Chapter 326: Christmas
Today is Weihnachten.
Translated into English: Christmas.
Christmas is the holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Originally it was a day established by the Roman emperor Aurelian as the birthday of the sun, which later generations transformed into Christmas.
Everyone rests on every feast day the Church designates, and on Christmas Day itself, people set aside all work and flock to church solely to praise the glorious Lord.
The revenue from offerings must be at its peak around now. The Christmas ceremonies, grand enough to be called a preview of the liturgical events of the new year, were solemn, devout, and large in scale.
To be precise, the main event was the great Mass at nine in the evening.
I don’t know who decided that Christmas is a day to spend with your beloved, but they seem to have had a point. My Hilda would be spending Christmas in Feuzen right about now, while I’m here alone.
And with the grand duke, no less.
"My apologies for bringing you unpleasant news on the morning of Weihnachten."
"So the poisonous mushroom has grown larger than expected."
Problems arise anytime, anywhere. The grand duke had likened it to a poisonous mushroom, but it wasn’t lethal yet. He personally poured wine and offered it to me. You’re telling me to drink Boden wine?
Seeing my sour expression, he snorted with laughter.
"Oh dear, we’ve simply run out of Rosenheim wine, so don’t take it the wrong way."
"Ahem. When I return ahead of you, I will be sure to send you Rosenheim wine."
"You haven’t even visited the winery yet and you’re already making sales pitches?"
Beren has three great wines. Rosenheim, Boden, Swabia. Personally, I didn’t like being lumped into a "big three." My ambition was to rise above them and become the one and only supreme brand of Beren.
For that, quality mattered most, and there were ways to force that quality upward through the lord shop and passives the system provided. Complete cheating, of course.
In truth, I wanted every product made in my territory to be the finest. Call it ambition if you like, but one must beware of greed. I have no intention of swallowing up the specialties of other regions.
I hadn’t activated it yet, since I hadn’t formally entered Rosenheim, but the moment I returned, I’d browse the passives and pour major investment into what was needed. I’ve saved up a full 94,820 points, after all.
I scrimped and saved for that, practically in tears, all to invest in my territory.
Half of it is still in receivables, but I’ve got over 900 gold coins too.
I entrusted the ransom negotiations for the knights and nobles I captured to Margareta, who vowed to mobilize every connection she had to squeeze out the maximum ransom. Her commission was very cheap, too—a blood-alliance service discount.
Ransom negotiations actually take quite a long time, but thanks to Margareta, I had breathing room. The irony was that I was pouring most of that spare time into investigating Count Heinlein.
I showed the grand duke the Finance Minister’s letter.
"The Finance Minister has asked Count Heinlein for help."
"This handwriting is definitely Count Reinfeldt’s."
"It seems the Finance Minister aimed for the moment Adelbert was preoccupied with internal matters."
"How interesting. A father and son trying to kill each other."
You fought your own brother tooth and nail too, you know.
Duke Altringen lives under guard at his residence. They say he’ll be sent to Austria around next summer, and since I’m slated to be part of his escort, I’ll be seeing his face until I’m sick of it.
Horrifying. Sleeping with the enemy? Or some new form of harassment?
If not for the grand duke’s heartfelt request and the imperial crown prince’s debt-repayment quest, I would have hunted desperately for an excuse to refuse. Send me to Burgundy instead. At least let me get a look at Duke the Bold’s face.
"What do you plan to do now, Baron?"
"First, I intend to deal with the administrator of Grefeling. As for the Schafen smuggling matter, why not have Your Highness take it on?"
"No. I intend to direct the shadows abroad for the time being."
Huh? What is that supposed to mean?
Why send Hoenir abroad?
"Your Highness, are you by any chance moving against the Palatinate Wittelsbachs?"
"My apologies, but that is classified. Handle domestic affairs as you see fit, Baron. If the charges are certain, you may deploy public authority and make arrests."
"This is a rather large case. You mean to leave all of it to me?"
"It’s also the reason I never revoked your judicial authority."
In the end, the grand duke delegated full authority over this case to me, and though only temporarily, I gained the power to mobilize the Radensdorf standing army and duchy troops. Not a count. A baron.
"Lend me the Royal Artillery Corps. I’d like your permission in advance, just in case."
"Preparing for the one-in-a-thousand chance that Schafen resists? Very well."
Thank goodness he granted it so readily. The Royal Artillery Corps’ value had skyrocketed so much that the grand duke was managing it personally, and their pride had soared to match. Schneider and Marco were riding high these days.
Marriage proposals poured in for them, but by arranging matches first with daughters of duchy army noble houses, I kept them in my camp. Good thing I’d asked Michael to help me stake my claim early.
"Investigation or no investigation, be sure to attend the Christmas Mass."
"Do I really need to sit through that musty old Mass?"
"What a delinquent Christian. Then again, who in this era isn’t?"
With voices calling for Church reform on the rise, the Church’s authority was not absolute.
It had gotten to the point where, even if you skipped Mass, you were called a devout Christian so long as you paid your offerings faithfully. Buy an indulgence, and you’d be promoted to VIP customer and showered with every convenience.
Ten gold coins was an insane price, yet the fact that they sold like hotcakes was its own absurd reality. The indulgence trade, one of the Church’s most emblematic corruptions, only poured oil on the fire of the growing demands for reform.
The Thirty Years’ War that would eventually ignite from all this was an event in the distant future, so there was nothing to fret over right now. What mattered was solving the problems crashing down on me today. I’ve got my own fish to fry, descendants.
"Sir Streit. On your way back from an audience with His Highness?"
"Today, as always, you are as beautiful as a single rose, Princess."
"...Are you imitating the other nobles now, Baron?"
You pretend to enjoy the honeyed flattery of the other nobles, so why the stone face when I do it? Princess Elisabeth’s attitude toward me had changed unmistakably since the victory banquet.
She wore no mask at all now, to the point that it flustered me instead. Well, we’ve grown fairly close these days. I wouldn’t call us tea-sharing companions, but this much counted as quite a good relationship.
"Could you perhaps spare me some time?"
"I am a terribly busy man, you know."
"I happened to come across some good information, but I see you’re not interested."
Hmm, you bait the hook well. In the end, I escorted the princess to the flower garden of the Radensdorf palace. It was my first private meeting with the princess, and her handmaids came flooding in.