A few hours later, at a nearby village…

「I'm telling you! We have nothing!」

The peasant explains, standing in front of the doorway to his home.

「Yeah? Get out of my fucking way!」

One of the mercenaries standing in front of the man grabs him by his shirt, and forcefully throws him aside to the ground.

Thud.

「Ugh!… I'm telling you! We have nothing! Are you going to take the last scraps we have left for today's dinner!? That's not going to feed an army!」

While on the ground, the man keeps shouting at the mercenaries enter his home with heavy, angry steps.

「Search everything! Shelves, cupboards, check their basement too! Rip the fucking floors apart if you have to!」

An officer follows the mercenaries in, and points all over the small, rustic hut, frantically gesturing with his hand and waving it about. The peasant steps in the doorway, pleadingly spreading his hands.

「Please! Don't make a mess of our home! How many times do I have to tell you that he bought everything before you believe me!?」

The man tries to enter his home, but the mercenary roughly blocks him with his armored forearm.

「Empty, sir.」

A mercenary turns his head to the officer, holding onto a cupboard's doors.

「Nothing here, too!」

Another voice calls out from the pantry.

「Same here!」

Another mercenary shouts from the basement. The officer looks at the kitchen, and sees only a handful of vegetables set out along with a pot, seemingly to be prepared for a meal. He grabs the peasant's shirt, twisting it in his fist, and pulling him upward.

「Are you saying one man bought out your entire village's food supply!?」

He shouts, scowling with his teeth clenched.

「Yes! That's exactly what happened! Ask anyone!」

The thin peasant nods his head, standing on his tiptoes as he's almost lifted off his feet.

Thud.

The mercenary throws the peasant aside again in anger, and he lands in a chair at a table, almost falling over. The table creaks as the peasant grabs onto it to regain balance. Another officer walks in with a slow step towards his fellow officer, and leans in to whisper into his ear.

「…Maybe we can just take the gold and call it quits.」

They look at each other, then at the peasant.

「…How much did he pay you?」

The officer asks with a frustrated voice.

「He gave us a golden drake each. Well… The village chief got three, since he had the biggest stockpile…」

Gesturing with his hands, the peasant explains from his chair.

「Drakes?」

The officer asks, and looks to his colleague, who shrugs his shoulders.

「What the fuck are drakes?」

His colleague asks, and the both of them stare down with furrowed brows at the peasant.

「It's… Have you not heard? It's the new money. Well, you can still use gold and silver, but…」

The peasant asks, and pulls out a stamped slip of paper out of his pocket.

「He said you can pay taxes for this. He said I won't have to pay taxes again for five or so years if I use this. It sounded pretty good to me, so-」

The peasant continues explaining, and the mercenary grabs his shirt again, and pulls him up from his chair.

「You gave him all of your food for a piece of fucking paper!?」

The officer shakes the peasant, and his head flies back and forth.

「But you can pay taxes-!」

Still being shaken, the peasant attempts to explain.

Thud!

The second officer slams his fist on the table in fury, visibly fuming with his teeth clenched and on display.

「Who the fuck cares about taxes!?」

He shouts down at the peasant, while his colleague shakes him.

「Are you fucking insane!? You gave him food for a piece of fucking paper!?」

The other officer continues screaming down the peasant's throat, then throws him back into the chair.

「Fuck!」

He exclaims, then takes a few steps away and puts his hands on his hips. He sighs, shaking his lowered head. The other officer sighs as well, and walks up to him.

「Maybe we can try the other villages-」

He suggest, but the peasant raises his finger and chimes in.

「Uh, he mentioned he did this elsewhere, too…」

The scrawny peasant meekly clarifies. The men glare at him, then look at each other with uncomfortable glances, before turning their backs to him.

「…So what the fuck do we do now?」

One of them asks in a hushed tone.

「…Maybe we could try the city. We can take on the garrison, guaranteed. If we take their stores…」

「We can't take a siege. We don't have supplies for that.」

「There won't be a siege.」

He reassures his fellow officers.

「…And what if there will be?」

His colleague asks. He looks aside, shifting around on his feet in discomfort, before looking back at the officer beside him.

「…Then we're fucked. I'm out of ideas, and we're out of options.」

He admits, and shrugs.

「…And what do we tell those fat bastards?」

The other officer asks, looking out through the tiny square window at the fat men in expensive robes, discussing something amongst themselves outside.

「Nothing. Tell them nothing. Just say we have a plan, and we're heading for the city.」

He shrugs and shakes his head lightly as he speaks. The other officer nods, and walks out, waving the other mercenaries to follow. The officer sighs, and glares at the peasant one more time as he exits…

…

「Thirty eight… Thirty nine… Forty.」

Will shakily pushes himself up off the floor, and lets out a large fatigued puff. He sits down on his inn bed, and wipes his forehead of sweat. He moves his aching arms and shoulders around, and massages his bicep a little.

「…Not bad. It's slow, but there's some progress…」

He mumbles to himself, flexing his arm. A tiny bicep appears on his otherwise soft and thin arm. He takes a deep breath, and sighs.

《…Is this really good enough? Am I really trying hard enough?》

He thinks as he looks at his arms, then down at the floor. His room's door swings open.

「'Ey, Will-」

Greaves peeks into the room. His brows immediately furrow, and he squints at Will's bare, skinny torso.

「…Why are you shirtless again?」

He asks with tone full of suspicion.

「What!? Am I not allowed to not wear a shirt in my inn room!? In the room I paid for!?」

Will shouts at Greaves over his shoulder angrily.

「I bet you won't be wearing pants next time, sicko.」

A derisive smirk appears on Greaves's face.

「And what if I don't!? Learn to knock!… What do you want?」

Will shouts at Greaves as he's slyly grinning back at him, then calmly asks.

「We're heading out in a moment. Get your stuff… And your fancy sword that will never find any use, because your girlfriend and I kill everything before it has a chance to get close to you!」

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Greaves looks at Will's sword in its sheath on the table, and starts derisively chuckling, while grinning ear to ear with his eyes squinted.

「She's not my-! Get out! You're lucky I don't have my staff in arm's reach!」

Will shouts, and points at the door. Greaves slowly swings the door shut, cackling heavily.

「…That stupid idiot… Ahhhh, man! I'm angry enough to do a hundred now!」

Will grumbles under his breath, then slams his fist on his thigh. He drops to the floor to attempt another set of pushups.

「One… Two…」

Will starts counting, and the door swings open again.

「Oh, by the way-」

Greaves looks at Will on the floor, and his brows furrow again. He looks to the side.

「Aaliciaaa! He's doing it agaaain!」

「Shut up Greaves!」

Will shoots up to his feet, and grabs onto his staff. He stomps over to the doorway, but then Alicia's face peeks into the doorway with a concerned expression.

「…Will? Are you alright? Is there… Something you want to tell us?」

She asks, blinking as she looks at his bare chest.

「Alicia! Stop believing everything Greaves says! You haven't even seen me do anything!」

Will erratically swings his hands around, pointing them at Greaves as he defends himself.

「…I'm not sure I want to see you do… Whatever it is you do.」

She says, and slinks out of the way for Lian to peek in as well.

「Oh? Why don't you tell us what exactly were you up to then, Will?」

Lian asks with her hand on her hip, and a sly smirk on her face. Will looks down, and adjusts the glasses rapidly sliding off his nose back up.

「It's… It's… None of Greaves's business! Get out of my room, idiot!」

Will exclaims, and slams the door in Greaves's face, almost smashing his fingers, but he retracts his hand in time.

「Welp. I guess he's fine with any food. Let's go order, then.」

Greaves shrugs with his hands and shoulders with a grin, then heads towards the stairs down. Alicia is quick to follow him, and Lian heads towards the steps after a short pause, too. She looks over her shoulder at Will's door with a smirk, then looks down at the ground ahead of her feet, shaking her head with a slight smile…

…

In Osthom, the largest city of the contested region…

The mercenary army stands in front of the closed and barred gates. Straf is staring down at the army from the top of its walls.

「…What?」

The mercenary officer asks, seeing Straf's grinning face on top of the walls.

「…He retreated to the fucking city? Why? He must have known the garrison wouldn't hold- Wait…」

Another officer comments, his eyes widen as a realization dawns over him. He looks to his fellow officer.

「…What if he is the fucking asshole that was going around buying up the food!?」

He points at Straf, and his mercenary colleague's eyes widen as well. They both glance at Straf, then at each other, then at Straf again. Neither of them say anything, and his arm slumps.

「Do you get it yet!? You lost! You may have won the battle, tactically, but you lost the fucking war, because you can't do strategy for shit! You fucked with the wrong map painter! Hahahaha!」

Straf loudly and obnoxiously laughs in all the gathered mercenaries' faces, causing the fat barons to start absolutely fuming. They stomp over to the officers.

「…What the fuck is a map painter?」

「…I don't know, is he a cartographer or something?」

The mercenaries ask themselves, and the robber barons start screaming.

「Why is that buffoon up there!? Why are you not doing anything!? Why are you not assaulting the city!? Do something! What am I paying you for!?」

The fat man shouts, pointing at Straf. Spit flies in the officer's face again, causing him to scowl.

「That's right! This is nothing but a string of defeats so far! I didn't pay to lose! I paid to win!」

Another fat man stomps his foot on the ground in tantrum.

「Spoken like a real pay-to-win loser! You're even fat, too!」

Straf shouts at the fat baron, sneering at him with a massive green.

「Fat!? I am not fat! I'll show you…」

Taking great offense at the statement of an obvious fact, the fat robber baron grinds his teeth and turns to the officer next to him.

「Kill him! Kill him now! I want his head on a platter! Order your men in, or you're not getting paid! Now! I am not fat!」

The fat man points his finger at Straf with a shaky hand, screaming in a grating, high-pitched voice into the officer's ear and spitting in his face as he shouts. The officer's face snaps to the fat man, and the baron's head immediately recoils out of shock.

「Oh yes, you fucking are. You worthless blob of fat shit.」

The officer growls in the fat man's face, wiping the spit off his own.

「Wh- What!? How dare you!?-」

「Shut the fuck up!」

The officer screams back, and a shocked expression appears on the robber baron's face. The second baron is stunned as well, and the rest of the fat men is visibly disturbed. Even the mercenary officers are looking at each other, gauging their reactions.

「You stuff yourself full of chicken, pork, beef, while my men eat stale rations… That's fine, we are soldiers, that's a soldier's life…」

The man keeps grimacing angrily, walking into the fat man as he backpedals away from him.

「You order us to fight in awful conditions, where any reasonable employer would back out and try again later. That's fine, sometimes time is of the essence…」

The officer continues naming his grievances, and the baron continues backpedaling away in fear.

「My men fight dutifully, bravely, like true professionals, despite each and single one of us knowing the reasonable thing would be to tell you to go fuck yourself, and leave. And then you berate us and say we didn't do our job…」

The fat man stumbles, almost falling over. The officer keeps snarling with eyes full of hate.

「And now, after doing everything we could to salvage this awful situation, you make unreasonable demands of us, and threaten to not pay us?」

Thud!

The officer shoves the fat man with immense force, and the baron falls over on his back, shielding himself with his arms.

「You fat piece of shit! You should be thankful I have enough professionalism to not put your head on a fucking pike!」

The officer screams down at the baron, pointing his finger at him. Other mercenaries mumble and grumble something amongst themselves. He squats down next to the terrified fat man's face, glaring down at him.

「The only fucking thing you have going for you, is your gold mines. You have no grasp of military affairs, and you think you can conquer the fucking kingdom? With what? Gold? Gold takes you only so far. Men like us can only do so much. Your fat fucking neck can't string two words of good diplomacy together.」

The officer's voice calms, but his face is still furiously calm, and his eyes still glare down at the cowering baron with pure wrath.

「We're out. Building siege engines takes a week at the least, you fat sack of shit. You are free to build a catapult yourself, and smash the walls with your fat body. I'm going back north, wars there are much more straightforward. Go fuck yourself.」

He stands up, and turns to his mercenary band.

「Men! We are leaving! This contract is worthless now!」

He exclaims, and waves his arm for them to follow. The mercenaries follow him in a marching column.

「And fuck you too! Fuck your cowardly sleight-of-hand tactics!」

He points at Straf, who chuckles in response, and departs with his mercenaries.

「Thanks for playing! Thanks for admitting you got outplayed!」

Straf shouts back, still chuckling.

「Gilded Swords!… We're out of here!」

Another officer announces, and departs with his mercenary company.

「Steadfast Company!…」

Another officer shouts, then another, then another, then another…

「Wait! I can't get up! Someone help me up! Someone! A gold coin for the one to help me up!」

The fat man on the floor shouts at the men leaving, but they all ignore him with scornful glances. After a moment, only the handful of fat men are left standing alone, sans one, who is still on the ground.

He manages with gargantuan effort to roll on his fat belly, then rise to his knees and unsteadily get back up, out of breath. The fat men look at each other, then at Straf above. They start running away in multiple directions, stopping after a few steps to catch their breaths. Then, they run again, and the cycle continues until they disappear behind foliage, or a hill.

「Well… That was kind of easy.」

Straf shrugs, and looks at the officer beside him. He blinks at Straf, speechless and in awe.

「Can you handle the rest? Recapturing the fatties' land, their gold mines, so on and so on… Or do I have to babysit the entire army by myself?」

Straf asks, pointing his broken hand below, down the battlements.

「No, of course, Commander Vindict! You can count on us!」

The officer stands at attention, and salutes Straf.

「Cool. By the way, get all the taskmen to show up at the gate, I have a few words for them.」

Straf says, as he turns away from the officer to walk down the walls.

「Yes sir! I'll get right on it!」

The officer shouts at Straf's back, and runs off to find the taskmen…