Preview to Update 2
"We regret your position, but truly there is naught that the Empire can do for you at this time."
"Pathetic lies, and I know it. You are merely a puppet, a pawn of greater forces. We are all pawns. I do not blame you for being a puppet, not in the least. What I blame you for is refusing to admit it."
"Your anger gets the best of you, my lord. The Empire exists on peaceful terms with all her neighbors, great and small. His Majesty the Emperor is a benevolent friend to all his allies, encouraging commerce and the betterment of European peoples."
"So essentially, the Norse are abandoning us for words. Words can be erased with a gesture, but land is far more difficult to retake. But no, your Emperor in his benevolence will let Germany burn for the sake of his dreams. But again, I blame him not. What I blame you all for is pushing this disgusting lie of an alliance on my people!"
"The Norse Empire acts in the interests of her citizens, and the citizens of her allies."
"You idiotic fool. I care very little what petty lordship you aspire to, but your idea of a successful negotiation is far different than mine. The Bavarian armies are massing on our border, and in a year you will see the spectre of all that you fought to destroy in the last century reborn before your very eyes. And all for the sake of words. Good day to you."
It would culminate soon. Thuringia was the beginning, and Westphalia had bent the knee. Upper Saxony seemed an insignificant German state, he knew. And at times, he was disgusted with himself. His failure to build a unified identity, his failure to reform the army, his failure to feed the peasants.
And Bavaria was moving. Canute was an absolute idiot to let this happen. His ancestors were probably shrieking at him from the grave to stop Bavaria while there was still time, and the shadowy magnates of the Catholic League that pulled the strings behind it. The decade would see a new, German superstate, more stable and centralized than the Holy Roman Empire, but this time sanctioned and supported by the Pope, Austria, and Aquitaine...it would be a waking nightmare for the Norse.
Saxony was on the fringe, a tiny, unacceptable state that could be eliminated with little trouble. But the Norse, too, were on the fringe. Ireland, Byzantium, Andalusia...all would be destroyed by the new, rising order in time.
But it would not end like this, not again. The Welfs would not flee and cower under the shadow of a foreign throne. He would end their wretched line, here and now.
He picked up the pistol. Pressing it to his forehead, he fired.