Chapter 370: Cheap Leverage
The Administrative Minister, who came to the Gale Knights’ encampment before even visiting the Breisach administrative residence, looked utterly worn out. Yet there was a sharpness in his keen eyes.
"I have no idea how we’re supposed to clean up this mess."
He drank the wine I offered him like water to wet his throat. The Administrative Minister was living through the most shocking and hectic days in recent memory, and the Finance Minister’s poisoning had been only the beginning.
"Baron Rosenheim, tell me everything. Leave nothing out."
"I’m still in the middle of writing the report. Do you wish to hear it directly, Minister?"
"I don’t think I’ll believe it unless I hear it from your own mouth. What on earth happened?"
The Administrative Minister had not been involved in this scheme, so he didn’t know the full story. Unlike the Judicial Department, the Administrative Department had to manage all of Breisburg on the grand duke’s behalf, which kept him extremely busy.
He had no time to idly play along with Mort’s games.
I explained everything that had happened in detail.
Of course, I concealed the matter of Prince Louis’s illegitimate child. The only other person who knew about it was Heinlein, and since I had handed him over to the grand duke, the truth about the child would never see the light of day.
After hearing the whole explanation, the Administrative Minister let out a deep sigh.
"So all this uproar came from one woman’s jealousy and an illegitimate child."
"Viscount Neunil inserted himself into it for his family’s gain, but in the end he was betrayed and killed."
"I’ve been steeped in court politics for decades, and I’ve never seen anything like it."
For the old minister, it seemed a deeply exhausting affair.
After sinking into thought for a moment, he spoke.
"The court is going to be in an uproar from now on."
"With Viscount Neunil dead, court politics will be thrown into disarray as well."
"...Who was it that betrayed Viscount Neunil?"
His reaction struck me as a bit odd.
"The former commander of the Grand Duke’s Guard, Karsten Ritter von Neunil."
"What? Isn’t that man one of Her Majesty the queen’s confidants?!"
The Administrative Minister’s eyes flew wide. What he feared most was the revelation that the royal family had been involved in this political scheme. Karsten had stepped down as commander of the Grand Duke’s Guard, but he was still the queen’s lover.
The fact that he had killed Viscount Neunil was no ordinary problem. To the nobles, it could look like royal involvement. The Administrative Minister’s expression turned grim.
"Does anyone besides you know about this?"
"Sir Steinhof, Inspector General Mort, who witnessed it directly, and the remnants of the Neunil household. That’s about all."
"Fewer than I expected. That’s a relief. Sir Steinhof will keep the secret, and the rest are criminals, so they can be coaxed into silence or the matter muddied easily enough. The problem is your retainers, Baron."
"Don’t worry. Even my retainers don’t know how Viscount Neunil died."
For fear it might spill over into a political fight, no one apart from Adolf knew that the viscount had died by Karsten’s hand. Mort and the remnants of the Neunil household were, quite literally, criminals.
"We won’t know the exact truth until it’s investigated. For now, it’s all speculation."
"Surely you’re not reckless enough to be considering an investigation into Her Majesty the queen?"
"I have no intention of touching Queen Gwendirente until she becomes a mere noblewoman."
Whether by her own will or someone else’s, as long as she had not stepped down from the queen’s seat, I had no intention of investigating Gwendirente with my own hands. The queen was fated to be cast out soon, but she was still a member of the royal family.
If any noble or noblewoman insulted her once she had been cut loose, they could incur the grand duke’s wrath. Not for insulting the queen herself, but because it could be taken as an insult to the royal family.
Perhaps the assassination was something Karsten had carried out on his own, calculating that no one would be able to go after the queen. Until the details were investigated, the killing would likely stay buried in silence.
Only then did the Administrative Minister’s grim expression soften. Staunch member of the grand duke’s faction that he was, he had been wary of what I might be thinking. Had I answered that I would investigate the queen, he would have flown into a rage.
After glaring at me for a long while, the old minister sighed and said,
"Baron Rosenheim, set your questions aside and leave Her Majesty be."
"Minister, why are you trying to protect the queen?"
Besides Viscount Neunil, the only court faction the foreign-born queen could rely on was the Administrative Minister’s family. As a staunch member of the grand duke’s faction, he must have served her with utmost devotion.
Some of the queen’s handmaids were even women of cadet branches, placed there under the Administrative Minister’s influence. The problem was that once the queen entered a political feud with Louis, the minister was left unable to act for either side.
He was the kind of man who served as a sturdy shield protecting Altringen, but when the very people he was meant to protect fought each other, he could not function properly. That was why his disposition read as loyalty (neutral).
He might well be a future Vermeer.
"I can’t tell you the reason, but it is also His Highness the grand duke’s will."
The grand duke’s will? The grand duke had once told me he would send the divorced queen back to Strasbourg someday. There might be another scheme hidden in this. If so, I shouldn’t interfere.
"...Understood. I’ll let the matter rest."
"I expected a baron overflowing with righteousness to go stirring things up. What a relief."
"If it is His Highness’s will, then I should follow it. I have no desire to force the truth out."
Karsten murdering Viscount Neunil was truly unexpected, but looking at it coldly, it wasn’t important enough that I needed to be the one to uncover the truth of the viscount’s death.
Knowing that Karsten had done it was enough.
The Administrative Minister seemed pleased with my answer, and relieved.
"Then all that remains between us is the cleanup."
"What do you plan to do about the port of Breisach?"
For the Administrative Department, which managed Breisach, the fire was nothing short of a catastrophe.
Calling it fortunate that only the port district had burned rang hollow, because the importance of that district was absolute. What happens when a port city loses the function of its port? It is ruined outright.
"The logistics route to Breisburg might as well be severed."
"That could cause tremendous chaos."
"The chaos has already begun."
Merchants and nobles who had suffered enormous losses were lodging protests against the Administrative Department, and the point of contention was who would bear responsibility. There was nothing to consider. The Neunil family should bear it.
Karsten’s setting the fire may well have been aimed at saddling Viscount Neunil with enormous losses. He had prepared in advance and lain in wait, which was why such a massive blaze broke out.
Even if the Neunil family tried to dodge responsibility, Karsten was unmistakably one of their own, so the attempt would never work. It was an excellent justification.
"The fire broke out because of the Neunil family’s internal strife, so pressure them to pay compensation. Those bastards will never be able to refuse. The justification is on our side."
"Hmph, with Viscount Neunil dead, we can bill them as much as we like. So I shall."
"Also, I took and used some of the supplies stored in the warehouses on the port’s outskirts."
The Administrative Minister’s eyebrows twitched, and when I came to the part where I said I had distributed those supplies to the refugees, his brow furrowed. He must have been quite angry, because even his breathing grew rough.
Before he could explode, I handed him the document.
It was the itemized ledger Ivan had painstakingly prepared without a wink of sleep.
"This is the record of the supplies I used. Everything is written down in detail, so there should be no problems."
"May I take the existence of this ledger to mean you intend to pay for it?"
"That’s exactly why I made it."
All told, I had used about twenty gold coins’ worth. Honestly, we had used fewer supplies than expected, which was why protecting the refugees cost only that much. After studying the ledger for a long while, the Administrative Minister spoke.
"Baron Rosenheim, do you mean to use this payment as a pretext to exert influence over the Neunil family?"
"Cutting straight to the heart of it. You truly are a noble seasoned by long years of court politics."
"Hmph, that sounds like sarcasm to me. Can you really manage it with a mere twenty gold coins?"
"You’re about to watch a storied old family be jerked around by a paltry sum."
The Neunils were a storied family that had formed one pillar of court politics for generations, and their accumulated wealth was immense. Perhaps not on the grand duke’s level, but they were known to be tremendously wealthy, hardly inferior to him.
Because they had suffered enormous losses from the destruction of the port of Breisach, however, the Neunil family would have to pay an astronomical sum to settle it all.