Leopold, who was watching all this, admired the young man for his timing. He had chosen the moment when everyone was drunk, when they were relaxed enough not to consider etiquette and their honour too much, at the same time, he had not waited until all the nobles had enjoyed enough and gone into their rooms to go about their business. He was impressed.
Leopold looked forward to the plan. 'Was I thinking wrong the whole time?' he began to ask himself. Because if he considered things from the boy's point of view, the Holy Roman Empire really had very little to gain. Although he still felt it was very dangerous to allow the Russians to expand to the Mediterranean through the Balkans, he also knew that stopping the Bear, who was at its strongest, in their current situation, where they had still not fully recovered, was difficult.
"Go on," Leopold said.
"Yes, Your Majesty. Thank you."
