Madan no Ou to Vanadis

[Buffalobiian]

The regular army of Zhcted looks no worse than anybody else's.

What I'm saying is that it should look worse given all the infighting. All you need is an all-out war between two War Maidens and your country's forces are reduced by 1/7. Given that the Zhcted army is still strong, it means:

1) The War Maidens aren't as stupid/corrupt as humanly possible and any fights were actually "worth it" in terms of benefiting the country, and/or

2) Other countries are going through just as much, if not more infighting than they are so it all evens out.

I said as much before, but since they apparently live under feudalism, a king's power is limited in the first place. It's further limited by what you said: Who's going to take the weapon away from one such as they are? With such a system, the nobles seek alliences and profit from wherever they want. And fight with each other, even, if not especially, within the same nominal country. They did pay homage to the king, but who knows how much of it was theater to keep up the looks of the high society, how much genuine respect.

I don't know about that. Back in that episode where Elen reported to the king, he not only accused her of not keeping the nation's interests in mind (to the point where someone had to step in), but managed to put a look on Elen's face that said "Shit, the king does not approve". She also had no real option of giving Alsace to the king if it was formally given to Elen as her property. No matter how you look at it, the king seems to have quite a lot of pull on them.