The secure communications room prepared in Weymouth by the government-in-exile.
Bzzzt—. Beep. Tick.
The telegraph needle spat out a strip of punched paper tape.
Sydney scanned the encrypted perforation pattern with her eyes and tapped at the keys.
Tadak, tak. Tadak.
[As of the present hour, Weymouth’s urban district is fully secured. Through consultation with Colonel Max Jaeger of the Imperial Army’s 207th Brigade, the Intelligence Bureau has been delegated a significant portion of authority over local public order and control of the occupied area.]
[With this, a rear bridgehead has been established. End report. Director Sydney Wellesley, Intelligence Bureau.]
She was sending a report back to the homeland.
I clicked my tongue.
‘To think she’s doing this right up until bedtime….’
She really was a hopeless workaholic.
But a few minutes later, the reply that came flying across the sea from the New Continent carried a markedly different air.
Beep. Tick.
Once again, the thin paper tape the machine spat out. As Sydney’s eyes followed it, a small smile appeared at the corners of her mouth.
‘Analyze status.’
[Name: Sydney Wellesley]
[Status: Deciphering code, joy]
[Emotion: Let’s see, the message says…… “Splendid. As expected of my Sydney. It gives me strength to know that even in an unfamiliar and difficult environment, you are quietly doing your part.”]
I could guess who was on the other end of the line. There was only one person who would call Sydney that—Queen Charlotte.
The phrases that followed were so personal and gentle it was hard to believe they had been delivered through encrypted telegraph tape.
[And my dear Sydney.]
[Is the night there not cold? Ever since that night of riots, since I left Londinium, it feels as though only a chill wind has lingered at my side.]
[When I think about it, it has always been that way. I can only feel sorry that I always seem to entrust the unpleasant tasks to you.]
Click. The telegraph stopped.
“……Sorry, Your Majesty?”
Sydney’s expression grew wistful. She placed her hand on the transmitter.
Tadak, tadak.
[I exist solely for Your Majesty’s sake. Until the day we recover the mainland, I am prepared to gladly cover myself in any filth.]
[I pray that the cold night winds of the New Continent do not harm Your Majesty’s royal person.]
The transmission ended. A short waiting time as the radio waves crossed the distant sea.
Beep, tick. Bzzzt.
The telegraph spat out paper tape again.
[Thank you, Sydney. How could I not know of your devotion?]
[By the way, what of Colonel Max Jaeger? I heard you came to work together with him once more in Weymouth. Is he still not making things difficult for you?]
‘Oh-ho.’
Was this gossip about me?
Sydney took a short, deep breath. Her lavender eyes trembled faintly.
Tadak, tak.
[Colonel Max Jaeger is… still a dangerous man, Your Majesty.]
[However, in the current state of the war, his military ability and political insight are absolutely necessary to us.]
Beep. Tick.
Queen Charlotte’s reply continued.
[When I think of the ability he displayed in the sewers of Londinium, I still feel awe before anything else.]
[Combat, if it is combat. Politics, if it is politics. And even… that man has an innate talent for winning the hearts of others.]
Sydney swallowed dryly. Was she thinking of Aiden, or of herself?
[Sydney, please be careful as well. You must not carelessly hand him the initiative. Fundamentally, he is an officer of the Imperial Army, and his interests differ from those of the United Kingdom.]
[If even you were to go over to the Empire, then…… I truly would have nowhere left to lean.]
Sydney silently wrote her reply.
Tadak, tadak.
[I will keep that in mind, Your Majesty. I will do my utmost to ensure Colonel Jaeger is firmly controlled.]
[And I am the Director of Intelligence of the United Kingdom. My loyalty is directed solely toward Her Majesty Queen Charlotte.]
“……Haa.”
Sydney’s hand trembled slightly.
[Emotion: …A lie. Control him? No. I’m already being dragged along completely at that man’s pace.]
Tadak, tadak.
Sydney continued writing.
[Colonel Max Jaeger has already transferred a significant portion of local authority to me.]
[However.]
[Even so, the say our government-in-exile holds in the overall operation remains weak. The army is, in truth, absolutely dependent on the Empire.]
[For that reason as well, Colonel Max Jaeger remains useful. His brigade has already performed brilliantly in the landing operation, and it is also evident that it will play a decisive role in the future advance to the mainland.]
[If we can create a special connection between our government-in-exile and Colonel Max Jaeger, then we may be able to exert influence over the course of the war and even the postwar negotiations.]
Soon, a reply came.
[Yes. You are right, Sydney. I let my anxieties get ahead of me. Please forgive me.]
[Even so, I cannot shake this ominous feeling.]
[Colonel Max Jaeger—he feels as though he will fundamentally change something….]
Tadak, tak.
Sydney comforted the queen.
[Please do not be uneasy. At Your Majesty’s side still remain loyal royalists and agents who would lay down their lives for the homeland.]
[Without fail, Londinium and Victoria Island will return to Your Majesty.]
[I will make certain that even the military power Colonel Max Jaeger possesses becomes a help to Your Majesty.]
A short while later, the final reply arrived from the New Continent.
Beep, tick. Bzzzt.
[I believe in you, my Sydney.]
The gears of the machine stopped, and silence settled over the room.
“……Your Majesty.”
Sydney carefully ran her hand down the long strip of paper tape and closed her eyes. Then, after a moment, she gathered the encrypted tapes together and burned them to nothing with the flame of a lighter.
Having erased even the traces completely, she rubbed her stiff eyes, left the communications room, and went to bed.
I released the skill.
‘Deactivate skill.’
[Skill “Shared Vision” has ended.]
*
The next day. A massive warehouse in Weymouth where the landing force headquarters had been established.
“We have seized our opportunity. We are crushing the enemy’s delaying actions and advancing north at speed.”
An Imperial Army staff officer was briefing before a large map.
“Therefore, the next phase will be the encirclement and advance operation on Londinium. The 8th Armored Division will take the western arterial road, make a detour, and cut off the retreat route, while the 9th Infantry Corps applies pressure from the front.”
Organic maneuver warfare. By now, it was beginning to establish itself to some degree as doctrine within the Imperial Army.
“…Hold on.”
The first to speak was Admiral William.
At the round table where the commanders were seated, he, Director Sydney of the Intelligence Bureau, and the generals from the United Kingdom sat opposite the Imperial Army.
“I do not see an advance route for our United Kingdom forces on the operation map. Where is our position?”
The Imperial Army staff officer lowered his pointer toward the rear of the map.
“The United Kingdom forces will be tasked with maintaining the rear logistics lines, including Weymouth, and stabilizing public order in occupied territories. Some light infantry units will be deployed to sweep up remnants in the mountainous regions.”
The atmosphere in the conference room chilled for a moment. The generals of the government-in-exile immediately voiced their dissatisfaction.
“Are you telling us to clean up after the Imperial Army?”
“No matter what, should we not plant the flag in Londinium with our own hands? We crossed the sea to reclaim our homeland.”
It was a common difference of opinion.
Though they were fighting the war as allies, the interests of the Empire and the United Kingdom were decidedly different.
And the expressions of the Imperial Army high command watching them were as cold as sheets of ice.
Nominally, the Empire was in the position of helping with another nation’s war. After shedding their own blood and sweat to reclaim someone else’s land, instead of receiving gratitude, these ingrates were nitpicking their operations?
That was what ordinary Imperial Army generals tended to think.
“Look at reality coldly, Admiral. With the United Kingdom forces’ current strength, it is impossible.”
The one who answered indifferently was Admiral Lützel, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Fleet.
“Your army was hastily assembled, it is woefully lacking in heavy weapons and armored forces, and even its experience in regular warfare is insufficient. Putting you in the vanguard for the large-scale maneuver battle that will unfold on the plains toward Londinium would be… no different from strategic suicide.”
There wasn’t a single thing wrong with what he said.
War was not fought on sentiment. From the Empire’s perspective, allied forces without the skill to match, waving only their cause as they hovered around, were nothing but a hindrance.
‘Analyze status.’
I quietly swept my gaze over the round table.
[Name: Admiral William]
[Emotion: I know it in my head. That we are pathetic compared to the Imperial Army. But if the Empire occupies Londinium alone like this, our position in the postwar negotiations will vanish like dust!]
[Target: Commander of the Imperial Landing Force]
[Emotion: We shed all the blood, and now these incompetent government-in-exile bastards want to pick only the fruit. The Imperial Army will occupy Londinium and secure the interests.]
Same bed, different dreams.
Even allies bound by shared blood were this cold before political dynamics. The government-in-exile was being marginalized, and the Empire was not granting them any role beyond what was necessary.
I discreetly turned my gaze to Sydney.
Attending this conference as Director of Intelligence, she was biting her lip tightly, unable to say a word.
No matter how outstanding her intelligence network’s performance had been, in the end, without the backing of regular military force, one could not have a voice at the negotiating table between nations.
The resolve she had made last night while holding onto the telegraph, saying to Queen Charlotte, “I will try,” was being shattered.
“We are here as representatives of Her Majesty the Queen! For the United Kingdom forces to be excluded from the recapture of the capital is politically……!”
“There can only be politics after we win the war.”
The meeting that followed was one-sided. The Imperial Army high command coldly brushed aside the protests of the government-in-exile.
Admiral William’s shoulders trembled powerlessly. Sydney was clenching her fists tightly beneath the table. So tightly that her knuckles had turned white.
Sydney’s desperate gaze was directed at me.
The man who always manipulated the conference room with his strange eloquence and revised grand strategy in the most efficient direction.
‘Hmm…….’
But international politics was a cold thing.
I wasn’t an idiot, and there was nothing for me to gain by stepping forward here.
From the Empire’s perspective, the most efficient move was to neatly strip the government-in-exile of its legitimacy and suck up all the rights and interests.
To go out of my way to side with the government-in-exile and make an enemy of the Imperial high command?
That would be madness.
There was no need to even mention that I belonged to the Empire. It would benefit me more if the Empire held the initiative in Londinium as well. To begin with, the ones feeding me were Marshal Ludwig and Emperor Ferdinand. There was nothing good about deliberately earning their displeasure.
If one thought about it simply, that was the case. Simply, one-dimensionally. If I intended to live forever as the Empire’s loyal subject, that is.
In any case.
“I, too, agree with Admiral Lützel’s statement. The Empire alone is sufficient for the occupation of Londinium.”
What I had to say now was already decided. The air in the conference room turned cold.
The Imperial Army generals smiled with satisfaction, as if to say, “As expected of Colonel Jaeger, he grasps the situation quickly.” On the other hand, the faces of the government-in-exile’s people turned ashen.
They had believed that among the influential figures of the Empire, I was at least the one they could talk to.
[Name: William]
[Emotion: Of course. In the end, he’s an Imperial army dog too.]
[Name: Sydney Wellesley]
[Status: Disappointment, a sense of betrayal greater than expected]
[Emotion: In the end, the Empire’s interests come first. Of course they do. Even if he is Colonel Max Jaeger, he has no reason to help us.]
Thus the meeting ended, and the Imperial Army generals left with satisfied smiles.
The members of the government-in-exile bit their lips in humiliation and fled the conference room as if escaping.
I remained alone at the empty round table, tapping the tabletop with my finger.
‘I can’t say I don’t understand the old coots at headquarters.’
After all, it wouldn’t be a pretty sight to have someone else put their spoon on a table we’d set with our own blood.
But that was an utterly one-dimensional calculation from the standpoint of the state called the Empire.
If the Empire monopolized the fruits of Londinium all by itself like this, the government-in-exile would harbor tremendous resentment toward the Empire. There was plenty of room for Queen Charlotte to bring in the United States later and make the Empire’s life difficult in the postwar negotiations.
‘More than anything, it’d be a shame about my personal stake.’
Whether in stocks or politics, there was one truth.
The helping hand extended right before delisting, when everyone was pessimistic, was the prime investment that secured the greatest stake at the lowest price.
The United Kingdom was no ordinary trash stock. Its peak and potential had been more than proven.
Even though she had lost Londinium, Charlotte still had vast colonies remaining. And in the end, whether slowly or quickly, Charlotte was bound to return to Londinium as the monarch of the United Kingdom.
She was destined to become one of the most powerful people in the world.
“Colonel, are you not leaving?”
Hannah, who was standing by the door, asked. I picked up my coat and rose.
“Have Director Wellesley brought to my office discreetly. Make sure Admiral William and the others don’t see.”
Hannah nodded, rather solemnly. She wore an expression that said the time had come.
“Understood.”