The Viennese public that came to the Emperor's funeral numbered more than ten thousand, tightly filling several nearby streets.
Joseph, clad in a black overcoat, sat in a wheelchair, following closely behind Leopold II, contemplating how to withdraw the French Army from Silesia in stages.
Well, his legs were fine, but the official story was that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had suffered a leg wound from a bullet on the battlefield. During his journey to Vienna, the wound became infected, and it was now starting to affect his mobility.
The conflict in Silesia had come to a halt. Lacy had dragged the cannons he'd used during the standoff at Legnica back to Breslau and built new defensive lines.
Just the day before yesterday, Leopold II had formally announced the suspension of Joseph II's reforms, causing an uproar throughout Austria.
Joseph remembered that historically, Leopold II canceled the reforms a few months later. It seems that due to the excessive burden the war in Silesia had placed on the Empire, he had to act sooner to secure more support from the nobles, especially the Hungarian nobles.
However, this was good news for him. Once the Hungarian troops poured into Silesia in large numbers, the withdrawal of the French Army would be much less noticeable.
Behind him and to the side, another man sitting in a wheelchair was staring at him with venomous resentment, Baron Walter.
Walter's injury had healed quite a bit but walking still caused him immense pain.
He no longer feared the Crown Prince of France—the French Army had previously been the Emperor's hope for reclaiming Silesia. Just as before, the slightest sign of dissatisfaction from the Frenchman would lead his brother-in-law to severely reprimand him.
He even worried that the Crown Prince of France would once again send someone to assassinate him.
Yet now, everything was different!
The reforms had ended, and the nobles were jubilant, vowing loyalty to the new Emperor. Furthermore, the Hungarian nobles had rallied an army of almost 40,000 men, which was soon to depart for Silesia.
In Austria, Bohemia, Croatia, and even the Southern Netherlands, a great number of nobles who had refused to fight due to the reforms were about to join the ranks; their numbers were said to be over 30,000.
This meant that Austria no longer needed the French Army.
Baron Walter in the wheelchair looked down at his maimed hand and silently vowed to someday make that arrogant and despicable Frenchman pay!
In fact, he had already been secretly contacting anti-French ministers in Austria, working to get the French Army out of Austria. Although he had little political prowess, his identity was a political symbol in itself, so his efforts were starting to have an impact.
Austria, an empire that had come together without bloodshed and located in the heart of Europe, bordered many powerful nations, leading to a variety of factions within the country—pro-France, pro-Britain, pro-Russia, even pro-Prussia, and of course, there were opponents to all the aforementioned nations.
If Joseph knew about Baron Walter's maneuvering, he really would have to award him a medal.
Walter thought France was bending over backward to ally with Austria and form an Allied Forces with the Holy Rome, but Joseph couldn't wait to slip away and leave Silesia, this land of trouble.
And so, after the funeral of the ambitious Emperor of Sanctum, Joseph II, was over, Joseph used his severe injury as a pretext to return to Paris and took the first regiment of the Guard as his escort along the way.
Before leaving Vienna, Camellia had found no spare time to visit her teacher—the Crown Prince was injured, and she needed to be available to tend to him at all times.
While everyone was preoccupied with the Emperor's funeral, the assassination of Baron Walter went largely unnoticed. The girl left a letter for her teacher and returned to Paris with the Crown Prince.
Despite Joseph's repeated requests for the media to downplay France's military victory in Silesia, close to a thousand citizens still gathered on either side of the streets to welcome the victorious troops upon his arrival in Paris.
Joseph had long since abandoned his wheelchair—who said the Crown Prince couldn't recover from robust health in a week—and after making a brief speech to the welcoming crowd, left the task of promoting "military-civilian fraternity" to Bertier, heading straight back to the Palace of Versailles.
After reporting his safety to Queen Mary and Louis XVI and dining with them, Joseph finally had some leisure time.
Was it easy being the Crown Prince? It was almost always working 9-9-7, and he often had to travel on business.
He was preparing to head back to his chamber for a good night's sleep. During his time in Silesia, he had mostly slept on campaign beds, which left him waking up with a sore back. Today he could finally enjoy his own velvet bed.
However, as he rounded the corner of the corridor, he saw Fouche, Mirabeau, Bailly, and others standing at the door, eagerly waiting.
Joseph sighed deeply and walked over with heavy steps.
Several ministers hurriedly bowed with respect. After praising his victory in Silesia, they exchanged glances, and Fouche took the lead into the parlor.
"Your Highness, about that matter concerning Oscar Poli that you instructed," the head of the intelligence service laid a document before the Crown Prince, "we have mostly grasped all his details and have placed people around him, we can take action at any time now."
Joseph's spirits lifted upon hearing this. This Corsican Restoration Faction leader was a thorn in his side, regrettably located in England, but now he finally had the means to deal with him.
He looked at Fouche and asked, "Do you have a plan?"
"According to your previous instructions, we've decided to achieve our goal through a mistress."
Since the British Government forbade assassination, Joseph could only set the goal for Poli to be socially finished.
He frowned slightly and followed up with, "Please, elaborate."
"Yes, Your Highness," Fouche replied, "Poli is married. We plan to have a low-born Bulgarian woman seduce him, making him think she's French.
"After she accomplishes this, we will widely publicize their affair and also reveal the woman's background..."
Joseph sighed. He couldn't blame the intelligence service for their outdated methods; after all, they were people of the 18th century, unfamiliar with the intricate plots of the future, so such a cliched strategy was to be expected.
Seeing his dissatisfaction, Fouche quickly added, "Then, how about I send two Bulgarian women to seduce him?"
The French Guard Carabinier Cavalry, some units left their mark in history only under Napoleon's command, while others did exactly the opposite, Guard Cavalry Regiment, already renowned in Europe since the 18th century. They, like the Guard Grenadier Cavalry, enjoyed the finest warhorses. Since they were an Old Nobility unit established by Louis XVI and had a fierce reputation for taking cities and lands, they were a fearsome double-edged sword for Napoleon.