Virgin Knight Who Is the Frontier Lord in the Gender Switched World - Chapter 106

Pressing her fingers to her temples, she was deep in thought.

“—”

She had finished reading all the documents bound like a book and was about to order her subordinates to have them bound when she abruptly stopped.

Binding them would take too much time.

More importantly, it was risky for these to be seen by others.

This could only be shown to someone who could keep a secret.

“Now, what to do?”

Currently, she was in the royal capital.

Typically, as the head of a ducal family, she should be settled in her own territory, governing it.

However, Georgine von Astarte, having recently succeeded her title, was still young.

She was only 18, and naturally, her mother was also young, not yet 35, and showed no signs of stepping back to entrust the ducal lands and the lives of its people and knights to her.

Though young, her mother had decided to hand over the reins to her daughter at the age of 16.

However, it wasn’t a complete transfer of power.

As long as she could work, she intended to act as a guardian.

With the issue of succession in mind, it was decided to appoint the well-educated eldest daughter as the head of the household.

This decision was made while her younger sisters were still too young to pose any problems.

Thus, at a young age, she took over the ducal family.

In the Holy Gusten Empire, as well as in electorates like Anhalt and Virendorf, this approach was typical among the nobility.

“Um…”

Therefore, she had time.

Leaving the management of the lands to her mother, she spent her time in the royal capital as the First Princess’ Advisor, and as a relative and close friend to Anastasia, trying to mediate the dispute between Queen Liesenlotte and the First Princess Anastasia.

The conflict, however, was not about status or wealth.

Queen Liesenlotte had promised to abdicate in favor of Anastasia soon, and strictly speaking, there was no intention on the Queen’s part to go back on that promise.

Only one condition was added.

It concerned the handling of a man named Faust von Polydoro.

Queen Liesenlotte ordered Anastasia to entrust Faust to her for a while.

The plan was as follows:

“I intend to invite Faust to my private chambers to educate him on how to live as the husband of Valiere and as the lover of both Anastasia and Astarte. Of course, in the process, a child might be born from our love, though this child, wandering the royal palace, would have no claim to the throne. There’s no problem, so Anastasia should agree promptly.”

In essence, Queen Liesenlotte planned to seduce Faust and conceive a child with him upon her abdication.

What’s wrong with eating the meat laid before you!

What’s wrong with making a move on your daughter’s fiancé!

It would be no problem if a child resulting from this walks around the royal palace!

Perfectly natural!

A scene all too common!

She brazenly proclaimed such things.

Anastasia clearly rejected this.

Suppressing her rage, she bowed deeply and expressed her gratitude for all her life had been, then she exploded.

“Thank you for raising me all these years. And now, die.”

As the next queen to inherit Anhalt, her response was laden with clear murderous intent.

Hereby, a childish squabble over a man erupted in the royal capital.

It was terribly ugly.

She muttered softly.

“Queen Liesenlotte’s karma is deep.”

The main issue was, once again, that they were not fighting over status or wealth.

Queen Liesenlotte, while offering some advice, truly intended to distance herself from her position of power.

She planned to hand over all her personnel, whether administrative officials or heraldic officers, to her beloved daughter.

With this daughter, whom she had poured her heart into raising, she could retire and entrust everything.

In reality, Anastasia was perfectly capable of taking over the Kingdom of Anhalt.

That was the truth from her perspective.

But there was one complication.

“Send Faust, who is to be your lover, to my bedroom,” she demanded.

It was an absurdly foolish request.

Anastasia was clearly furious.

She screamed for her to die.

Though they both had their senses, they didn’t resort to a halberd duel.

Still, the palace echoed with an ugly barrage of insults.

Each with their fully armed Queen’s Guard and the First Princess’ Guard lined up, they exchanged verbal abuses.

The guards, facing each other, were severely disheartened, even feeling a melancholic sympathy.

I inadvertently interjected amidst the appalling scene.

That’s exciting in its own way, isn’t it?”

Faust von Polydoro.

By the values of Anhalt, he would not be called beautiful—a lordly knight standing over 2 meters tall and weighing more than 130 kilograms, with a muscular build. Yet his nature was truly kind, and it was sad how earnest he was.

That Faust would be corrupted by the desires of my aunt. Though she still harbored feelings for her late husband, she was willing to meddle with her younger daughter’s fiancé, who was supposed to be her elder daughter’s lover as well.

It seemed that Faust, due to his position, could not oppose and would likely be tainted by Queen Liesenlotte before even Anastasia could act.

We could only grit our teeth and watch this unfold, perhaps with tears.

Just thinking about it was strangely thrilling.

The bread would taste delicious.

“Die about a hundred times and fix that fetish of yours.”

Anastasia harshly rebuked me.

“Why were you even born this way?”

Her rebuke came from deep within, shockingly cold in its delivery.

“I was born this way, there’s nothing I can do about it. My primal experience, I believe, was always looking at the muscular behind of my uncle, Robert, when I was young. It can’t be helped.”

I defended myself.

I thought there was validity in this defense.

“You’ve always looked at my husband Robert with such filthy eyes. When you were young, I often contemplated whether to tear off your head.”

Queen Liesenlotte made a terrifying statement.

She was serious, probably even contemplating it several times.

It was a horrifying confession.

At that moment, I pondered a bit.

If it were my mother, would she have disowned Georgine and watched with a calm demeanor as my head was torn off?

Everyone seemed somewhat cold toward me, Georgine von Astarte, the eldest daughter and now the head of the Astarte ducal family.

They recognize my talent, but it feels as if they think something went wrong when I was born.

“Ah, such foolish passions are of no consequence. What troubles me now is the book that Martina and Faust presented.”

A handful of documents titled “Gun, Cannon, Knight,” which formed the subject of a short discussion.

It was the result of a bundle of papers sent by Martina to investigate Faust’s knowledge and the Polydoro territory.

Indeed, Martina had unraveled and reported on that particular aspect.

It was praiseworthy and deserved a reward.

But the content was explosive.

“First, about the guns…”

The plan involved refining the actions and reloading procedures of the gunners, training them through a series of precise steps. It detailed the specific breakdown and methodology.

The document had transformed into a clear military training manual.

“Some of the methods I had devised coincided with these. It’s somewhat irritating that their content is more specific than mine,” she mused.

Regarding the cannons:

Some of the information was incorrect, yet oddly detailed in other parts. Unlike the royal and ducal Astarte, who were ignorant of the Cologne Sect’s advancements in firearm development, it was understandable for these two. However, the content looked slightly ahead of Astarte, considering how threatening artillery could be—this was understood even by Astarte. The book included various intriguing methods for artillery use that would interest any tactician.

But that wasn’t the important part. It touched on saltpeter.

Clearly, it described methods of producing saltpeter. While there had been suspicions that the Cologne Sect was magically producing saltpeter, not mining it from mountains, this book refuted those. It discussed methods of producing saltpeter from decaying waste or animal dung and urine.

The method described was vague, but it was problematic nonetheless. It likely meant their conjectures were correct, which was worrisome.

Why were those two fools, Faust and Martina, so casually discussing the secret affairs of the Cologne Sect?

Both Faust and Martina likely would not have written such things if they had thought through the implications alone. It seemed that when two intellectuals get together, they can’t stop themselves and inadvertently end up documenting such things.

Since the Cologne Sect profits from the sale of saltpeter, even touching on the topic, albeit not in detail, was clumsy.

Anyone less well-positioned could have been killed by the Cologne Sect for less.

The Sect probably expected their secrets to leak eventually, but they would not appreciate it happening now.

Astarte was relieved that she was the first to read it. There was still time to stop this.

“Should it be burned? No, wait.”

The book wasn’t meant for her. It was intended as a gift to Queen Liesenlotte, and she was merely a mediator.

The book itself said so, clearly written in the chapter about knights.

“Guns may one day evolve to bring an end to the cavalry, but that lies in the future and does not mean the disappearance of knights. It is hoped that Her Imperial Majesty of the Sacred Gustein Empire will not be called the last knight.”

Utterly unadorned.

Even invoking Her Imperial Majesty of the Sacred Gustein Empire in a potentially disrespectful manner, this book was something even the electorate royalty of Anhalt might struggle to manage. Indeed, if Anhalt could fully utilize this knowledge, they might gain an advantage.

“…I’m concerned about the nomadic horse tribes and the response of the Sacred Gustein Empire.”

Initially skeptical about the western conquest theory of the nomadic horse tribes, she reached out because Faust suggested it. The minimal information she held led her to probe the Sacred Gustein Empire.

The results were not reassuring. Even the top leaders of the Sacred Gustein Empire were half-believing, half-doubting, which was a bad sign. They believed the information to some extent.

If the nomadic horse tribes did invade from the west, she didn’t know what would become of the Sacred Gustein Empire itself, but Anhalt and Virendorf at the front lines would suffer terribly, possibly even losing their territories.

That was an undesirable future.

She stood up, placing the documents back into the document box.

She decided against burning them. But this was not something to flaunt foolishly. It might not even be appropriate to call it a book.

She thought of it as some sort of sinister weapon, something that could be used in trade or negotiations.

Honestly, even if the invasion of the nomadic horse tribes was confirmed, she couldn’t see a future where all of the Sacred Gustein Empire would unite to face it.

The current Empress was highly capable, elected unanimously by all the electors in a voting system.

The empire was in a golden age of strength. However, just as Virendorf and Anhalt had fought among themselves, the feudal lords were not all in harmony.

Anxiety only grew.

The phrase “the last knight” kept nagging at her.

If the concerns Faust had shown through his actions were true, it wouldn’t just be due to the cannons.

It might end in the collapse of the Sacred Gustein Empire due to invasion.

“…”

Such dreary thoughts.

Such dark contemplations were unbecoming of her, and she soon shifted her focus forward.

The prodigiously intelligent nine-year-old Martina, and Faust, a superhuman knight found nowhere else in the Sacred Gustein Empire.

These two fools had submitted such dangerous materials.

“Should I bring those two to the imperial capital?”

From Queen Liesenlotte to Princess Anastasia, the succession of the Anhalt Electorate was underway.

Anastasia needed to appear before the Empress herself in the imperial capital.

As her advisor, she planned to accompany her. Adding two more wouldn’t be a problem.

The issue was whether the two would agree.

How should she persuade them?

She began to contemplate the wording of the letter.

But still, she wondered.

“When will this fighting end?”

In a room of the Anhalt royal palace, she lamented.

In the hallway, bodyguards from both sides desperately tried to stop their respective masters.

“Please, stop this ugly fighting.”

“You should never have been born!”

Her mother shouldn’t be saying such things.

Queen Liesenlotte had cast aside her usual composed demenor.

Was she always like this?

Well, none of the Anhalt royalty, including herself, were of sound character. Valiere and Uncle Robert were the exceptions.

“It would have been better if you had been born from a tree!”

Her daughter was also saying things she shouldn’t.

It didn’t seem like something a future ruler of the Anhalt Electorate should say.

But, well, it didn’t matter.

Despite everything, both of them saw reality clearly, and as long as mediation continued, things would likely calm down.

They weren’t about to truly kill each other over a man.

“Meow.”

The white cat she had recently adopted, ostensibly to discuss Faust, rubbed its head against her leg as she sat.

Not a bad decision, after all.

Allowing her thoughts to settle on such trivial matters, she stood up from the chair to pet the cat.