Episode 129

In the audience chamber of Villa Hora Castle.

Inside the audience chamber, barons, high-ranking knights, and mercenary leaders stood according to their rank, with other heavily armed knights standing around.

To anyone looking, it was clearly a situation of interrogating a traitor, and Hilde felt both fear and unjust accusation.

“Is this how I die, dishonorably and shamefully?”

Thus, Hilde Bauman was escorted in front of Baron Custer, tied up in ropes.

“Ugh, I am innocent. This is a conspiracy by Viscount Canosa!”

Baron Custer snorted at her words, and the surrounding high-ranking knights also laughed loudly, mocking her.

“Traitors always say that. ‘I am innocent, this is a conspiracy.’”

“Even a low-ranking knight should know honor. A traitor who doesn’t.”

“Always full of excuses when they backstab, aren’t they?”

Tears naturally formed in Hilde’s eyes from the injustice.

Her face flushed with anger and injustice, and her eyes were red with burst blood vessels.

“No, I never, ever thought of betraying the baron. I swear on the honor of my deceased father and our family name, I, Hilde Bauman, have no intention of repaying Baron Custer’s kindness with enmity! This is a conspiracy, please clear my unjust accusation!”

Baron Custer, sitting in a luxurious chair, still snorted at her desperate pleas.

“A mere low-ranking knight, and yet you talk too much, shut up.”

At those words, Hilde froze.

She felt a choking pain in her heart, suffocation from the injustice, and despair as if her heart was being cut with a knife.

But harsher words continued to spill from the baron’s mouth.

“Children reflect their parents. If you betrayed me, it means your father was either a traitor or a coward. I don’t know who your father was, but to leave behind a traitorous daughter…”

Unable to respond, Hilde just cried.

Then, an official standing next to the baron cautiously spoke up.

“Baron, regardless of the severity of the criminal’s actions, she is a low-ranking knight. You must proceed with the trial according to the law.”

“Well, even if she is a traitor, she remains a low-ranking knight. Even at the bottom of the nobility, she has the right to a trial by law. Fine, let’s make her crimes known so everyone understands her wrongdoings. Read out her crimes one by one.”

Upon hearing this, the official deliberately made a rustling sound as he unfolded a scroll.

“I will read the charges against the low-ranking knight, Hilde Bauman.”

The laughing mercenary leaders below also closed their mouths and sat up straight.

Hilde was brought in, tied up and gagged.

“Hilde Bauman has always felt unjustly treated for being kept as a low-ranking knight by Baron Custer, despite having reached the level of an Aura Expert Beginner, simply because she is a woman.”

Hilde, bound in chains and gagged, struggled in her state.

“Mmmph!”

Though her moans were unintelligible due to the gag, her tears and violent struggling indicated her immense feeling of injustice.

Hilde had never thought she was discriminated against for being a woman or for being at the Aura Expert Beginner level.

Because becoming an Expert Beginner was an achievement, and she believed one could not be promoted to a higher rank without deserving accomplishments.

‘Is the baron not aware that all this is slander?’

“Despite having never contributed to the glory of our Custer baronial family, she harbored resentment for not being promoted to a middle-ranking knight as if she had done so, like other families would, and tried to hide those feelings. Isn’t that right?”

Hearing this, she desperately shook her head.

She had never harbored such feelings or thoughts.

She couldn’t understand how she was being accused of a crime based on such baseless allegations, feeling utterly wronged.

“Mmph!”

However, in the trial conducted by Baron Custer, where the principle of presumption of innocence was completely ignored, Hilde was not given the opportunity to speak.

The official concluded reading the list of her alleged motivations for betrayal, mostly concocted from Baron Custer’s delusions, after an hour.

“The above reasons are considered sufficient motive for low-ranking knight Hilde Bauman to betray the baron. However, as she is not a mere serf but a knight, it is proper that evidence be presented for judgment. Sir Luigi Pisani, a middle-ranking knight, please come forward.”

Before Luigi could come forward, one of Baron Custer’s high-ranking knights inquired.

“Baron, who exactly is this Luigi Pisani that he became a middle-ranking knight?”

The baron smiled and replied.

“He has been providing us with information before this war even started. A middle-ranking knight under Viscount Canosa, he said he could no longer endure the viscount’s tyranny and thus betrayed him. And it was he who informed me of Hilde Bauman’s wicked scheme.”

Upon the baron vouching for his identity, Luigi immediately presented a scroll sealed with Viscount Canosa’s signet.

“Look at this! It states that if this castle falls, Hilde Bauman will be appointed as a high-ranking knight in the Viscount Canosa’s family and be granted two villages as her fief!”

Hearing this, everyone around Hilde started murmuring.

“Is this really reliable evidence?”

“The Formation Commander compared it with a letter from Viscount Canosa we acquired earlier and checked more than ten times to confirm if the seal was genuine or not.”

“How could a knight, even a low-ranking one, betray the grace of their lord like this?”

The mercenary leaders present sighed quietly and murmured among themselves.

“To brand a knight a traitor based solely on a document without any evidence of her response? These fools are insane.”

Someone even gritted their teeth.

“To think such scum exists. If I ever meet this baron as an enemy, I won’t capture him alive for ransom; I’d rather slice him up.”

Baron Custer then began to read from a fake appointment letter, purportedly crafted by Viscount Canosa himself.

“Viscount Canosa highly values the exploits of Sir Bauman in the battles thus far. It pains me to see such a fine knight being merely a low-ranking one under Baron Custer. Thus, I wish to recruit you as a high-ranking knight in the Canosa family. As for your fief, I will grant you the village of Lyuben.”

Hilde, having no memory of such an offer, shook her head vigorously in denial.

“Ugh, mmph!”

Regardless, the baron continued reading.

“I hope you will do your best for the Canosa family, which will treat you rightly.”

After finishing, he threw the appointment letter on the ground.

“To not know such grace, what a whore. What’s the difference between a woman who commits adultery despite having a husband and you, who contemplates betrayal despite having a lord?”

After expressing his anger, the baron signaled for Hilde’s gag to be removed.

With the gag removed, Hilde, while crying, gritted her teeth.

‘The baron is a reasonable man. I must persuade him logically…’

Her unwavering loyalty to her lord led her to still harbor hope, and she earnestly claimed her innocence.

“This is all Viscount Canosa’s conspiracy. I have neither seen nor known of that letter. And if you are to accuse me of betrayal, shouldn’t there be evidence that I responded to that letter?”

Baron Custer approached her, gritting his teeth, and slapped her hard across the face.

“You whore! Isn’t the evidence of your betrayal to the Custer family clear enough! The letter Luigi brought was secretly taken from a confidential document hidden in Viscount Canosa’s office library! The circumstances are clear, and yet you still claim innocence!”

He continued to strike her, again and again.

“Such impudence and ingratitude. The world has become a place where women can become knights and receive titles based on their abilities. But a low-ranking knight like you is fundamentally worthless!”

Baron Custer’s rant was partly because he was often, or rather almost always, compared unfavorably to Hella, a female baron from a neighboring territory.

Despite similar sizes of their territories, Hella’s always seemed to be one step ahead in every aspect, causing him immense inferiority complex.

Yet, he never attributed the problem to his incompetence or suspicious nature, blaming it solely on her gender and vowing revenge without any substantial reason.

“As much as I’d like to have you tortured and begging for death like the inquisitors do, the laws of the Rheinfalz Empire forbid torturing knights without cause. I won’t torture you! But once I return victorious from this war, I will behead you and restore order to the barony. Take this whore away!”

Hearing this, Hilde was engulfed in despair, losing any will to defend herself further.

She had been branded a traitor by her lord, who refused to listen to any of her pleas.

Her life’s purpose and reason, her loyalty to her lord, was something she could no longer uphold.

‘…I just want to die.’

As if her soul had left her, Hilde, now a shell of her former self, was escorted out by two knights.

As if her soul had been drained away, a devastated Hilde was escorted out by two knights.

“Spread the word that Hilde has betrayed our baron’s family, and look into her lineage as well!”

Everything went exactly as Martin had planned.

An hour later, in the soldiers’ barracks.

Instead of lying down to sleep, the soldiers gathered in small groups, talking among themselves.

Normally, they would have fallen asleep anywhere due to exhaustion, but now they were too agitated to sleep.

“Did you hear that Bauman has betrayed Baron Custer… Do you believe that?”

A serf responded.

“There’s no way Sir Bauman would betray the baron. What nonsense.”

Then, a mercenary lying next to him chuckled.

“Nonsense? Think about it, kid. We’ve been surrounded for over a week, and without Bauman, who knows when the castle might have fallen.”

“So?”

“So? You’re missing the point. Even she saw no way out and turned traitor. Others of higher status probably think the same.”

Hearing this, others paid attention, and one asked rather foolishly.

“So, what are we supposed to do?”

The mercenary chuckled and replied.

“What do you mean, ‘what to do’? It’s over. Let’s try to get some sleep; we don’t want to be caught gossiping and get our heads chopped off together.”