It was not Franz’s intention to make an appearance so soon. In fact, he wouldn’t mind remaining behind the curtain before becoming Emperor if he could help it.

Unfortunately, that was impossible. As the Imperial Crown Prince of the Austrian Empire, Franz’s every move was scrutinized by men with serious intentions.

Franz’s frequent contact with the military could have caused a kerfuffle if he were not a young man without much power. But this was exactly the advantage that his youth provided him.

Still, Franz had to either find a way to manipulate public opinion towards him or to act as one who could and would speak for the public. The only difference would be whether he was pushed out in front of the public reluctantly or proactively stepped out into the open.

Franz did not want to be anyone’s pawn, so he chose to take the initiative and step forward of his own volition. If everything stayed on course, Vienna would be embroiled in a revolution in March of 1848, and he would ascend to the throne in December of that year.

In order not to be tarnished by the rebels and have to ascend to the throne with the title of executioner, thus marring his reign before it even began, Franz had to make the first move to act as a leader of the public.

Because everyone had a preconceived notion of who he was, Franz had to establish his image as that of a merciful emperor to prevent any attacks or mudslinging on him, lest they damage the reputation of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty.

“Rolf, how goes the recruitment of intelligence agents?” Franz asked with concern.

“Your Imperial Highness, I’m afraid not very well, as very few people meet your requirements. So far, I have only managed to poach two people from the secret police, and even they only barely meet your minimum requirements!” Rolf replied, ashamed at having failed his liege.

Franz was slightly taken aback by this since he had not expected that it would be so difficult to recruit intelligence agents. Was it because the standards he had set were too high?

He thought the requirements he had placed were the most basic of demands: loyalty to the imperial family, no political affiliation, a certain amount of wisdom, courage, alertness, patience, and a keen sense of judgment, and preferably a certain level of competency.

Aside from these, he didn’t even mention the typical requirements for agents: good personal temperament, a wide range of knowledge, keen political instincts, and strong analytical ability.

“Exactly what requirements are they unable to meet?” Franz asked, perplexed.

“Your Imperial Highness, plenty of candidates can meet one or several of your requirements, but very few can meet them all!” Rolf replied.

Franz was momentarily stunned by Rolf’s answer, but he also found it to be somewhat accurate: at the time, professional intelligence agents were rather rare, while amateur ones were plentiful.

It was challenging to set up an intelligence agency. Even if Franz, the imperial Crown Prince, could poach government agents, how could he guarantee that these people would remain loyal to him?

What if they were spies controlled by someone else?

He couldn’t ignore the possibility. At the time, professional intelligence agents always had a boss or a backer. Franz could only establish an agency by either cultivating agents himself or poaching ones from the government.

“Well, do you have any suggestions?” Franz asked while looking at Rolf with a frown on his forehead.

“Your Imperial Highness, in fact, you don’t have to establish this agency by yourself since the royal family already has one. It’s just that over the past few years…”

Rolf stopped in the middle of his sentence.

Franz nodded, as he had also heard of the Royal Intelligence Agency or simply the Agency. Typically, it answered only to the Emperor.

While its scale was small, its purpose was singular—to keep an eye on the internal condition of the state and its neighbors.

After his uncle became emperor, the Agency was almost deserted, and many agents were poached by Chancellor Metternich.

There was also the question of how much loyalty was left among those who remained.

In fact, even Franz would find it hard to believe if they didn’t use the agency’s power for their personal gain during the tenure of a weak emperor.

As a result, the Agency was like a sieve with innumerable holes through which the intelligence could leak.

This was why Franz had attempted to start a separate agency from scratch, one which would be entirely loyal to himself alone.

The problem was that time was running out: one year remained before the breakout of the Vienna Revolution, and there was no way he could effectively train his agents within that time.

“All right, Rolf, first send someone to secretly check whose forces have infiltrated the Agency. I believe there must be some people who are still loyal to the royal family there!” Franz replied.

If there were no such people, the Habsburgs wouldn’t still be here. They had stood at the peak of Europe from the 11th century to the present, and there had to be a reason for that, one that was more complex than what appeared on the surface.

Franz could be sure of this by understanding the situation in Austria. Since Franz’s uncle, Ferdinand I, couldn’t manage government affairs, the power to make major decisions fell to Chancellor Metternich.

However, Chancellor Metternich, as a ruler, behaved unlike any other. He attempted to suppress the royal family at every turn, and his policies were even geared against the Viennese Court.

The chief representative of the next generation of the Habsburg dynasty, Franz’s father, Archduke Franz Karl, lacked the wisdom and intelligence to thrive in politics, however, the main reason was that he had no interest in the throne.

Franz could quickly obtain support from the military on the basis of his origins as the heir to the Habsburg dynasty and the Crown Prince of the Austrian Empire.

Beyond that, he could not make any difference, no matter how hard he tried. In fact, historically, Chancellor Metternich had been forced to resign after the outbreak of the Vienna Revolution, mainly because he had no support from the military.

Considering this, Franz realized that the situation was not as bad as he had believed. Perhaps the nobility had infiltrated the Agency, but this didn’t necessarily mean that they had betrayed the royal family. As long as their interests were not involved, the Agency could still be trusted to provide accurate intelligence.

Once he became sure of this, Franz finally breathed a sigh of relief. Conflicts of interest between them might exist on other issues, but the nobility definitely stood with the emperor on the topic of suppressing the rebellion.

As for the bourgeoisie, Franz knew they would never manage to infiltrate the Agency, considering that most of the members of the Agency were nobles or connected to the nobility. Otherwise, with no funding being granted for more than a decade, the Agency would have long been disbanded.

Through these nobles scattered throughout the country, the royal family could easily collect domestic intelligence, and no salary was needed for the vast majority of them.

Agents in the Agency of the Habsburgs were not killer spies, and they had no law enforcement powers except to collect ordinary information.

Because of the tribute system of European nobles, the emperor had no access to anything inside their fiefdoms, and they could hide any information they chose since they themselves were the providers of the messages.

After a long period of hesitation, Franz finally decided to take this agency in hand first, because a rotten agency was better than no agency. At least, before a local rebellion broke out, the reliability and speediness of the news would be ensured.

Moreover, a poor person like him could only choose to support such a self-sustaining organization.