WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Ceaseless

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◈ The Medieval Heretic King is Too Good at Developing ◈

Chapter 85: The Prague Newspaper (3)

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Southern Germany, at the edge of the Black Forest.

For days, the sky had been weighed down by a rotten, ash-gray gloom.

The forest had absorbed more rain than it could hold and was vomiting it back out, while the ground had become a thick marsh that clung stubbornly to the ankles of the living.

Elsa roughly grabbed her younger daughter Sophie by the arm and yanked her up as she was about to collapse.

"Get up, Sophie. We can't rest."

"Mom... My legs hurt so much. I'm too hungry to walk..."

"Just a little farther. Once we get over that hill..."

Elsa clutched her chest as if checking the bundle of paper hidden inside her clothes.

The newspaper was damp with rain.

That scrap of paper Joseph had pressed into her hand was now the only rope keeping her afloat.

With deserters and bands of brigands everywhere, and the lord's hounds combing through the forest, for women and children to cross the war-torn woods alone was little different from suicide.

The mother and her two daughters had survived this far only through luck and because they had found the right companions.

"Ma'am, let's rest for a while. The children's lips have turned blue."

Tobias, a former blacksmith, stopped walking. His wife, Margarita, breathed heavily as she held their nursing son tightly in her arms.

Their family, too, had fled in the dead of night after enduring the lord's brutal exploitation for too long.

When the two families had happened across each other in the forest, they had been wary at first. Yet they saw the same kind of despair in each other's appearance and began traveling together without a word.

Having a strong man with them had been a great comfort. Tobias took turns keeping watch at night and cleared a path through the thick brush.

As Elsa sat on a stump to catch her breath, Tobias limped over, using his pitchfork as a cane.

"By the way, ma'am, are you sure this is the right direction? It feels like we've been circling this forest for days."

"It is. Joseph... my husband told me. He said to go toward where the sun rises until we reached a river."

Elsa glanced anxiously behind her. She had no idea when their pursuers might descend on them.

Yesterday, she had seen peasants' heads displayed at the forest entrance. Their empty eye sockets, hollowed out by crows, seemed to whisper that there was no escape.

Rustle.

A faint sound in the distance froze the entire group.

Margarita covered her nursing son's mouth. Tobias gripped his pitchfork and slipped into the shadows. Elsa pulled her daughters close and squeezed herself behind a rotting log.

Silence.

Elsa's heart seemed to pound against her ribs loudly enough to fill the forest.

Fortunately, the sound faded away. It must have been an animal, or the wind playing tricks.

"Haa..."

Tobias let out a sigh of relief and slumped down.

"I can't keep doing this. Bohemia or whatever, we'll die before we ever get there."

"Don't say that! We're almost there!"

Elsa practically screamed. Her eyes were sunken, but a desperate fierceness burned within them.

"They said they'll give us food. A house, too, and the children can learn to read. Joseph isn't the kind of man who'd lie."

"That Joseph of yours may already be dead, for all you know."

Instead of answering Tobias's rebuke, Elsa bit her lip until it bled.

She could not argue with him. Her husband remained in mortal danger, while she was heading to a land she had never seen. This might all be madness.

Yet it had to be true. If the promise on that paper was a lie, then her choice to leave her husband behind would become a sin she could never wash away.

"I have to go. Even if I die, I'll die after I get there."

Elsa hoisted Sophie onto her back and started walking again. Her eldest daughter, Emma, silently followed behind.

"...Fine. Let's go together."

Tobias knew it too. Having come this far, there was nowhere to return to.

After they had walked for some time, the dense forest receded and their view opened onto a clearing.

Far in the distance, they saw a gray river flowing past.

It was the border between Bohemia and the Palatinate.

"A river! I can see the river!"

Tobias let out a cheer and ran forward. Elsa's heart swelled in her chest.

There. They only had to cross that river.

But that hope shattered before they had taken more than a few steps.

Neigh!

A shrill whinny tore through the rain.

At the same time, black shapes burst from the forest shadows like ghosts.

Knights wearing surcoats bearing the emblem of a black eagle.

They were the border patrol of Ludwig III of the Palatinate, the Elector Palatine.

"Found them! The little rats!"

"Don't let a single one escape!"

Hooves thundered across the ground.

Elsa instinctively pulled the children close and dropped to the ground.

"N-No..."

Tobias grabbed his wife's hand and tried to run for the riverbank, but the cavalry had already blocked their path completely.

A huge man raised the visor of his helmet from atop his horse.

"Well, well. Did you come out for a stroll in weather like this?"

It was Ludwig III of the Palatinate, his greasy beard and arrogant face repulsive to behold.

As if he were hunting rabbits, he leisurely tugged on his reins and looked down at the refugees.

"You dare leave my domain without permission? Do you truly not know what happens to livestock that cross their master's fence?"

Tobias gripped his pitchfork and stood in front of his wife and children.

"W-We aren't criminals! We're only leaving to find a way to live!"

"A way to live? Hahaha! You are serfs. Since you were born on my land, your blood and flesh belong to me. Yet you dare steal your master's property and run away?"

Ludwig spat on the ground in disgust.

"And judging by your direction, you were crawling toward the land of those cursed heretics. Filthy apostates."

He raised his lance and pointed it at Elsa.

"Take them. Behead the man here as an example. Drag the women and children to the castle."

The knights dismounted with vile grins.

Elsa backed away, hiding the children behind her.

The cold river lay behind them, and spears and swords stood before them.

'This is the end. Joseph, I'm sorry.'

Just as she was about to squeeze her eyes shut in despair,

Bang!

Thunder rang out.

It was not a sound made by rain clouds. It was a far sharper, drier crack.

Thud!

A hole opened in the chest of the knight who had been reaching for Elsa's hair.

"Urk...?"

Without even managing a scream, the knight toppled over like a scarecrow.

"W-What was that?!"

Ludwig and his knights recoiled in shock and wheeled their horses around.

On the far side of the river, soldiers of strange appearance emerged like ghosts from behind bushes and rocks.

They wore neither elaborate feathered ornaments nor gleaming plate armor. Dressed in dull, mud-colored clothing, they looked more like hunters than soldiers.

Yet the weapons in their hands lay far beyond anything German knights could comprehend.

Long iron tubes braced against their shoulders.

Pale Gunpowder smoke rising from the muzzles.

They were newly developed matchlock guns fitted with specially made leather covers for firing even in the rain.

"Don't move."

The soldiers parted, and a man slowly rode out on horseback.

A vicious scar crossed half his face, and his shoulders were broad.

Most of all, his beast-like eyes overwhelmed anyone who met them.

He was Jan Roháč of Dubá, the fierce commander of the Taborites and now commander of Bohemia's border guard.

Ludwig's face turned bright red.

"You bastard, Jan Roháč! Do you know where you are, bringing soldiers here? This is the territory of the Holy Roman Empire! It is the land of the Elector Palatine!"

Roháč did not even blink.

"Imperial territory? Don't be mistaken."

"What?"

"My horse has not yet crossed the river. But your soldiers have already crossed the line."

Ludwig flinched and looked around.

Blinded by their pursuit of the refugees, some of his knights had already pushed deep onto the sandbanks by the river.

"The moment you stepped into that river, you crossed Bohemia's border."

"What? Don't be ridiculous! The border is the middle of the river!"

"No."

Roháč calmly raised a hand. The soldiers behind him immediately aimed their matchlock guns.

"Our King has said that a border is not a line drawn on a map. It extends as far as our bullets can reach."

"Y-You lunatic..."

"And."

Roháč's gaze settled on Elsa, Tobias, and the others, huddled in the mud.

"They are no longer your slaves. From the moment they set foot on Bohemian soil, they became free people under the protection of the King of Bohemia."

Ludwig was dumbfounded.

"Absurd! Where is the law that says escaped slaves become free merely by stepping onto another land? There is no such clause anywhere in Imperial law!"

"Imperial law?"

Roháč gave a quiet laugh.

"This is Bohemia. And in Bohemia, only His Majesty's word is law."

With a clattering sound, a massive object emerged from the forest behind Roháč.

A heavy mass of iron mounted on a cart.

It was a light field cannon.

The cannon's black muzzle pointed directly at Ludwig's forehead.

"Choose. Return empty-handed and keep your life, or be torn apart by a cannon here."

A taut silence followed.

There were more than a dozen heavily armored cavalrymen.

They had enough force to trample the infantry across the river in an instant.

But they had heard the rumors. They knew how terrifying Bohemia's Gunpowder weapons were.

They instinctively understood that their armor would be reduced to rags before they could close that distance.

Ludwig's horse pawed nervously at the ground.

Torn between pride and survival, Ludwig finally bit his lip and wheeled his horse around.

"...Just wait, Jan Roháč. I will repay this humiliation. One day, I will tear apart that arrogant mouth of yours!"

"You're welcome anytime. Take care not to lose your way."

With Roháč's mocking farewell behind them, Ludwig and his knights vanished into the forest as though fleeing for their lives.

Once the hoofbeats faded, the tension snapped.

"Ah..."

Elsa's legs gave out, and she collapsed where she stood.

She had survived. She truly had.

"Are you all right?"

Roháč had already crossed the river. He dismounted and held out a hand to her.

Up close, his face was rough and covered in scars, but he held none of the contempt or murderous intent of the German lords.

Elsa pulled the newspaper from inside her clothes with trembling hands.

"This... They said they'd take us in if we had this..."

Roháč looked at the newspaper for a moment, then shook his head.

"You don't need that."

"......!"

Despair filled Elsa's eyes.

But Roháč bent one knee to meet her gaze and held out his leather-gloved hand again.

"Didn't I already say so? Since you have made it this far, you are no longer slaves. You are Bohemians under the protection of His Highness Ulrich."

Elsa took his hand with her trembling one. His powerful grip pulled her to her feet.

Roháč removed his thick cloak and draped it over Elsa's shoulders. Its warmth wrapped around her rain-soaked body.

"Welcome to Bohemia."

Behind him, soldiers approached, supporting the exhausted refugees and lifting the children into their arms.

One soldier took dried jerky from a pouch and placed it in the children's mouths, while another offered them a waterskin.

Bohemia.

The land ruled by the King of Iron and Fire.

Perhaps it truly was a devil's den, just as the rumors said. Yet at least its soldiers knew to feed the hungry and give their cloaks to those shivering in the cold.

At last, Elsa burst into tears.

Rain and tears mixed together as they ran down her cheeks.

It was not a lie.

The paradise in the picture truly existed beyond this river.

"Sob... Thank you. Thank you so, so much..."

Elsa clutched Roháč's hand and wept aloud.

Footnotes:

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