Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 99

People’s Representative System

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It was early morning, just as the sun began to rise.

Two men were walking through a reed field thick with fog.

“Why did you come?”

Titus, the subordinate leading the way through the fog, spoke.

“Are you talking about me?”

Piemon, who was following behind him, blinked.

Titus answered without looking at Piemon.

“Who else would I be talking about?”

Well, now that he mentioned it, it was just the two of them here.

Piemon opened his mouth, hesitating for a moment about what to say.

Titus was the leader of their two-man search party, but the two of them hadn’t had a real conversation in over a week.

“We need to catch the pigs so we can go home soon.”

“You want to go home? Is that all?”

Is that all?

How important is that?

Titus still didn’t look at Piemon.

So he didn’t see his frowning face.

“It’s harvest season. If we miss it, we’ll ruin the year’s crops. How can I not be thinking of home? Maybe you don’t know, sir, but for a farmer, the harvest is more important than anything.”

Titus stopped walking.

“I see. I was short-sighted. I apologize.”

“It’s nothing.”

They continued on, pushing through the reeds.

The sun was getting higher, but the fog was getting thicker.

It was hard to see because of the reeds anyway.

Even Titus, just a few steps ahead, looked hazy.

“Were you always a farmer?”

‘Why is he asking again?’

He was taken aback by the sudden conversation from someone who usually didn’t talk much.

Of course, he had wished he would talk more because he was too quiet…

“No. I was a mercenary. I’ve been around for a while.”

“I thought so. Even among my siblings, the non-combatants wouldn’t be as good as you.”

Titus’s siblings.

He must be referring to Lord Edar’s retainers.

Piemon naturally shrugged and smiled.

“How could I compare to them?”

“Hmm. So you’ve quit being a mercenary.”

“Yes. That’s why I chose to migrate to the Great Plains.”

“Why?”

Why? Piemon scratched his head awkwardly.

The reason a mercenary becomes a farmer is obvious, isn’t it?

It’s because he couldn’t become a retainer of any noble.

“The end of a mercenary is one of three things: receiving land and becoming a lord’s vassal [a feudal tenant], buying farmland with the money he’s earned and becoming a self-employed farmer, or dying on the battlefield.”

“You seem better than most knights.”

“I guess I was unlucky.”

Piemon chuckled, but he was half serious.

He was a mercenary who took pride in his skills.

If he had been lucky, there would have been a lord who would have taken him as a vassal.

But he was unlucky, and no lord recognized him.

“I thought about serving in a few more campaigns to look for opportunities… but I ended up starting a family. I thought I should find stability.”

He even had a daughter.

“Every time I go on an expedition, I have to leave home for a few months at the shortest, or years at the longest. But every time I come back, I see my daughter growing up so fast, and it’s a bit…”

“Hmm.”

“When I’m about to go into battle, I keep thinking about home… and after surviving a near-death experience, I realized I couldn’t keep living by the sword.”

“So you migrated here.”

“Yes. I saw that northern Wallachia was recruiting immigrants.”

To be honest, he hesitated a lot.

He wasn’t a farmer or a slave who didn’t know anything.

He was a fairly high-ranking mercenary.

He knew that different races were rampaging in the Great Plains.

“If I hadn’t seen the workers who went to Ollimurs settling down, I wouldn’t have chosen to migrate.”

The workers hired to build the walls of Ollimurs.

When they learned that the Great Plains were stable and full of benefits, unlike the rumors, they led their families to migrate.

Piemon was intrigued by their quick actions.

“How could I refuse when they offered immigrants land that had already been cleared, a five-year tax exemption, and support for food and farming equipment?”

“I see.”

Almost half a year had passed since he chose to migrate.

He was starting to get used to farming, which he had never done before.

He was about to experience the joy of harvest for the first time,

when suddenly orcs and goblins attacked.

“So I want to chase those damn pig bastards away quickly.”

“Don’t worry. If there’s damage to the farmland, you’ll be compensated accordingly.”

“That’s true, but it’s still the first harvest I’m getting here. I don’t want to just throw it away like this.”

“That’s an excellent attitude.”

“Ah, no.”

Piemon coughed and smiled awkwardly.

In fact, there was another reason.

‘It’s just… I was embarrassed.’

After the retreat order was issued due to the southward advance of the orcs and goblins, Piemon took his family and evacuated to Ollimurs.

Ollimurs was well-prepared, as if they had expected this, and there was no danger because the different races didn’t hang around the city.

Piemon felt a little uncomfortable but relieved.

After all, safety is the most important thing.

“I’ll fight too.”

“I have nothing to do anyway, so give me something to do.”

But others seemed to think differently.

The territory residents voluntarily stepped up to protect the lord and the territory.

Most of them were farmers who had never held a sword before, so the only jobs they were given were safe ones like assisting with rations and guarding the watchtower, but a small number of mercenaries even participated in the search party.

This sight shocked Piemon.

‘Why? It’s the lord’s duty to protect the territory residents. Isn’t it natural to resent the lord for not preventing the conflict in the first place?’

Especially since the enemy is a different race?

“Has the lord ever asked us for anything? We’ve always only received. We’ve never given anything to the lord.”

“And if we get kicked out of here? We came here because we had nowhere else to go.”

Their words shook Piemon’s heart.

He felt ashamed, as he had chosen benefits and safety and pursued a comfortable life.

This was the real reason he joined the search party.

“······.”

Piemon, awakened from his thoughts, asked.

“But… why are you asking me these things?”

“We’re planning to create a standing army soon. If you want, I’ll write you a letter of recommendation.”

A standing army? A letter of recommendation?

“You don’t mean guarding the walls or patrolling, do you?”

“No. It’s not that those duties don’t exist, but the main task will be fighting against different races. In your case, you’ll be appointed as an officer through the recommendation.”

Fighting different races is the main task.

Piemon laughed awkwardly and waved his hand.

“I’m sorry. I can’t answer right away…”

“Hmm. It’s not urgent, so take your time to think about it.”

He quickly changed the subject.

“How long do you think the war will last?”

“It will end soon.”

“Soon?”

“Because Lord Edar will come.”

Titus replied with a confident tone.

Does he mean he’s bringing the army he took to Germania?

Piemon scratched his head, unable to understand the hidden meaning.

‘The lord’s retainers are always like that.’

Whenever the story about the lord came out, they were always short on words.

To be exact, it felt like they were omitting the reason and just throwing out the result.

That result will always end well because Lord Edar will take care of it.

A feeling that good results will come from almost blind faith.

The administrator of the village where Piemon settled was like that, and so was Titus.

‘They worship him like a god.’

Piemon suddenly grabbed his necklace.

The necklace that his wife had given him when he joined the search party.

The necklace was modeled after the sun, symbolizing Edar Lundringgen.

‘Come to think of it, he was really being worshiped as a god.’

The new religion spreading in the territory these days.

To believe in someone who is still alive.

He found it quite funny, but he understood.

Because he had achieved truly great things as a human being.

‘I don’t believe it, though.’

“Shh.”

Titus stopped walking.

He seemed to have found something in the fog, and he put his hand on his waist.

“Six orcs, two goblins. You take the goblins.”

He didn’t say anything like, I can catch orcs too.

He had learned his role while spending over a week together.

Piemon stuck close behind him without answering.

“One, two… three!”

Titus ran.

Piemon chased after him, and after running a little, he saw several human figures in the fog.

It was the group of orcs and goblins that Titus had mentioned.

“Huma…!

A goblin trying to shout, human.

Before he could finish his sentence, he was beheaded.

And another one who was retreating while making a sound of, uh, uh.

Swish!

After catching the two goblins, he looked at Titus.

While he was catching the goblins, Titus had caught four orcs.

“Humaaaaaan!”

“······.”

Two orcs charged, screaming.

He deflected the axe coming down with the longsword in his right hand and stabbed the neck deeply with the dagger in his opposite hand.

He kicked the orc that was attacking from behind, and when the guy fell, he threw the dagger he had pulled from his neck, piercing his forehead.

‘Wow.’

No matter how many times he saw it, it was an inhuman movement.

There were few knights he had seen who were as skilled as him.

When he purely admired, Titus reacted like this.

– It’s nothing compared to my siblings.

This guy isn’t one to make empty remarks.

How strong are the other retainers?

The rumor that the lord’s retainers are not human flashed through his mind.

“Let’s go back.”

Is today’s quota over?

He sighed and relaxed.

“Are you going to keep doing this tomorrow?”

“Hmm.”

It was a natural answer.

Ollimurs didn’t have the ability to launch a major counterattack.

The orcs and goblins had advanced south, taking advantage of the fact that the lord had taken his troops to Germania, and the search party was formed to reduce the number of those enemies even a little.

The search party’s activities would continue until the lord’s army returned and annihilated the enemy’s main force.

Thud thud thud…

Suddenly, the ground shook.

Piemon was startled and turned around.

The sound was coming from the direction where he had hunted the orcs and goblins a little while ago.

However, the appearance was not visible due to the thick fog.

“Duck!”

Titus urgently pushed Piemon.

Whoosh!

A spear blade pierced from behind a beat late.

“Cough!”

Piemon rolled on the ground and gasped.

Growl…

When he raised his head, a wolf walked out of the fog.

Not just one wolf, but eight.

Each one was carrying a large orc.

“Found them. Hunter humans.”

The eight orcs surrounded the two men.

The number had only increased by two from before.

But these were elite wolf cavalry.

Can we win? Cold sweat ran down his back.

“Focus on defense. You can survive if you hold out. Got it.”

“Yes.”

Titus didn’t show any emotion as always.

The current situation didn’t seem to pose a crisis to him.

‘Damn it…’

But Piemon was different.

His heart was pounding.

“Kill!”

The orcs charged.

Two orcs were attached to Piemon.

He knocked away the spear coming at him and retreated.

There was no room to counterattack.

The wolf bared its fangs as soon as it got close.

He was busy defending and backing away.

“Damn it!”

Titus said he could survive if he held out.

But even holding out was difficult.

The wounds kept increasing.

Thud!

Eventually, the orc’s spear pierced his side.

At the same time, he even lost his footing and fell.

“Ugh!”

The wolf stepped on him with its front paws as he tried to get up and opened its mouth full of bad breath.

It was trying to eat him.

“······!”

At that moment, Piemon closed his eyes tightly and grabbed the necklace.

It wasn’t an act led by faith.

He just remembered his family in the face of death.

But someone reacted to his actions.

Whoosh!

Light burst from his body in an instant.

The wolf, startled, stepped back with its mouth open.

It stepped back several steps, turned its head, and growled.

Because the light was burning like a flame, burning the skin of the wolf and the orc.

“Uh, uh…?”

Piemon saw his body moving on its own.

Both hands pulled out the spear stuck in his abdomen, the wound in his abdomen healed, and he stood firmly on both legs.

Thwack!

Titus struck down with an axe and a hammer, killing the two orcs and two wolves that were stupidly looking at him.

Titus shook off the blood and approached Piemon.

“What was that just now…”

Titus narrowed his eyes at him, who was blankly examining his body.

It was the first time he had seen him express his emotions with his expression.

“It seems that Lord Edar has descended upon you.”