"They are..."
When the scene outside the carriage came into view, not just Riezel, but even Gerald and Fanny looked shocked.
Because right in front of the carriage, a large group of people was blocking the main road.
Dressed in tattered clothes, covered in dirt and ash, and looking extremely unkempt, they seemed more like homeless vagrants than bandits.
In fact, they weren't much different from actual vagrants.
At this moment, these people were kneeling in front of the carriage, bowing their heads repeatedly as they begged loudly.
"Please! Give us something to eat!"
"We're begging you!"
"We haven't had anything for days!"
"Just a little! Just a little! Please, give us some food!"
"I-I don't care what happens to me, but my child!"
In no time, desperate cries and pleas filled the air, overwhelming the entire carriage, making Lizbeth in the driver's seat look flustered and Riezel, Gerald, and Fanny inside the carriage stunned.
"Refugees?"
Riezel's brows furrowed deeply.
Gerald didn't look much better, his face filled with doubt and unease.
"I've heard before that, on top of the rampant bandits, Mavros Territory is full of refugees struggling to survive, but I didn't think there would be this many..."
Gerald's words made Riezel's brows furrow even more.
Honestly, he hadn't expected to run into a large group of refugees right on the main road and to make matters worse, there were a lot of them—if he counted the crying infants, there had to be over a hundred.
Needless to say, such a number was even more than the bandits they had encountered before.
Seeing that the carriage stopped instead of going around them, the refugees seemed to grasp onto some kind of hope, making their cries and pleas grow even more intense.
Hearing their cries and pleas, Fanny, whose small face was filled with pity, wasn't the only one struggling, as even Riezel, who was usually composed, felt uncomfortable.
"Mavros Territory doesn't provide any aid for these refugees?"
Riezel blurted out this question almost instinctively.
"How are they supposed to?" Gerald let out a sigh as if expressing his own frustration. "At first, the Mavros family tried to help, but as time went on and the number of refugees grew, even a marquis family like them couldn't support all of them. In the end, they had no choice but to leave them be."
It wasn't that they didn't want to help—they simply couldn't, which was precisely what made this territory's situation so difficult.
"So, the number of refugees has grown so much that even the lord of this territory can't handle it anymore?" Riezel murmured to himself.
"It couldn't be helped since this place borders an enemy kingdom that's at war with ours..." Gerald responded, his tone heavy with emotion. "Even though the main battlefield between the two kingdoms is in a neutral region, Reiburg has been sending people to infiltrate this territory and cause trouble just to gain the upper hand."
Just like how in the world of Overlord, the Slane Theocracy was willing to use innocent villagers near E-Rantel as bait to lure out Gazef Stronoff, slaughtering them mercilessly, Reiburg had no qualms about sabotaging this territory to target the Mavros family, making the local lord's life a living nightmare.
However, unlike the world of Overlord, this world heavily relied on magic in warfare.
In the world of Overlord, magic casters were a minority, and wars were still mainly fought by warriors and knights, but in the Akasha Continent, magicians frequently appeared on battlefields, casting militarized wide-area ranged magic to bombard enemy troops and territories.
Especially those Tactical-Class and Strategic-Class Magicians—just one of their large-scale magic spells could drastically alter the terrain.
For this reason, destroying enemy lands was ridiculously easy.
If not for the fact that big cities had systems to detect magical energy fluctuations and defend against large-scale offensive magic, people everywhere would have to live in constant fear of being wiped out by an enemy magician's attack at any moment.
Naturally, only big cities had the means to maintain such defenses, while small towns and villages simply couldn't afford that level of protection.
As a result, in this border territory, poor people who couldn't live in the big cities inevitably got caught up in the aftermath of war—losing their homes and their families or being forced to flee, eventually becoming homeless refugees.
"..."
Upon hearing Gerald's explanation, Riezel couldn't help but fall into silence.
What came to his mind was the royal capital, Yeluvia, the dazzling Hydromel Restaurant, and the Royal Market that catered exclusively to nobles and wealthy merchants.
It could be said that the lives of the elites in Yeluvia were nothing short of extravagant—at least, that was how it seemed when compared to these refugees.
And yet, because their wealth and luxury still hadn't satisfied them, they had stupidly split into two factions, constantly scheming for power, never sparing a thought for the fact that their country was still at war.
If they just paid a little attention to the refugees at the border, if they redirected even a fraction of the energy they wasted on infighting, couldn't they come up with a proper relief system?
He understood well that a marquis family alone couldn't provide aid to so many refugees, but could a country ranked among the top four in the Akasha Continent really not afford to?
Eventually, the more Riezel thought about it, the more disgusted he felt toward the elites in the royal capital.
Not that he had ever liked nobles or the royal family in the first place.
"U-Um..."
Just as Riezel sank deeper into his thoughts and Gerald found himself at a loss for words, Fanny spoke up hesitantly.
"Th-They're still crying... still bowing... I saw so many people knocking their heads on the ground so hard that they bled and... there were also little kids, really little kids, crying about being hungry... Can't we... help them?"
Fanny's words pulled Riezel back to reality.
"Young Lady..."
Gerald instinctively wanted to stop Fanny.
It couldn't be helped.
It was important to know that the refugees were not just ten or twenty people but over a hundred.
If they stepped in to help, the cost would be huge.
Sure, for a high-ranking noble, such an amount wouldn't be much, but feeding over a hundred refugees would still require a considerable sum.
If Fanny asked her father for help, that would be understandable, but making such a request for a total stranger who had merely saved her life?
It went without saying—that was just audacious.
Understanding this, Gerald prepared to talk Fanny out of it, but before he could say anything, Riezel spoke first.
"Lizbeth." Riezel called Lizbeth, who was in the driver's seat. "How much food do we have left?"
Lizbeth, who was panicking behind the reins and unsure of what to do, immediately looked as if she had just seen a savior the moment she heard Riezel's voice.
"A-A lot!" Lizbeth quickly replied. "Elder Sister Mari—Miss Marilyn prepared enough food for Master and me to last several months, but since it's meant for travel, most of it is stuff like jerky, dried fish, and flatbread, things that are easy to carry."
"Got it." Riezel nodded calmly. "In that case, take out some of them and distribute them to the refugees."
"Understood, Master!"
Lizbeth, who was more than happy to do so, immediately jumped down from the driver's seat and ran to the storage rack in the back of the carriage to get the food.
"I'll help too!"
Gerald, seeing that Riezel was willing to aid the refugees, eagerly jumped out of the carriage as well to help Lizbeth.
"Th-Thank you."
Fanny, sitting across from Riezel, expressed her gratitude and the fear in her eyes lessened quite a bit.
Clearly, in the heart of this sheltered noble girl, Riezel had already earned himself a 'good guy' card.
"No need to thank me. Even if you hadn't said anything, I was planning to help them anyway."
Riezel spoke calmly while shaking his head before pulling back the curtain once more and looking outside.
He saw Lizbeth and Gerald handing out jerky, dried fish, and flatbread taken from the carriage's storage rack, distributing them bit by bit to the refugees.
Meanwhile, the refugees bowed their heads in gratitude before immediately devouring the food like they hadn't eaten in days.
Lizbeth even handed out some cow's milk and goat's milk to a few women carrying infants, earning their tearful thanks.
Eventually, the previous cries and pleas quieted down a little, making Riezel feel somewhat better.
Once the refugees had been provided for, Riezel and the others got back on the road, heading toward the nearest city.
However, soon after, it became clear that Riezel's luxurious carriage stood out way too much on the main road, as they ended up encountering wave after wave of bandit attacks, along with refugees blocking the way to beg.
Seeing a lavish carriage with only a ridiculously pretty little girl driving it and not a single guard or knight in sight, the bandits couldn't help but get ideas and moved in to attack.
As for the refugees, they didn't overthink things—they simply saw a fancy carriage and noticed it lacked the usual entourage of nobles or merchants who would always drive them away, so they rushed forward to beg.
Riezel's way of dealing with these people was simple and straightforward.
If they were bandits, he crushed them without exception—eliminating the ruthless leaders while sparing the rest. Following Gerald's suggestion, instead of killing them all, he captured them, planning to take them to the nearest city and sell them off, forcing them to atone as slaves.
If they were refugees, he provided relief by letting Lizbeth and Gerald distribute food to them, and sometimes, they even handed out equipment and warm clothing taken from the captured bandits.
As they continued on like this, the number of weapons, horses, and captured bandits in Riezel's carriage kept increasing, while their food and clothing supplies dwindled.
Before long, Lizbeth, looking troubled, came to find Riezel.
"Master, our food isn't enough..."
Truthfully, this was a very normal situation—an expected outcome.
Along the way, not only had Riezel helped countless refugees, but the defeated bandits also hadn't carried much food on them, so over time, the supply had dwindled.
"Maybe... we should just give up?"
"I agree. Sir Riezel has been merciful enough."
Fanny and Gerald spoke up when they learned about the dwindling supply.
Riezel, however, looked at the refugees kneeling outside, some of them even elderly and children, deep in thought.
Pondering for a moment, he then came up with an idea.
"Wait here for a moment."
Leaving these words behind, Riezel stood up and chanted magic.
"Greater Teleportation."
In the next moment, Riezel disappeared from his spot, scaring Fanny and Gerald.
"Di-Disappeared?!"
"What's going on...?"
Fanny cried out, while Gerald's eyes were filled with disbelief.
"Eh..."
Even Lizbeth was stunned, looking around in confusion as if trying to spot where Riezel had gone.
===
At this moment, Riezel had already been using teleportation magic all the way and had arrived high above a mountain range.
"Is this the place?"
Riezel took out a map and checked his current location.
He was now looking for places specially marked with red circles on the map, which were meant to indicate danger.
As Riezel read the map, he recalled what Yuri had said to him.
"In the area near the royal capital and in some prosperous territories within the kingdom, the king and some lords of the territories would send out their knightly orders to patrol. Sometimes, they would also hire mercenaries or hunters to regularly clear out monsters that appeared in these thriving areas, ensuring the safety of main roads and travel routes."
"But the more remote and borderland territories are, the more monsters roam freely. Some places are even outright monster habitats, where sightings are a common occurrence."
"Mavros Territory is one of those territories."
"Over there, not only are there plenty of bandits and refugees, but monsters are just as abundant."
Recalling Yuri's words, Riezel looked at the map and realized that the dangerous areas marked with red circles within Mavros Territory were far more numerous than those in the surrounding territories.
Naturally, the place Riezel had arrived at was one of these marked dangerous areas.
*Whoosh!*
After confirming that he had arrived at the correct spot, Riezel dove straight into the dangerous mountain range, a place most people would avoid.
*ROOOAAARRR—!!!*
*ROOOAAARRR—!!!*
*BOOOM—!!!*
Soon, the sounds of monster roars echoed through the mountains, followed by a loud explosion, and then, the area fell silent again.
===
"Master!"
"Sir Riezel!"
"S-Sir Riezel!"
At the same time, beside the luxurious carriage, Lizbeth, Gerald, and Fanny shouted loudly as they searched for Riezel, ignoring the confused expressions of the refugees.
"Master! Where are you?!"
Lizbeth seemed a bit anxious, her eyes even starting to tear up, looking like a pure-hearted girl who had just lost her lover as she shouted. Her pitiful expression left the hungry refugees staring in awe, as though they were mesmerized.
However, soon enough, they were awed in a completely different way.
"I'm here."
As Riezel's voice resounded, everyone suddenly felt as if the sky had turned dark before a large shadow gradually appeared on the ground.
Everyone immediately turned to look, raising their heads to the sky.
When they looked up, everyone, including Lizbeth, Gerald, and Fanny, was dumbfounded.
Riezel was descending from the sky, slowly flying down from mid-air.
In his hands, he was carrying an enormous demon boar.
*BOOM!*
Riezel threw the demon boar harshly onto the ground, causing the earth to tremble.
"I brought the food back."
Riezel spoke casually, leaving everyone present speechless.