Franz had little interest in continuing to vie for the right to host the peace conference. Britain had pushed him into the eye of the storm, so he could not possibly take the bait.
The simplest logic was this: he could not let the enemy have its way.
Besides, the Austrian Empire had already made its name known. There was no need to use the conference to raise its profile any further.
At the same time, Franz knew perfectly well that Nicholas I attached great importance to this conference. The latter desperately wanted to present a different Russia to the world.
Rather than fight the Russians until their heads were bloodied and let the British enjoy the spectacle, it was better to take a step back and let the Tsar see his sincerity, reducing future trouble.
Moreover, Vienna needed a point of comparison to prove the city's beauty and prosperity.
Count Pillersdorff, whom Franz had sent, was also a conservative diplomat. He would not do anything beyond his assigned duties.
Such a man found it difficult to expand upon success, but he was also unlikely to provoke unforeseen conflicts.
That was right—Franz was playing it safe. By this point, the Austrian Empire's technological strength had already opened a certain gap over the other nations. Give Franz another ten or twenty years, and Austria's national power would utterly crush every rival.
Before the conference had even begun, the British had run into a neither-big-nor-small setback. Worse still, they had caught the Tsar's attention.
Before going to sleep, George Villiers kept a pistol beneath his pillow. After all, neither Russia nor Nicholas I had a particularly good reputation. Without that thing, he simply could not sleep soundly.
But George Villiers soon found himself even less able to sleep. During the first few