As we moved away from the army and headed towards the Lord’s Castle, Friedrich and his group were with me.
During the journey, Anhalt questioned me in a somewhat uncomfortable tone.
“By the way… I haven’t heard any news about Mr. Santana for a while… Can I ask why?”
“Well, if I must say, there was a time in my youth when I wandered a bit. I couldn’t control the passion of my teenage years and ran away from home. I think you can guess the rest.”
“Uhmm… I see. I understand. My apologies, Mr. Santana.”
Anhalt was left speechless by my surprisingly simple words.
Though, in his mind, he probably wanted to understand whether I was truly the lord’s son and why I had been hiding until now.
Moreover, he would have been eager to find any dirt he could throw at me.
However, my mention of youthful wandering left Anhalt utterly dumbfounded. The reason was simple.
Quite a few young men in the Empire had also run away from home during their youth.
Of course, most of them ended up being dragged back home and got a good scolding from their parents, but there were also cases, like mine, where one went completely missing.
Given that Anhalt’s own child had been caught after running away, he had no room to pass judgment.
Thus, Anhalt’s attempts to dig deeper into my background were hopelessly thwarted, and he let out a small sigh.
Seeing his demeanor, I couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly, pondering why he looked so pained about my existence.
*
Christian Anhalt was the chancellor of Palatinate.
With a strong loyalty to his lord and even greater ambition, he had one grand goal.
That goal was to make his young lord, whom he had taught since childhood, the Emperor of the Sacred Empire.
Friedrich ruled over a vast and fertile crossroads in the Empire, and he also had the legitimacy to challenge for the title of prince-elector.
Although Friedrich lacked confidence, he was the type who would always follow Anhalt’s words without a doubt.
Through this obedient student, Anhalt aspired to leave his name in history as the glorious master who made an emperor.
In order to achieve this, Anhalt had actively utilized the era’s phenomenon of ‘heretics’ as a justification.
Amidst all this, news of the rebellion in Bohemia reached Anhalt’s ears like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Bohemia was not the largest of the fiefs, but it was one of the wealthiest and most powerful regions in the Empire.
Conveniently located right next to Palatinate, it was ruled by Count Turun, who had three daughters but no sons.
Although it was not uncommon for women to ascend to the throne in neighboring countries, it was traditionally a principle in the Sacred Empire that women could not become rulers.
Taking that point into consideration, Anhalt rushed to Bohemia under the pretext of assisting as a fellow heretic, but his true intentions were nowhere near pure.
Even though the ratio of mages was low, Anhalt had brought along a considerable army of 7,000 and personally led Friedrich, the prince-elector.
As he pressured Turun, who had the critical flaw of not having a successor, and persuaded some of the thirteen nobles with sweet talk, Anhalt planned to make his lord Friedrich the next ruler of Bohemia.
Surprisingly, the plan almost succeeded, and during the winter he spent there, Friedrich was able to wield nearly the same power and authority as a ruler.
Of course, this momentary glory would end in a bubble when Bohemia faced defeat in the war against the Empire just weeks later.
However… now, with the defeat of the war, Anhalt’s plans would turn to ash, never even getting underway, all due to the unexpected appearance of a young man named Santana Andreas.
This, of course, would set off a chain of events that would drastically alter the fates of Anhalt and Friedrich.
*
As the unquestionable heir to the Bohemia territory, Santana Andreas had every legitimate right in the world.
Seeing him now, Anhalt was wrestling with a bitter sensation.
Though he had suddenly appeared, the moment you looked at him, there was no doubt that he was the spitting image of young Count Turun, making it clear he was indeed his son.
Anhalt tried to poke fun out of disappointment, but in the end, he couldn’t recover from the blow and instead found himself remembering Turun’s shadowy history.
Thus, before even entering the Bohemia Lord’s Castle, he had to scrap the first stage of his plan.
However… that doesn’t mean Anhalt was completely defeated by the current situation.
Though he failed to secure the lordship of Bohemia for Friedrich, it was merely a part of his grander plan.
Anhalt had decent diplomatic skills, and to make Friedrich an emperor, he had leveraged the current turmoil sparked by heresy to extend his reach across the continent.
As a result, he began to achieve excellent outcomes beyond his expectations.
Starting with arranging a marriage between the princess of the neighboring insular power, the Britten Kingdom, and his lord Friedrich,
he also established ties with the powerful northern country, Kalmar United States, and made connections with the rebellious Lowlands.
Moreover, he naturally allied with the Lord of Bohemia, who had ignited the first spark of rebellion.
Thus, under the banner of religious righteousness, Anhalt successfully united the countries embracing heretical doctrines around Palatinate into a single force.
With such achievements, Anhalt felt the day when his ambition to make Friedrich an emperor was fast approaching.
‘Though the Bohemia thing is regrettable… it’s no big deal. Even if I can’t directly take over here, it won’t hurt if they support Friedrich as allies.’
Sure, an unexpected little bump in the road had thrown his plan off a bit, but it was just a minor setback.
Hoping for greater success ahead, Anhalt began reassessing his disappointment.
‘But… why has Friedrich been acting strange? It seems like he’s been unable to take his eyes off Santana since earlier…’
Friedrich’s demeanor had changed subtly ever since he heard about Santana running away.
Though Anhalt felt a slight curiosity about it, he dismissed it as insignificant and hurriedly began revising his future plans in his mind.
*
After arriving at the Lord’s Castle, a brief welcoming ceremony for the allied lords followed.
After it concluded, I returned to my room feeling a bit fatigued… and there, the person I expected was waiting for me.
“Welcome back, Master! How did it go?”
Polena, who had naturally become my personal attendant, greeted me as if welcoming her husband home from work.
With her water-like, slightly playful demeanor, I felt a tinge of awkwardness, but I accepted it for now.
“It wasn’t much… but as I mentioned earlier, meeting some rather unpleasant people was quite tiring.”
I indirectly expressed my sentiments about witnessing the garbage combo of Anhalt and the ineffective Friedrich.
“How unfortunate… should I make you a cup of tea then? Or perhaps I could…”
“I’ll take the tea.”
Feeling strange about how accustomed I had gotten to such innuendos, I made my order.
With a smile on her face, as always, Polena began to prepare the tea expertly.
However…
“Uh? Are you having tea too, Polena?”
Two cups of tea were set in front of me.
Seeing this, I thought she wanted to join me, but she slowly shook her head and said,
“No, this is for you, Master.”
“What?”
Her words left me confused.
Just then…
Knock, knock, knock
“Uh? Who is it?”
I heard a sudden knock.
I instructed Polena to check who it was.
And…
“Mr. Santana, it seems you need to step out.”
Polena spoke with a hint of seriousness this time.
I got up from my seat and walked to the door.
The individual who came into my view was…
“!? Pr… Prince Friedrich…!”
“Excuse me, Santana.”
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