Chapter 9
Reinhardt’s troubles were unexpectedly solved thanks to the man who came on Thanksgiving morning. When she saw him arrive at Luden Castle, Reinhardt leapt to her feet joyfully.
“Dietrich!”
“Your Highness.”
After spending more than 30 years on the battlefield, Hu Linke naturally had many people he cherished as family members.
Among them was Baron Ernst, an outstanding knight for Hu Linke when he was very young, and his second son Dietrich grew up to be a great knight just like his father.
However, Baron Ernst died from a fever three years before Hu Linke passed. His first son succeeded him in serving Linke, but after Hu Linke’s death, he and many of the other knights scattered. It would have been hard to even protect their lands.
That’s why Dietrich Ernst’s visit came as a surprise to Reinhardt.
“Have you been well?!”
Seeing Dietrich kneeling as soon as he saw her, Reinhardt smiled cheerfully and knelt down on one knee in front of him, meeting his gaze.
“Dietrich, what’s going on?”
“I heard the news too late.”
His brunette hair fluttered and a friendly light shone in his green eyes that made him look like he had a good personality. Reinhardt almost cried a little as she looked at his face, it evoked longingness.
Dietrich was a childhood friend and was close in age to Reinhardt. As he grew older, he became a knight of Hu Linkhe’s and fought alongside him.
He stamped his feet at the news that Reinhardt had been imprisoned, but had to return to the Ernst Estate to persuade his brother to come back for the time being. This was because there would be quite a few lords trying to acquire the land of their shielded household.
Reinhardt nodded.
“Ernst is a good place. It’s the main point of transportation.”
Ernst was the place where two of the largest roads intersect in the Linke Estate. Such lands couldn’t be left alone by its lords. Dietrich was a brilliant knight, and his brother wouldn’t have thought of making fun of Dietrich, who had nowhere to go after Hu Linke’s death, in the capital.
“I hurried to leave Ernst when I heard that you had been released from prison, but Ernst and the capital are quite far away….”
“Oh, my God. I’m not the princess anymore okay, I’m just a sinner.”
“Aren’t the reparations over? What do you mean you’re a sinner?”
Dietrich narrowed his eyes and looked at her.
“You paid too much for just cutting off a leg.”
Reinhardt felt awkward. It seemed like to him it wasn’t the Crown Princess who had stabbed someone, but a thug who was just passing by. It was like he never thought she’d maim the Crown Prince and risk her life. Of course, Dietrich never imagined she would’ve done that.
“Anyway, it’s a rough journey to get to Luden, and I followed you here because I was afraid you might have been attacked.”
“Oh, Johanna hired me a mercenary.”
“I heard about that, but…she’s really a sloppy businesswoman.”
Dietrich also knew Johanna, Reinhardt’s personal maid, because she often followed Hu Linke to the palace when she was the Crown Princess. He used to tell Johanna what to do because he thought she liked her.
Anyway, there was no disagreement that Johanna’s handling of things was sloppy.
“So she assigned you a mercenary and paid him to put your life on the line.”
Reinhardt thought about what happened with Johanna’s mercenary, but she didn’t bother mentioning it.
“It’s tough, Johanna must be sad.”
“I don’t care if she’s sad or not. Anyway, I’m glad you’re okay.”
His tough tone was the same as it was on the battlefield, but his cool personality was Reinhardt’s favorite type. Dietrich had actually been Reinhardt’s first lover when she was younger. And when she saw Dietrich, Reinhardt was actually able to laugh happily after not doing so in such a long time.
“Anyway, welcome. It’s Thanksgiving day today and there’s no one to have dinner with. Isn’t that just great?”
What Ernst is like, what happened to Hu Linke’s vassals. She didn’t ask for such stories. Even if she was unhappy or impoverished in this land, there was nothing she could do about it.
At least Dietrich had run over here to say hello, which meant that Ernst was still safe.
Reinhardt tapped Dietrich on the shoulder, and he looked at her with tender eyes and smiled faintly.
“You’re really brave.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Please don’t talk atrociously.”
Before she knew it, Dietrich sat at the desk in her office. Reinhardt was incredibly friendly with Dietrich, and Dietrich’s outspoken personality played a part in that. As Reinhardt crossed her arms and lifted one eyebrow, Dietrich spoke, raising his hands playfully.
“I’ve heard of the stories, but I didn’t know it would be this cold in the Northeast. When I came over the last mountain, I thought I might find Your Highness frozen to death.”
“You shouldn’t call me Your Highness.”
“…Then what do I call you?”
Reinhardt tilted her head.
“You used to call me ‘lady’ before I got married.”
“Now that you have a title, may I call you Viscountess?”
On such a rare occasion, Dietrich was acting differently. Reinhardt was dumbfounded and laughed.
“Call me as you please.”
“Yes, ma’am. Well, anyway, this doesn’t look good. This territory is so poor….”
“Yes, less than 3000 soldiers….”
Reinhardt said that and almost bit her tongue. The Helka in her past life had more than 500 of Hu Linke’s soldiers. After a while, she managed to organize her words.
“…It’s a bit of an adjustment, coming to this place after being the Crown Princess.”
“What are you going to do then?”
Reinhardt’s eyes narrowed, trying to answer casually.
“Why are you curious about that anyway?”
“Because….”
Dietrich opened his mouth and scratched his head.
“Sorry, that was presumptuous.”
“No, sir, let me know if you have anything in mind.”
“…As expected, you are a waste to the Crown Prince.”
Registering Reinhardt’s words, Dietrich smiled awkwardly. Reinhardt crossed her arms and leaned against the chair.
Dietrich wasn’t just here to see what she was up to. If Dietrich had visited about a year later, she could have accepted it as Dietrich simply coming to check up on his former master’s daughter and childhood friend.
But his timing was too early.
Between her stabbing the Crown Prince, spending two months in prison, getting kicked out of prison, and coming to Luden, 5 months had passed, at the most. But the Crown Prince still wasn’t free from the shock of his injury, so this was the time in which all the nobles of the empire had to expend themselves to look after the Emperor.
She didn’t know why he had come all the way to Luden.
“Have you been abandoned or kicked out?”
“I must admit, it’s the latter.”
“You must have been kicked out by your brother when he said he would abandon the estate.”
“That’s accurate.”
Dietrich sighed, lowered his upper body, and looked at her.
“Mikhail Allanquez is impatient to have everything in his possession.”
“I know it isn’t right, but he wanted to have her.”
Mikhail wanted to marry Princess Canary by abandoning Marquis Linke. That was obvious.
But when Reinhardt stabbed Mikhail and became a sinner, the Crown Prince greedily tried to absorb Marquis Linke’s legacy. In addition to the assets taken by the compensation fund, about 500 soldiers of Marquis Linke now belonged to the Crown Prince.
The same with the knights. Enlisted men and knights were Marquis Linke’s biggest assets in the first place.
Most of the knights went back to their families, but some of the knights that Hu Linke cherished went under the Crown Prince’s command. Those were the ones who had no property or title to receive even if they had returned to their families, so switching over could be called the obvious choice.
But Dietrich’s blood had boiled when he’d seen it happen.
“I couldn’t stand the sight of a man who couldn’t even walk properly controlling Linke’s knights with his fingertips. So….
“The late Lord Ernst would want to strike him from heaven.”
In short, he ran to offer his allegiance to Reinhardt. He was asking her what she wanted to do and wanted to be a part of it. Dietrich is the second son of the Ernst family and has neither property nor title to receive. With that type of situation, she thought he would’ve rathered go under the crown like everyone else.
“Sir, I’m sorry, but this is a place where you send star anise to the gods as a Thanksgiving gift. I don’t have anything for you.”
“What do you mean by star anise….?”
Dietrich tilted his head and Reinhardt laughed out loud.
“It’s something they put in tea.”
“I don’t like tea, so it’s okay.”
“That’s not the problem. In other words, if you stay with me, you’ll get a sack of wheat a year.”
“Oh, that’s a bit of a problem. A sack of wheat would be eaten up in 10 days.”
Reinhardt giggled at his unreserved joke. Dietrich shrugged.
“How much has His Grace Hu Linke left for me? That’ll be enough for me to buy some wheat.”
“There’s a more important issue though.”
“Tell me.”
“There’s nothing for you to do here.”
“That’s not what it seems like.”
Dietrich easily shot down Reinhardt’s words.
“I saw everything as I entered Luden Castle. Two people were barely crossing the drawbridge, and two were guarding. Six people were on full-time patrol. Three more people were around, except for by the side door. One was in the stable. Two were on the border of the estate. If we count 13 people in total and the number of non-residents, there must be less than 50.”
What he meant was the number of security guards. They were all like the knights that Hu Linke had cherished. Reinhardt smiled brightly.
“Thirty people.”
“Is this for real?”
“It’s the truth.”
Dietrich scratched his head.
“Darn it. It looks like Dietrich Ernst is gonna be the head of an alley.”
“I don’t think I’m going back.”
“If I had known that, I would have gone back after two mountains. What a bumpy road to get here.”
With her arms crossed, she stared straight into Dietrich’s green eyes.
Dietrich Ernst.
A knight that Hu Linke cherished and the one who took over the swordsmanship of the late Sir Ernst and had a military name of 100 per person. Reinhardt decided quickly.
“How about a swordsman on the alley?”
“You want me to teach the children of the Land of Luden?”
“Not exactly, but close.”
Reinhardt swept her hair and looked up at him at an angle. Dietrich’s eyes shook briefly and then sank.
“I’d like to receive more than just a bag of wheat.”
“A bag of wheat and a side dish of wild geese this evening then.”
“Darn it. Weren’t you supposed to give that to me anyway?”
“If you don’t like it, starve. I don’t have dinner to spare for an uninvited guest.”
No wonder Dietrich Ernst accepted the role of a governor*.
Reinhardt grinned.
* * *
E/N: Governor – Used as the title for the “head of staff” here.