Ludwig’s nightmare only kept growing.

  At this point, the public had fully turned against the Regency Council. That was a major problem on its own, but one that could be mitigated by the fact that pesky commoners had no say in the Empire.

  But, yesterday, the Imperial Diet also met to cast a vote of no confidence against Ludwig’s government.

  Fortunately, out of the four hundred twenty representatives across the empire, only one hundred seventy voted against Ludwig’s government. It would have been a disaster if sixty percent of them voted for it.

  Even Ludwig would retreat from that. Having an army won’t matter if more than half of the regional lords don’t back him.

  So yes, he still held the reins to power, and Ludwig knew that most of the nobles and wealthy merchants in the Imperial Diet would back him nine times out of ten.

  But not when the wind was shifting this much. Most members of the Imperial Diet were unprincipled bastards more interested in getting kickbacks from the Empire’s coffers.

  Ludwig was one of them, and he was the best at it, that was why he was at the top, and why he ruled. Crooks liked it when one of their buddies equally deep in nasty shit was the one calling the shots.

  Except, Ludwig also knew the mindset of a crook. Self-preservation usually trumped a crook’s endless greed. With the public, Imperial Army, and Defense Forces falling out with Ludwig—plus the next Empress, he was in an increasingly untenable spot, because those with shifty alignments would be…well, more shifty.

  If he were a member of the Imperial Diet, he’d have voted in favor of ousting his government. That was how bad things were! Even Ludwig couldn’t blame the bastards who turned coats on him!

  “So what is our plan?” August asked, his face now despondent. “Are we making progress at installing loyalists in the 1st and 3rd Group Armies?”

  “Yes, yes,” Ludwig nodded. “General Walter von Krieg assured me. The officers he’s placing are trustworthy.”

  His game plan was to ensure that the 1st and 3rd Group Armies, now reassigned to the area around Ostend and Perlenstadt, would be fully under him.

  The problem is, my moves are now truly desperate.

  With a political and diplomatic solution rapidly evaporating, his moves were now starting to look less like a proper government’s measures to keep itself in power, and more like the moves of a faction preparing for the worst inevitability.

  He was installing a lot of his people—noblemen from families equally deep in corruption, straight into the officer corps of the 1st and 3rd Group Armies.

  It wasn’t ideal. They were firing a lot of the more competent commoner officers in the Imperial Army by this point, replacing them with easily controlled loyalists with questionable professionalism.

  If that Wilhelm officer commanded the other side, he was done for. But what choice did he have?

  He wanted to bash his table. Even Ludwig knew the gigantic pitfall of his moves. Indeed, he was a desperate man grasping at straws.

  That was just the truth.

  “If…if the worst comes—” August was about to speak, but Ludwig cut him off.

  “We’ll do our best to prevent that. I already penned instructions to my daughter, and she’s been writing back to me. She’s getting closer and closer to the crown princess.”

  “Yet she continues to insult you.”

  “That’s the thing. It’s not exactly Her Highness that’s fighting me. It’s his two knights.”

  Ludwig’s eyes glinted.

  “If my dearest Elisabeth can pull off Her Highness from the influence of the Eisen brothers, we may stand a chance.”

  It was a strange rematch, Ludwig thought, but something that was perhaps inevitable. Ludwig was one of the nobles who sided with the Emperor when the Archduke of Eisen attempted to depose him.

  Yet, the ghost of the House of Eisen remains a spectre to the Empire. The two brothers, once separated and apparently hateful of each other, joined forces to influence the next Empress.

  Ludwig believed that none of this was Her Highness’ true intentions. Everything that was happening was between him, the Eisen brothers, and Henry.

  It was why he now overlooked the young princess’s transgressions. He wanted her back in his wing. All he needed now was to wait.

  “My daughter is brilliant and powerful on her own,” Ludwig said to August. “From now on, I have staked our diplomatic measures on her and her friends.”

  “Damn it. To rely on a bunch of teenage girls,” August gritted his teeth. “This is ridiculous.”

  “Yet, we have no other options. The princess does not venture out of the Grand Academy much. She is the only one who can talk to Her Highness.”

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  Ludwig then looked out of the window of his office.

  “If Elisabeth fails however, then we’ll have no other choice. If words and paper don't work, then we’ll have to stake our fate on iron and blood.”

  After all, should Ludwig fail, the best the two could hope for was that they would be placed behind bars until they’re dead.

  Most likely, they’d be killed. Therefore, if diplomacy and politics failed.

  Then he’ll try to show these vagrant upstarts that true power comes from the sword.

  +++

  Alexa, Phoebe, Adele, Wilhelm, and of course, Alfred, were once again gathered in Alexa’s office.

  While the three girls listened and asked questions, Wilhelm and Alfred discussed the current military situation. Apparently, it was starting to become very, very necessary.

  “...I don’t like what I’m hearing,” Alexa said, remembering what she read last night from the novel. “Is this true?”

  “I’ve honestly been hoping for this,” Wilhelm said, a slight, bloodthirsty grin on his face. “It’s the point of the propaganda campaign we conducted.”

  “Discrediting our enemy in the eyes of the people will mean they’ll get desperate,” Alfred shook his head. The knight seemed to disapprove of it. “We should have just mobilized the Royal Guard, in my opinion.”

  “Surely you jest?” Wilhelm raised an eyebrow.

  “Are you underestimating us?”

  “Ignoring the fact that Alfred over here has an inflated belief in himself and his comrades,” Wilhelm looked away. “There’s a reason why we chose this path.”

  “To force the Regency Council into a bad spot?” Alexa asked.

  “Exactly.”

  Alexa looked back at the contents of the novel in its last iteration. It seemed that because of her and Wilhelm’s actions, the story of the Iron Saintess turned even more gruesome.

  Instead of Henry taking charge of the Imperium with a blatant coup d’état, a conflict between the 2nd Group Army, controlled by Wilhelm’s allies, started between the 1st and 3rd Group Armies.

  Initially, the novel detailed that it started out as minor skirmishes between the three group armies, with local commanders wrestling over control of forts and towns outside of their jurisdiction.

  This happened while Alexa and Ludwig publicly continued to fight each other with words and newspapers.

  In the end, the Imperial Diet passed a vote of no confidence due to the increasing factional feuds between the Imperial Army and because of the public hating on Ludwig and August.

  All it did was force Ludwig to call in the 1st and 3rd Group Armies to take control of Ostend and Perlenstadt. Wilhelm responded, taking command of the 2nd Group Army to battle both the 3rd and 1st Group Armies.

  Ostend would eventually fall, but Wilhelm would crush the 1st Group Army before it reached Perlenstadt. As a result, the Empire will find itself fighting a civil war between the West and the East, with the 4th Group Army remaining neutral.

  It was an exceedingly bad situation, one that Alexa wanted to avoid. Especially since the novel hinted that Wilhelm would essentially become the de facto leader of her faction, while she becomes his mouthpiece.

  That…was unacceptable. She wasn’t going to let Mr. Scary Face turn her into his good little puppet, and, since she had already shifted the endings of the novel many times.

  She was determined to do the same with this.

  But what do I do? Do I break off from Wilhelm’s strategy?

  The last thing Alexa wanted was a pure civil conflict. She wanted to end this with her getting the crown as peacefully as possible.

  Her peasants should not die under her rule, that was where Alexa’s stance lay.

  “So,” Wilhelm smiled. “I propose that you, Lady Alexa, give me the permission to fudge the balance of power, militarily, in our favor.”

  “You want me to let you disrupt the 1st and 3rd Group Armies using the 2nd Group Army?” Alexa cooly asked, crossing her arms.

  A twitch came from Wilhelm’s eyes. He didn’t seem to have expected her to catch on too fast to his intentions.

  “Hmm…you really are growing quickly, huh?”

  “Answer my question.”

  “Right,” Wilhelm coughed. “My plan is essentially to place pressure on the units aligned with the Regency Council. We’ll do that by taking over the forts and towns they garrison."

  “Sir Wilhelm,” Phoebe spoke up, worried. “That sounds bloody. I told you not to scheme with risky plays again!”

  “Well, I did once ask Lady Alexa which path she wanted,” Wilhelm turned to Alexa. “Do you want the bloody path, or the less bloody path?”

  Alexa knew this question was going to come up eventually. Wilhelm asked it back then, and she had no answers.

  Now, that caught up to her.

  No backsies anymore, I guess…

  If only she were so strong that she could just avoid all this. Nope, she removed that from her mind. Even Phoebe, arguably the strongest person on mankind’s side, didn’t have enough strength to tip everything fully in her favor.

  This required some finesse.

  And Alexa wacked her brain.

  Come on, I know you’re usually like, so, so very stupid. Alexa closed her eyes, clenching her fist. But please, I need you to squeeze out an idea or something!

  “...Wilhelm,” Alexa opened her eyes, her cheeks suddenly turning red. What a shameful idea! But…well…

  “What is it?” Wilhelm leaned forward from his seat.

  “...We have the public on our side now,” Alexa felt her shame rising. Goodness, this was awful. “I think, instead of using the momentum we built up to escalate to force of arms…why don’t I use the coffers of the Royal Family…”

  Alexa twiddled her fingers. She couldn’t believe it. Out of every idea she had, why’d it have to be this? Oh, now she was fully drooping to the level of a true peasant.

  Her royal blood, her princessness—all of it would take a hit!

  But…if it meant no civil war…

  “Say, what if we bribe a supermajority of the Imperial Diet—to vote Ludwig out?”

  She said it.

  That was that.

  She was suggesting corruption.

  Just to win in a power struggle.

  Adele and Phoebe looked aghast. Alfred turned pale.

  But Wilhelm…

  Oh, Wilhelm was grinning.