Swiss Arms 183 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 183

-VB-

What was there to say? 

Perhaps if I was someone who followed the chivalric code to the letter, then I wouldn’t have killed him. And that any killing outside of the battle would be wrong. Except such an outlook would be foolish and naive. 

We all knew what her three eldest sons had tried to do. Not only did they spit on the alliance their parents made with me and King Henry, they attacked the people and lands ruled in part by their blood relative, Isabella. And they did this without declaring grievance, without declaring war, and without a warning. They attacked their own allies when peace should have reigned.

They may have been her precious children, but they were nothing more than unlawful bandits in noble attire praying on those who they thought were weaker than them.

“Yes and no.”

It was the best answer I could give. 

“Yes… and no,” Dowager Empress Elizabeth repeated after me. She did not look angered or even trying to control her anger. “Why is it both?”

“Because it was not necessary for me to kill him,” I answered honestly. “He may not have been disarmed but he was weak enough that I could have easily disabled him and held him.” Then I leaned forward. “But if I had captured him, then I would have never released him, Your Highness.”

She stiffened. “Why?”

“Because he is an architect along with his brothers who planned for my people and my house’s downfall. He wanted to take what I had and attacked his own blood-relations for it. What part of that makes him not a threat to me and my way of life?” I asked directly. Our less trained servants inched away as I activated [Intimidation] at a very low level. “A man seeking to harm his own blood relation? His own allies the moment their backs are turned? The very fact that he exists is already a threat, so why would I have allowed him out of my dungeons where he could gather more power and plan for an even better plan?”

“Because it would have been expected of you. And by the same expectations, they would not have harmed you outside of battle…!”

“Expected,” I hummed out the word. “Like it is expected of all nobles to follow through with noblesse oblige and provide proper protection for their people? Or that all Christians should be following the Lord’s words to the best of their abilities? Like those expectations?” 

For a while, she didn’t say anything. She ducked her head. “Perhaps I misspoke. But why then didn’t you capture him? Even if you might not have released him, wasn’t capture better than slaying, as you would call it, your own in-laws and blood relations?”

“Because then he would have been the excuse for you and his brothers to try to attack me at every turn,” I replied bluntly. 

“... It would have been, yes,” she replied tiredly. “So you sought to remove the problem at its root.”

“One of the three anyways.”

“... Do you intend to kill my other sons as well?”

“Will they come after me and mine again for nothing more than naked greed?” 

“I cannot guarantee anything. The future changes.”

“Then I can’t either.”

… It’s actually funny. Just a few years ago, it was the Duchy of Bavaria and the House of Wittelsbach who were our shared enemies. The Habsburgs, the Gorizia, and my tiny barony were allied to take them down, and did just that. Our alliance never disappeared, and we maintained it. Until her children broke it.

“Did you try to get them to stop?” I asked. 

“I did,” she replied. And finally, something broke through. “I… I already knew of your strengths. Even if they outnumbered you twenty to one, they would not have won against you.”

Twenty-to-one odds might have been enough to lay waste to my little fiefdom, actually. Kill me? No, but pressure me enough to come to the negotiating table? Definitely. 

“But they didn’t listen.”

“No. They refused to listen. And now, two of them are dead.”

I blinked. “Two?”

She took in a shuddering breath. Her frame seemed to wilt even further despite her visible attempts not to show weakness. “Yes. My eldest, Rudolph, died of some stomach disease in his retreat from King Henry.”

A moment of silence fell. 

“Ah. My condolences. Speaking of which…”

I turned and gestured. 

Four men brought a cart pulled by a warhorse, and on the cart itself was a coffin. A well decorated coffin. 

“Duke Otto had him embalmed after I left. Even if he tried to starve him in his castle, Otto still thought of him as his nephew,” I told her without meeting her eyes. 

She stared at me for a moment before her eyes drifted to the coffin. She slowly made shaky steps over to it. One of her knights quickly moved to keep her steady, holding a hand as she walked up to the cart. 

And she nearly collapsed against the cart and began to sob. 

“... You fool…” my ears heard her whisper between her sobs. They were whispers too quiet for anyone else not standing by her could hear, but since when did my body follow the rules everyone else did? 

I allowed her to grieve briefly in public, especially considering that it wasn’t a show she was putting on. 

And as for how she would advise her son? 

I doubted they would listen. If they had, then this entire war would have been stopped even before it started. No, I highly suspected that Duke Frederick will behave exactly as I expect him to. 

A wounded lion, backed to a corner against a much deadlier and stronger enemy it knew it could not win against. 

And if he refused my offers? Then I will simply have to wipe out the Habsburgs as a player. 

Eventually, the dowager empress got up and dusted off her silk dress of dirt. After wiping her face with a handkerchief, she turned to me with red, swollen eyes. 

“... Thank you for bringing me his body.”

I nodded. 

Nothing more needed to be said. Eventually, we parted ways. She wanted to move faster with the body of her son while I was content to let the last surviving Habsburg duke stew in anxiety.