4. News of Battle

Rudra sat on a stone on the side of the dirt road. The corpses of the wolves were lying down and blood was spilling like oil from the container from the corpses. The ground around the corpses had become blood red. The iron smell permeated the surrounding.

He looked at the screen notification of completing the mission, which he got after they killed all the wolves. He checked the notification, and the rewards of the mission were sent to the Inventory. He quickly checked his inventory, all the reward items were put in one slot written as mission reward.

Rudra was excited, he stopped himself from opening the mission reward with great effort. At this time, the horseman who was panting caught some breath, drank some water and came to Rudra.

"Thank you, Sir, for saving us from this precarious situation. If you ever need my help in anything, I will do it for you and I am sorry if I was rude before." The horseman slightly bowed.

"Don't worry, we are both humans, if humans don't help humans what will happen to humanity. It is our responsibility to help each other." Rudra said while trying to be some holy person filled with humanity who came to the mortal world to salvage the world.

At this time, The other man owner of the carriage also came and spoke. "Thank you for your help, sorry we were rude before."

"Don't worry, I understand your concerns now a days there are many bandits who try to look weak and ambush people. On the contrary, it was nice of you to stop and give me directions to the Royal Capital City, otherwise, I would be lost or wandered around here. By the way, my name is Rudra, full name is Rudra Pratap. I am a merchant but my carriage was surrounded by beasts, so I had to run leaving my carriage."

"Sorry for the late introduction, My name is Ram Herd, I am a merchant and this is Bertol, he is my guard for the past 5 years. He was a knight in the army of a certain noble, he was notorious for being very bloody, Bertol was fed up with battles and that noble's cruel rule so he resigned from the army and started to wander around, by chance he met me, I offered him the offer to become my Bodyguard and he accepted." Merchant Ram quickly introduced himself and his bodyguard.

"Good brother Ram, you don't need to apologize. Well, it is good to meet a loyal person in this world and on top of that this era. Well, Did you eat something?" Rudra asked as he was slightly hungry.

"No brother, Did you?" Merchant Ram quickly shook his head.

"No, Then let's eat some Wolf meat. It is fresh." Rudra said while pointing towards the wolf's corpses.

At that, both the merchant and his knight nodded. Bertol was experienced in skinning and separating the animal meat. Everything about the wolf was valuable. He first drained the blood and then skinned the wolf, afterwards he removed the eatable part from the wolf. He barbequed the meat on the fire. Soon, each of them had a piece of meat in their hands.

"Brother Ram, where are you going?" Rudra asked while biting on the meat.

"We are going to Royal Capital City this time," Ram replied Rudra while eating.

"To trade? But I don't see many carts or something. Ah, if you don't want to say, don't say, I just asked casually." Rudra enquired about their trip's goal.

"No no, it's not a big secret. The thing is do you know that there was a battle recently?" Merchant Ram first asked Rudra before answering.

"Uhh, The battle with strange beings and beasts, right?" Rudra guessed and answered in vague, didn't told anything about Orcs. Strange beings could be regarded as different countries people or beasts can be called ferocious animals.

"Yes, The battle with green strange beings. Recently there was a battle where the King gathered most of the nobles and told them to bring some knights and soldiers to make an army. The king has gathered an army total of 400 knights and more than 1500 soldiers. There was a brutal battle between the green beings and King's gathered army. No one knows from where those green beings came, it is said that one green being was equal to 5 soldiers. There were more than 300 green beings in total."

"So powerful, those green beings were so powerful!" Rudra tried to act like he was very surprised.

"Yes, The battle lasted for 2 days. The King's army was the final victor but they barely defeated the green beings. Even if the King's army massacred every green being, but only 400 beings killed more than 800 people."

"What the fuck! So many people died!" This time Rudra was genuinely shocked. He was from modern times, where most deaths were due to old age, disease or accidents. But he was shocked to hear 800 people died. He shuddered after thinking of the battle. He heard of many battles in the history of India. In fact, the number of battles in the history of India was uncountable. But he was not present there at that time.

"Yes, it was this brutal battle. Upper nobles didn't go to battle themselves, but a large number of barons and viscounts had to go in person. The soldier's casualties were most from 800 casualties 600 were soldiers. The number of casualties of knights was around 150. And rest 60 to 70 were nobles. You will think that 60 to 70 is not much in front of 800 casualties. right."

Rudra nodded his head in agreement.

"But it is not, you can understand it like this there are only around 120 barons in the whole kingdom and 50 to 60 barons died in the battle." Merchant Ram said to Rudra solemnly.

"It is a lot, Half of the barons are killed then there is no one to run half of the kingdom." Rudra said in shock.

"Yes, as a large number of Barons were killed in battle and around 25-30 of them didn't have any heir. So to fill their vacancy King has started to accept gifts and money in exchange for Territory and the title of Barony. So I am going to try my luck whether I can get a piece of territory and title of Baron." Merchant Ram finally told Rudra his purpose for the journey to the Royal Capital City.

"What! he can do that? I mean he will receive gifts and money openly in exchange for territory and title." Rudra read many books on history, but he didn't find a single detail about this. Many kings will provide territories and titles in exchange for merits but this.

"Well, it's normal. First, the king is a fool, greedy and stupid. Secondly, if he raises the title of knights to a baron, he will not get anything and knights don't have anything to give to the king."

As they were talking they finished their meal. They stood up, cleaned and packed the things.

"Brother Rudra, how about you go with us if you are going to the same city?" Merchant Ram asked Rudra to go with him.

"I won't be trouble to you right?" Rudra asked with a slightly worried face on the surface, but he was eager to accept Merchant Ram's offer.

"No trouble brother no trouble." Merchant Ram quickly denied it.

"Ok brother, then I thank you in advance."

Then the two of them climbed into the carriage. Rudra looked around in the carriage. The carriage was crudely made, just fitted directly, there was no polishing. Bertol ride on his horse. He started to ride ahead and the carriage started to ride behind him.

Rudra was experiencing the bumpiest and most uncomfortable ride of his life. There was no shocker used in the carriage so the pothole or up and down of the road can be directly felt inside of the carriage. There was no bearing, so the speed was very slow as compared to advanced carriages.

"Brother Ram is the news of the king distributing territories and titles for money gifts really true?" Rudra again asked for confirmation.

"Yes brother, it is 100 % true." Ram replied with confidence.

"Then, brother Ram if, I am saying If I want to get a territory and become Baron, Can I become by giving King money and gifts?"

"Yes, for money 75 to 100 Gold coins are sufficient, I prepared 110 Gold for the territory and title and brought 10 gold coins just in case of emergency and If you want to exchange for gifts, the gifts should be unique or in large amounts."

"OK, Thank you, brother Ram. I will also apply for nobility with you tomorrow." Rudra told Merchant Ram as he knew no one in the capital and has no contact.

"Most welcome, we can go together there."

Merchant Ram and Rudra then talked about all kinds of topics in the carriage. After two hours of travelling, they reached near the Royal capital city. Rudra stuck out his neck out of the window. He saw a shadow of the city in the distance.

As they came near, the picture of the city became clear. After seeing the city Rudra's face looked excited.