Chapter 446: The Man in the Wardrobe

"I looked for Sir Stein, but he’s nowhere to be found."

I’d had Ted search for him quietly, but Ted couldn’t turn up the lord’s wife’s lover. Which meant one of two things. Either he’d run, or he was in the lady’s bedchamber. Hmm, the latter seems more likely.

An occupying force is sitting right on top of Hagenhausen, and the two of them are off enjoying a rendezvous? I suppose that since I’m not the sort of lord who delights in brutal plunder, the pair of them felt safe enough to meet.

Well then, shall we go watch a little soap opera?

Absurd as it was, this was entertaining in its own way.

Nobody stopped me on the way to the lady’s bedchamber. Only one handmaid threw her arms out to block my path. Risking her life to shield her mistress like that is truly admirable.

"Baron! These are the lady’s private chambers! Please turn back!"

"Your name wouldn’t happen to be Margaret, would it?"

"H-how do you know my name...?"

"I have Sir Payne as a prisoner. The lord has agreed to cover his ransom, so once the war is over, I’ll send him back to his wife safe and sound."

Flustered by my promise to return Sir Payne unharmed, Margaret stammered out her thanks. The world of nobles may be a lawless place, but respecting another man’s wife is simply basic courtesy.

"Sir Stein is in the lady’s bedchamber."

"Pardon? Sir Stein isn’t here. You must be mistaken..."

Even Margaret, bewildered as she was, seemed to sense something was off. When I simply waited, she finally went to the door of the lady’s bedchamber herself and announced that I had come.

But giving your opponent time is never a wise move.

Before Margaret could stop me, I threw the door open.

"Baron of Rosenheim! Have you come to force yourself on me?!"

The lady of the house, naked, clutched a blanket to her body and shouted at me with a look of pure fury. Force myself on you, my foot. I have no interest in your body. My men filed in behind me, saw the beautiful lady, and grinned nastily.

Margaret quickly shoved them back and drove them out of the room.

My men had no choice but to step outside. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

"Where is Sir Stein? He’s here somewhere, I’m certain of it."

"He isn’t here! I thought you were an honorable man. Is this your true nature, then?"

Ignoring whatever the lady hurled at me, I activated the Searcher Scouter. Sir Stein’s information came up, and his footprints led away from the bed to the wardrobe standing directly in front of me.

"Come out before I chain this wardrobe shut and set it on fire."

The wardrobe eased open to reveal the mortified face of Stein, vassal knight of the lord of Hagenhausen. I grabbed him by the hair and dragged him out. The naked knight rolled across the floor.

"B-Baron, it isn’t what it looks like! I happened to lose my clothes and asked the lady for help. Nothing happened between us!"

"Can you swear that to God on your honor as a noble?"

Stein shut his mouth.

So a man who understands the weight of that oath is the same man who stabs his liege in the back?

"Bring the lord of Hagenhausen here!"

"Baron! Please don’t bring my husband!"

"Your husband is a prisoner sitting in a cell, and you turned your back on him to drag a knight into your bed. And now the shameless whore is afraid of the truth coming out? As a lord myself, I cannot let this outrage pass."

"I-I’ll do anything! Take my body however you like! Just please!"

"To think the beautiful daughter of the Grossent house had fallen this far."

The lord of Hagenhausen let out a heavy sigh, and Strauss, the knight from Landschaft, could not hide his shock at the sight. They had come the instant I called because my men had already brought them close by.

Strauss, who belonged to the same house, was especially shaken. He was the sort of man who’d known both the lady and Stein since they were children, like an elder brother from next door. Which is why Stein was trembling.

"Stein! What in God’s name is this?! You dared touch my lady?!"

"S-Sir Strauss! Th-this isn’t what it seems!"

"Oh, Lord! How am I to report this to my liege...?"

"Sir Strauss. Report exactly what you saw. I have plenty to discuss with the Baron of Landschaft, but she is at present the lady of House Helixen, so I trust there will be no complaints if I handle this as I see fit."

"But the lady is my liege’s younger sister. Handling it that way would only make matters worse."

Helixen, lord of Hagenhausen, and Strauss, the knight of Landschaft, discussed at length how this should be settled. Meanwhile, Margaret helped the lady get dressed.

"I can’t stop watching. I have to know how this drama ends."

"Neither can I, but what do you mean by drama and watching?"

The words had slipped out on their own, so I didn’t answer Ted’s question. This would be even better with popcorn. I came here to plunder and ended up with a front-row seat to another man’s household falling apart.

Meddling in another family’s business is generally a bad idea, but I forced my way into the lady’s bedchamber because the lord of Hagenhausen was my prisoner—and because he’d asked me to serve as a witness.

The lady is a daughter of the Grossent family that rules Landschaft, and that house ranks second only to the count’s family within Basel. Every other lord out here is a knight, while Grossent is a baronial house.

So this matter could easily spiral into a dispute between provincial lords. The potential for trouble was obvious at a glance, which is exactly why Helixen asked me to be his witness.

If I stood as witness and vouched for the pair’s infidelity, could the Baron of Landschaft really pick a fight with Helixen? With all of Basel being smashed to pieces by me? Not a chance. So I accepted.

It was also a useful lever for stripping away the Count of Basel’s influence. If Hagenhausen turned friendly toward me instead of toward the count, that was an enormous gain. You’d have to be an idiot to pass that up.

What ultimately won Helixen over was that I’d offered to release him with no conditions at all. Contrary to the rumors, I had plundered politely and even helped the lord with a personal matter.

"I’ve had Sir Stein confined and placed my wife under house arrest."

"That must be painful. Having to lock away the wife you loved so much."

"My sons are taking it harder than I am."

From their point of view, being branded bastards overnight after a lifetime as the heirs is a bolt from the blue. If they’d known Stein was their real father, they’d be sons of bitches, but apparently they had no idea.

House Helixen was blown to pieces while I plundered Hagenhausen, and the commotion was loud enough that word spread through the whole town. By now this was a bigger topic than the occupation and the plundering.

Hey, we’re in the middle of plundering here.

Why are we the sideshow now?

The families of the soldiers who’d died still held a grudge and hated us, but in the face of overwhelming force they had no choice but to accept it. So I exempted the families of the fallen from the plundering.

Still, I never expected the gossip to shift this fast.

A scandal about the lord’s wife really does pack a punch.

There was so much plunder that sorting it ate up another whole day, and the people had gotten so used to my men that they no longer seemed frightened. You wouldn’t have guessed the place was under occupation.

Even my men said they couldn’t tell whether they were occupying the town or merely garrisoned in it. Well, with any chance of an uprising gone, my life was easier. But I gave strict orders to be especially careful precisely at times like this.

"Forgive me for acting on my own, Baron. A prisoner shouldn’t presume."

"Which is why I believe I told you before that I was releasing you."

"No. I am your rightful prisoner."

I offer to let him go and he refuses.

Helixen was clearly hiding some other motive.

"Why so stubborn? Is there another reason?"

"...To tell you the truth, I want to feed my liege a Schwanz (cock)."

"Feed him a what? I didn’t mishear that, did I?"

"A Schwanz (cock)! Schwanz (cock)!"

In our terms, it means the same thing as telling someone to go screw themselves. A far cruder way of putting it, of course. The lord of Hagenhausen was venting his rage at his liege, the Count of Basel.

"Why should we provincial lords suffer for his unjustified personal war?! We were at peace with Rosenheim until recently! I have no idea why he had to go and provoke the Gale Knight!"

He argued that if his liege hadn’t started this local war in the first place, I’d never have come here, he’d never have been plundered, and he’d never have found out his wife was unfaithful. The provinces bore the entire cost.

"At least you learned your wife was cheating. Isn’t that something?"

"The way I feel right now, I’d rather never have known! All of this is the Brist family’s doing! I will cooperate with you completely, Baron! Name anything you wish!"

So his refusal to be released, even when I offered, came from a burning determination to screw over the Brist family, the rulers of Basel who had failed to protect their own.

With me holding provincial lords as prisoners, the Count of Basel is obviously at a serious disadvantage in any negotiation. If the heads of the provincial houses are all in captivity and he doesn’t rescue them, a revolt becomes possible.

A revolt by the provincial lords.

That would be a nightmare for the Count of Basel.