The prime example was the battle of Feuzen, when I ordered Viktor to pursue the Count of Basel while I kept Leto pinned down. And Viktor carried out his mission brilliantly.
Sending Anton to Grefeling followed the same logic. Setting the stage for them to demonstrate their abilities and raising them up—that was the duty of a master, of one who stands above, toward those who serve below.
"Secure city hall, and don’t forget to guard the important documents and the vault."
"I’ll carry out the mission without a single oversight."
Beort answered with vigor and headed into city hall. I followed the trembling guard assigned to guide me. Anyone could see he was the greenest of rookies, and he had clearly drawn the short straw.
"Th-th-th-this way! Eeek!"
"This kid’s going to pass out."
"Hahaha, what do you expect from a green rookie?"
They had probably assigned a rookie because it was simple guide duty, but rather than let this become a lifelong trauma for the poor boy, I would prefer he end up bragging someday that he once guided the Baron of Rosenheim.
"Aren’t you a rookie yourself, though?"
"I served in the Radensdorf cavalry before joining the knights, sir."
The noble recruit answered with easy confidence. Among the noble recruits were a few of the experienced newcomers our society prizes so highly. Once they adapt to the knights and complete their training, they are the likeliest candidates for lieutenant.
"Third son of the Viscount Normaden family, was it?"
"You remember me? I’m honored, Commander!"
"There aren’t so many of you that I’d forget."
Every single one of them is mine.
The third son of Normaden looked deeply moved.
I remember the faces and names of the fallen as well. I will never forget their noble deaths as long as I live, but it pains me that all I can do for them is compensate the families they left behind.
The Schafen administrator’s residence sat on a hill on the east side of the city.
"Commander! Look toward the harbor!"
At the man’s shout, I turned to look toward the harbor.
A terrible commotion seemed to have broken out. Judging by the flames shooting up near the docks, Drek had finally ambushed the fleeing lord. I could see duchy soldiers rushing toward the harbor as well.
A few of the anchored ships hurriedly pulled away from the docks, but before long they went straight to the bottom. Awfully convenient timing for a sinking, isn’t it? Drek may well have put holes in the hulls.
"They’ll handle things over there. We’re going into the administrator’s residence."
My men seemed to think capturing the Lord of Schafen was the greater prize, but with Schafen already fallen, I couldn’t have cared less about him. All my attention was fixed on this administrator.
The fact that a quest had been generated meant he was that important. The quests have never once been generated without reason, so this administrator was surely someone of considerable value to me.
[Child of the Magnolia I Quest Failed]
[The administrator of Schafen has died]
Huh? What was this, out of nowhere?
It was my first failed quest, and it threw me completely. The administrator was dead? Why so suddenly? Don’t tell me he had been down at the harbor instead of at his residence. Had he died caught up in that chaos?
I was rattled, no denying it, but there was nothing to be done.
There is no saving and reloading here. No way to undo the administrator’s death.
My men, unaware that the administrator was dead, entered the residence and searched it. There wasn’t a single sign of life inside, but sections of it had collapsed here and there. It looked as though a cannonball that had sailed over the walls scored a direct hit.
Then my men found something.
"It appears this man is the administrator."
He seemed to have been crushed by the collapsing ceiling just as he was heading out with a packed travel bag. The guard guiding us confirmed that it was the administrator. Judging by the teetering debris and the fresh dust, it must have all come down at once.
Rotten luck, walking under it at exactly the wrong moment. There had been no way to prevent this. Regrettable as it was, I could accept the quest failure. More importantly, what was in this travel bag?
"An administrator to the end. Documents and books were the first things he packed."
"Do you think there’s something important inside?"
"Let’s hope so. For now, let’s get out."
I called off the search and sent everyone outside. Cracks were spreading through the walls, and I could see the walls themselves shaking. Not long after, the administrator’s residence collapsed completely.
It was an unsatisfying end in every way, but I turned my steps toward the harbor. Part of it was engulfed in flames, and citizens and soldiers were desperately dousing them with water. A warehouse storing oil had apparently caught fire.
Once the fire was finally under control, Drek came running to me with the Lord of Schafen in tow. Most of my men’s faces were black with soot. The Lord of Schafen stared at me with hollow eyes.
"As ordered, I’ve brought you the Lord of Schafen!"
Having successfully completed his mission, Drek reported with full confidence.
With his face covered in soot, no less. He clearly had no idea what he looked like.
"Well done. Aside from all this commotion, that is."
"Well, the Lord of Schafen resisted so fiercely that it came to this."
As it turned out, the Lord of Schafen, cornered with his escape route cut off, had set fire to a pile of straw in a fit of desperation, and the flames spread across the entire harbor in the blink of an eye. Most of the storage warehouses were wooden, so it very nearly became a citywide blaze.
"I’m not scolding you. Were any of our men injured?"
"Only two, with minor wounds. Everyone’s fine."
Thank God there were no deaths despite the pandemonium. We had to forcibly mobilize the citizens to put out the fires before darkness settled over Schafen.
They had been storing Mediterranean olive oil brought in from Austria, and of course the fire broke out right there, causing substantial property damage. Michael spoke as if he were sick of it all.
"Putting out fires is harder than fighting the damn battle itself!"
"At least things seem to have settled down."
Michael and I entered the lord’s castle. Rather than entering the city as I had, he had sent troops straight to the castle so that not a single person could rifle through the vault on his own.
Everyone caught trying to flee with the lord’s wealth amid the chaos was captured and executed on the spot. Custom dictates that the bodies of those who lay hands on a lord’s property be thrown outside the castle walls.
From a religious standpoint, people believed that the dead could never enter the land of eternal rest that way. The ground beyond the territory had not received the Church’s blessing, after all. In any case, despite his complaints, Michael was in high spirits.
"Heh heh heh, shall we clean out the lord’s castle? To our lawful spoils of war!"
"Sorry, but the castle vault is going to His Highness the grand duke."
"Quatsch! How could you do this to me! This is the moment I was looking forward to most!"
"Calm down, Brother. Aren’t you a little old for this?"
"How am I supposed to calm down?! Verdammt! Nothing ever goes my way!"
Unfortunately, when it comes to a fortune amassed through corruption, delivering it intact to the grand duke is what’s best for one’s health. My justification for attacking Schafen was, after all, suppressing traitors and recovering the crown’s property.
But Michael was so crushed that I decided to show a little flexibility. Think of it as collecting an advance on the reward the grand duke owes us. Michael would grumble later that the reward had shrunk, but that couldn’t be helped.
Since we had also forcibly banned the duchy army from plundering, covering their due out of this wasn’t a bad approach. Only after I handed over part of the vault did the sulking old man finally cheer up.
"You should have said so from the start! I almost misjudged you!"
"You’d have skimmed it behind my back anyway, Brother."
"Hahaha, you know me too well!"
Truthfully, even if I had refused to the very end, Michael would have found some way to siphon off the money. Better to just hand it over and take the credit for it. Besides, I was far more interested in the administrator’s documents than in the vault.
All the evidence of the smuggling had already been secured when the Lord of Schafen confessed everything, so I turned to investigating the quest connected to the administrator. As I read through the documents, I discovered an unexpected connection.
The administrator of Schafen was from a cadet branch of the Neunil family.
The Viscount Neunil family? I knew someone from that family.
Karsten Ritter von Neunil.
The queen’s lover, and the former commander of the Grand Duke’s Guard.