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-VB-

Hans von Fluelaberg

The lord mayor of Lindau was freaking out.

I don\'t know why, but he was freaking out pretty hard, even though he was hiding it pretty well.

It\'s been an entire day since I\'ve arrived at his city, and in our first private meeting, he was still freaked out.

"So what is this about, mayor?" I asked him as I took a sip of the sweetened ale offered to me. He\'s been accommodating for me, even more so than I expected because he was a mayor - a commoner - and I a baron.

The bushy bearded mayor almost fidgeted, but he kept his composure - calm body language, hands clasped together and resting on the table between us, and wearing clothes that showed wealth but not necessarily arrogance about his wealth - and looked at me.

"Milord, I want to know if you were … slighted by the fact that bandits in my territory assaulted you en route to my city," he began.

I stared at him.

He stared at me.

I stared at him a bit longer.

He looked like he was going to break out int- oh, no, he did just break out into a cold sweat.

… Hmm, could I do something with this?

"I was not slighted at all," I replied with my best casual smile. "In fact, I found it to be … refreshing. You can only travel for so long before you start to get bored."

The mayor stilled. "I see. I am still glad that you weren\'t hurt by them. If … it does not bother you, then may I punish them through the city\'s judicial system?"

Not a big ask. "Sure."

He suddenly looked too happy.

Why was that? Was someone among the bandits his kin? A prized agent?

"But," I added after a moment. "I\'m surprised that bandits are the first thing you have in mind," I drawled.

He froze up.

Man, this guy was way too easy to fuck with. Did Isabella and half of my people have really good poker faces?

… But I should get serious. It was obvious that he was wary of me to an extent. I could use that to my advantage.

Lindau was a critical juncture for a lot of the trade that went through my town. Sure, Chur was also a juncture, but traders didn\'t need to go to Chur, which was, for a Prince-Bishop\'s capital city, pretty poor by the empire\'s standard. For example, the Prince-Bishopric of Lubeck, and not to be confused with the Free and Hanseatic City of Lubeck, which broke off from the former, was a very rich place because the capital city of the Prince-Bishopric of Lubeck, Eutin, was right next to the city of Lubeck. Chur was still not rich in comparison, despite the fact that me handing them over a recipe to make paper and the city\'s gusto adoption of a new industry led to increasing prosperity for the city.

Lindau, however, was rich. In fact, Constance and Lindau, the two nearest free imperial cities, were the richest cities nearby that traded with me and the Compact.

However, there was a difference in the kind of trades that occurred. Constance, for example, did their utmost best to purchase any and all dyes that I made. Lindau couldn\'t compete with the richer free imperial city in the dye market, so they instead bought more wool from us. What Lindau did do, however, was purchase more porcelain while the porcelain trade seemed to lack behind for Constance.

From what I heard, I knew that most of the porcelain didn\'t stay here. Instead, those went beyond the Alps and into Swabia and Bavaria. In exchange, they brought salt from through the Bavarian salt road.

Lindau, as such, was a chokepoint for my porcelain and salt trade.

I wanted to pressure the good mayor to reduce tariffs on those goods.

But of course, whatever he felt worried about regarding the bandit couldn\'t be the only variable I would use to negotiate the tariffs. Instead, I needed to bring a few more things to the table.

"The road is sure unsafe around these parts, yes?"

The mayor froze up.

"I… yes, it can be like that when winter approaches, your grace. You know, the peasants can get a little desperate if the harvest is bad, ha ha ha!" he nervously stuttered out with a laugh at the end.

It sounded forced… which it probably was.

Why not make him sweat a little bit more?

"You know, I remember reading a certain book that came out of this city," I said casually without breaking my stare. "A book that seemed to claim ownership of many things that weren\'t the author\'s to claim."

The mayo was visibly sweating now.

"He wouldn\'t … happen to still be around, would he?"

"No! No, I sent him away. I - I couldn\'t have someone so dishonest in my city. You understand, right?"

I leaned back. "Yes. But why does it seem like Lindau seems to be complicit in many inconveniences that I keep encountering, I wonder…" I drawled before giving him a hard glare. "It wouldn\'t happen to be because its mayor wants to pick a fight with me, right?"

"I wouldn\'t dare!"

"So you say." I paused. "Lindau is already very close to the Compact, and if my negotiation with the Count of Heiligenberg goes through successfully, then Lindau will be right across the water from the Compact."

The mayor nodded slowly and fearfully.

"I … see. Yes, I have considered that. We would be neighbors, then."

I nodded with a smile.

The smile seemed to put him off more than my agreement.

"... Where are you getting at, your grace?"

"Well," I began. "If we are to be neighbors, then it would be good if we help each other, right? Neighbors wouldn\'t … harm each other."

"Yes…?"

"And if bandits like those are a yearly problem for you like you were alluding, then I will be more than happy to lend you a hand."

He seemed surprised by my offer, and gained a rather calculating look.

"You will?"

"Of course, but it takes time and money to train my rangers, and I pay them rather well. I can\'t reduce their pay just because they are helping my neighbors."

"Of course…?"

"So I was wondering if you will be amenable to … negotiations on tariffs for goods coming from the Compact. Of course, this means that I will also reduce tariffs in exchange."

Mayor Frederick stared at me before nodding. "I am open to negotiation, Baron Fluelaberg."

"Wonderful! How about reducing all tariffs down to 1%?"

Despite his obvious wary respect and fear, he balked at that. "My baron, you may as well pull out your sword and rob me at swordpoint!" he protested. "Those tariffs make up a large part of the city\'s income. I can\'t possibly lower them down by more than a few pfennigs!"

I grinned. Now, we were getting into a proper negotiation.

-VB-

Count Simon Zahringen of Heiligenberg

As his men and he rode toward Lindau along the coast of the Bodensee, Simon wondered about the man he would meet.

The letters he had received didn\'t read like it was from someone who was just learning to read and write, which meant that the rumors about the baron being some common born was false or at least so incomplete that Simon couldn\'t trust any of the other rumors and information he gathered about the man.

The only one he could trust then was from his "accountant" who came from Lindau.

And that man reminded him time and time again that the Baron of Fluelaberg was probably one of the smartest men in Swabia if not the empire. Not directly, no, but by acknowledging that the man was the source of unheard of knowledge of the natural world.

And even alchemy.

In the weeks between then and now, the problem in his fief had only grown worse. He needed to get as much money out of this deal as possible, because it was clear to him that if he didn\'t have a large supply of coins, his people might suffer.

He glanced at Lindau, which sat on an island off the northern coast of Bodensee, and hummed. There were some people on the bridge, including someone who looked …

He wasn\'t quite sure. Rough? Tough? Whoever that was, he was definitely a warrior if the giant sword on his back was any indication.

The man also noticed him, and waited for him.

… Could it be?

As his entourage reached the bridge, the fur coated and giant sword wielding man looked up from where he and a few equally fur coated but swordless men stood on the ground while he was on top of a horse.

"Count Zahringen?"

"That is I."

The man bowed lightly. "I am Baron Hans von Fluelaberg. It is a pleasure to meet you, milord."

-VB-

A/N: A common occurrence in HRE\'s history is that a noble\'s or a priest\'s territory becomes rich as a result of one of the cities. Then those cities would go and break away from their overlord by becoming a free imperial city, which the HRE emperors were more than happy to grant imperial immediacy to as a way of reducing the power of up and rising nobility and because these cities would be directly under the emperor and thus pay their taxes to him, not their former lords. This is why you have, for example, the Prince-Bishopric of Augsburg and the Free Imperial City of Augsburg. And the Prince-Bishopric of Bremen and the Free Imperial City of Bremen, and as discussed in this chapter, the Prince-Bishopric of Lubeck and the Free and Hanseatic City of Lubeck. This is also what happened during the Chur Election Mini-Arc when the city of Chur broke away as a political entity from the Prince-Bishopric of Chur.