The Biography of Albrecht - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Translator: Nezu

Editor: Daed

The next day, as always, Rutger came.

“I need to go to a meeting today. May I ask you to go with me as my escort?”

Albrecht was getting sick of this.

“How’s Diego doing?”

Rutger’s eyes turned cold when he heard Albrecht’s question.

“I don’t know. I’m sure he’s doing well somewhere.”

“You don’t know? What happened to the gemstones? Did you kill him and take it away?”

Anger flared up in Albrecht’s blue eyes. They looked like they would explode if they were equipped with a detonator.

Rutger shuddered. In the past few days, he had seen Albrecht’s strength which surpassed normal human standards.

The Thief Guild had hired knights a few times before, but those knights struggled to fight two to three armed mercenaries at once.

Knights mastered the techniques of horse-mounted combat. They had the advantage in this category, but they could be vulnerable to other things. A knight could still lose if his enemy was armed and was equally experienced in combat as he was.

But Albrecht was different. He could kill three to five fully armed, experienced mercenaries as if he was only drinking water.

Rutger thought that he might just die here if he did something wrong. Albrecht was no mere treasure; he was a ferocious beast. Though he listened well to him, Rutger had no idea when Albrecht would fight back and bite him.

But on the other hand, he also admired him. Albrecht didn’t simply just use his sword to kill. He had various cruel ways to kill. Rutger felt thrilled when he saw him grab someone’s throat and rip off their tongue.

Rutger was a pervert who enjoyed watching this kind of cruelty. His nickname in the city was ‘Meat Muffler’. He liked pulling people’s entrails out and used them to strangle people to death. He thought that Albrecht was the same as him.

Elisa sensed that the atmosphere had turned serious so she gently hugged Albrecht from behind.

“Wanna take a break and just stay with me here?”

Albrecht held her hand. He knew she was taking advantage of him, but he didn’t care because he liked her. However, he could no longer ignore the feelings of guilt that had risen in his heart.

He could see the pendant lying there on the table with other items.

Penbacht, Eric, his vow…Everything annoyed him, but something inside him kept bothering him.

“If you go with me to the meeting, you might just meet a man named Diego there,” Rutger said, looking very composed.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I don’t know. I’m not sure about it myself.”

‘This son of a bitch.’

Albrecht stood up without a word, got dressed, and took his sword with him. He said to Elisa, “I’ll be back.”

He left without kissing her as he usually did before.

***

The city of Roybeck was ruled by three merchant families whom the citizens called ‘The Great Families’. Though the term used was ‘ruled’, it was actually a bit different from how Lords of territories did it.

Similar to large companies on Earth, these merchant families had many ‘family members’ under them. Rather than maintaining the city’s peace and order, these merchant families used their power to protect their ‘family members’ and their properties.

As most citizens were directly or indirectly connected to the Great Families, it would look like the city’s security was being maintained.

The problem was that since ancient times, there was essentially no government that actually governed the city. It was up to the citizens to take charge of keeping the city’s public peace and order.

One typical example of this was the protection of the city gates. Those who voluntarily took charge of the public domain became armed and naturally turned into something like gangsters or like the mafia—the Thief Guild.

Though the Great Families could join forces to suppress the Thief Guild, these merchant families were always busy competing among themselves and keeping each other in check. They even sometimes joined forces with the Thief Guild to gain an edge in the market.

The Thief Guild was always in complete disarray. There were instances in which they seemed like they had been unified, but they would soon break up again. Because of this, the Great Families didn’t consider the Thief Guild as a big threat.

However, the Thief Guild eventually became a problem once Rutger appeared. He united the city’s Thief Guild and quickly took over. It was no longer as divided as it used to be. He pressured the Great Families with his cruelty and tactics, driving them to form an unprecedented union.

They did manage to pressure Rutger, but they weren’t able to bring him down.

Then Albrecht appeared, and the tables turned.

Two groups confronted each other in an open lot. The cold November gale blew between the buildings, sweeping through their clothes and hair, as if trying to take them along with it.

On one side were an old man, a middle-aged man, and a young man all wearing expensive-looking fur and leather clothes. Behind them were armed men and a large entourage.

On the other side was Rutger. Behind him were Albrecht mounted on his horse and dozens of members of the guild.

The members wore tunics or gambesons and were mostly armed with weapons such as short swords and daggers.

From a distance, it would seem like Albrecht was the leader of Rutger’s guild since he was the only one among the people present who was mounted on a horse.

Albrecht stared indifferently at the other side while holding his sword and Siegfried’s Thunder Axe; however, he felt different inside.

‘I should’ve won my armor. One wrong move here and I’ll die.’

Albrecht was able to easily kill the mercenaries he had dealt with at Rutger’s request before because most of the groups consisted of only one or two strong opponents with the aid of some mercenaries.

The Great Families had many important assets to protect—real estate, professional technicians, docks and warehouses. If they deployed 5 people for each of these assets, they needed at least 100 people to protect everything. The fees to pay all these people would probably knock them back. They would go bankrupt if this lasted for a month. They’d already lost a lot of money.

Therefore, their people were deployed in multiple locations, and Albrecht dealt with them one by one.

The problem now, from Albrecht’s point of view, was that each and every armed man on the other side looked strong. They all seemed like individuals capable of taking down a knight alone.

Albrecht was confident of winning against all of them, but he felt like he would get himself seriously injured. Nevertheless, he was not afraid.

Then suddenly, Albrecht’s eyes opened wide when he saw someone. It was Diego. He didn’t recognize him at first with his hair and beard trimmed in a very dignified and sharp manner. He gave a different impression than before.

Unlike his intelligent and upright character before, he gave off a strong impression of being a soldier. He was unarmed and wearing a high-end tunic. He looked like a part of the entourage of one of the Great Families. He looked at Albrecht with no expression on his face.

Only the noise coming from the workers on the dock working in the distance was heard as a strong wind blew in this gloomy weather. The two groups stared at each other without making a sound.

Rutger was the one who made the first move as he walked to the middle of the vacant lot. The leaders of the Great Families followed suit.

With a terrifying smile in lieu of his usual business-like smile, Rutger struck up conversation, “How have you been? Your business going well for you?”

The middle-aged man wearing quality leather clothes and fur hat answered, “Not quite, because of some bastard.”

With his smile still on his face, Rutger replied, “Are you talking about me or about our Sir Knight?”

The man didn’t answer. The old man wearing a fox fur coat spoke, “What do you want?”

Rutger spat on the ground and straightened his clothes dramatically.

“Let’s split up this territory.”

As soon as those words left Rutger’s mouth, the young man who gave off an impression of being both cold and calm—the one who had been a spectator of the conversation thus far—slicked back his blond hair to the back of his head.

He said, “That won’t happen. You’ll never be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with us.”

Rutger replied with a mocking smile, “When I killed your father, I took out his guts and used it to strangle him to death. If I killed his son the same way, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself from coming.”

Despite Rutger’s insult to his parents, the young leader seemed surprisingly calm. But even though he hated his father, he didn’t like Rutger’s insults.

“I’m sure you’re mad after my father ate your ass and wore it out. Well, thanks to that, you won’t have any trouble taking a shit now, right?”

Rutger’s smile disappeared. With an eerie impression, he glared at the young leader. The young man stared back with an icy expression on his face.

The old man looked at the two and said, “That’s enough now, let’s quickly wrap this up. Fine, say we split up this territory. Then what?”

Rutger turned his gaze away from the young leader and looked at the old man.

“Then let’s call for a truce.”

“A truce? Not a resolution?”

“Shouldn’t we divide the area first and see if you’re really going to commit to the agreement?”

The middle aged man replied coldly, “Negotiations are off. There’s no need for us to waste any more time. Let’s go.”

When the middle-aged man tried to walk away, the old man reached out and stopped him. Then he said to Rutger, “I’ll talk to them about splitting the area. I give you my word.”

“I’ll give you three days.”

The leaders of both sides turned their heads to their group at the end of Rutger’s words.

Albrecht heard their entire conversation but he wasn’t interested. His eyes were focused only on Diego.

‘Why is he there? I don’t think he’s betrayed me though. No, why would I be betrayed? I’m not one of Rutger’s men.’

Albrecht rushed to follow the side of the Great Families with his horse. Both sides were surprised by the sudden situation. The Great Families’ mercenaries swiftly drew their weapons and protected the leaders. Albrecht stopped in front of them without a care and shouted.

“Diego!”