"Boy, what is your name?" I asked the young boy that works as a house servant for my house. The boy is around 10 years old, he has black hair and a round face.
"My name is Lief," answered the boy.
Right now I am going toward the boy's village with Claude. This village is the closest village to the sacred forest. It is located around 2 hours walking from the main village where the lord's house is located. Today we are riding a horse cart to that village. I and Lief sit on the cart while Claude is the coachman. Using a horse-pulled cart, we can reach the village in
My plan for today is to meet with the village chief and to know each other. This is important for me as I need to build the relationship between the village and me as a lord.
This place has a special connection between the lord and the village. In a normal place, the lord of the land leases their land to the peasant. The peasant then pays rent to the land owner. The land owner also has a duty to protect the peasant that lives on their land from outside danger.
Meanwhile, in Northwellen territory, there are too many empty spaces that are not ruled by the lord itself. So the villager can pick any land and work on it without any need for permission. But even with that, there are still many empty lands in this place. It just shows how low the demand for land in this area is, a stark contrast to other territories in the kingdom.
On the other hand, people on Northwellen also don't have protection from me, the lord. They all need to protect their own lives using their own power. Because of this, many people tried to work together and formed a group in the form of a village.
"How many houses are there in the village?" I asked Lief, hoping he knows something.
"There should be around 20 houses in the village. Each house has four to eight people living inside."
Lief answered perfectly, there is no hesitation in his answer. I wonder if he has gotten any education before. "So, what kind of work do the people do? Farming?"
"Yes, all villagers work as farmers. Some also do part-time blacksmithing that works on repairing the villager tools. But all the villagers can at least fight against magical beasts."
"We can see the village now," I muttered in a small voice. I can see many houses lined along the dirt road. From my rough calculation, there are more than 20 houses in the village. When we got closer to the village, I can see a middle-aged man with a body bigger than the average man standing on the village perimeter. I assume that is the village chief. He has a face that is similar to Lief. 'Ah… This man is Lief's dad.'
As expected from a village that is near the sacred forest, he must be fighting against many magical beasts from the forest. I wonder how good he is in a fight…
I don't have any time to think about it before we reach the village.
"Welcome to Hardersfield, Count of Northwellen. I am the leader of this settlement, Hamund."
I come down from the horse cart by myself and greet Hamund back. "Greeting to you Hamund. I am Aquila Lockway, Count of Northwellen."
After that, we move toward the village chief's house to talk about the village. But most of the things that the village chief talks about, I have already learned about that from Claude yesterday.
* * *
"Hamund! There are a large number of horned rabbits running from the forest! We might have some big magic beast chasing after them." A loud sound looking for the village chief can be heard from outside the house.
The village chief—Hamund stands up and picks up a spear that lies near the exit door. He then goes outside of the house. I followed behind him.
"What happened?" said Hamund to the shouting man.
"A group of horned rabbits is running from the forest. Many think they are chased by wolves."
"Wolves? At noon?"
"Well… It might not be wolves but other things. Anyway, let's go to the place. We need your power."
"Okay!" Hamund turned toward me and said, "Lord Aquila, sorry but I need to go help—"
I cut Hamund, "Let's go, I will go with you." I am interested in how the normal villagers defend their village. I ordered the man to lead us.
When we reached the problematic spot, there are already three villagers in a formation. They are now glaring at a group of three wolves. Of course, the villagers all have their own spear. A second after we reached the place, the wolves started to jump from the dense forest.
"Look out!" shouted Hamund when he saw the wolf action.
The villagers are not an amateur in fighting wolves, they know how to take a safe distance from the wolves.
One of the wolves tried to jump to a man on the right. The other two wolves followed the first one a little late. Seeing that the other two villagers tried to stab at the first leaping wolf. One of the attacks is able to hit its belly, injuring the wolf. That wolf then started to lose blood and energy before it lay on the ground.
One of the remaining two wolves on the other hand is able to bite the left hand of their targeted human. Leaving a significant injury to the man's arm.
Hamund and the other man started to run toward the group of three, trying to help fight the wolves.
With the number of humans in front of them, the two remaining wolves should have started to consider retreating… But these two didn't even falter in front of 5 humans.
"Be careful, something is wrong!" I shouted toward the group. And at this time, three more wolves steps outside of the forest.
I take out my sword from its sheath and move toward the new group of wolves. I feel like my body has not come back to my optimal condition. It still feels sluggish, "but this is enough." I said in a small voice while slashing my sword toward the neck of a wolf. The sword sliced through the neck of a wolf like a knife moves through butter. This sword is made by the best blacksmith in the kingdom using special steel.
After leaving a big wound on a wolf, I once again slashed the sword. This time I bring the sword down toward the nape of another wolf. When the sword reached the wolf, I can hear the sound of bone breaking.
Two wolves down, but too bad the third wolf is able to run toward the first group. I decided to leave the three wolves to the villagers. It didn't take long before the group of men are able to kill all the wolves.