King of the Sea

Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Though Lambert was a devious prick, he still had a soft spot for his little sister, much like Berengar, and had thus elected to put this feud to rest for now. As such, he smiled and patted Henrietta on the head before agreeing to her request.

"Sure, Henrietta, whatever you want!"

Henrietta ran into Lambert's arms and hugged him while staring down Linde with a look that said

"I'm watching you!"

Linde was unphased by the little girl's provocation as she had seen it many times since her arrival; despite her best efforts, she had proven incapable of building a bond with either of the women of Berengar's family. Which was unfortunate, but she would not lose any sleep over it. Truly aside from Berengar, it was the women of the von Kufstein family who had the best intuition. Eventually, Adela also left her quarters and saw what was transpiring; though she did not know what had occurred, she instinctively felt it was something serious. She would make sure to ask Berengar about it later. After concluding the violent scene, the five of them walked into the dining hall, where they would await the arrival of the Baron and Baroness so that they could begin Lambert's birthday breakfast.

Lately, Berengar had been ordering a beer with his breakfast, however today he suspiciously ordered a -liter flagon of milk to be brought to him. Despite his unusual behavior nobody minded it. While drinking from his morning milk Berengar could tell Lambert was glaring at him with a desire for revenge. Still, there was nothing the boy could do about it at this moment. Instead, he made a civil talk with the others. The group pretended as if the awkward scene in the corridor had never transpired.

Lambert, on the other, was almost entirely certain that Linde was cheating on him with Berengar, but there was nothing he could do about it. Count Lothar would never believe his daughter would conspire against him and would probably have Lambert severely punished for suggesting such a thing. As such, all he could do was be cautious around her in the future. The group chatted for quite some time before the Baron and Baroness arrived; they were quite shocked to see that Berengar was here before them. Usually, he was either exercising or hard at work this early in the morning. Instead, he was sitting here peacefully conversing with the others.

The Baron and Baroness sat down at the head of the table and ordered the food to be prepared and brought for them. While they waited for the food, they congratulated Lambert on his th Birthday; later that night, they would hold a coming of age ceremony for their second son. It was sure to be a festive occasion, one in which Berengar would take advantage of to cuck his brother to the fullest degree. He had plans to bed Linde in every part of the castle today without anyone knowing, including Lambert's bed. It was Berengar's way of saying happy birthday to his diabolical little brother who had already made multiple attempts on his life.

Eventually, breakfast was served, and as Henrietta had suggested, German pancakes were one of the many delicacies served. Berengar, of course dined entirely on wurst and sauerkraut. He would need a lot of protein if he were going to enjoy Linde to the extent he desired today. Thus he piled his plate with nothing but wurst and sauerkraut while drinking yet another giant L flagon of milk. Though the rest of the family was puzzled by his actions, Linde had an eery suspicion about what he was planning for the upcoming hours and, for the first time, was slightly excited about Lambert's birthday.

Adela looked at Berengar curiously, wondering why his breakfast was so weird.

"Berengar, are you not going to have anything else?"

Berengar shook his head and patted the girl's silky golden blonde hair.

"Sometimes a man has got to eat his wurst and sauerkraut."

She did not know what to say, so she merely accepted his answer and moved on. As such, Berengar spent over an hour with his family discussing the schedule for the day while they feasted on their fabulous breakfast. Of course, he planned to be absent for most of it and only show up at the end drunk out of his mind. Still, he had prepared a gift for Lambert. The present he had planned for Lambert was the mini balls he had used to kill the boy's assassins during his hunting trip. While cleaning up the corpses, he made sure to recover the minie balls used to kill his opponents. He also added a fourth one which he had used to hunt a buck. The reason for this was simple it was a symbolic gesture, four used bullets for the four men-at-arms killed during the hunting trip. As long as Lambert thought the fourth bullet came from his assassins, it would intimidate the boy. Essentially Berengar was using violence and intimidation to pursue his political aims. In other words, this was a symbolic act of terror against his enemies.

This was only the beginning of the day in which Lambert entered adulthood. There were many things to come as Berengar played mind games with his brother on a day that was supposed to be filled with celebration. Instead, Lambert would only feel dread and terror as his older brother would torment him in more ways than had already occurred.

: Lamberts Birthday II

: Lamberts Birthday II

: Lambert's Birthday II

After finishing the extravagant breakfast, Berengar departed from the family; they had many plans to set into place and a luxurious feast to prepare for the coming night. As such, Berengar used this time to enact his plan with Linde. He had already enjoyed her company in the bath. So he met up with Linde in secret on several occasions that day in various parts of the castle, where the couple released their carnal desires together.

While that was going on, Lambert took out his pent-up fury on a training dummy with his longsword. The -year-old boy could not believe that today of all days, he had been humiliated in such a manner by his brother. Though he had wanted to keep a close eye on Linde, the sly girl had absconded the moment breakfast was over, and despite his attempts, Lambert ultimately failed to track her down. The image of her perfect porcelain skin dripping wet with the bathwater as her nightgown clung tightly to her heavenly curves could not escape his mind. Though it would normally be a pleasant memory to have, the scene that transpired afterward where Berengar was equally damp did nothing but create paranoia as he continued to suspect a relationship between the two.

The young lord wanted to get to the bottom of this, though he could not. Accusing Linde without evidence would only create further tension between him and her father. Not to manage the harm it would cause to the fragile relationship he currently had with his fiancee. Truthfully he did not want to know the truth if it was what he suspected. The boy wanted to tear his own heart out as he slashed at the Training dummy's neck, decapitating it with a perfectly placed strike. In his mind, he envisioned the scene of removing Berengar's head from his shoulders, and at that moment, he felt cathartic. He swore to himself that sooner or later, he would have his vengeance on his older brother for the pain and suffering that had been inflicted on him this day. Of course, it did not even enter the boy's mind that he had brought these things upon himself by conspiring against his brother for the inheritance.

After a long training session, Lambert entered the bath, where he cleansed his milky white skin from the sweat and grime accumulated throughout the violent display. As he gazed into his reflection within the pool of water, he could not help but feel inferior in appearance to his older brother; though he had the charm of youth on his side, he did not have the princely features with which Berengar had been blessed. Instead, despite his youth, his face and body were more robust, as he had the characteristics of a knight. Which was attractive in its own right, and many women would prefer such a look. However, his fiancee obviously preferred the regal features of Berengar, which got under the boy's skin. He dashed the bathwater with his hand causing a ripple to obscure the reflection before getting out of the pool of water and dressing in his attire.

After getting out of the bath, he visited the kitchen where the chefs were busy baking a massive german cheesecake for the celebration that would occur later in the evening. He had no idea that Berengar and Linde were enjoying each other's embrace in his bed at this moment. Thus he continued to walk around the castle. Lately, he had noticed that the guards inside the Castle had shifted from the usual troops adorned with brigandine and halberds to men garbed in the flamboyant attire of Berengar's militia while carrying their hand cannons. He was unaware that his father had selected Eckhard to be his next marshal, as it had not been publicly announced yet. However, unlike before when Lambert laughed at the peasants in their dirty clothes and their laughable hand cannons, their current equipment in which they issued began to intimidate Lambert. The men were clearly garbed in partial plate armor with a breastplate, backplate, gorget, and helmet, which were all made of blackened steel. These guards did not pay the slightest bit of attention to Lambert as he passed by.

Lambert walked out upon the Castle's ramparts and saw more of these men acting as sentries upon the Castle's walls. They were currently in the process of aligning Berengar's cannons onto the ramparts. These cannons were not the lb field guns used by the militia, but lb siege cannons developed by Berengar and recently put into production with the intent of being static defensive guns mounted on the Castle's walls. With Eckhard being made the Marshal, even if it was not common knowledge at the moment, the man had begun to transition the old garrison into Berengar's training and re-outfitting them with the modern equipment. In truth, the men Lambert saw staffing the castle were the same men that always acted as the garrison; they were just equipped with the latest weapons of Berengar's design and were being trained in their use. Of course, some of Berengar's men had replaced those who had been purged from the Castle garrison's ranks for being loyal to Lambert, but most of the troops stationed at Castle Kufstein were the same men who had always been there.