As for the governor of Galicia, Franz had no suitable candidate ready at hand.
This was actually a lingering consequence of his purge of Vienna's aristocratic circles. There were too few people qualified for high office; either their credentials fell short or their status was too low.
Some people would surely think of selecting officials solely by merit.
But in the nineteenth century, without any backing, someone suddenly elevated to the rank of provincial governor would face problems that might prove even harder to solve than the practical ones.
With luck, he might merely be sidelined, but he would probably still end up a casualty of political infighting.
The sort of tale where a nobody suddenly leaped from carp to dragon, taking on everyone he met, usually belonged only in popular fiction.
Yet history's charm lay in its unpredictability. The top scorer in the Austrian Empire's first "civil service" examination turned out to be a notorious playboy from Vienna.
Although this fellow wasn't as reckless and overbearing as most playboys, in the eyes of most people he was still an idle wastrel who spent his days in idleness and luxury, squandering money like water. His only hobby, of all things, was building houses.
However, with Franz's arrival in this timeline, land prices in Vienna had become exorbitant. Even the wealthiest families couldn't buy up large tracts of land in the city center.
So this fellow would build on a plot, tear it down, then build again. The main reason he was branded a playboy was that he disturbed the neighbors.
If not for the upheaval of 1848, his eccentric lifestyle might have continued indefinitely.
Though this fellow hadn't let his blood boil over and taken to the streets to oppose the emperor, and no one in his family had joined