Chapter 217: Preparation is the Key to Survival

Down on the ground below Conrad's room was the shattered body of a young boy; this boy was the Duke of Austria, that is until moments prior. The servants of the Castle of Kufstein quickly gathered around the corpse and gazed with horror. Though they were aware that this boy was a puppet of Berengar, they could not imagine what events had led to his death.

Quickly the guards gathered and began to secure the scene. Berengar, of course, was long out of sight; he had murdered the boy by defenestrating him, and in doing so, covered his tracks quite well. Not a single soul had seen Berengar in the window with Conrad, and only his most loyal men knew that he had visited the boy during the hour of his death.

Thus while the guards secured the scene, Berengar was sitting on his seat of power, staring off into space. He had a momentary lapse in judgment after hearing that Conrad had murdered Linde's pets specifically to cause the young woman mental anguish and had thrown the boy out of the window and to his untimely demise.

However, by now, Berengar's clarity had returned, and he realized his actions were not only rash but also foolish. With Conrad's death, he had to move up his plans for usurpation by several years. The boy was supposed to die a slow poisoned death that appeared to be a natural illness. Yet now he lies splattered on the stone floor of his Castle courtyard.

This would undoubtedly cause the Nobles of Austria to view Berengar with suspicion, and that was the best-case scenario. The moment Berengar revealed Conrad's death to the rest of the realm, he would potentially face open rebellion. He could undoubtedly manage with his current armies but the results of such a conflict would certainly delay his reforms by a large degree.

Austria still had yet to recover from the war with the Bavarians, and now a few months later, they were once more on the brink of war. Though rebellion against his rule by the higher nobility was a certainty, he had yet to fully prepare for a quick and thorough war with the other nobles. Berengar deeply pondered his next step.

Considering only the people in the Castle of Kufstein knew of Conrad's death, Berengar would try to conceal such a thing as long as he possibly could. At most, he could buy himself a few weeks. How he utilized this brief period would be of critical importance in securing his authority over Austria. However, before he could do anything related to that, he needed an excuse for Conrad's death.

While he was thinking about such an Outcome, Linde arrived in front of him; her eyes were red and puffy from a long night of crying. Despite this, she had a stern look on her face, she knew that by now, Berengar should have some idea who the culprit was behind the death of her beloved pets, and thus she quickly asked him the thought on her mind.

"Did you find the culprit?"

Berengar, who until now was in deep thought reflecting on his actions and the future events that they had spurred, suddenly noticed his beautiful lover standing before him and nodded his head in silence.

Linde bit her lips as she was afraid to ask the perpetrator's identity, but ultimately she felt she needed to know who was responsible for such a heinous act if she were to gain closure; thus, she steeled her resolved and asked the question.

"Who was it?"

Berengar sighed heavily before revealing the identity of the criminal.

"Conrad..."

Hearing this news, a look of disgust and hatred combined itself upon Linde's immaculate heart-shaped face before she finally snapped.

"That bastard! Where is he now!?! I want to punish him severely!"

However, Berengar's following words shocked her completely

"Dead..."

A series of complex emotions overwhelmed the heavenly beauty at this moment; she had no idea how to react to this news. On the one hand, she was glad that justice had been dealt to the sadistic brat for his vile actions.

However, she knew the consequences such a thing could have; as such, she never actually planned to kill him when she heard that the young Duke was responsible for the deaths of her pets. Without realizing it, Linde became increasingly concerned and spat out the question on her mind.

"What did you do?"

Berengar looked around his Great Hall for a few moments, inspecting to see if anyone was listening in before he finally revealed what had transpired moments ago.

"I don't know; It is all a blur. Initially, I intended to scold him, maybe even beat him severely for his actions. However, when he told me that the reason for his wicked deeds was for the sole purpose of causing you anguish, something just snapped in my mind. The next thing I knew, Conrad was falling out the window headfirst into the courtyard below."

Seeing the complicated expression on Berengar's face, Linde quickly approached him and kneeled before him, grabbing ahold of his hand and bringing it to her heart. She understood that his love for her and overwhelming desire to protect her had caused him to lose control of his actions and murder the boy.

She, too, would likely do such a thing if their roles were reversed. Rather than allow Berengar to reflect on his actions and further stress about them, Linde shifted the topic to something more productive.

"What now?"

With this said, Berengar looked into his lover's sky blue eyes with a solemn expression before revealing the intentions that he had come up with in his mind.

"We conceal his death for as long as possible; during this time, we prepare for war and have our troops armed and ready to march on the other Counties. I need you to gather intelligence, on the other Counts, from Voralberg to the Kustenland. I need to know who will challenge my usurpation and who will bend the knee. As for his cause of death? We will say it was a suicide. Without a proper investigation, nobody will know what has happened here on this day."

Linde quickly nodded; she still had a gloomy expression as she was still troubled by the deaths of her furry little pets, but she knew now was not the time to grieve; work needed to be done. They were in a period of critical importance; one mistake and all of their ambitions would come crashing down around them. Thus she did not have time to mourn her precious pets. After thinking about it for a few moments, the woman spoke her mind.

"I will get it done as quickly as possible. By the time the news is leaked, we will know who are our enemies and who are our allies!"

Seeing the woman he so dearly loved put aside her emotions for the greater good put a bitter smile on Berengar's face as he caressed his lover's glossy strawberry-blonde hair before hugging her tightly.

"I promise when this is all over, I will give you a period of reprieve where you can properly deal with your loss. I know how much you cared for those cats. I swear I will never allow something like this to happen again."

Though Berengar could not see her face, he could tell that the tears Linde had worked so hard to choke back had begun to flood down her exquisite face; she quickly latched onto Berengar and cried to her heart's content for the next few minutes. Afterward, she wiped them from her eyes before thanking Berengar.

"Thank you, and I promise I will have a comprehensive report on your desk by the end of the week!"

Berengar did not keep Linde any longer; he, too, had many matters to attend to in the upcoming days. For starters, he needed to write a series of official declarations of Conrad's demise and his usurpation of the boy's title. Of course, he would only release it after everything was in place for the transition of power in Austria.

Thus Berengar and Linde quickly got to work on preparing for the unknown future. Though it was entirely possible that the other Counts would respect his rise to power and bend the knee peacefully, Berengar was not a man who believed such a thing was likely. To him, it was better to be prepared for the outcome of the war, even if it didn't happen, than it was to hope for the best and leave himself vulnerable.

Berengar had an idea in his head of how this war would play out, but he needed to know for sure. Thus he had set Linde to task to find out who his enemies were. However, Berengar was pretty confident that Count Otto, who ruled over Steiermark, Count Audeger, who ruled over Vorarlberg, and Count Adelbrand, who under Berengar's direction, had replaced his brother Wolfgang as the Count of Salzburg would be aligned with him.

As for the Counties of Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Kärnten, Krain, and the Kustenland? Berengar did not know how they would react to Conrad's death or who they would side with. Thus he needed to prepare himself for the possibility of a Civil War.