The Biography of Albrecht - Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Translator: Nezu

Editor: Daed

***

Otto swept the table with his arms and cleared everything except the glasses onto the ground.

This grandpa is a real man.

They filled their glasses with wine, caring not about its taste. The knights’ way of drinking red wine was to simply gulp it down; no need to savor it. After drinking two glasses, they each picked up some meat.

Adelmar mumbled as he ate, “Michael is the uncle of Manfred von Vanhenheim, the head of the Vanhenheim family. He’s the one who calls the shots in their family. Uh… Anyway, so the Vanhenheim family…”

To understand Michael’s identity, it was necessary to know about his family first—the Vanhenheim. Thus, Adelmar briefly introduced the Vanhenheim family to Albrecht.

The Vanhenheim family was rather unique. Their estate was small, but all the men in their family were knights. They fought in duels with other lords using their champions and strove to win, thus ousting the lords from their own territories.

Duels were more prevalent in the North and Central Region than in any other parts of the world. As a result, a number of families collapsed and were wiped out overnight.

The Vanhenheim family was a prominent warrior family in the Central Region. Among them was Michael, who was given the title ‘Snake Sword’. He enjoyed duels and killing knights. He was reputed to be an invincible knight, and many knights were afraid of him.

Indeed, the way his sword had moved around his shield was the same as that of a snake. It was amazing.

“But Michael killed our king, King Conrad, in a duel. The problem was that after he did, a war of succession broke out.”

The war between Conrad and Leopold that the refugee family was talking about actually took place after Conrad died. That said, Albrecht was surprised that the two nonchalantly shared that their king was dead; yet he also thought that a king dying through a duel could indeed happen.

In Albrecht’s understanding, this world was in the period of transitioning from ancient to medieval times. Meaning, there were still many tribal cultures left to this day. Even the knights of this era still showed the characteristics of knights having the warrior culture before the medieval period.

If the king was man enough to fight in a duel with fair rules, then there shouldn’t be any qualms to him being killed since it was basically legal.

Thinking of something, Albrecht suddenly asked Adelmar.

“Why did he choose to fight himself? He didn’t have a champion to fight for him?”

“I’m not quite sure about the details. I heard that it had to do with jealousy over a lover. Maybe his anger pushed him to fight himself.”

Albrecht didn’t understand. However, when he remembered Elisa and what happened before, he wondered if it was the same thing with the king.

There was nothing a man could do if he fell for a woman. 

Unfortunately, a war broke out after he died. Albrecht became distracted, thinking whether to consider what happened a comedy or a tragedy.

Adelmar continued, “Anyway, King Conrad had a son with the queen. He’s only 10 years old. However, King Leopold insisted that his son also had the right for succession. He wanted the inheritance to be shared. It was ridiculous.”

King Leopold’s queen was King Conrad’s aunt. Adelmar and Otto’s young king and King Leopold’s son were fifth cousins. It was normal in the North and the Central Region to divide the inheritance among family members. However, it was certainly illogical for a fifth cousin to claim the right to a share of the inheritance. He wasn’t even the current king’s sibling.

Albrecht’s question about Michael soon turned to the story behind the war as they continued to drink.

Adelmar then asked him how he earned the title ‘Vertical Mangler’. Albrecht obliged and shared the story indifferently. However, as soon as he mentioned his fights, both Adelmar and Otto responded with admiration. Albrecht, who originally didn’t care about pride and was now probably drunk, started to brag as he received good reactions from his listeners.

“I prefer the title ‘Knight King’ to the title ‘Vertical Mangler’.”

“’Knight King’?! What a pompous title!”

Otto snorted loudly as if he was breathing fire from his nose.

“Oho! It’s not a title that I made up myself. The people of Roybeck made it themselves. It was made after I killed a hundred mercenaries alone. Soon, the rumors will reach this place too.”

There were actually just about 20 mercenaries in that incident. The rest were members of the Thief Guild. Killing that number of people alone was indeed still praiseworthy. Yet Albrecht, who was now drunk in wine, started to exaggerate the story.

“A—a hundred mercenaries?! That’s impossible!”

Adelmar, who was admiring Albrecht at first, also thought that it was nonsense. Of course it was, since it was a lie.

After that, the knights continued to drink, sharing their stories to each other and praising one another. One said that it was true while the other two answered that it was not.

Albrecht also complimented the two.

“But wouldn’t it be hard for the king to raise an army all of a sudden? Since you and your men are all honorable and have pride to keep.”

Not every vassal in this world was at the beck and call of their kings. Even if they did succeed at raising an army after one excuse, those men who joined briefly often went back to their own territories after the king’s summon. Yet the two mobilized an army for the sake of their young king who had just ascended the throne.

Despite Albrecht’s words, the two men’s expressions didn’t seem pleasant. Adelmar looked at Otto’s face and answered reluctantly.

“My Uncle Otto here is actually the brother of the current king’s mother.”

“Ah.”

Kaltern was a pioneering land. Burkhardt married the daughter of an indigenous chief. Albrecht didn’t feel inferior because of this. However, he thought that this area was already intertwined and full of nobles for a long time now.

Albrecht realized that political marriages were not useless. Without any kinship, he wondered if they would have made an army to support the current young king.

Anyway, it was not his problem.

Adelmar asked Albrecht carefully, “Um… Sir Albrecht. Would you care to join us?”

Albrecht contemplated. They were serious about asking him to join and offered payment as well. However, the war had not actually even started yet. They were still in the process of gathering troops and supplies. It would be at least until next spring before they mobilize their troops for battle. If he joined, leaving Roybeck early would be pointless.

“Forgive me, but I can’t. I have to go to Penbacht.”

“Penbacht…?”

Both Adelmar and Otto didn’t know where Penbacht was. They knew the names of the surrounding territories and regions, but not the names of the villages nearby. This world’s era didn’t use maps yet; only merchants and priests who travelled across the world had geographical knowledge of the world.

“It’s in the southeast part of the Central Region. Actually, I don’t really know exactly where it is.”

The southeast part of the Central Region was the territory of King Leopold.

Otto inquired, “May I ask why you’re going to Penbacht?”

Albrecht looked at his glass filled with wine and answered after a moment of contemplation.

“I killed a man named Eric, but he didn’t do anything wrong to me. He asked me to deliver something to his mother before he died. I only know that his mother lives in Penbacht.”

“Was Eric a knight?”

Albrecht shook his head, “Just a commoner.”

Adelmar asked, confused. “Then why go to the trouble of doing a favor from someone who isn’t even a knight or a noble?”

Albrecht smiled furtively. He was in an era where there was no concept yet of morality or ethics. These people wouldn’t understand.

“It’s just a promise to myself. I swore to never kill the innocent or weak for no reason.”

Suddenly, Rutger’s last words came to his mind. A luxury that only a monster like me can afford. So what if it was a luxury? With this power I have, I’ll be luxurious for as much as I want.

Otto jumped up from his seat and held Albrecht’s shoulder tightly.

“Excellent, knight.”

He looked genuinely moved. Albrecht felt embarrassed. Even Diego didn’t understand at first why he had to go to Penbacht.

Albrecht smiled and said, “Thanks.”

The three continued to chat, drink, and eat meat. After Adelmar fell asleep on the table, Albrecht and Otto agreed to leave their seats. Otto ordered a subordinate to guide Albrecht to a place he could sleep in.

When Albrecht walked out of the barracks, he realized that their drinking which had begun at noon had continued until the evening. Torches were lit around the garrison. Merchants were now standing outside selling weapons, prostitutes, and other things to the soldiers.

Albrecht was led into a small tent and saw a simple bed inside. He lay in bed, lost in thought.

When he encountered the demon living in his body before, Albrecht thought that it was the ‘old’ Albrecht. But it wasn’t. It was a demon who lived in the hearts of every human being. Even his other ‘self’ from Earth had it too.

That demon was ineradicable. The only way to keep the demon away was to meet good people and share good feelings with them.

For some reason, he liked Adelmar and Otto. Albrecht finally had a good night’s sleep after his long journey with a smile on his face. Meeting good people was a good thing for him.

***

Albrecht got up early and prepared to leave for Penbacht even after drinking so much the other day. He was preparing his equipment and belongings—thinking whether he should say goodbye to Adelmar and Otto—when at some time, Otto had woken up and approached Albrecht.

“I hope you get to Penbacht safely. And I hope I never meet you as my enemy someday.”

Albrecht answered with a smile, “I don’t want to meet Sir Adelmar or you as an enemy either. I wish you luck.”

He saluted to show his respect. Otto did the same.

Albrecht mounted his horse and headed south.

Despite being winter, the weather had been warm since he left the garrison. It was a good thing for those who embarked on a journey during winter.

After a few days, Albrecht finally removed the grass on his wound. His wounds still stung, burned a little, and itched. It wasn’t good to bandage the wounds too tightly.

A few more days passed as he headed to the South. He saw a few more of the ruined villages, and a few bodies lying on the ground. They had probably died during the war.

He wondered if there was a standard to reach to consider something a tragedy, if it should be considered a good thing that a massacre didn’t happen, how the people should live after losing all their food and money. Should they just peel off the bark of trees then boil it or dig up grass roots and eat them to survive?

Albrecht had sworn to help the weak for as far as he could, but he wasn’t a saint. He had his own problems to worry about. He had already eaten all his smoked herring and was now living off hard bread and beef jerky. He even had to eat it sparingly. There were no decent villages or inns nearby because of the impending war. His gold and silver coins were useless.

He wondered what he should do with this never-ending tragedy. There was actually nothing he could do even though he had his modern knowledge from Earth. He didn’t want to act recklessly by using his knowledge from modern Earth and induce a bigger tragedy.

Albrecht was almost considered invincible as an individual, but overcoming this kind of problem was completely a different matter even for him.

However, he suddenly remembered that history gradually moves in stages; that even when forced to speed up, it wouldn’t go beyond its limits. Then how about establishing a unified dynasty first? How about at least rectifying the nation’s system and security for now? The next generation could deal with whatever problems that may come next if the system’s not perfect.

Could he ever make a real reason to reunify this world? Would massacre and plundering be involved in the process of reunification? To what extent was it possible? Could he do it by himself?