Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!

Chapter 314: Settlers From the East

"Master! Would it be possible to bring my parents to Rosenheim?"

Had Louis’s death caused a change of heart?

Viola seemed to have made up her mind and began pleading with me. She had always been careful in her behavior and rarely spoke to me about her family. She probably hadn’t wanted to burden her master any further.

What a good girl. Unlike Lily, who’s always pushing her luck, she’s like a little sister you want to look after.

How could I turn my back on a request from such a kind, pure-hearted child?

But I only knew her as a handmaid from a fallen noble family and didn’t know her history in detail, so I asked Viola exactly what had happened in her past.

After some hesitation, Viola spoke.

"Our family, the Rijekas, were one of the financial bureaucrat families of Radensdorf, but my father got caught up in a ledger fraud case and was thrown in prison."

"Ledger fraud? That carries quite a heavy sentence."

"Yes. So we sold everything we owned and barely managed to get my father out."

So that was the incident that had brought down the Rijeka family. Something similar had happened in Breisburg, too. While we were interrogating the landowners of Feuzen, a royal tax embezzlement case came to light.

The Finance Minister fell because of it, and the Administrative Minister took a heavy blow as well. In the end, it empowered the Judicial Department in place of the Military Department, which had no interest in court politics—and the resulting political landscape worked in our favor.

It was a completely unexpected turn of events for something that had begun as squeezing the landowners who’d tormented the people of Feuzen, but in any case, I summoned Viola’s father first. I intended to meet him in person and judge for myself.

"My name is Ivan of Rijeka. It is an honor to meet you, Baron."

Ivan bowed to me with courteous formality. Viola seemed on pins and needles, worried her father might make a mistake in front of me. His involvement in ledger fraud was already a mark against him, after all.

His disposition was honesty (neutral).

For a bureaucrat, an honest disposition earned a passing grade right off the bat.

Ivan carefully read the room and tried to win my favor by praising my reputation and achievements. I’m the type who’s put off by cloying flattery, so I ignored it and got straight to the point.

"I heard you were involved in a ledger fraud case. Is that correct?"

"Pardon? Th-that was seven years ago, my lord."

"Whether it happened yesterday or seven years ago doesn’t matter. What I most want to know is whether you took part in the fraud. If you lie to me, I will consider it deceiving a prince."

Ivan swallowed hard, his eyes darting around. He must have been rattled by having a seven-year-old case suddenly dragged up. But I pressed him without mercy. His mindset changed to conflicted.

He seemed torn between telling the truth and lying his way out of the situation. Then, perhaps feeling his daughter’s desperate gaze on him, Ivan squeezed his eyes shut and said, "I took part in it."

"I see. Then what was your reason?"

"It was for Viola’s medicine."

This time, it was Viola who looked shocked. Medicine is fundamentally expensive. It costs several silver coins at minimum—a burdensome price not just for commoners but even for impoverished nobles.

"Viola was very sick as a child. I had to make money somehow, so I ended up laying hands on the ledgers. But as a result, Viola and my wife suffered terribly."

"So you dipped into the books to pay for medicine and ended up paying a far greater price."

"I was a fool. I should have sold our assets to raise the money instead."

Rather than selling his assets, Ivan had chosen to skim money by tampering with the ledgers, and as the cost of that choice, the Rijeka family had walked the road to ruin. Greed always invites disaster.

Still, since he hadn’t taken part out of selfish ambition, there was room for leniency.

He’d done it trying to pay for his sick daughter’s medicine, after all.

"Which ledgers did you falsify?"

"The ledgers of the financial officer in charge of the town hall expansion."

"Was anyone else involved besides you?"

"Five people, though I understand there were several others I didn’t know about."

Yet those who were punished numbered only three, including Ivan. The remaining two, and whoever else had been hiding in the shadows, received no punishment whatsoever.

Hm? Something’s off here.

My sixth sense caught a whiff of something rotten.

"Why weren’t they punished?"

"I-I don’t really know either."

When I checked his mindset, he genuinely didn’t seem to know. Five people had been involved, likely more, yet only three were punished. Isn’t that a textbook case of sacrificing the pawns to protect the king?

"Didn’t you think it was unjust that only you were punished?"

"Of course I protested that it was unjust, but as you well know, Baron, no one lends an ear to a settler noble from the east."

"Wait, from the east?"

Come to think of it, Rijeka isn’t a German surname. Viola looked completely in the dark as well. Without meaning to, we seemed to be uncovering the family’s hidden history, starting with the medicine money.

Glancing warily at Viola, Ivan finally revealed their origins.

"Our family are settler nobles from Rijeka, Croatia. We were in Bohemia until before Viola was born, but Hungary’s invasion drove us through Bavaria until we arrived in Beren."

"You must have been through a lot. If you’re from Croatia, are you of Slavic stock?"

"To be precise, I’m of mixed Magyar (Hungary’s native people) blood."

"Do you happen to speak Hungarian?"

"Yes. I speak some Hungarian and Czech."

It seemed I’d found the very talent I’d been looking for in the most unexpected place. He was a criminal involved in ledger fraud, but he’d paid for his crime with his family’s ruin, and his ability to speak Hungarian earned him major points.

"Do you know why I’m asking you all these questions?"

"Could it be that you intend to employ me?"

"Viola says she’d like to bring her parents to Rosenheim."

The look Ivan gave Viola was full of emotion and pride. I deliberately mentioned that fact to impress upon Ivan that this was entirely thanks to his daughter’s request.

If not for Viola, I would never have even considered employing Ivan. Bringing him to Rosenheim meant, one way or another, that he would become a retainer noble of the Streit family.

It’s not as if I’d bring him to Rosenheim just to leave him to rot.

An educated noble, at the very least, is useful in all sorts of ways.

"I have always felt guilty toward my daughter. I only offered her as a handmaid to royalty because I owed that person a debt of gratitude and couldn’t refuse."

"That person? Who do you mean?"

"Count Palatine Heinlein of Radensdorf."

According to Ivan, Viola had only been able to become Prince Louis’s handmaid because of Count Palatine Heinlein’s recommendation. In truth, entering service as a rebel royal’s handmaid was something any noble’s daughter would balk at.

Even one from a fallen family.

Ivan said he owed the count palatine for helping his family settle, and so couldn’t refuse the man’s order. Fortunately, Viola was a child of very kind character and embraced Louis with warmth.

The result was her pregnancy, but Viola didn’t regret it in the slightest. If anything, her only regret was not being able to stay by Louis’s side until the moment he died.

Even her parents didn’t know she was pregnant.

They’d find out eventually, but for now, she was keeping it hidden.

Still, it was strange that Ivan had been punished despite having connections to a count palatine. Medieval noble society revolves around connections and bloodline, so someone of a count palatine’s standing could easily have shielded him.

"Count Palatine Heinlein wasn’t the ringleader of the fraud, was he?"

"N-no! He has nothing to do with finances. If anything, he defended me! If not for him, I would have been buried in the executioner’s grounds!"

Criminals’ graves lie outside the executioner village. Marked by cheap headstones of plain stone and denied any blessing from the Church, they were proof, people believed, that a criminal’s soul could never greet Resurrection Day.

But I’m the type with a keen nose for this sort of thing, and I couldn’t shake my suspicion about how the count palatine had put Ivan in his debt with a favor and then recommended Viola to Prince Louis. And then there was the scapegoating.

"Do you have any desire to go to Rosenheim?"

"I would like to go, but would there be anything for me to do there?"

"I’ve ended up taking in a number of Hungarians, and as it happens, I’ve been looking for someone who speaks Hungarian. You seem like the perfect fit. What do you think?"

"I can speak Hungarian, but I don’t know Hungary itself in any detail."

I had expected him to jump at the offer, but he had a prudent side too.

He had a criminal record, but what mattered was that he spoke Hungarian.

"That’s more than enough. Communication was the biggest problem. If you take charge of them, you’ll be elevated to the position of estate manager. A chance to restore your fallen family, wouldn’t you say?"

"I’ll do it! I won’t let the opportunity you’ve given me go to waste, Baron!"

"But if you lay hands on the ledgers again, even after being given a chance like this..."

When I unleashed my D-Rank Lord (Intimidation 40%) aura along with the killing intent honed on the battlefield, Ivan trembled like a leaf. I needed to seize control from the start so he wouldn’t entertain any foolish ideas.