I trusted that through this ordeal, he had learned how a confidant ought to conduct himself.
"The Neunil people were surprisingly courteous, you know. At first they tried to escort me like a proper guest."
"According to witnesses, you were dragged off. That’s courteous?"
"They were courteous at first, but when I kept refusing, they started making threats. So I whispered in the guy’s ear. Told him to fuck off."
Hmm, getting under people’s skin had always been Bodo’s specialty.
As for how Bodo got caught, when he knew every alley of the slums like the back of his hand: apparently he tried to slip through a hole in a fence, not realizing that all the bread he’d been happily eating had fattened him up, and got stuck.
And that’s how they grabbed him.
Still, he said the treatment wasn’t bad.
He was negotiation material, so they must have tried to keep him unharmed. If Bodo had been tortured or beaten, negotiations be damned, I would have taken Viscount Neunil’s head off with a halberd.
Ted was relieved that Bodo was safe, but the moment he saw that carefree grin, his temper must have flared, because he grabbed the boy’s cheeks and pulled. Bodo’s squishy face stretched like dough.
"You made your big brothers worry sick while you played nobleman without a care? You little brat!"
"Let go, Ted! I’m of noble birth now, so show some manners!"
"Would you listen to this kid? Do you have any idea what I went through trying to find you? I spent days going through the slums with the Treppen boys with a fine-tooth comb! I crossed the whole east just to report to the master! If I never get married, it’s all your fault!"
"Come on, of course I know how much you guys went through."
Bodo soothed Ted with practiced ease. And when Bodo offered to set him up with a woman, Ted’s face melted into a dopey grin. Isn’t it a little pathetic to be won over by the promise of an introduction to a woman?
I had no idea how Ariel, younger sister of Amalia and last head of Elsheimer, would react, but if Bodo were recognized as a member of the Elsheimer family, the family tree would get properly tangled.
For now it was all laughter and teasing, but when that day came, would they still be able to laugh?
I ordered Ted to summon the Gale Knights’ vice commanders and senior officers. Assembling the scattered order would inevitably take time. And Mühe put that time to use.
"Welcome home, Master. I have warm water ready for you."
"Honestly, I told you not to push yourself in your condition."
Viola was surprisingly stubborn as a mule. Her mother stood by anxiously, watching for my reaction. Then I noticed Bodo staring blankly at Viola. What’s gotten into this kid all of a sudden?
I gave him a poke, and the startled boy shyly hid behind me.
Viola smiled gently and asked,
"Master, who is the little young master behind you?"
"This is Bodo, the one who had us all worried."
Viola’s eyes went round. She might not have known the details about Bodo, but she knew we had raced to Breisburg far earlier than planned to get him back.
"Oh, so this is the child Ted was so worried about, the one who was kidnapped. What a relief!"
Ted, that blabbermouth. He’d apparently been chattering away to Viola about everything behind my back. Viola showed deep interest in Bodo, which made sense, since she loved looking after children. She would make a fine mother.
Bodo turned terribly bashful in front of Viola.
I’d never seen him like this.
I don’t think he’d ever acted this way even in front of Nora, that girl he called his girlfriend. Viola, for her part, seemed to take the cunning little schemer for nothing more than a shy, adorable child.
I fixed Bodo with a look of pure disbelief.
Bodo pointedly ignored my gaze.
"May I look after him? He must have been so frightened when he was kidnapped."
"Miss! My name is Bodo Werner! I want to know everything about you!"
"Before that, I’ve made some stew. How about filling your belly first?"
"I absolutely love stew! Heh heh heh."
Transformed into a sweet, innocent child, Bodo turned docile at Viola’s every word. It was a sight that would have made Anton’s jaw drop, but Viola seemed to have taken a liking to him, so all was well.
"Fräulein Rijeka is quite popular, you know. With her gentle, warm nature, she’d make the finest of brides. Truth be told, I believe Beort and Drek carry a torch for her as well."
"Sir Ferke, it sounds like you’re no different yourself."
Ferke, who had stayed behind to guard Rosengarden, didn’t deny my observation. I’d had no idea Viola was this popular among my retainers. Marrying her off would be no small task.
"Baron, someone has requested a private audience."
"An audience? Sooner than I expected. No, they must have been waiting for this."
While the Gale Knights and the duchy’s army made their preparations, I received a covert visit from someone of the Viscount Neunil family. As predicted, there was a faction standing in opposition to the viscount. What puzzled me was how young the noble was.
"My name is Frendel von Neunil. It is an honor to meet the great Gale Knight and ruler of Rosenheim. And I am grateful that you have given us this opportunity."
"We haven’t even discussed what I might offer, and you’re already thanking me?"
"If you had meant to reach a settlement with Neunil, it would be the family head sitting here, not us. As you well know, Baron, the head has no intention of bowing to the Streit family."
So Viscount Neunil had chosen resistance.
Hmm, the pride of a storied bloodline, is it?
"There are currently 58 private soldiers stationed at the mansion. Five vassal knights and three families of vassal nobles have joined as well. The defenses are quite solid, so you would do well to prepare thoroughly, Baron."
He was calmly serving up internal information I hadn’t even asked for. Useful, though, very useful. He even handed over the deployment charts for the archers and crossbowmen. Why is this man so desperate to sell out his own family?
"Honestly, I’m at a loss. Do you want Neunil to fall?"
"Only then does the branch line get its chance. The head has run this family far too autocratically. I opposed him when he moved to join hands with Mort, but in the end we were dragged into a political war just as he wished. And by making an enemy of the Streit family, no less! What kind of madness is that?"
He said that if it had been an ordinary political fight, he never would have gone this far.
But what possessed the head, what gave him the confidence, to join hands with Mort even at the cost of provoking the Gale Knight, a princely house of overwhelming military might? Frendel was convinced the old man had gone senile.
"But you do realize that, in the end, you all bear responsibility too?"
"...I won’t deny it, but we are merely the branch line."
"If I hadn’t uncovered your family’s plot through the administrator of Schafen, would a meeting like this ever have taken place? I might well have reached some compromise with Neunil just to get Bodo back."
"But hasn’t the situation unfolded exactly as you wished, Baron?"
By attacking the slums, I crushed Neunil’s and Mort’s ambitions outright. A schemer moves upon a fixed stage, calculating for maximum profit, but I destroyed the stage itself.
That is the difference between me and a schemer.
"Good information, but it’s not what I want."
"Inspector General Mort is at the main house."
"Viscount Neunil is sheltering Mort?"
"I don’t know what arrangement they’ve made, but the head is devoting himself entirely to protecting him."
The ship is clearly sinking, and he means to go down with it? If survival is the goal, wouldn’t it be far more realistic to seize Mort, hand him over to me, and grovel flat on the ground for the family’s continued existence?
"This is strictly confidential, but I understand the head has made contact with the Count of Basel."
"That damned southern prince has a finger in every pie."
"It seems he intends to send Mort to the Count of Basel. From what I know, relations between you and the count are quite poor, Baron..."
"Poor doesn’t cover it. Given half a chance, he’d try to kill me."
"I-I see."
If the Count of Basel wedged his way in, the situation would grow complicated. That was why the best course was to strike fast and close the matter before the enemy could respond. I gazed steadily at Frendel.
Feeling the pressure, he swallowed hard.
"The Viscount Neunil family’s head alone will bear the responsibility. No one else is involved."
"Thank you, Baron! The responsibility for this entire affair rests solely with the head!"
Concentrating my attack on the main line so the branch could expand its power was the greatest reward I could offer them. Better still if Viscount Neunil happened to die in the fighting.
But I have no intention of blindly taking the branch line’s side either.
I’ll set them against each other so their eyes never wander outward.
Just like the grand duke’s favorite trick.
Hmm, maybe I’m thinking too politically.