Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!

Chapter 300: An Uninvited Crown

The quest was complete, and the points, rewards, and Family Prestige score rolled in, but I had no time to pay attention to any of it. I felt as if I’d been abandoned alone in the middle of a knife-edge standoff.

With the main forces taking the stage, the cavalry made their exit, but I ended up watching the Grand Duke of Beren and the Grand Duke of Bavaria come face to face from the very center of that stage.

To put it simply, I missed my chance to slip away.

Viscount Wittenfeld struggled to his feet and paid his respects to the Grand Duke of Bavaria. I also paid my respects to the grand duke and withdrew. No, I tried to withdraw.

The look in the grand duke’s eyes was a signal to stay put.

So I didn’t move a single step.

The only ones on our side who had come here with the grand duke were Marquis Offenburg, my father-in-law, and a handful of guards. Likewise, the Grand Duke of Bavaria brought two nobles and a small escort.

My first impression of the Grand Duke of Bavaria was that he was disgustingly handsome.

The charisma radiating from his tall frame and sharply defined features was tremendous. Grand Duke Karlus is handsome too, but he can’t compare to Grand Duke Konrad. Grand Duke Konrad looked at the viscount and asked,

"Viscount Wittenfeld. Unless I’m mistaken, weren’t we winning?"

"My deepest apologies. We were defeated by the Gale Knight."

"The Gale Knight? You’re that knight from the rumors?"

Grand Duke Konrad asked, eyeing me with interest.

The sudden attention was uncomfortable, but I answered calmly.

"Yes. My name is Wolfgang Ritter von Streit."

"I thought all of Beren’s cavalry were worthless, but there was at least one man among them. Where has Gauss gone? Why don’t I see that hulking frame of his?"

"Your Highness! Sir Edelux was killed by the Gale Knight!"

"To think a knight ranked among the five finest in Bavaria is dead."

He certainly was a knight worthy of ranking in the top five. The man I was before I took up the halberd would have struggled against him. The man I am now has grown exponentially stronger.

"Konrad, do you intend to waste time with idle chatter?"

"Karlus, you scheming snake. I got the message from that gift you sent, loud and clear."

It seemed our grand duke had pulled some kind of trick on Grand Duke Konrad, but the two grand dukes said nothing more about it. From this moment, with the great armies of Beren and Bavaria facing each other, the real negotiations began.

"How about you turn around and go back to Bavaria now?"

"The moment you pulled in the count palatine of the Palatinate, did you really think I wouldn’t cross the border?"

"Pulled in? The count palatine’s eldest son approached me first."

Palatinate Wittelsbach? I had no idea what they were talking about, but it looked like a scene of international politics, grand dukes locked in dispute. The marquis and my father-in-law stayed silent. Am I even supposed to be standing here?

"Does that cunning old fox know about that?"

"However much he’s wasting away, he’s still the Empire’s count palatine. Of course he knows."

Grandfather said something like that back then: that a man younger than himself was the one wasting away.

There was a strong chance the events to come were tied to our neighboring family. Above all, for the divided Wittelsbachs, the balance of power could shift entirely depending on how they drew in the adjacent Altringens.

"You think I don’t see through your scheming? The count palatine sent his eldest son, no doubt."

"The Handsome King of Wittelsbach has a surprisingly quick mind."

The grand dukes sneered back and forth at each other.

Why not just settle it with a good honest fistfight instead?

"Take your hands off the count palatine. Do that, and I’ll withdraw my army."

"Didn’t my knight just smash the Handsome King’s cavalry to pieces? You shouldn’t be worrying about withdrawing. You should be worrying about making it home alive. The Gale Knight is a wolf that never lets go of prey once he’s sunk his teeth into it."

"Hmph, a mere wolf isn’t even a mouthful for a lion."

Stop growling while you look at me. I couldn’t tell whether this was a negotiation or just two men bluffing for dominance, but neither seemed to have any intention of resuming the battle and fighting it out to the end.

Still, the conversation between the Grand Duke of Bavaria demanding hands off the count palatine and Grand Duke Karlus trying to gloss over everything produced no common ground whatsoever. Meanwhile, my father-in-law asked the marquis,

"Wasn’t Strasbourg the region where Wittelsbach and Offenburg interests collide?"

"Palatinate Wittelsbach, to be precise. It has nothing to do with Bavaria."

Offenburg and Württemberg were old rivals, and the family ruling that ducal territory was Palatinate Wittelsbach. That must be why the marquis didn’t object when the grand duke said he would negotiate with the Grand Duke of Bavaria.

If the other party had been the count palatine, the marquis would have been the first to protest. But ever since learning it was Palatinate Wittelsbach that had extended a hand to Grand Duke Karlus, his expression had soured.

"Still, of all people, I never thought the Palatinate lot would approach Altringen."

"Marquis, are you doubting His Highness the grand duke now? Fix your face."

"Has a landless grand duke loyalist like you ever once considered the position of a grand prince?"

"I know nothing of the position of a grand prince who shoved a pack of amateurs into the interception force and ran it into the ground."

"One day I’ll drag you down from the War Minister’s seat."

"Hmph, if not for your son-in-law, you’d have been utterly disgraced."

My father-in-law and the marquis ended their quarrel snarling at each other. Beren’s greatest weakness is internal division. Every nation suffers the same problem, but in Beren it is uniquely severe.

And it’s probably all because of that man with the Conspiracy disposition.

Maybe things will change a little once the crown prince, with his Justice disposition, takes the throne?

"Your vassals dare to bicker loudly even at an occasion like this."

"They weren’t exactly interrupting anything. What’s the problem?"

"Do you, as royalty, know nothing of decorum and order?"

"It’s that stiffness of yours that gets the Wittelsbachs called boring Germans."

It just kept getting better. The quarrel between the marquis and my father-in-law had now spread to the two grand dukes. Was there really any need to drag out this tedious back-and-forth in front of both watching armies?

But it turned out there really was a reason for stalling. In the distance, a group of horses and riders was approaching, flying a white flag and the banner of some family. Hm? That’s a double-headed eagle.

Grand Duke Konrad furrowed his brow.

"What is that now? Karlus, you’re not trying to pull something, are you?"

"Pull something? This is my goodwill, arranging an occasion that benefits you as well."

"Even your nonsense is delivered at a masterful level."

But then the noble behind Grand Duke Konrad spoke in shock.

"Y-Your Highness! That crest is Habsburg!"

"What? Why are the Habsburgs here?"

Only then did Grand Duke Konrad notice the crest.

While Grand Duke Konrad stood dumbfounded, the Grand Duke of Beren leisurely welcomed the late-arriving guest. There was a boy in extraordinarily lavish attire, attended by a knight in magnificent armor and a noble.

Through the Manager Scouter, I confirmed his astonishing identity. He was the crown prince of the Holy Roman Empire, the rightful heir of Habsburg, and Duke of Tyrol, Maximilian. Why would the imperial crown prince suddenly appear?

"I never expected Your Imperial Highness to take on the mediation personally."

"It has been a while, Grand Duke of Beren. I happened to be visiting Tyrol when I received your request for mediation. Does my involvement displease you, perhaps?"

"On the contrary, this works out well. Doesn’t it, Konrad?"

Grand Duke Konrad couldn’t hide his displeasure. As far as I know, the Wittelsbach family itself is hostile to the Habsburgs. Perhaps that’s why Maximilian remained relaxed from start to finish.

Probably because he holds the upper hand.