Sovereign

“The Imperial Diet of Asanai has passed the ‘Partial Mobilization Bill of 2025’ in a resounding two hundred ‘yes’ votes and forty-eight ‘no’ votes. This would give the Prime Minister of Asanai and the Empress the ability to fully enact the bill. The bill gave the provision to expand the Asanaian Armed Forces greatly, with a two hundred billion OB (Orlish Blancs) as a preliminary injection budget for the next four years, alongside the increase of arms spending to a target of five percent for fiscal year 2026. The Imperial Government of Asanai has now reiterated that the pacifist nation has ‘no plans for aggression’ but that the changing winds and actions of ‘hostile rogue states’ have resulted in the need for ramped-up defense preparations.”

- Geopol Press

+++

United Confederation of Pez

Brewich

“Bad news,” William said. “There’s a situation developing in the Gallia–Poznek DMZ.”

Amelie and the Orlish delegation were now leaving the MN General Assembly building, as after Mr. Koch’s speech, multiple alerts about detected missiles were found by the Pez Air Force near the Pozneki border. Naturally, the alert was disseminated quickly to the international delegates in the General Assembly, which led to a temporary recess as they were urged to ‘hunker down’ until the situation dropped.

Amelie quickened her pace behind William, as her personal security detail surrounded her. “William, I heard they were false alarms.”

“Precisely,” he said, not turning back to meet her. “But the situation is worsening. Pez can claim itself to be neutral all it wants, but this mountain nation is practically sandwiched between the CFN and MN’s Gallia. Should an attack against Gallia occur, Pez is a target.”

“Damn it, I still haven’t made my speech,” Amelie complained. “I was preparing for it too.”

“Well, sucks. You folks allowed that loudmouth to speak second instead of you. Not the brightest of ideas, no?”

“Well, I was thinking that letting the enemy fumble first would give me more ammunition during my turn.”

“Ah, the defensive style,” William stopped in front of their armored SUV, just as one of the guards opened the door for Amelie. She naturally went straight inside, just as William entered the driver’s seat. Quite frankly, the amount of protection of her vehicle wasn’t top-notch. It was definitely bulletproof from small-arms fire, but anything else would be her death.

Still, with an entire convoy of armored cars from her security detail, with Lady Lubaine’s vehicle at the lead, and the urban camoed HMLVs of William’s OPM agents behind, she still had quite the formidable protection force. Not that it would matter should an actual attack come to the city, but…

No need to panic. Calm down. It’ll be alright. By tomorrow, the conference will surely resume. She breathed in and out, trying to remove that tugging uneasiness inside. When that alert arrived earlier, she almost felt herself momentarily lacking breath when she and Adelaide rushed out of the General Assembly.

William flicked the radio open, just as their convoy began moving. They were going straight to the Orlish Embassy in Pez. From there, they would probably retreat in a more discreet private hotel that the OPM and the various intelligence agencies of Orland active in Pez acquired and fortified.

The woman’s voice on the radio, however, was something Amelie didn’t understand, as she was speaking in Pezan until William changed it to the airwaves of a news network named “Geopol Press”. Naturally, being an Orlish news network, Amelie understood it, the person speaking spoke Orlish.

“Lorathian aircraft intercepted multiple Pozneki fighters that apparently violated Gallian and Lorathian airspace. No fighting occurred after the flight of two Pozneki fighters retreated back toward Pozneki airspace.”

Amelie sighed. “Damn it, this feels like the early days before Larissa declared war on us.”

“Damn it indeed,” William said. “Just in too, the Gallian and Lorathian Queens want to phone you in thirty minutes. They need to make a decision about the situation at the border.”

“They’re giving me thirty minutes? Wait, what even is happening over there? Wait, why am I the one making decisions for Gallian affairs?”

“First, yes. The situation seems…stable, for now. Second, simple. Pozneki troops ambushed a—”

“A-ambushed?!”

“Yes, ambushed a Gallian patrol group, and captured four Gallian soldiers. Third, of course, you’re the one making decisions,” William laughed. “Welcome to superpower politics, you’re in charge, Your Majesty.”

“Damn it…”

+++

Nia and Amelie’s staff began rummaging quickly through her office once they arrived. An army of the embassy’s employees assisted, as papers, books, files, and everything important were packed into bags. Amelie sighed, as she and William began preparing the phone line with the main leaders of the Ivory Alliance at the desk, all while everyone in front of them was in a rush.

“What am I even supposed to say?” Amelie asked as William began fumbling on the high-security laptops that he set up in front of Amelie. “Also, you’re pressing the wrong things.”

“Shut up, I’m just figuring it out. Oh, there it is. As for what you have to say, who knows?”

“Can you get Adelaide here?”

“Afraid I can’t,” William shook his head. “She’s giving a press conference. Also, last I talked to her, she told me that you’d deal with Queen Clericia and Queen Eliette while she calms down the rest of the world and the other leaders.”

“Great, I’ll be going in blind again then,” Amelie sighed, already defeated. “Hmm…yep, there they are.”

“Turning on your microphone and camera,” William finished his thing, and now, she was facing the two Queens of Gallia and Lorathia. Placing in the best smile that she could muster, Amelie greeted them.

“Good morning, I apologize for the late—”

“Not the time for greetings. Let’s get on it quick,” Queen Eliette said, cutting off Amelie. “The situation is developing rapidly now. Clericia, can you please fill her in about the situation?”

The Gallian Queen calmly nodded. It seemed that even with the tense situation, she was as calm as a rock. Quite frankly, Amelie imagined that this woman could care less about the fact that four of her soldiers just found themselves as prisoners of the Pozneki Army. Clericia could appear all angry on international news while condemning the Poznekis were rats for aggressively violating Gallian servicemen, but behind the scenes…

Well, she merely lost four nobodies.

This was not really about the four captured Gallian soldiers. It was about reputation. Of both Gallia and the Ivory Alliance.

“So, merely an hour ago, a patrol group of two HMLVs were on a routine patrol route in the DMZ. Unfortunately, they found themselves in contact with a roadblock set up by the Poznekis. After a tense scuffle, a brief firefight developed, leaving one wounded and another dead. The second HMLV retreated, while the first one had a popped tire, so its remaining four crew didn’t escape. Right now, two army companies in the vicinity are acting…‘independently’ and their tanks are in a standoff with Pozneki tanks at one of the border checkpoints. They’re demanding the release of the captured soldiers.”

“Wait, independently?” Amelie asked. “So you didn’t order them?”

The Gallian Queen breathed out exasperatedly. “And I cannot order them to stand down immediately. That’d be a stain on Gallia’s honor if it came out. Still, I’d definitely quietly deal with these damned mutineers afterward…”

“They certainly complicated the crisis,” Queen Eliette said. “Thank goddess the situation in the seas resolved quickly in comparison.”

“Wait, wait, you can’t seriously blame these men,” Amelie said. “They’re simply protecting their comrades. This is Pozneki aggression, it’s as clear as day.”

Queen Clericia sighed. “That’s the problem. It’s not. The patrol group got lost and crossed the Poznek’s side of the DMZ. While the radio logs certainly show that they tried telling the Poznekis that they would turn around, it still escalated, and the Poznekis fired first. Sure, they fired first when my troops were about to turn around, but my troops made the mistake of going there in the first place.”

Amelie sagged in her seat. That was such a damned situation. Not only had they killed one Gallian soldier after firing first, but her side was also technically in the wrong. This was beyond ridiculous. At least, she could have used the fact that they fired their guns first as a way to spin the narrative that they were the victims (and thus, Poznek must return the prisoners), but now, it was further complicated.

“Okay…okay, that’s…indeed, that isn’t good,” Amelie said. “Can we do something else? Contact. Right, has contact been established with the…what were they again?”

“Unity Government,” Queen Eliette said. “The Unity Government of Poznek is their full name. Which is why it’s difficult. Who the hell their leader is…is hard to decipher. The ‘Unity Council’ is made up of ten men, with confusing jurisdictions, powers, and positions. They have no face at the moment. We are trying to get in touch with their Foreign Affairs Councillor, but he told us that he has no jurisdiction in the Army. No further contact had been established. And we do not know who to contact. Unity…what a joke. They don’t have a true leader to unite under.”

“They don’t want to talk?” Amelie asked. “That doesn’t make sense. The CFN should not be ready for war yet. They’re still mobilizing, just like us. And they need more time considering that they’d most likely be on the offensive, and us on the defensive. Why would they create these kinds of diplomatic problems immediately…”

“Hah, bastards, I say.” The Queen of Gallia laughed. “Even their puppet master isn’t replying to us. The Confederation refuses to talk to nations that have not recognized them. So of course…they’d do this, they’re all merely salty…”

“I doubt that…” Amelie said, realizing something. “They’re baiting us.”

The two of them fell silent.

Queen Eliette nodded. “We’ve recognized that as a possibility…”

“It is a high possibility,” Amelie insisted. “They took Gallian troops as prisoners, all while shutting down communications. They’re testing our capacity to take a hit, to our reputation. That’s why they’re posturing. They want to scare us and bait us into a response. In this case…they want your two companies to assault the border checkpoint.”

“That’s…certainly the type of mind games these people would want…” Queen Eliette admitted.

“Ah, men. See, this is what happens when you let them in charge. Not only do they create incoherent systems, they do these kinds of nonsense. Do they really think I’d be so stupid to strike first because of that? Hah…I’d silently silence these uncooperative Army units first. Hmm…that seems like the best option.”

Amelie’s eyes widened at the Gallian Queen’s suggestion. She’d…she’d what now?! “Wait…those men, are you soldiers. You can’t just do that kind of thing to them. Not especially now that we need our troops in their best condition. Keeping a sense of order, justice, and ethics amongst the ranks is the only way to keep morale high.”

But Clericia merely laughed.

“Of course I will. I had always done that, young Queen. From the Great War to the Asturian Campaign. Trust me, men…they break at the tiniest of pressures, especially nowadays that their souls have long been sucked. Once I send in the hammer, they’ll fold, and the uncooperative elements will disappear. They’ll bite that as ‘it is what it is’ and accept their fate. And who cares about morale? They fight to the death even with non-existent morale. All that matters is that they have the guns to fight.”

That…that sounded utterly reprehensible! To think that her ally was doing these kinds of things.

“That just sounds unnecessarily cruel—”

“Cruelty is but a tool. It is applied for a purpose, and that purpose is to keep the Armed Forces loyal, and useful. The GAF remains under my solid control because of my policies. They cannot, and have always failed to defy me. They can mutiny all they want, and they can disobey all they want, but at the end of the day, the hand at Toldoi will make them finish the orders they have. I have no need to be lectured of a monarch who had lost control of her armies. I warned your mother of it, that to let them off the leash will only lead to disaster. And I am right.”

Amelie couldn’t respond to that. It was true. Quite frankly, the sheer independence of the OAF from the Royal Guard was what led to civil war. She imagined that had the Royal Guard always meddled with OAF organization, shifting officers, punishing disloyal ones, and monitoring them all in a psychotic manner as they fought to their deaths—they would have no energy nor organization to break women’s stranglehold.

In Gallia, that was certainly the case. Amelie could see it. She could understand it. No matter how much the GAF mutinies, there was nothing they could do. No mutiny could be organized. So what if two battalions decided that the fight was pointless? That their weapons should be pointed to Toldoi instead? Then nothing. No other officers and units would be with them, as the Royal Guard of Gallia already neutered them. They’d mutiny, until the rest of the Army, handled closely by the RGG, would descend on them, and arrest them.

Ultimately, under such a system, men would be kept disorganized from even plotting against the state. Not even Gallian generals would have power, as even the lowest-ranked officer of the RGG would sack them if she even noticed a tinge of disloyalty. Sure, the GAF was, as a result, while equipped to good standards, weak anyway with its decrepit officer staff.

But unlike the OAF, they would never succeed at rebelling. Just as they would not win a fight against the enemy.

And that was why Amelie hated this woman. She was gloating when her GAF could not even defeat the Asturians.

I doubt your plans will even survive once the GAF breaks against the Larissan tide, you fool!

But she held her tongue and only replied with some bitterness in her tongue.

“I understand,” Amelie said. “Then…then that’s your plan? You’ll just silence this entire thing?”

“Indeed! Why did we even panic? There’s no crisis if no one hears it.”

The Queen of Lorathia sighed tiredly. “Fine…you have a point. I vote in favor of that plan…”

She sounds really reluctant.

Amelie sighed as well. She hated her idea, but…if the CFN would not respond, and there was no way to settle this diplomatically, then the only option was to silence their response, by denying that an incident even happened in the first place. And that would be up to Gallia.

“It’s your soldiers…” Amelie said. “I dislike it, but…fine…you have my permission…”

Soon, the call was terminated.