Steel Empire
The collapse of the Kingdom of Vienna

As Conrad and Elma flee into the Night, Gautbehrt is currently losing the battle, as he challenges Duke Dietger's forces with all his might. However, the longer he maintained his family palace, the more his men fell into the meat grinder. As such corpses began to pile up inside the Vienna castle hall, their blood flowed onto the cold stone floor. With each defeat, Gautbehrt and his allies find themselves closer to the brink. The young duke desperately swung one of the Dietger knights with a long sword in his hand, however, he immediately felt a blunt object hit the back of his helmet, which knocked him unconscious. When he finally regained consciousness, he found himself sitting in the Great Hall, gathered and bound among his brothers. Because of the impact on his skull, 

Duke Dietger quickly entered the scene, and when he saw that Gautbehrt was tied up and tied up with his family, an evil smile appeared on his face as he began to mock the man in front of him.

"I have to say your struggle is brave, yet stupid. You should have just handed over your house and title to me when your father died in battle!"

Gautbehrt glared at Dietger in disdain; his only response to the man's provocation was a general spit, which caused a great sense of indignation to dwell within the Duke of Bavaria. In response to this insult, Dietger quickly flicked his finger, and as he did so, one of his men hit Gautbehrt with his fist made of steel, sending some of the young man's teeth loose. However, all that was accomplished was provoking a greater hostile gaze from Gautbehrt, who continued to oppose Diterger. So Dietger once again tried to insult the young Duke, who had just inherited his father's position.

"You and your family are mine; if you do not submit, I will destroy the male lineage of your bloodline and marry off your sister to my son and grandson. Your dynasty will forever perish from this world."

Although Gautbehrt was initially resistant to Dietger's threats, when he heard that his family line would be annihilated forever, he grimaced as he began to reflect on his actions; dietger was as ruthless as the rumors conveyed to him. However, what happened next was beyond the expectations of the two men. One of the knights of Dietger approached the scene and announced the shocking news of not only Dietger but everyone present.

"Your Majesty, Wilmar's youngest son, has escaped the castle's confines. We don't know where he is right now."

Hearing this information, Gautbehrt grinned at Dietger with a mocking expression and began to mock the man who had conquered his home.

"Conrad must be long gone; you will never find him; even if you execute me and my brothers present, You will never be the rightful ruler of Austria as long as my youngest brother is still breathing! Go ahead and do your worst, but one day Austria will be free and ruled by the Habsburgs once again!"

This humiliation stung Dietger like a thousand wasps. As a result, the Duke of Bavaria angrily repulsed the basket of the Knight who had told him about such a thing; naturally, he did not wear his gloves and nearly broke his hand due to the impact, causing a shock, that made a painful expression on the man's face that caused Gautbehrt to laugh at the man's suffering—look at Gautbehrt's mocking expression. Duke Dietger finally snapped and gave his men an order.

"Dragging this bastard and his brothers to the Page and poking their heads; to Conrad, I want a search party sent to find him. I failed to believe that he had escaped past the city gate!"

Despite these orders, Gautbehrt showed no signs of disappointment. Instead, he accepts his fate, knowing that there is still one heir left to his Dynasty. Even though the boy was a spoiled brat and still quite naive, he had many years to grow into a great man, and because of that, Gautbehrt died with a smile on his face, believing that one day Conrad will avenge him and their families. As for Dietger, he spent the rest of the night searching for Conrad in every corner of the city; however, when dawn finally rose, it was not until the end of the day, he realized that the boy had not been found anywhere in the city and had secretly escaped. Seeing that this was the case, Dietger became furious and demanded to find the culprit who had been negligent in their duties and let such an important pawn escape the city unnoticed. 

Eventually, the guards that Elma had deceived were brought before Dietgar by being tied up and chained, where they were very confused about what they had done wrong. Because of this, Dietger made it very clear when he asked them the truth about what had happened a few hours earlier.

"Did you allow anyone out of the gate entrusted to you to protect?"

"One of Siegmund's spies asks to leave; he brings a boy whom he says is his younger brother!"

Dietger soon became suspicious of this news and inquired further.

"This woman, how do you know she's one of Siegmund's spies?"

The guard quickly leaked details of what had happened.

"He carried a letter with his seal, which told me of his identity; in the letter, it was stated that he was acting under your command!"

Dietger was so enraged by this news that he could feel his brain about to explode; therefore, he forced himself to calm down. After a few breaths of death, he ordered his knights to look after those who had failed to carry out their duties.

"Turn off the heads of these people and put their heads on nails so that everyone can remember the consequences of failing to fulfill their orders. As for Siegmund, I'll take care of him when I get the chance."

Dietger was already suspicious of Siegmund's loyalty, especially after his inactivity at the Tyrolean border and his constant requests for reinforcements. He had already planned to punish the man for failing to fulfill his orders to advance to Tyrol, yet now it seemed that the man had conspired against him. This is intolerable. So Berengar inadvertently diverted the blame for Conrad's escape to the man who was currently besieging his border. Although Berengar was cunning, he never expected Dietger to truly believe the reasons he made himself. 

As time went on, Dietger quickly gave orders to some of his knights.

"Pursue the runaway bastard and bring his head to me. He's headed to Siegmund's territory! Go now!"

Dietger had given orders to follow in a trail that did not exist; therefore some of his Knights would be sent in pursuit of wild geese in their attempt to track down Conrad and bring back his skull, the Guardian reported, thus allowing him and agent Berengar to successfully exit back to Tyrol. When Dietger finally learns that Conrad has made it to the safe border of Tyrol and into the clutches of Berengar, he will lose his mind on the matter. However, for now, he suspects Siegmund is the culprit and is so angry that he can't even figure out who the real mastermind is. 

As for Conrad and the others, their wagon had successfully joined the trading caravan that was heading towards Kufstein. After all, the area had become a center of trade in Southern Germany, even during this time of widespread warfare. Because of this, they seamlessly mingled with other merchants, who did not know that they were hiding the targets pursued by the Duke of Bavaria and their troops. Thus, Conrad, Elma, and the other Agents could enjoy a trip to Kufstein peacefully; after all, any trade that intended to enter the Berengar lands was sufficiently protected with proper caravan guards, after all, but also with the understanding that if they were attacked, Berengar would exert the full force of his army on anyone foolish enough to do just that,

As such, Berengar's plans for the future came into full effect; with Conrad saved and the rest of the male line of the Habsburg Dynasty executed, nothing stood in the way of his ascension as he fought for power in Austria. All that was left was to convince Conrad to appoint Berengar Regent and retake the Duchy with fire and fury. Both were fully achieved by Berengar.