Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!

Chapter 294: That’s Because I’m a Linguistic Genius

My father-in-law was furious that I’d been excluded from the interception force, but Count Euz and the Count of Belfort had probably refused to provide cavalry support for the purpose of keeping Marquis Offenburg in check.

There’s absolutely no way those two are kind-hearted enough to refuse cavalry support purely for my sake. Count Euz is a wily old serpent, and the Count of Belfort is a man whose thoughts are impossible to read.

Marquis Offenburg probably felt he’d been subjected to pointless pressure, but the combined cavalry under Benjamin’s direct command had already departed. Summoning me was nothing more than damage control after the fact.

The marquis said to me with a shudder,

"To think that merely leaving you off the interception force would cause this much uproar."

"It seems I had more influence than I realized."

"I didn’t exclude you on purpose. There are many knights who haven’t yet earned any merit, so I arranged the formation to give them a chance. I never expected to run into this kind of backlash."

Ruler of the north or not, when the princes put their minds to joining forces, he couldn’t withstand them. In particular, the western princes and my father-in-law linking arms to pressure the marquis posed a serious threat even to him.

Relations between the marquis and me were strained at the moment, but politics is ever-shifting. Yesterday’s enemy becomes today’s friend all the time, so depending on our interests, things could turn friendly again easily enough.

"Take the remaining cavalry and patrol the areas around Radensdorf."

"Just patrol? I’m not joining the interception?"

"If support becomes necessary, I’ll send you a messenger."

A mere rear-area patrol unit, but I suppose it was the compromise he’d landed on after some genuine deliberation.

Marquis Offenburg soothed me in a considerably softened tone.

"Sir Streit. I still wish to remain on friendly terms with you."

"As do I. So long as you stop standing in the way of my honors."

Marquis Offenburg deliberated for a moment, then nodded. He had accepted the political bargain I’d offered. There was nothing I could do about the princes, but I could get my father-in-law to withdraw his pressure.

The princes were one thing, but with the grand duke’s power now ascendant, even a marquis couldn’t afford to ignore my father-in-law and the duchy’s army, so he’d be grateful even for a mere reduction in the pressure.

"Good. If you cooperate, I will withdraw my opposition as well."

"I’ll try to talk my father-in-law down."

"Please, rein in that father-in-law of yours. I thought my eardrums would burst."

I concluded the agreement with the marquis, wry smile and all, then headed straight to my father-in-law. He and Michael were in the thick of preparing the duchy’s army for deployment, and the place looked like a battlefield in its own right.

"That damned northern whelp, snubbing my son-in-law! That’s an insult to the War Minister’s family and the royal house! Son-in-law, I’ll attach 500 duchy cavalry to you right this instant!"

"If you give me all the cavalry, how will you counter the enemy main force’s cavalry?"

"You can just shove a halberd up Konrad’s rear end!"

Good grief, he really lives up to his reputation as a hot-blooded general. Michael looked like he was silently begging me to please stop his father. With that much energy, the man will probably still be going strong when Michael himself is old and gray.

But wait, the duchy’s army only had 500 cavalry left?

I’d heard they had close to 1,000.

"Brother-in-law, during the battle against the duke’s army, we were ambushed by their Hungarian mercenary cavalry, and we lost a tremendous number of our horsemen. Less than half remain now. So there isn’t much cavalry to spare for you."

"Then what about the Hungarian mercenaries you hired?"

"They fight well enough, I’ll give them that. They didn’t hesitate to fight their own countrymen either."

It was an ironic situation—cavalry nearly wiped out by Hungarians being rescued by Hungarians—which left the standing of the Hungarian mercenaries within the duchy’s army rather awkward. Michael, though, seemed to have plenty of complaints about them.

"And I swear, the demands never end with them. The problem is we can’t communicate."

"I thought you had an interpreter? Is there a problem?"

"That guy’s a fraud, I’m telling you. Ask him anything and he just rambles."

Interpreting is no easy task, and one bad mistranslation can garble everything completely. Michael said the Hungarian mercenaries seemed to be demanding something, but since he couldn’t figure out exactly what, he was just leaving them be.

"For now, lend me 100 duchy cavalry and the Hungarian mercenaries."

"The cavalry I can lend you, but the Hungarians will be hard to control since you can barely communicate with them."

Hard, my foot. I’ll just buy the Hungarian language pack.

The points I’d accumulated through the war had passed 80,000.

[Purchasing Hungarian Language Pack]

[5,000 points deducted]

"If language is the problem, I’ll simply learn their language."

"Brother-in-law, a language isn’t something you can just pick up like buying goods at a market. Learning French alone nearly killed me, and you want Hungarian? Why would you learn such a useless language?"

I’m learning it because it’s useful.

Knowing a language comes in handy in all sorts of ways.

And I don’t even have to struggle to learn it.

"Picking up a language doesn’t take me very long."

"Monster or not, language is a different beast entirely, you know?"

"That’s because I’m a linguistic genius."

"Hahaha! That’s the funniest joke I’ve heard yet!"

Michael reacted as if it were preposterous, but regrettably for him, the system really had turned me into a linguistic genius. No grueling study required. I just purchase languages from the system shop.

Like coffee from a vending machine.

In any case, at my earnest persuasion, my father-in-law reluctantly withdrew his pressure on the marquis. Euz and Belfort, on the other hand, kept ratcheting up the pressure and even dragged the Count of Essenbach into it.

They picked fights with Marquis Offenburg at every turn, so with their constant squabbling, headquarters didn’t have a single quiet day. Watching them carry on like that with the Bavarian army practically at our doorstep was beyond absurd.

While I assembled the Gale Knights on the parade ground, the Hungarian mercenaries Michael sent over joined us. A bureaucrat assigned as interpreter came along with them. He seemed quite proud of having been selected for the role.

I summoned the Hungarian mercenaries’ representative and the interpreter.

"Hunisch, at your service, my lord. It’s an honor to meet you!"

"Good to meet you. So you’re the Hungarian interpreter?"

"To be precise, I speak East German."

"Hm? East German? Then what about Hungarian?"

"This beast here speaks a little East German, so I’ve been interpreting through that."

...So in other words, the Hungarian mercenary spoke a little East German, and the bureaucrat serving as interpreter also spoke East German, and that was the language they’d been communicating in all this time?

The interpreter would have been better off learning French.

I’d already purchased the Hungarian language pack, so I had no need for an interpreter.

"Sorry, but you may go."

"Pardon? Then how will you converse with this beast?"

"Temporary or not, he’s my subordinate, and you dare degrade him as a beast? Is your patron a prince or something?"

"M-my apologies! I’ll watch my tongue!"

It’s true the Hungarians weren’t treated well, but whatever the circumstances, they’d come under my command, which made them my men. If my subordinates are beasts, does that make me the chief of beasts?

"What’s your name?"

When I asked in Hungarian, both the Hungarian mercenary’s and the interpreter’s eyes went wide. My command of the language was as fluent as a native’s. This is why the language pack is broken. If something like this had existed in the modern world, learning English would’ve been a breeze.

Ironically, in this era, English carries little weight.

French and Latin were the common tongues of Europe.

"I am a descendant of the eagle, Szolnok Barosi."

"Szolnok, is it? That’s a unique name."

"My name is Barosi. Szolnok is my family name."

Huh? Szolnok was the surname? Unlike the European style, Hungarians put the family name first and the given name after. They say it’s one of Hungary’s old traditions, though the trend was shifting toward the European style.