Steel Empire
The Evil Alliance

During Linde's maternity leave, the position of the spy chief is temporarily handed over to her scoundrel stepbrother Adelheid, who operates in Innsbruck. She was Linde's personal servant, who since her departure worked on the family estate and directly served her father, Lothair. She doesn't really like her father because of how he was treated during his youth and desperately views Linde as his oldest and only older sister who seems to take care of him. Therefore, he was eager to spy on his father's territory for his precious older sister.

Of course, he is unhappy with Berengar for making Linde his lover; Adelheid thinks that Linde's love has blinded him to Berengar's true nature and that in fact he is an absolute bastard, like his father. However, if supporting her was what Linde wanted, then she would comply. Even if he believes Linde deserves the position of Berengar's wife and not that little girl from Graz.

Currently, Adelheid was cleaning his father's study, where he found various letters issued exchanging details between Bishop Innsbruck and his father. Now exiled from Kufstein's home and sent to the Teutonic Order, Lothair's plans depend entirely on his daughter's illicit relationship with Berengar. Thus, a rift had grown between him and Bishop Innsbruck, who continued to insist on overthrowing Berengar for the sake of the church. Seeing literally no benefit from this request, Count Lothar had ignored the request of the Bishop and the church. Instead, he sided with Berengar to win his heart and potentially get a better deal in the steel trade.

Adelheid read all the information he could gather from Bishop Innsbruck and his father's correspondence and added it to the network of knowledge he had gathered. As he searched for information, he heard footsteps and a pair of voices approaching, one of which he recognized as his father's voice. So he quickly put the letters down in the order he found them and started sweeping the office, making himself look busy. By the time his father and the unknown figure arrived at his office, they saw the illegitimate daughter Lothar fulfilling her duty of cleaning the room and not feeling suspicious at all. After all, as his personal servant, it was something he should have done.

The Count did not even take issue with his presence as he began to speak to a man dressed in the clothes of a Bishop, whom Adelaide recognized as Bishop Ernest of Innsbruck; the man was very fat and easily in his sixties; he was very fat; he had a very troll-like face, and was completely bald with a long mustache that looked like a bunch of snow-white walrus ivory. This fat bastard looked at Adelheid fully**** as he cleaned the office in the background. Noticing his sinful gaze, Lothar snapped at him.

"Don't think about it!"

considering that the fat old man was here to negotiate with Prince Tyrol about withdrawing his support for Berengar, the man growled but eventually retracted his gaze before speaking to Lothar in a decidedly false polite tone.

"Count Lothar, I'm sure you are aware that by supporting a cursed heretic like Berengar, your own soul risks suffering the same fate as him."

Lothar took out a pair of trophies and then filled them with wine, handing one to the fat old bishop before discussing his terms with the man.

"Cut to pursue; I don't want to hear any nonsense from you. If you don't give me something valuable, then I wouldn't think of leaving that brat for your fate."

The old bishop grimaced upon hearing those words; he was well aware of Berengar's miraculous ability to turn iron into steel, he was also aware of Lothair's ambition to become Duke of Austria, and thus, he was well aware of Berengar's miraculous ability to turn iron into steel, even with the church's tremendous wealth he had to pay a heavy price to convince the Count to join him.

"Well, what the Church wants to offer you is the entire Prince-Bisophric of Chur to add to your domain."

Count Lothar was not only shocked, but also Adelheid; this was not a small domain owned by the church bordering the County of Tyrol. It contained many resources and a relatively large population. If Lothar obtained this, he would be able to increase his military wealth and strength significantly. He did not believe the Church was willing to act this far to take down the little Viscount; therefore, he had to clarify the matter.

"You're going to give me the whole Chur region?"

The bishop nodded his head in agreement as his next words confirmed his offer.

"The Holy Father has agreed to it; all you have to do is side with us when the time is right and storm Kufstein with the Teutonic Order."

Count Lothar thought about it for a while; the minerals, wealth, and power he had gained from Chur would be worth more in total than the trade he had with Berengar. Therefore, she had no reason to refuse, especially when she considered the fact that she hated the boy who had hit her beloved daughter. Therefore, Lothair extended his hand and strengthened the alliance with the Church. Although he would still officially remain on Berengar's side for now, when the time was right, he would revive the Regent's son and bring order to his territory once again. He doesn't care who rules Kufstein as long as they submit to him.

The fat old bishop burst into laughter as he shook the Count's hand and declared their alliance on the spot.

"I know you are a very believer; together, we will destroy this heresy and prevent its views from spreading throughout Europe! He has caused more harm to the faithful than you might realize."

The truth of the matter is, with the scandal uncovered by the Vatican over the matter openly supporting the usurpation of Berengar's assets and the rebuttal made by both Counts against them, he said, berengar's popularity increased among the German nobility, and his views are currently being propagated in his propaganda. It would not be long before this heretic in which the church officially considers the Berengar heresy spread to every corner of the German world. At that time, the church would lose significant power, and therefore, they were willing to give up a huge plot of land to get rid of Berengar as quickly as possible. After all, they didn't want the Teutonic Knights to have to face Count Lothar's army and they also didn't want to engage in the entire crusade just to bring down this growing heretic.

Hearing of this serious threat to Berengar, and more importantly, his dearest sister, Adelheid, was happy to report this news to Linde at the first available opportunity. Therefore, after witnessing this despicable alliance forming, he used the first opportunity he got to leave the office and wrote a letter to Linde informing him of the threat that was beginning to materialize in Innsbruck.