Tyranny of Steel

Within the City of Kufstein, sitting in a popular Cafe, were two young women. Adela and her eldest sister Ava were seated across from each other, while the younger of the two siblings had a scowl on her face. It had been some time since she had seen her elder sister, and as usual, the relationship between the two sisters was far from cordial.

Since Adela had become engaged to her cousin Berengar all those years ago, her relationship with her eldest sister had continuously worsened. By now, it had become abundantly clear to Adela that her sister Ava was envious of her marriage to Berengar. Thus like a childish brat, Ava had repeatedly acted out against her in numerous fits of jealousy.

Now, the mother of three and former Countess of Salzburg was begging for an opportunity in an attempt to rescue her husband's place in the Austrian Social Hierarchy. After all, due to his cowardly actions during the Bavarian occupation of Austria, Wolfgang had been stripped of his land and titles and been thoroughly disgraced in the eyes of his peers.

Chancellor Otto and his wife grew weary of looking after their eldest daughter and her dullard of a husband. Thus, Ava had no option but to convince Berengar to allow her family back into his good graces. Of course, the only way to achieve this was through her sister, the First Wife of the King of Austria. After all these years, Ava still could hardly believe that the sickly boy she had grown up with was now the most powerful man in the western world.

With each passing day, she lamented her past actions; Though Berengar was unaware; when the two of them were both small children, they were engaged to be married when they reached adulthood. However, as Berengar's sickly condition progressed to a near-death state, Ava became disillusioned with the boy she once loved and convinced her father to break their betrothal.

Surprisingly years later, this resulted in Berengar and Adela's engagement, which greatly shocked Ava. After all, her youngest sister had become engaged to her first Crush. However, It was not until Berengar had begun to rise in power that Ava truly began to regret her decision and become filled with envy towards her sibling.

Of course, Berengar had no memory of this as the original inhabitor of his body had not been involved with family politics in his youth and just thought of Ava as a good friend in their childhood years. If he knew he was once engaged to Adela's older sister, he might take her as a mistress to lay claim to what could be perceived as his "original wife."

This was the most significant reason Ava often sought conflict with Adela in the past. She had come to realize that she had thrown away a diamond in return for a polished turd. Now, Adela was the High Queen of Austria, and Ava was the wife of a disgraced, landless nobleman. With this in mind, Ava began to break out in tears as she began to speak to her youngest sister about the hardships she had to endure as the wife of Wolfgang.

"You are so lucky to be married to a man like Berengar... Wolfgang is an absolute idiot! He has no idea that those around him are openly mocking him. Everywhere we go, people treat us as pariahs with their backhanded comments, and he thinks they're being genuinely nice to him.

Daddy won't even pay for my kids to get a private education, so they have to sit with those filthy commoners in the new public schools! Without our parents, my family wouldn't even have a thaler to our names now that Adelbrand has seized control of his house and their fortune."

Adela was not the least bit sympathetic to her sister; unlike Berengar, she was aware of the arranged marriage between Ava and Berengar when they were kids. In fact, if anything the young Queen of Austria was quite spiteful to her elder sister. The very thought that her husband could have been married to her bitch of an older sister brought out the worst inside her.

Luckily for Adela, Ava threw it all away for a numbskull like Wolfgang, simply because his family was at the time wealthy and powerful. As such, the young Queen did not even hesitate as she spoke with firm determination to her spoiled eldest sister.

"Ava, what exactly do you want from me? If you have come to ask for money, It is out of my hands; Berengar has invested most of our wealth into the Royal Treasury, which acts as the funds for the entire Kingdom. I regret to inform you that I do not have the authority to withdraw from it.

As for our savings, I will need to discuss with Berengar personally whether or not I can loan your husband money. Since the King is currently in Iberia waging war against our enemies, it will be some time before I can make that request."

Ava bit her lip as she heard this news; she suspected that Adela could grant her some money but refused to do so. As such, her heart was filled with resentment as she thought about the degree of luxury that Adela lived in and the fact that if she had not been so foolish in her youth, it could have all been hers. Despite this growing fury, Ava calmed her inner wrath before putting on a gentle facade.

"Little Adela, I'm not asking for money; I simply want some land for my husband so that we can earn a decent living. Surely there is some factory somewhere that your husband doesn't need. Even if it is just a small production facility, your husband has so much wealth generated from the rent that he charges the business owners for using his land. Can he not spare some of this for his family?"

Adela's brow raised slightly upon hearing this suggestion as she glared at her sister in disbelief. She immediately asked for clarification as to what Ava was suggesting.

"Are you suggesting that I use my authority as High Queen to usurp a private business which has been granted the power to operate within the Kingdom of Austria by the Royal Crown itself, solely for your husband's benefit?

If I were to do such a thing, I would be committing multiple crimes under the Anti-Corruption laws that are in place. Not only would you and I be punished severely for such actions, but the prestige of the Austrian Crown would be forever diminished in the eyes of the people!

You don't understand how things work nowadays, do you? The Nobility no longer can take whatever they please from the common people. There are punishments that can be applied to all members of society, including the Royal Family, for engaging in such corrupt behavior. No, Ava, I will not give you land, even as though you are a member of my family.

Suppose you and your husband want a business to run. In that case, you will have to build it from the ground up like everyone else; you will have to purchase or rent the land from whoever owns it, build the factory, pay your employees a decent wage, and have a product of high enough quality that people wish to purchase it with their funds. You will also have to pay the necessary taxes to the Royal Treasury that apply.

If you and your dullard of a husband can figure out how to achieve all of this, then maybe, just maybe, I can give you a loan from the Crown with a fair interest rate. However, until such a presentation can be made, I will not assist you."

After saying this, Adela reached into her purse and pulled out a few silver thalers that acted as the price to pay for the meal they had shared and as the tip to the server. After doing so, she leaned in and whispered something to Ava.

"It is funny, isn't it? In your youth, you wanted nothing to do with Berengar and even broke your betrothal because you believed he was worthless. Now he is the King of Austria, and I am his Queen; I guess your loss is my gain!"

After saying this, the young Queen of Austria departed from the Cafe and returned to the protection of her guards, where they proceeded to ride in the Carriage back to the Royal Palace. Ava was left stunned in the Cafe by her lonesome; she had no idea how Adela had found out about her previous engagement to Berengar so many years ago.

However, Adela was wrong about one thing; Ava did not break her betrothal with Berengar because she thought he was worthless; instead, she did so out of fear that he would die before they could get married. In her childhood, she deeply cared for Berengar; in fact, he was her first crush. However, when he became sickly, she did not have the emotional strength to stick by him and thus ran away from her responsibilities.

This misunderstanding between the two siblings was because they were separated in age by nearly a decade. The engagement with Berengar was broken up long before Adela was old enough to understand what such a thing was. If Adela knew that even now, Ava still had some feelings for her Berengar, then the young Queen would have been far more ruthless in how she dealt with her sister's request.

Eventually, Ava sipped on her tea before sighing in silence. Even though she deeply regretted her past actions, she had no way to change the outcome. As such, she could either do as Adela had advised and begin the arduous process of building a business from scratch or continue to mooch off her parents for the rest of her life.

After careful internal debate, Ava sighed before taking a sip from the tea in front of her once more; since her husband was all but useless, she would have to rely entirely upon herself. After all, she was reasonably clever; how hard could it be to start a business? If only she knew the difficulties, she would face in the long path set before her.

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