Steel Empire
The Broken Engagement

Adela von Graz is currently standing in the middle of the Great Hall of her family home with tears in her eyes as she argues with her older brother Gerhart von Graz. Gerhart was a young man on the verge of his twenties and, thus, several years younger than Berengar. As cousins, these young men had some striking similarities in appearance; they both had delicate and graceful appearances being the personification of the charming ideal prince in the eyes of many young girls. They were both tall and slender while remaining muscular, and they both had glamorous golden blonde hair. However, Gerhart's hair was longer than Berengar's and was not combed back; gerhart, however, had his father's emerald eyes.

If one were to state what Gerhart's relationship with Adela was, it was a very protective elder brother relationship, to the point that many would label her as sis-con. She has never liked Adela's engagement to Berengar and has voiced her concerns to her father many times. The grudge between the two cousins was more than a decade old when they were children and only grew over time. Until a year ago, Berengar was considered a sickly, lazy, and arrogant fool who was incapable of achieving anything significant in life. However, when this almost changed overnight, and Berengar began to be exemplary, Gerhart strongly approved of his transformation.

Of course, her approval always coincided with her humiliation; after all, she did not want to hand over her younger sister to any man, much less Berengar. Therefore, not long after that he began to hate Berengar once again. Berengar had committed many courageous acts that were incompatible with a devout Catholic like Gerhart. Berengar's open opposition to the church, the spread of heresy, and his execution of the Inquisitors were far greater problems for Gerhart than any of his other family members.

Berengar's legal reforms that spit on the faces of the old nobles, also managed to provoke the anger of the young Regent. Still, all of that paled in comparison to Berengar's latest revelation, which had crossed Gerhart's bottom line and left her with a great sense of disdain for her cousin. Berengar's public statement that Linde's illegitimate child was his own son etched a deep sense of hatred into Gerhart's bones. But despite all this, Adela continued to support Berengar; Gerhart could not imagine what magic Berengar played to control his precious little sister's mind to the point that he defended his scandalous actions and continued to support the idea of marrying that bastard.

In the end, there was nothing he could do about the matter as it was a deal that his father had continued to support until now. Gerhart and Adela's father had recently been called to war and was marching towards Bavaria with his army. Leaving Gerhart in charge of her family's land. As Regent, the first action he decided was to cancel the engagement between Berengar and Adela. Something that really disappointed the teenage girl. Right now, he was begging his elder brother to respect the arrangement with tears in his eyes.

"You can't do this! Just because you're the regent doesn't mean you can go against dad's wishes and end my engagement to Berengar!"

Enraged by Adela's insistence on supporting the female scoundrel who is their cousin, Gerhart shouts from above the seat of power in Steiermark as she tries to make her younger sister see reason.

"She has openly cheated on you with her younger brother's fiancee, they have a child together, yet she still intends to marry you and not the mother of her son! Why can't you see that he's a terrible person! She really and totally doesn't deserve to take your hand in marriage!"

"You are not my father, and you are definitely not Prince Steiermark! You don't have the authority to do such a thing!"

Gerhart was on the edge of her chair in anger; she had no idea what spell Berengar had cast on her younger sister to make her so rebellious against her own blood and flesh. Then again, Berengar was also his own blood and flesh, but it was much further away. The important thing was that he had already made the decision, and as the Regent, he felt as if it was his authority to terminate the agreement.

"That's done; I've sent a letter to the bastard telling him that he won't get my precious little sister! Now I don't want you talking to that villain anymore. Do you understand me?"

Adela was so angry at Gerhart that she let out her inner thoughts, which greatly hurt the man's self-esteem as a half-brother.

"Fuck up! I wish I didn't have an annoying brother like you!"

With that, Adela rushed to her room, where she lay face down on her bed and cried on her pillow. He could not believe his relationship with Berengar was over. He sincerely hoped that Berengar would not commit rash acts, such as raiding his family's land to marry him by force. The more he thought about such a possibility, the more he prayed that Berengar would give his crazy older brother some understanding. As for how Berengar would react to the news that his cousin Gerhart had annulled his engagement to Adela? Only time will answer. After all, he was the type of man who was not afraid to flex his muscles to get what he wanted. Ultimately calculating Otto's response to Gerhart's actions would determine how Berengar reacted to the situation.