"An heir?" Katarina stammered, going pale. "But... she was a captive! Who..."

She stopped, turning to Konrad.

"The child is mine," Konrad stated, cutting the clamor. "Lady Isolde and I were secretly wed before the Swabian League marched. The vows were a needed ploy to hold deep sway within the Duchy of Württemberg."

The silence was heavy... Konrad had just owned to wedding a prized foe and forging an heir, wholly scorning the old ways of lords and pacts!

Katarina stood up. "A secret marriage!" Katarina repeated, her voice full of venom. "You beg Bavarian swords to shield your lands, while binding your blood to the Swabian League. You play the double-dealer, Konrad."

"The Bavarian pact is a matter of coin and iron. The Württemberg vows are a matter of spies and heirs. They are separate things."

"Separate things!!" Katarina spat, slamming the table. "I am no mere piece on a board, Konrad! My father sent five hundred men to your bounds believing we were your chief allies!"

"You remain my chief partners of trade." Konrad corrected. "The pacts for the new long-arms hold true. Yet, the holding of these lands demands a trueborn heir. Lady Isolde provides that blood."

Isolde stood silent, her dark eyes shining with proud victory.

"This... this will bring a great storm upon the Emperor’s Diet," Katarina murmured, rubbing her temples. "The Emperor will take it as an open slight. A lesser lord secretly wedding a Duchess to guard his mastery of the forge."

"The truth of the day is that the bloodline holds, and my master of spies holds a lawful place." Konrad stated, rising from the table.

"Lady Katarina," Konrad went on, "If the Duchy of Bavaria wishes to pull back their swords, they may. But the Fugger merchants will gladly snatch up the trade pacts you cast aside."

"..." Katarina stared, seeing the snare he had woven.

She took a deep breath, "The Bavarian swords will hold their ground, we have spent too much gold to walk away from the forges now."

"A truly reckoned choice." Konrad agreed.

He left the hall. He walked to his study, passing the window that looked out over the courtyard.

Below, a small procession of older soldiers was carrying a covered body toward the crypts. Lord Waldemar, the Master of Horse, was being laid to rest.

The maester’s words of a "sudden fit of the blood" had been swallowed without question by the old guard.

The white salt of lead had done its work flawlessly.

Konrad sat at his desk, pulling the blueprints for the new breech-loading guns toward him.

The sickness in the court had been purged...

***

Hours passed, and the night gave way to morning.

Dong... dong... The chapel bell tolled through the Swabian morning.

Within the mind of Konrad von Frundsberg, the sound merely signaled the fulfillment of his design.

Lord Waldemar, Master of Horse and chief of the old guard, was being laid in the earth.

Konrad sat in his study among treatises on metals. Lady Isolde stepped into the room. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"The crypt is sealed, the physician’s word of a sudden apoplexy holds strong. The old guard is now without a master and thrown into complete disarray... None suspect the sweet salt."

Konrad dipped his quill, striking a single line through Waldemar’s name in his ledger. "The deed was done well, Lady Isolde. You may return to your spies."

Isolde offered a curtsy and withdrew.

Waldemar’s death brought a swift advantage to their standing. Later that day, Konrad summoned the surviving captains of the old guard to the upper hall.

The veteran soldiers looked exhausted and fearful... They were men who had survived the Italian wars, only to find themselves without a leader, standing before a terrifying young lord.

"The Emperor’s Inquisition has turned to Franconia, but the Imperial Diet still demands our heads," Konrad addressed them, taking his seat at the head of the table.

"My Lord," one of the older captains spoke up cautiously. "We must name a new Master of Horse to command the peasant levies when the war comes. We need the numbers."

"The levies will not be commanded by a new Master of Horse," Konrad stated. "The custom of gathering peasants is useless in the wars to come. Unarmored men bearing pitchforks and rusty bills serve only to eat our grain and break rank under cannon fire."

"This...?" The captain blinked. "They are our vassals! Feudal law binds them to fight for us."

"I will not waste coin on an untrained mob... The levies are disbanded. The men will be sent back to plow the wheat, or set to work at the great forges." Konrad corrected.

"Then who defends the walls?" another captain asked, bewildered.

"The paid men-at-arms." Konrad answered. "I am gathering all arms under a single banner. Captain Eckhard is hereby named Marshal. He will hold sway over the town guard, the patrols, and the cannons. There will be one standing company, uniform in arms and drill, paid in Fugger silver."

The captains stared, seeing the magnitude of the shift. Konrad was tearing down the old ways of war that had governed the Holy Roman Empire for centuries.

"You are gathering every sword and cannon into your own hands..." the first captain whispered.

"I am making myself the sole master of war," Konrad clarified, "...you will serve under Marshal Eckhard, or you will leave my lands."

With Eckhard named Marshal, Konrad turned to the next reform of his arms. He returned to his study and unrolled a sheet of parchment.

The footmen and cannons were well in hand, but the estate lacked swift horsemen.

The old knight - encased in costly plate armor and charging with a lance - was a burden on the purse and useless against companies of handguns.

He began drafting the rules for a new company: the Schwarze Reiter.

They would ride lighter horse, clad only in blackened half-plate and open-faced burgonets. Their chief weapon would not be the lance.

Each rider would bear a brace of wheellock dags, housed in saddle holsters.

The maneuver was simple... The Reiters would ride in deep ranks. The front men would loose their dags at close measure, then wheel their steeds to the rear to reload, letting the next rank fire in an endless storm of lead.

It was a fluid cycle that broke the heavy armor of old knights without the chaos of a melee.

Knock... knock...

As Konrad mapped out the springs and wheels for the shortened dags, a sharp knock came.

Lady Katarina of Bavaria stepped into the study. She carried a ledger. As the keeper of the Bavarian coin, she came and went as she pleased.

"Marshal Eckhard is now purging the guard of any men loyal to the old ways."

"What do the ledgers say?"

Katarina opened the book. "The Fugger silver flows well... Our weaving brings a fifth part more in coin, thanks to your water-driven looms.

But finding good saltpeter is our greatest hindrance. The merchants of the Hanseatic League are raising their tolls on Baltic wares, speaking of unrest in the Empire."

"..." If the Hanseatic merchants choked the flow of saltpeter, the powder mills would cease, ruining his plans.

"We will bypass their tolls by finding our own route by sea. We must reach the Adriatic or the North Sea." Konrad stated.

"Hehe..." Katarina laughed. "We are landlocked in Swabia, Konrad... We have no ships, and the shores are held by powerful electors."

"This Holy Roman Empire cannot withstand the great works and forges we now build." Konrad replied, his eyes fixing on the map of Europe.

He stood and walked to the map.

"The first step of securing this valley is done," Konrad said. "The second step demands we bring the nearby Swabian and Franconian lands to heel, that we might feed ourselves. But the final step..."

He paused.

"...the final step requires forging all the German lands into one great realm."

"...!" Katarina stared at him.

He spoke not of weathering the Inquisition, but of conquering the Holy Roman Empire itself!

"You mean to cast down the Emperor...?" Katarina whispered.

"Once our forges run day and night, we will sell our new handguns and cannons only to chosen allies. We will stir up rebellions, break the old electors, and offer a place in our new realm as the only escape from ruin." Konrad corrected.

"...we will take the shores. We will build a fleet armed with great guns. The Spanish and Portuguese pull mountains of silver from the New World. That silver is bringing ruin to the coin of all lands."

Katarina sat in silence.