The capital of the Victoria United Kingdom, Londinium.
The queen’s glass conservatory.
“……And so.”
Snip.
Queen Charlotte carefully worked the pruning shears in her hand.
“What is the conclusion of the report Arthur sent, Sir Wellesley?”
Plop.
A withered rosebud fell to the floor.
“We… cannot draw a conclusion, Your Majesty.”
“That does not sound like the head of an intelligence bureau.”
“The contents of the report fall outside the bounds of any conventional intelligence analysis.”
Sydney turned over a page of the documents.
“It has been a month since Agent Arthur approached the target, Max Jaeger, under the alias ‘Aiden Hunt.’ The original objective was to fabricate evidence of the target’s embezzlement and bury him socially.”
“And?”
“Far from burying him, he has been managing the target’s assets and increased their scale by more than 1,200%. The target’s current estimated assets are roughly ninety thousand gold. That is on the scale of a fairly substantial corporation or state project.”
Snip.
Another bud fell. The queen’s hand paused for a moment.
“Has Arthur… been blinded by money?”
“He is not that sort of man. The problem comes next. The target, Max Jaeger, stated that he would use this immense funding as lobbying money to suppress communist forces within the Republic and block intervention by the United States of Columbia. And….”
Sydney swallowed dryly.
“He delegated full authority over the management of those funds to Arthur.”
“…….”
A war hero of the Empire had handed an enemy spy thirty thousand gold in slush funds, practically his entire fortune, and asked him to use it for world peace?
“This means one of two things.”
Sydney added.
“Either Max Jaeger knows Arthur’s identity and is using him in return, or Arthur has turned traitor and become a double agent.”
Either way, it was a disaster for the United Kingdom.
Just then, the chamberlain cautiously entered the conservatory and held out a silver tray. On it lay a diplomatic document stamped with a seal.
“Your Majesty, an urgent telegram has arrived from the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
The queen removed her gloves and opened the envelope. As she read through its contents, a faint crack appeared in her expressionless face.
“……It is a proposal for a tripartite conference.”
“A tripartite conference?”
“The Empire, the United States of Columbia, and our United Kingdom. The location is a neutral zone on the Imperial frontier.”
The queen handed the letter to Sydney.
“The agenda concerns ‘the peaceful resolution of the Republic crisis and the succession of debt,’ it says.”
Sydney took the letter and hurriedly scanned its contents. Then, upon finding a familiar name in the list of conference attendees written at the end, he stopped breathing.
[Special Advisor for the Imperial side: Lieutenant Colonel Max Jaeger]
Everything was connected.
The contents of Arthur’s report. The lobbying funds Max Jaeger intended to scatter. And even this conference proposal.
It was clear who had designed this entire board.
“What on earth.”
The queen asked.
“……is this soldier called ‘Max Jaeger’?”
“…….”
She picked up the pruning shears again and continued.
“A mere infantry lieutenant colonel has set up a diplomatic table linking the Empire, the Republic, our United Kingdom, and the United States….”
Sydney hesitated, then answered.
“…He is a war hero. He conducted a miraculous defensive battle at Rosenheim and won a victory in the Ashen Forest through maneuvers that defied common sense. His tactical insight is unmatched, and, favored by the Emperor and the Commander-in-Chief, he has entered the heart of power.”
“That is only the résumé visible on the surface.”
Snip.
The head of a red rose was cut clean off.
“What I am asking about is the essence beneath that shell. The identity of this man who handles Arthur like a chess piece, persuades the Emperor to alter the nation’s diplomatic course, and even reaches out to us, his enemy.”
“…….”
“We designated him as elimination priority zero, but perhaps… we may already be too late.”
“Your Majesty, Arthur is still at his side. If you give the order….”
“No.”
The queen shook her head.
“Killing him can be done at any time. But if we touch him rashly, we have no idea where or how the traps he has designed will go off. The United States’ loan issue, the Republic’s debts, the Empire’s military strength… everything is tangled together in that man’s palm.”
Max Jaeger.
The United Kingdom knew far too little about this man.
What his weakness was, what he truly wanted, and even whether he was an ally or an enemy had become strangely ambiguous.
Sydney felt a chill run down his spine. It was as if he had come face to face with a predator hidden in the fog.
“Send Minister Neville.”
Thud.
The queen set down the pruning shears.
“We will accept the conference.”
*
A few days later.
Badenburg, a city on the Empire’s western border.
The grand banquet hall of the Grand Hotel, once used as an imperial summer villa, was filled with tension.
Three flags were placed around the round table.
The eagle of the Empire.
The Union Flag of the United Kingdom.
The stars of the United States of Columbia.
I sat at the lowest seat and read the air in the conference hall.
‘Suffocating.’
Originally, this was not a place where a mere lieutenant colonel would dare set foot.
But His Majesty the Emperor had shoved me into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs delegation without a care for such things.
‘Status analysis.’
I looked over the people seated at the head of the table one by one.
First, the Secretary of State of the United States of Columbia.
[Name: Brian]
[Position: Secretary of State of the United States of Columbia]
[Hidden Desire: Wants to recover the loan of forty million gold coins lent to the Republic.]
Beside him, the representative from the United Kingdom.
[Name: Neville]
[Position: Foreign Minister of the Victoria United Kingdom]
[Hidden Desire: Wants to prevent the war from expanding and keep the Empire in check.]
And beside me sat the representative of our Empire.
[Name: Josef]
[Position: Imperial Foreign Minister]
[Status: Nervous, uncomfortable with Max Jaeger]
“Let us get to the point.”
The one who broke the silence was Minister Brian of Columbia.
“Our United States loves peace. However, if the Republic collapses, our investments become scraps of paper. The Empire occupying Elancia? We cannot tolerate that in the name of the United States.”
“I agree.”
Minister Neville chimed in.
“We cannot allow the Empire to alter the status quo by force. Cease hostilities at once and restore the borders to their original state. Otherwise, the United Kingdom fleet will move.”
Threats and demands. It was the expected repertoire.
Just as Foreign Minister Josef was about to open his mouth, hesitating, I set my teacup down first.
Clink.
“I apologize for interrupting.”
The eyes of all three men fixed on me at once.
“And who are you?”
Minister Neville furrowed his brows.
“Army Lieutenant Colonel Max Jaeger.”
“An army lieutenant colonel?”
Minister Neville snorted. His expression was contemptuous.
“This is not a place to discuss guns and swords. It is a place to discuss diplomacy, international law, and democratic procedures. Minister Josef, since when has the Empire’s decorum fallen so low?”
I answered without paying it any mind.
“Democratic procedures. How pleasant that sounds. However, Minister Neville.”
‘Status analysis.’
[Name: Neville]
[Status: Wary of the Empire’s expansion, conscious of antiwar opinion in his home parliament.]
[Hidden Desire: Wants to maintain the Republic as a buffer zone to keep the Empire in check.]
‘Captivating Eloquence.’
[Skill ‘Captivating Eloquence (Lv.3)’ is activating.]
“The Republic you wish to protect is already dead.”
“Watch your tongue! The Republic is a sovereign nation!”
“A sovereign nation….”
I took a document envelope from inside my coat and tossed it onto the table.
Thud.
What spilled out of the envelope were photographs.
Fresh photographs obtained by Imperial intelligence agents. They showed what was happening in the square of Elancia, the Republic’s capital.
In the photographs, the Republic’s tricolor was being torn down, and a red flag was being raised in its place.
“Minister. I am sure the United Kingdom has seen very well what the Republic has been like these past few years.”
I pointed to one photograph with my finger and continued.
“The assault on the parliament five years ago, the general strike of one million four years ago, and the radical left’s rise to power three years ago.”
Extremist politics and endless division. The famine brought on by the Great Depression was the perfect soil for radicalism to grow.
“What rules Elancia now is neither law nor government. Only people’s trials and the guillotine.”
“Even so, that cannot justify the Empire’s armed intervention…!”
“What do you think will happen if the Imperial Army stops here?”
I cut off Neville’s words and leaned forward over the table.
“A massive Soviet will arise right in the United Kingdom’s front yard. No, in Elancia’s case, perhaps the word Commune would be more fitting.”
Minister Neville’s eyes wavered. He had instinctively sensed that my words were not mere bluster.
Barely twenty years ago, the Tsarist Empire in the east had fallen, and what had taken its place? The Union. These old politicians remembered all too clearly how dreadful that red tide had been.
That fear. I dragged that trauma back out.
Ding—
[Skill ‘Captivating Eloquence (Lv.3)’ stimulates the target’s fear of regime overthrow.]
It worked.
“Choose, Minister Neville.”
There was no longer anything holding me back.
“Will the United Kingdom side with the order the Empire will bring? Or….”
I pushed the photograph of the red flag right under Neville’s nose and said,
“Will it side with the mad Reds?”