I’m surprised that Kenntrips didn’t take into account how Sylvester won over his own wife and consequently mentioned as much to Hannelore. He seemed convinced that Hannelore would need Dunkelfelger’s rank to essentially force Sylvester to agree to the engagement with Wilfried. But considering how Sylvester fell in love and moved heaven and earth to marry his love, no matter what, there’s at least a chance that Sylvester might agree to a romantic partnership of his son. It’s probably not enough by itself, but Hannelore is also a real catch for Ehrenfest and will help the duchy, even if it’ll complicate the succession again. But the situation since the bride-stealing ditter has changed and they are now further along in the generational shift, and Hannelore would no longer be his second wife, which lessens one of the previous problems and eliminates the other entirely, that the original engagement would have had.
There of course the biggest problem would be, whether Wilfried actually returns Hannelore’s feelings, or if he truly was acting solely out of courtesy and the deference to higher ranking duchies that was hammered into him, plus whatever else Veronica more subtly weaved into his (mis)education, since she did raise him to be her puppet at least as much as she unintentionally spoiled him.
For a moment I found Luitpold’s timing to be a bit too fortunate, to give Hannelore hope, after she lost all, and consequently considered whether this was a ploy by Kenntrips, but I can’t imagine either of them being willing to invoke Lady Sieglinde’s name, even if it was indirectly. She’s probably have their heads… or certain other round objects on their bodies, if she found out they used her name to manipulate Hannelore. :P Maybe Dregarnuhr is finally taking pity on Hannelore, since if this request would have come after the meeting with Ehrenfest, she truly could have blamed her usual cursed timing. Still a bit odd, he waited until this moment to ask.
It’s kind of cute and endearing, but at the same time a bit disturbing, that Hannelore’s thoughts went straight to pinning Willfried down, without even talking first, or trying to get Rozemyne to help (which I’m sure she’d be only too happy to do) and how she thinks he’d even try to fight back. In all due likelyhood he’ll be so flabberghasted, he’ll just freeze up. Not that he’s likely to fight back against her out of courtesy and deference to higher ranking duchies in the first place. Now his retainers are more of a legitimate concern, but if she picks a moment in the archduke candidate course, that obstacle is out of the way… she’d better time it to happen at the very end of class though, to not further antagonize Professor Anastasius. ^^
But damn… this isn’t going to make things easier for Charlotte. With both Wilfried and Melchior potentially getting wives from Dunkelfelger, her chances to remain the successor are probably going to take a hit. I suppose there’s the upside of Wilfried not wanting to become Aub, but even so, him marrying the daughter of the first wife of the first ranked duchy, it will cause friction, and maybe even enough internal pressure that Wilfried will be unable to refuse to be the successor, much like happened when he was engaged to Rozemyne, no matter how much he dislikes it.
Melchior is potentially marrying “only” the daughter of Aub Dunkelfelger’s second wife, probably causing a little less pressure than Hannelore’s marriage would, but even so, Lungtase is still an archduke candidate from the first ranked duchy. Plus Melchior doesn’t carry the stigmata of past crimes and misbehaviour like Wilfried and we have no idea whether he might want to become archduke, plus the recent increase in prestige of his High Bishop’s position, so his marriage might well be the bigger issue for Charlotte.
Well, at least I’m quite sure that it’ll only be one marriage or the other. If Hannelore manages to snag Wilfried, that by itself will get Werdekraf the archduke candiate level connection to Ehrenfest he wanted and thus make Lungtase and Melchior’s engagement unnecessary, which will free her up to be married into another duchy for even more connections.
On a side note I wonder how Wilfreds current retainers feel about Hanelore. Would they hate her since the ditter match may have partially damaged his reputation (even though he doesn’t really care) or would they rejoice due to him finding a partner from a greater dutchy?
Those still holding out hope for him becoming the successor after all, would surely rejoice. Those who faithfully serve him, for his sake, like Lamprecht after his straightening out, I can see going three possible ways.
- Happy that he’s getting a good wife, who’s probably going to be able to keep his impulses in check (he’s got to be easier to deal with than the ditter-heads Hannelore is used to dealing with).
- They might resent her for the damaged reputation, as you said.
- They might take issue with the finally calmed down situation around his succession surely getting heated up and complicated again.
I don’t really know enough about any of them, not even Lamprecht, to make any educated guesses.
“Neither time nor society will wait for you” “you look ready to march to war”
Hannelore made her resolve. I can’t wait for girlboss to pin down Wilfred and propose to him.
It’d be both hilarious and cute, if she ended up appologizing for being so forward, while still on top of him. :3
Though more realistically, she’ll only appologize afterwards, but I’m sure she will appologize in some way or another… and be blushing so hard that she’ll light up the place like a lightbulb. ^^
