Chapter 13:

Tension filled the air.

Within the town square, children and women huddled in fear in small groups as troops stood throughout the area, their presence magnified by their weapons gripped in their hands.

Riding into the square on his mount, Vincent studied the townsfolk as he approached the building on the far side of the square, the town hall.

‘They fear the troops. Their husbands, fathers and brothers were killed by the Knights and their forces. Add that to the words that that merchant had spoken to rouse them up, they probably see me as a greedy, murdering monster.’

‘Looks like I’ll have to spend a lot of time on PR after this…’

Lampooning internally, Vincent dismounted his horse, still surrounded by his personal guard and accompanied by Blake, handing the reins to a nearby soldier to take care of. Stepping into the town hall, his eyes brightened at the thought of all the gold and treasures that the troops were currently recovering from the merchant's properties.

Ascending a flight of stairs, Vincent, led by Blake, entered a spacious, well-lit room through a set of wooden double doors. Normally used as a meeting room for the various decision makers and influential people within the town, the room and its expansive oak table had been taken over by the Knights of House Sutton as a command centre.

Acknowledging his subordinates' salutes, Vincent stepped up to the head of the table, where he was joined by his Knights, still dressed in their armour as they held sheets of beastskin containing reports.

“Milord.”

The stable and stoic Knight, Gene, began first, reading out a report on the results of the siege from the beastskin parchment. Altogether, the House forces had lost 5 of their 70 sword-and-shield infantry, 2 archers, and a single horse, not including the casualties from Knight Oxford's advance party.

Overall, the losses taken were greatly reduced from what they potentially could have been, due to the introduction of the escalades to the battlefield, allowing the House forces to easily ascend the walls without being shot or dislodged by defenders.

Afterwards, Knight Oxford took over, detailing the enemy's casualties. Throughout the whole engagement, the enemy forces had lost a total of 24 men from the garrison and 40 able-bodied men who had volunteered to defend their town, with 1 captive, the squad captain of Greendales Garrison.

Once the captive was mentioned, Knight Oz immediately broke into Oxford's report, interrupting his fellow Knight.

“What the captive for, eh? Just take a blade to his head and send him to meet the rest of his men.”

Frowning at the ill-mannered Knight, Vincent quickly cut off any further talk of executing captives with a line, “We don't kill prisoners.”

Seeing the rash, burly Knight quieten down, Sharon aborted her planned retort and looked down at her parchment, thinking of her report.

Once Blake had finished his report on public sentiment regarding the siege battle, both in Greendale itself and in the entire Viscounty as a whole, it became Sharon's turn to speak.

‘Finally, what I’m really interested in.’

Images of gold coins flying through his head, Vincent paid special attention to Sharon’s words.

“Currently, we have 50 soldiers patrolling the town, while the remaining 30 are currently searching through the merchants district and residences. As per orders, they are only searching the properties of those merchants which have been confirmed to have skimped on their taxes.”

‘How much Gold will we end up with? 850,000 like Halcyon said? Or 900,000? Maybe 1,000,000?’

“As of now, the soldiers have found 150,000 gold coins within the residences of the merchants themselves, including some secret stashes hidden within the walls and floors of the buildings.”

“Within the commercial buildings and shopfronts of the merchants, an additional 200,000 gold has been found throughout the merchants district.”

“In addition to Gryphon Gold Coins, we have found various treasures and antiques that are estimated to be worth around 50,000 gold.”

What??!!

At first, Vincent was ecstatic, hearing of all the Gold that had flowed into his pockets after a single raid, especially considering how bad a state the House treasury was in before. But, after a few moments, his brow furrowed.

‘That’s not right. Previously, Halcyon estimated their total wealth after underpaying their taxes for over a decade should be in the ballpark of 850,000 gold. The amount the troops collected only amounts to 400,000 gold coins if the treasures and antiques were to be converted to Gryphon Gold Coins.’

“Somethings missing.”

“How much did each Merchant yield us?”

“Sir, the merchant named Oliver Moby had the highest amount of gold, with around 100,000 gold in total. The other merchants made up most of the rest while their ringleader, Terry Fisher, surprisingly had only 50,000 gold in total.”

Knight Sharon recited a list of figures from the parchment, as Vincent's frown grew.

“The merchants are supposed to have at least 400,000 more gold than that hidden away, give or take a couple thousand. Even if they fell on bad times or splurged their gold recklessly and had to dip into their reserves, there's no way they can spend 400,000 gold.¨

“Instruct the men to search the merchants' houses once more, and check for any hidden compartments in detail. Especially their leader, Terry. His residence probably has the lion's share of the Gold.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Within seconds, a messenger ran out of the command room, rushing to find a horse to deliver Vincent's orders to the troops searching the town.

Heart feeling unsettled after hearing that half of his expected wealth had failed to turn up, Vincent turned to Knight Oxford, who had been put in charge of news of the merchants that had fled the town in an attempt to leave the fief.

“My Liege, Knight Helix and his men have successfully captured a total of 5 merchants who have fled the town. They travelled light, with mostly only their immediate families and a carriage, and attempted to pass the checkpoint by claiming to be travelling merchants. The troops have arrested them and have taken them captive as fugitives.”

“However, not all the merchants are accounted for. The merchant who confronted me and my men at the gate, Oliver Moby, had apparently turned himself in to our troops the moment they entered the town square, requesting an audience with the Lord.”

“As for the instigator of this whole ‘resistance’, Terry Fisher, he is currently nowhere to be seen. The troops could neither find him within the town or outside the town, despite the cavalrymen's patrols. Knight Helix has also sent word that he is not among those who were detained at the Greendale Wall.”

As Knight Oxford finished his words, Vincent felt another sinking feeling surface in his gut as alarm bells rang within his head. The perpetrator of this whole mess and the one that had first received word of the raid, Terry Fisher, was still at large. Although he had nothing left after the troops he had duped to fight on his behalf had fallen and his holdings had been raided, and seemingly posing no threat to Vincent, Vincent felt that Terry posed a significant danger to him and his lands.

Not everybody had enough oratorical skill to rouse a whole town into resisting a well-trained and equipped military. In fact, if Vincent had not given his men the escalades, and his men had charged through the gate like they had intended, they would have been massacred by the waiting ambushers.

In addition, there was still the matter of who had provided him with the early warning. The snitch had to be relatively high placed within the estate in order to provide the merchant accurate information on Vincent’s plans.

Intelligence is King on the battlefield.

Vincent had no intention of leaving a man who could rise to become the top merchant and cultivate connections within his estate to run free. He had learned from those ruthless middle managers in his past life that a sly man could easily cause the downfall of a hundred other men.

Speaking to his Knights, he spoke out, his grave tone somehow influencing the atmosphere within the room to turn solemn.

“Find Terry Fisher. Send out search parties before dark arrives within a few hours. We still have questions to ask him.”

Sensing the grave tension in the air, the Knights acknowledged his orders, and within moments, the remaining House forces, even those who had been on their rest breaks and off-shift, began sweeping the town.

Turning to Blake, Vincent said.

“Com’on, let's see what Mr Moby had for us. I have some questions for him.”

Sweeping out of the command room with Blake in tow, Vincent descended the steps to the town hall, his bronze-silver armour reflecting the setting sun's rays as he stepped out of the town hall, ignoring the gazes of the townsfolk as he hid within their houses.

Grabbing the reins of his mount from the guard, he leapt up into the saddle and broke out into a trot.

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“Mr Moby, the Viscount requests your presence.”