Chapter 320: Merciless Violence Awaits
The citizens, who had believed there would be no further military action once the civil war ended, grew deeply unsettled at the sight of some 500 duchy soldiers moving in perfect order, apparently thinking war had broken out all over again.
The duchy army was still stationed on the outskirts of Radensdorf, so military action was possible at any moment. We received protests from the administrative bureaucrats, but since I had secured the grand duke’s permission in advance, we pushed ahead at full speed.
Michael, the Director General of the Military Department, gladly mobilized troops at my request. As it happened, his father-in-law had been riding him hard, and this made the perfect excuse to slip away.
The reason we pressed on even as the citizens fell into chaos was to strike first, before the bastards hiding in the slum could slip out. Our enemies never would have expected us to act this aggressively.
The most important thing when discussing strategy is shattering the board your enemy expects. Tactical victory follows from there. You set up a game you cannot lose, then lock in the win with tactics. That’s the foundation.
So the kidnappers holed up in the slum must have been thoroughly rattled when, contrary to their expectations, the duchy army surrounded the entire slum and moved to smash the whole ecosystem they had built to pieces.
The skill we showed crushing the slum in Breisburg hadn’t gone anywhere, and back then we had even rooted out Burgundian spies. We might just catch whatever spies Bavaria had planted, too.
We would finish this like a lightning strike, before any hostile faction could respond.
Watching the Radensdorf slum being surrounded, Michael seemed to be swept up in memories.
"Takes me back to when we thrashed those slum bastards in Breisburg."
"I remember. The one difference from back then is that my status has shot way up."
"You might as well have been born again. You’re a proper prince now."
At first, Michael had harbored a knot of resentment in his heart because he hated being compared to me, but he was so easygoing by nature, so averse to anything complicated, that by now he was genuinely happy to see me going from strength to strength.
That’s why I found Michael as comfortable and dear as a real elder brother.
And above all, there’s no one more fun to tease than a brother-in-law.
"So why are we wrecking this slum, anyway? Did the slum rats here do something to you?"
Having a Military Department Director General who mobilized troops without asking a single question was tremendously reassuring. Honestly, military action like this was problematic, but since we were exercising legitimate public authority, we could force it through.
"The men who tried to kidnap Viola are hiding in the slum."
"They went after a prince’s handmaid? Have they got a death wish? You think another prince is pulling the strings?"
"That’s possible, but personally, I suspect Count Palatine Heinlein."
"Heinlein? Never heard of him. Is he a Radensdorf court noble?"
"Yes. He seems to be a noble with fairly wide connections."
"Wide connections or not, a mere court noble going after a prince?"
The power dynamic was so lopsided that Michael apparently found it hard to understand. But it’s not so hard to grasp; when nobles are outmatched in power, they survive by scheming to bring down their opponent.
The problem is that scheming doesn’t work on me. I saw through it in an instant, and now the slum stood on the brink of annihilation. However deep this man’s roots ran in Radensdorf, he was helpless before public authority.
Once we captured the kidnappers, everything would move like clockwork from there. I am the only person in this world with the skill to interrogate a subject by reading their mindset. Terror for the enemy, awe for our allies.
The problem was the uninvited guests I never saw coming.
"By the way, why on earth did you bring those two?"
"I didn’t bring them. They tagged along on their own."
I had no idea what had caught their interest, but they were such colossal uninvited guests that even Michael sighed. I couldn’t very well ignore them, so in the end I paid my respects before them.
"Your Imperial Highness, Your Royal Highness. I am honored to have you both here, but there is no need for you to witness this ugly scene. I will report the results to you later, so might I suggest returning to the palace?"
"Hahaha! What a courteous way of telling us to get lost, Baron."
The good-natured imperial crown prince saw right through my meaning. That’s right, so please get lost. Franz was smiling awkwardly, and when our eyes met, he looked away and played dumb. Franz, is this all our friendship amounts to?
"Your Royal Highness, please, I beg you, escort him away."
"Sorry, but that’s asking too much. I’ve already tried."
Imperial Crown Prince Maximilian had a bit of a spoiled-child streak, and Crown Prince Franz, the sane one, was being dragged around at his mercy. Should the heir to the Empire really be this much flightier than the heir to a duchy?
I had wrapped "get lost" in the most elaborate packaging, but the imperial crown prince wouldn’t budge. Franz had already thrown up his hands, and when he reported it to the grand duke, the grand duke had actually granted permission under the pretext of "education."
Fucking Altringen. Give me back my loyalty.
This time I turned my arrows toward the Austrian court marquis.
"As the man responsible for His Imperial Highness’s education, wouldn’t you consider talking him out of this?"
"My apologies to you, Baron, but don’t take it badly. Slums are a problem for every city, so I consider this an opportunity for His Highness to learn how things really are. His Highness the grand duke has permitted it as well."
The Austrian court marquis claimed he had allowed the observation to highlight the problems of slums and further the imperial crown prince’s education, but from where I stood, it looked like he wanted to see how a foreign state wielded public authority against a slum.
The court marquis seemed far more interested than the imperial crown prince himself.
I had no idea what the grand duke intended by granting permission—what could his reason be?
Leto and Gedel of the Swiss mercenary company, now the royal guard, caught my eye and paid their respects. It was Franz who had hired the Swiss mercenaries after their contract with Count Euz was terminated.
He had been struck by the Swiss mercenaries’ prowess and their unyielding spirit. Swiss mercenaries are a perfect fit for a royal guard. As long as their contract holds, they will never retreat before an enemy.
Still, things seemed delicate between them and the crown prince’s personal guard.
Guard Captain Eisenach and four of his men appeared to be keeping them in check.
Eisenach aside, the guardsmen could well lose their jobs. With the Grand Duke’s Guard rebuilt and now a royal guard on top of it, there might be no place left for the crown prince’s personal guard to stand.
In particular, a fellow named Reinhardt, the most skilled among the guardsmen, was staring at me with burning eyes. He’d been the best knight of the bunch when we sparred.
But I couldn’t spare them any more attention.
The hour of the operation had come, and Michael delivered the final ultimatum.
"Residents of the slum, hear me! You have one hour. Those who surrender will be shown mercy, and those who resist will face merciless violence. Surrender quietly!"
The Radensdorf slum had been left to rot for ages, and the appearance of public authority attempting its first-ever crackdown threw the place into an uproar. While the cordon closed, we gave anyone who surrendered voluntarily room for leniency.
Not everyone living in the slum is wicked. There were refugees here, and people who had been unjustly ruined. But it was also true that, as they say, you can’t touch pitch without being blackened, and those who had joined the criminal organizations outnumbered the rest.
Yet once word spread that the man surrounding the slum was the Baron of Rosenheim, known as the Gale Knight, more and more residents came out of the slum and surrendered of their own accord. Michael was impressed.
"This is going way smoother than Breisburg. That’s the power of your name, brother-in-law."
"It’d be nice if they all surrendered quietly, but you know how it is. They won’t."
"The worthless dregs overflowing that cesspool probably think they’re the toughest things in the slum."
"Like court nobles strutting around with their noses in the air?"
"Oh ho, brother-in-law, your jokes are improving. Took the words right out of my mouth."
Enough idle chatter. I quickly scanned the slum residents being led out, checking for members of particular factions or other suspicious characters. Those without any charges against them were sent to a temporary holding camp for now.