Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!

Chapter 303: The Ink of Empires

The grand duke looked at the marquis and said,

"Well, Marquis? Isn’t this level of insight sufficient?"

"Hmm, indeed. He turned out to be a knight who knows how to think on a grand scale."

The marquis swallowed a groan and reluctantly conceded.

The grand duke wore the expression of a man who had just cleared one hurdle.

Marquis Offenburg worried about the royal house’s power growing excessive, and at the same time, he didn’t welcome the idea of me—a mere knight by origin—ascending to the sacred rank of prince.

He acknowledged my combat ability but pointed out my lack of any record in governance or diplomacy. Nobles tend to view knights as ignorant brutes, and the marquis held that same prejudice against me.

It’s the same logic as acknowledging someone’s talent while looking down on them for never going past high school. Well, it’s true that the majority of knights are ignorant. Knights who could read were rare, and far from having manners, most were outright ruffians.

Without chivalry, they’d be no different from bands of brigands.

Why else would robber knights and wandering knights cause so much trouble?

But not all high nobles are smart, either. There are plenty of cases like Count Baschurten of the Geerhilt family, who chased skirts until his younger brother stabbed him in the back and utterly ruined him.

And there were countless nobles destroyed by greed, unable to see what was right in front of them.

The nobles who joined the interception force without knowing their own limits are exactly that sort.

They got swept away by the Bavarian vanguard, and I saved some of them, yet aside from a small handful, most refused to lend support. Still, being unable to leave people to die is my one and only flaw.

Treating them and me as equals is nothing short of an insult.

I’m the exception among exceptions, personally proving in real time the old saying that great oaks from little acorns grow. And having lived in the modern world, my level of knowledge is vastly superior to begin with. Though Middle ****English was always my Achilles’ heel.

"Count Steiner must have received the Lord’s grace, for his luck in sons-in-law is extraordinary."

"My son-in-law will become material fit to aid His Highness the crown prince and lead the duchy."

My father-in-law grew very smug, and Marquis Offenburg grew just as displeased. Sometimes great nobles bicker in childish ways like this. The grand duke looked toward Grand Duke Konrad’s side and said,

"It seems they’ve finally reached a conclusion."

Konrad still wore an angry expression, but seeing that the crushing pressure he’d been radiating had vanished, he seemed to have decided to accept, at least in part. The Marquis of Augsburg looked utterly drained.

That side has its own hardships too.

Then again, where in the world is there a noble who doesn’t suffer under these insufferable grand dukes?

"I will accept Your Imperial Highness’s mediation proposal. However, I ask that you guarantee in writing that Habsburg will support Bavaria, not the count palatine."

"I don’t know how much force a document will carry, but is this meant to secure justification for later?"

"Who knows whether that cunning count palatine might drag in Bohemia?"

"If they drag in Bohemia, they will have to give up their seat as elector."

The imperial crown prince showed displeasure for the first time, because the current King of Bohemia was none other than King Mátyás of Hungary. Hungary and Austria had been locked in bitter war for decades.

Joining hands with Bohemia would in itself amount to a grave challenge to Habsburg. And it was an entirely plausible scenario that the Palatinate might drag down the Habsburgs to claim the imperial crown.

Hm, now I see why the crown prince volunteered as mediator. He intended to actively draw in Bavarian Wittelsbach and Altringen to pressure the Palatinate out of any funny business.

If a structure is put in place where Altringen and Bavaria can attack the Palatinate even should the Palatinate and Bohemia join hands, then from Habsburg’s standpoint, it’s as good as solid insurance.

Better to face one front than be attacked from both sides. The problem is that Mátyás’s ability—as I heard from Szolnok Barosi—is remarkably outstanding even by any objective measure.

An amusing side note: the Hungarians employed by Bohemia are the faction that Mátyás won over, while the Hungarians employed by Bavaria are the faction that resisted Mátyás to the very end.

"This three-party agreement will be officially documented in Tyrol and guaranteed in the name of Habsburg, the rightful and noble rulers of the Holy Roman Empire. Do you agree?"

"Wittelsbach agrees to His Imperial Highness’s mediation proposal."

"Altringen also agrees to His Imperial Highness’s mediation proposal."

"Good. This agreement begins with both sides withdrawing their armies."

At Konrad’s gesture, the Bavarian army began pulling back all at once. And with that, Grand Duke Karlus suddenly found himself remarrying a princess the same age as his daughter. After formally divorcing, of course.

The problem was the rumor that had spread claiming the Bavarian princess and I were lovers. I worried I might suffer undeserved harm because of this pointless gossip.

By the looks of it, Grand Duke Konrad and the imperial crown prince hadn’t come across the fourth heroic ballad. Truth be told, when the proposal to marry the princess to the grand duke came up, I really was on pins and needles.

I haven’t done a single thing, so why do I feel guilty for no reason?

Grand Duke Karlus himself, for his part, said nothing in particular.

In any case, that princess is of absolutely no help to me.

"Benjamin’s death is regrettable, but a path has opened to properly keep Württemberg in check."

The marquis coldly tallied the profits and losses, and settled the matter of Benjamin’s death by granting the Bastern family ample compensation and honors. For the marquis, that was probably the best he could do.

The Knight of the Greatsword who killed Benjamin died by my hand, so his death was avenged, and if anything, the Duchy of Bavaria suffered the greater loss. More than fifteen knights died by my hand, after all.

Among our knights, only eight were confirmed killed in action. There were several missing as well, but Bavaria had far more missing than we did. Most were cases where the bodies couldn’t be found or the men had fled.

Still, it was because Benjamin risked his life to hold back the Bavarian vanguard that I could arrive in time and save so many people. His honor will be spoken of in the Swabian (eastern) region for a long time to come.

But I couldn’t help feeling bitter.

"For such a noble knight to die so senselessly... I still can’t believe it."

"Hmm, you must have been quite close with Benjamin."

"We fought through battlefields together. Isn’t that only natural?"

"Benjamin’s greatest flaw was his soft heart. He could easily have escaped, yet he needlessly chose death. His death was largely of his own making."

That was how vast the gap between a prince’s perspective and mine could be. The marquis coldly dismissed Benjamin’s sacrifice as pointless. It disgusted me deeply, but I couldn’t condemn him for it.

I could hardly dare condemn a great prince anyway.

Above all, Benjamin was the marquis’s man.

If I become a prince too, will my emotions someday wear down like the marquis’s have? It’s not something you can prevent just by resolving not to let it happen. The world of nobles grinds down emotions mercilessly.

Just as, at some point, I became numb to killing enemies.

Word had it that Marquis Offenburg would hold off on keeping me in check for the time being.

"Hmph, with Strasbourg now within reach, he’d rather focus his attention there than on checking my son-in-law. In any case, princes—the whole lot of them—are nothing but bad news!"

"...Father-in-law, I’m slated to become a prince too, you know?"

"Gwahaha, my son-in-law is the exception!"

My father-in-law had returned to his usual boisterous self. It was a relief that the negotiations ended well, but what surprised me was how far my renown had spread—enough that Grand Duke Konrad and the imperial crown prince both knew of it.

"Your renown has spread wider than you think. Did you suppose street musicians were the type to settle down in one place? If they’ve been roaming everywhere singing the heroic ballads, word would have gotten around plenty."

"Still, the Grand Duke of Bavaria knowing about me was a bit unexpected."

"Those bastards were watching Beren’s civil war like hawks. Of course they knew about you."

Fair enough. From the standpoint of Bavaria, which had tried to wade into Beren’s civil war and stir up chaos, it must have been bewildering. Cannons appeared out of nowhere, and the civil war ended faster than anyone expected.

It ended before they could properly get involved, which is exactly why they came charging in so hastily, isn’t it? Like a dog that chased a car it was never going to catch. They lacked the preparation for all-out war, so they had no choice but to pivot to negotiations.

Grand Duke Karlus, meanwhile, had foreseen Grand Duke Konrad’s invasion and apparently struck some kind of deal in advance, but with the imperial crown prince cutting in, an interesting board had been set. The count palatine was the only one who got royally screwed, really.

With both armies officially withdrawing under the imperial crown prince’s mediation, we returned to Radensdorf. Fortunately, no major battle had broken out, so losses were light—but the blow to the court nobles was heavy.