I should have seen it coming the moment he started blithely spouting state secrets. Sending someone with zero experience like me as the escort of a royal bound for the imperial capital, of all places, isn’t that reckless?
"You’re telling me to escort the Duke of Altringen all the way to Vienna?"
"It’s not that far a journey. A month should be plenty for the round trip."
A month, my foot. I was planning to hole up in my fief and laze about with Hilda, so what on earth was this? At words even more preposterous than receiving a title, I expressed my reluctance with every fiber of my being.
"I respectfully decline. If it’s all right, may I be excused now?"
"It will be an excellent experience for you. I guarantee it."
"You’re sending a country bumpkin noble to the imperial capital to make a fool of himself?"
"If anything, I suspect you’ll have the imperial capital’s nitwit nobles wrapped around your finger. Besides, Johannes will handle the diplomacy himself. Your job is to build connections with the important figures of the capital."
"And with whom exactly am I supposed to build connections?"
In the duchy, I’m a noble of considerable standing, but to the imperial nobles, wouldn’t I be treated as some vassal noble from a rural backwater? I should count myself lucky if they didn’t ignore me outright.
"Crown Prince Maximilian."
Not even an imperial noble, but imperial royalty? I don’t know much about Crown Prince Maximilian. Only that he’s my age, and that he served as the rallying point that united the Habsburgs.
After the Luxembourg line died out completely, the Habsburgs claimed the imperial crown, but I’d heard that their power base was precarious because their home territory, the Archduchy of Austria, was fractured among the family’s branches.
The one who pulled it all together was said to be Maximilian, so I’d say he’s a crown prince of considerable ability. But would he bother with a lord from a corner of the duchy (soon to be a baron, granted)?
"This wouldn’t happen to be connected to why you’re granting me a barony over everyone’s objections, would it?"
"Sharp as ever. To escort a duke, one must be at least a baron."
I knew it. He’d said he would grant me a title even with Marquis Offenburg, a powerful force in the north, opposing it. And since I could hardly give the barony back, I was well and truly stuck going to the imperial capital.
"Maximilian is fond of heroes. With your reputation, he’ll certainly take an interest."
"Haah. So all I have to do there is strike up a friendship with the crown prince?"
"While you’re at it, building connections with various nobles wouldn’t hurt either."
Did the grand duke want to forge ties with imperial royalty, or imperial nobles, through me? It was a genuinely daunting task. I’d honestly rather charge into an enemy formation single-handedly. This kind of work is exactly what I can’t stand.
"Then I’ll be..."
Bang!
"Your Highness! We have an emergency!"
The door suddenly flew open and my father-in-law burst in. I thought the door had been smashed off its hinges, but thankfully it was still attached. My father-in-law’s expression looked terribly urgent. What on earth was going on?
"The Bavarians have crossed the border!"
"So Konrad ignored my warning in the end."
The grand duke let his displeasure show.
It seemed there had been prior negotiations, but they had broken down.
Konrad is the name of the grand duke of Bavaria. I at least know the names of neighboring rulers. Grand Duke Konrad is famous for being tall and handsome, which is why he’s also called the Handsome King.
"Count Steiner, summon the princes."
While my father-in-law went out to summon the princes, I rose awkwardly from my seat as well. I needed to prepare for battle too. I rode Chrysos last time, so Mont Blanc must be itching to run by now, right?
"You are to keep quiet for the time being."
"If I’m not there, who will command the cavalry?"
"They’ll be clamoring to take it themselves. The place is crawling with the greedy, after all."
So he planned to send the greedy ones out to intercept Bavaria? I couldn’t fathom the grand duke’s intent. All I could tell was that he meant to soften the wariness of the marquis and the central nobles.
Fine. I’ll take this chance to watch how the greedy ones perform.
The expressions of the nobles hastily gathered by the grand duke’s emergency summons were starkly divided. For the Radensdorf nobles, it was cause for worry; for the nobles of other regions, an opportunity.
Radensdorf had only just begun to regain its stability, and now it would be engulfed in the flames of war once more. The losses for the Radensdorf nobles would be anything but small.
For the record, the crown prince was absent. He’d overworked himself handling affairs all this time and had come down with a fever. Hmm, maybe I should have skipped the council and looked after the crown prince instead?
The grand duke surveyed the assembly and spoke.
"This afternoon, the Bavarian army invaded Waldsee, a border territory of Radensdorf. Fehrt, the lord of Waldsee, has withdrawn into his fortifications, but there is no telling how long he can hold out."
"Why would Bavaria suddenly invade?"
"Aren’t they exploiting the opening while we’re weakened from fighting a civil war?"
"They’re utterly despicable curs. We must teach them a lesson!"
"Hear, hear! Our knights will send those Bavarian dogs to purgatory!"
The hawkish, war-loving nobles insisted on an aggressive response, and the majority of nobles echoed them. But the supply commander cried out, his voice nearly a scream.
"Your Highness! With our current supplies, we cannot sustain a prolonged war!"
"Hmm, how low are the stockpiles?"
"We can barely hold out for a month!"
On top of that, it was winter, so procuring large quantities of provisions on short notice would be difficult. But the nobles brushed off the supply commander’s opinion. As if to say, what kind of problem is that supposed to be?
"Can’t we simply requisition by force?"
"If we fail to stop Bavaria, they’ll all die anyway. Of course they’ll hand it over."
Those idiots seemed to have forgotten it was winter.
If we carried out forced requisitions, what were the common folk supposed to live on? Sadly, the majority of the nobles supported the idea. Whether the people lived or died, the point was to put out the immediate fire first.
But the Radensdorf nobles pushed back fiercely.
Forced requisition would, in the end, mean carving into their own interests.
"Utter nonsense! You’re telling us to hand over our property?!"
"If we can’t stop Bavaria, it’ll all be burned to the ground anyway, won’t it?!"
"Would you be spouting that garbage if it were your own lands?!"
"What? Watch your tongue, you losers!"
In the end, a fight broke out between the eastern nobles and the central nobles. Fists even started flying. The hall descended into bedlam in an instant, and the grand duke and the princes simply watched them brawl.
As for me, I just stood there like a bump on a log.
There was no reason whatsoever for me to get involved.
"Enough."
At the grand duke’s word, the nobles caught up in shouting matches and fistfights stopped cold. That’s how high the grand duke’s authority had risen. The princes, who had been watching with interest, seemed to be waiting eagerly to see what orders the grand duke would give.
"Konrad has no will to wage a long war."
"You mean he may have another motive?"
At Marquis Offenburg’s question, the grand duke shook his head.
"No. The Handsome King’s goal is negotiation."
"Hmm, it sounds as though Your Highness has grounds for certainty."
"You will take charge of the interception force, Marquis. I’ll look forward to the Offenburg Knights’ performance."
"Oho, you’re giving me a chance? Understood."
The marquis seemed satisfied. The house of Offenburg had played next to no part in the civil war, so he apparently saw this as the perfect opportunity to repel the Bavarian invasion and expand his house’s influence.
"Ready the army at once. This is a race against time."
Once the grand duke’s order came down, my father-in-law hurriedly mustered the duchy’s army, and the princes gathered whatever forces they could mobilize. Everyone moved in perfect order, but the attack had come so suddenly that time was short.
If, as the grand duke said, the Bavarian grand duke’s goal was negotiation, this might end anticlimactically. But negotiation for what? Well, everyone else was rushing about busily, but I had nothing to do.
So I quietly stood by.
"This is outrageous! Excluding the commander, of all people!"
"Isn’t our commander the finest cavalry officer in the duchy?!"
"This is an insult to the Gale Knights!"
Marquis Offenburg had cut me out of the cavalry formation. Under normal circumstances I would have protested and demanded to know why I was excluded, but since the grand duke had advised me to lie low for a while, I accepted it.
I never imagined the backlash would erupt like this.
My subordinates began denouncing it as a grossly unjust decision.
I broke into a cold sweat trying to calm my agitated men, but the problem was that it wasn’t just my subordinates. The duchy’s army and the western princes’ forces also protested Marquis Offenburg’s decision.
My father-in-law kicked up a storm, declaring he could not commit the duchy’s cavalry to a formation that excluded his son-in-law, and Count Euz and the Count of Belfort likewise refused to provide cavalry support, piling pressure on the marquis.
I never expected things to turn out like this.