St. Petersburg Command Ops, as the Joint Chief of Staff, were discussing plans for a tactical operation that will get the embassy staff and the Grand Duchesses of the Ruthenia Empire out of the country, and also the retaliatory offensive in the case of war, Alexander was sitting on his chair, with a telephone wedged on his shoulder.

He’s contacting someone close to him, the one that owes him a lot.

“Princess Diana, thank you for receiving my call,” Alexander greeted warmly.

“Alexander. It’s a surprise that would call me directly and not my Prime Minister.”

Diana seemed to have learned the situation at hand. Alexander smiled in satisfaction as it was the case as it will save him much more time discussing things.

“Well, one of my ministers did reach out to your Foreign Minister to set up a back channel. So this is not our first attempt at contacting the Britannia Empire. Anyways, I’d like you to help us with something…” Alexander said, rubbing his fingers together.

“What kind of assistance do you need?” Diana asked cautiously and added. “May I remind you that I’m just a princess not the head of state like you so don’t expect me to do something urgently…”

“You may only be a figurehead, but you have a lot of influence in your parliament, I’m sure you can talk to them since what I’m going to ask you will not affect the national interest of the Britannia Empire.”

“How can you be so sure about that, Alexander?” Diana hummed,

intrigued by his words.

“What…you think you’re the only one who’s keeping an eye on foreign nations?” Alexander pointed out casually. Diana couldn’t help but chuckle at his remarks.

“Okay, what do you need, Alexander, as long as it doesn’t infringe on the interest of the Britannia Empire, I can help you.”

“Great,” Alexander cleared his throat. “So, I want you to speak with the Prime Minister of Yamato Empire and ask, if possible, to give the Ruthenia Empire the right to safely evacuate our embassy staff and the Grand Duchesses. Also, we need vehicles, a lot of them. See? Not that complicated.”

“Reaching out to me seems like the Yamato Empire flat-out refuses your request of repatriation, am I right?”

“Yes,” Alexander agreed. “And the Yamato only listen to their allies, which is your country. Now, of course, there’s a catch. If you were able to negotiate the safe return of my citizens, I’ll sign a royal decree granting your country exclusive rights of our naval warships,” Alexander offered.“Hoh?” Diana mused. “That’s a rather tempting proposition.”

It was indeed a tempting proposition to them. When the Ruthenians launched their new modernized fleet, the Britannia Empire could only look in envy. The displacements and the designs far exceed their own, threatening their position as the “Mistress of the Seas” This throws them into chaos, you see, when one foreign military developed something technologically advanced, they’ll counter it by building their own, which results to overspending largely due to research and development cost.

It all goes the same for other nations who feared Ruthenia’s military domination. Technically speaking, Alexander is winning a war that doesn’t involve violence, by freaking them out and making them spend a lot of money. After all, it was proven to them when the Ruthenia Empire started exporting pre-ww2 and WW2 military aircraft, where their capabilities far surpassed theirs.

Alexander is also looking for exporting military vehicles that would be no match to his but look decent to theirs. As for the assault rifles, those things can wait, he believes that there was a perfect time for that.

For the sake of his family, Alexander is willing to sell one of their ships to theirs, of course with a downgraded capability, that is.

“So, Diana, do you like my proposition? A ship in exchange for a safe passage.”

Diana was silent for the moment, probably giving it a deep thought. As the crown princess of the Britannia Empire, she was well aware of her country’s objectives, one of them is looking out for the Ruthenia Empire as the rising superpower. She did so by settling down affairs with the Francois Republic and the Deutschland Empire, rather than focusing on one another, she diverted it to the Ruthenia Empire. Of course, she’s just guiding them, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Affairs are the ones who make an arrangement.

She’s also well-learned of Ruthenia’s military capability that threatens the balance of power in Europa. In order to counter their military, they must know its mechanism.

“Fine, but don’t expect a guarantee. The Yamato Empire hated us after the St. Petersburg Treaty after we suggested that they should accept the demands.”

“The Yamato Empire will listen to you,” Alexander assured.

“Assuming they got out of the country, what would you do?” Diana asked, it was the same question he got from his uncle.action

“What they did is an act of war, so as a nation, it’s only natural that we respond to this sort of provocation,” Alexander replied calmly.

“I see, well I must say, it was an unexpected move from the Yamato Empire. I shall hang up now, I have matters to attend to,” Diana declared.

“Thank you, I appreciate the call,” Alexander said before ending the call. He heaved a sigh and closed his eyes for a moment, cutting off visual stimulation.

Suddenly—someone tapped his shoulder.

“Your Majesty, there’s something you need to know,” Sevastian said in an alert tone.

“What is it, Sevastian?” Alexander responded, confused about why Sevastian is being alert like that.“We received developing news from the Ruthenian Embassy. They are reporting that there is police and military massing in front of the embassy and demanding that we shall hand Zero or else they’ll enter by force.”

“WHAT?!” Alexander stood up immediately, startling Sevastian a bit. He didn’t expect the emperor to lose his temper so quickly.

Alex took a moment to compose himself before continuing, “This is fucking ridiculous. Do they even have the slightest sense that a military or a police force of a host nation can’t enter any embassy without authorization? Why is it again that they want to hand Zero to them?”

“They claimed that Zero violated a plethora of laws while heading to the embassy.”

“And they didn’t even bother investigating the one who attacked him?”

“Well, there’s also another thing, Your Majesty…”

“Another thing?” Alexander repeated his words. “What is it this time?”

“It’s best that we show it to you,” Sevastian said and hailed one of the operators to put something up on the main screen.

Alexander turned his attention to the LCD screen. It was a news channel broadcasting in Tokyo showing Shinzo Sakawa being transported on a gurney with a knife sticking into his right chest.

Then the scene changed to a man holding a microphone broadcasting in the Yamato language. Since almost everyone doesn’t know the Yamato language, they didn’t understand what the man was saying. But for Alexander, he understood it, simply because he had a lot of business partners in Japan from his original world. Establishing a good relationship with them means Alexander must learn how to speak their language.

The contents of the news were as follows: Shinzo Sakawa was a wealthy businessman who owned thirty percent of the nation’s railways and was also an owner of a big automobile business named “Sakawa”. Not only that, he is deeply popular with the people by attending charities and conducting welfare programs. He was a hero to the Yamato people and seeing him lying on the gurney made public opinion stir and hostile against Ruthenia.

pᴀɴ-ᴅᴀ-. Alexander knew where this was coming from. The media was a powerful tool in the 1920s that can sway the minds of the masses, especially when they are indoctrinated. They are diverting their anger to the Ruthenia Empire so much that they’d forget that it was Yamato who strikes first.

The scenery changed again, this time, people marching with their torches and placards. Chanting “Kick Ruthenians out! Kick Ruthenians out!” and also “Justice for Shinzo Sakawa.”

Basically, they are demonizing the Ruthenia Empire and when this reaches foreign nations, it’ll be certain they will get sympathy and public support.

However, Alexander couldn’t care less about that as a new threat formed on the Ruthenian Embassy’s doorsteps.

“We can’t let the military and the police enter the embassy, tell Rolan and the guards there to keep their position.”

“Yes sir!” Sevastian acknowledged the order.

“Mister Alexei, how do we keep the Yamato police from entering the embassy?” Alexander inquired.

“Well, Your Majesty, we have to send them a clear message that entering the embassy means war. To do that, we have to strike Yamato first.”

“But what if something happens to the Grand Duchesses?” Sevastian pointed.

“We have taken that into account,” Alexei confidently replied.

“Care to share with us what’s your plan for getting my sisters out?” Alexander asked.

“Sure, Your Majesty.”