Re: Steel and Gunpowder

Chapter 128: False Alliances -1

Before Konrad could issue his next set of orders, a booming voice shattered the quiet tension of the upper gallery.

"Ahh! There is the brilliant groom!"

Konrad turned slowly.

Duke Wilhelm of Bavaria was marching down the corridor.

The fat lord was beaming, his face flushed red from the morning wine.

Right beside him walked Lady Katarina.

She looked breathtaking in her wedding dress.

"Duke Wilhelm," Konrad greeted, forcing his hand to stay away from the pistol in his belt.

He stepped out of the alcove, blocking Isolde from the Duke’s line of sight.

"My boy!" the Duke laughed loudly, closing the distance and ignoring the five elite Swabian guards standing nearby.

"I have been looking all over the keep for you! The local priest is already sweating at the altar, and the peasants are drinking all of my imported ale! We must get down to the Great Hall!"

"I was just finalizing the trade ledgers for the week, a Swabian lord never stops working, even on his wedding day."

"Haha! That is why I chose you for my daughter!" the Duke cheered, clapping his hands together.

The sheer hypocrisy of the fat lord was sickening. Wilhelm was standing there, laughing and offering compliments, secure in the knowledge that he was going to legally break the alliance and slaughter the valley the second the Pope’s raven returned.

Duke Wilhelm turned to his daughter.

"And look at her, Konrad," the Duke sighed, gesturing to Katarina. "She is the jewel of Bavaria. I am trusting you with my most precious bloodline today. You two will unite our lands and bring an era of absolute peace to the Empire!"

Katarina forced a smile onto her lips. "Thank you, Father. I am ready to do my duty for the family."

"Excellent!" Duke Wilhelm beamed.

The Duke stepped forward, opening his arms to give Konrad a public embrace before they walked down to the altar.

It was exactly what the clueless nobles and the cheering peasants expected to see.

Konrad forced his muscles to completely relax. He stepped forward to accept the fake embrace.

But as the fat Duke reached out and his robes brushed against Konrad’s chest, the Swabian warlord’s eyes noticed something wrong.

He heard a very faint, metallic clink from beneath the Duke’s clothing.

Konrad’s eyes narrowed.

If Duke Wilhelm actually thought this was just a peaceful wedding day... why the was the Bavarian Duke wearing a hardened steel breastplate hidden underneath his festive robes?

"Hmm?" Konrad murmured, his eyes narrowing just a fraction of an inch.

He reached out and tapped his fingers against the center of Wilhelm’s chest.

The velvet was soft, but underneath it, the surface was solid.

"What was that metallic sound, Wilhelm?" Konrad asked, his voice light, playing the part of a confused, somewhat amused son-in-law.

"Are you wearing an armor plate to your own daughter’s wedding?"

After hearing such words, the laughter of the Bavarian Duke stalled.

Duke Wilhelm’s fat face, which had been flushed a deep red from the morning wine, suddenly lost a significant amount of its color.

He clearly had not expected the Swabian warlord to touch him, nor had he expected Konrad’s ears to be sharp enough to catch the sound of iron beneath velvet.

Lady Katarina, standing just a single pace away, froze.

She knew about the intercepted raven. But realizing that her own father was wearing combat steel to her wedding ceremony was a sickening, personal betrayal.

However, Duke Wilhelm was a veteran of the treacherous imperial courts. He quickly forced the laugh back into his throat, though it sounded strained and hollow.

"Ah, you have sharp ears, my boy." Wilhelm chuckled, patting his own padded chest as if it were a trivial matter. "Yes, yes, I am wearing a light piece of iron today. Just a standard precaution, you understand."

"A precaution?" Konrad repeated, refusing to let the smile leave his face. "Against what, exactly? We are surrounded by my veteran guards, the keep is locked down for the celebration."

"Well, we are at a public wedding, Konrad." the Duke explained. "There are thousands of peasants in the courtyard. There are traveling merchants, wandering musicians, and unfamiliar faces everywhere. When a man is the Duke of Bavaria, he makes a lot of enemies in the Empire. A man in my position can never be too careful when surrounded by a massive crowd."

Assassinations during large, public events were a standard tactic in the Holy Roman Empire.

Any normal lord would simply nod, accepting the Duke’s paranoia as the standard cost of doing business.

Thus, the Duke expected Konrad to simply let it go and walk down the stairs to the Great Hall.

Konrad stood there in the corridor, blocking the Duke’s path to the stairs.

The five elite Swabian guards standing nearby shifted their stances.

"That is a fascinating theory, Wilhelm," Konrad said. "But there is one problem."

Duke Wilhelm swallowed hard. "A... a problem, my boy?"

"You have been sitting inside my keep for weeks," Konrad pointed out. "You have been walking through my courtyards. You have been sitting on the open balconies, exposed to hundreds of my local peasants and foreign merchants."

Konrad raised a finger, pointing it at the velvet covering the Duke’s chest.

"And during that entire week... you didn’t wear a single piece of ironز" Konrad stated

Katarina couldn’t breathe. She knew what Konrad was doing.

"Well, the... the crowds are simply much larger today," Duke Wilhelm stammered. "It is the main event. It just seemed highly prudent to—"

"Prudent?" Konrad interrupted.

If Duke Wilhelm hadn’t worn armor all week, but chose to secretly strap on combat steel on the exact morning of the wedding, it meant only one thing.

The duke wasn’t afraid of some random assassin; he knew for certain that violence would erupt today.

Konrad leaned in. "If the threat to your life is truly so severe, Wilhelm, you only had to ask your new son-in-law for aid. I will order my elite Swabian guards to flank you at the altar today."