Swiss Arms

Chapter 138

-VB-

Hans von Fluelaberg

Long before the Bavarian war started, I built an underground room that was locked from the rest of the underground network built underneath my castle. One needed a specific key to get in here, and only Isabella and I had the keys.

It was far deeper, far larger, reinforced to hell, and connected to the surface and the network only by a pair of ventilation ducts.

And the reason for this chamber was very simple.

This was where I tested out my true capabilities.

I called up my stats.

[Character Status]

Name: Hans von Fluelaberg

Age: 22

Title: Count of Fluelaberg-Rheintal

LvL: 50

HP: 1090

MP: 690

ST: 545

STR: 140

END: 109

AGI: 89

DEX: 69

INT: 69

CHA: 29

Fourteen times stronger than the average human. Ten times tougher and long lasting stamina. Nearly nine times faster. Seven times as flexible. Seven times as "intelligent," though I wasn't sure if that was truly the case. And three times as charming, however that applied.

What I wanted to test were the first four stats.

I turned to face paired blocks of stones. Each pair was made out of the same material. The weakest of these was a block made out of mica. Or rather mica that had been stacked on top of each other, because despite the consistent and nonstop mining that has been going on within my domain, we never found mica that was human-sized.

I took a deep breath in and stood before it.

Then I punched down.

It happened instantly.

One moment I was standing still.

A drop of water fell.

And the next moment, my right fist began plowing through mica from the top.

Then my fist came to a stop just before striking the floor.

I let out a huff as I pulled my fist out of the jagged stone work my fist had plowed into. Stepping away from it, I stared at it.

Mica was a very weak material. I'm not too surprised I managed to break it as violently as I did.

And I was also surprised that my skin remained intact. There were white scratches here and there, but none of the jagged rocks managed to cut or pierce my skin.

Hell, my knuckles were just as good as before I punched a rock. No bruises, cuts, or bleeding.

I momentarily pressed down on my knuckles before releasing it.

It blanched, which meant that there was no damage beneath them. Or at least not enough to be shown with a standard blanching test.

I didn't even bother with the second pillar.

Instead, I turned to the other pillars of stones.

"Let's see how high I can go before I start to break on them," I grinned.

Next up: a block of iron.

CLANG.

… Note, my bones were hard enough to take the abuse of punching a block of iron. My muscles were also holding out. What didn't make it out in one piece was my skin. The skin on my hand, and particularly the knuckles, came out broken. There was no bruise; the top of the skin had been torn away from the dermal layer below from the impact of the blow just … shearing it away.

I hummed, and then looked at the block of iron.

There was no hole through it, but instead had been distorted. Its sides, top, and back had bulged outward. And the face that I had punched had cratered inward with white streaks of stressed and and stretched iron.

I hummed.

Well. That's quite the damage. Where's a flex tape when I need it?

I chuckled at my own anachronous joke as I shook my hand.

Then I punched the iron block again.

It bulged even more in response to the damage I dealt it.

I punched again.

And again.

And again again again againagainagainagain -!

THUNK.

The top half of the iron block fell backward and crashed into the ground on the other side of the stump.

"... Well, that was the weakest grade of iron," I hummed before I turned to the next block of iron. "Let's see how this one does."

-VB-

Isabella von Fluelaberg

She tried not to glare too hard but she did anyway.

She had her arms around her son and on top of her breasts. He was still small enough for her to do that.

But right now, she was pissed.

"Why would you hurt yourself like that?!" she nearly screeched at the stupidity of men. And her husband in particular.

"I just … needed to confirm, you know?" he defended himself ineffectually.

"And what did you need to confirm that you come up out of your underground labyrinth with cuts, punctures, and blood all over your arms and legs?!"

"How durable I am?"

She wanted to slap him really hard right now, and it was only the hands -.

Right.

"Alvia, can you hold Louis for a second?"

"Of course, milady."

She let the local courtier hold her son, and as soon as her hands were free, and punched Hans in the face.

She winced at the pain she felt. Punching him was like punching a rock!

But she needed to get her point across!

"You will not hurt yourself like this! What will you do if your son starts copying you?!"

He opened his mouth but wisely closed them. "... Sorry."

And he better be sorry!

Right now, he had cuts that went the entire length of the arm that bled minutely but deep enough that she could see his red muscles. His knuckles looked ruined and there wasn't an inch of skin on his arms that didn't have blood or some kind of damage.

His legs were only a little better off.

"How did you even do this? I've seen you shave yourself with some of your sharpest blades and not get cut…" she hissed as she quickly got out the first aid kit that Hans had insisted be in every room…

…

She paused and glared at him again.

"You tried to hide this from me, didn't you?"

He looked away.

This room held a first aid kit and was the room closest to the underground labyrinth's entrance on this side of the castle. Did he expect her to be at court or elsewhere?

She took a deep breath in before unpacking the bundle with a red squat cross that Hans had insisted be on each of the first aid bags for ease of identification. She opened it up and started with the small clay bottle of alcohol first and the towelette she wanted to use with it.

"Sit," she glared at him and he did. Then she turned to Alvia. "Alvia, can you get some warm water in a tub? Instruct someone else to come here if you must but keep Louis with you."

She slowly began to clean his arms and …

She stared at his arms.

Looked up at him, saw him grinning sheepishly, and looked back down.

… Some of the cuts were visibly closing. They were very shallow cuts, not even bleeding anymore or deep enough but it was still a remarkable speed.

As in she was holding his arm and watched it heal.

She looked up at him again and then sighed. "Testing your limits, yes?"

"... Yeah."

"... Next time, tell me before you do something so reckless. You scared me."

"... Sorry."

"You should be saying 'I will.'"

"I will."

"Good."

-VB-

Henry of Bohemia

As the last of the electors arrived at Frankfort, the council of electors could begin in earnest.

He, the King of Bohemia, Henry von Gorizia.

The Archbishop of Cologne, Heinrich II von Virneburg.

The Archbishop of Trier, Diether von Nassau.

The Archbishop of Mainz, Gerhard II von Eppstein.

The co-ruling Dukes of Saxony, Albert III von Ascania and Eric I von Ascania.

The co-ruling Margrave of Brandenburg, Herman "The Tall" von Ascania.

And last, but not the least, the holder of the title of County of Palatine, the Duke of Bavaria.

Unfortunately, Henry hadn't gotten a single clue as to who attempted the assassination on him and his wife despite the fact that it's been weeks. The rangers weren't investigators by trade, so the investigation had been left to his men, which hadn't yielded anything.

He also didn't think he had made enemies with any of the electors, which compounded on his confusion and frustration.

To know that he had an unknown enemy but not have a single idea as to who it was…

As he said, confusing and frustrating.

'But I'll find them before the election is over… and if the rangers are that great at hiding, then they must also be great at taking care of problems, too,' he thought with a hum.

Henry decided to go over what he knew.

The three Margraves of Brandenburg never met him before, and rumor had it that they were too busy plotting against each other.

The Dukes of Saxony cooperated with each other, and had their core ducal fief right next to Bohemia.

The archbishops, all three of them, had no reason to attack him.

As for the Duke of Bavaria, Rudolf was still an ally. He, along with Hans, had signed a secret alliance, which would be revealed to the world soon. Hell, if Rudolf wanted to, then the alliance might even get revealed during the election in an attempt to sway the other electors.

Personally, Henry wasn't interested in becoming the Holy Roman Emperor but neither was he interested in seeing Rudolf become the Holy Roman Emperor, either.

And with the former emperor's children barred from being chosen as per the emperor's agreement with the pope, Henry wasn't quite sure how the election was going to go.

… But, well, that assassination attempt showed him plenty that if nothing else, then this election was going to be interesting at the very least.

-VB-

A/N: As always, more chapters can be found on my Patreon and Kofi (vandalvagabond).