Tyranny of Steel

Within the confines of the Duchy of Burgundy, a meeting was held within the Duke's castle. The man who had begun an open rebellion against the French Crown due to the promiscuous behavior of his former lover, the Crown Prince, was sitting upon his ducal throne.

Standing before him were a group of diplomats dressed in the attire of belonging to the upper class of the Iberian Peninsula. The man at the forefront of the delegation began to speak French with a heavy Iberian accent as he addressed the man before him with a sign of humility and respect.

"I understand that you are doing the Lord's work by exposing the sinful nature of the Royal Family. Prince Aubry de Valois's behavior is truly disgusting, and the boy is destined to burn in eternal hellfire! Thus my master King Fransisco de Trastámara, ruler of the great Kingdom of Castile, has ordered me to deliver these weapons to your Grace as a sign of our support."

After saying this, the diplomat whistled, which signaled the men beneath his employ to bring forth the crates filled with weapons. Upon opening the wooden cases, various handheld firearms in the form of the Arkebuse appeared. Unlike the guns Berengar had given to the French Crown, these were crude knockoffs of local Iberian Manufacture.

They were made of inferior materials and lacked a standardized caliber; they were hardly the same quality of weapons issued to Berengar's allies. Despite this, the Duke of Burgundy had a wide grin as he witnessed the numerous crates that filled his great hall.

With these weapons, his armies would be able to do significant damage to the loyalists who backed King Gilles and his rotten dynasty. Upon witnessing the new weapons, the Duke raised from his seat before addressing his guests with a warm smile.

"I thank you for traveling all of this way to deliver such magnificent weapons. I promise you; I will make great use of them in my future conflicts with the Royal Family."

The lead diplomat nodded his head in response; as he did so, he began to speak further about the ongoing conflict in France.

"The Iberian Union supports you; we will make sure to bring in more weapons when we are next available to do so. As for the gunpowder and munitions, it can be sold for a reasonable price."

The Duke of Burgundy nodded his head in agreement; he found these terms acceptable. As such, he quickly sat down upon his seat before playing with a golden coin as he twirled it through his fingers. This coin was none other than the Austrian Gulden, whose silver counterpart had rapidly begun to replace other forms of currency as the international standard.

After a few moments of thought, he tossed the coin down to the diplomats below, who quickly caught ahold of it. As he did so, a smirk appeared on his face before responding to their statement.

"Consider this the first payment for your services. I look forward to doing further business with you."

The diplomat bowed his head with respect before responding to the Duke's statement.

"I thank your Grace for your generosity..."

After hearing this, the Duke dismissed the Iberian Diplomats who returned to the quarters that they were granted within his keep for the duration of their stay. After they arrived in their quarters, the delegates waited until they were confident that none outside the room could hear their whispers before speaking. The moment they began to converse, it was no longer in the French tongue with a Castilian accent but rather perfect German.

"For now, we shall maintain appearances, later at night; I will dispatch an encrypted message to headquarters, letting them know that the first stage of our operation has been successful and that we will maintain contact with the Burgundian host for some time before we begin the next phase."

In reality, this was not a delegation from the Iberian Union, but rather undercover operatives from Austrian Royal Intelligence who had begun to conduct the beginning stages of Austria's covert operations within the Kingdom of France.

Upon hearing this, the other agents nodded their heads in response to their Commander's orders. One of the men in question immediately began to inquire about the second phase of their objective in a hushed tone.

"What exactly is the second stage of this operation?"

The Agent in Command immediately began to inform his subordinates of their plans for the near future with a cautious tone.

"After we have finished establishing ties to the Burgundians, we will withdraw from their castle under the ruse that we are returning to Castile. Instead, we will enter the borders of the Kingdom of France and begin encouraging dissent against the Royal Family."

Upon hearing this, the agents nodded in silence before their Commander gave them their remaining orders.

"Alright, get some rest; in the coming days, we will maintain our current identities as foreign dignitaries until after we have withdrawn from the keep."

The subordinate agents nodded their heads before doing as they were told.

Weeks passed, and Linde sat within the confines of the Royal Palace within the City of Kufstein; by now, her belly had grown quite large, as she was several months pregnant. Despite this, she never ceased her responsibilities as the Director of Intelligence, even though much of her work was adequately delegated to the appropriate branches. In front of her was none other than Deputy Director Hemma, dressed in her full uniform, reporting information regarding their ongoing operations in France.

"Our agents have infiltrated the rebellious duchies of Aquitaine and Burgundy and have successfully supplied their leaders with the weapons and munitions necessary to inflict more significant casualties upon the French Armies. Their aliases are intact, and the rebels genuinely believe they have the backing of the Iberian Union.

Your plan of having our soldiers in Iberia capture the Union's knockoff Arkebuses and distribute them to our field agents for use in our covert operations was absolutely genius. If we were to use our supply of such primitive weapons, it would be much more difficult to conceal our identities."

Linde had a smug smile on her beautiful face as she heard this compliment; it was indeed nothing impressive, after all, she was the one who created Berengar's spy network from scratch, and with very little assistance from her husband, was capable of reforming it into a modern Intelligence Agency far beyond the capabilities of their rivals.

In comparison to this feat, the small details of their current operations in the neighboring Kingdom to the West were mere child's play. She had an arrogant tone of voice as she began to inquire about the next phase of their work in France.

"With Arkebuses in the hands of the rebels, it is only a matter of time before they use them on the field of battle; when that happens, the French loyalists will be forced to employ the arms we have already given them.

When the French people realize that their Monarch has accepted military aid from Austria, it will cause a massive scandal; thus, with our hidden agents' support in the field, France will soon find itself embroiled in a far greater conflict than they have seen thus far.

When this happens, the English will be sure to capitalize on it. As such, we must work swiftly to ensure that these new rebellious groups have anti-English sentiments so that they too have their work cut out for them!"

Hemma nodded her head as she heard Linde's train of thought before commenting on the situation.

"I will make sure to relay your orders to the field; before long, the entire Kingdom of France will be one giant warzone. I do not doubt that such a thing will spark a refugee crisis; what should we do about this potential outcome?"

Linde's smile went from smug to cruel as she sipped the tea in her cup; after drinking from it, she responded to this question with a bold statement.

"Seal the border, and give our soldiers orders to open fire on anyone who tries to enter the Kingdom of Austria illegally. I highly doubt Berengar would want a bunch of filthy French peasants entering his Kingdom."

The Deputy Director of Austrian Royal Intelligence immediately saluted her superior officer before responding to this order in the affirmative.

"It will be done, your highness!"

After saying this, Linde placed down her teacup filled with tea and dismissed her subordinate.

"If there is nothing else, then you may leave; I have many things to prepare for..."

Hemma nodded in silence before departing, leaving Linde by her lonesome as she drank from the rest of her tea in silence. Truthfully, she was not that concerned with the outcome of the Hundred Year's War, at least not in comparison to her husband. Instead, She was apprehensive about Berengar's safe return from the War in Iberia. As such, she spent some time in silence praying for his well-being.

While Berengar continued to wage war against his enemies, his Second Wife was hard at work, overseeing the various operations of Austrian Royal Intelligence; after all, it was not just France that had garnered Austria's attention.