“Hey~! Dawi Baroque!”
Dawi set down the axe he had been using to split firewood and raised his head.
Hans, who had now become the knight commander, was walking along the brick road with two other knights.
“Sir Hans?”
“That’s right! Been well?”
After Dawi was appointed as a new knight and Hans became the knight commander, Hans had begun speaking casually to Dawi, now that he was a knight.
“Yes, the ranch is as peaceful as ever. Hahaha.”
At Dawi’s words, Hans looked over the ranch as he approached.
In Hans’s eyes were the carcass of a bighorn, stripped of its hide and meat, and a wooden fence that looked freshly made.
“Looks like another bighorn came by. Doesn’t seem all that peaceful to me?”
“Still, thanks to them, I get plenty of meat and livestock. Enough that I don’t need to go out hunting on purpose. Hahaha.”
About two weeks had passed since Hans had been appointed from senior knight to knight commander, and Dawi had received his knighthood and manor.
As the weather gradually grew warmer, the knights’ clothing, as well as Dawi’s, had become a little lighter.
“But I do feel a bit sorry. I’m only a knight in name, and I haven’t done any patrols of the territory or anything…”
“You’re practically always patrolling the southeastern side of the mountain range, so what more is there to patrol? You can just live as you are now, running the ranch. Ah, but if you stop by the territory, do report to me.”
“I was already thinking of visiting the territory soon, since corn, eggs, and bighorn hides have piled up a bit.”
“Is that so? That’s perfect. For now, the time is…”
Hans raised his head and looked at the position of the sun.
The sun was already leaning slightly toward the west.
“If we don’t run, we’ll only arrive in the middle of the night. Why don’t we go to the territory together tomorrow morning? Ah, would it be all right if we imposed on your ranch tonight?”
“Of course it’s all right. Have you had lunch? Shall I get you something to eat?”
As he spoke, Dawi led the knights to the table set up near the outdoor hearth.
“We ate lunch on the way here.”
“Then shall I bring you some water or wine? Even with the road built, it’s still quite a long way here.”
“Then I’ll trouble you for a glass of wine.”
“We’ll have wine as well, please.”
Hans and the two knights answered in turn.
“The weather’s gotten rather warm… so something chilled would be best, wouldn’t it?”
Saying that, Dawi opened the door to the stone icehouse.
“That would be excellent.”
Soon, Dawi came back up from the stone icehouse with a bottle of bilberry wine.
Dawi poured the cold wine into horn cups and handed them to the knights.
The knights gulped down the wine as refreshingly as if they were drinking beer.
“Keu~ Drinking chilled wine while looking at the lake really is something else.”
“Hahaha, right? That’s the romance of my ranch.”
“Ah, right. I haven’t told you why we came. The baron wishes to visit this ranch.”
Dawi recalled the image of the baron whom he had saved during the zombie incident not long ago.
“The baron does?”
“Yes. He is fourteen this year… an age when he would want to go around seeing things.”
‘He did look about that age.’
“I see.”
“So I came to inspect the road and look over your ranch as well. And since he will come of age next year… shouldn’t we do our best to broaden his experience as much as possible before then?”
‘So fifteen counts as adulthood here.’
Thinking that, Dawi sipped his wine.
“Of course, sightseeing around this ranch won’t broaden his experience all that much. In the past, he might have traveled through the empire… but now, this is not an age where one can wander around carelessly.
Still, wouldn’t it help for him to come even as far as this ranch, rather than staying inside the territory?”
“Mm. I suppose that’s true. Ah, how are things in the territory?”
“On the western coast, we’ve first put up a wooden palisade…”
“The knight candidates’ training is…”
Dawi and the knights chatted about this and that while looking at the lake, and before they knew it, the sky was glowing with sunset.
“It’s already gotten this late. Please rest here. I’ll bring dinner.”
“Thank you.”
Dawi took bighorn meat out of the stone icehouse and began cooking. He cut the meat thickly into steak-shaped pieces.
When he placed the meat on the stone slab heated over the hearth, it cooked with a sizzle.
In the meantime, Dawi made a sauce with bilberry wine, garlic, onions, and other ingredients.
He sprinkled a little salt over the grilled meat and poured a moderate amount of sauce on top.
He took out the tableware he had bought from the lord’s castle, set the table, and placed the steak on wooden plates.
“It seems to taste even better eating it here.”
Hans and the knights cut the steak into large pieces and put them in their mouths.
Dawi also began eating with them.
By the time they had even eaten corn soup as an appetizer, the sun had already set.
Dawi guided the knights into the house, brought out blankets made of animal hide, and laid them near the fireplace.
“There’s only one bed… I’m sorry. Sir Hans, you can sleep in my bedroom.”
“No, it’s our fault for showing up so suddenly. And you should use the bedroom. The knights and I will sleep here.”
“But still…”
“No. This ranch is your ‘manor,’ is it not? The master of the manor should sleep in the bedroom.”
In the end, the knights slept near the fireplace, and Dawi slept in the bedroom with the ondol bed.
The next day.
“Gwaaaeeek!!”
The ranch morning began, as always, with the goose’s bizarre cry.
“What is it! A wild beast?!”
“Don’t tell me it’s a zombie!!”
The knights sprang up in fright, each grabbing his sword.
At that moment, Dawi came out of the bedroom, stretching.
“Huaaam~ Calm down. It’s the goose crying.”
“A… a goose?”
“Did geese cries sound like that…?”
“They usually honk in short bursts, but sometimes they cry long like this. They always do it in the morning. As if they were roosters or something…”
“Ahem… I thought from the beginning that it was nothing serious. These fellows making a fuss for no reason…”
Hans said that and awkwardly set down his sword.
Dawi smiled faintly at the sight.
“Have breakfast, then prepare to go.”
Dawi and the knights had a simple breakfast of boiled eggs.
Dawi went to the ranch, checked on the geese and ducks, then locked the ranch gate.
He loaded the cart with eggs, hides, and corn, and connected Malmari to the cart.
The three knights, including Hans, sat in the empty space on the cart.
“Hiyah! Let’s go!”
Clop, clop.
Malmari slowly pulled the cart.
.
.
.
While Dawi was heading toward the Snowhill territory.
“…Ain’t that a ship?”
The fishermen out on the northern sea spotted a ship approaching from afar.
“It’s pretty big, isn’t it? Ain’t it a merchant ship sent from that southern city?”
The merchant ship was in the form of a carrack with a large cargo capacity, seemingly around five hundred tons in displacement.
“Oh my, looks like they’ve finally come back!”
The fishermen rejoiced, saying that the southern city had finally sent another merchant ship.
And so, the merchant ship reached Snowhill’s harbor without any obstruction.
“It’s a merchant ship! A merchant ship has come!”
“Oh my! Looks like they’ve finally come again!”
The residents, too, made a commotion, saying the merchant ship had returned. Many residents gathered at the harbor to watch the merchant ship.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Armed soldiers climbed down from the merchant ship by netting.
Without saying a word, they began setting up a makeshift ramp that connected the deck of the merchant ship to the harbor floor.
“What are they doing…?”
“They’re armed?”
Usually, merchant ships unloaded trade goods using pulleys and did not set up ramps. The residents looked at it in puzzlement, but did not suspect anything.
As for the weapons, since this was a world where zombies were running rampant, they simply accepted it.
Clop, clop.
At that moment, horses walked out along the ramp. The people from the merchant ship slowly led the horses down the ramp.
“Horses…? The territory didn’t have a single horse, so the knights had been walking around.”
“Heavens, if there’s grain to feed horses, we ought to eat it first! The baroness won’t trade for them this time.”
“Ah, why, there’s that ranch, isn’t there? Couldn’t they raise them there?”
“Ah, the ranch run by Sir Dawi Baroque? You’re right, they might be able to raise them there.”
While the residents were talking, about fifty horses came down from the merchant ship.
Following behind them, around fifty people disembarked.
They unpacked their belongings and slowly began arming themselves.
They put on chain vests, then shoulder armor and gauntlets.
Clank! Clank!
Holding long lances in one hand, they mounted the horses.
“…These people are a bit strange, aren’t they?”
“They don’t look like merchants…”
Watching the scene, the people of the territory sensed that something was off.
Until now, the beings the residents had fought were only the beasts of the Allos Mountains, or else zombies. Because of the isolated territory, they were people who had never once experienced a territorial war, but they could still sense that these men were dangerous.
A few residents slowly backed away, then ran toward the lord’s castle. They were going to call the knights.
Click.
In the meantime, the people on horseback lowered the visors of their helmets.
A small flag fluttered from the lance shafts they held high.
‘Imperial Cavalry’
When the cavalryman at the very front thrust his lance forward and fixed it at his side, the cavalrymen behind him followed suit and lined up their lances.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
A cracked voice flowed out from within the cavalryman’s helmet.
“Plunder and burn! Until the lord comes out of the castle! Once we seize the lord… we shall settle here.”
“Huo!!”
“Finally!”
They belonged to the Imperial Cavalry, but after the empire collapsed, they had become a band of plunderers. Lacking the courage to rampage through the inland areas filled with zombies, they seized merchant ships and mainly plundered cities with harbors.
As time passed, both horses and men grew used to moving by ship, then disembarking at harbors to carry out their plundering.
In that way, they had moved from the southern empire all the way to the north, plundering the surviving coastal territories. The cavalry unit that had once numbered over a hundred had been reduced by half, but in this age, there were almost no territories that could handle a cavalry force of around fifty.
The leader of the plunderers, who had once been a centurion (an imperial army rank, a captain commanding one hundred soldiers), sensed that there were no more territories to go to farther north and decided to settle here.
The sight of the isolated Snowhill entered his eyes.
‘A natural fortress. No need to worry about zombies.’
The only passage was the narrow western coastal road.
“Charge!!”
“Waaaaaaah!!”
Dududududu!
Around fifty cavalrymen beat their hooves against the ground.
.
.
.
The office of the lord’s castle.
Dawi was in the middle of negotiating with the baroness.
“I’d like to acquire bricks and nails.”
Dawi intended to obtain materials for the new annex he was going to build.
However.
Bang!
“Butler? What is the matter all of a sudden?”
“Baroness! The territory is being plundered!”
“Plundered? What do you mean…”
“About fifty cavalrymen are charging through the territory!!”
‘Cavalry… horses…? New… livestock!!’
Dawi immediately changed his mind.
He sprang up from his seat and said,
“I’d like to change the items for the trade.”
“Sir Dawi Baroque. I’m sorry, but we cannot proceed with a transaction right now.”
“I want the horses.”
“…Pardon?”
Clack!
Dawi lifted his shotgun.
“The horses currently roaming the territory. May I have them?”