Steel Empire
Lambert Birthday Part 1

Lambert wakes up bright and early in the morning on this beautiful morning in mid-July. Today was July 17, 1417; in other words it was the 16th birthday of the teenage boy. Today he would finally become an adult member in this feudal world. Her marriage to Linde will be held in two weeks, and she's not too excited for the day. Right now, his relationship with Linde was cold, to say the least; he no longer punished her for her mistakes and was barely interested in her as a person. He often walked right next to her as if he wasn't even there. On the other hand, she became increasingly close to her older brother and rival.

Ever since her father left the young beauty responsible for managing her transaction with Berengar, she has been looking for every opportunity to spend time with her brother rather than herself. Now Lambert may be considered quite solid in terms of relationships with the opposite sex, but even he begins to suspect Linde is having an affair with his older brother. He even began to doubt the parents of his so-called son. She had never once faced her fiance despite her worries because she was too afraid of the truth.

The more he thought about such things, the more he began to convince himself that it was the truth. After all, during his last attempt on Berengar's life, somehow the information was leaked to Berengar's militia that the young master was in trouble, he said, and they marched in the middle of the night to the Wildschonau to save the bastard's life. To this day, he still had not caught the bastard responsible for leaking such information. Nevertheless, he could not bring himself to accuse Linde of such an act publicly; after all, it would basically be a betrayal of the Count of Tyrol, who was his father. Lambert could not imagine Linde would betray his family to his brother, and thus his suspicions remained under control.

However, she did not keep such thoughts for long in her head; she quickly got dressed as she got up from her bed and decided to give her fiance an initial shock. Therefore, he visited his residence at the break of dawn. However, when he knocked on the door, there was no answer, which was quite alarming. So he knocked harder and harder, but no matter how hard and hard he banged on the woman's door, he did not respond. Lambert thought it was very strange; where could he go at such an hour. To be honest, he enjoyed taking a shower early in the morning with his kek*sih, but Lambert did not know this. Therefore, he waited at the door until he answered. Finally, she saw Linde appear wearing her nightgown from the previous night, while her hair was wet as if she had just taken a shower. Her porcelain skin glistened under the light of dawn as it shone through the window. The heavenly beauty looked at Lambert in shock as she stood outside her door, waiting for his arrival. How long has he been waiting there?

Lambert was furious; where had he been at the wrong time, and why was he wearing his nightgown?

"Where have you been? I've been standing here banging on your door for thirty minutes!"

Linde frowned as she noticed the tone Lambert was carrying, and she coldly made fun of him before trying to enter his door. However, Lambert grabbed his fiancee and pushed her against the wall, his eyes filled with anger as he pressed his head firmly against the cold stone door.

"I'm asking you!"

Linde returned her angry gaze with her own gaze, but after a while, her killing gaze faded and she began to smile, which confused Lambert. Until he felt Berengar's iron grip tear through his shoulder, almost as if he was about to tear the child's collarbone, Lambert turned his head with a horrified expression as he saw Berengar looking at him with a cold gaze. As the teenage boy looked into the eyes of his elder brother, he could feel the cold gaze of death staring back at him. So he quickly let go of his grasp on Linde in fear.

Berengar also felt damp; however, it was unusual at this hour because Berengar was known to wake up early and exercise heavily. He appeared to be wearing the loose clothing that he usually wore for such an event. Berengar was still stuck to Lambert's shoulder and even stuck his nails deeper into Lambert's double. It caused pain to the child.

"What do you think you're doing? Is that any way to treat your fiancee?"

The eyes of Berengar were cold and expressionless. But his voice was blaring and full of anger. This visibly angry tone shows a bit of natural authority behind it and reminds Lambert of a Tyrant who sentenced the subject to death for an unforgivable crime. Berengar's eyes showed the indifference he felt towards Lambert's meaningless life, but his voice carried the weight of a thousand stars. At that moment, Lambert felt like kneeling down and begging for forgiveness, but he quickly grabbed his resolve and spoke back to Berengar; after all, one day, he would become a Baron, he would become a Baron, and Berengar will be a corpse.

"She's my fiancee. I can do what I want with her"

however, as he said those words, Berengar hit the boy with the back of his hand; it was a blow so hard that Lambert felt that he had almost lost a tooth due to the impact. Berengar's cold gaze pierced through Lambert's soul, and the tone he used now was enough to wake up everyone who lived within this corridor.

"He's your fiancee, and you'll treat him with respect!"

Before Lambert could make a proper answer, he was struck again by Berengar's hand, Lambert was angry that he was being treated in such a way, yet he did not dare to say a word at this moment. Instead, Berengar looked at Linde, his tyrant expression softening as he did so.

"Linde, are you okay?"

Lambert noticed that Berengar was very informal with his fiancee, who further lit a fire in his heart. However, he stood there and did nothing. Linde, on the other hand, blushed with excitement; she had never seen Berengar so angry over the way someone had treated her before. He wanted to jump into his arms at that moment but knew he couldn't do it because it was inappropriate. Therefore, she simply nodded her head and bowed gracefully.

"I'm fine; thank you for your help in this matter."

Berengar nodded and smiled at Linde before turning his attention back to Lambert, where he grabbed the boy's hair and pushed his face against the cold stone floor. He decided to give the child a stern warning; after all, he would not tolerate any violence against his woman.

"If you ever want to vow again, I swear to our father in heaven that I will grind you into s*sis and feed you on b*bi! Is what I'm saying clear?"

Lambert tried to break away from his grasp but could not do so; Berengar had grown quite strong ever since he reincarnated into this world. Realizing Lambert's defiance, he slammed the boy's face against the stone floor once again and shouted at him.

"Is what I'm saying clear?"

Lambert nodded his head and hissed through his teeth furiously.

The commotion caused by this incident had awakened Henrietta, who, after coming out of her room, watched her two brothers engage in a bloody showdown and Linde standing in a corner scoffing at Lambert's fate. If that little girl didn't like Linde before, she hated her now. So he approached the scene and tried to persuade his two brothers to settle their dispute peacefully.

"Sister... What's up?"

Berengar had not noticed Henrietta approaching until now, and after seeing the worried look on the little loli's face, he let go of Lambert, dragged her up and patted her.

"Not much, just friendship wrestling, is it Lambert?"

Lambert immediately noticed the deadly gaze Berengar gave him and agreed to the ludicrous reasoning Berengar had put forth at that very instant.

"Very..."

Although Henrietta was still worried about the overall situation, she noticed that they had decided to act courteously before her. So he approached them further, immediately diverting the topic of conversation from whatever caused such a quarrel.

"Lambert, I want pancakes for breakfast! Can we have pancakes?"

Even though Lambert was a cunning wedge*gan, he still had a soft spot for his little sister, like Berengar, and thus chose to stop this hostility for now. Therefore, he smiled and patted Henrietta's head before agreeing to her request.

"Sure, Henrietta, whatever you want!"

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

"I'm watching you!"

Linde is unaffected by the little girl's provocations because she has seen her many times since her arrival; despite her best efforts, she proves unable to bond with any of the women from the Berengar family. It's a pity, but he won't lose any sleep because of it. Really besides Berengar, the women of the von Kufstein family had the best intuition. Eventually, Adela also left her residence and saw what was happening; although she did not know what was happening, she instinctively felt it was something serious. He would make sure to ask Berengar about it later. After ending the violent scene, the five of them walked into the dining room, where they would wait for the arrival of the Baroness and Baroness so that they could start Lambert's birthday breakfast.

Lately, Berengar ordered a beer with his breakfast, but today he suspiciously ordered a 2-liter glass of milk to bring to him. Regardless of his unusual behavior, no one had any problem with him. While drinking his morning milk, Berengar knew that Lambert was glaring at him with a desire for revenge. Still, there was nothing the boy could do at this moment. Instead, he made civil talks with the others. The group pretended as if the awkward scene in the corridor had never happened.

Lambert, on the other hand, was almost completely convinced that Linde was having an affair with Berengar, but there was nothing he could do about it. Count Lothar would never believe his daughter would conspire against him and perhaps Lambert would be severely punished for suggesting such a thing. Therefore, all he could do was be careful around him in the future. The group chatted for quite a while before the Baron and Baroness arrived; they were quite surprised to see Berengar was here before them. Usually, he is exercising or working hard in the morning. Instead, he sat here peacefully talking to the others.

The Baron and Baroness sat at the head of the table and ordered food to be prepared and brought to them. While they waited for food, they congratulated Lambert on his 16th Birthday; later that night, they would hold a maturation ceremony for their second son. It would definitely be a festive event, where Berengar would utilize it to curse his brother completely. He had plans to cancel every part of the castle today without anyone knowing, including the place ti*ur Lambert. It was Berengar's way of wishing happy birthday to his evil younger brother who had put in a lot of effort in his life.

Finally, breakfast is served, and as Henrietta suggests, German pancakes are one of the many delicacies served. Berengar, of course, is eaten entirely with wurst and sauerkraut. He'll need a lot of protein if he wants to enjoy Linde as far as he wants today. So he piled his plate with nothing but wurst and sauerkraut while drinking another giant glass of 2L milk. Although the whole family is confused by her actions, Linde has a frightening suspicion about what she plans to do for the coming hours and, for the first time, is a little excited about Lambert's birthday.

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

"Listen, aren't you going to have another?"

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

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

He didn't know what to say, so he just accepted the answer and continued. Because of this, Berengar spent more than an hour with his family discussing the schedule of the day while enjoying an incredible breakfast. Of course, he planned to be absent for the most part and only appear at the end in a drunken state. Still, he had prepared a present for Lambert. The reward he plans for Lambert is a mini ball he uses to kill the boy's killer during his hunting trip. While cleaning up the corpses, he made sure to recover the mini-ball used to kill his opponents. He also added a fourth one that he used to hunt for money. The reason was simple, it was a symbolic gesture, four bullets used for four gunmen killed during a hunting trip. As long as Lambert thought the fourth bullet was from his murder, it would intimidate the boy. Berengar used violence and intimidation to pursue his political goals. In other words, this was a symbolic act of terror against his enemies.

This is just the beginning of the day that Lambert enters adulthood. There is much to come when Berengar plays mind games with his brother on a day that should be filled with celebration. Instead, Lambert would only feel fear and terror because his older brother would torment him in more ways than had already happened.