Sovereign

"Women flees the Free State of Wuringen en-masse! An exodus of women out of Wuringen that began last month seemed to have ramped up in the weeks leading to the elections as a result of rising street violence in the Free State against women."

- ROCN News

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Halia, Kingdom of Orland

Ivory Palace

June 1, 2024

Today was a big day. So big in fact, that Amelie failed to find much sleep yesterday out of sheer unhealthy anticipation.

She was already out by about 4:00 a.m.

The Palace security had already been severely tightened. Each and every room and hallway now had troops that patrolled it. So was the surveillance, as the Palace was turned akin to a police state, with cameras in each corner.

But Amelie, who preferred not to panic and stay paranoid for the duration of her days, simply tried her very best to endure and ignore said measures.

After all, she had enough headaches already.

"How's the numbers going?"

The Palace staff typed and operated her computer before she gave her a quick answer.

"Your Majesty, the UOP is leading in the vote counts."

Such great news! She skipped out of that room and went room to room, conversing and conversing with all kinds of bureaucrats and Palace staff about the election race, or stepping into her room to watch the TV or browse the events on the internet.

But of course, in reality, she was merely masking off her gnawing anxiety. Each time she would see a mere spike of a few percent in the NRF, and her heart would skip a bit.

What the? Why are they at 12% now?!

She asked as she wildly scrolled at her office desktop. Worried, utterly worried, she checked maps and images of the election reports, and it dawned on her.

It was almost a bloody frontline.

The Free Confederation was mostly red, which represented the ORP.

The Grand Duchy was mostly yellow, which represented the UOP.

But what worried her greatly, was how disgusting the blots of black were. Black represented the NRF, and they found much ground in the accursed Free State - with the ORP being the only one that challenged them.

Come on?! The Archduchy too?!

On the other side of the political aisle, the Arcanist Party dominated the Archduchy of Löt and the Duchy of Oldrach, although the UOP seemed to be fighting there as well, clearly shown by the yellow colors being surrounded by the pink colors of the Arcanist Party.

And much like that, the morning ended and noon arrived. And so did lunchtime.

"You know, you shouldn't be tapping that screen when eating, big sis."

Alice had a disappointed pout on the other side of the table. Indeed, Amelie was being a naughty woman, who dared to disrespect said food by deliriously tapping away on her tablet.

"Alice, I'm just monitoring the situation. Oh, and you're eating too much cake again. Those vegetables are going to get cold."

"Hey! You ate half of the cake too!"

"But Alice, I'm older."

"How unfair!"

She ignored the little girl as she took a quick sip of her soup, then turned back to her tablet, as she once more buried herself in the elections.

Oh, she really needed to win this, all for her precious reformist government. And thus, all of her attention was poured into it.

…

"Alright, look, I know this is a bit of a-"

Amelie found herself once again called into the conference room of the Palace. While she would have preferred to stay inside her room to monitor the situation about the elections, unfortunately, General Albrecht arrived at the Palace.

He explained to her the deteriorating situation regarding the movements of the Army units in the Free State, which naturally made Amelie even more panicky. And then someone knocked on her door.

The two of them turned to the door, as two men entered. Admiral Halberd, alongside two other men, entered the room. Now, her situation was quite funny. She was surrounded by four military men on the day of the elections.

That definitely raised her spirits!

"Your Majesty, the Admiralty is here."

He beckoned for the two other men to introduce themselves.

"Your Majesty, I am the Minister of Naval Operations, Daniel Fisch." He bowed at her, while the other man introduced himself as well.

"I, on the other hand, Your Majesty, is Admiral Herand Tresckow, Commander of VACCOM, the Vaeyox Continental Command."

Now, Amelie nodded in such a way that suggested that she knew what that position was because she didn't know what it was. So nod and nod she did.

"Very well, gentlemen, I believe you have something to inform me about?"

Immediately, Halberd made a quick nod in affirmation.

"Indeed, Your Majesty. Admiral Tresckow?"

He walked toward the meeting table, and tossed a bunch of maps and documents upon it, which Amelie had no idea about. Filled with symbols and arrows and other such nonsense, she merely nodded as she looked at it.

"Your Majesty, while we find it distasteful to interrupt you in the elections, we would need you today, as we could not be certain if the Prime Minister would find our idea with much approval."

Upon hearing his words, her eyes darted to Halberd, who stood stiffly behind Tresckow. Her eyes showed much skepticism, as she wondered why Halberd would report such matters to her before going through Alexa.

But Amelie supposed that he must have a good reason why.

"Please, do continue Admiral."

"Your Majesty, unfortunately, it is clear to us that the Empire of Larissa would not honor the deal…in fact, our intelligence suggests that they are planning for something drastic."

Upon hearing "intelligence" Amelie grew further skeptical, as she would rather trust the words of a snake than whatever came from that lanky jerkass that was Alfonso. Fortunately, Halberd caught a quick wind of her musings.

"Your Majesty, may I interrupt. I assure you, this intelligence is accurate, as it is gathered by the Naval Intelligence Division."

Admiral Tresckow, unaware of her problems with the OIA, nodded nonetheless.

"Indeed, Your Majesty, I also assure you, the NID are very much capable, much like the OIA."

"I see. Then please, enlighten me. What is the Empire doing?"

"Simply put, there appears to be an increasingly suspicious succession of naval maneuvers conducted by the Imperial Navy. But what we are most concerned about is the disappearance of their two carrier groups in the Northern Sea."

He pointed at the map, straight to the ports of the Empire, marked in red.

"Satellite imagery and other intelligence sources pointed that both carriers were at these ports. Over the last few weeks, these ships disembarked from these ports and disappeared in the vast expanse of the Northern Sea."

She grew even more worried at that. That absolute brat! She gave her the oil that she asked for!

Now, of course, Minister Adelaide and Amelie had not expected her to carry on with her promise, but Amelie didn't expect her to break the deal rather quickly. It was strange, it was as if the Empress merely took a quick, massive stream of oil shipments before she turned around.

Did she merely stockpile the oil? But that would never make sense. She had studied the Empire's oil consumption, and there was absolutely no way that they would last with the Empire's oil-hungry economy if Orland embargoed them again.

Unless…

"Does this mean that they would start another set of provocations?"

Admiral Tresckow looked down. Not Minister Fisch, however, as he gave her the blunt, direct to the point, bad news.

"Well, in a world with unicorns, yes, Your Majesty. But, no, the Navy believes that the Imperial Navy is about to assault our Lorathian friends."

What?

Had she just heard something that probably related to Orland and Larissa being at war again? How utterly unpleasant indeed. She didn't want war. No, she absolutely despised such an idea.

No way, Orland had merely exited the Great War. As such, no, it was utterly unacceptable for her!

"Minister Fisch, Admiral Tresckow, Halberd…no, do you three even hear what you are all suggesting?"

Halberd nodded grimly.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"B-but the elections-"

"The elections will be over by tomorrow. It is unlikely that the Imperial Navy would strike within the next three days. What we are worried about is that the Orlish Navy won't be ready until next week."

Which meant Lorathia would be defenseless!

"Did we inform the Lorathians?"

Tresckow answered quickly.

"Yes, the Lorathian Navy and Airforce are heavily integrated with VACCOM, in fact, much of our force would be our Lorathian allies."

Amelie nodded thoughtfully. Of course, they had a chance. The Lorathian Navy was the third largest, behind the Empire of Larissa. All they would need to do was to hold off the Empire until the Orlish Navy arrived.

Still…war, I can't. Please, someone tell me this isn't real. Please…

"And that's why we asked you, Your Majesty."

She looked at Halberd, as he grew even more serious. She didn't like such an expression.

"The closest Orlish strike force to the Northern Sea is Strike Force 7. Your brother disembarked 5 days ago…and I wanted to inform you that he would most likely be the first to fight in this war."

Albert?

"Admiral, no, you're not serious. You didn't just send my brother into another bloodbath, didn't you? Admiral-"

"Amelie, your brother does not know if there will be a fight yet. He is merely sailing to Lorathia to rejoin VACCOM. We went here because we wanted you to authorize a critical mission for him. He won't be sailing to Redcastle, he will turn around straight to the Northern Sea to search for the Larissans."

"Admiral! No! You are making it worse." She spat, red-faced, yet Halberd didn't flinch. Outraged, utterly outraged, that was how she felt. "I will not be sending my brother to some suicide mission! I demand peace, there will be no war. You hear me? No war!"

She turned away from the officers and circled the conference table, intent clearly plastered in her movements. She was leaving the room.

"Your Majesty, where are you going?"

"Minister Fisch, I am going to see Minister Adelaide. There will be no war."

"Amelie!" Halberd's voice boomed in the room, which shocked the other officers (except for Albrecht, who merely watched the entire scene unmovingly) at how she was directly addressed by him.

"What?!"

"You are being naive. You cannot make peace with a woman hell-bent on war."

"I can! I will talk sense to that brat. She will stand down. She will turn around her ships and peace will be secured!"

"You are making a mistake-"

"Efforts to achieve peace is no mistake, Admiral. I cannot believe you men cannot comprehend such an idea."

Halberd stepped forward, but Amelie's eyes glowed and she pulled out her wand, aimed squarely at his face.

"Admiral, you will not order me to go to war."

He stared at her with his unflinching eyes, as her wand glowed blue.

"If that is your will, then please proceed, Your Majesty. I just hope that you will be prepared."

"Prepared for what?"

"...Every leader who saw war knows what it is. But I would like you to know this too. Once it happens, please, do not dwell on it and blame yourself for it."

"Such nonsense, Admiral." She spat. "There will be no war. I will see no war under my rule."

She turned her wand down, as the glow in her eyes died off. She promptly turned around and left the room. The three officers of the Admiralty were left silent.