The brother hadn’t gone to Radensdorf to unite the east and lend the Grand Duke his strength. The reality was that he’d gone to rally the east’s power to stand against him.

Sharing the same ambition, but wanting different things.

The brothers had been thinking entirely different thoughts.

"Civil war had already begun the moment I took the throne three years ago."

"So the Duke united the east so quickly because it was all building toward civil war?"

"Exactly. He must have promised the eastern lords rewards to match. If he himself ascended to the throne."

Louis’s greatest weakness was his frail health. He could drop dead at any time. So if the Duke won the civil war, he would undoubtedly eliminate Louis.

Louis had a conspiratorial nature, so surely he understood the concept of being discarded after outliving his usefulness.

There was a strong chance he had some hidden card up his sleeve.

"Marquis Bertheim is in the east. Still as lively as ever."

So that was why I hadn’t heard from him.

He’d shown interest in the royal intrigue and ultimately decided to cooperate with the Grand Duke.

That meant there were two informants in the east: Old Man Bertheim, the former head of Hoenir, and Ulrich, my younger brother-in-law who had been reorganizing the eastern border garrison.

Unlike Michael, I had no personal connection with Ulrich at all.

He’d been dispatched to the east right after the wedding, so there’d been no chance to grow close.

"I’ve sent messengers to the west and south as well. The west will definitely join, but the south is uncertain."

"I’ve heard the southern lords have a cooperative relationship with the Swiss Confederation."

"That’s right. The Count of Basel, in particular, has close ties with Switzerland."

Basel had accumulated considerable wealth through trade with Switzerland. In simple terms, Swiss specialty goods were supplied to Breisburg through Basel.

"Do you know why Basel and Rosenheim went to war?"

"I heard it started over a minor diplomatic slight."

"That was just the trigger. Rosenheim sits between Basel and Breisburg. The real cause was old grudges born from tariff disputes."

And the royal family had sided with Rosenheim.

Basel couldn’t have had warm feelings toward the Altringen royal family.

If the south sided with the east, the outcome of this civil war would become impossible to predict.

"If civil war breaks out in Beren, do you think Burgundy will just sit by?"

"They’re too busy fighting their own civil war."

From what I’d heard, the Burgundian civil war had been triggered by the conflict between the Duke of Burgundy, who wanted complete control over Liège, and the King of France. They were apparently still fighting fiercely.

"Burgundy still managed to send an army through Épinay despite all that."

"And you crushed them handily. Don’t you think your reputation might have reached the ears of Charles the Bold?"

I’d rather not be on the final boss’s radar.

I also informed the Grand Duke about the Imperial Knights’ ambush on the way back.

We hadn’t actually seen a single Imperial Knight, but the circumstances spoke for themselves.

The vice commander and all his men were dead.

"Do you know how the Imperial Knights were formed?"

"Only that it’s a knightly order composed of nobles."

"It’s a dumping ground for Beren’s biggest troublemakers, from lesser knights all the way up to duchy knights."

When unemployed nobles became a social problem in the Duchy of Beren, the Imperial Knights were established as a separate entity from the Grand Duke’s Guard. They recruited disgruntled young nobles who had been restless from their lack of employment.

And the crowning move was installing Marquis Offenburg’s second son as commander. I was surprised by how short their history was. But troublemakers or not, their skills were undeniable.

The Imperial Knights commander was one of the top fighters in the entire duchy.

Apparently, it was the result of having nothing to do but train endlessly.

And I, too, had rapidly risen in reputation as one of those top-ranked fighters.

The military achievements I’d accumulated proved it.

"When you gather troublemakers together, complaints and grievances are bound to boil over."

The Imperial Knights had been nothing more than bait to lure in Johannes.

So the Grand Duke had been watching, waiting for Johannes to make his approach, but Louis had approached the Imperial Knights instead. Louis had never been part of the Grand Duke’s original scenario.

His frail health had been his biggest weakness.

But Louis defied the Grand Duke’s expectations.

The Grand Duke had failed to see the hidden ambition Louis harbored.

"I didn’t foresee Johannes using Louis as a pawn to attack the crown prince. But Louis is Altringen blood after all, so he has every right to be drawn into this cursed cycle."

I’d always thought Louis had learned the truth about the crown prince through some channel and raised his banner to reclaim his own rights. But of course, the Duke had been behind it all along.

And that was why the stakes had grown even larger.

The time to place bets had arrived.

Every lord was a player in this game.

Would they respond to the Grand Duke’s letters?

"Sir Streit, I plan to formally declare war on Johannes in one week. By then, this sordid scheming should be over. All that will remain is a contest of pure force against force."

A declaration of war!

The weight of those words felt like it was pressing down on my entire body.

Having already lived through war, I knew that weight all too well.

In the end, all of this was about strengthening royal authority.

There was no grand cause. All that remained was the spilling of blood to expand one’s own power. That was the reality of medieval nobility. And Europe had fought countless such wars.

"When the war is over, what will happen to the Queen and Prince Louis?"

"The Queen will be sent back to Strasbourg, and Louis will be sent to the Empire."

"...To the Empire?"

The heart of the Holy Roman Empire was the Archduchy of Austria. As the Habsburgs began monopolizing the imperial throne, Austria’s status naturally rose. Fortunately, it wasn’t too far from Beren.

Sending Louis to the Empire ultimately meant using him as a hostage. Was this the Grand Duke’s last act of mercy, unable to bring himself to kill someone of his own blood? But given Louis’s health, there was a high chance he’d die along the way.

And sending the Queen back to Strasbourg carried many implications. The expansion of influence the late king had pursued would be lost, and it signaled a firm severing of ties.

There was a strong chance that Clara, unsatisfied with merely expelling the Queen, would assassinate her in Strasbourg. If that happened, suspicion would naturally fall on the Altringen family, and relations could deteriorate to their worst.

"If they don’t want to be swallowed by Lothringen and Althausen, they’ll cooperate with us."

"But if the family that produced the Queen turns hostile, that won’t be easy either."

"Not at all. That merchant family would never give up their status as a free city."

Lothringen was the family that ruled the Duchy of Roden, and Althausen was the family that ruled Württemberg. Just as the Altringen ruled Beren. Strasbourg was, in truth, surrounded on all sides.

The regional powers surrounding this Free Imperial City were all salivating over it.

The reason Strasbourg hadn’t been engulfed in war wasn’t just the existence of Burgundy as a powerful external enemy. The bigger reason was that the three states maintained a balance of power.

What if Beren pulled out of that equation?

With Burgundy tied up fighting France, Roden and Württemberg might invade Strasbourg. And Beren would be too busy with its own housekeeping to lift a finger, content to watch from across the river.

For Strasbourg, it would be a nightmare.

This was yet another snare the Grand Duke had set.

"Fulfill your duty, Sir. That is the one thing I ask of you."

Fulfill my duty.

To devote myself to the Altringen family as a duchy knight and lord.

Was it advice meant to steady my wavering resolve now that I knew the truth?

They say you take on the color of your surroundings.

Things were becoming harder and harder to see clearly.

But the war had already begun.