Madan no Ou to Vanadis

[Kraco]

Other nations must somehow be in poorer conditions than they are to not take advantage of this. (I suppose the other dudes were fighting amongst themselves as well... so they're all dumbasses)

The regular army of Zhcted looks no worse than anybody else's. Add to that for example just two or three war maidens and only a lunatic would try to attack. They don't need all the war maidens ready and waiting, unless all the other countries suddenly decided to attack them in unison.

[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.

[Kraco]

No matter how you look at it, the king seems to have quite a lot of pull on them.

Perhaps the king is good at playing the war maidens against each other. Like if one behaves too badly, the kind might be able to have two others deal with the rogue one. On the other hand the war maidens should have their own lands and estates, and those can't function if the king cuts all ties. However, none of this means the king would hold a tighter least on them than any regular nobles, that's for sure. Nothing would stop a war maiden from killing the king, aside from another war maiden. If the war maidens got too friendly with each other, and too not friendly with the king, they could throw the king away and have the county ruled by war maidens. So, it could be even essential for the king that the war maidens fight with each other, as long as the country isn't too much weakened.