Every cavalryman now understood one thing: they had been made fools of. A bunch of ragged bandits had tricked them and stolen several sacks of grain... Although that was only a small part of their supplies, all the cavalrymen felt uncontrollable anger. These proud knights could not bear being toyed with by a rabble. Almost every man was shouting that they should find those bandits and slaughter them all.
Their terrifying, bloodthirsty fury made their only prisoner tremble from head to foot. He was the man who had taken an arrow to the knee. Every one of these fully armed cavalrymen seemed to be glaring at him with hatred. He could hardly imagine what would happen to him. Those terrible weapons, still stained with blood, kept passing through his view. It seemed the men might swarm him at any moment and chop him into pulp.
The arrow with its head broken off had not pierced his knee. It had only left the inside of the bend of his leg bruised and swollen, with unbearable pain. He could not even bend his knee a little. Now he could only lie on the ground at their mercy, unable to move an inch.
"Marcus, come here."
The middle-aged man with the goatee walked over with his helmet in his arms. Tesolys caught him by the arm and brought him down into a crouch beside him in front of the large tree.
"These fellows are clever, aren't they? Look. They hollowed out the ground beneath this tree and dug a little chamber big enough to hide three people. Then they sealed it with mud, leaving only an opening for air. The ones who shot at us were just bait to distract us. All they wanted from the start was to steal a few sacks of grain. They never meant to fight us head-on."
"They do have a little cunning, but this was extremely dangerous. If our cavalry had caught up with them, most of them would probably have died here."
Tesolys smiled and shook his head, disagreeing with his subordinate.
"That's where you're wrong. They probably worked out their retreat before they even tried this. In a tangled forest like this, they're faster than monkeys... Our strong warhorses simply can't keep up with them. Did you notice? They cut away a few bushes and small trees, leaving gaps just big enough for a person to squeeze through. They probably even practiced a few times... And to avoid angering us too quickly, they aimed all their arrows at our shields. Not a single arrow was aimed at our unarmored horses... They have a leader who thinks things through very carefully."
"And look at these arrows..." Tesolys reached over and pulled an arrow from a nearby shield. He showed Marcus its bare, rough shaft and the head ground from a piece of stone. "I've never seen such crudely made arrows. They'll break after just one use. Any man with a little skill at handwork could make a dozen or more in a day. They traded these shoddy arrows for our grain. They had no intention of losing out..."
Marcus had to admit that the general was right. One or more clever people among those bandits had devised this plan, allowing them to take the grain without losing anything except a heap of arrows that were barely better than rubbish... That was not quite accurate. They had still caught one prisoner...
Everyone turned to look at the pale-faced man sitting blankly on the ground.
"Marcus, treat his leg. Don't let him end up crippled. We'll need him to show us the way in a little while."
The middle-aged man stood and took a sharp dagger from the back of his belt. As the prisoner's face turned deathly pale, Marcus reached out and tore away half a trouser leg, exposing the bruising behind his knee. Then he deftly made two cuts there. They were shallow, just deep enough to let the blood out without damaging any major blood vessels. The blood flowed out quickly. Once enough had drained, he tore off a strip of cloth and bound it tightly around the bend of the knee.
After this treatment, the pain was still there, but the man could at least walk slowly...
Still trembling, the man looked around at everyone uneasily. He had heard what they had said, and a fierce struggle was going on deep inside him. He did not know whether he should guide them in order to save his own life... But he could guess that if he refused, the most miserable fate imaginable would await him...
"Marcus, who are these people?"
Tesolys looked at the animal skin draped over the man and his short tunic with its green checked pattern. Something about them seemed familiar.
"My lord, they're the highlanders of Norsca Province. They mostly live in the forests and mountains. They produce many fine archers and infantrymen, but a lot of them also make a living as bandits. They cause serious problems for law and order in the area." Marcus smiled. "The governor of Norsca once said, 'Rather than a population of commoners, I seem to govern a population of bandits. Now and then they spend a day or two as commoners, but the rest of their time is taken up with their main occupation.'"
Tesolys could not help smiling. With considerable interest, he studied the distinctive short blade at the man's waist. Its unique pattern soon made him realize why all this seemed familiar... These were clearly Battanians, the highland people from Mount & Blade II, with their invincible Fian Champions... Only, the highlanders here clearly had no country of their own. They did not even have a sense of nationhood, and they still lived under the Empire's rule.
Although he already knew this world had changed beyond recognition, what he was seeing still surprised him... He had thought he had arrived in the world of Mount & Blade II. Now it seemed as though someone had installed a whole mess of mods. Even the world's basic structure had changed so much that it no longer resembled anything he knew. In effect, this world was completely unfamiliar to him...
Battania's excellent archers were troops he always recruited in large numbers when he played the game. Thinking of those men, almost every one of whom carried a longbow, Tesolys came up with a new plan... He looked up at the prisoner and made a small gesture. Two cavalrymen took the man by his arms and carried him over.
"You must have heard what we were saying. Well? Have you made up your mind? If you take us to your hideout, I can promise that as long as they don't resist, not a single person will die. Otherwise, I'll have to execute you here and continue on my way."
The officer in front of him spoke casually, but the prisoner was terrified. The man's complete disregard for human life left him shaking all over, unable to get out a complete sentence.
"I, I... I... I..."
"There's no rush. I'll give you a little time. When this tree's shadow reaches my feet, you must give me an answer. That's as long as my patience will last."
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