Count Adelbert von Reinfeldt.
With the Finance Minister’s death, Adelbert had inherited the title of Count Reinfeldt. It was the inheritance he had wanted so badly, yet it brought him no joy at all. Every court noble in Breisburg had turned hostile toward him.
This was the work of Judicial Minister Ulrich von Luke.
The sinister old man with a taste for torture had no intention of letting the Finance Department get back on its feet, and he hoped to one day surpass the Military Department and become the foremost figure in court politics.
Since the Military Department had no interest in court politics, the Judicial Department appeared to be the one steering the political scene. But if the Judicial Department ever moved against the Military Department, my father-in-law would drag the Judicial Minister down without a moment’s hesitation.
That was how mighty the Military Department had become. So the Judicial Minister had begun quietly gathering strength, reaching out to the Administrative Department in the hope of stripping away the Military Department’s influence. He had been doing the same with the Finance Minister.
But the Finance Minister’s poisoning threw court politics into utter chaos overnight. The reason the charge of patricide stuck so firmly to Adelbert was that the Judicial Department had brought in the court clergy.
The clergy wanted a hand in court politics as well, so they joined with the Judicial Department, and that became Adelbert’s nightmare. But the final verdict rested with the grand duke.
That was why Adelbert feared me more than anyone.
Because he saw me as the grand duke’s messenger.
Hmm, he wasn’t wrong.
"Can you swear that on your family’s honor?"
"I swear on the honor and conscience of the Reinfeldt family, Baron. But the world is convinced I killed my father. The absurd part is that there isn’t a shred of solid evidence, and yet half the court is still pointing fingers at me. Damn it all!"
He was so different from the man I knew. Yet the scouter told me that everything he said was true. If anything, I was the one left confused. What here was truth, and what was a lie?
"You were the heir who waged a political war against your own father. Isn’t it only natural that you’d fall under suspicion?"
"Baron of Rosenheim, I’ve heard of your achievements even from a distance, and I believe our arrangement still stands. So answer me honestly. Have you come to arrest me on the grand duke’s orders?"
His mind was a tangle of anxiety, unease, and fear.
The grand duke cared so little about the Finance Minister’s death that it hadn’t fazed him in the slightest. He had simply sipped his wine, treating the sight of nobles hurling themselves at one another like moths into a flame as the perfect accompaniment.
Adelbert seemed to believe that the glory of the Reinfeldt family would end with his own generation. He had inherited the count’s title he had wanted so badly, and yet all that lay ahead of him was ruin.
"His Highness the grand duke has issued no order whatsoever for your arrest, Count. My presence here is entirely my own decision. I swear it on the honor of Streit."
Adelbert had been wary until then, but once I swore upon my honor, he finally showed genuine relief. Such is the weight of a noble’s honor. Mine carried enough of it that Adelbert believed me.
"I thought the whole world had been swallowed by purgatory, but the Christos (the Messiah) has saved me."
"It’s too early to celebrate, though. To be frank, His Highness doesn’t seem particularly moved by the Finance Minister’s death. Even if the Reinfeldt family falls as it is, there are plenty of families ready to take its place."
"...Is that true?"
"Regrettably, it is."
The shock must have been considerable, because Adelbert collapsed onto the sofa.
"Is that all our family was worth, after devoting itself to Altringen for so long?" he muttered in a daze.
"The friendly arrangement between Reinfeldt and Streit still stands. I don’t believe you would have done something so reckless, Count. So answer my questions honestly."
Adelbert’s eyes, gripped until then by frustration and despair, came back to life as though he had caught sight of a single ray of light. I still didn’t believe he had carried out such an extreme scheme.
Would a man that calculating, someone who understood better than anyone the risks that would come back on him, really poison his own father? No, he would have found some other way to pull the Finance Minister down. That is the kind of man he is.
"...I cannot trust the other nobles, but I can trust you, Baron."
Honor and trust aren’t built in a day. I had always kept my word and valued my honor as a noble. That was why Adelbert trusted me.
"How did the Finance Minister die?"
Adelbert let out a deep sigh. He called for the attendant waiting outside and had wine brought in, then gulped it down like water, as if trying to quench a thirst. No, it looked more like he was desperately trying to wash something away.
"Haa. Baron, my father spent his whole life hounded by assassination attempts, and he was prepared for them accordingly. And yet, absurdly enough, he died from a cup of poison handed to him by a close aide."
Poisoned through an aide’s betrayal. Hmm, quite a simple end. But untangling all the cause and effect wrapped around it would be anything but simple. First of all, why had the aide betrayed him?
Adelbert, however, denied that he had.
"He was not a man who would ever betray my father. He had served him since long, long ago. What reason would he have to poison him now, after all this time? And in the end, he was brutally murdered as well."
"Who killed the aide?"
"It seems Christ worked a miracle on the culprit’s behalf."
It could have been some old grudge, but that too was nothing more than speculation. With a self-mocking laugh, Adelbert admitted he had been completely unable to track the culprit down.
Perhaps the right approach was to focus on finding whoever had set the scheme in motion rather than on how the Finance Minister had died. The problem was that, as the grand duke put it, this was a man who had piled up grudges high enough to build a tower.
"I never imagined it. Me, a patricide."
"Look at it from another angle. It gives you grounds to attack the Judicial Minister and the court clergy instead."
If the true culprit came to light, the machinations the Judicial Department and the clergy had used to pressure Adelbert could be turned right back on them as grounds for attack. Adelbert couldn’t manage it alone, but what if the Military Department and I joined him?
My father-in-law would hit the roof, demanding to know why we should help those Reinfeldt bastards he’d sooner grind into dust. But weighing gains against losses, binding Reinfeldt to Steiner’s influence was by far the more profitable move.
"If you help our family, Baron, I will never forget this debt."
Adelbert surely understood that point as well. But now, with the Judicial Department and the court clergy branding him a patricide, it was a deal he had no choice but to make, if only to protect Reinfeldt.
"Where is Inspector General Mort?"
Honestly, what made the least sense to me was that Mort, a man with a real knack for schemes, hadn’t prepared at all for Adelbert’s crisis. Adelbert was about to be branded a patricide with no way to defend himself.
Where on earth was he?
"...He is not here."
Adelbert’s face twisted with rage, and he radiated fierce hostility toward Mort. His mind told me as much. Instinctively, I realized the two of them had fallen out completely.
"Don’t tell me the one who poisoned the Finance Minister was Inspector General Mort?"
He hesitated for a long while. As if he couldn’t bear it, he gulped down more wine, then paced around the sofa, agonizing over something. I waited patiently for him to make up his mind.
"Since I’ve decided to trust you, Baron, I will tell you my shame. Before the civil war ended, Mort proposed a scheme to me. The plan was to bring in the Viscount Neunil family in order to force my father out of the Finance Minister’s seat for good."
Bring in the Viscount Neunil family?