Tyranny of Steel

The light of the sun shone down upon Adela's room and through her glass window, illuminating her doll-like face as she slept beneath her covers. It was well past dawn, and yet the young girl still slept; after all, she was still growing and, as such, needed her beauty rest. After a short period of struggling to adjust to the light which beamed upon her, she began to pout before opening her deep sapphire eyes and gazing at her window with contempt.

Now that she was awake, she decided to get out from under her covers, where she wore a frilly white nightgown; as per most of her clothing, Berengar designed it with both comfort and aesthetic in mind. The soft silk material dangled loosely from the growing curves of her adolescent body. After stretching for a little bit, she decided to go about her morning basic hygiene rituals such as bathing, brushing her teeth, and flossing before finally dressing in her exquisite attire based on Tudor and Elizabethan clothing patterns from Berengar's past life.

After getting dressed in her daily attire, she progressed to the dining hall where her family was gathering to eat breakfast; ever since her sister Ava had arrived in Graz, Adela had been doing her best to stay away from the woman, after all despite being siblings the two got along about as well as cats and dogs. For whatever reason, the Count of Salzburg's son and heir was spending his time in Graz with his wife and three children. Though Adela did not understand why this was the case, after all, Salzburg was safe enough, and the excuse of being on vacation visiting Ava's family had long since grown suspicious.

Despite Adela's growing concerns over her eldest sister's stay, she still tried to play nice with the young woman, and as such, the two sat across from one another at the dining table, where the two began to mince words. Ava was, as always, the perpetrator of their little disputes, and as such, decided to bully her cute little sister.

"Adela, I heard your fiance was bold enough to declare his heresy as a reformation! I wonder what will happen to him when the Pope finally declares a crusade to deal with the trouble he has caused; I worry for your safety, after all, you are engaged to the man that the Church refers to as Berengar the Accursed!"

Immediately the women went straight for the heart, knowing that Adela's relationship with Berengar was her most vulnerable point. However, since their first dispute, Adela had grown wiser and noticed that her eldest sister so commonly targetted Berengar with her words in an attempt to rile her up as such, Adela was as calm as a pond's surface as she rebutted Ava's taunt.

"Any force the Vatican sends into Tyrol will end up the same as the last group of fools who entered Berengar's domain in an attempt to remove him from power."

She was quite obviously referring to the slaughter of the Teutonic Order's army, which marched into Berengar's lands; the result of that battle was well known among the Lords and Ladies of the German-speaking regions. However, Ava knew something that most did not know; after all, her husband was the son and heir to the Count of Salzburg, and his father's spy network was extensive. As such, she further taunted Adela with her attacks on Berengar's character.

"Poor sweet little Lambert, I heard Berengar used some vile sorcery to kill that poor boy in battle; what kind of black-hearted man murders his own little brother?"

Though Adela tried to stay calm, hearing her sister compliment Lambert while insulting Berengar's character was enough to invoke ire in her heart.; Ava dared to act like Lambert was a saint, despite knowing of his past deeds. However, this was exactly how the Church was behaving about the issue. Every since Lambert's death, he had become a martyr in the eyes of Catholics and a stain on Berengar's reputation.

Every wicked deed the boy had ever committed was wiped away from his past by the powerful propaganda network of the Church; the Catholic church depicted him as an exceptionally pious man who voluntarily gave up his inheritance to serve the Teutonic Order. Where he was deployed to bring his brother, a condemned heretic, to justice. However, as the two fought on the battlefield, Berengar blinded Lambert with some vile sorcery before stabbing him in the back.

This was the tale in which the Catholic church told the world about Lambert and Berengar's duel within the battlefield of Oberstdorf. Obviously, it was completely fabricated, but unlike Adela, who now thought of herself as a reformist due to Berengar's influence, Ava was a devout Catholic much like the rest of her family and chose to further propagate this story, despite knowing its falsehood in a deliberate attempt to mess with Adela. Hearing such provoking words Adela could not control herself and immediately lashed out at Ava, who had succeeded in her aim.

"You know full well that Lambert was a devious little scoundrel who on multiple occasions tried to murder Berengar! What was his punishment for such actions? He was disowned and sent to the Teutonic Order to redeem himself, where he used the first opportunity he could get to try to get revenge on Berengar for being merciful; if you ask me, Berengar should have cut off his head, to begin with, it would have saved everyone some trouble!"

Ava smiled devilishly as she witnessed Adela fuming with anger, to the point where her cheeks were puffing like a chipmunk and were slightly flushed; in Ava's eyes, it was adorable. After seeing such a sight, of course, Ava could not resist and further poured salt on the wound.

"I suppose that is the excuse he told you after stealing Lambert's fiancee and impregnating her, right?"

Adela continued to fume in anger, but she did not lose control of her emotions. Instead, she forced herself to calm down before addressing Ava's last point. For the past few months, ever since Ava arrived, she had continuously beaten Adela in any argument solely because she would bring up this point after being sorely defeated in the previous rounds of engagement and cause Adela to throw a tantrum. However, not this time, Adela had finally figured out how to beat Ava this time around, and she threw her words right back into her face.

"So what if Berengar has a lover? He is a great man, and plenty of great men have had multiple women by their side throughout history! If your husband was half as accomplished as Berengar, he too could take a lover, and I doubt you would mind!"

These words completely baffled Ava and attacked her weakest point. She knew her husband was not nearly as accomplished as Berengar, nor would he ever achieve half of the things Berengar had in life. Aside from coming from a powerful family and being slightly good looking, her husband was a relatively dull and unambitious man. The fact that her youngest sister managed to get someone like Berengar as a fiance had greatly invoked her ire, and it was her reason for picking on Adela all of the time.

While Ava had an ugly expression on her face, Adela was smirking smugly at her, oh how the tables have turned. As for her husband, who was slightly older than ava herself and was named Wolfgang von Salzburg, it took him a few moments to realize that Adela had essentially implied he was a loser. During that time, Ava lashed out at Adela as she pounded the table with her fists extremely uncivilly.

"You think you are better than me because your fiance is extremely handsome, has never been defeated in battle, and is absurdly wealthy? How dare you!?!"

Adela was delighted at the moment, ever since Ava had first arrived, she had continued to lose these daily catfights, but now the shoe was on the other foot. Apparently, Ava was a very sore loser. As such, Adela merely scoffed at Ava and told her the words she was told every time she erupted at Ava in the past.

"We will discuss this later when you calm down."

If Ava's expression was ugly before, it was now outright hideous, she wanted to pounce at Adela on the spot, but she knew she could not do so; after all, such behavior was unladylike, and she had an image to maintain. As such, she quickly dug into the food on her plate while grumbling under her breath. Of course, it was at this moment Wolfgang finally realized that maybe there was a slight possibility that Adela had just insulted him, and as such, he whispered in Ava's ear asking about it.

"Did she just call me a loser?"

Ava nearly snapped at her husband's response; not only was he dull enough not to realize that he was insulted, but he had the nerve to ask her about it in front of the perpetrator; she really wishes she was married off to someone more like Berengar. Though she looked down on Berengar for being born into low nobility, the more he accomplished, the more Ava became jealous of Adela. After all, who cares about whether someone is born into low nobility or not when they go from being a baron's son and heir to a Count mighty enough to flip the bird to the Vatican in under a year?

After this little catfight was over, the family's breakfast continued in awkward silence; the only one satisfied with the results of this meal was Adela; she had won a great moral victory today against her sister. Adela believed it was doubtful that Ava would mock Berengar further now that her weakness was exposed. As such, she enjoyed the thick German Pancakes on her plate with delight.