Chapter 44:
Theoretical Mongolians
AT THE RECKENBELL MANOR, I IGNORED THE tiny bloodstains on the ground as the four of us sat at a garden table. Princess Valiele, Lady Yue, Lady Nina, and I, Faust, took our seats. Zabine wiped away her blood with her handkerchief, but she was covered in scratches and bruises; there was no hiding her swollen face as she was forced to stand behind the princess.
“I’d like to be certain,” Her Highness said. “Is this so-called nomadic cavalry empire really going to head west?”
“They have no official name just yet, but their greed knows no bounds,” Lady Yue explained. “They won’t be satisfied simply destroying our dynasty.”
“Is there any chance that their greed is satisfied now that they’ve destroyed and conquered your dynasty?”
Her Highness maintained her composure. While I’d received an education as a knight from my mother, Marianne, and gained extraordinary power along with the ability to govern and control my three hundred citizens, that was all. I couldn’t possibly match the knowledge that Princess Valiele held about this world thanks to her noble education.
“There was once a tribe that wielded composite bows and had superb equestrian skills,” Her Highness continued. “They used mounted archery techniques and dominated a region.”
If memory serves, in my previous life, they were known as the Huns, I thought. This world must’ve had a tribe similar to them.
“Indeed, they took the shape of humans, but their fierce savagery was akin to wild beasts,” Princess Valiele said. “Are you telling me that a second wave of them has descended upon our world?”
She asked Zabine for seconds on her tea. The princess looked stately and dignified. On education alone, the royal trumped me, and she held the utmost confidence in her knowledge as well. If she always acted like this, she’d save me a ton of trouble as her advisor. Princess Valiele might have been known as mediocre for a princess, but she was by no means incompetent. Though I probably have no right to say so after I made her into a jester in front of Queen Catalina.
“Admittedly, I know not of matters in the west,” Lady Yue confessed. “However, I can say with confidence that they are worse than the people you just spoke of.” Her face was filled with anguish. “They’re very intelligent. Had they not been so, they wouldn’t have been able to unify the plateaus.”
“Unify? Whatever do you mean by that?” Princess Valiele asked. “The pillaging nomads of the north that continue to be a thorn in Anhalt and Villendorf’s sides aren’t unified just yet.”
“The tribes near Villendorf were decimated by my mother,” Lady Nina added bitterly. “I assume that these nomads will continue to pop up like weeds, but please don’t compare our nation to the weak Anhalt.”
It was clearly a point of personal pride for Lady Nina that her mother, Claudia von Reckenbell, had destroyed many pillaging nomadic tribes of the north.
“My apologies,” Princess Valiele replied.
The royal made no attempt to retort; Lady Nina spoke the truth.
“May I go on?” Lady Yue asked. Her words cut through this prickly atmosphere.
“Please do,” Princess Valiele replied. “You stated that these nomads managed to unify the tribes of the plateau. Are they different from those to the north of Anhalt?”
“They are. My dynasty is located to the far east, beyond the Silk Road. To the north of my now-ruined nation are the great grassy plains. And she managed to unify everyone in that area.”
Lady Yue placed her hands over her face. I couldn’t help but draw parallels to the Mongolians, but I desperately managed to resist burying my face in my hands as well.
“Thinking back, my nation’s history was fraught with the threat of the pillaging nomads of the north,” Lady Yue explained. “But never would we have imagined that they would unify. I’d assumed that they would perpetually be in a state of fierce battle amongst the tribes, fighting each other for water—or fighting against the elements, facing heavy snowfalls, low temperatures, strong winds, and famines. We expected them to suffer from eternal hardship and experience a life of hell in this world before they went to Hell. No matter how strong or powerful they may be, we believed they couldn’t overcome the conditions of their environment and the land.”
What exactly is culture? The question suddenly popped into my head. In my previous world, this word in German also came from the same roots that meant “to cultivate.” Personally, I believed that this was related to how one had to find a way to produce food and satisfy everyone’s hunger. As the lord of three hundred citizens, I always thought of my own methods to ensure that everyone could head to bed on a full stomach.
I knew that this was an irrational argument laid out by a weak feudal lord, but language, religion, music, ethics, art, philosophy, literature, fashion, laws, and the like abided by rules. An order or system was maintained in each area, and every person fulfilled their own responsibilities. It was a way to satisfy the physical and mental hunger of the people. Or so I think, anyway.
Then what’s the culture of these nomadic tribes? They have little food or water, and they quench their thirst by drinking the milk of their livestock. By far, their greatest asset was the absolute power that they held over agricultural tribes. That was their end goal, and these nomads pursued pure, raw power. They stole from weaker agricultural tribes to satiate their hunger. At the very least, the nomads of this world pillaged as they struggled for survival. If they failed, they’d starve in the winter, freeze to death, or steal from fellow tribes; it was a dog-eat-dog world. That was why I, who was in charge of an agricultural tribe in the west as a weak lord, was terrified of these nomads. Never could I have understood this primal fear that welled within me during my previous life.
“Yet these women all became united,” Lady Yue said. She closed her eyes as though recounting a tale. “And it’s all due to the appearance of a superhuman with extraordinary abilities.”
We had no official name for the nomads yet, but their reigning queen no doubt had one in mind. However, we’d never heard of it, despite an eastern dynasty falling to ruin due to their actions. The boorish sound of my hand rubbing against the surface of the garden table echoed throughout the area. In my past life, the ruler of the Mongolian Empire, the king of plunderers, was called Genghis Khan. All it took was the appearance of a single national hero to build a massive empire.
The same event could certainly occur in this world as well. This world was filled with superhumans, miracles, and magic, leading it to differ in certain ways from my previous world. What would that mean? If, for example, Genghis Khan emerged in this world as a superhuman, what would happen? Well, to be fair, he’d probably be considered extraordinary back in my previous life too. I did hear rumors that he had the best breeding stallion in history… Never mind, that’s more of a by-product of his feats. That’s not the main issue here. Think long and hard, Faust von Polidoro. Is there any useful information from my past life that I can utilize?
“Her name is Toqto’a,” Lady Yue said. “If we add her title, her full name is Toqto’a Khan.”
Yeah, sounds like a Mongolian. A shiver ran down my spine the moment I heard the word khan. Give me a break. Had her last name been “Can” or something, that wouldn’t have been an issue, but a khan clearly pointed to a medieval sovereign of a Mongol tribe. Only a monarch had the right to use that name. I was tempted to bury my face in my hands and emit a groan, but I wasn’t allowed to do so. I was Anhalt’s hero and the knight who protected the dignity of the Polidoro fief.
I kept my impulses in check as my mind began to race. Crown Princess Anastasia made me a suit of Maximilian armor, also known as the last major armor style. In my previous life, it was made in the early sixteenth century. Most of the Mongol Empire had fractured and been dismantled by then. So why are they emerging now?
Was this generation blessed with superhumans who possessed extraordinary abilities? Off the top of my head, I could think of Claudia von Reckenbell, the one who’d wiped out many nomadic tribes, and me, along with this emerging khan. I don’t think my assumptions are too insolent either. So, what can I do now? I desperately tried to think of a solution while Lady Yue ignored my silence and spoke to Princess Valiele.