Graz, a city in central-western Austria.
The doors to the Conference Hall of Eggenberg Palace flew open with a bang. Count Waltherhausen emerged, his face livid, the right hand clutching the documents still trembling slightly.
After the Austrian-Russian Allied Forces had crushed the Vienna rebels, the war faction led by him had held every advantage. Yet at this very moment, Metternich, the long-silent royal adviser, had suddenly stepped forward, raising the banner of peace negotiations.
Just minutes earlier, His Majesty the Emperor had formally announced the signing of a Ceasefire Agreement with the Hungarian Parliament—without even the presence of him, the State Minister. The Emperor had summoned him only to inform him that all future affairs concerning Hungary would be placed under Metternich's charge.
Messer Schmidt, the Minister of Foreign Affairs beside him, wore an equally gloomy expression. Lowering his head, he muttered, "The Bohemian Conference has never had much to do with Kaunitz. Why would they support that fellow Metternich?"
In his view, Metternich's political capital ought to have all been inherited from his father-in-law, Count Kaunitz. Yet not long ago, the Bohemian Parliament had suddenly petitioned the Emperor to allow their troops to withdraw to Prague, claiming that their finances were on the brink of exhaustion unless the Emperor was willing to grant them two million Florins. At the same time, several important political figures in Bohemia had publicly praised Metternich's ceasefire strategy as the one most aligned with the Empire's interests.
After that, the Slovakian Legion had also begun deliberately dragging its feet at the front, using military expenses as an excuse.
Count Waltherhausen merely kept a cold face and said nothing. What he was considering now was not the ceasefire itself, but the likelihood that, once the Ceasefire Agreement was reached, the war faction would be