Maximilian shot Ludwig a glare. Sometimes he truly could not tell whether his younger brother was genuinely stupid or merely pretending to be.
He clearly understood nothing, yet somehow always remembered Franz's words and brought them up at critical moments to infuriate him half to death. Maximilian was utterly speechless, but his pride would not allow him to seriously argue with a fool.
In truth, if it came down to it, Maximilian, who stood under five foot three, really could not beat the tall, broad Ludwig. So he decided that intellect would have to be his chief weapon.
They had squandered no small amount of money along the way, but no one particularly cared about such things. After all, several thousand florins might be half a year's, or even a full year's, expenses for collateral Archdukes without estates in their names.
But for Maximilian and Ludwig, even a month of ordinary expenses would exceed several thousand florins.
Moreover, from their departure until now, everyone other than the two Archdukes had held one foremost objective: getting them safely back to Naples.
If anything truly happened to the two Archdukes, they did not know whether the Austrian Empire and the Ottoman Empire would go to war, but they and their families would certainly be finished.
No one doubted that Franz would lay hands on nobles. In fact, to the nobility of the Austrian Empire, Franz's brutality was without precedent. In two years, he had purged more nobles than all the monarchs in the history of the House of Habsburg combined.
As for his supposed reputation for mercy, that was merely Church propaganda and the public's impression. In reality, after Franz ascended the throne, punishments were enforced more harshly than in any era save that of Joseph II.
Yet the result, apart from