Help Me Out

"You're finally back."

Count Pisto nearly burst into tears when he saw Frederick.

Frederick hadn't gone into Hanma City. Instead, he'd headed to his farm outside the city and was grilling skewers over a charcoal fire in the farmhouse where he'd be staying for the winter.

He handed Count Pisto a skewer of fatty beef and said, "Come on, let's eat while we talk."

Pisto sat by the brazier, took the skewer, and said with a sigh, "I thought I was going to die this time."

He took a bite of meat and a sip of wine as he spoke. "We took a huge loss this time. We couldn't even hold Red Waterwheel Village Fortress. The supply line was too long."

"At least we got a good price for the fortress. The Kingdom of Danma traded us a castle for it."

Frederick already knew about that. The castle formed a triangle with Stork Port and Hawthorn Village, allowing them to support one another. It was a pretty good deal.

"Who got the castle?" he asked, getting to the crux of the matter.

By rights, Red Waterwheel Village belonged to the Duchy of Bayern. Whether the castle went to the Rhine Alliance or the Duchy of Bayern made a fundamental difference.

Pisto replied, "The Duchy of Bayern, naturally."

Frederick nodded. In that respect, the Duchy of Bayern had come out way ahead.

Aside from this, the only gains the Rhine Alliance had made in the war were the Duchy of Weissen's occupation of Stork Port and the Duchy of Mainz's occupation of Hawthorn Village. Everyone else had lost everything. Losing their lives was one thing, but they'd also borrowed a great deal of money, which their heirs would have to repay.

That was what was giving Frederick the biggest headache now.