A farmer? Now that he mentioned it, I could see a vegetable patch and a packhorse. He seemed to be eking out a humble living on his own.

Even so, just to introduce myself, I rode up to Viktor Ritter von Falkenheim with Anton. Viktor was clearly very tense, his eyes drawn tight as he looked at me. From the signs, he didn’t appear to live alone.

"You seem startled by our sudden visit. I am Streit, Lord of Feuzen and Commander of the Gale Knights."

"Streit?"

He looked quite shocked.

I had a hunch why, and I responded calmly,

"It’s exactly what you’re thinking."

"Goodness, please forgive my rudeness. It is an honor to meet the Lord of Feuzen."

Up close, I could see his face was covered in scars. With the Manager Scouter, I confirmed his disposition was justice (good) and his mindset was anxiety and wariness. The disposition was a relief. Justice (good) was on the rare side.

Among everyone I’d met so far, only five had been justice (good).

The Crown Prince, August, Anton, Fiel, and the Offenburg Knights commander.

With Viktor, that made six.

"I’d like to appoint you as a commander in my order. Will you accept?"

"Me? But I retired five years ago, and now I’m nothing but a simple farmer."

"For a simple farmer, you don’t seem to have let your skills go dull."

By now I could size someone up just from their stance, gait, and center of gravity. To survive in a place like this, outside the patrol zone, you had to keep your skills sharp.

Otherwise you’d be easy pickings for bandits.

"I cannot imagine what your lordship expects of me."

"Marquis Bertheim recommended you to me."

"So the Marquis still remembers me."

Viktor looked quite surprised, but his reaction wasn’t quite what I’d expected. It looked less like surprise and more like dismay. After collecting his thoughts, Viktor ultimately turned down my offer.

"I wish to live quietly now. Please understand my circumstances."

"If that’s truly what you want, so be it. But I have something to ask you personally."

"What is it?"

"Could you tell me how my father died?"

"...Please, come inside."

I left Anton and the men waiting outside and went in alone. As befitted a farmhouse, it was shabby and untidy, but it felt warm—a space worn smooth by the touch of someone’s hands.

"I’m sorry to receive you in such a humble place."

"Don’t worry about it. It wouldn’t be right for an uninvited guest to complain."

"...My lord, you seem different from most nobles."

"Haha, I get that a lot."

Most nobles tended to be arrogant and authoritarian, so I was a far cry from that. Showing respect was the foundation of how I spoke, and I didn’t think I’d ever made a bad impression on anyone.

That’s why Hilda chose me.

"By the looks of it, you have other family."

"I live with my son and his wife."

"Where have they gone?"

"They’re in Eisten. There’s a market today."

I see. Honestly, I wasn’t interested in where his son and daughter-in-law had gone or what they were doing. I was just making conversation to ease Viktor’s tension. He must have been just as flustered.

He’d been hit with a major uninvited guest out of nowhere, after all.

He was probably cursing the old man on the inside.

"I don’t know where to start, but five years ago, when Burgundy invaded, I answered the Lord of Rosenheim’s call to arms and joined the campaign. That was where I met Aseldorf. The Lord of Rosenheim was a truly fine man. I always held him in great respect."

The Lord of Rosenheim—in other words, Baron Constance. The one common thread among the knights who had served under him was that they all praised his character. That was why so many had grieved his death.

Viktor and my father had fought through three battles together. And in the third battle, my father fell. I already knew that much. A smile played on Viktor’s lips as he sank into his memories.

I got to hear all sorts of stories about the Lord of Rosenheim and my father.

There was the time my father got hungry and snuck into a villager’s home to swipe some eggs, got caught, and Viktor had to pay for them on his behalf. There was the time my father disobeyed orders and charged off to save refugees, only for the Lord of Rosenheim himself to come rescue him. Beyond those, there were countless other little tales of his exploits.

The best one was the time my father nearly fell for a widow’s seduction and almost deserted, until Viktor barely managed to talk him down and drag him back. "You’ve got a son at home. Pull yourself together," Viktor had said. At this part, Viktor stole a glance at my reaction.

Father, what kind of man were you.

A walking disaster who caused trouble for everyone around him.

August had said he was a respectable knight.

"The Lord of Rosenheim stayed on the battlefield to protect his own men. So Aseldorf and I stayed with him. The Lord tried to send us back, but we couldn’t abandon him."

"A lord who gave his life for his liege. That must have been a noble sacrifice."

So my father had died on the battlefield trying to protect the Lord of Rosenheim. He may have been a walking disaster, but that alone told me he was a fine knight.

Of course, I had no intention of throwing my own life away.

But Viktor’s smile turned bitter.

"A noble sacrifice? No. It was coercion."

"Coercion? The Lord of Rosenheim didn’t stay of his own free will?"

"I do not know the details, but it was certainly coercion."

The story was taking a strange turn. If it had been coercion rather than a noble sacrifice, that was completely different from what I’d been told. The candlelight that had been brightening the room—dim from the overcast skies—flickered. Could the one who had coerced him be...

"Who was doing the coercing?"

"That was..."

"Commander! A young boy has come, in a real hurry!"

A commotion suddenly broke out outside. Wondering what was going on, I went out with Viktor to find a freckle-faced boy gasping for breath. From the look of him, he seemed to be a shepherd boy. The moment he saw Viktor, he yelled,

"Mister! Simon and Natalie have been dragged off by Berten!"

"What? Those bastards finally went and did it!"

"They’re at the entrance to Deport Forest!"

It seemed something had happened to Viktor’s son and daughter-in-law. Without a moment’s thought, Viktor mounted his packhorse and shot off in that direction. Hold on—I was right here, and he wasn’t even going to ask for help?

A flustered Anton asked me,

"Commander, what should we do?"

"We follow him, obviously."

I told the shepherd boy to watch the house for us in the meantime. Only then did the boy, who had been frozen stiff at the sight of me, nod furiously. The 15 cavalrymen I led set off after Viktor.

Not far away, bandits were menacing a young man and woman. Simon, by the looks of it, had been beaten badly and was covered in blood. Other men had torn at the young woman’s clothing and were trying to assault her, but she was putting up fierce resistance. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Meanwhile, the rest were busy stripping the wagon of its supplies.

"You sons of bitches!"

Eyes blazing, Viktor whipped out his longsword and split a bandit’s head in two from the back of his packhorse.

Magnificent skill. He’d killed three of them in an instant. But the bandits, instead of scattering at Viktor’s appearance, threw lassos to try to drag him off his horse. Viktor dodged them.

The fact that they had lassos at the ready meant they had clearly been targeting Viktor from the start. In other words, they had used his son and daughter-in-law as bait to lure him out. What they hadn’t anticipated was us.

"Our first battle! We protect the weak!"

"And we draw our swords to crush our enemies!"

"Gale Knights, charge!"

We yanked out our cavalry swords and charged forward all at once.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

The 15 cavalrymen tearing down from the hilltop fields in fierce array trampled the bandits underfoot in an instant. My cavalry sword sliced through the head of a bandit who was scrambling around in panic.

Hot blood spurted up and soaked my armor.

"R-run! Aaagh!"

"Damn it, where did they come from! Gaaah!"

Crack! Crack!

We slashed at the backs of the fleeing bandits, and hooves trampled them mercilessly. A few tried to throw lassos, but they were too rattled and their aim was wild. My men cut them down with their cavalry swords.

Bandits are vermin.

So I had no intention of letting a single one escape.

It took us less than 10 minutes to take every one of their heads.

"Simon! Wake up, Simon! Oh, dear God!"

Simon was unconscious, and his condition was bad. Thankfully, he was still breathing. Viktor took off his coat and draped it over his trembling daughter-in-law to cover her. Once she had calmed down, he loaded her and the unconscious Simon onto the wagon. The men formed up around it as an escort.

"Thank you, my lord. Thanks to you, my son and his wife..."

"Don’t celebrate yet. The priority is getting your son to the duchy hospital."

We rode toward Breisburg.

Such is fate. If we hadn’t gone to find Viktor at just the right moment, we would never have been there to help. It was an enormous relief that we hadn’t arrived too late.

Otherwise—even thinking about what might have happened left me cold.