Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!-Chapter 45: Unwanted Hero

The banquet hall had emptied as most nobles fled. Noble soldiers grabbed only their own masters and ran. Aside from Eisenach, who’d gone down with a deep gash in his shoulder, and guardsmen groaning from their injuries, few people remained. Bertheim was also nowhere to be seen.

"Hans, please look after Fräulein. She’ll become your mistress, so serve her well."

"What? Mistress? Sir Wolfgang?"

"Ted! Oscar! Follow me!"

Leaving the bewildered Hans with Hilda, I faced Klugen—who’d killed the last of Count Mainhof’s soldiers—with Ted and Oscar at my sides. Klugen was utterly spent. He could barely stand from the blood loss, but his fierce eyes still burned.

Tenacious bastard.

I asked Klugen the question that gnawed at me most.

Why? For what purpose?

"You’re seeking revenge on the Altringen family?"

"..."

Klugen didn’t answer and raised his sword. I assumed the Ochs stance and positioned shield-bearing Ted and Oscar to my left and right. I couldn’t let either of them face Klugen alone; like the dead soldiers before them, they’d be killed. This was an entirely different fight from when he’d fled because the situation was unfavorable.

He’d already resigned himself to death, and I had to fight with care.

I launched a thrust at Klugen, who’d raised his blood-soaked sword high in the Vom Tag stance. He caught my thrust in a bind and deflected it aside. He immediately tried to thrust at my face, but I parried with my back edge while maintaining the bind and contact. When I pressed with force, he began to give ground—unlike before.

"Your strength is fading, Rose Knight! Hit him with the shield!"

"Hyah!"

Ted shouted and slammed his shield into Klugen while I held him in place, making him stagger. But emboldened by seeing Klugen falter, Ted swung his arming sword, trying to slash Klugen’s thigh. At that moment, Klugen beat my sword down to break free, then swung his back edge in reverse and knocked Ted’s arming sword from his hands.

"Argh!"

Ted dropped his arming sword and nearly had his chest carved open, but I couldn’t let my subordinate die—so I seized the crossguard with my bare hand, accepting the blade cutting into my palm, and held on. Then Oscar, who’d been watching for an opening, drove his arming sword into Klugen’s side. Klugen shoved me away with all his remaining strength and pulled back.

"Huff, huff."

Klugen had lost so much blood it was a wonder he was still alive. He’d reached his limit when Oscar stabbed his side. Tenacious bastard. Though practically a walking corpse, was he enduring this stubbornly out of sheer resentment?

What on earth had the royal family done to the Constance family and this man? I steeled myself and assumed the modified Vom Tag stance, resting the blade on my shoulder once more. I would end the phantom’s suffering with this strike.

Stepping forward with my right foot, I kicked off the floor hard and leaped. Klugen, his sword tip trembling and his breathing ragged, deflected my descending Scheitelhau and tried to counter with a horizontal cut, but I’d already anticipated it. I twisted my head sideways to dodge while thrusting forward, raking my sword tip across Klugen’s neck and chest.

Then I immediately drew the dagger from my waist and plunged it in near his heart.

"Gurgle... ugh."

Klugen collapsed and grabbed hold of me.

Looking up at me, he opened his blood-filled mouth and spoke:

"Re... member... Streit’s... son... don’t... trust... the royal family."

Don’t trust the royal family?

With those final words, Klugen died. Staring at his crumpled body, my palm throbbed. I’d seized the crossguard and the base of the blade above it with my bare hand to keep Ted from being killed, and the cut was deep. Shaken, Ted pulled out the cloth bandages he carried and wrapped my palm.

"I’m sorry—you got this wound because of me!"

"As long as you’re alive. Don’t do reckless things against knights."

The fight was over. The mansion was already surrounded by the suppression unit. By the time Viscount Gustav von Loewenbert, the officer in charge of capital defense, had deployed the suppression unit, I’d already killed Klugen. The crown prince assassination attempt ended with heavy casualties.

The problem was the aftermath.

This incident turned the entire capital upside down, the royal family included.

A total of forty-five casualties resulted, Count Mainhof among them. Not only was his family cleared of any involvement in the assassination, they also received public sympathy. Because Mainhof himself had died, they could avoid assassination charges, and his daughter could take a son-in-law to continue the family line. But no words could console the family’s grief at losing their head.

I was transferred to the hospital.

When I said I wanted to go home, Hilda grew furious and had me forcibly admitted to the duchy hospital. I’d been anxious about receiving treatment at a medieval hospital for the first time in my life, but the process of applying healing herbs to wounds and wrapping them with bandages turned out to be surprisingly routine.

I learned from the nurse caring for me that a separate nursing school existed within the church, and a handful of the women who graduated worked as nurses—one of the few occupations available to women in oppressive medieval society. I’d harbored some prejudice because the surgical instruments looked so terrifying.

Having completed the Rose’s Phantom III quest, I received 3,000 points and 30 silver coins as a reward. My total points stood at 8,550. Rather than adding scouter functions, I concluded it was wiser to save them in case I needed medical services, using them as the situation demanded rather than spending them right away.

With 30 silver coins coming in, my wealth had grown considerably. Excluding the silver coins I was still owed by Adelbert, I had 136 silver coins on hand. I should deposit them at the Medici Bank.

And encouragingly, my F-Rank Knight status had risen to E-Rank, reaching E-Rank Knight (military power 30%, courage 30%). At this level, wouldn’t I have stood a fair chance fighting Klugen again? I’d also earned 600 family prestige points, bringing the total to 750.

Wouldn’t the Streit family name (recognition 17%, governance 17%) become more widely known?

"It’s fortunate the cut wasn’t deep."

"But is it really all right for the War Minister’s daughter to visit every day?"

"Oh my, does Wolf find my visits a bother?"

"Not at all. I feel spoiled every day."

At some point, Hilda had started calling me Wolf. We’d grown close at a remarkable pace after that day, and she seemed to have made up her mind to marry me.

The obstacle was the War Minister’s will: under normal circumstances he’d have summoned me immediately to size me up, but he couldn’t spare any time because of the crown prince assassination attempt.

"Sabine, bring fresh bandages."

"Yes, ma’am."

The nurse kept flirting with me, so I’d brought Sabine to attend to me, but before I knew it, Hilda was naturally giving Sabine orders and being addressed as ma’am.

Hilda had said she wanted to be at ease around me and had her attendants wait outside the hospital. She’d already settled into the role of mistress entirely. I’d welcome Hilda with open arms if she came as my legitimate wife, but life was never that simple. In any case, I spent comfortable days with Hilda.

"Sword of the Gale. The Gale Knight."

"What’s that?"

Sword of the Gale? The Gale Knight? Those were the words Bertheim said the moment he saw me when he came to visit late, after Hilda had left. The old man’s expression as he looked at me was that of a prankster itching to cause mischief.

He’d vanished without a trace from Mainhof’s banquet hall when the incident broke out, only to appear now. But then, clearing his throat, he began to sing. It was a heroic ballad called "The Gale Knight," also known as "Song of the Gale." I froze at Bertheim’s performance.

The great Gale Knight who struck down the vile, cowardly French assassin in a single blow and saved the crown prince? No—old man, at your age, what was with this song?

"One of the heroic ballads about the Gale Knight Streit. What do you think?"

"That... who’s the Gale Knight?"

"You, obviously. Who else is the knight who saved the crown prince?"

That was my heroic ballad? The Gale Knight? Wait—was I really the subject of a heroic ballad? Bertheim delivered the coup de grâce, telling me this ballad was currently the most popular song in the capital. A hero deliberately crafted amid the turmoil of the crown prince assassination attempt.

And it was true that the crown prince had been kept safe because I’d thrown myself into the fray.

But the ballad was wildly exaggerated. I hadn’t struck Klugen down in a single blow; I’d barely won by fighting him three against one. I didn’t even know where to begin objecting.

Heroic ballads were mostly songs that street musicians sang during performances, and this one had already spread throughout the capital while I’d been confined to a hospital bed. Just thinking about it gave me a headache. I hadn’t wanted to become famous like this.

Wait—a French assassin?

"So the assassin has been labeled French?" I asked.

"I deliberately pulled strings to protect Constance and Günter’s honor," Bertheim explained.

"Can the truth really be covered up just by pulling strings?"

"Fortunately, most nobles didn’t know the assassin was the Rose Knight. So this old man consulted with His Highness the Grand Duke and the War Minister, and they agreed to pin it on France. Nobody in this duchy objects to blaming the French."

The duchy’s upper echelons had agreed to conceal the true culprit’s identity.

I could sense that the secret involving the Constance family and the royal family was a far more tangled affair than I’d expected. Klugen, who’d known the truth, was dead, and Bertheim refused to elaborate. He said only that it was enough for the Constance family and the Rose Knight to keep their honor.

And my knighthood date was set.

Ten days later, the crown prince would personally conduct the investiture ceremony.