Chapter 85: The Tin Knight and The City of Struggle (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 85: The Tin Knight and The City of Struggle (4)
The Iron Blood Emperor was one of the most renowned monarchs in the Empire's history.
He possessed outstanding political skill and a talent for appointing the right people. Contrary to his title, he did not resort to bloodshed lightly, but once he drew his sword, he never failed to strike down his target.
The rebirth of the Adventurers Guild was but one of his many achievements.
Yet, even such an emperor had one great sorrow: he was terribly unlucky with his children.
His eldest son, born to the Empress, passed away before his first birthday, and his second and third sons also lost their lives, one from a fall from a horse and the other to illness.
When the Iron Blood Emperor himself died at the relatively young age of fifty, the only children left between him and the Empress were two princesses and the youngest prince.
The concept of a reigning empress did not exist in the Empire, and it was impossible for the young prince, not yet ten years old, to perform the Emperor's duties.
Naturally, the Empire's power split into two factions.
Those who followed the Guardian Lord of the State, Duke Lennart, and those who followed the Empress.
Amidst this political climate, the standing of the Haidern Marquis family, the Empress's maternal family, grew stronger by the day.
And the arrogance of Maximilian Egir Haidern, the second son of the Marquis and the Empress's nephew, soared ever higher.
Maximilian thought,
‘I must protect His Highness the Crown Prince and Her Majesty the Empress!’
He was young and naive, and he saw the world in a simple dichotomy.
The Empress and the young Crown Prince were good; Duke Lennart and his faction, who threatened them, were evil.
Maximilian doubted the loyalty of the Lennart Ducal House. The reason was simple.
‘Originally, it was my father’s rightful place to sit as the Guardian Lord and lead the Empire. Duke Lennart seized that position through cowardly power plays! If they were truly loyal, how could they stoop to such schemes?’
The argument that the position of Guardian Lord—effectively the regent—would never be handed over to the Empress's maternal family, especially when the Haidern family's influence was already strong thanks to the Empress, was meaningless to him.
The people Maximilian associated with were mostly of a similar ilk, so rather than correcting his thinking, they were busy flattering and agreeing with him. There were even quite a few who took his rhetoric a step further.
-Once His Highness the Crown Prince comes of age, the Empire will naturally return to its rightful master (and to them, who will have assisted that master).
-When that happens, Duke Lennart, who currently holds the position of Guardian Lord, will surely be pushed aside. But will those slaves to power give it up so easily?
-What if they plot something or use a dagger in the dark before His Highness comes of age?
-Wait a minute, now that I think about it, the successive, sudden deaths of the other princes were also a bit suspicious. Could it be?
-Perhaps even His Majesty’s passing in the prime of his life was…?
-You fiend! Duke Lennart! What a lawless and wicked man! We can never forgive him!
To prevent any misunderstanding, it should be noted that they weren't spouting this nonsense based on any conclusive evidence.
If anything, their own statements served as both testimony and proof.
Person A would mumble some baseless rumor, Person B would pick it up and mumble it back, and when Person C chimed in with agreement, Person A, who started it all, would become genuinely convinced, thinking, ‘Ah, so what I said must have been true!’
From the outside, it looked utterly idiotic, but it was a surprisingly common phenomenon within isolated groups.
To thwart the Lennart family's schemes, Maximilian gathered friends who were deeply loyal and prepared to devote themselves to the nation.
Like Maximilian, they were mostly idle loafers with ambiguous positions within their own families who had nothing better to do.
Their activities were varied.
Martial arts training, fostering camaraderie, hunting magic beasts and predators, fostering camaraderie, beating down the ruler who maintained the balance in the back alleys and throwing the area into a state of warring factions before congratulating themselves on establishing justice, fostering camaraderie. And then, fostering some more camaraderie.
Any questions about whether they were fostering camaraderie a bit too often were unnecessary. Heroes were meant to be womanizers. At least, that's what they claimed.
Maximilian and his gang caused trouble all over the Empire, but no one could stop them.
The title of "the Empress's nephew" was just that powerful.
Even nobles with little power had to bow and scrape before them, to say nothing of the common folk.
Maximilian and his followers, their arrogance at its peak, overlooked one crucial fact.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is puzzled, wondering if a marquis is just some paltry noble after all!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ insists that to be anyone worth noticing, you have to be at least royalty, an imperial family member, or from a margrave or ducal house that started a revenge plot after having their engagement broken!]
That there are madmen in the world who consider secular power to be nothing more than dirt under their fingernails.
*
“A-a paltry marquis…”
Adel broke into a sweat, seemingly shocked by the Tin Knight's choice of words.
Although she had been chided by Dorothea for having her head in the clouds, she was still a noble lady.
She couldn't be called well-versed in politics or strategy even as an empty compliment, but she possessed at least a basic level of culture and knowledge.
While it varied depending on the situation, a marquis was usually a high-ranking noble that even a king couldn't treat carelessly.
Let alone the maternal relative of the imperial family and the nephew of the current ruler—such a person would never be called ‘paltry’ anywhere.
Unaware of the assessment he had just received, Buttermilian—no, Maximilian—screamed while bound.
“You wicked witch! I will never forgive you!”
Dorothea replied, “You won’t forgive me?”
“That’s right!”
“No matter what?”
“Hah! It’s too late to beg for forgiveness now!”
Dorothea nodded her head emphatically.
Then she opened her mouth.
“Then there’s no helping it. Tin can. Begin.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is delighted, saying he’s always wanted to try playing the executioner after watching historical dramas!]
Schwing.
The clear sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath echoed, and the young nobles’ Adam’s apples bobbed nervously.
Maximilian shouted in alarm, “Are you people insane? You’d dare strike me down, knowing who I am!?”
“You said you wouldn’t forgive me no matter what. If I let you live, you’ll just come back for revenge. Is there any reason to let you go?”
“My father—no, Her Majesty the Empress will not forgive you! Silencing us here won’t be the end of it!”
“Right, but that’s true even if I let you go. In fact, the retaliation would probably come even faster.”
As the Tin Knight raised the blade, which glinted brilliantly in the light, Maximilian’s face turned deathly pale.
The witch’s words were perfectly logical, but to him, they were utterly unreasonable.
He had grown up doted on by the Empress and was close to the Crown Prince.
When he shouted at people, they were supposed to cower in fear or beg him for mercy.
That was the world Maximilian had lived in. That was the common sense he knew.
But with these people, that self-evident common sense didn’t work at all.
It was the other captured young men who showed Maximilian the ‘correct answer’.
“W-we won’t take revenge! We won’t retaliate at all, so please!”
“Please forgive us just this once! We only drew our swords because we were startled by the sudden situation! We had no hostile intent!”
“If you need compensation, just name it! We can give you plenty of money! So please!”
“W-wait. What are you all saying right now!”
“My lord, you must endure! If we die here so senselessly, who will protect His Highness the Crown Prince and serve Her Majesty the Empress!”
“That’s right. This fight started from a misunderstanding, so we are merely correcting it!”
Maximilian’s eyes darted around quickly.
The Tin Knight was dancing around the kneeling, bound young men, brandishing its sword this way and that.
No matter how you looked at it, the knight was not in its right mind. It was terrifyingly creepy.
Faced with the pressure from his peers to bow his head and the fear of death, Maximilian yielded.
“F-forgive me. I take it all back, what I said about revenge. So, please!”
Dorothea frowned, then let out a sigh.
She took out a dagger as if to slice her own palm, but after checking the number of people, she spoke to the Tin Knight.
“Get some blood from these guys. Just a shallow cut on the skin, since I’ll have to heal it without leaving a scar.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says dealing 1 damage isn’t hard!]
The Tin Knight’s sword flashed, and small cuts appeared on the young men’s bodies.
It was such a precise display of skill that even those who were cut barely felt any pain.
The blood they shed floated into the air without touching the ground, transforming into several sheets of contracts.
Looking down at the dozens of eyes staring up at her, the witch declared, “Sign. Now.”
*
“Was taking their memories enough? They’re people with a fair amount of power. I’d think there were many other ways you could have used them.”
At Sophia’s words, Dorothea shook her head.
“It’s fine. I hate getting tangled up with power. Besides, a Blood Oath isn’t something you can just conveniently overuse like that.”
Dorothea explained as she watched the young men hastily flee, as if afraid she might change her mind.
“A contract that compels a specific action ends once that action is completed. But a contract without a clear end point continuously puts a strain on the caster’s capacity. Specifically, it reduces things like your total mana and recovery rate. Controlling your magic also becomes more difficult. I can’t live my life shouldering a whole bunch of guys like that.”
“I see.”
“What. You have something to say?”
“No, I was just thinking you’ve had some pretty good luck with the people you’ve met?”
“You’re talking nonsense.”
Turning away from Sophia, Dorothea looked toward the mercenary group.
‘I need to do something about them, too.’
She had hidden the important parts, like the necromancy and the young men’s identities.
However, the mercenaries had witnessed the general flow of events—Maximilian’s gang picking a fight with Dorothea, getting beaten up, and being chased away. If they went around running their mouths, it could become a hassle later on.
Just as Dorothea was pondering whether she should wipe their memories as well...
Starting with their captain and Hindler, the entire Iron Stake Mercenary Group knelt before Dorothea.
“You saved our lives!”
“We will never forget this debt of gratitude!”
“What?”
In response to Dorothea’s question, the mercenary captain’s eyes gleamed as he spoke.
“Your confidence, not backing down an inch against powerful figures! And your overwhelming strength! You are the very embodiment of the true mercenaries I’ve always dreamed of! Please, take us under your command, Big Sis!!”
“Please take us in, Big Sis!!”
Dorothea’s jaw dropped.
She was so stunned that she even dropped the staff she was holding.
The Tin Knight said,
[The ‘Tin Knight’ congratulates you on the auspicious day you became Big Sis Dorothea!]