He Became The Most Insane Emperor Of All Time [EN]: Chapter 60

“Long time no see, Herman. Are you a squad leader now?”

“Oh, Jack? It’s been ages! Look at you!”

While Herman greeted me with a simple handshake and a reserved attitude, he recognized Jack next to me and greeted him much more warmly.

“I heard you retired and went to the Central Territory. You look great. Don’t tell me you’re working in the Imperial Palace?”

“That’s right. I even received a knighthood for my service recently. Quite the overnight success story, wouldn’t you say?”

“Well, congratulations, belatedly. But what brings you to the Western Territory?”

“I’m here to assist Shadow… the Lord. Lord Shadow is on his way to headquarters to deliver a gift from His Majesty the Emperor.”

The Rangers had already been informed of our arrival. Squad Leader Herman knew we were from the Imperial Family and nodded.

“I never thought the Imperial Family would care about us. Ah, don’t misunderstand, I’m not criticizing His Majesty the Emperor.”

Herman, who had somewhat rough manners and wasn’t particularly aristocratic, said this while being mindful of the fact that I was introduced as an Imperial Knight.

But I responded with a flexible attitude.

“You can criticize all you want. It’s true that the Imperial Family has treated you all like dirt, hasn’t it?”

“Oh? I thought you’d be a rigid knight, but you’re surprisingly easy to talk to?”

Herman, whose face was smudged with soot, grinned, showing his white teeth, as if he liked me.

“Anyway, we can’t just stand here, so let’s head to headquarters right away. We’ll guide the way.”

Whistle!

He whistled sharply with his fingers and then made a hand signal.

Then, more Rangers who hadn’t yet revealed themselves from the bushes appeared.

All of them were thoroughly disguised like Herman, and they each carried two weapons: a modified crossbow or a bow, one in their hands and one slung on their backs.

They had clearly defined roles for rapid fire, volley fire, and aimed shots, and were prepared to fire as they had done before.

“Impressively elite. They’re stronger than most knights, aren’t they?”

“The only ones who can match us are the elves in the East. Those guys are born with talent.”

Herman said with a proud tone.

It seemed that the Ranger tradition had been diminished in the Eastern Territory, which bordered the Elven territory.

“Squad Leader Herman! Are you on patrol?”

“We’re returning to headquarters. We have important guests today.”

“Is that so? Anyway, good work today!”

On the way to headquarters, we passed through several villages.

Most of them looked like pioneer settlements that weren’t even worthy of being called villages.

The residents there weren’t exactly well-off, to put it mildly, but they greeted the Rangers happily.

“There are many villages, but they’re all too small?”

“Well, the village would grow if the population increased, but the conditions aren’t right for that.”

“The reason… well, I can guess.”

Unstable security where raiders could strike at any time, heavy taxes collected by lords under all sorts of pretexts, intermittent crop failures and diseases, and so on….

The Western Territory, where there was plenty of land to cultivate even if it was wasteland, was trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty being passed down due to all sorts of misfortunes.

In this situation, the population couldn’t easily increase, and the village couldn’t develop.

Rather, it was clear that people were leaving or dying, being abandoned, and then the villages being rebuilt repeatedly.

“At least the area around the Ranger headquarters is a bit better off. We don’t collect taxes except for voluntary donations, and we patrol.”

I wondered why there were so many villages. It seemed that it wouldn’t be easy to maintain the unit without collecting taxes, but they were somehow managing to be self-sufficient.

“Well, that’s why we’re happy to receive support supplies from the Imperial Family after a long time—damn it, those guys again!”

As Herman passed by the sparsely visible houses, he saw something and ran out in a rage.

Following him, the Rangers ran to where armed soldiers and several knights directing them were visible.

They were definitely not Rangers.

“Hey, you! Who gave you permission to loot?”

“Oh, it’s the Ranger rabble. But looting? We’re just collecting taxes fairly.”

“Ha, what excuse are you going to use to take it this time? You took it away three days ago, counting the number of windows as a special tax, didn’t you?”

Those who said they were collecting taxes were obviously sent by the lord of this area.

It seemed that the Rangers were in conflict with them regarding taxation.

“In the past, as the number of villages around the Ranger headquarters increased, there were conflicts with the lords who tried to collect taxes there. This is probably the same thing.”

While Herman was arguing, Jack added an explanation for me, who didn’t know the details.

“Why? If it’s under the Rangers’ jurisdiction, the lords shouldn’t have the right to interfere, right?”

“That’s… as you know, the administrative system of the Western Territory has been paralyzed for a long time. The right to collect taxes isn’t clearly defined either.”

In the medieval world, there were cases where the right to collect taxes was separated in governance.

It was even traded or lost, and of course, if the administrative system was insufficient, it could lead to disputes.

“Clearly, the Rangers are the ones who effectively manage this place… but the surrounding lords are claiming rights with all sorts of excuses.”

Rebuilding a village that had already disappeared due to looting and then being told to pay taxes was the least of it.

Forgeries of old documents to claim authority, or scams where they arbitrarily traded things that weren’t theirs and demanded taxes, were rampant.

In the first place, they arbitrarily decided whether to tax by land area, by village unit, or by person.

They were exploiting the loopholes in the pre-modern administrative system, where most administration was done haphazardly.

“It’s a special defense tax for maintaining security. We’re requisitioning supplies to use as military provisions, so don’t interfere.”

“That’s ridiculous. When have you ever patrolled around here? You ignore the Greenskin [Orcs or Goblins] bastards even when they pass right in front of you-”

Thwack!

The knight who was dealing with Herman suddenly punched him in the face with a gauntlet.

Immediately, the surrounding Rangers aimed their loaded crossbows and bows, but the knights and soldiers just chuckled.

“Hmph, you know what will happen if you dare attack us, right?”

“Ugh… do you think we’re afraid of you?”

“Oh, you might not be afraid of fighting. But what if your livelihood is cut off? Can you do anything about that?”

The knight sneered, but Herman couldn’t refute it.

The Rangers, who didn’t collect taxes from the people under their jurisdiction, must have been struggling.

Even if they somehow managed to be self-sufficient, there was a limit in the underdeveloped Western Territory.

If they had conflicts with the surrounding lords and their supplies were cut off, they wouldn’t last long.

“Do you think we’ll give in to you because of that? If you mess with us, you’ll bleed too?”

“Really? Then how about killing the simpletons you cherish so much?”

After saying that, the knight grabbed the arm of a young girl from a farming family who was helplessly being robbed of her grain.

“Kyaa, kyaaa!”

“P, please don’t touch my daughter—cough!”

As his young daughter was dragged away, the middle-aged farmer pleaded to let her go, but before he could finish speaking, the knight kicked him away.

Following that, the soldiers grabbed the girl’s father and held the girl in place so she couldn’t move.

“If you don’t prostrate yourselves to us right now, I’ll kill them.”

“Y, you bastards! Are you even human?”

“Hahaha, we’re just indulging in chivalry with guys who aren’t nobles or knights, what’s wrong with that?”

Herman and all the Rangers were furious, but they couldn’t shoot them.

If they did, the people living around here could die, even if they themselves didn’t.

Swish-

“I’ll count to three. If you don’t bow your heads by then, I’ll kill this child first. Then it’ll be your fault she dies, Ranger.”

“…Damn it, I understand. I’ll beg for forgiveness.”

Herman said that and knelt down, bowing his head.

The Rangers who were watching were all indignant, but they were disciplined and didn’t act rashly.

“I was wrong. So please, leave today.”

“You know your place, huh? But-”

The knight, looking down at Herman, smiled cruelly and raised his sword.

“Today, I’ll set an example!”

“Kyaaa!”

The young girl, sensing her death, screamed and tightly closed her eyes.

“Alright, that’s enough.”

But the girl wasn’t cut by the sword.

Before she knew it, I was standing in front of the knight who was about to kill the girl, and the arm that the knight was holding the sword with had said goodbye to its owner and was lying nearby.

“This… your so-called chivalry is nothing but a vulgar joke.”

“……Huh?”

The knight, who hadn’t even reacted to my movement, and even belatedly realized that his arm had fallen off, slowly contorted his face.

“M, my arm…!”

“You bastard! You dare to harm Lord Otto!”

“Kill them all!”

While the knight with the severed arm staggered, the other soldiers and knights drew their swords all at once and stepped forward.

“Rangers, don’t interfere. This is something I’m doing personally.”

Herman, who had been kneeling, and the other Rangers immediately tried to shoot and subdue them, but when I said that, Jack immediately stopped them.

“You bastard! Die-”

Thwack, squelch!

“Kk, kkkyaaaa!”

“I won’t kill you. Instead, I’ll cripple you.”

I stabbed another knight who was rushing in the thigh with the Holy Sword and then slashed it sideways.

He was protected by plate armor, but the Holy Sword imbued with Aura cut through the armor and severed more than half of his thigh.

His bones were cut, so even if he survived with luck after treatment, he was guaranteed to be crippled.

The others, who had shown off all sorts of bravado in front of me, were noticeably shaken, perhaps because their levels were trashy.

“Aren’t you coming? Then I’ll come to you.”

“D, do you think you’ll be safe after doing this!”

Swish-

“M, my hand!”

“If I’m not safe? What are you going to do about it?”

Another one acted up, and this time his wrist flew away.

As I did that, I turned my eyes to the soldiers.

Then the soldiers hesitated and began to back away.

“W, what should we do?”

“W, we have to attack, right?”

“But the knights were so easily……”

After three knights in a row retired from being knights, the remaining soldiers no longer showed any will to fight.

“Get these cripples and disappear by the time I count to three. One.”

“M, move! Take the knights!”

“Two-”

“Aaaaaah!”

The soldiers somehow lifted the knights who were bleeding profusely and hurriedly left the place.

Instead of counting to three, I turned my gaze to Squad Leader Herman.

Then Herman spoke first.

“…Thank you, but you didn’t have to step in. No, you shouldn’t have stepped in.”

“Why? Are you afraid of retaliation? It’s okay. I’m not a Ranger.”

“That’s not it! People will die! Why do you think I even knelt down!”

Clearly, Herman couldn’t have failed to deal with such trashy things.

But now, he was trying to protect the people, like the girl who was trembling and looking at us.

The lords of the Empire didn’t protect the people of the Empire, but the Rangers, who weren’t even lords or knights, were protecting them.

It was a terrible contradiction.

“How noble. But it was a futile act.”

“What? You bastard-”

“Soon the lords will start a civil war.”

“……!”

Anyway, if a civil war breaks out, countless people like them will die.

“If you want to protect them, now is not the time to kneel, but the time to fight, Ranger.”