industrial lord

Chapter 815 The Rhine Alliance is Doomed
As the car rounded the last bend, the setting sun sank into the distant mountains, its blood-red glow splashing across the hills to the east of the valley, turning the barren winter forest into a fiery golden-red.

Frederick lifted the heavy curtain of the carriage window, letting the biting wind rush into the carriage. He had been thinking about the letter from the Archduke of Mainz the whole way, and his mind was a little tired. He used the cold wind to clear his head.

The people I'm about to face are more difficult than all the major national affairs combined.

Ahead, a city nestled against the mountains and beside the water appeared: Lor, Maria's hometown.

In the old town, stone houses rise in tiers along the hillside, their dark gray slate roofs gleaming with a rusty sheen in the afterglow.

Smoke curled up from the chimneys, stretching into thin gray lines in the darkening sky, only to be torn apart by the mountain wind.

In the new town along the river, the docks were full of transport ships, and the lights dispelled the dimness as cranes lifted goods onto the ships.

The garment factories between the old and new city areas had just finished get off work, and the roads turned into rivers of workers, flowing slowly.

At the highest point of the city, the Eltal family's castle stands majestically.

As the car drove not far outside the city, the valley had already darkened, and the castle suddenly burst into colorful light, making it look breathtakingly beautiful.

Frederick himself was not interested in such light shows, but it was the most popular way for nobles to show off at the time, and the castles, mansions, and public buildings in Wessenburg followed suit, all of which were managed by Maria.

The car entered the castle grounds and stopped in front of the gate.

When Frederick alighted from the carriage, the Eltal family's butler was there to greet him.

On the way to the castle, the butler reported: "Only Lady Elthal is home today. Baron Elthal is on official business in Cologne with the Grand Duke of Mainz, and Count Elthal is staying in Mushroom Village."

Frederick nodded, his complexion growing increasingly grim, and beads of cold sweat appearing on his forehead.

He returned to his room and was changing his clothes when Sophia sent her head maid to inform him that they would be having dinner in the dining room later.

The restaurant was brightly lit, and the flowers picked from the greenhouse in the vases emitted a faint fragrance. Sofia, dressed in her finest attire, sat in the main seat.

“Mother,” Frederick greeted her, “how have you been lately?”

“Not good,” Sofia replied expressionlessly. “Sit down and eat.”

She looked as if Frederick owed hundreds of thousands of gold coins.

Frederick sat obediently, though he didn't owe any gold coins, he did owe a grandson.

So when I arrived, Sofia was bound to bring this up, but Maria had already run away first.

The maid quickly served Frederick's dinner: a slice of bread, a bean, and whether the soup would be enough to extinguish the candle was a question.

It was clear that Sofia was extremely dissatisfied with the two children's behavior, and this was evident in her expression.

Frederick endured his silent rage, eating quietly, each time slicing a piece the size of a little fingernail from the bread with his knife, and cutting beans into translucent slices, his movements impeccably elegant.

After dinner, he ran away that very night.

The mountains near Lor are scenic, with birds singing and flowers blooming. There is a famous hiking trail that leads to a depleted copper mine shaft.

The village where the miners lived still exists today. Because some mushrooms were grown in the mines to extract seasonings, the village was renamed Mushroom Village and has also been transformed into a resort. Hunting animals are also kept around the area.

Frederick changed into a pair of sneakers, packed three bottles of soda and two steamed bread rolls in his backpack, and set off that very night.

Steamed bread isn't meant to be eaten; it gets dry and hard in the kitchen, but if you tie a rope to it, it becomes a fine meteor hammer.

They encountered two bears on the way and smashed them. "You've come all this way, why bring any gifts?" Archduke Mainz waited for Frederick at a villa outside Mushroom Village.

Frederick said very seriously, "It's not for you, it's for Mary."

“What’s the difference between giving it to her and giving it to me?” The Archduke of Mainz chuckled and ordered his men to take the bear away for disposal. “Even if it wasn’t for me, it’s perfectly normal for me to charge you taxes for hunting on Mainz territory.”

Frederick rolled his eyes and said, "You came all the way from Cologne, not just to make fun of me, were you?"

After he finished speaking, he looked around. Maria had arrived earlier and should be here now. Since he was here, there was no reason for him not to come out.

When the Archduke of Mainz saw him looking around, he understood what he was looking for and said impatiently, "Before we talk about business, let's talk about some personal matters tonight."

“Sigh, you kids never listen to your elders. You used to listen to whatever the Godfather said, but now you want to go back to work after just a few words.”

"I'm telling you, this won't do..."

Frederick finally realized why Maria was gone; she must have been fed up with his nagging about the children and had gone back to the Duchy of Wessen to work overtime.

The inertia of tradition is significant; with no legitimate heir, no one is entirely at ease working with Frederick.

Having an unlawful heir is also not acceptable, because marriage and blood ties are merely bonds; if the mother is not part of this circle, there are too many variables.

In the living room, Frederick listened intently to the Archduke of Mainz rambling on for two and a half hours, until he was tired.

Nothing happened overnight. The next morning, the two people in the living room became serious, and all the other people in the villa left.

The Archduke of Mainz, a far cry from his energetic demeanor during his sermon the previous night, sank deep into the soft sofa, raised his hand and vigorously rubbed his temples, a gesture revealing profound exhaustion.

“Frederick, the Rhine Union…something terrible is about to happen,” he sighed.

Frederick asked seriously, "How serious is it?"

Archduke Mainz got up and took a bottle of wine and two glasses from the wine cabinet next to him. His movements as he poured the wine seemed steady, but when he picked up the glasses, the liquid swayed slightly, reflecting the subtle trembling of his fingers.

“You can think of the worst.” He handed Frederick a glass of wine and sat back down on the sofa.

“Rudolf,” he said, uttering the king’s name, but with an expression as if he were vomiting something rotten, “has never been lucid since the defeat at Redwheel Village.”

"The wine cellars of the royal palace were emptied and filled again, filled and then emptied again."

"Political affairs? The last time he chaired a royal meeting was ten months ago, and he even started drinking from a wine bottle halfway through, eventually having to be helped away by his guards."

After speaking, the Archduke of Mainz tilted his head back and took a large gulp, his Adam's apple bobbing violently as if he were swallowing bitter medicine.

“What’s worse,” he put down his glass, which clattered against the wooden table, “is that the King and Queen have no children to this day.”

"Moreover, some rumors have been circulating recently."

"Reliable intelligence indicates that eight or nine out of ten documents delivered to the king were written and reviewed by the queen's attendants."

“Those young men in their early twenties from the Kingdom of Gaul, without any authorization, were annotating and affixing their seals on the memorials.”

Frederick's face showed a "Are you kidding me?" expression.

(End of this chapter)