The Kite Maker's Crown
Adel von Setia. Henrik's second son was trembling with terror.
This is the lord's castle, isn't it… I haven't set foot here since I was a child. Why did they bring me here?
After Andeln had ascended to the ducal seat, Adel had left the castle and lived in the village, supporting himself solely through his kite-making craft, without a scrap of help from the family.
Then the heads of the Four Great Houses appeared. They explained the political situation this way and that, but Adel understood none of it. The only thing he grasped was that he was supposed to become the next lord.
Me… become the lord?
Adel had never had the slightest interest in politics, not since he was a boy. He had never once wanted to be a lord, either.
Absolutely not! I'm going to live as a master kite craftsman!
Thinking that, he reluctantly set the crown the regional bishop held out upon his head.
The next day, Franz Meyer came to the castle. Seeing Franz appear so suddenly, Adel rose with a look of pure relief, as if he had found a savior.
"Brother! Ah—no! Sir Franz!"
"Lord Adel."
Franz dropped to one knee. Adel hurried over and pulled him back to his feet.
"Sir Franz! These people are telling me to become the lord! I don't want to be a lord! My path is already set! The path of a craftsman! It has nothing to do with politics!"
"I understand your feelings a hundred times over, Lord Adel."
"Please save me. I can't get through to the heads of the Four Great Houses. No matter how many times I say I won't become lord, they simply ignore me."
"Lord Adel."
Startled by the gravity in Franz's voice, Adel answered without thinking.
"Y-yes."
"Do you know why Lord Andeln and you never turned against each other?"
"Well, because I gave up the ducal seat early on…"
"No."
The first reason was that Adel had never taken an interest in politics.
But there was a more important reason still.
"Let me tell you an old story. Long ago, in a certain country, there lived a brilliant king. The king had four older brothers and two younger ones, yet he killed them all. Why do you suppose that was?"
"Th-that would be… because his brothers might threaten his position?"
"Half right. The full answer is that the king was the fifth son. A king with four older brothers lacked legitimacy, and he believed any of his siblings could threaten his throne at any time—so he killed them."
"…What does that have to do with our situation?"
"The reason Lord Andeln never killed you is simple as well. Lord Andeln was the firstborn son. Since he held the superior claim to legitimacy, he had no need to kill a younger brother whose claim was weaker than his own."
Adel's face went deathly pale. Was Franz saying that if he had been born the elder brother, he might have been murdered?
But he soon felt relieved. Fortunately, he had been born the younger. That was why he hadn't been killed. No—rather, Andeln had died first.
"It's too early to feel safe. Consider what happens when the next lord takes power. That lord will likely be someone from the Ignati family. The Ignati were the original lords of this region before House Setia rose to prominence. A return to the old order, so to speak."
"Th-that would make sense."
"But an Ignati lord would know that many nobles and commoners still support House Setia, who governed this region for forty years. He would always feel his position under threat. So how do you think that Ignati lord would view you, Lord Adel?"
"As a political threat…"
"Exactly. To keep the Setia factions from getting any ideas—to prevent disgruntled vassals from raising a rebellion with a Setia-born lord at their head—he would move to eliminate you, the one who holds the legitimate claim to the family succession."
"I-I don't want to die! Save me!"
At that, Meyer spoke with calm indifference, as if wondering what nonsense the boy was talking about.
"There's no need to die. Aren't you the lord right now?"
"Ah…"
Adel was no fool. In pure political instinct, he was actually superior to Andeln. The reason he had never been a match for his brother was simply that he had zero interest in politics. No interest—but the talent was there. And so Adel grasped the situation at once.
"I see. The moment I step down from the lord's seat, I die…"
"That's right."
Lordship or death. He had to choose one of the two.
"Lord Adel. Become the lord. For as long as you reign, no one else will take your place. And of course, no one will murder you either. The only way for you to survive is to rule the family as lord for the rest of your life, have children, and pass the seat on to them."
"But…! I love making kites!"
"Which is more precious to you—your kites, or your life? Choose one."
Kites were everything to Adel. But they were not more important than his life. Without life, there were no kites. And so Adel had no choice but to choose his life.
After that, Adel calmly accepted the ducal seat. The heads of the Four Great Houses wondered what magic Franz Meyer had worked to make Adel suddenly so compliant, but they did not ask. Their relationship with Franz was not good enough for that.
In terms of territory size alone, House Meyer ranked number two in the Setia Duchy. Number one was, of course, Adel von Setia, the head of House Setia. Directly beneath him stood House Meyer.
But in purely political terms, House Setia ranked far below number two. That was because the Four Great Houses—ranked third, fourth, fifth, and sixth by domain—acted as a single united faction.
Meyer was strong. But not as strong as all four Great Houses combined. Numbers always win, as they say.
And so Meyer decided to gather numbers of his own. He set about drawing the various houses ranked seventh and below into his own faction.
One of them was House Ignati—maternal relatives of Adel von Setia, headed by the daughter of Adel's mother's brother. Though they had long been sidelined from politics under Setia's watchful eye, that very isolation made them all the more desperate for a faction to join.
Upon hearing Franz Meyer's recruitment offer, House Ignati immediately took his hand. Several minor houses that had always been close with the Ignati also came under Meyer's banner.
The Four Great Houses, who had until now enjoyed overwhelming power through the alliance of numbers three, four, five, and six.
To counter them, House Meyer gathered the lesser houses and began to check the Four Great Houses.
A new faction to stand against the Four Great Houses. The birth of the Lord's Faction.
"I've heard your recent movements have been rather… unsettling."
The head of House Giesel, one of the Four Great Houses, picked a fight without preamble. Meyer smiled lightly.
"We're merely moving to serve our lord more efficiently."
"If you wish to serve the lord, do it with House Meyer alone. Don't go stirring up trouble."
"Is gathering a faction what you call stirring up trouble?"
"Won't it become the spark for pointless factional strife?"
"In that case, the Four Great Houses—who have maintained a faction for decades—have been stirring up trouble without rest."
"Y-you damned bastard!"
"Hahaha!"
Franz Meyer laughed heartily and left. The heads of the Four Great Houses glared at his retreating back with eyes full of rage.
Our lord, Adel von Setia, who had not the slightest interest in politics.
Paradoxically, under Adel von Setia's rule, House Setia was enjoying its golden age.
Of course, to be precise, the credit was not Adel's. Half belonged to Henrik, and the other half to Meyer.
Henrik had drawn the grand design—an alliance with Leona to carve up Clozel's territory between them.
And Meyer had crushed the vanguard Leona sent to break that agreement. So one could say this golden age began as a joint work of Meyer and Henrik.
House Setia's power was stronger than ever before. In raw troop numbers alone, they could field some forty thousand. But…
The Krusenstein army has muskets.
Perhaps having learned something from the last battle, various houses under the Setia army had begun training pike infantry.
But while pike infantry could be copied, acquiring muskets in bulk was considerably more difficult. Unlike the port city of Krusenstein, the Setia Duchy was mountainous terrain, and trade did not flow smoothly.
And then there was the person of Leona von Krusenstein.
This woman's command ability was nothing short of extraordinary. Even with new weapons, winning against more than twice your numbers on weapon advantage alone was impossible. Her own personal ability had to be quite formidable.
An eye for discovering new weapons. The ability to command a war.
A complete ruler who possessed both abilities stood among the enemy.
She was in a different league from our own Adel von Setia.
And so our side had no choice but to stay on high alert. Krusenstein could march north again at any time to retake the castles. And then…
"Brother, lean in."
Lucill whispered into Franz's ear. Lucill did not initiate this kind of behavior over trivial matters. It had to be important.
"House Krusenstein has ordered its key officers to report to the castle."
"That means…"
"They're going to start a war before long."
Krusenstein's invasion was not far off.