The Biography of Albrecht - Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Translator: Nezu

Editor: Daed

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Though Albrecht was nowhere to be seen, his welcoming party continued, perhaps as Sigmund urged. The sounds of people drinking and chatting could be heard—even the heated sounds of some men and women could be heard.

Albrecht was in his tent, taking off his armor under Randolph’s assistance.

“Though you haven’t met him personally, how do you feel about seeing the king for the first time?”

“He was frustrating.”

“Haha, I know.”

Albrecht sat on his bed after taking off his armor.

“What about the other soldiers? Where are they?”

“I heard that they were brought to the right flank but I’m not really sure. They will be put in training tomorrow.”

“I see…”

Albrecht became gloomy because of his complicated thoughts. He sighed as he stared at the ground, his broad shoulders drooping.

Randolph, who sat in a nearby chair, said, “Um, Master.”

“What?”

“Do you not like that Sigmund guy?”

“Haha, why? You like him?”

“No, it’s just that, I think he’s way better than the king.”

Albrecht smiled wryly, “Way better than the king, huh.”

However, the question was how great Sigmund’s desire for power was. Though he was a distant relative of the king, they weren’t closely related. He could kill the little king at any time and make himself king.

Albrecht would follow Sigmund in battle, but he definitely wouldn’t follow him if the man planned to kill or overthrow the king.

He could have exercised his power by merely acting as a regent. However, the king’s mother would become his quiet, political enemy. He would also have a problematic relationship with Adelmar and Otto, the king’s close relatives. Sooner or later, the little king would become an adult. What would he do then?

Albrecht shook his head and forced himself to get rid of his thoughts. He didn’t need to bother about the internal problems since they even had King Leopold to worry about. It wasn’t even his style either to overthink. Then it occurred to him that King Leopold might be having the same kind of internal problems as they did.

Just then, someone came to his tent.

“Is Sir Albrecht inside?”

It was Otto, the Count of Lothringen.

“Lord Otto. Come in.”

Albrecht and Randolph rose to their feet and let the old man in. Randolph bowed to the two and left. Otto held a bottle of wine in his hand.

“Let’s drink.”

The two sat at the table and began to drink without saying a word. They didn’t have a snack to eat with it.

Ah, I should’ve asked him to bring some snacks.

Albrecht wanted to call Randolph back to bring him some snacks but the current atmosphere prevented him from doing so.

When Albrecht became slightly drunk, Otto began to speak.

“What do you think of the king?”

Albrecht had just been about to drink another glass, but he set it down and looked at Otto.

“Disappointing.”

“Mm.”

Otto nodded once and then gulped down a glassful of wine. Albrecht was roughly aware of Otto’s intentions for coming here, but he really wanted to eat some snacks.

“What about Great Lord Sigmund?”

Albrecht guzzled down the wine that he had set down earlier then said, “He’s probably very capable. To think that a mere Lord could summon vassals from another country to join a war.”

“Mm.”

Again, Otto answered only with a noncommittal hum. Albrecht looked at him, seeing him trying to put on a brave face despite his hidden worries.

“What’s important is how far he’ll go. I don’t think he’s really fighting purely for the sake of the little king. I won’t fight for him if he wants something more than that.”

“…I see.”

Otto nodded, staring at the glass.

“Let me ask you a question this time. Are you going to fight for your nephew or for the king?”

The little king’s mother was Otto’s sister. Albrecht wanted to know if he was going to fight as a relative or a vassal of the king. He didn’t think of Otto as a political man; however, things seemed to be moving in a political direction.

Otto continued to stare at his glass, gently twirling it for a long time.

“I’m not sure myself. I wish I knew the answer to that.”

Otto was this kind of man. He wasn’t interested in political power play. Even after he had become vaguely aware of it, he only found it dirty.

He inherited his territory from his stupid father who had left it unattended, and struggled all his life to stabilize it, subduing the unscrupulous vassals with the previous king. After becoming comrades who fought in battles together, he naturally became good friends with the king, even managing to marry off his sister to him. Those were the good times…

The son of his close friend and the king he was loyal to was also his nephew.

When he raised an army for the little king, he only thought of heading out to fight.

However, as King Leopold’s army continued to grow, the Great Lord soon joined them and lived in the garrison for months. It became more obvious that the vassals were only loyal to him. No matter how apathetic he was to politics, he knew something was wrong. However, he didn’t know what he should do.

Albrecht, who was quietly watching Otto, said, “I think it’s useless for people like us to force our brains to work. Why don’t we defeat King Leopold first and survive, then think about what to do next?”

Otto, who had been expressionless all this time, cracked a small smile.

“You’re right. We should think of defeating King Leopold first.”

Albrecht said pensively as he looked at Otto, “But I want you to know I chose to participate in this war for a reason. I don’t want to think about anything else other than that. I’m not sure if you want me to be on your side. Like I told you before, I don’t want you to become my enemy.”

Otto took another swig of wine as his smile widened.

“We’re already on the same team. It’s not possible for me to be an enemy anymore.”

Albrecht smiled at Otto’s remark.

“That’s enough for today. It was nice talking to you. Let’s drink again next time.”

Otto got up and left the tent, with Albrecht following him to see him off. Then Albrecht returned to his tent and laid in bed.

Honestly, he had his own problems to worry about. He had no time to worry about others. Now that he had thought about it, he really should have just asked Sigmund to officialize the village. However, in their first meeting, Albrecht found the man somewhat arrogant and couldn’t hold back from showing an unreasonable jealousy.

Ah, damn.

Looking back at his actions, he couldn’t decide whether he should consider his mental age to be of a 15-year-old or a 30-year-old. He used to be a very modest man when he was still living in the modern times on Earth, yet now he treated people differently based upon whether he liked them or not.

Just then, Randolph came in.

“Are you going to sleep?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll check on our soldiers first before I go to bed as well.”

“Yeah.”

Randolph glanced at Albrecht. After living together for about three months, learning martial arts from him, this was the first that he had ever seen his master this gloomy.

“Umm…If I happen to sleep in tomorrow, I’ll be in the next tent, so please wake me up.”

“Yea—Hey.”

He was going to say ‘yeah’ again but realized that he shouldn’t. He looked up at Randolph, who smiled at him mischievously before leaving.

Albrecht laughed. He felt a bit lame for even making the kid worry.

Why was he acting like an idiot? He thought that it was probably because he was responsible for many people now. If it wasn’t for that, he would’ve probably beaten the king up. He tried to go to sleep, shaking off his worries.

The next day, Albrecht really happened to wake Randolph up. Albrecht usually woke up at dawn, and slept enough in the early evening—a habit he hadn’t had when he had been on Earth.

Randolph had the same routine but, perhaps because he was tired from their trip, he had overslept and needed Albrecht to shake him awake. Soon, Albrecht brought Randolph to the area where the merchants were to help him adjust the size of his armor.

People were seen lying around, sleeping on the ground. They had become so wasted from yesterday’s party that they couldn’t even get into their tents. Albrecht walked past them with a smirk.

Merchants were already preparing their merchandise early in the morning. Among them was a blacksmith slammed at work, producing a loud hammering sound. This sound could almost be an alarm clock for the tents close to the blacksmith.

“It will probably take a few days. We’re behind on orders.”

The blacksmith had been living in the garrison for a long time now. Thus, he didn’t seem intimidated by meeting a knight. However, when he turned his head to look at the person, the hand that was about to hammer stopped in mid-air, and his eyes widened as he stared at Albrecht’s face.

“A-are you, are you the K-Knight King?”

Albrecht merely nodded.

“I-I’ll do it right away.”

It was good to be famous.

It took a long time to take the right measurements for Randolph’s chain armor. They were told that they could come back later to pay for it, so the two decided to go to the area where the Wittenheim’s soldiers were.

The garrison was roughly divided into three main areas: the command post with the nobles and knights, the area for the merchants and civilians, and the area for the soldiers.

The area where the soldiers were located was some distance away from where the civilians were. They were almost no different to rogues, which was why such measures were taken. Even so, their area had no wooden fences or boundaries. Nevertheless, the tents were lined up in an orderly fashion.

Chaos ensued as soon as he entered the soldiers’ area. To begin with, nobles and knights rarely visited the soldiers. Only a few did. However, when they saw the Knight King entering their area, the soldiers were surprised and came out to watch.

Soldiers flocked to stare at some distance away from Albrecht. Before they knew it, they were already close to where the Wittenheim soldiers were staying.

“I’ll call them over.”

Randolph said before going inside the tent. After a while, a noise was heard from the inside and the Wittenheim soldiers rushed out. However, their faces were bruised all over.

The Wittenheim soldiers stood timorously in front of Albrecht.

“What happened?”

“Well… A hazing happened yesterday.”

Albrecht didn’t answer. Though he had already served the full term as a sergeant in Korea, there was much less beatings and abuse.

It wasn’t good to hastily conclude that the Wittenheim soldiers were being badly abused. Anyway, they weren’t even trained the same way he was back in modern Earth.

However, this meant that they had to entrust their lives to each other. No matter how unsophisticated this method was, undergoing this ‘hazing’ could also be a new way for the newcomers to be quickly accepted by their allies.

He knew that he would only cause some problems if he interfered with the commander’s way of doing things. It might seem disagreeable on the surface but there were actually benefits to it.

Still, Albrecht couldn’t help but have mixed feelings about it.

“You’ve been working hard. What was your name again?”

The leader of the Wittenheim soldiers answered, “It’s Gunther, sir.”

Albrecht asked the names of the rest of the soldiers one by one.

Just then, an old-looking soldier rushed up to him.

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