Chapter 41: Four Factions

"Sir Streit, your skills are this impressive, so why haven’t you been knighted? If your father earned merit, you could have received hereditary knighthood by applying immediately," the crown prince asked.

"I intended to receive knighthood only after honing my skills enough to survive on the battlefield," I replied.

"You seem to have a meticulous personality. Then I’ll facilitate your knighthood."

The crown prince would facilitate my knighthood? From the perspective of nobles who lined up or bribed their way just to get an audience with the crown prince, this was an extraordinarily favorable privilege. But it also meant being classified as part of the crown prince’s faction.

I recalled the factional relationships in the Duchy of Beren that I’d heard about from Bertheim. Composed of four major factions, they were divided into two strong and two weak. First was the crown prince’s faction, which held the highest legitimacy and succession priority. Naturally the most powerful, it boasted strong cohesion, with most nobles and princes participating.

As long as legitimacy wasn’t in question, the crown prince’s faction being dominant was only natural. The western princes bordering Burgundy and France supporting the crown prince to keep the eastern princes in check also explained why the faction had grown so powerful.

Then there was the second prince’s faction. If he’d possessed outstanding abilities that threatened the crown prince, it could have escalated into civil war, but fortunately—or unfortunately—Second Prince Louis Killian von Altringen was constitutionally frail and commanded the weakest forces. His supporters were mostly nobles banking on the slim chance that something might happen to the crown prince.

The same was true of the princess’s faction. Princess Evangeline Theresia von Altringen had some political acumen, attracting a handful of nobles, but the royals fundamentally got along well. These two factions were minor forces, almost token ones.

Finally, the most powerful faction—the Duke’s faction.

Otto Braun von Altringen was Grand Duke Karlus’s younger brother. Looking at any nation’s history, the greatest political threat to the direct line usually came from the king’s brothers. If I hadn’t heard about the Duke’s true character from Bertheim, I would have assumed the Duke was the crown prince’s greatest enemy as well.

Originally, Grand Duke Karlus hadn’t wanted to ascend the throne, so he’d tried to relinquish it in exchange for receiving the royal demesne of Radensdorf, located in the east, from the previous Grand Duke. But the previous Grand Duke had passed the County of Radensdorf title to his younger brother instead, foiling the escape plan.

So Otto, who had become Count of Radensdorf in accordance with royal custom, was elevated to Duke of Radensdorf, rallied the eastern princes, and reigned as the greatest faction politically threatening the crown prince. However, Bertheim had told me there was a political agreement between them.

He hadn’t told me exactly what that agreement was.

For the eastern princes, they bordered the Duchy of Bavaria, but aside from minor skirmishes, they had never fought a major war. So the western princes, who had shed blood against France and Burgundy, dismissed the eastern border princes as cowards who had never fought a real war.

As a result, the eastern princes united around the Duke and challenged the western princes united around the crown prince. Outwardly, there appeared to be a looming east-west civil war, but I’d heard from Bertheim that the faction’s reality was entirely different from appearances.

Talking with Bertheim, I’d picked up all sorts of stories, so it wasn’t merely listening to an old man ramble—it was quite informative. Since I aimed to become a lord knight, I had no choice but to join some faction.

Unless you were a grand prince who declared neutrality regardless of factions, like Northern Governor Marquis Offenburg or Count Fortzlingen, lord knights owning small villages could easily become targets depending on factional alignments.

For Rosenheim—the territory most commonly granted to users who achieved lord knight status—being close to the west meant joining the crown prince’s faction was the safest choice.

So considering the knighthood facilitation, the crown prince’s faction’s advantages and disadvantages, and Rosenheim being the most likely territory I’d receive upon becoming a lord knight, the scales inevitably tipped toward the crown prince’s faction.

After quickly running the calculations in my head, I decided to join the crown prince’s faction. Relations with the Duke’s faction would naturally sour, but since most of its members were eastern princes, there wouldn’t be much contact.

"I’ll accept Your Highness’s facilitation of my knighthood as an honor."

"To recruit a skilled knight, I should offer at least this much. Having confirmed your abilities with my own eyes, I need to persuade the ministers to grant you the guard swordsmanship instructor position."

Granting me the guard swordsmanship instructor position? Personally persuading ministers for that? Wasn’t the favor excessive? That was the crown prince clearly signaling his intention to make me a close associate.

But the crown prince’s favor weighed on me. Getting too close to power inevitably invited jealousy. Already, some guardsmen’s gazes toward me had turned hostile.

"I’m grateful for Your Highness’s favor, but it’s very burdensome for a rookie knight who hasn’t even been knighted yet and hasn’t earned any merit to stand in a position teaching his seniors. And above all, will those around you accept it?"

Then Vermeer, the crown prince’s closest associate, added:

"Franz, you must consider the surrounding hierarchies. Hasty decisions make persuading shrewd ministers difficult. At the very least, you need justification they can’t refute."

"Hmm, you’re right. I did get ahead of myself. Then Sir Streit needs to earn merit that convinces everyone, so I should think of a suitable stage for him."

I had the feeling I was about to get dragged into something incredibly troublesome. The crown prince promised to arrange a good opportunity soon, then stood up with Vermeer. It seemed the unofficial audience with the crown prince was coming to an end.

The crown prince wasn’t a man of leisure, and since he’d carved out time specifically to arrange this meeting with me, I couldn’t impose on his schedule any longer.

"Personally, I’d like to see you often. Skilled fighters like you are rare."

Eisenach left those words and led the guard behind the crown prince. Unlike the other guardsmen, Eisenach had shown me goodwill. I welcomed the chance to interact with him as well.

As guard captain, he couldn’t leave the crown prince’s side, but if I maintained contact with the crown prince, couldn’t I continue interacting with Eisenach too? Through sparring, perhaps. And I needed to increase my number of allies.

Bertheim approached me.

"How does His Highness’s character seem to you?"

"He’s somewhat hasty, but he has a subordinate, Leo, who properly tempers that, so the balance seems right. That caliber of character is more than acceptable."

"Hmm, so that’s how it looks to you as well."

"Is there some problem?"

"Those two have a strong tendency to rely on each other to work things out. They’ve found themselves in dangerous situations several times because of it. That’s why the guard was created, but even in this old man’s eyes, the guardsmen don’t seem like they’d be much help in an emergency. At best, they’d buy time."

Dangerous situations? How many times would the crown prince find himself in danger? Unless it involved assassination threats. I’d never heard such rumors, so it was probably kept top secret.

Was that it?

So that was why he’d created the guard—to use them as shields protecting the crown prince in emergencies? No, perhaps just to buy time. With the guardsmen’s skill level, they couldn’t handle assassins on their own.

"Is His Highness receiving assassination threats?"

"A grand banquet will be held in three days. The kind of banquet that’s a flower garden so alluring that bees simply cannot pass it by. This old man received an invitation too—will you come with me?"

"...Understood."

A meaningful invitation. Bertheim seemed to know what would happen at that banquet. An alluring flower garden and bees—was it simply a metaphor? Returning home, I summoned Bodo.

Bodo had gathered quite a lot of information in a short time, and I was able to confirm some details about the slum organization I’d been most curious about.

"Rafel is seizing control of the brothel district?" I asked.

"The suppression unit raided Schlange’s headquarters and arrested most of the executives along with the boss, so the organization collapsed. The government wasn’t going to leave alone the people who killed the Deputy Inspector General," Bodo explained.

"So the slums are now Treppen and Rafel’s territory?"

People might imagine slum organizations as large-scale and formidable, but in reality, they could be easily crushed just by deploying a suppression unit. The Judicial Department left them alone because even if one was suppressed, other criminals would simply gather to form new organizations—an endless cycle.

So they’d set up three organizations to keep each other in check and prevent any one from running wild, but one pillar had caused serious trouble and collapsed. Now the slums and the brothel district were in turmoil. The key detail was that the suppression unit’s captain was the current Deputy Inspector General, Konrad von Mort.

The man presumed to have plotted to eliminate Rüdiger and me. He’d married into the Elsheimer family, seized control of the tax collectors, and was currently pressuring the Finance Minister as Inspector General Adelbert’s loyal right hand. Someday, when the opportunity arose, I would repay him for that plot against me.

With the slums and the brothel district in disarray, conditions were ripe for suspicious groups to operate. On top of that, the Rose Knight who’d escaped from Rosengarden still worried me. I instructed Bodo to continue gathering information on Treppen and Rafel within safe limits.

Schlange was effectively finished anyway.

I repeatedly praised Bodo for his excellent work.

"Good work. I’m glad I entrusted this to you, Bodo. Excellent results."

"Of course! Nobody’s as sharp as me when it comes to this stuff, right? Hehehe."

As expected, Bodo thrived on praise.

It truly was excellent work.

Gathering and compiling this level of information was never easy. So I ended up doing the work of separately extracting and recording only the essential details from the information Bodo brought. I’d hand it over to a retainer who had learned to read and write later, but while I was in charge, I paid careful attention to building the records systematically.

"I need to get clothes for the banquet."

The clothes I usually preferred were plain tunics—simple but highly functional. But I couldn’t attend a banquet hosted by Court Count Mainhof in this outfit, not unless I planned to disgrace the Streit family.

So I spent four silver coins to acquire banquet attire in time for the day.

The flashier the clothes, the more they restricted movement, so I made sure my preferences for maximum comfort were reflected.

"Hmm, a bit awkward? Is this color combination right?"

"You look incredibly dashing! Truly like a splendid noble, Master."

"...I didn’t look like a noble before? I wore fairly good clothes."

"You lacked the flair typical nobles have."

Gothic clothing emphasizing elongated vertical beauty—an orange tunic with gold trim, and the outer garment was a long surcoat embroidered with the family crest in a repeating pattern. The tight-fitting hose had dark purple on one leg and striped yellow on the other. Sabine’s eyes sparkled as she said I looked like a real noble.

"Very stylish clothes. Bright, elongated garments suit the young," Bertheim said.

"And Marquis, where did you get that enormous hat?" I asked.

"Hahaha, it’s a hat that was fashionable in my youth."

Meeting up with Bertheim and riding together in the carriage, I noticed that among the troops escorting us were Hans, Ted, and Oscar. Hans attended me with great solemnity, determined not to be outdone by other nobles’ escort soldiers. He seemed far too tense.

My retainers couldn’t enter the banquet hall and would wait in the attendants’ area. I instructed them to rush in immediately if anything happened.

"Can’t you tell me what you’re planning now, Marquis?"

"Planning? If you just keep watching, an interesting spectacle will unfold."

"Then tell me about Count Mainhof. He’s a noble I know nothing about."

"Simply put, think of him as a noble who’s been cast aside."

"Cast aside? What do you mean?"

"Mainhof originally supported the second prince, the Duke of Radensdorf, but his loyalty was excessive, and he insulted the first prince, Grand Duke Karlus, at an official event. At that time, the second prince actually had a stronger claim to the throne. As a result, the first prince naturally became Grand Duke."

What a disaster! He’d fanatically pledged his loyalty, convinced the Duke of Radensdorf would ascend the throne, and caused an incident. So, having earned the enmity of the current Grand Duke, he was removed from office, his stipend drastically cut under various pretexts, and as surrounding nobles distanced themselves, he became isolated and slowly withered away.

But the reason he’d suddenly held this banquet was to curry favor with the crown prince and escape his isolation by spending a considerable sum. That was why the crown prince had attended this banquet.

"I feel sorry for Mainhof."

"Why the sudden sympathy?"

"He poured his heart into preparing a platform for his comeback, but it will ultimately become someone else’s stage."

Bertheim smiled meaningfully.