Loyalty

However, the crux of the matter lay precisely here.

Count Boles had been the absolute confidant of the late King Heinrich XI, utterly loyal and unwaveringly devoted to His Majesty Heinrich.

As for Empress Dowager Katerina and the Eisenberg Family behind her, who had risen to power through a palace coup and placed her young son Sigmund on the throne, Count Boles had always treated them with disdain. It could even be said that his contempt was completely undisguised.

Although he had never openly raised the banner of rebellion, his position was clear. He stood distinctly apart from the Empress Dowager's faction and was by no means one of them.

For that very reason, after Heinrich XI died and Empress Dowager Katerina became regent, the meritorious Count Boles was swiftly promoted in name but demoted in reality. He was stripped of his military authority and sent to the irrelevant Department of Public Welfare to serve as a deputy with only a title, effectively placed under house arrest. The intention was to keep him away from the center of power and let him peacefully "retire."

At this critical juncture, when the survival of the northwest hung in the balance, someone had suddenly pushed this deliberately marginalized former court powerbroker with a sensitive political stance to the forefront. How profound was the meaning behind that!

Was the person recommending him truly acting solely for the public good, believing that only he had the ability to turn the tide? Or did they harbor ulterior motives and intend to stir up the court?

Behind the beaded curtain, the gaze of Empress Dowager Katerina, originally sharp as a blade, suddenly turned even colder and deeper the instant she heard the name "Boles," as if ten thousand years of ice had congealed within it.

Her slender