Steel Empire
The Battle of Two Cats

Sunlight shone through Adela's room and through her glass window, shining on her doll-like face as she slept under her blanket. It was already late dawn, yet the young girl was still sleeping; after all, she was still growing and, thus, needed a break of her beauty. After a moment of struggling to adjust to the light shining down on him, he began to frown before opening his deep sapphire eyes and gazing at his window in disdain. 

Now that she had woken up, she decided to get out from under her blanket, where she was wearing a lacy white nightgown; in keeping with most of her clothes, Berengar designed her with comfort and aesthetics in mind. The soft silk material dangled loosely from the curves of her growing teenage body. After stretching for a while, she decided to perform basic morning hygiene rituals such as bathing, brushing her teeth, etc, and flossing before finally putting on her beautiful clothes based on the Tudor and Elizabethan clothing patterns from Berengar's past life.

After putting on her daily clothes, she goes to the dining room where her family gathers for breakfast; ever since her sister Ava arrived in Graz, Adela has been doing her best to stay away from the woman, after all, despite being siblings, both get along well as cats and dogs. For whatever reason, Prince Salzburg's son and heir spent time in Graz with his wife and three children. Although Adela does not understand why this is happening, after all, Salzburg is quite safe, and the reason for a vacation visiting the Ava family has long been suspicious. 

Despite Adela's growing concern over the stay of her eldest sister, she still tries to play well with the young woman, and as such, the two sit opposite each other at the dinner table, where the two began to talk. Ava is, as always, the perpetrator of their little strife, and therefore, decides to bully her cute little sister. 

"Adela, I heard that your fiancee is brave enough to declare her heresy a reform! I wonder what will happen to him when the Pope finally declares a crusade to address the problems he has caused; after all, I fear for your safety, he said, you are engaged to the man the Church calls the Cursed Berengar!"

The women head straight to the heart, knowing that Adela's relationship with Berengar is her weakest point. However, ever since their first quarrel, Adela has grown wiser and realized that her eldest sister so often targets Berengar with her words in an attempt to anger him, Adela was as calm as the surface of the pool as she denied Ava's taunts.

"Any power that the Vatican sends to Tyrol will end up equal to the last group of fools to enter the Berengar region in an attempt to remove him from power."

He was quite clearly referring to the massacre of the Teutonic Order's army, which marched into the land of Berengar; the result of the battle was well known among the Lords and Madams of the German-speaking region. However, Ava knows something mostly unknown; after all, her husband is Prince Salzburg's son and heir, and her father's spy network is extensive. Therefore, he further taunted Adela with his attack on Berengar's character.

"Sweet little Lambert, I heard Berengar used vile magic to kill that poor boy in battle; what kind of black-hearted man killed his own little brother?"

Although Adela tried to remain calm, hearing her brother praise Lambert while insulting Berengar's character was enough to spark anger in her heart.; Ava dared to act as if Lambert was a saint, despite knowing his deeds in the past. However, this is exactly how the Church behaves on this issue. Every since Lambert's death, he was martyred in the eyes of Catholics and tarnished Berengar's reputation.

Every evil deed the boy had ever committed was wiped from his past by the powerful propaganda network of the Church; he said; the Catholic Church describes him as a very pious man who voluntarily gave up his inheritance to serve the Teutonic Order. Where he is deployed to bring his brother, a damned heretic, to justice. However, as the two fought on the battlefield, Berengar blinded Lambert with vile magic before stabbing him in the back.

This is the story in which the Catholic church tells the world about the duel of Lambert and Berengar on the battlefield of Oberstdorf. Obviously, it was entirely fabricated, but unlike Adela, who now considered herself a reformer due to Berengar's influence, it was not, Ava is a devout Catholic like the rest of her family and chooses to spread this story further, despite knowing her falsehood in a deliberate attempt to destabilize Adela. Hearing such provoking words, Adela could not help herself and directly attacked Ava who managed to aim. 

"You know very well that Lambert is a cunning little bastard who on several occasions tried to kill Berengar! What is the penalty for such an act? He is disowned and sent to the Teutonic Order to redeem himself, where he uses the first chance he can. Try to take revenge on Berengar for being merciful; he is; if you ask me, Berengar should have decapitated her, to begin with, it would have saved everyone from trouble!"

"I think that's the reason he told you after stealing Lambert's fiancee and impregnating her, right?"

Adela continued to rage in anger, but she did not lose control of her emotions. Instead, he forced himself to calm down before discussing Ava's final point. For the past few months, since Ava arrived, the, she constantly beats Adela in any argument solely because she will bring up this point after losing a landslide in the previous engagement round and causing Adela to go berserk. However, not this time, Adela finally found a way to defeat Ava this time, and she threw her words back into her face.

"So what if Berengar has a girlfriend? He was a great man, and many great men had many women by their side throughout history! If your husband is half as accomplished as Berengar, he can also take a lover, and I doubt you will object!"

These words completely baffled Ava and attacked her weakest point. She knew her husband had barely achieved such a feat as Berengar, nor would he ever achieve half of the things Berengar had in life. Aside from coming from a strong and slightly handsome family, her husband was a relatively dull and unambitious man. The fact that her youngest sister managed to get someone like Berengar as her fiance had aroused her anger, and that was her reason for always choosing Adela. 

While Ava had an ugly expression on her face, Adela smirked in satisfaction at him, oh how things have changed. As for her husband, who was slightly older than ava herself and named Wolfgang von Salzburg, it took a while for her to realize that Adela was basically implying that she was a loser. During that time, Ava attacked Adela as she kicked the table with her fists in a very disrespectful manner. 

"You think you're better than me because your fiance is so handsome, never lost a battle, and so rich? How dare you!?!"

Adela is very happy at the moment, since Ava first arrived, she keeps losing cat fights every day, but now her shoes are on the other leg. Apparently, Ava is a very sick loser. Because of this, Adela only mocked Ava and told her the words she said whenever she exploded in Ava in the past.

"We'll talk about this later when you've calmed down."

If previously Ava's expression was ugly, now it was really terrible, she wanted to pounce on Adela on the spot, but she knew she couldn't do it; after all, such behavior was not like women, either, and he has an image to maintain. Therefore, he quickly dug up the food on his plate while grumbling softly. Of course, it was at that moment that Wolfgang finally realized that there might be a slight possibility that Adela had just insulted him, and therefore, he whispered in Ava's ear asking that.

"Did he just call me a loser?"

Ava almost snapped at her husband's answer; not only was she foolish enough not to realize that she was insulted, but she also dared to ask him in front of the perpetrator; she really wished she was married to someone more like Berengar. Although she looked down on Berengar for being born into a lowly nobility, the more accomplished she was, the more Ava became jealous of Adela. Anyway, anyway, who cares if someone was born into low nobility or not when they turned from being the son of a baron and heir to a Count powerful enough to hand the bird over to the Vatican in less than a year?

After this little quarrel ended, the family breakfast continued in awkward silence; the only one who was satisfied with the outcome of this meal was Adela; he had won a great moral victory today against his sister. Adela believes that it is doubtful that Ava will mock Berengar further now that his weakness is revealed. Therefore, he enjoyed the thick German Pancakes on his plate happily.