Royal Work-Horse

Elsewhere :

Henrietta pinches the bridge of her nose as she frowns down at the desk covered in paperwork, reports, and other things requiring her immediate attention. While this would usually be the job of her mother of the Steward, she'd been forced to do it after her earlier acts of disrespect towards her 'fiance'.

Most of these were requests to mobilise some forces to go collect taxes from unwilling or unable villages, of which she sees little to no point in doing. The rise in taxes had been to try and full the treasury before whatever conflict was coming, that plus the sudden drafting of many young boys and men to the army had left many places completely unable to pay... And now these Nobles wished to forcefully extract whatever worth is left from these places? Even an idiot could see that such actions would only lead to the destruction of not only these settlements, but Tristain as a whole. Everyone needed to eat, even Nobles.

She easily rejects these while explaining her reasons, listing them out as if she were mailing a five-year-old and not minding that some would be offended by it, as being rejected would anger them enough already.

She continues through the pile, a request for someone from the palace to officiate a duel here, a dispute between two Nobles on some inane artifact there, even a report of a Noble butchering his servant when she got pregnant to remove the chance of siring a bastard...

Her quill continues scratching ink into the parchment until she reaches a compilation of reports for their 'spys'. Or at least, what should have been a compilation. Tristain had a few spymasters who worked tirelessly to ferret out information from the other countries, where they would send the compilation of relevant knowledge to the throne, and now recently the council.

She frowns as she flips through the pages, all of them having strange reports which have large notes written at the bottom of them, "Fraudulent and compromised.", which basically meant that someone had infiltrated their spy network and started producing false information.

The fact that most of these were coming from Gallia instantly made her wary, knowing that the country had begun broaching into their borders with scouting parties. One group was captured, but claimed that they were just hunting for monsters, which would usually be a good reason as managing the borders was a job both countries took seriously...

But she knew better than to take Gallia at their word. With Albion now in ruins after an incredibly damaging Civil War, Tristain was without one of its greatest allies, and was on the border of civil war as it is.

There were more merchants, hunters, and patrols from Gallia along the border, and while most would just ignore this, she knew the timing was too coincidental. She didn't think they'd invade anytime soon obviously, winter was coming and would benefit Tristain in any war with Gallia as they'd have the home advantage.

But after the snows melted away? She was sure Gallia would attempt something, they likely wouldn't invade without a proper 'excuse'. Whether it was to call into the royal families legitimacy to rule, or somehow convince Romalia to back them...

She lets out a sigh and looks over to the next parchment requiring her attention, only then realising that this wasn't a report, but a message sent directly to her by one of her new vassals. Chevalier Loutiel Outous, Saviour of Antomiers, Hero to Commoners, and unbeknownst to many, Exile of Gallia.

Henrietta had not thought much of the man when the raising of his name was brought to her attention. Such things, while not common, weren't exactly rare either. Men and women who do extraordinary tasks for the kingdom usually receive such a title along with a litany of other rewards for their service.

But, this man was different. He wasn't like the others who immediately started pining for the attention of other richer houses. Instead, he'd started making contact with Henrietta herself, instead of her mother or the council. In particular, his interest in Louise' magic progress, while somewhat strange, revealed that he might know more than he lets on.

At first, his letters to Henrietta were inane useless chatter. Asking if she had any tasks for him to complete, requesting permission to take down gangs or other terrorist groups around the capital, etc. But after a couple weeks, he'd begun to... Educate her? After all, it was primarily Loutiel who helped her rationalise the strange behaviours of Gallia recently.

Then, she'd met in permission after requesting his presence in the palace, the man finally revealing much about himself. His former relation to Gallia as an exiled Noble was a big shock to her, especially when she heard that his exile was merely a front to attempt to assassinate him of course, as it was a surprisingly common tactic used by King Joseph de Gallia. Who to most outside of Gallia saw him as a handsome man with none of the qualities you'd want from a King... This was just a front to hide his true personality however.

It was in this meeting that he revealed that Joseph de Gallia had murdered his brother for the throne, and attempted to murder his niece who would be in the line of succession, only to fail and instead poison the girl's mother. The girl herself was quietly sent away from the country, and many assumed that she was already dead. Loutiel thought so too, and his attempts to investigate it had him exiled as well, his title stripped, his lands given to another rival house, and his betrothal nullified. Luckily, he hadn't had any family left to use as blackmail, so there was that at least.

She'd ended up blurting out, "So, was this your plan all along? Gain a new title and try to get revenge", which caused the man to start laughing. He'd gone on to explain to her that King Joseph's mindset wouldn't allow him to stay stagnant. The country was wary of him, some even quietly starting talks of rebellion, his pride and arrogance wouldn't let anything threaten his position.

Loutiel explains that Gallia will likely begin trying to take territory from Tristain. It might have also done so against Romalia, if the country wasn't seen as the center of the Brimiric faith. From the reports she'd seen, Henrietta believed Loutiel, but there wasn't anything she could do about it.