Chapter 197: Father’s Cruelest Appointment

To produce the gunpowder we lacked, we’d need to operate a saltpeter farm, but how could we run one when we didn’t know how to make saltpeter? I knew it was made from dung and urine, but I didn’t know the fundamental layout of the farm.

And the fact that saltpeter farms didn’t exist anywhere in Beren made it all the more hopeless. The Grand Duke was someone I could rely on at times like this, but I dreaded what he might demand in return, so I needed an independent information channel.

For instance, I might be able to find out through someone like the merchant Wenzenberg, who traded out of Strasbourg. I’d have to pay him a significant sum, though.

"Oh, my lord. May God’s blessings be with you."

"And with you as well."

"The gunfire was louder than I expected. I nearly knocked over the altar. Ha ha ha!"

Andreas, speaking with his usual good humor, fortunately didn’t show any negative reaction. He only cautioned me not to overlap with the church bells and to absolutely never fire weapons during Mass.

Even now, gunfire was echoing from the parade ground as training continued.

Daniel had caught my look, so he’d pass the instructions along to Ralph.

I held absolute power in Feuzen, but the Church was the exception, so I regarded us as coexisting neighbors and showed Andreas due courtesy.

And this priest was more interested in something else entirely than the devil’s weapons.

He was grateful to have a painter who could create a sacred painting.

"Have you come to see Aachen’s work on the altarpiece?"

"That painter has cost me dozens of silver coins, so I think I’ve earned the right to take a look, wouldn’t you say?"

"Of course! You are the patron of such a fine artist. Please, look to your heart’s content."

I hadn’t planned on becoming the patron of an unknown painter, but I’d inadvertently become one after supplying him with art materials. He’d promised to give me ten paintings as the price for his life, so I considered it an advance investment.

Hieronymus van Aachen, originally from the Duchy of Brabant, had been a devout Catholic, but after being captured by a band of deserters and witnessing their atrocities, he’d had an epiphany and become a misanthropic pessimist.

Through conversation, I could tell he’d come to believe that impious people who failed to properly follow the Church’s teachings would all be dragged into purgatory and the realm of demons, regardless of their status. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Surprisingly, however, Father Andreas had praised Aachen’s skills and commissioned an altarpiece—a sacred painting, to be precise. Following Andreas into the workshop inside the church corridor, I was able to see Aachen’s work.

He was painting on a folding screen to be placed behind the altar, in the standard triptych altarpiece format. Aachen was diligently applying oil paint with his brush, and it looked like he was working on the background first.

Something seemed a little off.

"Normally I’d prefer a sacred sculpture, but given the cost, I thought decorating with a painting would work just as well. I’m truly glad Aachen agreed so readily. Ha ha ha."

"If my eyes aren’t deceiving me, the background of that painting appears to depict the Garden of Eden and purgatory."

"Would you like to see the rough sketch Aachen drew first?"

It was essentially a rough draft. He’d sketched the composition of the altarpiece and gotten Andreas’s approval beforehand. The moment I saw the sketch, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Daniel was equally stunned.

"...Isn’t this a bit too extreme for a painting? Is it fitting for a sacred work?"

"It’s extreme, yes, but it’s a sacred painting that delivers an incredibly pure and definitive moral lesson."

The left panel depicted the serpent tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the center showed the human world steeped in worldliness and corruption. And the right panel was the most striking—it seemed to depict hell.

It appeared to portray all manner of demons butchering humans as if they were livestock. I recalled the sculptures and altarpieces in the great cathedral of Breisburg and the regional parish churches.

I didn’t remember any painting style this extreme.

Aachen set down his brush and came over when he noticed me.

"Thank you. Thanks to you, my lord, I’m able to paint again."

"I’m glad to hear it. But is this really going to be the altarpiece for the Feuzen church?"

"Yes. I painted it in the spirit of repentance, reflecting how easily humans fall into sin."

I sensed a touch of madness in Aachen as he smirked. Maybe I’d been exposed to so many unhinged people lately that I’d grown used to it, but this Brabant-born misanthropic painter was clearly not in his right mind either.

"You seem surprised. I understand. After you saved me, my lord, I could no longer paint ordinary pictures. Because I came to understand just how pitiful and sinful human beings truly are."

"You wanted to express the suffering of sinful humans through your paintings?"

"Precisely. And it also contains the lesson to follow the Church’s teachings."

I never imagined I’d experience culture shock through a painting.

"The paintings I’ll present to you, my lord—I’ll begin as soon as this altarpiece is complete."

"How long will it take to finish the altarpiece?"

"For a piece of this scale, about a year."

"The paintings you’ll give me won’t be in this style, will they?"

"I’ll paint whatever you wish, my lord. He he he."

Aachen went back to work. I figured it was best not to visit this apparently unhinged Brabant fellow for a while. After stepping outside the church, Daniel and I let out a long sigh.

This was the first time in my life I’d been overwhelmed by a painting.

He was definitely a genius, but a genius in a different sense of the word.

"The world is wide and full of crazy people."

"He is a painter you brought here yourself, my lord."

"From now on, I won’t be picking up just anyone."

I wasn’t sure how long that resolution would last, but at least right now I was confident I could keep it. I didn’t have some kind of magnet that attracted lunatics, did I?

The next stop was the medical clinic run by the Arzt couple in Feuzen.

Everyone agreed it was the first medical clinic since Feuzen’s founding.

When they learned of my visit, the Arzt couple and Simon came scrambling out.

"M-my lord, w-we pay our r-respects!"

"At ease. If you’re a physician, patients come first. Don’t mind me."

Naturally, there was no way the Arzt couple would ignore the lord’s presence.

The pale face of the shepherd boy who’d been mid-examination greeted me.

"What are you here for?"

"M-m-m-my f-foot!"

"H-he sprained h-his foot, so he c-came in."

Wait, am I really that scary?

I’d been treating the residents pretty well, if I did say so myself.

It had to be bad if even Arzt was answering for him.

The shepherd boy seemed to have a sprain. Arzt wrapped it in a bandage while giving him medicine made from willow bark, instructing him to take it periodically for three days and to be careful with his foot.

Ice was the best treatment for a sprain, but in this era, ice was classified as a luxury item. Production was limited, so unless you were a wealthy noble like me, it wasn’t something you could casually obtain.

After the shepherd boy carefully hobbled away, I asked Arzt how things were going. Since meeting me and escaping his life as an executioner, Arzt had become a fervent believer in fate.

Simon had surprisingly become Arzt’s apprentice.

"It started when Brother Arzt saved my life."

Simon even knew that Arzt was a former executioner. Yet the reason he still called him "Brother" was likely thanks to Simon’s natural friendliness and unprejudiced heart.

That was why the Arzt couple were especially close with Simon.

Simon’s wife, Natalie, still seemed to be uneasy around the Arzt couple, though.

She was nothing like her rigid father.

Viktor had mentioned that his son took after his wife.

"There isn’t much I know how to do, but I thought if I studied medicine, I could help people in difficult situations like the one I was once in. That’s why I decided to learn."

It was such an admirable motivation that I praised his resolve. The way he grinned widely made him look like nothing more than a pure-hearted young man. I told him to let Daniel know if he needed any supplies.

Neiiigh!

On one side of the ranch under construction, horses were running happily within a fenced area that was already complete. The ranch grounds were so spacious that the horses were in noticeably better condition than they had been at the old stables.

Including the horses captured from Euz, the Gale Knights’ horses were also being kept here. Winter had hired a large number of residents to help operate a portion of the horse ranch, matching its scale.

It looked like only the finishing work remained, but I’d probably need to build my reputation as a horse breeder through the civil war. Schatten and Mont Blanc had established their respective territories and called a truce, so things were relatively peaceful.

I sent Daniel back and leaned against the fence to watch the horses.

I was spending a leisurely moment when Anton came running toward me in a panic.

"My lord! A messenger has arrived from Breisburg!"

When I returned to the manor, a nobleman who identified himself as the Grand Duke’s envoy presented me with a letter. After reading it, I asked the man to confirm once more whether it was really the Grand Duke who had written this letter with such absurd contents.

So that was why the Grand Duke had entrusted the Crown Prince to me.

The Crown Prince, curious, asked:

"What on earth did Father send in his letter?"

"He’s appointed you as Supreme Commander of the Western Lords’ Army. And I’m to be your aide."

The Crown Prince nearly fainted.