Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Lower Town square of Rübern, a city located in the center of the Barony of Rübel.

“We can’t take any more of this. I simply can’t endure the lord’s tyranny any longer.”

“No, why in the world do we have to live under such oppression? We can’t live like this.”

“Why is the new lord acting like this, anyway? Are we supposed to be serfs?”

“We’re commoners living in this domain, not serfs!”

Hear, hear! The people gathered in the square shouted as one, raising a commotion.

Of course, if this had been the era several centuries ago when the manorial system was common, it would have been correct for them to call themselves serfs rather than commoners residing in the domain—domain residents, for short. In those days, nobles held full authority over their respective territories, and on their lands, called manors, serfs, a social class little different from half-slaves, were exploited and oppressed.

But in the present age, the social class known as serfs no longer existed. As the centralized system around the king strengthened, and as the rise of free cities and free citizens who had seized wealth through the development of trade, commerce, and industry caused manors to decline, serfs had vanished behind the curtain of history.

In the present age, although distinctions of rank existed between lords and domain residents, their relationship was reciprocal. The lord provided the domain residents with a place to live and promised to protect their persons, while the domain residents developed the domain and engaged in the industries that formed its foundation, such as agriculture, handicrafts, and commerce.

Nor was that all. Due to centralization, a lord’s ability to raise private soldiers had been greatly restricted, making it impossible to keep many professional soldiers such as knights. As a result, under the common understanding that “it is only natural for commoners residing in a domain to take up arms to protect their own homes,” the reality of the present age was that domain residents fulfilled military service as ordinary soldiers.

Of course, in terms of combat strength and proficiency, it might be better to hire professional mercenaries and keep them as soldiers rather than rely on commoners. However...... hiring mercenaries for the continuous peace of the domain was not a particularly good choice. Mercenaries could leave at any time if things went badly, and some worked under simultaneous contracts with several domains, creating security problems such as leaked secrets.

Given the situation, domain residents came to be recognized as people who influenced the amount of power a lord could wield. Accordingly, lords of the present age did not usually oppress their domain residents recklessly.

......And yet, though they lived in an age where that was considered only natural, the domain residents of the Barony of Rübel were being treated under their lord’s tyranny as if they were no different from serfs.

Of course, until the previous lord of Rübel was alive, the domain residents of the Barony of Rübel had lived perfectly well within the ordinary relationship between lord and domain residents. What broke that relationship was entirely the fact that the previous lord and his eldest son, the heir, had both died suddenly in an accident, causing the second son to become the new lord.

Unlike the eldest son, who had received the previous lord’s strict education and grown up as material fit to become the next lord, the second son had been a hopeless wastrel from childhood. He had been born of a second wife, and since the eldest son was the heir anyway, the previous lord had not paid much attention to him. On top of that, the second wife had coddled her son and raised him without discipline.

Even so, the domain residents thought things would improve with time. No matter how famous the second son was as a wastrel, they judged that since he had become lord, surely he would come to understand how the world worked. After all, without domain residents, a lord was bound to become an empty shell, impressive only in name and powerless in practice.

However, not long afterward, they realized their judgment had been wrong.

“I’m the lord, and I’m the one above you, so why should I accommodate you? You should know to kneel on your own. What? The domain residents are discontent? So what? Is that my problem? What, do my words piss you off that much? Then quit. Did someone put a blade to your throat and threaten you into working under me? Huh? If you feel so wronged, you should’ve been born nobles too.”

Despite the retainers’ loyal advice, the new lord’s overbearing attitude showed no sign of changing. At this, the retainers reached the point of fleeing to other domains in search of their own ways to survive, saying, “This place is finished now.” As a result, only sycophants exactly like the new lord were left around him.

With no one left to stop him and only flatterers remaining, the situation began to worsen beyond all control. What that meant was that the new lord had committed an irreversible act that would draw the wrath of Heaven and men.

The incident was this: the new lord, saying he had bought a new magic tool, some so-called magic scroll or whatever, and needed to test its performance, created a pillar of fire in the middle of the domain residents’ homes in the dead of night. As a result, not only houses and household goods but even the domain residents sleeping soundly at the time were swallowed by the devouring fire, causing countless casualties.

Had the people burned to death at least been vicious criminals or people who had openly rebelled against the lord, the domain residents might have said, “It was understandable,” and forced themselves to accept it—not understand it, but accept it.

But the dead and injured were good, diligent domain residents. They had merely gone on quietly cultivating their homes and living their lives despite the stupid new lord’s despicable, out-of-control behavior.

They had committed no crime and had simply lived earnestly, only to die like this. What law under heaven allowed such a thing? After growing enraged, the domain residents came to believe that they no longer had any need to endure that deranged new lord’s tyranny.

“Honestly, what does the new lord even do? All he does is oppress innocent people and kill them for sport.”

“We’re the ones producing goods, we’re the ones earning money and running the domain, and we’re the ones serving military duty too!”

“If this is how it’s going to be, wouldn’t it be better to drive out the new lord and establish a free city instead?”

“Oh dear, but what if the royal court comes down to suppress us?”

“Well, once the royal court finds out what that bastard of a new lord is doing, they’ll have no choice but to take our side, won’t they?”

“That’s right. From what I hear, it’s been quite some time since the new lord stopped paying taxes. From the royal court’s perspective, rather than side with a bastard like that, they’ll think a free city directly under the king that pays its taxes properly is better.”

Rage that had reached its peak made the domain residents begin working their abacuses, and once the domain residents had finished their calculations, they rose in revolt all at once to drag the new lord down from his seat.

“What? The domain residents started a rebellion? Why were you just standing there watching! What have the soldiers been doing all this time!”

“W-Well...... most of the soldiers in the domain are domain residents......”

“And the one knight we had left the domain long ago......”

“You! And you call yourselves my retainers?! If we don’t have troops to suppress them, then hire mercenaries!”

However...... unfortunately, the new lord could not find mercenaries to protect him.

That was only natural, because in the eyes of the mercenaries, the situation on the new lord’s side was so bad that accepting his employment seemed like a foolish thing to do.

Joining the new lord’s side, which had fewer than ten people, was burdensome when the domain residents numbered in the hundreds. On top of that, according to rumor, the domain residents had risen in revolt entirely because the new lord had been greatly at fault. In other words, that meant the king might later confiscate the domain, saying, “The lord failed to fulfill his role.”

If that happened, the new lord would either go to prison or become penniless and fail to pay the mercenaries’ wages. There was no mercenary anywhere who would do work when it was obvious they would not get paid.

“What? They said to put up the payment first if I want to hire them?! Are those bastards insane! What if they just take the money and run? How am I supposed to trust lowlifes when I don’t even know where they crawled out from!”

“B-But, my lord, if you don’t hire mercenaries even that way, there are no troops we can use right away......”

Thanks to the protective formula installed at the lord’s residence, they were somehow holding out, but that was all. Before long, the formula would break, and when that happened, the new lord and his sycophants would meet their end at the hands of the enraged domain residents.

Nor could they run away. A lord abandoning his own domain and fleeing was enough to invite ridicule, and even if they tried to flee, the domain residents had surrounded the lord’s residence, leaving no opening to escape. This was also why the sycophants, who normally would have fled long ago, were still clinging to the new lord’s side.

“At this point, might Your Lordship have no choice but to suppress them personally......?”

“What? You want me to deal with those lowborn thing myself?”

“You are a mage, my lord. You will surely be able to show those lowborn things their place.”

“With a single spell, you should be able to sweep them all away, so would that not turn the situation around at once?”

Because their own lives were on the line as well, the sycophants desperately flattered and incited the new lord, but he could not easily answer their request.

It was true that the new lord was a mage, but only if the standard for being a mage was set at “able to use magic, at any rate.”

Even that was an ability that originally would never have blossomed. His mother had scraped together prominent tutors and medicines said to help improve mana sensitivity, and after investing in him for roughly thirty years, she had barely managed to make him form a single mana circle.

Though even calling it a mana circle was generous, since it was so thin and faint that one could say it did not exist at all.

In any case, even if he used fire magic at maximum output, the new lord could only cast magic at the level of warming a little tea water—and even then, not boiling it vigorously, but merely making it slightly warm. For him, sweeping away the domain residents rushing in like a swarm of furious hornets was impossible.

Thus, instead of stepping forward confidently, the new lord chose to fly into a rage.

“You call yourselves retainers, and you’re trying to put your lord out in front?! What exactly do you bastards even do?!”

“B-But we aren’t mages, are we? We’re not knights either, so we’re not good with swords......”

“O-Or! How about using that magic scroll from last time? With that, perhaps......”

“What? No! Do you have any idea how precious that is?! That is a highest-grade magic scroll stamped with the seal of the Hustein family, made personally by the Hustein family!”

In general, the magic scrolls circulated on the market were mass-produced, manufactured and distributed at middle-grade quality or below.

However, the magic scrolls personally produced by the Hustein family all boasted quality of upper-middle grade or higher. Moreover, since they were produced only in limited quantities, their value was beyond reckoning.

Why were only the magic scrolls produced by the Hustein family so high in quality? It was because the Hustein family possessed the source formula necessary for producing magic scrolls.

And why did they possess it? Because one of their ancestors was none other than Elclid de Hustein, the great mage who, over nine hundred years ago, invented the magic scroll formula, published a thesis on its design and usage method, and graduated from the Royal Academy at the top of the class.

Yet a magic scroll personally produced by that Hustein family was in the new lord’s hands?

“Damn it. If we weren’t surrounded, I would’ve stolen that thing and run for it, liege or no liege!”

“Crazy. How did that stupid pig bastard get his hands on that?”

“No wonder he was putting on airs so much during that performance test the other day.......”

Fortunately for the new lord, the sycophants did not have the courage to break through the domain residents’ watch and flee. Since they also had no mana sensitivity, it was impossible for them to use the magic stored in the magic scroll.

Instead, because their greed had no physical form, it was able to seep out through the domain residents’ strict encirclement, and the rumor of the magic scroll in the new lord’s possession stirred the desire of several mercenaries to be hired.

“If you give us that magic scroll as payment, we’ll fight for you, my lord. On our side, we have a 2nd-circle mage and many lower-intermediate aura users, and I, the captain, am a 3rd-circle mage, so there should be no need to worry about mere domain residents with no mana sensitivity.”

“W-What...... Do you have any idea how much this is worth, demanding I hand it over? Isn’t that outright robbery?!”

“Hmm, then there is nothing to be done. We’ll have no choice but to watch Your Lordship get butchered. I took a quick look, and the domain residents seemed ready to tear Your Lordship to pieces. Are you truly all right with that?”

“T-That is......”

The time spent agonizing over it was not very long. The domain residents, burning with the will to overthrow the lord, attacked endlessly, and as a result, the protective formula installed at the lord’s residence could no longer hold and began to come undone.

In the end, the new lord accepted the mercenaries’ proposal, and the mercenaries used magic to raise high barriers all along the domain’s borders and around the lord’s residence, then began slaughtering the domain residents.

“W-What is this...... Damn it, we were almost there!”

“What do we do......? Those damned bastards blocked everything off, so we can’t even run away.”

“Do we have no choice but to die helplessly like this.......?”

It was a situation where, even if they begged unconditionally for forgiveness, it seemed difficult for them to save their lives.

As if answering the despair of those domain residents, it happened suddenly.

CRASH!

“W-What was that just now? It sounded like something exploded......”

“Uh, over there! The barrier over there suddenly collapsed!”

Why had the barrier, which had not budged no matter how hard they tried, suddenly collapsed?

They could not know the reason, but one thing was certain. If they wanted to escape the mercenaries’ attacks and preserve their lives, they had to flee through that place.

The moment they realized that, the domain residents rushed en masse toward the point where the barrier had collapsed, with no one holding back.

And what they encountered there was.......

“No, Master...... aren’t you seriously being too much? I only looked around for a very short moment. So why this quickly...... No, it’s not like I had no interest at all, but still...... Ah, ah! Ah, seriously! Why is another one being added agaaaaain?!”

A boy, soaked through with exhaustion in every inch of his appearance, screaming at the grimoire in his hand.