It had all started with Viola and Prince Louis's child. I had only meant to wipe away the filth clinging to the Rijeka family as a favor to the two of them, but the matter had snowballed far beyond anything I'd imagined.
It became a massive embezzlement scandal that entangled even princes, yet rather than exposing those princes directly, I focused on cutting off their money supply. Dealing with princes is the grand duke's job, not mine.
That's not to say I avoided the eastern princes out of fear. But if I had attacked the Counts of Ulm and Dellingen directly, the west would have jumped in as well, and everything would have descended into chaos all over again.
The civil war had already drained the nation's strength, and now was the time to focus on recovery. Princes going at each other's throats again was the last thing Altringen needed. So I left them to the grand duke.
