Thane's words left the guards carrying corpses frozen in place, and the mercenaries tying up the bandits also stopped what they were doing.
Eliric's eyes lit up as he spat out the grass stem from his mouth and shouted,
"Hell, that actually makes perfect sense!"
Pamin lowered his head, his hand rubbing his chin as he thought it through.
The lord's logic is actually bulletproof!
That's when it hit Pamin like a ton of bricks.
His lord wasn't just trying to weaken the Beuigclair caravan's position and gain some negotiating power.
He was letting the bandits straight-up rob the Beuigclair caravan, then confiscating the bandits' loot!
Even though the goods were still the same caravan merchandise, after this little detour, Thane as lord of Shadowpine Ridge could legally claim everything as his own!
Even though Pamin knew imperial law inside and out, he couldn't find a single hole in this approach.
Kralfard had no clue who Thane was and covered his face while loudly protesting,
"You, you have no right to do this!"
"Right?"
Thane sneered, his expression instantly turning dead serious,
"Let me spell it out for you. I'm an Imperial-appointed hereditary baron, the new lord of Shadowpine Ridge in the Northern Borderlands, fourth son of Earl Ividaya—Thane Ividaya."
As soon as he finished speaking, the guard beside him immediately whipped out the appointment decree.
This time, Kralfard saw the imperial seal and the Ividaya family crest, and his jaw hit the floor.
He even bowed respectfully, looking like he wanted to crawl into a hole.
"I don't give a damn what you used to do, but now all this stuff here is my loot from wiping out bandits as a lord!"
Thane's gaze swept over the caravan members, his voice getting louder,
"Including all of you—you're my prisoners, my spoils of war!"
Hearing this, the caravan guards who'd been sitting around bandaging their wounds realized they were screwed and couldn't help but jump to their feet.
Pamin was the first to react, drawing his sword and pointing it at the caravan guards,
"Nobody moves!"
In a split second, steel rang out as the guards quickly pressed their blades to the caravan guards' throats.
Eliric cracked his neck and raised his axe, shouting,
"Anyone who twitches gets the chop!"
Thane looked at Pamin with approval.
Now that's what you call an experienced knight—his reflexes were faster than anyone else's.
"I don't want to kill anybody. Those who don't fight back can all keep breathing."
Thane's tone mellowed out as he said casually, "Don't worry, I'm not turning you into slaves. You can become free men just by paying ransom.
But don't try using whatever's in your pockets to pay the ransom, because when bandits captured you, they would've stripped you clean—everything on you is my loot."
"But Baron, if we don't have money, do we become slaves?"
A caravan guard voiced what everyone was thinking, and all eyes locked onto Thane.
Thane had been waiting for exactly this question, and announced loudly, "Those without cash can work it off—just five years."
"During that time I'll cover your food and a place to crash. You can drink and mess around with women during festivals, and if we have a good harvest at year's end, I'll even throw you some bonuses."
"After five years you can take off, or stick around and keep working for me as regular folks—I'll pay you wages."
The caravan guards looked at each other, and hearing they wouldn't become slaves, their hostility cooled down quite a bit.
"Sounds pretty fair..."
"Five years ain't exactly short, but working anywhere means eating, drinking, and fooling around with women."
"Following a noble might even give us some opportunities... I'm in."
A caravan guard with a busted arm stuck his sword in the ground and plopped back down.
"Me too!"
"Happy to serve you."
...
With someone breaking the ice, the others gradually laid down their weapons and stopped fighting back.
Anyone willing to risk their neck in the Northern Borderlands basically had no family ties and was used to drifting around.
Only one tall figure stayed standing.
All eyes turned to this person, who finally spoke up: "Sir, I like playing with men!"
Thane was thrown for a loop, then looked closer and realized the person standing was a short-haired woman—all the grime on her face had made it tough to tell.
Anyone who could make it in the Northern Borderlands, man or woman, was no joke. Thane didn't think less of her because of her gender.
"Men are everywhere—no need to wait for festivals, play with them whenever you want."
"Hahaha..."
Thane's comeback made the guards crack up, and everyone else joined in, instantly cutting through the tension.
The short-haired woman ducked her head with a grin, then squatted down to sit and patch up her wounds.
With the caravan guards not putting up a fight, the other workers naturally threw in the towel and stopped resisting too.
Only the leader Kralfard stepped forward, saying kind of nervously, "Noble Baron, please let me write to my family to pay my ransom."
"You can do that."
Thane smiled, giving Kralfard a meaningful look,
"But you'll write after we get to Fontdmer Town. For now, please get me a quick inventory of all the goods."
"Of course, Baron."
Bringing up the goods made Kralfard let out a long sigh, but he had to roll with the punches.
Thane didn't say anything else and had Pamin get the caravan workers to load the scattered goods onto carts and get ready to move out fast.
As for the dead, they were counted, dumped in pits, and would be reported to the Empire as kills at year's end.
Pamin quickly got everything sorted and came back to report to Thane. He then said quietly,
"Sir, I respectfully ask that you clue me in on your plans ahead of time next time, so I can get ready accordingly."
Pamin had originally thought Thane only wanted the goods, not expecting him to grab the people as well.
Ownerless goods were easy to deal with, but people had minds of their own.
If the caravan guards had been more pigheaded, things could've gotten ugly real quick.
"Yeah, I will."
Being a lord for the first time, Thane took the advice seriously, understanding that planning ahead would definitely work better for stuff like this.
Actually, Thane's decision to grab the people only came after seeing that the caravan guards were all banged up—it wasn't really rolling the dice.
"Thanks for understanding."
Pamin gave a slight bow and stepped aside to keep an eye on the others' work.
Right then, text suddenly popped up before Thane's eyes:
[First time leading soldiers to defeat bandits in your territory. Unlocked trait: Commander's Presence]
[Commander's Presence (White): When commanding battles, soldier morale increases by 20%. After each victory, soldiers will trust you more]
"Sweet bonus."
[Commander's Presence] was a trait related to territorial events that wasn't clearly shown in the system—a hidden trait.
Morale mainly meant the overall mental state of the troops, affecting soldiers' feelings and fighting spirit, and directly impacting how well they fought.
Especially in big army battles, the same military force with different morale levels could straight-up decide who won or lost.
When morale gaps were too big, winning with fewer numbers wasn't exactly rare.
So [Commander's Presence] would be seriously useful whether for expanding outward or defending against sieges.
Thane was now kind of hoping to run into more bandits.
Because after unlocking the first trait [Commander's Presence], the requirements for the next trait also showed up—
In the next bandit cleanup, personally kill ten or more bandits in a single battle.
Unfortunately, reality didn't give Thane the chance.
The group got back together and hit the road again, reaching their destination by evening—Fontdmer Town.