Chapter 109: Taking Advantage of Someone

Xia Ya and Ruer’s party entered the territory of the Byzantine Empire. After crossing the frontier, they first came to Danzel, a small city not far from the northern border. Its permanent population barely reached ten thousand, but because of its position on the frontier, it saw a constant flow of travelers and its public order was correspondingly chaotic. Even so, border trade had infused the little city with considerable vitality.

The temporary military headquarters for the war against the Odins had been established there.

Danzel was not far from Wildfire Town. On horseback, the journey took only two days; riding hard with fresh mounts, one could arrive in a day and a night.

Though it was merely a small city, Danzel was more than twice the size of Wildfire Town. Its broad, towering walls revealed part of its military importance. Once war came, the city could instantly be transformed into a fortified stronghold. Under imperial military law, its walls had been built to the standards of a military fortress: six meters thick and eleven meters high, with towers jutting sharply from each corner.

It was the country bumpkin’s first visit to Byzantium, and the first time he had ever seen such a large city. His eyes could scarcely take it all in. Compared with Wildfire Town, the place was clearly far more prosperous. Soldiers in infantry armor guarded the gates, while the imperial banners, military standards, and company pennants of the Byzantine Empire fluttered atop the walls.

The buildings inside the city were plainly much taller and grander than those in Wildfire Town. Once he entered, the country bumpkin scarcely stopped turning his head, widening his eyes as he gazed at everything around him.

Compared with Wildfire Town, this place seemed somewhat more civilized. The clothes of the people walking through the streets were a little brighter, and their styles bore far more distinctively Byzantine characteristics. Most men wore long linen robes, with tall boots whose toes curved slightly upward.

The robes, cut narrowly around the waist, best displayed a man’s powerful physique. Armed men could be seen everywhere along the streets as well. Some, dressed as warriors, wore cheap leather armor or iron breastplates and displayed the badges of their profession. There were noticeably fewer of them than in Wildfire Town, however.

There were more shops of every kind along the roadside, more smithies, and more taverns. What puzzled Xia Ya was that Byzantine women were plainly much more conservative than those in Wildfire Town. Most of the women passing by wore hooded cloaks over their heads, both to keep out the wind and to conceal their faces. Their clothing was more restrained as well. Only women who appeared wealthy and finely dressed ventured into clothing shops or cosmetics stores wearing silk robes, and even then they were usually surrounded by attendants.

Danzel had been occupied by the army. Soldiers dressed in military garb could be seen everywhere. Now that the war had ended, the troops seemed to have entered a period of relaxation. From time to time, a few men would stagger drunkenly out of the roadside taverns, and Xia Ya could not help frowning at the sight.

Such lax discipline would have been unthinkable in the Thirteenth Legion.

Danzel was not only much larger than Wildfire Town; the land around it was also far more diverse.

Numerous small villages lay scattered around the city, surrounded by vast stretches of cultivated fields. Administratively, Danzel belonged to Moer County in the northern part of the empire, which was also one of the Byzantine Empire’s important grain-producing regions. More importantly, it still fell under the direct administration of the imperial center rather than being incorporated into a Thema military district.

After all, this was a frontier region. Though it produced grain and profited from border trade, it was always the first place threatened whenever war broke out with the Odins. Consequently, none of the parasites in the military administration had been willing to seize this territory.

In a word... the so-called governors of the Thema military districts had long since become aristocratic warlords.

The commander of the temporary military headquarters in the war zone was General Clark of the imperial military administration. He was a staunch supporter of the Thema system. His own family possessed a Thema military district in the southeastern part of the empire, which had already been passed down through two generations. General Clark himself also held an important position within the imperial military administration.

Yet when Xia Ya followed Ruer to the temporary military headquarters in Danzel, General Clark showed him little hostility, despite the fact that this country bumpkin had caused the warlord faction in the military administration no small amount of trouble.

Clark conducted Xia Ya’s investiture ceremony with almost absurd carelessness. He shoved a golden Medal of Courage into the country bumpkin’s hand without even bothering to pin it on him himself, then hurried away surrounded by several aides without so much as offering a military salute, as though he feared that lingering beside Xia Ya for even another minute might bring him trouble.

The crude simplicity of the ceremony was too much even for Ruer.

“Damn it. If that pretty boy Bonfreit had come to receive the honor, this fellow would have been a hundred times more enthusiastic. He would have invited every noble and notable in the city to attend, had the honor guard play music, and laid a red carpet all the way to the entrance. That ceremony of yours was probably the most perfunctory I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Xia Ya seemed completely unconcerned. He pinched the golden medal between his fingers, while the country bumpkin’s mind busily calculated how much the gold alone was worth.

Hmm... it was so heavy. It had to be pure gold, right?

The temporary military headquarters might not have welcomed Xia Ya, but he did not care in the slightest. After all, this was practically an official business trip. The military administration was paying for all his travel, lodging, and meals.

The headquarters assigned a fat quartermaster to receive them.

Was every quartermaster fat and overfed? The country bumpkin was genuinely puzzled.

When it came to food and lodging, Xia Ya shamelessly demanded the best. He stayed at the finest inn in the city and ordered the best dishes and wine. The quartermaster agreed to everything readily and even secretly slipped Xia Ya a pouch containing twenty palm-sized gold ingots. A single one was enough to provide food and clothing for an ordinary family for more than a year.

Then several superb warhorses were brought before Xia Ya. They were mounts supplied by the military headquarters.

The temporary military headquarters had only one request:

Now that you have eaten and taken everything you can, get lost as soon as possible.

At Ruer’s urging, Xia Ya proceeded to squeeze them for all they were worth. He even extorted several sets of top-grade cavalry equipment, including light armor forged from superior soft steel produced in a famous mining region in southern Byzantium. It was light, convenient, and exceptionally protective. Under ordinary circumstances, only officers of banner-regiment rank were entitled to wear such armor—and even then, only those serving in frontline banner regiments.

At last, Xia Ya was satisfied when he saw his retainers wearing such expensive armor.

Ruer sighed beside him. “Damn it. I served in the army for seven or eight years before I was qualified to wear armor like that. And now you’ve equipped even your retainers with it. You really are extravagant...”

Xia Ya rolled his eyes. “Wasn’t it you who taught me how to squeeze people for every last advantage?”

The other side’s attitude was unmistakable: you can have whatever you want, but please leave as quickly as possible.

Xia Ya did not hesitate. Once he had collected enough benefits, he promptly slapped his horse’s rump and departed.

When they left Danzel, both of Xia Ya’s retainers, Dodoro and Soit, were mounted on excellent warhorses and dressed in expensive light armor. Even their saddles and stirrups were luxuries normally reserved for senior officers.

Xia Ya himself hardly needed mentioning. He wore a suit of knight’s armor worth at least several hundred gold coins. It was a light half-plate harness, each piece forged from high-quality soft steel, with thickened plates reinforcing only the vital areas—the chest, back, and shoulders. The armor followed the most standard imperial knightly design.

Strictly speaking, given Xia Ya’s current status, wearing knight’s armor was a violation of regulations. But he had rendered outstanding service, and receiving a title was already a foregone conclusion.

He rode a magnificent red warhorse, one Ruer had personally chosen for him. According to the fat man, a warhorse of this caliber would rank among the top five mounts even among those ridden by the generals of the empire’s thirteen legions.

Mounted on such a superb steed and clad in light knight’s armor, with a bearskin cloak presented by the military administration draped across his back, Xia Ya cut an imposing figure. The attire of Dodoro and Soit behind him far surpassed that of ordinary banner commanders. Anyone unfamiliar with Xia Ya’s identity would surely have assumed that some legion’s general was traveling through the countryside.

By comparison, Ruer—the genuine general walking beside Xia Ya—looked more like his attendant.

Xia Ya had originally planned to extort a fine carriage for the journey, but Ruer refused.

The fat man actually spoke to him in an unusually serious tone.

“A soldier does not ride in a carriage.” Ruer’s voice was solemn. “A soldier who covets comfort is no longer a true soldier. Those were the words of my teacher, His Grace the Duke of Minas.”

※※※

Although Moer County was not a Thema military district, the empire’s farmer-soldier system had already existed for a century. After leaving Danzel, Xia Ya and the others passed several small villages along the road, where they could still see farmers dressed in military uniforms laboring in the fields with hoes and shovels.

Every village had an empty drill ground. The farmer-soldier system had declined, however, and it was obvious that the weapons kept by these farmer-soldiers had long since rusted. In many places, the weeds on the drill grounds had grown taller than a man.

After leaving Danzel, the fat man’s mood became noticeably strange. At the military headquarters in the Danzel war zone, he had received the latest orders: he was required to reach the imperial capital, Osjilia, within fifteen days. In the meantime, command of his Sixth Legion was to be temporarily assumed by the standard-bearer of its First Banner Regiment.

Ruer had also been ordered, as a frontline commander in the war, to report personally to the military administration.

It was said that these orders had been transmitted by an emergency magic array specially maintained by the military administration on the night before Ruer and Xia Ya arrived in Danzel.