Sovereign

“Male manpower is rapidly running out due to high attrition rates. Regardless of the denial of the policymakers in Eutstadt, the OAF would need replacements soon. Said replacements would however not come from men aged eighteen till twenty-six, for they have given all they had.”

- Classified report to the OHC, 2025.

+++

West Orland

Prime Minister Jacqueline Heiss plopped at the seat in complete exasperation. Amelie herself buried her face in her hands. The damned session in the Parliament earlier completely drained the both of them, and it was evident on their tired faces.

“You know what? I am this close to forcing it by Royal Decree!” Amelie suddenly burst into anger. In fact, Jacqueline realized there was an entire cut-out picture of Duchess Lorraine Flandere in front of her table, and Amelie just tossed one of her pens straight at the picture’s face. “Again?! Again? The vote just…just failed! I need more soldiers on the frontline, Jacqueline! This is becoming unacceptable. Utterly unacceptable.”

Jacqueline, for her part, was quite surprised at the sudden outburst from the normally calm Queen. “Amelie, calm down. I know, and I understand that we were supposed to be mobilized months ago, but we have to let cooler heads prevail. Support for the female conscription bill is already gaining traction, I mean, we had more votes today than the last one. We just have to keep plastering the possibility of losing on their faces more. They’ll budge eventually.”

“I’m trying! I’m trying to calm down, but this has already taken so long, I don’t think I can keep myself calm enough not to sign an emergency Royal Decree. Call me a dictator, and I don’t—” Nia soon poured a good bunch of tea into Amelie’s kettle, interrupting her from finishing her whole tirade. For a moment, the Queen’s irate expression disappeared and she thanked her good friend for the good tea, and Amelie immediately downed its full contents. “It’s not working. It’s not…working.”

“Nia! Quick, pour her some more!” Jacqueline said, and Nia obliged by pouring in more tea. Amelie drank it just as quickly until she finally fell to the back of her seat. “Oh, thank goodness. The power of tea on her is truly marvelous.”

“I’m still pissed,” Amelie said, but this time, the reddish hue on her face was gone. Amelie looked up at the ceiling. “Bit better at least.”

“Well, that’s good,” Jacqueline said. “On that note, why do you have that cardboard cut-out of the Duchess herself? And why is it full of holes?”

“I would advise you not to ask any more regarding that subject, Miss Prime Minister,” Nia said. “I’m afraid Her Majesty’s calm reputation would be in jeopardy.”

“Stress relief,” Amelie answered. “Anyway, what’s our next plan?”

Nia laid down a bunch of documents in front of her. “William had a suggestion earlier.”

“Where’s he at?” Amelie asked as she looked into it.

“Too busy at organizing the OPM. But he does have a stopgap way of addressing the manpower issue, recommended by General Albrecht as well.”

“Mhm, and what exactly is it?”

Nia sighed. “He suggested that if women would not budge on the problem, then perhaps…we could force young women into the industrial workforce. Send them to the factories. Then free up men aged twenty-six to thirty-two, and gain more manpower for the frontline…”

Amelie shook her head.

“Not happening. Those dudes already served in the Great War and more. And they’re a part of our skilled workforce. Minister Wittfield would murder me before I can even get the word out.”

“Just a suggestion from them,” Nia said. “He said it’s the ugly option.”

Amelie turned to Jacqueline. “Well, see. It’s either we get this damned bill passed and finally train young women to hold a rifle or it’s that. I’d rather not do the latter option, Jacqueline.”

“I share the same opinion,” Jacqueline said. “Mobilizing our skilled middle-aged men working seven days a week in the factories right when we need more metal on the frontline would be detrimental to the war effort.”

“Industrial production would definitely take a hit,” Amelie said. “Which is why we’re not touching highly-trained professionals. Not men, not women. That’d be tantamount to suicide in modern warfare. No…if we need more meat, we need to send in the ones with the least value to our homefront.”

“Thus, why we send young men…”

“And why we should send young women,” Amelie said coldly. “Fairness…it sounds terrifying, but this is both fair and effective. It’s the only choice. Especially when older women have families to care for, and already hold high-value jobs. We’re just applying the same rationale we used to justify only conscripting young men.”

“I understand that,” Jacqueline said. “But, that’s exactly why the UOP and the AP are voting largely against it. Mothers can easily send their boys to war. We’ve drilled that as something normal in their minds. Their daughters, however…”

Amelie sipped her tea. “I understand their grievances. I understand this option is absurdly awful. I understand it’s horrifying. But damn it, we’re at war. Can’t we bash that idea into their heads? Instead, they’re all burying their heads in the sand in denial. They’re still in denial that this war can only be won even if we all don’t work together! To this day, we’re spending billions of Orlish Blancs on subsidizing women in education. They’re literally unemployed by definition. We’re paying money to unemployed young women instead of paying it for more guns.”

Jacqueline sighed. “I guess you finally saw the budget, huh?”

“And it infuriated me,” Amelie said. “If we diverted every remaining budget for men’s nonexistent social safety net into the war effort, we have to do the same with everything else. Otherwise, the Federal Republic is correct. My regime is a two-faced liar that should be overthrown.”

“On that note, our intelligence reports showed that the Federalists are committing thirty percent of their GDP on war-related production, no?”

“Yeah, meanwhile, our war economy is still stuck at twelve percent,” Amelie said. “At this rate, we’re mobilizing too slowly.”

Jacqueline nodded. “This year might be a difficult one. The OAF barely recovered, but the FOAF will most likely have superiority in material power within the next few months.”

“General Albrecht reassured me already though,” Amelie said. “That our defenses would most likely hold until next year, even if we sustained current defense spending. The problem would come by pushing them back. It’d be impossible unless the situation changes. Both in manpower and material terms.”

Jacqueline sighed. “Wars are such a tiring business…”

+++

“We got bad news,” William said. “The OAF just uncovered another execution ground.”

Amelie almost wanted to puke upon hearing that report from William. Especially since it had only been a few hours since she had her dinner. The damned situation up north had been something that kept Amelie awake in her bed many times, as the OAF’s slow advance meant that those women were definitely having a bad time up north.

“How…how many?”

“Four in total. They must have used heavy machinery to dig through the thick snow. Each of them had an estimated body count of two thousand. It’s a complete mess. They’re already planning for incineration due to the extreme contamination in the burial grounds. I mean, the bodies themselves are mostly partially burned anyway…”

“How did they kill them?”

“Most had gunshot wounds. Not much that the folks on the ground can uncover. There are so many bodies to process and they have no idea what to do. Quite frankly, this is the first time the OAF is dealing with such…crimes…”

Amelie shook her head. “General Richstoff. He really is a lunatic. A madman. I swear if we find him…”

“There’s already so much evidence of his war crimes. In fact, we are already capturing many high-ranking PC officers and Lieplatzan Army officers suspected of collaborating with them. Some however were executed by our soldiers on the ground…”

“Executed? Our troops are conducting summary executions?”

“Emotions are running thick in the OAF. Just because we’re men, does not mean we don’t give a shit. No…I’d wager for us, seeing a dead woman elicits a stronger response than seeing a dead man. Even for us, the former is an unthinkable tragedy, a crime against humanity. The latter…just business as usual.”

Amelie didn’t fully understand why that would be the case. Then again, she already saw how uncaring many men were when they saw dead fellow men. Perhaps, it was just a normal reaction of the mind. Even men were unused to women dying, and to see it would be a horror to them. But they’ve already long accepted seeing death for themselves and their fellow men.

So much so that it’s not a horror for them.

Amelie felt her nausea flare up again. William’s eyes turned concerned. “Amelie, you alright?”

“Nothing, just…” Once more, she remembered those bodies back when she visited the frontlines during the Battle of Halia. Those…endless corpses of young men…

Yet I’m the one unused to it. Amelie could scarcely imagine how’d she react if she was down there on the ground seeing the massacre sites in Lieplatz. If mere pictures turned into her nightly nightmares and vomiting sessions, what more would it cause if she saw it herself? In a way, she silently thanked her luck that she wasn’t a ground soldier.

At least, from here, she could vomit about the horrors in the comforting confines of her palace.

“On second thought William, can I take some time in the bathroom?”

“...You’re gonna vomit, aren’t you?”

Amelie smiled a bit. “You’re such an evil man for bringing up that news to me after I just indulged in too much sweets and meat.”

“Apologies. Well, I suggest you go then.”

Luckily, by the time Amelie reached the toilet, the effects of it had already long ended. Still, she felt a bit embarrassed at how weak her guts truly were. That such things so common in war could turn her pale and cause her to go as far as vomiting. She still remembered the day when she saw the first corpse of her life, and she felt as if she never changed from that same Amelie.

Dead bodies, dead people, and death in general were something she was still unused to.

Funny coming from the Queen who already caused the deaths of nearly a million at this point. Amelie stood up, testing if she still needed to vomit, but it seemed that she had already recovered. With a sigh, she stood back up and left the bathroom. That wasn’t her most graceful moment, but, then again, ever since the Lieplatzan campaign, and ever since she learned about the crimes happening over there, she had not been in the best spirits for that while.

She doubted she’d be in a good state until it was over either.

I really wonder when that Richstoff man would surrender. If he’d even surrender. In the back of Amelie’s mind, that dark thought about that man evading justice had been gnawing her. For all she knew, she was just really fighting the remnants of a criminal.

No more victims, for they had died.

And no more Richstoff to bring to justice…if he committed suicide.

She shook her head. There was still a chance, and she’d not extinguish that remaining hope until all of Northwest Lieplatz was liberated.

Not until then.