The Hannover Revolution
"That fool of a Crown Prince has ruined everything. Provoking Adelheid when she was minding her own business... Tsk."
Hesse was the premier metropolis of the eastern Fron Empire, bearing the name of the ducal house that commanded the region's vastest estates and wealth, frontier included. Inside his private study at the ducal manor, a middle-aged nobleman—Duke Hermann of Hesse—gazed down at the imperial directive freshly dispatched from the court. He could hardly mask his disdain for the chaos born of the Crown Prince's sheer incompetence.
Ever since the late Emperor's prime, Hermann had backed the eldest son. With the unassailable pedigree of the firstborn and a record free of glaring flaws—even if he lacked any brilliant talent compared to his siblings—Hermann had trusted that, barring any catastrophic misstep, the Crown Prince was destined to inherit the throne. Indeed, until the day the old Emperor drew his final breath, no one had dared question the Crown Prince's authority. Even when the imperial seal vanished and rogue factions broke into open defiance, Hermann had paid it little mind; to his eyes, it was nothing more than the desperate flailing of foolish royals blinded by ambitions for the throne.
Yet the moment the Crown Prince succumbed to rampant paranoia—abruptly accusing Adelheid of treason and seeking to murder her as she mobilized her western expedition under his very own command—Hermann knew the board had turned foul. And now, watching Adelheid rally the remnants of the western forces to ignite a genuine civil war, Hermann felt nothing short of bitter disappointment.
Even if this rebellion is put down, the Empire will teeter on the brink for years to come.
The state coffers and manpower were already wearing thin from fighting far too many external wars. In this delicate hour, an invaluable commander like Adelheid and ten thousand elite troops had been transformed overnight into mortal enemies. They were not foreign invaders, but imperial comrades severed from within; slaughtering them would only hollow out the nation's might all the same.
Still... if we weather this storm, our House of Hesse may well claim the realm for ourselves.
With the capital's garrison virtually hollowed out, Duke Hermann was the only realistic lifeline the Crown Prince could reach for. He had always been the Crown Prince's political pillar; offering decisive salvation in the sovereign's darkest hour would ensure the Duchy of Hesse received preferential treatment across every sphere of the Empire for the duration of his reign.
Disappointed as he was by the Crown Prince's blunders, Hermann was more than willing to answer the plea for aid. Anticipating trouble the moment news of Adelheid's defiance arrived, he had already initiated a conscription levy. Twenty-five thousand troops now stood encamped across the plains outside Hesse, ready to march the instant a target was designated.
"It would strike with far greater impact if we set camp before the capital and shattered her forces on the doorstep."
Hermann was well acquainted with Adelheid's martial prowess and tactical genius. Yet with overwhelming numbers on his side and the aid of the remaining elite masters guarding the Imperial Palace, victory would be an unshakeable certainty.
Just as the Duke prepared to order his legions to move—
"Y-Your Grace! Catastrophe!"
The office door slammed open without warning.
Bursting unannounced into the Duke's private sanctum was a gross breach of decorum. Wondering why the sentries had failed to restrain the intruder, Hermann's brow furrowed in fury, a scathing rebuke already on the tip of his tongue. But the moment he recognized the trespasser, he froze.
It was his son and designated heir, William.
Even for a son, such insolence during official business was inexcusable. Yet Hermann had raised his heir with iron discipline, and William had never once committed so reckless a blunder in his entire life. The sheer terror radiating from the young man signaled that something monstrous had unfolded.
"William. What is the meaning of this?"
"R-Remus! Those lunatics have amassed an enormous host and are marching upon our borders! An estimated two hundred thousand men! They're dragging along siege engines of every description—they intend to wage total war!"
"...What?"
The staggering figure of two hundred thousand struck Hermann like a physical blow, leaving his mind reeling.
Unless the Imperial Intelligence Bureau's reckonings were hopelessly flawed, the Kingdom of Remus possessed a regular standing army of roughly three hundred thousand. While wartime mobilization and reserves might swell that figure considerably, committing two hundred thousand soldiers to a single front was nothing less than staking the very fate of the kingdom on a roll of the dice.
"Insanity..."
Cold sweat beaded upon Hermann's brow, dripping unheeded as he frantically tallied the defense forces stationed along the eastern border. Though a stalemate had held for nearly a month, ten thousand regular imperial soldiers combined with local levies—totaling a hundred thousand men—held the line against the ever-present threat of skirmishes. Considering that Remus had deployed an average of only fifty thousand troops to that front over the past year, a hundred thousand had seemed an ample garrison. In a single stroke, the scales had been utterly obliterated.
"Why now, of all times...?!"
Suppressing the coup to elevate his family's hegemony was no longer the issue. In terms of martial quality, Remus already held a slight edge; now that they possessed a crushing numerical superiority as well, the eastern provinces could be overrun in the blink of an eye. Should the border buckle, it would be only a matter of time before the cannons and blades of Remus's warmongers reached the gates of Hesse itself.
"D-Deploy every conscripted soldier we have gathered to the border immediately! And dispatch couriers to all neighboring lords! Tell them that if they do not commit their forces this instant, we all perish together! Send an urgent courier to the Imperial Court as well—demand immediate reinforcements!"
And so, the eastern relief force that the Imperial Court, the Revolutionary Army, and Duke Hermann himself had taken for granted vanished into smoke. Far from marching to Byron's rescue, the East found itself frantically pleading with the capital for aid.
When I had claimed that my homeland would dispatch troops to threaten the border rather than dragging me back to face execution for my rogue actions, Adelheid's inner circle had been skeptical, to say the least. Yet between my hefty stake in this rebellion and Adelheid's unwavering trust in me, the Revolutionary Army had surged forward at full tilt on the working premise that Remus's support was genuine.
Since our movements could hardly be concealed anyway, we took the main highways along the shortest viable route. We traversed several minor baronies and lordships along the way, but most belonged to petty nobles who lacked so much as a fortified keep. Far from mounting any resistance, they scrambled to evacuate their estates. For our part, our supply wagons were well stocked, and Adelheid was not the sort of commander to indulge in wanton pillaging, so both sides simply passed each other by without incident.
Thus, after two days of relentless forced marching with only the barest minimum of rest, we arrived at the very crossroad where I had first caught wind of the situation in Hannover. In other words, we were now on the direct thoroughfare leading straight into the capital.
To ensure our legions could push forward with even greater speed on the morrow, the Revolutionary Army pitched camp for the night. We dispatched scouts into the neighboring settlements to gather intelligence, and what they returned with was nothing short of staggering.
"They sent two hundred thousand?"
Putting military pressure on the eastern border to keep the Duke of Hesse from meddling in our coup was exactly what we had asked for, but I had never dreamed the number would be two hundred thousand. Had Remus simply added twenty thousand to their usual deployment of fifty thousand, the East would have been sweating blood. But two hundred thousand? That wasn't merely scorching the East's rear—it was setting a blaze beneath the entire Fron Empire.
"Romul... Tell me truthfully. Remus hasn't instructed you to demand the eastern provinces from this lady once I ascend the throne, have they...?"
It was bewildering enough that even Adelheid, my staunchest champion, took the time to pay me a visit and ask with genuine trepidation.
"I highly doubt it... probably."
If our own camp was in this much shock, one could only imagine the utter bedlam unfolding within Byron.
"An envoy from the central court has arrived?"
That very evening, word reached us that an emissary had arrived from the capital, traveling under a hasty, threadbare escort that reeked of desperation.
"And Princess Adelheid is receiving them personally?"
Ever since that night of drunken indulgence, Adelheid had made it a point to demand that I drop all formal titles and address her plainly by her given name, even in official settings—a habit I couldn't quite tell was playful teasing or stubborn insistence. The best compromise I could manage was tacking on a respectful honorific, yet Adelheid casually threw my name around like we were old childhood comrades, and truthfully, she seemed to regard me as one.
"Whatever terms they're peddling, it's not as if Adelheid would back down now."
Bowing one's head anew to a man who had already tried to dispose of her would be the height of idiocy. Besides, the board was hardly stacked against us. Rumor had it the central government had scraped together routed remnants and fresh conscripts to cobble together a force of five thousand, but that would never be enough to halt Adelheid's advance. The court wasn't naive enough to believe five thousand men could stop us either, which was precisely why they had dispatched an envoy to ply her with honeyed words and diplomatic platitudes.
In any case, it had little to do with me, so I prepared to dismiss the messenger who had delivered the report. But the soldier spoke up again.
"Her Highness has commanded that Prince Romul be brought to the council tent."
"...Me as well?"
"Yes, My Lord. Her Highness declared that negotiations will not commence until the Prince is seated. The imperial envoys haven't even been permitted to open their mouths."
"...She's taking it that far?"
I was well aware that I was one of the prime instigators of this rebellion, but I hadn't expected to be accorded this level of deference as a foreigner. Still, parading me in the council tent was an effective way to broadcast that Remus's military movements were acting in lockstep with her will. Strategically, it was a sound maneuver.
"Very well. Lead the way."
Unlike Romul, who took his sweet time making his way over, the imperial envoys had been left sitting across the negotiation table for nearly half an hour, utterly paralyzed.
"Imperial Princess Adelheid! How much longer do you intend to keep us waiting like this?!"
"If you lack the patience to wait, no one is barring your departure."
Had she simply turned them away at the perimeter, they might have ridden back without lingering regrets. But having granted them an audience with the Imperial Princess only to forbid them from speaking a single syllable was driving the hard-pressed emissaries to madness.
"What validity does a council hold when the principal parties have not even assembled? You arrived without notice and without basic courtesy; you will accommodate our terms."
"...What madness is this?! You, the Imperial Princess and ringleader of this rebellion, sit right before us! Who else could possibly be required?!"
"My ally, and my most dependable comrade."
"Ha! Surely you do not speak of that foreign prince sent by those warmongers?! Come to your senses, Princess Adelheid! To drag a foreign power—and an enemy nation at that—into an internal imperial dispute... Is this truly how an imperial royal conducts herself?! Have you no shame?!"
"And what of the man who branded obedience to his very own command as treason, scheming to murder his own kin? Does he bear no shame?"
"...T-That is—!"
"Your Highness! Prince Romul has arrived!"
Just as Adelheid's icy retort choked the envoy into silence, a sentry parted the tent flaps to announce my arrival. A faint smile graced Adelheid's lips, and she promptly bid the guards bring me in.
I slipped past the entrance, scratching the back of my head. Even though formal talks had yet to begin, the suffocating venom thick in the air caused my posture to stiffen slightly.
"My apologies for the delay."
"Think nothing of it, Romul. The fault lies with me for summoning you on such short notice. Come, sit."
Rising from her seat, Adelheid personally reached behind her to drag a heavy wooden chair over, placing it directly beside her own. Feeling somewhat awkward beneath the furious glares of the court envoys, I took my seat.
"Now then," Adelheid declared, her golden eyes locking onto the trembling emissary with imperial frost. "Let the Crown Prince's envoy state his terms."