174 – In war, deceiving the enemy is the duty (3)
I think one of the differences between adults and children is their attitude towards things they must do but do not want to do.
When young children have to do something they don’t want to do, they get irritated and make it clear that they don’t want to do it, and they endure it as long as they can, but then they have no choice.
When you become an adult, you know why you have to do something even if you don’t want to do it, so you acknowledge it and do your best to do what you have to do.
And as a 26-year-old head of a family and a lieutenant general in the imperial army, I will steadfastly do what I don’t want to do but must do, like an adult.
“Sir, five people have arrived, including Major Martias, who was scheduled to arrive today. What should I do?”
My annoyance wells up as I face the faces of the people who helped put the Swiss expeditionary force, including His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, on the brink of annihilation.
That’s true, Your Majesty, I don’t know, but when I think about it, those idiots should have stayed on Richen Hill, taken responsibility, and fought to the death with me.
When I told them to run away, they did not take responsibility as soldiers who made a mistake and did not intend to fight to the end, but instead turned up their tails and ran away like a dog that lost a fight.
However, I am a lieutenant general who is much quicker at counting from the top in social life and even in the military, and considering His Majesty the Crown Prince’s position, I have to give them a chance.
A few days ago, you said to His Highness the Crown Prince that although it would be too much for these fools to have the right to succession, you wanted to give them a chance to return as officers, and an agreement has been reached.
So what should we do?
If we are to give them a chance as discussed with Your Majesty, we must first make them thoroughly aware of their situation.
I need to let go of the anger that has built up because I crave it so much that I can’t even breathe.
If they are proper people who deserve to be rescued, they will risk their lives to escape from this sad fate through evil and gangsterism.
“Tell them to wait for an hour. Also, since you’re a nobleman, don’t provide tea and refreshments in the drawing room, but tell him to stand outside the door.”
“Master, isn’t that a bit too much?”
“They are people who have lost honor and power anyway. Even at home, they are treated like children given away and their downfall. “Then please at least put a wooden chair outside the door.”
When I said this and gave the signal to go, Charlotte immediately backed away.
Then, for an hour, I once again classified the military secrets and various information that they would hand over to capture the Grand Duchy of Austria.
If the classification criteria were leaked, it would not be such a fatal blow to the Imperial Army, but since it is a level 2 or higher secret, if it were to be leaked, it would cause moderate damage.
No matter how much it may be for the sake of the operation, the thought of having to hand over such valuable information to the Austrians makes me feel sick to my stomach.
“Sir, five people have come now, including Major Martias, who was supposed to come today. “Can I come in?”
I’ve finished organizing the information, so I can let them in now.
“Let me in.”
With those words, the door opened, and the five ‘former’ majors who had planned the previous expedition to Switzerland came in with tense expressions.
Then, all five people saluted because they were still soldiers despite being dishonorably discharged and because they had been called for military-related work.
“Five people, including Major Matthias von Griffin, came to the office under Lieutenant General Jaeger’s orders.”
They saluted at an angle like a sword, but I completely ignored them.
I didn’t even pretend to see it, but just looked straight at Charlotte’s face as she let them in with a blank expression.
“Major Matthias von Griffin has come to receive orders and tasks from the Lieutenant General.”
Without saluting, I turned to them and said with a pitiful expression.
“Hey, are you guys out of your mind? This is ridiculous. Is the imperial army that easy? Don’t you think the whole world revolves around you just because His Majesty the Crown Prince gave you this opportunity? “Griffin, no, Mathias.”
Then I signaled Charlotte to step back with my hand, called the five people into the office, and closed the door.
Now, there was a cold atmosphere in this office, as if it was about -20 degrees Celsius, and the expressions of the five majors showed signs of nervousness.
But out of respect for your Majesty, I plan to personally recycle these guys, so I have to do more.
“Major Mathius von Griffin! No!”
“Who gave you permission to call yourself major? You are not even a private now. But why are you giving a rank statement like a soldier?”
“Ah, ah… Sorry! Please forgive me.”
I internally raised my evaluation of Marathis and the other majors a little because they acknowledged that they were worthy of being criticized even in the midst of extreme thirst.
Because there are many people in this world who can’t honestly admit their mistakes and think about changing them.
“Also, why are you adding ‘Pon’, which symbolizes nobility, to your name? As far as I know, the five of you, including you, have been deprived of their right to succession, so they are in a situation where they are not even allowed to name their families. “Are imperial laws and imperial nobility so funny?”
When they heard this, the majors, including Martias, looked at me with their teeth clenched.
From noble mtl dot com
Obviously, they were deprived of their family succession rights during the dishonorable campaign, but it must have been because they felt it was a huge insult to be treated insignificantly like commoners.
I understand, but if you don’t want to suffer such an injustice, you should have stayed on Richen Hill and endured with me for a month.
“I want to tell the serfs to kneel in front of me and bury their heads like they do with nobles. Out of consideration for His Highness the Crown Prince, I will just look at that. “His Majesty wants to give you another chance even if you are bastards and have no honor.”
When the majors said that, I don’t know if it was because they felt sorry for their situation, or because they were grateful to His Highness the Crown Prince for giving them a chance even though they had fallen into this hellish situation due to their own fault.
Tears began to flow from the eyes of the grown men.
“Sit down first. “It’s not a story worth telling while standing still.”
The majors sat on their chairs with their backs straightened at a full 90 degrees without letting down their tension.
“Now let me take another look at your situation. Matthias, Bolton, Ludwig, Billy, Josef. “Because you almost caused a crushing defeat in this war, you were dishonorably discharged, your right to succession, and your status as a nobleman were virtually deprived, right?”
“Yes, that’s right…”
“At the same time, of course, the in-laws of the wife of the politically-motivated woman filed a request for divorce, and the imperial family must have immediately approved it. In the process, custody of your children and other rights to your children were transferred to your in-laws, so now you can’t even see their faces.”
No matter how dishonorably discharged he was and his status as an aristocrat, he was virtually deprived of his status as an aristocrat, and divorce and children… May be considered too much for his in-laws and his wife.
However, even though we come from noble families like Laura and I, there are very few cases where couples get along well and love each other.
The majority marry for political reasons, and have and raise children to protect and prosper their families as nobles.
So, there is a common joke among the judges and nobles that the empire allowed polygamy out of pity for men who married women they did not love.
So in reality, nobles often draw a sharp line between themselves and their concubines, and tend to get along well with concubines they take in based on their appearance or personality.
So, in order to prevent harm to their family from those dirty bastards, her wives immediately divorced to protect the socioeconomic status of themselves and their children.
“Thanks to you, the only thing you can do from now on is stay in a corner of the mansion and use the little pocket money your father gives you to drink and hang out with cheap prostitutes. After living like that all my life, I ended up dying miserably. And honestly, you had no chance of being reinstated.”
The majors were unable to refute my words and just shed tears once again.
“But His Royal Highness is such a benevolent person that he begged me and His Majesty the Emperor to give us a chance, saying that he was responsible for what happened to you.”
Actually, Your Majesty probably wanted to give these guys a chance in his heart, but because of his disgrace during the expedition, he couldn’t even bring it up with me.
So, I petitioned His Majesty to give these five people a chance, and when he heard that it had been approved, he was so happy that he even hugged me tightly.
But in order to make them loyal to you, you must give all the credit.
“So, I had no choice but to give the last chance to you guys who had cornered me and the 7th Guards Division. Are you willing to risk your life for anything?”
At those words, the five people got down from the chairs, got down on both knees, buried their heads, and prayed, as if they were really trying to survive somehow.
“Please give me a chance. “I cannot live in shame, being dishonored by something like this.”
“I will do it even if you make me lick the soles of your feet or bark like a dog in the square.”
“Anything is fine, please just order it.”
If I go any further here, it will have the opposite effect, so I’ll just end it here.
“Good. Then I will give you a chance. “You should become double agents like the Count of Bern in Switzerland did.”