The Extra Wants To Live

Chapter 51: Azgoth's' Plan

"Master Carl, this is Corbin, a knight of Hilfin."

Even with his tall stature lowered, Corbin was still above Carl, so he ended up kneeling on one knee and bowing politely to Carl.

Unless there are special circumstances, a knight does not kneel even to his lord.

They kneel when they are ordained knights and when they commit a very serious sin.

Nevertheless, he immediately got down on his knees upon meeting Carl for the first time.

'He wasn't treated properly as a knight, and he didn't receive any education.'

Carl realized that even though Corbin had been ordained as a knight, he was in fact no better than a soldier commander.

Would this help?

"Get up. Lord Corbin."

"… Yes, master Carl."

Corbin seemed taken aback by Carl's polite attitude, but soon stood up in front of Carl, shaking his knee and creating dust as if to prove his ignorance of etiquette.

"I'd like to hear more details."

"Yes, a large number of Gnoll's suddenly occurred a month ago."

Corbin immediately starts talking after hearing Carl's words.

Carl meant to go inside first and talk, but Corbin, who had no idea how to speak to nobles, took it literally to mean to talk right away.

Carl listened to Corbin in silence without pointing this out so as not to embarrass him.

"I came here under orders from the Baron to lead the soldiers to subdue Gnoll. There were a lot of them at first, but not this many. Strangely enough, the gnolls kept trying to attack people and even attacked villages. Therefore, I thought we could reduce the number by strengthening the defense of the village near the forest and killing those who rush in."

Gnolls seek out humans and attack them. This is a clear abnormal situation.

Of course, gnolls are not completely stupid. They know very well that nothing good comes from messing with humans.

Nevertheless, they came to the village where the fence was erected and continued to attack even as they died.

"But no matter how much we kill them, their numbers continue to increase, and now they are at a point where we can't control them."

"And yet Lord Hilfin did not do anything?"

When Carl narrowed his eyes and asked, Corbin hesitated for a moment.

But soon a look of resignation appears on his face.

"The support was there. However, many soldiers were killed and some deserted. We requested additional support, but no support has been provided since. All that happened was soldiers coming and going to transport silver."

Even if they are a warrior, is it desertion?

Carl, who had raised his eyebrows while thinking so, paused at the words that followed.

He couldn't help but believe his ears.

"…Did you just say silver?"

"Yes, silver. The gnoll's ax is mixed with silver."

Carl takes a slow breath. Then he exhaled loudly and pressed his hands to the corners of his eyes.

"… ha ha ha. indeed."

Carl was silent for a moment, covering his eyes, and then burst into laughter.

He finally understand the situation.

"Are they were trying to hide silver to avoid trouble and not pay taxes?"

"…Maybe so."

"When was silver discovered?"

"I started making and arming myself with a axe 10 days ago. It must have been made after looking at a woodcutter's axe."

There is no point in questioning Corbin.

Carl immediately realized the full story of this absurd situation.

Gnolls rushed out, entered a state of emergency, reported to the Empire, and asked for help.

But the gnolls' crude metallurgy probably can't handle iron, so why aren't they starting to make metal axes?

Upon investigation, They found that the axe was made from minerals mixed with silver.

If the punitive force battles the gnolls, they will find out about this, so they must hide it somehow.

It's none of their business whether noble knight or commoner soldiers die, so they'll just scrape together as much silver as they can.

So, what happens after that?

'They are planning to run away!'

Even if Maldin keep collecting silver like this, it will be over if the play overflows. So, he probably planned to run away to another place with the silver he had collected and become bigger based on his enormous wealth.

And then Carl was able to see a bigger picture.

'Azgoth, you must have known.'

I thought it was strange that the mission given by Emperor Azgoth to give strength to Ias in the original work, and to Carl now, was to subdue gnolls in a rural fiefdom.

It makes no sense unless Azgoth knew.

'It was only 10 days ago that the gnoll made an ax out of silver and armed it, it was 18 days ago that I received the order, and the gnoll occurred a month ago.'

In other words, when the report on the occurrence of the gnolls was posted,

Azgoth had already used his secret sword to finish the investigation before Hilfin and learned about the silver.

It also means that there is no place in the empire that is not under the eyes of the emperor.

'Even at this very moment, there must be eyes following me in some way.'

Carl picked out important things from the rapidly expanding stream of thoughts.

'First, all of this is in Azgoth's' plan.'

First of all, that is the most important.

Azgoth found out about the existence of silver and made him an offer he couldn't refuse, telling him to make this country estate, which no one cared about, his base.

'Secondly, this does not appear in the original work.'

Next, it is important to note that there is no mention of the existence of silver in the original novel.

'Nero, he knew but he pretended not to know.'

In the original work, Nero is tasked with subduing gnolls.

He hops on his horse and rides away at once, finishing everything within a week of receiving the mission and returning to the imperial palace. Then he concludes neatly by saying, 'It wasn't a big deal.'

This means that Nero finished them off before the gnolls could make the axe.

However, it is unlikely that Nero, who must have gone deep into the forest to subdue the gnolls, really did not know about silver.

In order to reject the emperor's offer, the existence of silver was buried!

'Everything changed because of me.'

A big change occurred when Carol took over the mission instead of Nero.

Nero headed to Hilfin as soon as he received the subjugation mission. And he arrived three days later, killed all the gnolls, rode on horseback for another three days, and returned to the imperial palace.

On the other hand, Carl had to prepare for a week after receiving the mission, and it took ten days for him to arrive, moving slowly and leading his soldiers in a carriage.

Carl's presence completely changed the fate of this small territory.

Until the punitive force arrived at Hilfin, there was a huge gap of as much as 15 days between the original and the present.

"… Let's hear about the situation...Go in."

"Yes, Master Carl."

Carl quickly gathered his thoughts and spoke to Corbin.

As he followed Corbin in, Carl was worried inwardly.

'Can Harmon properly bring support in this situation?'

There are not many troops left in Hilfin, and the nobles are trying to escape. In the meantime, did Harmon really do his job?

It's silver and it's nabal, and he have to survive and subdue the gnolls to have a future.

And it seems impossible to subdue the gnolls without additional support from Hilfin.

Carl, who suddenly found himself in a position where he had to entrust his entire future to Harman, could not help but sigh.

'Even though I really know the world, I don't know.'