As the battle over the budget grew increasingly fierce, Franz returned to Vienna Palace at the end of October, cutting his vacation short.
A vacation could be taken anytime, but as emperor, he still had to put state affairs first. Training the heir apparent did not mean completely washing his hands of everything.
There was no shortage of anything in politics except pitfalls ahead. It did not matter if one stepped into a small pit or two; it could be treated as a lesson learned.
But some pits absolutely could not be stepped into. One wrong step, and you might sink in, never to climb back out.
For example, the annual budget allocation currently underway. If something went wrong there, it would be a fatal blemish.
If they could not balance the needs of all sides and simply drew up the budget based on assumptions, or invested it in one or several areas solely out of ideals and efficiency, then they would be finished.
If someone added fuel to the flames, even Friedrich, as heir apparent, would be unable to bear the consequences. At the very least, he would never be able to shake off the label of "incompetent."
An heir apparent branded "incompetent" before even ascending the throne would find it difficult to win people's confidence even after inheriting it.
Such things had happened before. Franz himself had suffered from it in the early days of his reign, except that the counterattack against the Kingdom of Sardinia had happened at just the right time, allowing him to pin the responsibility on the war.
Now, however, the world was at peace. There was no war to take the blame, making the allocation of the fiscal budget an especially severe test.
Of course, if one did not want to shoulder the