The Biography of Albrecht - Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Translator: Nezu

Editor: Daed

“Um—um, Sir Knight. Let me guide you inside,” an old man, who looked like the chief of the village, said.

Albrecht nodded and followed the old man towards a house.

There wasn’t a village hall or something. Instead, he was led to a house that was probably where the village chief’s. The village chief had a son and a daughter, both of whom were married and now lived on their own. Though they lived on their own, they still lived nearby.

People were sorting out the supplies outside. Randolph entered the house, walked next to the village chief and then stared at Albrecht, admiring him. He was giving him an impatient look, as if he wanted Albrecht to teach him about swordsmanship as soon as possible.

“I’ve been raising this kid ever since he was a baby. He’s more clever and stronger than his peers. He will surely become an outstanding person.”

The village chief looked at Randolph lovingly. Albrecht didn’t really agree with what he said but he let it go and simply stated his intentions.

“I came all the way here from the North to find Eric’s mother. That’s the only reason why I came here.”

“How about teaching me!” Randolph shouted when he heard Albrecht saying that he only had ‘one’ reason.

Albrecht’s conscience was instantly pricked.

Ah, right. Damn.

He only made it up to keep Randolph away from him. Still, a promise was a promise. A knight’s promise weighed more than a thousand pieces of gold to this world.

Yet this was incomparable to the relationship and agreements between a king and his vassals. Responding to a king’s call would be considered honorable, but rejecting it was also not to be reviled since it was a common thing to do. They were in an era where tribal customary laws were used more often than written laws. No, there wasn’t any written law in the first place.

“Oho, how dare you speak like that to Sir Knight!”

The village chief scolded Randolph with a stern look, as if he didn’t just look at him lovingly a while ago. Randolph was startled but he continued to speak.

“B-but Master promised!”

Now he was simply calling Albrecht his master. Albrecht thought that he might have a knack of getting himself involved with others’ business. Moreover, he was at a loss for words right now.

“You really want to get scolded? Get out of here, don’t interrupt when adults are talking.”

Randolph looked dejected. He left the house looking at Albrecht with pleading eyes. Albrecht closed his eyes.

Oh, please.

Once the village chief saw Randolph leave, his expression turned subservient once again.

“I’ll get you something to drink and eat first.”

“No need, I’m good. I just want to know if Eric’s mother is here.”

The village chief had been about to get up from his seat but now he sat back down. He had a look of reluctance and discomfort.

“She isn’t. Eric’s mother died a long time ago.”

Albrecht had expected this answer but he felt sorry for Eric when he actually heard it.

“Does she have a tombstone?”

The village chief shook his head wordlessly. A moment of silence draped over them.

The chief spoke first, breaking the silence.

“If it’s not too rude to ask, may I ask why you’re looking for Eric’s mother?”

He had heard the rough story from Randolph but didn’t understand it well because the kid  rushed to explain. So he asked Albrecht directly.

Albrecht answered, “I killed Eric even though he did me no wrong. I know this is unbelievable but I regretted my actions just before he ran out of breath. I sincerely asked for his forgiveness. Then he gave this to me and asked me to give it to his mother.”

Albrecht took out the pendant. The village chief looked at it and nodded; however, he had nothing else to say. Eric died, and so did his mother. She had no tombstone.

Albrecht continued, “I’ve heard a story on my way here. The story said that Eric killed a lord’s son and ran away. Shortly after, the lord destroyed the village. I hope to hear the story in detail.”

The village chief closed his eyes. His expression seemed detached. After a while, he spoke.

“Our village, Penbacht, was considered a big village.”

Penbacht used to be a large village and its villagers paid small taxes. Moreover, since it was close to the Southern Continent, merchants considered it as an intermediate distribution area.  This helped the village to prosper.

The head of a village imposed and handled the records of taxes. Since this world didn’t have any written rules, taxes may differ from one place to another. Some places imposed high taxes, making the people suffer, while others taxed their people with only a small amount of money. Fortunately, Penbacht fell into the latter category.

Since there were no planes or cars, and horses were too valuable to use unless really needed, it was difficult for one person to manage a whole territory in an organized and systematic way. Thus, the lords mostly cared only about the villages around their forts.

Just like how celebrities needed managers, stylists, and coordinators to assist them, the lords also needed people to aid them. However, they had no officials to help them except those few people living near their fortress. Thus, it was hard to dispatch people to manage the other villages of their territory.

While it was good to visit the other villages, lords weren’t always so free to leave their fort.

Villages near a lord’s fort served as some sort of assistants to the lord. In the event of a war, people from those villages would participate in the war, take turns guarding their territory, or provide labor for territorial undertakings such as logging like in Kaltern.

Thus, with the exception of the villages near the fort, the people of the territory were treated like livestock. They were abandoned when necessary.

While recounting Penbacht’s situation in the past, the village chief began to talk about the tragedy that happened to them.

“Eric was a young man with a strong sense of justice. Though it might have been better for a commoner like him if he didn’t have it at all.”

The lord’s son, who was in his prime at that time, often rode horses and played around. Then he discovered the village of Penbacht. He had no interest in collecting their small taxes, but he acted as if he had found a good playground to mess around with. He visited the village every day to cause trouble to the villagers. He flirted with girls, destroyed the villagers’ properties, and killed their livestock.

What the hell. This is basically my story.

“Eric was kind of like the leader of the village’s youth. He didn’t like how the lord’s son acted so he stood up to him and stopped him. The lord’s son had no sword skills nor was he strong, so he went back home with resentment.”

The problem was that Eric had a wife at that time. The lord’s son raped his wife then threw her into the street while Eric was away.

Eric, who returned from work, despaired as he looked at the corpse of his wife. The lord’s son looked down on him as he told the villagers that the same thing would happen to them if they dared to disobey and resist.

An enraged Eric strangled the lord’s son to death on the spot.

“It’s not that I don’t understand Eric’s feelings, but he acted too rashly. He was impulsive, and thoughtless.”

Eric’s friends, scared of what the lord would do to him, sent him away from the territory. Thus the village was razed to the ground.

“Eric’s mother had the most brutal and tragic death. Her hands were tied to a post and her stomach was split open. That’s when I found out that a person could still breathe for a long time even after their guts poured out.”

The village chief’s eyes closed again. It was a terrifying memory.

The lord wreaked havoc on the village and slaughtered many people. The villagers left all their belongings and fled to the hills. They lived there for weeks in terrible conditions.

When the village’s soldiers went back to the ruined village, they all returned with nothing but debris.

Albrecht looked at the village chief and asked, “Do you blame him for what happened?”

The village chief answered with his eyes closed, “I do.”

Albrecht had no more words left to say. Nothing could have been said of Eric, who avenged his wife’s tragic death. Nor could anything be said for the village chief, who blamed Eric for what happened to their village.

Should someone be blamed for this tragedy?

It was also ironic that Eric was eventually killed by him, an impudent son of another territory’s lord.

“What happened to that lord?”

“He had a son and a daughter. After his son died, he became depressed. He insisted on handing over the estate to his daughter. Some of their relatives claimed the right of succession and asked for a duel. The lord lost but he didn’t want to accept it.”

There was no use denying the outcome of a duel. All the people around the lord left him and no one was willing to fight for him. In the end, his relatives took over the estate.

In this era where the mortality rate for infants was high, successors were very important. Albrecht thought that the lord should have just kept his son inside the castle. He didn’t understand why he let his son do what he did. He could only assume that what happened to them was their fate.

Albrecht had nothing more to ask. His journey for Eric’s request had been in vain. He was reminded once again of his past self and somehow had a feeling of déjà vu.

The village chief looked at Albrecht’s face for a moment then said, “It’s getting late. Let me prepare your dinner now. I think you’d better stay here for a while. You have to teach Randolph about swordsmanship anyway.”

What the?!

Albrecht had wondered where Randolph learned to be clever. Now he realized he learned from the village chief. Though the chief wasn’t a merchant, he might have picked up a few tricks from dealing with merchants before when Penbacht was still flourishing.

However, it was true that he had nothing left to do now. It would be better if he stayed in this village until the end of winter.

He didn’t really have a problem teaching swordsmanship nor did he have any secret techniques to hide. He just didn’t like dealing with a child. It was troublesome.

Albrecht believed that the kid would soon lose interest. His admiration for battle and knighthood would soon pass. For now, he decided to stay for a few days and teach swordsmanship as a pastime.

“Thank you. I am in your debt.”

The village chief’s house had a living room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms. He offered his room to Albrecht and said that he would share the other room with Randolph.

Albrecht ate the wine, meat, and cheese from the stolen supplies. Then he went to bed.

As he laid down in bed, he gazed at the pendant and thought about Eric.

He was a man with a strong sense of justice. If he was born on modern Earth, he could become a good police officer or firefighter. Yet he was born here in this damned world and faced a tragedy.

Being born into this world with a sense of justice was a tragedy itself. Was it wrong that Eric stopped the lord’s son from committing more crimes? Should he have stayed still after seeing his wife’s dead body? Would the village be safe if the lord found him?

What would Albrecht do if the same thing happened to him? How should he act if he didn’t have the strength he had?

He contemplated and contemplated yet he couldn’t answer his questions. His ‘self’, a modern man on Earth who controlled the past Albrecht who had acted like a psychopath, was essentially just a commoner as well. He was far from heroic.

Rather, the past Albrecht might have been more suitable for the image of a hero. The fighting spirit burning in his heart every time he fought was not something that his ‘self’, who was just a normal citizen of modern Earth, had.

His ‘self’ was in his 30s. Although his values were already established, he didn’t really live with a ‘conviction’. He just went with the flow; he graduated from elementary school, middle school, high school, and college then went to work.

However, this world had always been a world that blatantly forced humans to choose between death and beliefs. The third option was submission and conformity. Since he had become so strong and nearly invincible, he had stopped to think about this issue.

Even though Eric was weak and just a commoner, he lived with his own beliefs. Albrecht considered him braver than he was.

Killing Eric’s cow, waking him up to break his teeth, tying him up to a pole and cutting his ears and nose. Suddenly, all those images passed through his mind. He wasn’t supposed to die that way.

As he covered himself with a blanket, Albrecht felt ashamed.