So the Medieval Age Has a Split Inheritance System…
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Derpy
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 37 – Mercenary
We confronted Wagner’s army, but victory was already decided at this point. After all, we had more soldiers in the center. On top of that, Countess Jeremias’ main forces were mercenaries. Normally, what came to one’s mind upon hearing the word “mercenaries” were low-quality troops hired with money for the purpose of padding up the army’s numbers, but that wasn’t actually the case.
I simplified it to 17 mercenary groups with a total of 9,000 people, but actually preparing that many was difficult. And for mercenaries, they would be more expensive the stronger they were. I had no idea how much Countess Jeremias paid them, but I was sure she wasn’t the type who would skimp out on this.
There were times when mercenaries were stronger than the soldiers of a standing army, with most mercenary leaders being actually strong people. Since 17 mercenary groups were hired, that meant that there were at least several monsters like Linde-san. And there would be dozens of them of Cornelia’s capabilities at least.
On the other hand, 4,000 of the reinforcement units that His Majesty Paulus sent to the fourth prince were conscripts. They likely had some experience in war, but their expertise in combat was significantly less than the mercenaries who practically lived on the battlefield. Sure enough, the emperor’s standing army was also full of fresh recruits. They were most likely just organized recently.
I think they expanded the imperial standing army because the emperor’s enemies were increasing, but they ended up becoming easy targets instead. It felt like we could win without doing much. The ones with the motivation to win were the fourth prince and his subordinates, but they were few in numbers after all…
“…Wagner really didn’t attack?”
“Of course he wouldn’t. He probably doesn’t want to use up his forces too much in a battle like this. He doesn’t want to lose his elite soldiers to a charge, and neither Wagner nor I can declare war on fellow vassals of the empire to begin with. We don’t have a reason to fight one another for now.”
Carla was confused as to why Wagner’s army didn’t make a move, but that was obvious. Wagner’s army would still stare us down, but they gave absolutely no sign of attacking. At the crux of it, both of us were vassals of the emperor, and we were both prohibited from declaring war on each other, so there was no reason to fight. Well, both of us would forever hold justification over each other’s territory, so I don’t know if we could continue to get along once the Carling Empire collapsed.
We were having really light exchanges, just shooting a few arrows at each other and the war ended with Countess Jeremias as the victor. Perhaps there was no need for me to help at all, but my presence served to hold Wagner at bay so I accepted her gratitude. If I hadn’t joined, the enemy would have superior numbers, so it was possible that Wagner’s army would have actually moved — there was no guilt in receiving gratitude at all.
After the fourth prince had his territory taken over, he seemed to have escaped to the sixth prince’s territory — which was also in Poitiers duchy. Countess Jeremias would become Duchess Poitiers later, so they might become hostile again, but they could no longer expect the emperor to send reinforcements.
In the first place, if the emperor seriously intended to help the fourth prince, he would have actually sent a proper army instead of just a ragtag group of recruits. He was probably only using the opportunity to train the recruits. Well, the fourth prince’s territory was no longer under the direct control of the emperor, so losing it didn’t affect the emperor. Rather, he might even consider it fortunate since it meant that there would be fewer enemies the first prince’s children had to face. Parents in this world most likely felt like that.
With that, Countess Jeremias safely became the duchess and our deal concluded, so I no longer had an obligation to help her in war. As I returned to my territory, the female slaves I caught during the crusade to the Borghardt Kingdom back then had already become proper soldiers… I was already aware of it, but the acquisition rate of characteristics was easier for younger people.
All the characteristics in this world could probably be acquired through experience. However, some would struggle more to acquire one, so it was most likely that the growth just varied for each person.
The lowest level a characteristic could be seen by the church was level I, but I think there were level 0 characteristics that couldn’t be seen. Then with everyone having their respective growth rate and limit for characteristics, it was hard to judge which they could acquire.
Therefore, I prioritized making them acquire self-maintenance and self-regeneration characteristics by inflicting intense pain so that they had no problem even if they had a slow growth rate. The reason why few in this world manage to attain the self-regeneration characteristic was because many died in the process.
Even inflicting pain on them normally was harsh enough. However, I developed healing potions and mental stabilizers. By repeatedly inflicting pain until they were just a step away from death, it was possible to make people acquire self-regeneration characteristics at a stable rate. More than anything, I was astonished at the massive difference in the efficiency of “realizing the system” or not.
…During the time I tried to make my slaves acquire explosion resistance, I realized it was more efficient to have them get into an explosive accident. Looking back on it now, I really was doing things more inefficiently before.
Well basically, there was not much point in beating them with a whip that didn’t inflict pain. I couldn’t help but feel downcast when I realized that. Well, I acquired pain resistance and whipmanship through that, so I guess it was fine but I wasn’t convinced. In addition, only a few slaves could handle the continuous act of inflicting pain that increased others’ screams of agony, on people. It hurt their conscience after all.
Recently, Linde-san seemed to have frequently applied the healing salve on the female slaves. Since she kept using that tingly thing for a long time, it seemed that Linde-san pain tolerance had increased. Also, the amount of healing potions that taste like vomit also decreased considerably, so I guess they have inflicted quite an amount of pain in my absence. I was the one who gave the instruction, but it was still a bit unexpected seeing the female slaves seemingly lifeless.
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