Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!

Chapter 304: Exaggerated

The people of Radensdorf, worn down by civil war, had been praying to the Lord that no more fighting would break out. So when the Duchy of Bavaria withdrew and the threat vanished, they welcomed us with a fervor that rivaled a triumphal procession.

Crown Prince Maximilian assumed the Berenites’ welcome was meant for him, but if the man himself was happy, that was good enough. Instead of returning to Tyrol in Austria, he joined us.

To be precise, the grand duke had invited the crown prince, and the crown prince had accepted. This also went a long way toward improving relations between the Habsburgs and the Altringens, who had previously regarded each other with mutual indifference.

It amounted to the Habsburgs cutting into the three-way staring contest over Strasbourg, but in truth, the greatest enemy was Burgundy. Burgundy was still fighting a civil war with France.

That was why the grand duke had judged this the perfect window to seize Strasbourg while the threat was absent—but once the French civil war ended, he would face the full weight of the Bold Duke’s menace.

The Bold Duke wanted to claim all the lands along the Main River and build a kingdom of his own between France and the Holy Roman Empire. Rumor had it he styled himself a descendant of Burgund, or perhaps of Lothair.

A great war in the near future was a foregone conclusion.

The grand duke was clearly preparing for that day.

And yet the nobles were still squabbling over their own interests. How frustrated he must have been. That was why he placed his trust in me, a mere knight lord rather than a prince.

"I’m sorry, brother-in-law. I tried to send support as fast as I could, but in the end I was too late."

Michael seemed genuinely ashamed and apologized profusely. Before heading to the battlefield, I had requested support from him, but the reinforcements hadn’t arrived in time. It wasn’t something to blame Michael for.

Sending support is no easy task, and above all, the battle with the vanguard had unfolded far too quickly. The battlefield was pure pandemonium, and the enemy had been lying in wait for us, the follow-up force.

In the end, the Bavarian vanguard was utterly demolished at our hands, but by all conventional wisdom, we should have been the ones to suffer catastrophic losses. Since we’d completely overturned that wisdom, the way people looked at us changed entirely.

Now they practically see me as a monster.

Like the ancient heroes who appear only in myths.

[When he swung his halberd, the Bavarian vanguard split in half.]

[When he roared, arrows flying in like a storm bounced away.]

[With a single blow, he slew dozens of knights and the Knight of the Greatsword.]

Such absurd rumors spread like wildfire.

The cause was that the cavalrymen who’d fought under my command had scattered in every direction, spreading tales of heroism. When Anton told me that parts of the fourth heroic ballad had been revised, I was dumbfounded.

"Anton, is that rumor really true? Even hearing it, I can hardly believe it."

"Lord Michael! It’s true! I saw it with my own two eyes!"

The problem was that Anton and the men had been so utterly shaken by that storm-like charge that they’d fused my exploits with the rumors and magnified everything. It was absurd, like watching religious fanatics.

I dismissed it to Michael as an exaggerated rumor, but unlike before, this time the witnesses were all shouting in one voice, spraying spit as they insisted it was the truth, so Michael didn’t know what to believe.

There’s no stopping it now.

"What on earth am I supposed to believe here? The man himself says it’s exaggerated, but his men all swear it’s true. Hey, brother-in-law. Be honest with me. What’s the truth?"

So I explained everything from beginning to end, exactly as it happened, without a shred of embellishment. After hearing the embarrassing war story straight from my mouth, Michael and Ulrich looked at each other.

"The rumors are exaggerated, sure, but nothing in them is actually wrong?"

"Hilda married one outrageous man."

In the end, the conclusion was that the rumors were exaggerated, but their content was mostly true. The Steiner brothers seemed floored by it. More and more, they seem to see me as something other than human.

"Honestly, didn’t you say you were keeping a low profile because of the court nobles? Showing off with this kind of ridiculous performance is only going to make those pathetic nobles even more envious."

"Marquis Offenburg will take my side."

"Oh, really? Then I suppose you can afford to ignore them."

No matter how much the court nobles seethed with envy, the game was already over the moment I struck a political accord with Marquis Offenburg, the man who’d acted as their representative. So Michael turned the conversation to the crown prince.

"I never imagined the Habsburgs would mediate. Things are taking a strange turn."

"Why do you think the Habsburgs got involved, brother?"

"How would I know? I figured you would."

I wasn’t sure where to even begin explaining, but since my father-in-law had been present at the negotiations anyway, I left out the sensitive parts and explained how the crown prince’s mediation had unfolded.

"So Strasbourg could be the next battleground."

Michael said, wetting his throat with wine.

I agreed on that point. With the queen’s ouster drastically changing the balance of power in Strasbourg, a clash of interests between Offenburg and Essenbach was inevitable.

If Württemberg, the greatest enemy, was kept in check by Bavaria’s Wittelsbachs, it couldn’t move easily either. That left only Burgundy and the Duchy of Roden, which had most recently fought a great war, to deal with.

But Ulrich offered a different opinion.

"Or it could be the Swiss Confederation."

"The Swiss Confederation? Where did that come from? Why them?"

"The Swiss Confederation has always been a region that wanted out from under the Habsburgs’ shadow."

The Swiss region was originally the Habsburgs’ home turf and heartland.

But when Rudolf I of Habsburg, who had seized his opportunity well during the Great Interregnum, became emperor, he waged war against the Kingdom of Bohemia, which ruled Austria at the time, and took the region for himself.

The problem was that he slighted the Swiss nobles who had actively supported and backed him, which gave those nobles a reason to band together. That was the birth of the Swiss Confederation.

The Swiss Confederation had always acted with hostility, like a thorn lodged in the Habsburgs’ side. And in the end, they completely drove out Habsburg influence and finally won their independence.

But the Habsburgs never gave up on the Swiss Confederation and were always watching for their chance. Listening to the explanation, it seemed the Habsburgs had good reason to pull Beren over to their side.

[Half right and half wrong.]

The grand duke’s assessment from back then came to mind. I had focused simply on the improvement of relations between the Habsburgs and Beren, but what if the Swiss Confederation was part of the picture too?

Beren would essentially be sitting on powder kegs both above and below: the free imperial city of Strasbourg, and the Swiss Confederation defying the Habsburgs. If that’s the setup, it would truly be the worst, wouldn’t it?

Of course, it was mere speculation, but it was plausible. The drinking gathering grew very quiet. If Margareta had been here, she probably would have snapped at us for being such dreary men.

Michael spoke.

"I’m worried. The situation around us seems to be heating up more and more."

"Agreed. But that’s all the more reason we must do our duty."

"Listen to you, young as you are, talking like an old man. Good grief."

Michael’s comical gesture drew a chuckle out of me.

How nice it would be if there were only things to laugh about.

The next day, I summoned the three young nobles who had supplied vassal cavalry. Their retainers had fought hard under Anton’s command, and fortunately they’d suffered only minor injuries, so I had been able to send them all back safely.

They were deeply honored by my summons. Apparently their retainers had reported the incredible exploits they’d witnessed to their masters, practically foaming at the mouth. I could feel the admiration in their eyes as they looked at me.

"I called you here because I wanted to thank you."

"Thank you for having us, my lord!"

The gathering, held in the annex of Margareta’s house, was meant to build camaraderie, but it also served another purpose: a chance to assess the abilities of these promising young men.

To govern Rosenheim, which was far larger than Feuzen, an estate manager was essential. And I had absolutely no intention of entrusting the post to some random noble with the Administrative Department’s fingerprints all over him.

That would be like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.