Chapter 496: Revenge in the name of justice

Translator: imperfectluck  Editor: Kurisu

There were twenty-seven women, over thirty children, and a dozen craftsmen. In the slave trade, this was a big sum of money, and as for the Swift Sword gang that stooped to forming a gang of bandits, this was a rare major score for them.

The guesses that certain people made were a little off the mark. Currently, the Swift Sword gang that caused trouble around the new knight domain lord wasn’t simply a last-minute gang formed by deserters. Their true identity was a large mercenary group that the rebelling marquis had hired, named Brave Swift Sword Mercenaries.

As for the mercenary group, the entire group being taken in by a major domain lord like Marquis Stanley was an extremely rare but good thing. The group of mercenaries could naturally obtain the government’s organization and supplies. Ordinary members could obtain rich reimbursement and have opportunities to get promoted. As for the higher execs, this was the only shot for them to become noblemen.

The mercenaries with checkered pasts were always ambitious people. As long as the rewards were sufficient, the mercenaries who were already killers would take anyone’s head. That also included the head of one of their very own; all for the opportunity to have them and their children to become highly revered nobles. Such an opportunity tempted countless strong mercenaries.

But, the domain lord wouldn’t casually toss out the offer to take in an entire mercenary troop. And, assigning new noble titles would be like cutting flesh off of the domain lord’s body. After all, even low-ranking noble titles without any territory of their own would require a salary suitable for the retainer’s worth.

Want to be ranked a nobleman? That could happen… if you fought for it with your life. As long as you proved your strength on the battlefield and gained sufficient achievements, you’d be rewarded with the leader’s appreciation.

Note: Before this, large mercenary groups were able to achieve sufficient achievements and completely maintain their hierarchical structure as long as their military strength was at least over eighty percent. Noblemen never were generous people. Even if you achieved a great feat, as soon as you all lost your value, then you were nothing but a meaningless mercenary group that suffered tragic losses. If the mercenary group suffered serious losses, that would make them suitable as the most disposable of cannon fodder instead. Ordinary mercenaries could be turned into okay foot soldiers, and it was also quite cheap to hire the services of the more powerful individuals once the mercenary group was weakened. This was the favorite type of “volunteer” (free) cannon fodder that the nobles loved.

Because of this, wars ensued. They were purely dangerous wars, not missions that ordinary mercenaries would be willing to participate in. After all, there were great risks with great returns. Still, everyone knew that, in this world, there was no lack of ambitious gamblers who believed they were the only lucky ones.

As long as there were wars, there’d be vultures and hyenas around. The domain lords did in fact like hiring last-minute mercenaries. Even though over seventy percent of the war mercenaries were abandoned, used pawns, there were examples of lucky ones becoming nobles and forming armies. This encouraged even more mercenaries to partake, just like moths flying to a flame.

And originally, the Brave Swift Sword gang had been one of these such lucky mercenary groups. It successfully achieved an astonishing feat during its military service, but…

“The captain, Entley, died already. Their achievements were gone, and the Brave Swift Sword gang was done. Several leaders were hung on banners, and only the vice-captain, Kaen, was able to become a noble knight. Big Brother Shink said that Kaen betrayed us and traded the brothers’ lives for riches. So, we’re here to find Kaen and get revenge.”

“By massacring civilians?”

“That was just Kaen’s assets. We planned to sell more, but at least we got the share we deserve.”

The citizens were the domain lord’s fortune? In some sense, this was also a mainstream ideology of this world.

The Swift Sword gang’s two sentries lay together; one of them didn’t move an inch, whereas the other was calm as they described their “revenge in the name of justice”.

It wasn’t that he was in great mental form to be able to list all these conducts without any change in expression. It was that completely broken souls simply wouldn’t able to prevent intel from being leaked.

After withdrawing my index finger from the sentry’s forehead, black smog started to dissipate. With that, the soul of this weakling dissipated as well, with the pair of black eyes already losing all focus.

Even if he was still warm and breathing, he was already a walking dead.

And when I put my index finger on the other sentry’s hand, the young face was twisted by fear. Cold sweat dropped down like crazy and a yellow liquid came out from below, which made me furrow my brows even harder.

*Slap!*

The opponent’s ugly state convinced me to abandon the idea of authenticating the intel. In fact, the revolting smell made me lose interest in the other corpses.

After a snap of a finger, water and air was drawn, partially suffocating that terrified sentinel and turning him into a dried corpse. The fatal constriction even turned the common last cry for help when being choked into an impossibility. The only sign of resistance was the bloodstains from nails scraped across the floor.

It’d been a long time since I had acted as an evil undead mage. It was good that I wasn’t too out of practice. However, the change in “partners” behind me was really obvious.

The stray mercenaries led by the dwarf brothers had an awful look on their faces; moreover, they looked on with fear and respect. They understood that it was one thing to be strong, but it was another to be ruthless.

I had the usual smile on my face, but deep down side, I was extremely satisfied. At least in a short amount of time, I could ignore the negative effect from the embarrassment I just underwent.

For the mercenaries, they believed that the strong, merciless, and evil undead mages were not easily fooled. As I was their employer, any command I gave would likely be carried out.

Old Barton’s old partner, Winston, didn’t look so good, and he was mumbling something.

“Evil undead mage? Why did the Holy Light not take him out?” Even without reading lips, I could guess what he was thinking. Afterall, this old partner was also considered a disciple of the traditional Holy Light, who attended church twice a week.

As of right now, the person with the biggest reaction was most probably Katerina. She hid behind her adopted father Old Barton with a completely pale face. She tightly bit her lip, and her eyes couldn’t help but wander as she didn’t even dare look at those tragic lifeless corpses.

My facial expression didn’t change, but I sighed deep down inside.

“Have you made your decision? Eradicating all loose ends so that the brat doesn’t fall too deep is truly the smart choice.”

The sound of silly cat’s joy in such a tough situation rang by my ear. There was just no way to conceal the pure happiness and evil intent in her voice. It looked like this silly cat was also an FFF member.

But, I shook my head.

“Don’t think too much. I only used the most suitable method to get intel, that’s all. I’m now an undead mage. Was I supposed to use torture instead of soul magic?”

As for the Northern Trio over there, the two veterans seemed not to care about them, but the goblin Thor looked completely hesitant. If the situation hadn’t been so untimely, it was likely he would have pulled out the work manual as usual and flipped the pages like crazy.

“Are you certain that we’re meant to attack these people?”

Don’t misunderstand. The red brilliance of the Law spell Judgement already declared that the two sentries deserved the death penalty. What Thor suspected was the “truth” that they had described.

When I heard it, I laughed uncontrollably. This Thor guy was too inexperienced. So what if he had his doubts deep down inside; he actually accidentally voiced them. And, above all, he asked an undead mage.

“But if everything were true, then they had reason to get revenge.”

“What’s going after the person for revenge got anything to do with innocent villagers. Oh, you probably felt like citizens are the domain lord’s fortune. Stealing their fortune is a kind of revenge.”

Thor fell silent. It looked like he also agreed with the traditional view that citizens were a domain lord’s fortune.

I also slipped into deep thought. This thing called tradition sometimes was really annoying. Even if I looked like I was incredibly unreasonable, if most people approved, then even the fake would become true. Even the unreasonable could be made into an iron-clad law.

And the other hidden meaning behind this tradition was that nobles were above commoners, and people were not equal. If I wanted to prove this traditional way of thinking was wrong, then that would be the same as announcing that the truth was people were equal. In feudal times, admitting this would be tantamount to suicide.

In this stormy cruel world and in the views of the people, bloody revenge was a basic right. It was considered far more sensible than the law. Similarly, in the cruel world in wuxia novels, it was only right for sons to avenge their fathers.

The right of law required the ruling regime’s support. If someone said that only law professionals would be able to execute death penalties, people would only take it as a joke.

If you wanted to prove a tradition wrong, it wouldn’t be something that could happen in a short amount of time. Let alone there being two traditions to prove wrong. So, I decided to firstly bypass “Tradition”.

“Are they guilty?”

“Yes. The Law Judgement Spell and testimony were proof that they were guilty.”

“They deserved to die for their crime, didn’t they?”

“Damn it! Not only did they commit crimes like murder, they also kidnapped and orchestrated human trafficking. To sum up, they were all crimes punishable by death.”

“Then, there’s no problem with executing them, right? Don’t interrupt me. I know you want to say that they have the freedom to seek revenge, but that didn’t mean they shouldn’t be punished for their crimes, right?”

“Yes, but…”

“This is this, and that is that. This crime and that crime are accounted for separately. Since there’s no mistake with the crimes before us, let’s first sort them out so that we have free time to deal with the next one. These bandits should die. If that domain lord was guilty, you could completely put him on trial next.”

Thor suddenly realized something, and he started grab his notebook and make notes with an ecstatic look on his face.

Many other people were stunned that the stubborn law professional was actually persuaded. Even the cold-faced dark elf antiholy knight looked slightly astonished.

Yet, I secretly complained, looking at this little fool. With a moment’s carelessness, my addiction to lecturing crept up upon me… I hoped that no one would be able to notice anything.

“Wait. The situation isn’t quite right.”

When I looked at those bandits who were drooling while looking at our projections, I suddenly felt like something was wrong with this place.

“Hm? The Swift Sword gang discovered us?”

“No. Don’t you think it’s really strange? Why are they staying here with the captives? Aren’t they afraid of the domain lord discovering them?”

“Just now, the sentries said they wanted to sell some captives for some money. This isn’t a trade that normal traders could accept. There were no professional slave traders nearby; trades were mostly made in-person, which means that they’re waiting to trade with the enemy!”

“Not only that, but the domain lord would encircle and annihilate you if you raided the village and took slaves. That’s a serious crime that no ordinary bandit group would dare to do. Since they already intended to trade villagers for money from the very start, they’re most probably hired to gather captives. But now, which nearby faction needs slaves more than anyone else? The Death Council that’s in dire need of sacrifices!

“There might be clues about the dark disciples— no! Such an important offering means the higher-ranked leaders of the Death Council will likely come to personally receive the slaves!”

Just when silly cat and I reached an accord, we looked over at those bandits with greed in our eyes. It was as if we had seen a delicious, fat sheep.

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