Swordmaster of the Great Wall

A strange atmosphere flowed through the air.

Not only were there senior Watchmen present, but also a gathering of countless lords from across the Empire.

The king of the barbarians had appeared among them, making the situation awkward and somewhat uncomfortable for both the Imperial side and the barbarians alike.

After all, only a short while ago, hadn't these two sides been pointing swords and spears at each other in battle?

Yet now, the leader of the barbarians had suddenly arrived, saying he would accept peace.

From the lords' perspective, it was difficult to accept for all sorts of reasons.

"... Peace with barbarians, after coming all this way?"

"I don't feel good about this. Feels like we've been used."

Of course, there were reasons for their attitude.

On the surface, the lords had joined this expedition to suppress the barbarians... but personally, they had also come for their own interests.

Thus, the outcome they most wanted to avoid right now was this lukewarm peace with the barbarians.

Erich tried to gauge their true intentions as if he were seeing right through them.

'After all that requisition, dragging soldiers out here, and now peace? That's unthinkable.'

With this understanding of their motives, Erich slowly took the head seat at the negotiation table.

Ungrim sat naturally by his side.

It was a northern lord who spoke up first.

"... Commander, I didn't think you'd handle this so arbitrarily. We're one step away from subjugation, and now you say we're giving up?"

"What is it you want?"

"Even if you cry for peace now, they'll invade again. There's no guarantee the same thing won't happen a hundred, two hundred years from now."

Most of the lords nodded at his words. Buoyed by the support of other knights and lords, his shoulders seemed to swell.

But Erich replied,

"They only tried to reclaim what was taken from them. That's an inborn right that everyone should have."

"... Barbarians don't have rights!"

Erich gave a small nod.

At that, Frederick, who stood beside him, unfolded materials brought from the laboratory.

Most were well-organized, and their content was about how the barbarians had once been Imperial citizens.

"As you can see, they are not mere barbarians. They are comrades who once fought alongside us in the Watch."

The lords reacted in various ways to the documents.

Some doubted if it was real, others felt uncomfortable, and others denied it.

"Nonsense! If you say that, the Great Wall was originally the territory of the Northern Grand Duke!"

"For that matter, half of the Watch was made up of our Leonor's soldiers when it was first established! Does that mean the Watch belongs to us?"

Erich leaned back in his chair, as if he had anticipated these responses.

'Of course they'd go there.'

He next snapped his fingers. Most of the lords reacted as Erich had expected. He had never thought they would simply accept it.

Instead, Erich pulled out another set of documents.

Most were lists of people believed to be ancestors of the barbarians.

The lords looked at it, puzzled.

"What's this?"

"... Fior? That's our castle..."

Erich addressed them calmly.

"That list contains those believed to be the ancestors of the barbarians. Although most are unconfirmed, some still maintain their lineage. Balmung helped with that verification."

"... And what's the point of that?"

"There's a point. Most of them are claimants to noble titles."

"What! These people are rootless barbarians!"

"Is that so? For example, randolf of Beren joined the Watch and became a barbarian. His descendants formed the Leopard Tribe. And their chieftain is a direct descendant of Randolf. Isn't that clearly a title claimant?"

Erich grinned. The moment 'title claimant' was mentioned, most of the lords turned visibly pale.

In the Empire, blood was important.

Even though Erich, as an illegitimate son, was treated worse than a dog by Krupp, that was only within the house.

If one looked further south, Erich was nobly born, and despite being a bastard, he had the right to make a claim to a title.

In other words, with enough soldiers, it provided lawful grounds to invade another domain.

Thus, bastards were not treated carelessly.

Even if poorly regarded within their family, they had to be guarded so they didn't end up in another's hands.

But one place was an exception: the Watch. Those who entered here gave up everything and swore an oath, forfeiting their rights.

A few lords, grasping at this loophole, began to mumble and shout.

"That means nothing! Everyone swears an oath before joining the Watch!"

"Bringing us this nonsense...!"

But Erich slowly shook his head.

"Think of the timing. The Watch didn't start requiring total renunciation until much later. At this period, such oaths didn't exist yet."

"...!"

Coincidentally, this was the time when these people became barbarians—when the Great Wall was first being built to defend against the dead.

There had been no "oath."

In fact, these were not people driven here by discrimination like Erich, and many among them held noble titles.

They were truly heroes who led vassals and soldiers north, determined to save the Empire.

Erich was targeting precisely that point. Even if their legitimacy couldn't be fully confirmed, they couldn't be ignored.

'Because their departure north is recorded as a great event.'

At one time, they were surely a family's pride. Those who courageously marched against enemies—their records were mostly preserved by noble families.

Gradually, the lords' reactions began to change, as if sensing that Erich's point wasn't wrong.

However, Erich's reason for saying all this was not to take the lords' land and give it to the barbarians.

'That's not realistic, anyway.'

It was simply a stepping stone to steer the peace treaty with the barbarians in a favorable direction. Nothing more, nothing less.

Just making the lords feel pressured was already enough.

At least Ungrim still had a large army, and with such an army, it wouldn't be impossible to invade the Empire and reclaim land.

Just then, Abe of Leonor spoke up.

"You go too far, sir Erich. Leonor will not tolerate any action that upends the central political balance."

There were some middle-ranking nobles from the central region on the list, but only minor nobles.

Abe's remark meant the Grand Duchy of Leonor would defend the interests of the central region's aristocracy.

'Troublesome.'

Erich gazed at Abe.

The Leonor side must've believed they had nothing at stake, but that was a serious misconception.

Erich intended to use that. But before he could speak, Ungrim did first.

And he spoke in Imperial.

"Are you a knight of Leonor?"

"... A barbarian can speak our tongue?"

"It's been a while since I spoke Imperial, that's all. But you'd do well to take back your words."

Abe sneered as if offended, about to shout, but Ungrim quickly continued.

"My old name was Asta de Leonor, seventh son of Lian de Leonor."

"...?"

"So if you serve Leonor, perhaps you should mind your tongue."

Abe's eyes widened. He stared at the documents, startled. Then Ungrim spoke again.

"My name isn't there."

"... No, that's..."

"You might want to show some respect."

"... That's..."

Abe sputtered, words catching in his mouth. Erich stifled a laugh.

'He looks pitiful.'

Once more, Abe glanced nervously at Ungrim. When he thought Ungrim was just a barbarian, it hadn't mattered.

But the issue was Ungrim's red hair.

'That red hair of House Leonor is rare anywhere.'

So, when he heard 'Leonor', the knight—this Abe—instinctively found himself at a loss after comparing Ungrim's looks to those of Leonor's descendants.

'So he was a Leonor after all.'

Erich had guessed Ungrim was no ordinary man, given his strategic moves and charisma.

What's more, as a founding Watchman, Ungrim had to have noble blood.

But as it turned out, Ungrim was a legitimate son of the ducal Leonor line—not even an illegitimate son.

Though, as the seventh, it was said that joining the Watch and achieving merit was considered a great honor in his position.

Still, seventh son or not, did it matter now?

One of Leonor's ancestors had appeared right before their eyes. With a stifled look, Abe managed to speak.

"... That was so long ago—"

"You're right. Likely the current Duke is a descendant of my nephew. I have no intention of claiming the dukedom or taking lands from them."

"......"

"However, what's wrong should be set right. I merely want those with legitimate rights to have the right to live south of the Great Wall."

The lords began murmuring again.

The south was already under Erich's sway, and the central nobles wouldn't oppose, knowing Ungrim's Leonor blood.

But the land closest to where these people should live was the north, which meant the greatest opposition would come from the north as well.

Soon, grumbling broke out among the northern lords. But as the commotion rose, someone stood up and silenced them all at once.

It was Sven, representative of the Harald family, Grand Duke of the North. He asked in a sober voice,

"It may not be my decision to make, but I have a question."

"What is it?"

"You're not asking to divide up the Grand Duke's land, are you?"

"That's right. Everything will be resolved within territory owned by the Watch."

"Why, with hundreds of thousands of troops, have you chosen peace over war? If I find your reason persuasive, I'll report this to Grand Duke Harald."

Erich glanced at Sven. He had thought the northern men dim-witted, but they had sharp instincts.

'Yes, this is the kind of question I wanted.'

Declaring the end of hostilities with the barbarians—a so-called "peace conference"—was important for the lords present.

But even more important was keeping these people from leaving this table.

'Because we must fight together against the Lord of the Dead.'

Erich slowly opened his mouth. He already had a rough plan to persuade them.