Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!-Chapter 11: Searcher Scouter

Thinking he might be going easy because I was his master, I tried several more times, but I won overwhelmingly even in pure tests of strength. Hans was strong enough to lift a water-filled barrel, but my strength seemed to surpass even that. Was this the result of training? Or innate ability?

My face was a pretty boy’s face, but my body was in excellent shape.

I intensively refined wrestling’s five techniques against Hans.

How long would it take to become as strong as Adolf?

While training, I thought of the duchy’s strongest knight.

Adolf Ritter von Steinhof, who bore the epithet of Storm Knight.

When the Hundred Years’ War with England had been raging in France, border lords rallied around the Duke of Burgundy and invaded the Duchy of Beren. There had even been English reinforcements.

The Duke of Burgundy was a vassal of France, but he was such a powerful magnate that he had a history of allying with England and attacking Paris. He had coveted the fertile territory of the Main River. And finally, with England’s backing, he invaded.

The Holy Roman Empire couldn’t respond properly due to disputes with Italy but mobilized surrounding princes to dispatch support to the Duchy of Beren. The Duchy of Roden actively aided the Duchy of Beren, but that alone wasn’t enough. With even the Duchy of Bavaria tied down on the Italian front, the war situation looked grim.

Half of the Duchy of Beren had nearly fallen into the Duke of Burgundy’s hands, but Adolf Ritter von Steinhof, hailed as Beren’s greatest knight, led the Beren Lance Cavalry in a surprise attack on the Duke of Burgundy’s command, achieving the feat of slaying the Count of Montferrand and the Baron of Besançon.

It was one of the top cinematic sequences in Medieval Knight.

However, Burgundy was still powerful, and the battlefield briefly entered a lull. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a great saint appeared in France and began defeating England repeatedly, and the Duke of Burgundy had no choice but to withdraw. Joan of Arc’s appearance saved not only France but also the Duchy of Beren.

This was the war from 20 years ago.

Adolf had retired from the front lines and now resided in the royal castle as the crown prince’s swordsmanship instructor. Personally, I wanted to build a connection with the Steinhof family. They had earned enough renown to be granted territory but chose reputation instead, because they only pursued the refinement of German swordsmanship.

So they had broken away from orthodox German swordsmanship and founded an independent school called Steinhof-Wehr. The swordsmanship I was learning was orthodox. I wanted to spar with them or forge a friendship, but they probably wouldn’t bother with me, a mere low-ranking hereditary knight.

I’d just be treated as one of many admirers.

"Now, shall we continue wrestling?" I said.

"Is being thrown around one-sidedly really training?"

"If you keep getting thrown, you might naturally learn how to defend."

"Oh Lord! Look down on this poor lamb."

With the system’s help maintaining basic stances, I could engrave the five techniques into my body. Of course, since I’d just started learning wrestling, proficiency was only around 20. Unfortunately, Hans was currently nothing more than a practice dummy.

What could I do?

First, I’d master the techniques myself, then teach him.

"Good work."

"Huff, huff. G-good work."

Oh dear, it wasn’t over yet.

"It’s time for strength training with the water barrel. You need to show Sabine a cool and strong brother, right?"

"Ugh, Sabine! Your brother is working this hard for you!"

Hans always found new strength when I mentioned Sabine.

I had figured out how to motivate him.

After working Hans like that through the morning, lunchtime arrived. Hans returned home to eat with Sabine. Actually, Hans had tried to eat with me, but since I ate with points, it was difficult to share meals. So I used Sabine as an excuse.

This time I had beef stew.

These days, hearty meals were really hitting the spot.

But Hans, who had gone home, returned faster than expected.

I was about to leisurely read a comic book. What was going on, all of a sudden?

"What, Hans? Why are you back already?"

"Wolfgang! Wolfgang!"

But Hans’s face had gone pale.

I sensed something was wrong.

"I-it’s terrible! S-Sabine has disappeared!"

"Your sister disappeared? You said she worked weaving fabric under your aunt?"

"On the way home to eat with me, something must have happened! She didn’t come no matter how long I waited, so I went to my aunt’s and was told she’d already left!"

Oh no, this must be a crisis for a doting brother like him.

If this were the modern world, I might not have thought much of it, but this was medieval times.

The Flamm family resided in the southwest area where the slums were, and public safety was poor.

That’s why Hans always went to meet Sabine on her way home.

"Wh-what do we do? If I lose Sabine, I-I have no reason to live!"

"Calm down. Your sister will be fine."

Calming him down was all well and good, but how was I supposed to find her?

I remembered there was a Searcher Scouter among the scouters.

However, I had few points left after purchasing the Manager Scouter and Wrestling Manual.

[Savage Streets I]

[Find Sabine]

[Searcher Scouter temporarily provided]

[Reward — 1,000 points, 10 silver coins (hazard pay)]

[Danger Rating ★☆☆☆☆]

Fortunately, a related quest appeared. But setting aside the reward of 1,000 points and 10 silver coins, the danger rating caught my eye first. Was this truly a dangerous situation? Plus, the quest name was Savage Streets. It clearly looked like a combat quest. And if there was a I, did that mean there was also a II?

Anyway, I had no time to worry about that now.

First, I armed Hans and headed to the southwest district with his guidance.

Since I frequently used the Manager Scouter, I roughly knew how to operate a scouter. The temporarily provided Searcher Scouter had two functions:

Track footprints and search hidden spaces.

So I activated it to track Sabine’s footprints.

My vision slightly warped and went dizzy, then returned to normal. Among the countless footprints appearing on the ground, only the footprints presumed to be Sabine’s were highlighted. The footprints from the aunt’s workshop toward home veered into an alley.

Why? Sabine seemed to have entered the alley voluntarily. Hans, who had been beside himself with worry, silently followed me. He was praying to God to protect Sabine. After tracking the footprints, we came to an open area. Sabine seemed to have sat here briefly.

There were also traces of someone else sitting beside her.

"Wolfgang! Where could Sabine be?"

"Wait. I’m checking again."

This time, Sabine’s footprints led off in another direction. I tracked them once more. Passing through complicated, maze-like alleys, I could finally hear sounds. Men’s shouts and women’s screams mingled together. Damn it, we’d better not be too late!

"Sabine? That’s Sabine! Oh God!"

At the end of a secluded alley leading to a dead end, a boy was shielding Sabine while facing down several men. Blood was flowing from the boy’s shoulder, and Sabine was crying in terror. Five men were clearly after Sabine.

Damn it, this was the slum area.

"You bastards! What are you doing to my sister!"

"Brother? Brother! Help me! Daniel! Daniel!" Sabine cried.

The men all turned their gazes toward me and Hans at once. These guys were carrying swords—definitely shortswords, longer than daggers and shorter than arming swords. In the capital, carrying weapons was prohibited except for nobles or soldiers on official duty. Was it because this was a slum?

The slum residents, rough-featured and looking like criminals to anyone, radiated hostility toward me.

Whew, let’s calm down. It was sudden real combat, but I tried talking first.

"I have no intention of causing trouble in the slums. I’ll take those two kids and leave, so step aside."

"I don’t know which noble young master you are, but this is a slum. You play by the slum’s rules here, right?"

These guys weren’t even intimidated by nobles.

It was behavior I couldn’t make sense of, but I had no time to argue about that now.

"Here, there are no nobles or anything of the sort. But we don’t want to fight you, either."

"However, leave the girl. Then we’ll pretend we didn’t see anything."

Whew, negotiations had broken down. I quickly drew my longsword.

Activating the Manager Scouter, I could confirm their identities.

They were members of a slum organization called Schlange.