How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 514

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magic Noble Family (514)

Yanina Schweitzer faces the composed countenance that gazes at her with neither agitation nor tension. He had evaluated the Crown Prince’s boldness as generally not bad so far. He had witnessed worldliness he hadn’t expected to hear from a 17-year-old. The Crown Prince had cautiously opened the discussion and remained unbiased toward any side. However, that alone was insufficient.

Two problems, they were as follows. Yanina Schweitzer spoke without giving the Crown Prince a chance to respond.

“First, please explain the reason for bringing kingdom military generals to this meeting. As this is a secret conference, this personnel seems unnecessary, and without proper justification, this can only be regarded as an attempt to intimidate our Catacombs leadership.”

The Crown Prince had brought generals despite being a field-grade officer himself. If it had been an attempt to show off his position, he wouldn’t have brought generals. Also, whether cognitive disruption magic was cast on each general’s eyes, they didn’t look at the Catacombs leadership in the usual manner. This was a common security method. However, whether it was an attempt at intimidation—this needed to be addressed. Even if the possibility was low, it had to be done.

Also, Yanina Schweitzer knew that she herself had used language inappropriate for this setting. “Please explain”—that was an interrogation in this context. However, this was also an expression of political will. The Crown Prince expressed neither affirmation nor denial at Schweitzer’s words and didn’t appear flustered. He was calm.

However, as much as he wasn’t flustered, he also didn’t answer.

“What’s next?”

Instead of hastily explaining, the Crown Prince wanted to hear the next question first. Since Yanina Schweitzer also neither highly praised nor lowly evaluated his calm reaction, she continued speaking without hesitation.

“Citizens can rightfully expect the state to fulfill what should be implemented, but I propose cooperation to fully perform all proper duties and responsibilities that couldn’t be fulfilled—these are fine words to hear. How do you intend to implement those words?”

At Schweitzer’s words, others attending as Catacombs leadership stirred. They were those tensed before the enormous power called the royal family. He was in the midst of fearing that Yanina Schweitzer would cause the Catacombs to suffer losses or fall out of the royal family’s favor. Yes, this was the problem. Did Teacher Marian Baum understand this? Did the Crown Prince understand this? Those called Catacombs leadership were blissfully regarding the royal family’s benevolent government and bowing their heads. They feared the royal family’s grace might be cut off. However, as Teacher Marian Baum said, to prevent the visualization of such weak spirits, hesitating to use our technology autonomously without negotiation was also unwelcome. Weak spirit was above all a matter of peacetime training, and this was something Chairman Yanina Schweitzer already knew, and decisively, once he decided something, he didn’t back down. Having come here, doing his best for the Catacombs’ improvement in this place was Yanina Schweitzer’s law.

Unlike the other stirring leadership, Chairman Anze Dracher didn’t even look at Chairman Yanina Schweitzer. However, if he acted more rudely here, Chairman Anze Dracher would give Chairman Yanina Schweitzer a warning. Because maintaining courtesy between leadership and leadership was also the Catacombs’ dignity. Yanina Schweitzer knew everything and chose only one thing. He looked at the Crown Prince expressionlessly.

“First, even if we devise the best progress, it never becomes an absolute solution, and under complex interests, absolute good or absolutely positive policies are difficult to exist. In other words, whatever answer I give, there exists no answer that satisfies everyone.”

On the other hand, absolute affirmation can exist under singular interests or purposes, and in this dimension, he wasn’t speaking of ethical relativism. Yanina Schweitzer decoded the intentions hidden behind and all political signals as the young Crown Prince’s words emerged. The Crown Prince raised his hand and pointed at Yanina Schweitzer.

“You said Chairman Schweitzer. Does Chairman Schweitzer, as a leader of the Catacombs, know this point?”

Yanina Schweitzer would have smiled if he could have done so at this moment. He noticed that this audacious 17-year-old Crown Prince wouldn’t move as easily as he wished. The Crown Prince responded to Yanina Schweitzer’s direct method by equally giving no escape route. Yanina Schweitzer answered seriously while feeling a faint pleasure he couldn’t understand himself.

“That’s correct.”

“I cannot say I will immediately amend the constitution.”

The Crown Prince answered sharp as a blade. Chairman Anze Dracher and Chairman Yanina Schweitzer didn’t budge at this.

“Even though the current political system takes the form of constitutional monarchy, absolute and despotic aspects remain. In a situation where the Prussian government almost coincides with the imperial government, Bavaria cannot dissolve the imperial legislature’s upper and lower houses, hold re-elections, or increase Bavaria’s Federal Council seats. Because promising to achieve things beyond the realistic implementable range in the near future is excessive propaganda and deception to gain immediate favor, not a promise, I cannot promise to immediately protect natural human rights at the imperial level beyond Bavaria through constitutional amendment.”

At the Crown Prince’s continuing words, Chairman Yanina Schweitzer raised her hand and spoke.

“I know that’s impossible until Bavaria seizes hegemony.”

I know, so what’s next then. That was the meaning. Yanina Schweitzer was ready to find out if her true intention was conveyed to the Crown Prince. She scrutinizes the Crown Prince with sharp eyes.

The Crown Prince spoke without agitation as if expressing something he had thought about thousands of times.

“I will do my best to make Bavaria prosperous, and that prosperity means promoting the happiness of the majority, not the private interests of a few. However, in this process, I will not allow any infringement of minorities’ basic rights that is unnecessary for national security and public welfare.”

Mechanical. That was Yanina Schweitzer’s impression. With that, the Crown Prince finished speaking. When everyone was in unfinished tension, he took time and opened his mouth again.

“I can answer in such a textbook manner, and ultimately this is not the answer you want. Right now you are asking how we can practically check power and how we can practically guarantee those promises. If negotiations with the Catacombs are established, the Kingdom of Bavaria will make a treaty with the Catacombs leadership at this place and has the intention to make major compromises, which is also an ethical duty. Therefore, our Kingdom of Bavaria will include various requirements in the treaty with the Catacombs. His Majesty the King’s ratification will be done immediately before today’s anti-Pleroma liquidation operation begins, and it will take effect within today.”

“….”

“However, this also won’t be a complete answer. I know that government whims that turn treaties made between the state and smaller collective units into waste paper have existed in history, and that has caused future trust to collapse. Therefore, although I said we would ratify and implement within today, I know this also cannot give certainty. It’s the misgovernment of previous European national leaderships who themselves abandoned the most powerful means to prove the government’s sincerity.”

Yanina Schweitzer felt inward surprise. This was exactly the standard answer. The decades of experience of politician Yanina Schweitzer, who had led large and small organizations, spoke. To persuade the Catacombs beyond treaties, one must move to unreasonable measures. For example, we will employ Catacombs personnel in the Bavarian government—this is easily seen as an attempt to infringe on the Catacombs’ sovereignty and actually has that danger, and if there’s no such intention, conversely, the possibility that employed Catacombs personnel might harbor malice cannot be excluded, so there’s danger of making Bavaria’s existence risky. In other words, it might be possible later, but it’s premature at this stage when trust hasn’t been established yet. Would the Crown Prince, who seemed prudent, try to make a choice that wasn’t good for both sides?

The Crown Prince speaks.

“Chairman Schweitzer asked why I brought kingdom military generals to this place.”

He changed the subject. Yanina Schweitzer felt a certain freshness in the Crown Prince’s unpredictable rhetoric while considering his choice audacious. If used wrongly, it’s a method that could fall into the worst path by failing to give answers to any questions.

“That’s correct.”

“First, although the decision-making of the Catacombs, which has adopted representative democracy, practically reflects only the will of the two chairmen directly, bringing all leadership personnel is thought to be because wiser judgment is needed for the group. On the same grounds, the kingdom’s decision-maker brings experts.”

Yanina Schweitzer raised an eyebrow. She calmly lowered the corners of her mouth that were about to rise.

That was a roundabout attack. In reality, the dignity and safety that a leader should have take precedence in terms of importance, and only in the last order does his statement appear; because advice is needed.

The Crown Prince declared that the Catacombs had no authority to criticize the royal family’s own reasonable range of decisions. Whether the Crown Prince himself held goodwill toward the Catacombs or not, he didn’t allow rudeness. Not a fool. Yanina Schweitzer thought. Even if he weren’t royalty but an elected leader or a lower-level chancellor, Yanina Schweitzer’s directness was a diplomatic discourtesy. Since she deliberately attacked knowing it was rude, Yanina Schweitzer wasn’t stung.

However, first, she grasped that the opponent was calculating. Second, even if the Catacombs infiltrated the Bavarian royal family, she guessed from seeing that the possibility of actually eroding them was low—precisely, that no ripples occurred even from the thrown stone. If they decided to go beyond making the Kingdom of Bavaria the Catacombs’ outpost and swallow it whole, that process wouldn’t be very easy, and rather, conquering other small nations by force would be easier. From experience, such politicians seem to tolerate many things but simultaneously have their internal boundaries clearly established. If it were an equal or lower-level force, they could swallow such an opponent even showing this attitude, but Bavaria isn’t such an opponent since it’s a strong nation.

Chairman Anze Dracher seemed to have the same thought. Chairman Yanina Schweitzer continued maintaining an expressionless face while waiting for what came next.

First, what’s next?

“Second, it’s because you are qualified to participate in Bavaria’s official negotiation table. This is a strategic meeting in an emergency situation equivalent to wartime. When welcoming leaders of a polity that could become an ally, it’s right to show appropriate courtesy.”

At first hearing, it sounds natural. Because he originally requested negotiations.

However, it wasn’t natural. The moment Yanina Schweitzer understood the meaning, she became conscious of the subtle current flowing down her neck. The Crown Prince said firmly.

“Has Chairman Yanina Schweitzer seen leaders who participated in the Trachenberg Plan sitting in conferences without any courtesy or protocol? I have never seen such a thing.”

The Trachenberg Plan—the military plan of the Sixth Coalition that devastatingly defeated Napoleon. Prussia, Russia, Austria, and Sweden, along with numerous European monarchs and generals, formed an alliance to stop the rampaging Napoleon. The “official negotiation table” that Crown Prince Leonard Wittelsbach spoke of meant this. No one could fail to know how diverse the implications of this were.

“We will establish a Trachenberg Plan together.”

The Crown Prince spoke with a faint smile. There was a power to draw people in that smile. He continued speaking.

“However, let’s rewrite the Congress of Vienna.”

Yanina Schweitzer ended it there. The answer had already emerged within her.

The reason the Crown Prince didn’t use a closer and ethnically appropriate example—the German internal alliance during the Austro-Prussian War and Franco-Prussian War—was because it would be tantamount to openly declaring that Bavaria would occupy the same position as Prussia currently held. Knowing how Prussia had governed after seizing imperial hegemony following consecutive victories in the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars, and in a situation where today’s meeting was created by the influence of that governance, using the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars as examples for the reason of German ethnic unity wouldn’t be excellent.

Saying they would rewrite the Congress of Vienna, the Crown Prince understood precisely. The Congress of Vienna, conducted under the leadership of Austrian Chancellor Metternich to discuss the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars following the Trachenberg Plan, caused a reaction against liberalism. Therefore, Bavaria says let’s rewrite the aftermath after breaking the influence of Prussia, symbolized by Napoleon.

With this, Yanina Schweitzer perfectly grasped the meaning the Crown Prince had hidden beneath his words. She heard he was only 17 years old, but this was unexpected. This young blue blood was not a disappointing opponent in the eyes of Yanina Schweitzer, who was running toward sixty. Rather, he was worth dealing with. The Crown Prince knew that the political situation he was dealing with was an advance that would mark a stroke in European history. By not forcing himself to find a perfectly matching analogy, he rather gained trust. That is, by not bringing up distasteful alliances between weak nations, he declared that Bavaria and the Catacombs were communities with real power like the European great powers that had united to stop Napoleon. He also suggested establishing anew a reactionary conference that some might judge disappointingly due to the limitations of the era.

His language was neither excessive nor insufficiently pathetic. Yanina Schweitzer was a politician who had been involved in the Catacombs for a long time, and she thought there was no reason she couldn’t compare to a young Crown Prince who hadn’t even reached twenty, and rather was confident that the Crown Prince would only fail to satisfy her seasoned perspective. Hereditary rulers are one of two types. Either they learn thoroughly that their duty is so grave that grinding up their own body wouldn’t be enough and rush toward good government with a sense of crisis every moment no less than elected rulers, or they live ordinarily as born like subjects who don’t bear such duty. The majority of “crown princes” are the latter. Those ordinary people grow up to become rulers and commit misgovernment. It was also the latter who ruined the well-functioning Rome. If the majority had been rulers like the Five Good Emperors, the term “Five Good Emperors” wouldn’t have existed.

Yanina Schweitzer was a republican, but long before that, she was a Catacombs liberation activist. For the liberation of the Catacombs, whatever happened to the rest was not her concern, and rather, leading the rest to destruction to liberate the Catacombs was her priority. However, despite the hardline stance and extremism she advocated, she knew. It was impossible for the Catacombs to be completely happy in the long term by leading the rest to destruction. The Catacombs could seize power by not avoiding war and taking advantage of chaotic times, but in that process, Yanina Schweitzer herself could be regarded as a Robespierre-like figure and executed. It would be fortunate if it stopped there, but other damage could occur in the same way, and unknown massive reaction could come. Moderates have final orientations similar to radicals and say truly agreeable right things, and each individual listening to those speeches can correctly understand and use “right words” well, but crowds have different natures from individuals, so right words can weaken the spirit of struggle and achievement. However, crowds can repeatedly make extreme mistakes while also actually rushing toward extreme righteousness, and this nature is precisely both sides of the explosive power crowds possess—of course, crowds always think they’re right when exerting explosive power. To lead crowds’ explosive power and achieve and institutionalize it in time, the Catacombs spirit must not weaken. Therefore, under all these calculations, Yanina Schweitzer used language that could sound extreme without hesitation to elevate the Catacombs spirit that had the possibility of weakening from moderation, and therefore knew well what each position was like and how reality moved. Unlike the blameworthy hardline stance she maintained, the insight that could see through everything put her in the Catacombs’ highest position. Yanina Schweitzer could operate insight and advocacy ambivalently, and that was the sophistication Yanina Schweitzer possessed as a politician. Therefore, she could evaluate Rome’s Five Good Emperors as highly as she would evaluate presidents who led the good government of the republican United States. And she could have insight into what kind of ruler the crown prince before her eyes would become. And before that, she had insight into what kind of figure the crown prince would act as for the Catacombs. How he could lead this plan, what ripples he would cause in Europe—she grasped this too. Schweitzer’s sharp eyes pierced into the Crown Prince’s deep pupils.

The Trachenberg Plan indeed. The Crown Prince organized two questions at once. That meant he had already asked himself how he would give us certainty. He made this place into a conference of powerful sovereigns who had joined hands to repel Napoleon and tried to show with his own eyes that he didn’t just regard it as such in words. Through shared gaze and visual political language, it worked successfully. Since it was verification of attitude, the substance was the next story, but it was no different from already looking inside through the surface. Yanina Schweitzer now looked at the Wittelsbach, who was young enough to be her grandchild, as a politician. This politician was qualified to be treated equally with them. The innate position of crown prince couldn’t make Leonard Wittelsbach equal to the Catacombs leadership, and rather required qualifications to the degree that he could subsequently earn the undeserved respect and power that innate and unnatural position granted. Therefore, only his consciousness and capabilities sufficient to not shame that consciousness but rather correct it made him someone who could become equal. By easily surpassing that high standard line regarding verification requirements he wouldn’t have directly faced in his lifetime, Leonard Wittelsbach earned the qualification to become the Catacombs’ temporary companion.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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