Chapter 25: Returning Home (1/2)
Throughout the entire venture, Berengar's absence throughout the camp went entirely unnoticed. By the time Sieghard and the servants awoke, they saw Berengar cleaning his rifle next to the fire. Sieghard could not help but exclaim in his heart.
'This boy is too dutiful; even on a hunting trip, he awakes at the crack of dawn.'
It had become a habit for Berengar to awake at dawn, in both his previous life and his current one. By now, he was used to running on a few hours of sleep a couple of times a week. In his hands was a glass of water which he had boiled over the campfire to rid it of impurities, at least to the best of his ability. He refused to drink polluted water and had spent the morning purifying a large supply of it. Since coffee had yet to be transported to Europe, he was forced to drink water this early in the morning. He was beginning to consider expanding his territory when he came to power. It would not be easy to establish a trade route from the mountains of Austria to the near east, and if he wanted to retire in luxury one day, he would need coffee.
Berengar's plans were simple, work hard for thirty years in establishing an industrial and economic powerhouse in his family's territory, and then retire in luxury, giving the reigns to a well-educated heir to continue his legacy. As of now, he had no desire to spend the remainder of his adult life at war. Something he had managed to do in his previous life. Of course, life did not always go as planned, and the future was unknown to him. There may be a necessity for him to expand his territory in time.
As of now, he was still just the son and heir of a lowly Baron, which meant he had no authority to make such decisions even if he desired to do so. Instead, he spent the remainder of the next few days being dragged around by his father hunting stags and collecting the meat. When he finally returned home, he was exhausted and covered in grime. The first thing he wanted to do was take a bath and cleanse himself of the filth he was covered in. Throughout the duration of the hunting trip, he had never revealed the full capabilities of the rifle; despite successfully hunting a buck of his own, his father was not impressed with the limited range that was displayed, and the exceptional reload time of the rifle.
The man had a traditional mind and felt that Berengar's use of what he incorrectly referred to as hand cannons were merely the fascination of youth with the newest technology. If he had known that the previous night Berengar had taken out three targets in a matter of minutes at a distance of 100 yards in the dead of night with his rifle, then he would probably have a heart attack from the shock of such a thing. Unlike an arrow, the rifle which fired a minie ball projectile was fully capable of piercing through a knight's hardened steel breastplate, let alone a common brigandine. Even the muskets fielded by Berengar's militia were capable of such a feat, albeit at a severely reduced distance.
There was a reason that during Berengar's previous life, after the invention of muskets, body armor slowly disappeared from common use. Even with the advanced manufacturing processes of the renaissance and the surpassing era, the breastplates used by heavy cavalry were only useful against melee weapons and musket fire at long distances. At close range, the steel breastplates used by cuirassiers would be punched through by a musket ball like an arrow through a common tunic.
If the medieval knights of the current era charged on horseback against a firing line of musketeers, they would be ended up as a bunch of blood-filled sieves, and such a frightening spectacle would be sure to affect the morale of the soldiers behind them. Even Berengar's militiamen who wielded such terrifying power had no way of knowing how capable their weapons were. After all, it is not as if they tested their guns on straw dummies covered in steel plate armor. That would be ludicrously expensive. Only Berengar was aware that his militia was capable of such an incredible achievement.
After arriving in the village with his father and the servants who followed them into the mountains, Berengar noticed a familiar sight waving towards him in an alleyway. It was his loyal slave who currently had tears of joy in her eyes that he had safely returned. The entire time he was away the pitiful young lady was in constant fear that her lord and master whom she had pledged her life to had perished in the ambush set up by her dastardly fiance. When she saw him covered in the dirt and grime of the mountains, she could not help but smile; there was not even a scratch on him. Truly she had worried too much. Without arousing suspicion, Berengar approached the alleyway where she was currently alone; as he finally fell out of sight, Linde rushed over into his embrace and nuzzled her porcelain cheek against his chest, dirtying it in the process.
Berengar accepted her embrace as he petted her sleek strawberry blonde hair in an attempt to calm her down. He had only been gone a few days and felt that she was overreacting. Nevertheless, he did not scold her, as he actually felt happy that she cared enough to worry so much about him during his absence. After all their relationship was complicated, to say the least. She was his concubine, and brother's fiancee whom he had forced himself on, and practically brainwashed into being obedient to him. Though he did not feel remorse for such actions, ultimately in Berengar's mind such actions were justified, and the young lady deserved her fate.
After stroking her luscious red-gold hair for several moments Berengar responded kindly to the young woman
”See, I told you I would be fine”
Though she still continued to sniffle, the buxom beauty wiped the tears from her eyes and began to smile. Everything turned out fine, and she could not be happier. However, Berengar could not abide the muck that had spread across her doll-like face and heavenly body from their brief intimate moment as such he whispered into the girl's ear
”Meet me in the bath”
The girl nodded her head and smiled as he departed before her. Things would not bode well for the couple if she was caught following him into the bath, as such they had to be extra cautious about how they moved from here on out.
And with that being said Berengar took off and headed towards the bath. Linde waited a few moments and did as she was commanded; not long after the young vixen found herself enjoying the company of her master in the warm water of the bathhouse, which proved to be a worthy investment. By the time the two were finished getting reacquainted with one another, it had already turned into evening. Dinner would soon be approaching, and he knew his father would have his chefs cook their gains during the hunt into a lavish feast. As such, the two left the confines of the bathhouse and separated; it would not look good if they arrived at the dining room together.