Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!-Chapter 75: The Only One I Can Trust

The next day—I hadn’t been able to wash and had slept feeling sticky, but it had become routine by now, so I at least washed my face. Michael and the other knights couldn’t understand why I bothered cleaning myself like this, but I liked being clean, and if I went even a single day without washing, the stickiness wouldn’t leave me.

Thud thud thud thud!

Then hoofbeats suddenly thundered from somewhere, and all sleepiness vanished. I hurried outside the tent, where soldiers were welcoming a group of cavalry. It was the Beren Lance Cavalry. And there were quite a lot of them—nearly a hundred riders. Besides the lancers, dozens of light cavalrymen accompanied them. The cavalry had arrived ahead of the main reinforcements.

"Good to see you, Lucas! You got here faster than expected. Did someone light a fire under you?"

"The War Minister sent me ahead. Michael, take me to Count Euz."

"Insolent bastard. In terms of hierarchy, I’m slightly above you. How dare you order me to take you?"

"Greenhorn. In terms of rank, I outrank you. Stop yapping and take me!"

So that was the Beren Lance Cavalry commander.

Speaking so rudely even to Michael, who held the highest position among our commanders.

He was worse than the rumors suggested.

On top of that, the face revealed when he removed his helmet bore a fierce expression.

They said he was the same age as Michael, but he looked much older.

I couldn’t tell whether Michael and Lucas’s relationship was good or bad. They spoke roughly, but their eyes smiled with genuine welcome. Despite the coarse words, they seemed to get along well. In any case, Michael would handle it. I was just going to comb my hair. But then Michael called me over.

"What are you doing, brother-in-law? Come with us."

"Brother-in-law? Then that scrawny runt is Hilda’s fiancé, the one called the Gale Knight?"

Rough temperament was an understatement—this man was truly rough. Scrawny? Me? I might look that way on the outside, but I had lean muscle and real strength. I even held the E-Rank Knight (military power 30%, courage 30%) title, so my abilities wouldn’t fall short of most knights’.

But before I could take offense, Michael got angry on my behalf.

"Scrawny?! My brother-in-law is an excellent cavalry commander and a skilled knight!"

"Excellent cavalry commander? How dare you talk about cavalry command in front of me?"

"From what I’ve seen, my brother-in-law is a better commander than you. Just watch."

"Fine! I’ll watch closely to see what kind of excellent commander he is."

Hey, brother-in-law. Don’t start pointless competitions. Michael seemed to be pretending to defend me while actually aiming to provoke Lucas. I had no idea how I had ended up in a rivalry with the cavalry commander I’d only just met, but I entered Euz Castle with Michael regardless.

The castle entrance featured a drawbridge, and past the gate, the ceiling held portcullises at both front and back. Even if attackers broke through the drawbridge, they would be trapped between them. The ceiling was also studded with multiple murder holes.

Enemies caught in the kill zone would die under a rain of arrows with no means to defend themselves. The sturdy castle gate had multiple locks, though in peacetime, one could enter through a small pedestrian door. I had heard about the fortress’s structure from Michael to some extent, but seeing it in person was an entirely different experience.

Inside the fortress city, the layout resembled Beren’s. There was a small plaza with a well, and the city residents’ houses and public buildings were packed tightly together. Only the church occupied a generous area, likely because it included a cemetery. What struck me as unusual was that most refugees had settled in that very cemetery.

"It’s unusual to see refugees settling in a cemetery."

"They want to be near the church so their souls can reach heaven even if they die, so refugees naturally gather around it. What do you find unusual about that, brother-in-law?"

"...It’s just the first time I’ve seen such a sight."

"Ah, right. This is your first time leaving Breisburg, isn’t it?"

It was perfectly natural to medieval people, but there were still things I couldn’t intuitively grasp, so I had asked without thinking—I needed to be more careful. Michael brushed it off, but a priest might have taken issue with my ignorance.

The lord’s castle stood at the highest point of the hill, protected by the second wall. Befitting a fortress where enormous sums had been poured into construction, the scale was impressive. Entering the inner castle, I spotted familiar knights. Eisenach and four guardsmen nodded to me. Fiel was nowhere to be seen.

Count Euz was an aged lord. But his sharp features carried the dignity of a ruler who had governed his region for decades. The Crown Prince sitting beside him seemed a bit intimidated. Most western princes belonged to the Crown Prince’s faction, so Count Euz was favorably disposed toward him.

The Count had even sent his heir to greet the Crown Prince personally.

Lucas stood before Count Euz with his head high and his bearing unapologetic.

"I requested Beren Lance Cavalry support, but I didn’t expect you to arrive this quickly."

"It’s only because His Highness the Crown Prince is here that I accepted the orders. Otherwise, why would I come all the way to Euz territory? I hate looking north as it is."

"What? Still insolent as ever, you mercenary bastard! Is that how you speak to the prince who rules Euz?"

Count Euz glared at Lucas with open displeasure. The pressure emanating from a regional prince was tremendous, yet Lucas wasn’t intimidated in the slightest. True to his rough mercenary origins, his tongue was just as coarse.

"Damn it, how long has it been since I became a duchy knight, and you still call me a mercenary?"

"I held back from calling you a Saxon bastard. Be grateful, you lowly mercenary."

"And who was it that requested support from this Saxon mercenary bastard?"

He didn’t yield a single word.

Michael was smirking as if he had expected exactly this, and the Crown Prince sitting beside the Count looked flustered. He had probably never imagined the cavalry commander and a border lord would speak to each other this way. Neither had I. A thick vein bulged on the aged Count Euz’s forehead.

This looked like it might come to blows.

Finally, unable to watch any longer, the Crown Prince intervened.

"Rather than allies quarreling, it’s far more important to determine how we defeat the enemy. I don’t want to waste time on pointless arguments. Cavalry Commander Pensler, what is the size of the reinforcements?"

"Ahem. Five hundred and fifty duchy troops, plus the hundred lancers and fifty light cavalry I brought, were urgently dispatched. Other princes are also sending reinforcements, so the order is to hold out until they arrive."

"So seven hundred are coming as reinforcements for now. Then with the Count’s six hundred troops and my two hundred subordinates, we’ll match the Burgundian forces in number."

Fortunately, the duchy government had dispatched more reinforcements than expected.

Combined, our total would reach fifteen hundred, but the problem was the strong possibility that the enemy would also receive reinforcements. If we assumed equal numbers and committed to a pitched battle only to find they had over two thousand, the situation could turn dangerous. Nevertheless, Count Euz maintained his position that once reinforcements arrived, they should settle matters in a pitched battle.

If the conflict devolved into a siege, the damage to Euz Castle itself would be severe, so from Count Euz’s perspective, a decisive engagement on open ground was far preferable. Moreover, the duchy’s finest force—the Beren Lance Cavalry, which demonstrated its maximum power in field battles—had come in full strength: a hundred riders, led by the cavalry commander himself.

Even to my eye, we seemed to have a real chance of victory.

But the crucial point was that the enemy wouldn’t wait for us to be ready.

Suddenly, a blood-covered messenger burst in.

"Urgent news! Burgundian cavalry are attacking people fleeing toward the castle!"

"So Burgundy has finally made their move. I’d been wondering why they had stayed quiet so long."

Count Euz showed no particular alarm.

If anything, he found it strange that Burgundy had taken this long to act.

The Crown Prince spoke up.

"Count Euz! Shouldn’t we send troops to rescue them immediately?"

"It’s already too late, Your Highness. Even if we rode out now, they will have already struck and withdrawn. You must know how fast cavalry can move."

He was right. By the time we arrived, we would find only corpses. Cavalry hit-and-run tactics were too swift to intercept. Count Euz seemed to feel he had already taken in enough refugees and was inclined to write off the rest.

But the Crown Prince’s nature wouldn’t allow him to accept that.

"Michael, can you place the light cavalry under Sir Streit’s command?"

"...Surely you don’t mean to order Sir Streit to protect the refugees?"

"That’s exactly what I mean. The only cavalry commander I can trust with this is Sir Streit."

The Crown Prince’s faith in me seemed unshakable. Every eye in the room, including Michael’s, turned to me. It was a somewhat unreasonable order, but if I could track the enemy’s position using my Commander Scouter or Searcher Scouter, it might be feasible. Even the cavalry commander was staring at me with a look of surprise.

"Entrust it to me. I’ll live up to His Highness the Crown Prince’s expectations."

Only then did the Crown Prince allow himself a faint smile.