Not long ago, an elite mercenary group that looked powerful and seemed undefeatable had been turned into ashes just like that. They were eliminated in a new, unprecedented method of battle, their lives taken as easily as harvesting wheat.

 A group of fully-equipped soldiers walked out from the forest and started to clean up the battlefield and count the corpses.

 Refugees were poor commoners who lived at the lowest rung in society. Even in the best cases, they were merely free citizens living difficult days. These people who had never been educated nor knowledgeable couldn’t see the difference between the equipment of these soldiers and the other noble clans’ armies. To them, they all looked like expensive steel armor, and they were also wielding blades (although they didn’t use the blades at all). They looked similarly vicious and terrifying.

 Due to the explosions, the refugees had nowhere else to retreat to apart from running deep into the settlement. Soon enough, these mysterious soldiers had found all of them in the stone caves and shabby tents. They were then gathered at the same spacious land as before. The soldiers didn’t use any violence on the refugees, but these apprehensive people were still trembling and didn’t feel any more at ease than when the mercenaries were using their blades to threaten the refugees.

 To the people of this generation, bandits, mercenaries, and soldiers were all the same. In fact, these three occupations could be switched around whenever one desired.

 Joan was shrinking within the crowd and was carefully lowering her presence. She didn’t know where the soldiers came from, but they had uniform equipment, moved orderly, and were obviously a squad that belonged to a certain noble lord. Why would a noble lord suddenly arrive to eliminate a group of mercenaries? This was truly hard to say, but no matter what, they definitely weren’t rushing here to save a group of ‘lowly commoners’.

 Maybe they were also doing the same thing as the mercenaries earlier and were capturing some slaves. Even though orthodox noble clans wouldn’t do such things personally, but in the chaotic and barbarous southern region, unorthodox noble clans existed.

 The man who was abnormally tall and sturdy should be the leader of these soldiers. He was commanding another Knight and a young lady who seemingly had elven bloodline. The soldiers were all very respectful to him, and after distributing the tasks, the tall and sturdy man walked towards them.

 The refugees gathered together with fear. Many of them had bruises after getting shoved and pushed to the ground. Gawain truly wasn’t able to differentiate the ‘leader’ of this group of refugees. As such, he stood beside them and spoke loudly, “I am the feudal lord of this land. You do not have to be afraid. I am here to protect you. Are all of you here? Is there anyone missing or people immobilized by injuries?”

 The refugees were all shocked by Gawain’s loud voice and got another subsequent shock by his feudal-lord status. Their first reaction was to retreat uniformly before they looked at one another; no one dared to answer.

 Gawain frowned, but just at this moment, Cleric Wright walked to Gawain’s side after wiping off the fresh blood on his hand from the ‘Silence’ spell earlier.

 “Oh Holy Light! Look at the health condition of these pitiful people!” The robust Cleric exclaimed and drew a holy symbol at his chest before opening his hands to chant. A hazy but radiant aura that was pure and holy had spread out to the surrounding air. As soon as Wright recited the Holy Light prayer’s specific term, a faint radiance gradually formed a recovery energy with a large area of effect. It was a theurgy that cured minor injuries. “May the Holy Light cure all of you.”

 Apart from getting disciplined, the poor and lowly commoners seldom had the chance to have close contact with true theurgy or magic. The wide-ranged ‘Minor Holy Light’ spell was only the most fundamental Grade-1 theurgy, but everyone still revered it, and they were even in a slight uproar.

 When Wright finished executing this fundamental theurgy, he noticed that there were a few individuals with more severe injuries and that the mild theurgy wasn’t working on them. As such, he pulled out those people from the group and conducted individual treatment.

 There was a black-haired and frail young lady who had injuries that were more severe than others. Furthermore, her injuries had been worsening for more than a day. One of her arms and her shoulder had been bitten by a sharp-toothed beast, and this injury went deep into her muscles and bones. An infection had developed, likely due to such harsh living conditions. Apart from those wounds, the fresh injury on her bloody face wasn’t really worth mentioning.

 “You are rather lucky.” Wright used the Holy Light to purify the infected wound on Joan’s arm and said, “Look, it was already starting to fester. A few days later, you would have been experiencing a high fever, and your life might be done for by then!”

 Joan could feel that her injury was recovering at an unbelievable pace. The self-proclaimed feudal lord at the side had already shifted his attention to her and asked, “The injury on your arm isn’t caused by those mercenaries?”

 “…It is a bite from a wild beast,” Joan restrained her anxiety and replied apprehensively.Read more chapter on v ip novel. com

 “What about your face?”

 “My face was lashed by them with a whip.”

 “…Don’t be afraid. Those mercenaries will not be able to hurt any of you again.” Gawain consoled the young lady who was covered in injuries and asked, “What is the total number of people here? Are all of you here?”

 Joan’s mind instantly flashed with Tom’s figure as she bit her lips and didn’t know if she should say.

 “You don’t have to worry. I have already said that I am the feudal lord of this place. This piece of land belongs to the Cecil Clan, and you are all under the protection of my army.” Gawain smiled and said, “The Cecil Clan is devoted to restoring this land’s order. We are currently searching for and recruiting homeless people that are stranded in this area.”

 When saying until this part, Gawain lifted his head and raised his voice. “Not just all of you… If you know of other refugee settlements, you can also inform me. As long as you abide by the laws of the Cecil Clan, I will permit every homeless individual to live on this land. Those who provide information on other refugees will receive additional rewards!”

 Everyone was becoming slightly restless. Such things like ‘a noble clan opening their doors to receive homeless people and allowing them to live on their land’ were unprecedented. Most of these people’s first reaction was shock, then disbelief; there were even some who suspected this was a kind of trap. But the ‘additional rewards’ had their attention. Joan felt that the people behind her were wavering as there were some ‘companions’ who had been starving for many days; therefore, they were lacking in willpower. Suddenly, she heard someone talking…

 “My Lord, most of us have escaped from the Bald Eagle territory.” A shriveled and weak man with tanned skin had spoken boldly. “A flood occured over there. The land and houses were all destroyed. So was the stored food. The feudal lord closed up the castle gates and allowed us to wait outside and die. Therefore, a group of us escaped… Are you really going to allow refugees like us to live on your territory?”

 “As long as you abide by the laws of this land and behave according to my rules,” Gawain spoke firmly. “You don’t have to worry. The Cecil Clan’s laws are much more merciful than the laws you originally abided by.”

 “Then…”

 Just as the shriveled man was going to say something else, there was an echo that could be heard from the forest. Sir Philip had returned from the patrol in the forest with over a dozen soldiers. Two of the soldiers were holding a limping and red-nosed kid in custody.

 “Your Excellency!” Sir Philip reported with a loud voice. “We found someone in the woods… He might be a refugee that had escaped. He used a bow and arrow to attack us, but no one was injured, and he has been captured.”

 Joan’s heart tensed up as she looked up in an alarmed state, and as she expected, she saw Tom being detained by two soldiers at the border of the forest.

 One of the soldiers was buckled with a familiar hunting bow that was passed down by their father.

 She instantly understood what had happened. Tom said he was going to look for mushrooms but had secretly taken the bow and arrows. He was probably going to take the risk to hunt in the depths of the forest. He wasn’t able to hunt anything and, fortunately, didn’t get eaten by the starving wild beasts in the forest, but now, he had fallen into a worse situation. This reckless fool had actually used the bow to attack the feudal lord’s Knight and soldiers!

 Joan felt the world spinning as her body went soft and was about to fall over. Wright, who had just finished her treatment, got a shock. “Oh Holy Light! Could there be a problem with my healing spell?!”

The young man at the border of the forest had also seen his elder sister and the situation within the settlement. He still didn’t know what had happened and exclaimed in surprise, “Elder sister?! What is going on here?!”

 “Do you know each other?” Gawain motioned with his hand for Sir Philip to release that thin and weak young man over. “Why did he attack my people?”

 “Tom! You have gotten into big trouble!” Joan grabbed Tom’s arm and nearly wanted to pinch his flesh off. “You attacked the feudal lord’s soldiers!”

 “I—I thought they were bandits…” Tom had a terrified expression as he explained, “I heard them discussing how to deal with the corpses…”

 Gawain’s mouth twitched as he figured out what had happened.

 “It seems like this is a misunderstanding.” He looked at the seized hunting bow. Such inferior bow and arrows could only be used to deal with the wild beasts in the forest. To the Cecil Combatants who were wearing magic armor or to a Knight like Philip, these arrows couldn’t even be considered toys. “Philip, who was the one that got attacked?”

 A magic infantryman stood out and said, “Reporting to Your Excellency, it was me, but I am fine!”

 “Your Excellency, this is indeed a misunderstanding.” Philip spoke with initiative, “A Knight should be lenient. I believe that it isn’t necessary to put the responsibility on this young man excessively… He just needs a punishment to remember this lesson and to be less reckless in the future.”

 Gawain was having an increasingly favorable opinion of Philip, who would always take the supporting role and offer a way out of an awkward situation. Furthermore, it all seemed genuine…

 “Since it is a misunderstanding, then I shall not issue a harsh punishment. However, you have attacked first after all. Therefore, a suitable punishment is still necessary.” Gawain looked at the red-nosed young man and noticed that when he was half way through his statement, the young man and his elder sister had trembled at the same time. Their faces were filled with anxiety and fear. It seemed like they were very familiar with the ‘suitable punishment’ that the nobles always ordered… But on Gawain’s side, his so-called suitable punishment was truly just suitable punishment. “You will work to compensate for your mistake… Are you and your elder sister able to find the other refugee settlements?”