinking is ingrained in him.

I voiced this out.

—

Lord Faust, looking deeply hurt, faced me.

Clearly, being confronted face-to-face had made him contemplative.

“What should we do about tomorrow’s mock battle? Martina, if you have any thoughts, please speak up.”

He blatantly changed the subject.

Personally, I wanted to pursue this matter further.

However, continuing to touch on this seemed overly cruel to Lord Faust.

If there’s any fault, it doesn’t lie with this kind-hearted man but with the Cologne faction.

—

“I am but a nine-year-old child. Honestly, I can’t say what’s right or wrong. We’re having a mock battle tomorrow, right? I will speak as I see things then…”

I answered somewhat hesitantly.

Lord Faust ceased his earlier fervent tone and appeared somewhat wounded.

It’s all the fault of the Cologne sect.

Certainly not the fault of this knight-in-training, Martina, who simply spoke her mind.

—

“That may be the only way.”

Lord Faust, seeming disheartened, slumped down.

Then he began to stir a soup of beans and barley with a spoon.

That habit of his, it seems, would not be corrected by a mere reprimand.