Chapter 27
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 027
Chapter Title: Return
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On the walls of Chesky Sternberg Castle.
A guard who had been dozing off with heavy eyelids since early morning rubbed his eyes and peered into the distance.
"Um...?"
A massive dust cloud was rising beyond the horizon.
An ominous pressure, as if a colossal storm was barreling toward them.
"Wh-what is that? An earthquake?"
The guard narrowed his eyes and stared into the dust cloud.
And soon, his face drained of all color, turning ghostly pale.
People.
An endless march of countless people, wagons, horses, and flags.
The army swarming out of the valley like a black tide numbered at least tens of thousands, by rough estimate.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attaaaaack!"
With the guard's piercing scream, the bells on the walls began to clang wildly.
Dong— Dong— Dong—!
"Battle stations! Everyone to your positions! Raise the drawbridge! Damn it, they've already come for us!"
Knight Captain Kuno, who had been overseeing training in the parade ground, came dashing out in a panic.
He hastily adjusted his helmet straps and bounded up the stairs to the walls as if they might crumble beneath him.
"Where are they! Is it Sigismund's crusaders? Or those Taborite fanatics?!"
"L-look there, sir! No end in sight! At least ten thousand—no, twenty thousand!"
Kuno gripped the battlements and looked down. His jaw dropped in shock.
A black wave.
An overwhelming flood of people pouring into the approach to the Sternberg domain, threatening to burst it open.
The dust clouds shrouding everything made even the flags hard to discern.
"Th-this can't be..."
The sword nearly slipped from Kuno's hand. Despair etched across his face.
"Has the emperor already brought his entire imperial army? How are we supposed to hold this little castle against that host? Damn them! Cowards, striking while the lord is away!"
At that moment, Steward Konrad came sprinting from inside the castle, yelling in alarm.
"Sir Kuno! What in the world is happening? Enemy attack?!"
"See for yourself, Konrad! That insane number! We need to prepare to fight right now!"
Konrad glanced down from the wall and blanched. The old man's legs trembled.
"Oh, God... And the lord is in Prague of all times..."
Then it happened.
The dust cloud parted briefly on the wind, revealing the banner held high by the lead rider.
One soldier on the wall pointed and shouted.
"Huh? Th-that banner at the front... Isn't that our family crest?"
"What?"
Kuno's eyes bulged.
The lead rider piercing through the dust waved a flag.
A blue star with eight antlers on a golden field.
It was unmistakably the Sternberg crest.
And below it, a man in splendid armor astride a white horse was waving toward them.
"...My lord?"
Kuno's eyes nearly popped out.
The massive drawbridge lowered with a groan, and the firmly shut gates swung open.
I rode my horse slowly into the castle grounds.
"My lord! You're safe!"
Kuno and Konrad rushed out barefoot and knelt before me.
"We thought it was an enemy raid—our hearts nearly stopped! What are all those masses of people? Prisoners? Or...?"
Sir Kuno stared blankly at the endless procession trailing behind me.
"Ah, these guys?"
I dismounted and brushed the dust from my cloak.
"Our workers."
"Pardon? All... all of them?"
"Yeah. Brought them to overhaul Sternberg. Scraped up every unemployed soul in Prague."
Konrad's face went from white to translucent.
"M-my lord... Even roughly, that's over ten thousand. You're employing them all?"
"That's right."
I glanced back at the long line snaking behind me.
Masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, laborers, and their families.
People laden with bundles, pulling wagons, carrying children on their backs, following me.
Almost no stragglers. If anything, refugees joining from every village we passed had snowballed the numbers.
At my words, Konrad clutched his head and screamed.
"My lord! Where will we get the money for them? What about dinner tonight? We'd empty the domain granaries and still only last three days! And wages for that many—our house finances will collapse!"
To him, a rural estate manager, the idea of large-scale civil engineering was nothing short of a disaster.
In his eyes, those people weren't workers—they were locusts come to devour the domain.
I patted Konrad's shoulder with a smile.
"Calm down, Konrad. We've got plenty of money."
"Pardon?"
"And no need to worry about food either. I brought experts."
I beckoned to the rear.
"Abraham! Come say hello."
An old man stepped down from the carriage behind me. Rabbi Abraham.
"Pleased to meet you. Retainers of Sternberg."
Abraham bowed politely, without a hint of servility.
"I am Abraham, appointed by His Highness to oversee royal finances and logistics."
"A... Jew?"
Konrad and Sir Kuno gasped in unison.
To them, Jews were heretics to shun, or ruthless moneylenders at best.
But Abraham, as if accustomed to their scornful gazes, pulled a thick ledger from his robes and opened it.
"We have secured food rations for approximately twenty thousand for about a month. Flour and salted meat requisitioned from Prague—two hundred wagonloads."
Abraham reported methodically.
"Additionally, I've already contracted with merchants from the neighboring Rataj domain. Supplementary food deliveries start tomorrow. All payments made upfront, so no delivery mishaps."
Konrad's jaw dropped.
Logistics for twenty thousand, sorted en route?
"Th-that's one thing, but where will you house them all? The castle has no rooms!"
"Ten thousand tents procured. We'll divide the open field outside the walls into camps, with water sources and latrines strictly separated for hygiene."
Abraham was prepared for mass migrations, as befitted a Jewish leader who had spent his life persecuted and wandering.
Though that preparation was meant for his people's flight, not Prague's unemployed.
Abraham turned and barked orders like a seasoned quartermaster.
"What are you waiting for! Groups one through ten, pitch tents. Eleven through twenty, set up cookfires! If the pots aren't boiling by sundown, you'll chew raw flour for dinner!"
"Yes, sir!"
At Abraham's shout, the Prague laborers sprang into action with crisp efficiency.
In moments, orderly tent villages rose on the barren field outside the castle. Pots hung everywhere, the air filling with woodsmoke and hearty stew aromas.
Konrad watched the scene, dumbfounded.
Even as a capable steward, this scale was beyond him.
To a man who had spent his life counting chickens in a rural backwater, Prague's sheer capital and administrative might was a shock.
Konrad asked in a trembling voice.
"Y-Your Highness. What exactly are you planning? Bringing all these people and supplies..."
I turned to my two retainers and grinned.
"Sternberg won't be some bumpkin farmstead from now on."
"Pardon? You mean..."
"This place will be the heart of industry."
I pointed to the tens of thousands of workers bustling below the walls.
"I'll pour steel from here. The toughest, hottest steel Europe has never seen. And build a city for the technicians to make it happen."
Right now, it was empty plain, but I planned to turn Sternberg into Bohemia’s one and only industrial hub.
Every reform I envisioned would start right here.
"Enough sightseeing."
I clapped my hands.
"Sir Kuno."
"Yes, my lord."
"Did you handle the task from my letter?"
Sir Kuno's expression turned solemn in an instant. He replied in a heavier, more earnest tone than usual.
"Yes, of course. Before your arrival, I gathered everyone in the domain and conveyed your will."
In truth, before reaching here, I had sent a messenger ahead with a letter to Sternberg.
To inform my retainers and the domain folk that I had been crowned King of Bohemia in Prague—and that I had joined hands with the "heretic" Hussites in the process, fighting for my life.
Truth be told, my biggest worry on this return wasn't external enemies, but internal unrest.
The lord who had been sharpening blades to slaughter heretics yesterday was back today as their king?
To the domain folk, it was a bolt from the blue; they could be forgiven for thinking I'd sold my soul to the devil.
"How was the reaction?"
"To be frank... At first, no one could believe it. They were enemies pointing swords at each other just days ago, and the Church called them horned devils. The priests nearly fainted, and the peasants trembled in fear."
Sir Kuno paused briefly, then met my eyes with unwavering resolve.
"But in the end, everyone accepted and vowed to follow. Because of the miraculous victories you've shown so far, and your devotion to the people."
Sir Kuno took in the peaceful sight of the domain below, smoke rising lazily from chimneys.
"When everyone was starving to death. You fed them, and defended this castle from overwhelming foes. The people trust your bread and blade more than the Pope's doctrines now."
"..."
"They said if it's the lord's will, there must be some profound reason we don't grasp. Though fearful, they'll obey."
A weight settled in my chest.
"Good. Thanks to your persuasion."
"You're too kind. I'm merely your sword."
At any rate, with the domain folk on board, one less worry.
I let out a sigh of relief and turned.
Then called to the steward still gaping at the tens of thousands.
"Konrad."
"Y-yes? Yes, Your Highness!"
Konrad startled and bowed deeply.
"Snap out of it. No time to gawk. The real work starts now."
"I-I'll keep that in mind."
"Clear the guest quarters in the castle. The sunniest, cleanest ones. For the very esteemed, high-nosed master craftsmen I brought from Prague."
Konrad blinked.
"Cr-craftsmen... You mean those soot-covered blacksmiths? In the guest quarters?"
By medieval standards, blacksmiths were mere lowly laborers.
Lodging such folk in rooms for nobles and knights was beyond Konrad's rigid comprehension.
"Yes. Blacksmiths, carpenters, masons. All guild masters with reputations in Prague—sky-high egos."
"B-but, Your Highness! Those are for noble guests! How can we put common artisans there..."
"Konrad."
My voice dropped low, and he snapped his mouth shut.
"From now on, in my domain, callused hands make a noble. The man with the hammer outranks the one with the title. Understood?"
"...Y-yes. I'll prepare at once."
Konrad scurried off with a grimace, looking like the world had turned upside down.
Just then, a lavishly adorned carriage midway in the procession halted.
The door opened, and men in silk robes and leather gloves stepped out.
The guild masters from Prague and their entourages.
"Ugh, the stench. This dump reeks of cow shit."
"Who drags us to a backwater like this?"
Their haughty, grumbling voices carried up to the walls.
"Well, humbling that attitude is only a matter of time."
I chuckled.
"Fetch Tomasi and Jakub. Tell them honored guests from Prague have arrived."