Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!

I planned to release them all once the sweep of the slum was finished.

Scrub a cesspool spotless and it only fills right back up.

What I was looking for were members of specific organizations in the slum, or operatives under Count Heinlein. So far, no one fit the bill. The promised hour passed.

No more residents came forward to surrender.

From here on, I expected fierce resistance.

"Suppression unit, move in!"

At Michael’s command, heavily armed duchy soldiers stormed in. The criminals of the slum began to fight back in an organized fashion. Soon screams and the clash of weapons filled the alleys.

Some of the gang members loosed arrows from the rooftops. But they were just runaway hunters’ brats, and their accuracy was pitiful. Our archers turned them into pincushions without fail, and they plummeted from the buildings.

Michael frowned. He had assumed the residents’ smooth cooperation meant this would be easy, but we were meeting fiercer resistance than in Breisburg. The casualties mounted accordingly.

"Tsk. They’re fighting harder than I expected. This might as well be a siege."

"It means they have that much to protect."

"Then let’s hope this treasure vault we’re cracking open is stuffed with silver."

Street fighting had erupted simultaneously not just in this alley but at every entrance leading into the slum. The reason we deployed heavily armed troops was that attacks flying in from blind spots posed a real threat.

So the heavily armed soldiers, impervious to any ordinary blade, pushed the slum gangs back like war chariots. As for the ones trying to pour boiling oil, thankfully our archers took them down first.

If we had given the enemy more time, the suppression operation could have turned difficult. Fortunately, thanks to striking first, the slum crumbled helplessly. The alleys were littered with the corpses of slum gang members.

Soldiers who had tasted blood dragged out the stragglers, stabbing them wildly or beating them with clubs. The stench of blood hung thick in every direction, but to me it was nothing more than a familiar scene. Not so for the rookies—not remotely.

Urk!

Bleeegh!

I had mobilized the Gale Knights for the cordon around the slum as well.

The veterans were shepherding the rookies, and the ones who had never seen war looked deeply shaken by the sight of the crackdown. The farm boys in particular couldn’t stop retching.

Michael’s gaze and mine drifted toward the boys.

The veterans sweated buckets trying to pull them together, and Michael clicked his tongue.

"Brother-in-law, don’t tell me you took in little kids like those?"

"Anyone who isn’t a criminal is entitled to answer the recruitment call. Those boys know how to ride, so I picked them for the reserves. Put them through steady training and they’ll turn out useful."

"I’d better pray to the Lord with all my heart that it isn’t a waste of time."

Everyone has their green rookie days. Didn’t I drink myself stupid from the shock the first time I killed a man? Michael must have had days like that too, but it seems he’s forgotten where he came from.

Fortunately, Anton and the veterans soothed the rookies well. It was a sight they had to grow used to, so I could only hope their retching was fear being purged, and that the hollow it left behind would fill with courage.

We were gradually entering the final stretch.

Onlookers flocked to watch the slum, that old thorn in everyone’s side, being wiped out. The slum’s criminals had plagued the residents for so long that the crowd felt pure satisfaction watching them get minced like meat at a butcher’s stall.

"Never thought I’d live to see those damn pigs die!"

"That son of a bitch who laid hands on my daughter is sprawled out over there!"

"Oh, the Lord has sent the Gale Knight to us in our suffering!"

The slum was such a tangled knot of vested interests and factions that no one had ever dared lay a hand on it. But I had no ties whatsoever to any of those people, so I could smash the slum without hesitation.

Naturally, the local noble factions would be up in arms over a suppression operation like this, but since the men who ordered it were the Baron of Rosenheim and the Director General of the Military Department, there was no way for them to apply pressure.

"Baron of Rosenheim. What is the reason for this sudden crackdown on the slum?"

Viscount Erbach of Ulm was a vassal of the Count of Ulm, and his visit was as good as his acting as proxy for the eastern faction. Protesting to me directly must have been too much of a burden for the Count of Ulm.

He was a prince on the losing side of this civil war, while I was a core noble of the grand duke’s faction and a rising prince of formidable renown, so however great the Count of Ulm’s power, he had no choice but to tread carefully.

"A criminal from the slum laid hands on a prince’s handmaid. Shouldn’t he pay a fitting price for that?"

"They say the slum houses nothing but fools, but to dare touch a prince’s handmaid?"

"His Highness the grand duke has authorized the slum suppression operation."

Viscount Erbach’s expression stiffened. He was a noble who had taken part in the interception force, and I had once saved him when Bavarian cavalry were running him down. This was the man who hadn’t sent me a single horseman and had fled to save his own skin.

He seemed to think I was stirring up the slum for nothing, but I had a proper justification, and the grand duke’s permission amounted to a warning shot aimed straight at them. The viscount let out a sigh.

"The east was finally on the verge of settling down. It’s regrettable that this had to happen."

"I understand you are a noble of Ulm, Viscount, so I fail to see what business you have with a slum in Radensdorf. Are you perhaps running some secret enterprise connected to this place?"

"Absolutely not, Baron. We wish only for stability in the east."

Behind Viscount Erbach stood several provincial nobles. They seemed to want to pressure me into calling off the assault on the slum, but naturally they didn’t make the slightest dent. Did they take a prince for a pushover?

"I don’t believe crushing a single slum will shatter the stability of the east. If you’re so concerned, then go ahead and request that the suppression order be withdrawn."

"I doubt His Highness would lend an ear to the words of eastern nobles."

Come to think of it, I saved this man when the Bavarian cavalry were chasing him down. And I still hold a bit of a grudge over how, when I needed support and asked to borrow cavalry, he refused, claiming he was too busy saving his own hide.

"The Director General of the Military Department here has experience suppressing the slum in Breisburg. And you have me, the man who saved you from the Bavarian cavalry, Viscount. Trust us and wait."

"Ahem! Ahem! Very well. I will trust you, Baron."

Being chased by Bavarian cavalry must have been a sore subject for Viscount Erbach. He withdrew in a hurry along with the eastern nobles. There was something comical about him running off with nothing to show for it.

"Brother-in-law, was saving that fellow a mistake?"

"You can’t pick and choose when you’re saving an ally, can you?"

"Anyway, looks like this slum was the eastern princes’ treasure vault."

"It must have served to siphon off Radensdorf’s spoils."

The Count of Ulm sending a proxy was a message of sorts. An implicit warning: we are watching, so don’t poke around in the slum any more than necessary. If I’d been an ordinary noble, my knees would have been knocking.

Bang! Crash!

Move in!

Aaargh!

Soldiers entered the buildings and hauled the slum dwellers out one after another. Those who put up fierce resistance were killed without mercy. Some among them might be connected to a prince.

To be honest, whether the eastern princes used the slum to siphon off spoils was no concern of mine. My goal was to uncover the conspiracy and ambitions of Count Palatine Heinlein.

There was no need to go out of my way to make enemies of the eastern princes.

But if they were connected to Count Heinlein, sparks could fly in unexpected directions. And if I know the grand duke, he will seize this opportunity to grind the eastern princes down so thoroughly that they could never again challenge the royal house.