“Your Majesty. The Romans ruled tens of millions of barbarians with no more than a few tens of thousands of men. Governance is not carried out by numbers, but by the superiority of civilization and systems.
Only Habsburg possesses the legitimacy to spread the civilization of law and order to those barbarians. It is good that Your Majesty shows them a smile. But what supports that smile, in the end, must be the German bureaucracy.”
Oh… Aha. Now I finally understand what the Greater Germanists are thinking.
In other words, they do not see them as fellow imperial subjects, but as second-class subjects.
So this was why my mother-in-law and I kept walking parallel lines.
Our premises were different. From their perspective, being told that barbarians were subjects just like them could only be hard to accept.
The simplest way to end that sort of chosen-people mentality would be for Mr. Adolf, the democratic crusader, to demonstrate it against the Jews… but that is still a long way off.
“Baron. Rome fell. To the Gauls and Germans they considered barbarians, no less.”
“That was because Rome had grown corrupt. If military discipline is upheld—”
“The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved as well. In the face of French nationalism. We must preserve the Austrian Empire against the very nationalism that dissolved the Holy Roman Empire.”
“Your Majesty. Rome did not fall because of nationalism. It fell because it lost the purity of the Roman people by indiscriminately granting citizenship to barbarians.”
Purity? How fascinating that he believes there is such a thing as a pure people among humans.
“The French Revolution and Napoleon. They succeeded not because of nationhood, but because the system they possessed was efficient. If our Austria collapses, it will not be because the Hungarians grew angry, but because we lost the strength to press them down.”
Schmerling was resolute.
My looks not working on him? But this is a face liked by men and women, young and old.
“I have no intention of bending my views. They are, in the end, objects to be enlightened under the guidance of the Empire. Giving them autonomy is like handing a loaded gun to a child.”
There is no getting through to him. Should I really just send him straight off to Berlin?
But for now, I need this stubborn man’s tenacity.
After all, the remnants of feudalism have to be dealt with first….
I tapped the armrest of my chair.
“Your Majesty, you must move on to your next engagement.”
At my signal, Esterházy moved to see him out.
Fine. If I cannot get through to him, there is no helping it.
Trying to persuade a man with an ideology through words would not end even if we debated all night.
“I shall take my leave.”
He gave a brief bow, took three steps backward so as not to show me his back, then turned and left through the door.
Stiff until the moment he departed. A bureaucrat who would not bleed a single drop even if stabbed with a knife. That was the assessment I made of him.
I picked up my quill to play my next card.
It is not as if the Empire has only an empress, is it? I should write a handwritten letter for the first time in a while.
In the end, he will have no choice but to come to me.
“To my dear Josef, whom I long to see—”
It is not as if beauty is my only weapon, and do I really need to beat this man with words?
In the end, all the bureaucrats of Vienna simply wish to enter the Emperor’s favor.
Since I sent it on purple stationery, it should go straight to him without censorship.
Now, I should put aside this troublesome politics for a while and go play with the children.
Venice is famous as a tourist destination, after all.
It would be better to go out with the children than stay inside the palace.
“Head lady-in-waiting, prepare to go out.”
“Where shall you go?”
“To eat gelato.”
I need to relieve my stress with something sweet.
The gelato eaten on the street was a little different from the one eaten in the palace.
It was a little refreshing, less cold, and sweet.
…But at this point in time, could an ordinary eatery even obtain ice?
“Head lady-in-waiting.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“…Was the chef pleased?”
“…Yes.”
I knew it. The ladies-in-waiting had been trying not to shatter my romantic dream.
There must also be the matter of hygiene.
The ladies-in-waiting, letting me eat some unidentified street food?
And if I had gotten sick from it… mm, I do not particularly want to imagine what would have happened next.
Even the freedom of the streets was, in the end, only freedom permitted under the control of the imperial household.
I fiddled with the empty gelato cup and watched the children running around.
“Sophie, you will fall if you do that.”
As if to make my worries meaningless, Sophie chased a flock of pigeons with her skirt fluttering.
…Are pigeons all right for children’s health?
“Rudolf! There is water there! You must not go!”
“Mmm….”
Was it just my imagination that I could see Josef in Gisela as she crossed her arms and shook her head?
They are twins, but how can they be so different?
“Your Highness!”
“Sophie!”
Startled, I ran to Sophie, who had fallen on the grass.
“Mama—”
Sophie, covered in dirt, looked up at me with tears hanging from her eyes.
“It is all right, it is all right.”
I brushed off the dirt and pulled Sophie into my arms.
Nurse, you are all right too, so breathe.
“Would you like to have hot chocolate with Mama?”
“I want cream too! Grandmama won’t let me have it….”
I stroked Sophie’s hair and took her hand.
“Then let us go back now to have hot chocolate.”
***
Josef read Sisi’s letter.
He had no complaints about her leaving for Venice. He had been worried about her having returned from Madeira as well.
‘Schmerling. What is Sisi thinking?’
Was he not the man who had advocated Austrian-led Greater Germanism at the Frankfurt Assembly of 1848, only to be pushed aside by those Prussian bastards and return to Vienna empty-handed?
‘He should be a failed politician. Why that rigid old man, of all people?’
But Josef soon tried to guess Sisi’s intention behind the letter.
Did she mean that, in order to suppress the liberals, they needed a narrow-minded bureaucrat who knew the law better than they did?
‘Or… is it Mother’s doing?’
He suspected that some kind of political transaction might have taken place between his mother and his wife.
“She has gone to Venice again.”
“The Empress’s health is not sound, so it was an unavoidable choice.”
“Are you looking only after your wife again?”
“Will you not even call me Emperor anymore?”
Archduchess Sophie stared intently at Josef.
“You were the one who once asked me to call you by a name other than Emperor.”
“…Do you know how old I am?”
‘What does age have to do with it? You have become the father of four children and still do not understand.’
“If the Empress had heard that, she would have clutched her stomach and laughed indecorously.”
“Mother, please acknowledge the Empress now. Is she not the only person who understands me?”
“A court does not need people. And….”
‘If I had not allowed that immature Sisi instead of Helene in the first place, you would have married Nene.’
Sophie clicked her tongue inwardly and rose from her seat.
“Enough. You are utterly distracted by my wife.”
Josef had no way of knowing that if Sophie had continued to oppose it, the marriage would have been impossible.
Thinking it more beneficial for the Emperor to believe he had accomplished something on his own like that, Sophie turned and left the office.
Left alone in the office, Josef thought of one prerequisite before making use of Schmerling.
‘Hungary and Milan.’
He had to calm public sentiment in those two places.
“Chief Aide-de-Camp, order all preparations necessary for an imperial tour of Milan.”
“Your Majesty, Her Majesty the Empress is waiting, so how about simplifying the procedures and departing within two weeks? It will be possible if we send the escort troops ahead first.”
Grünne’s proposal was a sweet temptation to Josef.
He wanted nothing more than to board a train at once and rush to Venice.
But Josef, without taking his eyes off the documents, firmly shook his head.
“No. We proceed according to principle.”
“Understood.”
The plan Grünne, whose own power had recently become precarious, had devised after much thought ended in failure.
“We are not going on a picnic. We are going to Milan, where the embers of rebellion still remain.”
Grünne still felt that he did not understand the Emperor well.
‘Is the imperial tour of Milan not, in truth, only an excuse?’
He had stayed by the Emperor’s side for more than ten years, but the standards concerning the Empress were still difficult to grasp.
“Chief Aide-de-Camp. Still, a month is a little much, is it not?”
‘A plan to shorten it further….’
“For safety’s sake, make it on the largest scale possible.”
‘…Could his relationship with Her Majesty the Empress be poor because she went to Venice without a word?’
He wanted to ask at once, but Grünne succeeded in restraining himself.
Including personal opinions was not the role of an aide.
“Understood.”
Keep the mouth closed, the ears open, and the hands and feet swift.
It was the iron rule that aides at the Habsburg court had to follow, and the way to survive.
No matter how close one was, like a friend, one was ultimately only a subject. The only ones who could truly open their hearts and speak as equals were the husband and wife themselves.
At that hour, the Empress was….
“Your Majesty, no matter how much the other party opposes Your Majesty’s views, Her Majesty the Empress must not express an opposing opinion. The very act of engaging in debate lowers Your Majesty’s authority.”
She was receiving instruction in etiquette from Esterházy.
“…It was my first time, so I could make a mistake. But should you not also consider my ears, which had to listen to nonsense?”
Instruction had begun for Sisi, who had, for the first time, discussed politics with a subject.
Esterházy shook her head.
“Your Majesty. An empress does not debate with subjects. Debate is an act of exchanging opinions from equal positions. The moment Your Majesty raises your voice and argues with that man, that man’s rank becomes equal to Your Majesty’s, and Your Majesty’s authority falls to that man’s level.”
“I did not raise my voice….”
When Sisi defended herself, Esterházy’s expression changed slightly.
‘If I say more, the lesson will grow longer.’
“Königsegg.”
At Esterházy’s words, Königsegg stepped forward and demonstrated.
“Explain to Her Majesty what she should do instead of debating with a bureaucrat.”
Königsegg opened her fan, drew her brows together slightly, and looked at Esterházy with cold eyes. Then she said to Hunyadi beside her,
“The air in the room is murky.”
‘Sinister.’
Esterházy leaned on her cane again and added in a strict tone,
“Speaking directly is the worst of all poor strategies. It is not good for words like law or administration to come from Your Majesty’s mouth. Those are the language of bureaucrats.”
“Then what language am I to use?”
“Concern, sorrow, mercy, and wishes. Those four are enough. What you must be careful of is that you express them only in words, while erasing your expression.”
“Then, when I want to say not to oppress the Hungarians?”
“You should say: It pains my heart that my beloved Hungarian people are suffering. Find a more generous way, so that they may regard the Empire as a parent.”
Sisi let out a hollow laugh.
“Until when? Is speaking directly not faster and more efficient?”
Königsegg answered in Esterházy’s place.
“In that case, you rebuke them for incompetence. Since you did not present a specific method, responsibility for failure does not fall on Your Majesty.”
‘Difficult. So difficult.’
Sisi corrected her posture. She straightened her back and lifted her chin slightly.
‘Erase the emotion from my face, narrow my eyes….’
“……”
When Sisi could not say anything, Esterházy supplied the prompt.
“Have the knights who worship Your Majesty swing their swords in your stead.”
“Tell Schmerling. The Empress is concerned about the loach of Vienna.”
Seeing the look in Sisi’s eyes as though she were checking the answer key, Esterházy nodded.
“However, rather than loach, calling it murky air would be the better choice.”