Until I was granted my fief, Breisburg was my home. By my own reckoning I had lived there less than half a year, but it was also where Wolfgang had spent most of his life, so I thought of it as a second hometown.
The city had long since outgrown its sanitation capacity, so, the smell aside, Breisburg’s bustle and clamor felt downright homey. I think I understand how Pensler feels. Hallingen is far too quiet a place.
Hallingen is quieter and more devout even than Feuzen, the smaller village of the two, and that is because the monastery’s influence runs strong there. Personally, I prefer bustle to quiet.
When the city walls first came into view in the distance, I sent Oscar on ahead. Every army approaching the capital is obliged to notify the Capital Sentinel Command.
I also organized a reconnaissance unit built around Drek, with Barosi, Herto, Ted, and others attached to it. I intended to hunt down any bandit gangs sighted near the capital, which was why I made the unit large and mounted.
Keeping public order around Breisburg is also part of the duty of a man entrusted with judicial authority. Ted came back from the reconnaissance and reported to me with a flushed face.
They had found something other than bandits.
"Master, the people of a hamlet have come out onto the road ahead!"
"A hamlet? People usually cower at the sight of an army. Why have they come out?"
"Because the hamlet’s landowner recognized our family crest."
Had the Streit crest become widely known even among commoners? Ordinarily it is rare for commoners, rather than nobles or soldiers, to recognize a noble family’s crest. But Ted’s report proved accurate.
"That’s the Gale Knight!"
"Look at that gallant figure! Straight out of the heroic ballads!"
Whether it was the influence of the civil war or the fourth heroic ballad of the Gale Knight, I couldn’t say, but the looks we drew seemed even warmer than before. I waved to them, and each time I did, they cheered all the louder.
My men, proud that their master was being welcomed by the common folk, puffed out their chests and marched as boldly as a triumphant general’s army. A few maidens even scattered flowers in my path. To think we would be welcomed this warmly.
"Ted, give the people of this hamlet a portion of the supplies we brought."
"Sir? Is it really necessary to go that far?"
"It’s our turn to repay their welcome. The Gale Knights will become a force that is welcome wherever it goes."
We needed to plant a broad image of the Gale Knights as a benefit rather than a threat. Barring special circumstances like Radensdorf, an army is nothing but a nightmare to ordinary households.
But the Gale Knights?
An army that is welcomed enjoys that much more freedom to operate.
Small good deeds like this pile up one by one until they become renown, and renown becomes trust. The hamlet’s people, receiving precious supplies out of nowhere in the dead of winter, rejoiced.
After that, the people of every scattered homestead we passed on the highway came out to welcome us, and in return I handed out supplies without stinting. Money I had more than enough of, and whatever we ran short of could be bought in the capital.
Viscount Loewenbert, the Capital Sentinel Commander, came out to greet me in person.
"Welcome back to Breisburg, Baron of Rosenheim."
"Thank you for the warm reception, Viscount Loewenbert. I didn’t expect you to come out to meet me yourself."
"Word of your renown reached us even from afar. How could I not come out to greet you?"
It had to be thanks to my standing, which had changed completely from what it was before the civil war.
The viscount lamented that his son-in-law Fiel had been convalescing in Feuzen and so had not been at my side while I won legendary glory in the east. In truth, no one regretted that more than I did.
Had Fiel and Viktor been there, commanding the army would have gone far more smoothly. While I exchanged greetings with the viscount, Beort and Anton, who had come out to meet me as well, wore grave expressions.
I knew at once that something had gone wrong, or at least not according to plan.
Viscount Loewenbert invited me to the command headquarters.
What mattered was not the welcome ceremony but the current situation.
We held a briefing in the headquarters’ conference room.
"We raided the slums as you requested, Baron, but there was little to show for it. Deserters, runaway serfs, pickpockets, petty thieves, prostitutes. But no one connected to the Finance Minister, and no assassins."
The slums apparently had little to do with the Finance Minister’s poisoning; not a single link to the case had turned up. And most importantly, Bodo was nowhere to be found.
The boy had vanished in the slums and yet was not to be found there, which most likely meant he had never been held there at all. Someone had drawn our eyes away and spirited him off elsewhere. The Schafen administrator would have known the route, but that trail had gone cold.
I still can’t tell what the Viscount Neunil family is scheming.
If Bodo really is tied to the Elsheimers, do they mean to use the boy to seize control of the house? Or to brand him a parricide who poisoned his own father, and use that to bring down Adelbert?
"We caught no assassins, but we did sweep out the slums, that old thorn in our side, once again. The criminal element should lie low for a while. Call that the one accomplishment."
"It wasn’t the result we hoped for, but thank you all the same for granting such a difficult request, Viscount."
"There was an order from the Military Department’s commander, and the cause was just. No thanks are needed."
"Even so, please accept this token of my gratitude. It’s a gift I brought back from Radensdorf."
I presented a pouch of pepper to Viscount Loewenbert as well. He was overjoyed, and he firmly promised that the forces of the Capital Sentinel Command would be ready to support me at any time.
Leading my men, I visited Rosengarden for the first time in ages. Every rose in the garden that was the estate’s pride had shed its leaves, lending the place a bleak air, but it was still my own snug home.
Oscar and Ted moved through Rosengarden with practiced ease, sorting out our supplies. Göring had been managing the mansion alongside his own duties in the meantime, so apart from a thin layer of dust it was in fine condition.
Oscar brought Rosenheim wine up from the cellar and poured generously for everyone attending the meeting. The cellar still held plenty of barrels; collecting them was Hilda’s hobby.
My darling baroness does dearly love her wine.
"It has been a long journey and you must all be tired, but it seems God has not granted us leave to rest easy. First, let me honor the hard work of Sir Beort and Anton, who went on ahead of us."
I raised my cup, and Beort and Anton respectfully drained theirs.
Gathered here were all the key figures of the Streit family: Anton, Oscar, and Ted as the family’s retainers, and Beort, Drek, and Ferke as its vassal nobles.