Chapter 269

“…….”

I smiled at the steward.

Your Excellency? To Luka, he was someone who could be called a godfather, and he must have thought the same. He had even come to the classroom and hadn’t called me young master.

The Anhalt government’s position, which sought to gain benefits by riding the wave of crowd psychology well, could be seen clearly in the representative’s attitude, but the atmosphere in Askanian was still unknown.

Because of the unpredictable wild card named Georg Askanian, Askanian might maintain its previous hostile attitude separately from the government, taking the benefits as they were while still treating things awkwardly. The Anhalt government wasn’t the entity that raised Luka, so they wouldn’t feel much guilt about changing their stance, but Askanian was different.

The only person in Askanian who had cared about Luka’s health and treated him warmly was Adrian Askanian. Even that had been exposed to me, not Luka. It was uncertain whether Askanian, which I expected hadn’t left a good impression on me, would stick to its attitude so far or change its stance like the Anhalt government.

It wasn’t a situation where I could obtain a lot of information, but now, through the steward, I got at least an indirect feel.

I shook my head.

“Please call me comfortably.”

“Shall I? Let’s go, young master.”

He led me out of the station. Whether there was access control or not, there was no one on the platform except Askanian servants. However, the moment I stepped out of Dessau Station, I faced a dense crowd standing outside the control line.

They were all citizens of Anhalt.

“…….”

The noise from the crowd cut off sharply as our eyes met. In their round eyes, I could feel shock and wariness. Between the information they had believed and the hero of the Empire, they were feeling tremendous confusion. The intense stubbornness and curiosity that they had to see and judge me with their own eyes, not trusting the Empire’s testimony, were readable on their faces.

They were the ones.

They were the ones who had been pushed by my brother’s conspiracy to despise Luka the most in the Empire.

I smiled at them and boarded the Askanian carriage.

Ulrike, who knew nothing about the situation, got on beside me with a tense face. While doing so, she muttered to herself.

“I’m coming to Anhalt. Oh….”

“You said you hadn’t been here before.”

“Yeah.”

Now, Leo and Narce were also in this carriage.

Whether Ulrike sensed the subtly tense atmosphere or thought about my position as Pleroma, she brought up a question I hadn’t expected from her.

“But are you close with your family? I’m worried it might hurt your feelings for no reason while we’re hanging out.”

“Well.”

I quietly said while opening the carriage window blind with my finger, as we had now started to depart. Even after leaving the train station, the citizens who had come out to see me were lined up along both sides of the road.

“I guess I’ll have to see now.”

Narce was restricted from using his foresight ability for health recovery. He, Leo, and I could only guess; we couldn’t be certain about how the political situation here was flowing exactly.

I smiled at Ulrike and said.

“We’re going to Residenzschloss Dessau now. Just wait a little.”

Residenzschloss Dessau was the main castle of Askanian. It was the castle I had come to when summoned by my brother, so for me, it was the second time.

If only one minute had felt like an hour, it might have been better. For me, the road from Dessau Station to Residenzschloss was very quick. The distance that should take 10 minutes by carriage felt like less than 5 minutes.

“We’ve arrived.”

The steward’s voice came from outside the carriage.

On the right side near the castle gate in the distance, Askanian servants were standing. I had thought this before, but this time, it was incomparable to the number I had seen previously. This time, it seemed like all the servants working not only in the main castle but also in the 13 castles owned by the family were gathered.

And on the left side, administrative officials and assembly members of the Anhalt government were present. From a modern perspective, isn’t it the pinnacle of entrenched corruption? It was the same in this era. This wasn’t at the family level. It was the nation’s courtesy.

“…Wow.”

Ulrike glanced at me and exclaimed in admiration. I wanted to do the same, but my facial muscles remained as they were earlier.

The surprising part wasn’t that. What surprised me more was above them, that is, the Askanian-affiliated mages standing in front of me.

Creak—

The steward opened the carriage door. I got off silently and raised my head.

The same scene as in Bavaria unfolded. They saluted me.

“…….”

Just as the Imperial mages were affiliated with the Imperial family, this place also had mages at the family level. Whenever a direct descendant of Askanian officially returned to or visited Anhalt, this kind of situation always unfolded.

Unlike the existing Anhalt army that had been semi-forcibly incorporated into the Imperial army after the establishment of the Empire, these mages were newly hired as private soldiers of Anhalt in the world after magic, and like the Imperial Guard, they worked for the family and the monarch, so it was common for them to be mobilized for events of the ruling family.

For Adrian Askanian, this scene must have been a frequent occurrence.

For me, it was the first time.

Of course, this was also the first time I had visited with an official mission, but if it had been the previous state, I couldn’t expect standard treatment.

In early this year, I had noticed that a distinguished guest had come home upon seeing the servants’ welcome greetings. In fact, that greeting was also one that Luka deserved, but naturally, I thought it wouldn’t be given to me, so I guessed that my brother had come home.

But now, my brother wasn’t here.

Since the distinguished guest, the crown prince of Anhalt, wasn’t there, unlike before, there was no need to save face for the owner of Pleroma.

So, I could say this.

This scene had nothing to do with my brother’s merits or anything. It was purely a result caused by me.

I lightly raised my hand to the brim of my hat and then lowered it.

They hadn’t called the Old Human honor guard, and since they had only assembled New Humans and didn’t do anything more complicated than that, it seemed they had kept it exactly to the right degree. I liked that they didn’t do the crazy thing of suddenly summoning old-generation ceremonies to win favor. If they had done more than this, I might have been disillusioned and sneered.

“We welcome your return to Anhalt. All the subjects of Anhalt have been waiting only for Your Excellency to come.”

The Anhalt Prime Minister, whom I was seeing for the first time, approached me and said that. Instead of replying, I extended my hand to request a handshake.

He shook hands with me with a stern face and stepped aside.

“It is an honor to meet Leonard Wittelsbach, Crown Prince of Bavaria, Yulia Tsheringen, Grand Duke Heir of Baden, and Elias Hohenzollern, Duke of Prussia. I am Josef Askanian, Prime Minister of the Anhalt government.”

After waiting for him to finish conversations with all the visitors, I walked to the main gate with the steward standing beside me.

Because of the unusual courtesy, the way there was quiet. Only after entering the interior did the tension ease a bit, and I could hear my friends’ small exclamations.

In that way, we moved to the east wing of the castle. The steward pointed to the rooms on both sides of the corridor and said.

“Young master, you can use your room continuously until tomorrow morning, and for your friends, we have changed the empty rooms on this side to guest rooms, so please stay here. First, the upper room is for His Highness Elias Hohenzollern….”

I half-listened to their words and looked at my room. Unlike the other rooms, a clean mahogany door with almost no traces of use stood firmly in front of me. In the feeling of all my senses stiffening, I slowly placed my hand on the doorknob.

Creak—

“…….”

The scene I had seen before unfolded exactly in front of me.

This aristocratic Baroque-style interior decoration, the swamp and water meadows visible through the window, and the blue Elbe River meeting the water meadows in the distance—they were memories that were bad for both Luka and me.

I had come here again. Back then, I had been dragged here alone, but now, I had come here directly in response to Anhalt’s request.

I looked down at the floor by the door. It felt like yesterday when I had collapsed here. The memory of the steward coming to school that day, Leo giving me a sedative under the pretext of delivering a flyer, the memory of taking that medicine on this bed—it was still vivid. The incident of friends secretly putting pie in my bag because they couldn’t come together came to mind.

“Wow, what’s that? Is the lamp gold by any chance?”

“Brass, isn’t it?”

Not now. It was different now. Friends who were making useless noises behind me had come together.

“Young master. Let me tell you about the schedule for a moment. Please follow me.”

At the steward’s call, the whispers stopped. I could feel all my friends’ gazes directed at me. I nodded to the steward and smiled at my friends. Narce smiled softly in response.

After moving to the hall on the same floor and sitting on the sofa in front of the balcony, he sat opposite me and opened his mouth.

“You must be very tired. Young master, you can rest until just before noon now.”

“There’s a lot of free time.”

“Yes. From 8 p.m. today, there will be a 30-minute press conference. Twenty journalists from Anhalt and Prussia will be together in the banquet hall on the first floor. Since our Anhalt will review the final reporting materials from each newspaper, please proceed without burden.”

They were naturally censoring. Since I had no intention of making statements contrary to Anhalt’s will in this era, it wasn’t harmful to me.

“And, Your Grace will arrive at noon.”

“It’s just right, as I was about to ask where my father is.”

At my words, the steward raised his eyebrows. I clasped my hands together, smiled, and asked.

“I’m truly glad to be able to see my father. What brings him here?”

*  *  *

It wasn’t because I didn’t know; it was sarcasm.

Fortunately, the steward understood my meaning. Since he was someone who felt sorry for my father’s neglect of me, there was no need to sarcasm him further.

They needed to know that the family had already failed to give me trust once, but there was no need to be completely hostile.

I stayed in the hall’s balcony after the steward left and looked at the outside scenery. Outside the castle, the crowd wanting to see me was still swarming. Light was rising in the dusky sky.

‘Lukas Askanian’s identity is still unstable.’

At this moment when crowd psychology had explosively formed, it couldn’t be said to be entirely on my side. It was a characteristic of crowds that they could easily head to the opposite extreme with a little agitation. Anyone wanting to survive in politics shouldn’t purely accept this moment when the Empire revered one person as a hero. As supporters increased, enemies were born, and from now on, forces to pull down ‘Lukas Askanian’ would arise. This extreme excitement state needed to transition into a stable phase.

The problem was that if Lukas Askanian, who had fallen once and risen again, fell again, the possibility of recovery this time would be extremely low. Of course, that meant if it fell to the same level as the previous fall.

This was the same whether I integrated with Nicolaus now or not.

‘It’s just a thought assuming an attack from my brother, who is my rival to the end.’

Currently, there was no need to consider other enemies. My future would change depending on what card my brother brought.

As a preemptive measure, I could block my brother’s attack by integrating Nicolaus to me and solidifying the impression value.

But even in this case, my future would still be divided by what card my brother brought. In my view, that guy had endured for a long time. He definitely had a plan. If my brother brought a card that would make public sentiment fall away again, Lukas Askanian would fall into the mud along with Nicolaus. If aiming for the high return of neutralizing the attack, I had to take on this high risk.

‘Of course, now it’s uncertain what that guy can do.’

Then, should I delay the integration with Nicolaus? Assuming the worst case where Lukas Askanian fell once more, under the premise of going through arduous times, there was room to use Nicolaus as a recovery card. In this case, I had to avoid attacks on Nicolaus as well, but it was lower risk than the above. Unlike Lukas Askanian, there was almost no need to worry about conspiracies and malicious rumors about Nicolaus, because the Bavarian intelligence department collected information circulating on the European continent.

However, fundamentally, the re-fall of Lukas Askanian was an event that would extremely weaken even the Nicolaus Ernst identity.

In other words, successfully blocking the finishing blow that my brother had prepared since January this year, or perhaps since October last year, was the major key to my Dawn.

And my answer to my brother’s attack was this.

There was no option for me to take a hit in a way that would drop my impression score.

No matter what process it went through, the only future that existed for me was the one that stably solidified this public opinion.

And I hoped he wouldn’t believe that I would only defend forever.

After deflecting my brother’s blow, as I expected, soon, I would change strategy.

Defense was over. It was time to collect information to attack Adrian Askanian and lay the foundation for Imperial politics. Even if that information was from 10 years ago, even if it was now gone information, somehow.

‘First, let’s check before that.’

Dawn777

— Until final ending ‘Chapter X. Death’ 588 days 5 hours 48 minutes 13 seconds

— Probability of Change: 60.9% (+7.0%p)

‘Hm.’

Good, satisfactory.

Less than 200 days had passed, and already about 61%.

With 588 days left, only 39% remained to 100%. Objectively evaluating, my strategy so far had been successful in multiple dimensions.

Since the increase speed was accelerating after the base was built, it would take less time than I expected to fill the remaining 39%. Now, my goal was to supply 1% each in the process of stabilizing this crowd psychology and reach 70% by March.

Of course, there would inevitably be variables in that process. Minimizing variables, and adjusting so that even if variables arose, they didn’t work against me unfavorably—that was my biggest concern.

I detached my body from the balcony and headed to the east wing of the castle.

As soon as I turned the corner, my friends’ noisy voices echoed through the corridor. Just then, Ulrike, who spotted me, placed her hand on my shoulder and said in a shocked voice.

“Hey…. While you were out, I toured the house, and you’re really rich. What is this?”

It was my father who was rich, not me. Anyway, I couldn’t help but laugh at Ulrike’s thoughtless admiration. I hadn’t realized it was stiff, but my rigid expression relaxed because of it.

Hearing this while having people from Prussia, Bavaria, and Baden here felt a bit awkward. In fact, though it was a ruling family, Anhalt was a small country, and its economic power was far inferior to those three.

Perhaps because he had just noticed I had come, Elias—who was lying face down on his bed in his room, or rather, only his voice—interjected into my conversation with Ulrike.

“As expected of an Empire-holding country. Ah~ nice.”

“Empire?!”

Ulrike turned to me with her mouth agape. She wasn’t that close with Elias yet, but she seemed shocked by his words. I quickly waved my hand.

“No, it’s not about our country’s emperor.”

There was a Russian emperor from the Askanian—Anhalt-Zerbst line. The famous enlightened absolute monarch of Russia, Catherine the Great, was from this family. He was certainly a German Askanian, but since he was a ‘Russian’ who had deposed Peter III, who couldn’t abandon his German identity and made a major blunder in the war, and ascended to the throne as Tsar himself, no Askanian people particularly boasted about that bloodline.

‘Elias knows well anyway.’

He had just been joking as usual.

At that moment, Elias’s magic power sluggishly flowed up to me. It meant to follow the magic. As I entered his room, Elias abruptly raised his upper body and asked.

“When can I drink the high-proof?!”

“Whenever you say, I’ll bring it.”

“No, not just me drinking. We all have to drink together!”

“Sorry. I can’t drink. Maybe before bed.”

“What!”

He had drunk so much on the train, yet he still lacked alcohol. He fell back onto the bed with a considerably shocked face.

“Ah…. No way. Then I….”

“Drink with Heike. She seems to be subtly waiting for the high-proof too.”

“Hm~ Heike is good.”

After answering that, he just blinked and looked at me. I firmly replied to those sparkling eyes.

“I have to go out in a little while. Wait until evening.”

“Got it…. Then you have to drink until I’m drunk! Ah, today I have to see Luka get drunk!”

Bang—!

I wouldn’t get drunk.

I closed his door without replying.

Narce had closed his door and gone to sleep first this time as well, and Ulrike and Heike had disappeared, perhaps touring the castle. Tsheringen was talking about something in Leo’s room, and when our eyes met, she smiled and waved.

I lightly waved back and entered my room, lying on the bed.

“…….”

Because of the memories from the previous visit, my impression of this place was only hostility and tension toward my brother.

However, just having my friends here washed away all the tension I had.

It was different from before. Now, no matter what measures Adrian Askanian took, he couldn’t completely collapse my foundation.

I immediately got up.

It was time to organize the possible attacks and possibilities that Adrian Askanian could make and establish countermeasures for each.

And time passed quickly.

As I skipped meals and sat focused on thinking, the bell announcing one hour before noon rang.

Knock knock—

[Young master. You need to come down soon now.]

The steward’s slightly tense voice came. I closed the notebook and got up from my seat.

My father had arrived at the castle.

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