Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!

Chapter 308: Banquet of Vultures

A great many nobles attended the victory banquet that followed the distribution of honors. The venue was the banquet hall of the Radensdorf palace, tremendous in scale and the very pinnacle of splendor.

The former Marquis of Radensdorf had reportedly built it with a fortune rivaling the cost of the city walls; that’s how much he loved his banquets. Just how much money would it take to build a banquet hall like this?

"Rumor has it around one thousand gold coins."

It was Michael who answered my curiosity. One thousand gold coins to build a single banquet hall. And here I’d slaved away all this time and still hadn’t saved up even nine hundred.

Of course, that figure included the prisoner ransoms I hadn’t collected yet and the child-rearing funds from Prince Louis. More than half of it was outstanding, but I didn’t expect to have any trouble collecting.

At any rate, the extravagance of wealthy princes was beyond imagining.

"Congratulations, Baron Rosenheim. You’ve now risen to become a prince in both name and substance."

"Hahaha, with skills like yours, Baron, a title was only a matter of course!"

I received congratulations from the friendly duchy army nobles. Since they were under the influence of the War Minister’s family, they welcomed the fact that my rise to prince meant their faction’s power had grown along with me.

"Don’t forget that it was we western princes who pushed for your barony."

"Count Essenbach, Baron Rosenheim knows our efforts well."

Count Essenbach and Count Euz made a point of fishing for credit right to my face. Would it kill them to just offer congratulations without the speeches, like Count Belfort? The Count of Baschurten, meanwhile, was still locked away in prison.

His record of stabbing his allies in the back had saddled him with the notorious reputation of a lecherous traitor, and no one spoke up in his defense. Rumor had it his younger brother would be the one to succeed the Geerhilt family.

A wastrel who had devoured his own house—but I suppose he’s still better than his lecherous traitor of an older brother. Negotiations over splitting Baschurten’s northern territory three ways were still ongoing.

Claiming a region requires proper justification, and it’s true that even for carving up a traitor’s land, justification was in short supply. Count Euz was digging through every document he could find in search of one.

I don’t know how it will turn out, but if he succeeds, Baschurten will lose the land with no recourse. Even if things go wrong and I don’t get Leben and Ladwig, I never particularly coveted that land anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

It would just mean the hassle of replanning the Hungarians’ settlement.

"I am a noble of Eisten. From the bottom of my heart..."

"I come from a distinguished court noble family of Breisburg..."

"I am a count palatine. Allow me to praise your merits..."

Not a single noble in this hall was hostile toward me now. The court nobles offered empty praise and congratulations to get close to me, trying by any means to catch my eye.

Since Rosenheim had been royal demesne, there were plenty of positions up for grabs. Starting with estate manager, one could become my vassal noble, or share in various enterprises and interests.

Their about-face was no doubt driven by shameless self-interest, but I accepted their congratulations at face value and nothing more. Then I called over Beort, Drek, and Ferke, who had been pushed to the back.

"Thank you for looking out for us, Baron."

"We’re in the same boat. Of course I’d take care of you."

I flaunted my closeness with them for all to see. For the first time, the three found themselves the center of tremendous attention from the nobles. Most of it was envy, but I had effectively announced that these men were mine.

"Are these the ones who supplied you with cavalry, brother-in-law?"

"Th-the Director General of the Military Department! It’s an honor to meet you, sir!"

I introduced them to Michael as well. Drek in particular, who had long admired the Military Department, was so nervous meeting Michael up close that he stammered. Michael laughed heartily and declared him an amusing fellow.

The truth is, Michael was a comfortable brother-in-law to me, but to lower nobles he was a figure whose status sat high above the clouds. He could meet royalty one-on-one without any formalities whatsoever, so naturally the gap was enormous.

Unlike Michael, I’d had to go through audience procedures right up until I received my title.

It may have seemed like I met royalty with relative ease, but that was only possible because the grand duke and the crown prince granted swift permission. Now that I’m a prince and a baron myself, it’s practically a free pass.

Now even the high court nobles can’t treat me carelessly.

Even with the lowest of the five ranks of nobility, a man holding a prince-grade fief need bow his head to no one but the king and his fellow princes. My standing had finally risen a grade.

Besides the nobles, many ladies and young noblewomen were in attendance at the banquet hall. Regardless of the setting, it was only the natural way of things for men and women of marriageable age to scout for partners.

But the young ladies seemed to be looking only at me.

Michael said playfully,

"If Hilda hadn’t snatched you up, wouldn’t those young ladies be swarming you right about now?"

"Thank God I married early. Ah, I mean, thank God it was Hilda."

I smoothly nudged the still-unmarried Beort, Drek, and Ferke forward. Flustered at first, they soon gathered their confidence and approached the young ladies who caught their fancy.

Normally they wouldn’t have dared dream of it, but right now they wore the badge of my inner circle. Attention naturally gravitated toward a prince’s close nobles. And I was already off the market.

"You plan to back those fellows?"

"They’re good men. As you know, I only have two vassal nobles, don’t I? There are plenty of seats, but only greedy noble bastards come knocking, so I intend to recruit young nobles with good dispositions like theirs."

"Hmm, that’s a fine idea, but don’t forget there are good nobles in the duchy army too."

Michael intended to recommend some of his subordinate nobles who didn’t quite fit in with the duchy army. I’d accept my brother-in-law’s recommendations, of course, but I only planned to hire nobles who passed the disposition test.

I made that point clear.

"But you’re a young noble yourself, brother-in-law. Why do you seem like such an old man?"

"I suppose the position ages you. I’m a prince now, aren’t I?"

"True, the image of a prince has always been some stern old codger."

Watching the princes bicker among themselves, though, I didn’t find them all that stern. The princes gathered by faction to exchange conversation, and naturally the west and north formed the center of it.

The southern and eastern princes were relatively quiet, their prestige having plummeted with defeat in the war. The southern princes in particular regarded me as something like a walking calamity. The Count of Basel hated me most of all.

"The Count of Basel is glaring daggers at you."

"Don’t make eye contact. It could turn into a fight."

"A pity. Of all things, Basel and Rosenheim sit right next to each other."

What’s more, back in Baron Constance’s day, Rosenheim and Basel had even gone to war with each other. It seems things are even worse now than they were then. The Count of Basel had been humiliatingly taken prisoner by me and forced to pay a ransom.

"By the way, did my younger brother-in-law not attend the banquet?"

"Ulrich bowed out. Said he had something to look into."

Ulrich had a knack for espionage and was skilled at extracting information. That’s probably why the grand duke had him assist old Bertheim in the east. But what could he be looking into? It nagged at me.

"Isn’t that His Imperial Highness over there?"

"He hadn’t shown his face even once, yet here he is at the victory banquet."

"Might this not be an opportunity for us?"

The nobles’ attention, which had begun to feel exhausting, vanished without a trace as if swept away by a typhoon. Imperial Crown Prince Maximilian, who had not shown himself before the nobles until now, had made his first appearance.

For landless court nobles and provincial nobles, catching the imperial crown prince’s eye would be like striking gold, so the interest was explosive. And countless young ladies pushed through the nobles and swarmed toward him.

Tremendous combat power. With momentum like that, they could probably crush the Bavarian vanguard too. My subordinate nobles, who’d been happily chatting with the young ladies, were left standing like jilted suitors.

Hmm, that was the first time I’d ever seen a crowd packed that tight.

Michael clicked his tongue in amazement at the sight.

"His Imperial Highness is quite popular, isn’t he? Look at that—highborn young ladies fighting each other."

The young ladies were kicking each other under their dresses in the battle for position.

The resolve of these ladies, armed with full makeup and dazzling gowns, was formidable.

The Habsburgs were famous for their marriage alliances, so there was no chance the imperial crown prince would choose an eastern noble family’s daughter with nothing to offer, but their efforts to forge a connection by any means possible were admirable in their own way.

Of course, I had no intention whatsoever of insulting or criticizing those vanity-filled young ladies. I was simply deeply grateful that the imperial crown prince had absorbed all the explosive attention that had been destined for me, the hero of the victory banquet.

If not for him, I’d have been the one buried in that crowd.

The mere thought was horrifying. I’ll enjoy myself quietly and head home.