Tyranny of Steel

In Graz, Adela currently sat at her desk reading a letter in her hands which Berengar wrote. As usual, it expressed his desire to meet up with his young fiancee, and of course, he boasted about his achievements in battle. The fact that Berengar had become a Count greatly pleased the teenage youth. It meant that she would become a Countess, much like her mother once she married Berengar. Though she knew Berengar was destined for great things, she had no idea that she would be Empress of a unified German Empire one day. As such, she was content with Berengar's gains and knew he was most likely dreadfully busy consolidating his power.

Adela was not aware that the Teutonic Order was marching on Tyrol and had no worries about Berengar's immediate future. He was home, and he was safe, and that was all that mattered to the young girl. She had greatly desired to visit Kufstein, but in a time such as this that was filled with chaos and uncertainty, the roads to her fiance's home would not be safe. Thus despite her protests, she was locked away in the Castle of Graz under her family's orders.

As far as she was aware, her father, Count Otto, had marched with Duke Wilmar's forces onto Landshut after capturing Munich, which was the seat of the Duke of Bavaria's power. The war in Bavaria had entered a new stage of intensity as the Duke of Bavaria was outraged by the fact that his home had been seized. Luckily for him, his family had fled the city before it was fully captured and were staying with a loyal Lord in a safer region of his territory.. However, despite this, the Duke of Bavaria marched half of his forces from the North back into Bavaria to halt the advance of the Austrian host which had invaded his lands.

To Adela, the war was inconsequential as, aside from some fighting in Tyrol, and Vienna it had not yet spread to the borders of Austria. Even if it had, Berengar's mighty army was essentially the home defenders while the Duke was off fighting with his main army in Bavaria. If Graz were to ever come under siege, Berengar would surely come to her rescue.

After thinking about her situation, Adela wrote a letter back to Berengar congratulating him on his gains and impressive victory. She also expressed her desire to see him again but explained her current circumstances that prevented such a reunion. By the time she had finished writing it, the message was nothing more than a love letter that resembled that which was written by a young girl to her crush.

However, shortly after finishing writing her love letter to her fiance, Adela heard a knock on her door, which startled her, spilling her ink container all over the letter and thoroughly ruining it. She was greatly displeased by this event but had no way of controlling it; as such, she rapidly cleaned up the mess before storming over to the door with a pouting expression on her face.

After opening the door, Adela noticed her eldest sister standing in the doorway. She was roughly the age of Berengar and had long since been married to the son of another Count within Austria; in fact, the young woman known as Ava von Salzburg had not been to her family's home in quite some time and was quite excited to see her youngest sister and how much she had grown. After all, she lived with her husband and three children in Salzburg, Austria, where she was married to the Count's eldest son.

Seeing how much Adela had grown over the years, the beautiful and busty woman that was Adela's older sister quickly grabbed ahold over the little girl and squeezed her tightly with a wide grin on her face.

"Little Adela, you have grown so much!"

Adela struggled to get out of her eldest sister's grasp, but unfortunately, she could not break free from the tight grip that encompassed her and nearly suffocated as her tiny heart-shaped face was stuffed into Ava's massive cleavage.

It was only after Adela ended her resistance to the hug that the tall and curvy woman finally released her grasp. Afterward, Adela backed away from her overly affectionate big sister and pouted, which quickly led to Ava noticing that something was going on in the background. She quickly deduced that there was an ink-stained sheet of paper, and when ava noticed the look on Adela's face, she quickly smiled sinisterly and began to tease her little sister.

"Adela, were you perhaps writing a love letter? I heard that you have gotten yourself quite the capable fiance!"

Adela's face cute face quickly flushed with embarrassment as she immediately denied the allegations in the most obvious attempt to cover up her actions.

"Of course not! Why would I write such a thing?!"

Seeing her little sister acting so sheepishly, Ava licked her lips like a wolf gazing at its prey and advanced closer to Adela before whispering in her ear

"I heard he is really handsome. Do you mind if I have a taste?"

Ava was not genuinely interested in Berengar as she was happily married. Her husband was decent-looking enough and came from a high noble family, whereas Berengar was merely an upstart. Despite this, Ava could not resist the urge to tease Adela and make her angry. Adela, of course, instantly fell into Ava's trap and behaved exactly as the sly woman had expected; she pushed Ava away and began yelling at her while throwing a little tantrum.

"Absolutely not! You are disgusting! Why would you even suggest something like that!?!

Seeing that Adela had reacted so adorably to her joke, Ava went in for the kill; she just loved the cute expression on Adela's face when she was angry.

"Why not? We are siblings; after all, it is only natural for us to share! After all, I heard that fiance of yours already has a mistress, so clearly, you are not against the idea of sharing your man..."

This touched on Adela's reverse scale, she was fine sharing Berengar with Linde since the two young women had come to some degree of an arrangement, but she absolutely would never allow her big sister to lay claim to her man. Of course, if Adela knew that Ava was teasing her, and in reality, looked down on her for marrying a man from a family of such low nobility, she would only be more infuriated as such her response to Ava's provocation was far more civil than it could have been.

"Get out of my room Ava; I have no interest in having this conversation with you and your filthy mind!"

Thus Adela struggled to push her eldest sister out of her room which continued to tease Adela on her way out.

"Oh, come on!"

"You are being unfair!"

"Just one bite!"

and with that last remark, Ava was forced out of her room, and the door was slammed behind her. While Adela was fuming inside her quarters, sitting with her back to the door and her face resting on her knees. Ava was smiling in excitement on the opposite side of the thick wooden door; after all, her little sister was just too cute when provoked in such a manner!

.