“‘Rebenslof Steel will not take responsibility for this disaster. We already gave up NATDMC to House Dubois, they were the ones in charge for months,’ said CEO Michael Rudolf as the ongoing disaster in the Principality of Freiland, as nearly seven-hundred eighty penal miners of Rebenslof Steel’s formerly owned mining subsidiary, ‘NATDMC’, were trapped after an accident in one of their iron-coal mine in Frieland. NATDMC has been acquired by House Dubois after being sold by the ‘almost bankrupt’ Rebenslof Steel. Michael Rudolf has pinned the blame on the Archduchess and House Dubois, citing her ‘reckless’ lowering of safety standards to increase NATDMC’s productivity as a cause. Rescue efforts are still ongoing, but the chances for the trapped men below are slim.”

- Liberty One Radio

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Central Orland

Principality of Freiland

January 5, 2025

“Work…sets you free?” Amelie asked as she looked at the entrance of the mine. The trip to Freiland wasn’t exactly quite long. The entire nonsense blew out of nowhere, and since the frontlines had turned cold in the last few days, media attention was now centered on the ongoing debacle about the trapped penal miners.

“Well, they are penal miners,” William dryly said. “It’s quite fitting. I mean, when you have millions of men imprisoned, there’s only one way to reduce their sentences optimally.”

“William, your sarcasm is dripping.” Nia angrily pointed out. “Have respect.”

“Well, apologies for that.” He drove past the checkpoint after the guard gave them permission. Just behind them, multiple trucks carrying water and drill rigs were lined up. All of them were needed for the ongoing rescue efforts. “But, the truth is the truth.”

Amelie herself seemed pissed, but not at William. “Yeah, you’re right. This just screams disgusting to me. What the hell was she thinking? I know our industries need more coal, iron, and other mined resources, but this is just…”

“Spit it out, Amelie.” William dryly said again as he made another turn.

“Evil.”

“...W-well, I’m sure it’s just an accident,” Nia said, still adamantly defending her own side. “Plus, they’re just…they’re…you know. They’re criminals, okay? I don’t know why we’re so focused on this problem when there’s a war.”

“Yeah, well. Who cares about those criminals? They gotta pay for their crimes, no? Plus, it’s almost two million men you can toss to free labor or death battalions.”

“We get your point, William,” Amelie said.

“Sorry, I just hate the damned sound of that. I served with penal battalions in the Great War. They’re not whatever image you all are crafting in your minds.” He scoffed. “Most of them are my fellow brothers who found the shortest end of the stick. I mean, we imprison men for failing to pay child support for heaven’s sake, or failing to pay debt. And trust me, so many men screwed up their debts during the recession, and we send these guys to these types of shit?”

“Is that…true? I…I’m sorry.” Nia said. “It’s just…”

“Look, let’s just end this nonsense here,” Amelie said as they stopped in front of a hastily set up tent. “It’s all pointless bickerings. This is wrong, end of discussion.”

By the time the two exited, the Archduchess herself was already walking straight to their SUV, flanked by two Royal Guard Knights. Immediately, the trio as they stopped in front of Amelie before the Archduchess carried on forward.

“Your Maj—”

“Archduchess Pristina Dubois, what in the Goddess’ name happened down here?” Amelie was visibly getting irate. “I have heard, and I am disturbed, of the fact that eight hundred penal laborers of this mine, are either dead or trapped.”

“Dead or trapped, nearly a thousand and hundred meters below, yes. I do not deny that. Multiple shafts connecting the deep mine to the surface have collapsed.” She breathed deeply, just as another woman, who Amelie recognized as Pristina’s little sister, ran toward the two. “It’s an accident, Your Majesty.”

Her little sister, who seemed to be older than Amelie, stood beside the Archduchess in shame. Amelie took a deep breath before addressing the two. “Who was in charge of NATDMC?”

“I…I am, Your Majesty!” Said Beatrice Dubois, way too quickly. “It was a mistake. W-we didn’t account for the reports of the local administrators of this specific mine, because…productivity reasons. I…we needed to increase our output for the first months of the acquisition of NATDMC, so…I…I…”

“Speak clearly, Beatrice.” Pristina coldly said, and Beatrice stiffened.

“We learned. I-it was a mistake. Again, please, I take responsibility. This…this could have been avoided, yes. But, we really needed to meet the demands of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Economy to…erm…get further subsidy packages. But, that was a mistake. We are now…reversing all of the lifting of safety standards, yes. I swear, this will not happen again. Please—”

“Enough,” Amelie said. “I had heard enough. You…you two. We will have a private talk, later. This…can they be saved?”

“We are attempting,” Pristina said. “Rebenslof Steel and PHI already sent drill rigs and other heavy equipment to bore down at the trapped men.”

“A-and we’re trying to communicate with them through the open ventilation shafts. Many survived, but we don’t know how many.” Beatrice gulped. “We will find a way. I swear. We’ll…we’ll get them out. No matter what.”

“Good, because—”

“Now, now. This…this is the shit.” Amelie turned around. Two of the Heiss’ Cabinet was here. Minister Hegel and Minister Sobieski walked from their vehicles, with Minister Hegel shaking his head as he removed his gloves. “This, ladies, is what we call, a massive fuckup.”

“Please refrain from using such foul words, Minister Hegel,” Nia said, already pissed at how the two were acting. Minister Sobieski pulled out a clipboard, just after he wore his eyeglasses.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Preliminary reports show that at least seven hundred penal miners are stuck at a depth of a thousand meters and above. Removing that, at least two hundred are possibly dead in the collapsed shafts in the upper parts of the mine, and…they only have supplies to last two weeks.” He sighed. “What the fuck are we going to do?”

“Well, leave that to the ladies.” Minister Hegel said. “I believe House Dubois insisted that they can run NATDMC much better to meet the demands of the defense industry. Rebenslof Steel had to retreat from the negotiations completely humiliated. Perhaps you can all fix this shitshow? But…it seems that the tables have turned, no?”

Beatrice paled further at the accusations levied against her, while Pristina’s steel gaze aimed at the two Ministers didn’t falter. Amelie placed herself in the middle of the two groups. “Alright, the four of you. Can we please stop the blame game and finger-pointing for now? We have men to rescue. Let us focus on that. Please.”

“I am not, and I will not be paying for the fallout of this crap!” A loud voice approached them, and all of them turned as an even angrier Michael Rudolf arrived on the scene. “I am helping you two, but you are both pushing it! Miss Beatrice Dubois, you ignored our advice, so don’t you dare—”

“I already took responsibility!” Beatrice shouted back, already on the verge of tears. “I…I was just stressed when the media appeared.”

“That’s not a damned excuse, and you know that!”

“Enough! Can we please…” Amelie looked at everyone. “Someone screwed up. This is awful. Yes, all that is true. And we will investigate this, but please, let’s focus on the task at hand. There are still so many miners trapped underneath. We can do the finger-pointing once they’re out.”

Minister Hegel nodded reluctantly. “Alright. Mr. Rudolf?”

“Yes?”

“How’s the drill situation going?” He asked. “You told me you sent everything needed for the operation?”

“Yes, we’re already shipping the extra parts. The drilling rigs are ready. We have ten of them ready, and we’d be drilling down based on the layout of the mines. We’re going to try, and we’re going to—”

“The mines collapsed!” Someone shouted as commotion grew around the site. Multiple workers, engineers, and soldiers rushed into action, just as the head engineer of the mine ran toward them.

“Mister? What is happening?” Amelie asked as the man removed his hard hat.

“Your Majesty…we detected multiple explosions and fires in the shafts below. There’s not enough oxygen underneath, our sensors noted that most of the oxygen below burned off. Some of the ventilation shafts also collapsed.” He breathed out heavily. “There’s…there’s no hope. They’re most probably dead, or dying of carbon monoxide poisoning. It’s over. It’s over, Your Majesty.”

“I-it can’t be!” Shouted Beatrice. “Continue the rescue efforts. Minister Hegel, I’m sure something can still be done. There must be people that can still be rescued in the shafts.”

“No there’s nothing more we can do, Miss Beatrice. They’re dead now. And even if we drill this up, it will take weeks if not months.” He turned around to face Amelie. “It’s over. We’re too late. Not that we even had a chance. These types of accidents are hard to reverse.”

“Goddess…” Amelie turned to the Dubois sisters. “You two, we will really have a long talk after this.”

+++

By the time the situation report was over, both Minister Hegel and Minister Sobieski were gone on the side of the room, discussing the possible fallout and policy changes that may occur with this incident. On the corner, Beatrice Dubois was inconsolable, repeating “sorry” after “sorry” as she hid herself, only accompanied by her older sister.

All while Amelie talked to the media outside.

“There will be changes,” she declared over the microphones. “We will be investigating the safety standards of these mines,” she added, as more questions came. She didn’t really have an answer, and so William’s troops, the 16th, finally decided to form a line to separate her from the media, pushing them off from the Queen, all while Lady Lubaine’s Royal Guard contingent gave a close overwatch near them.

Amelie resigned back to the meeting tent, already empty as the engineers and experts that briefed them earlier were now back on site, assessing the damage caused by the incident, or looking for ways to recover and reopen the mine.

“I…this…” Nia seemed to still be pale at the suddenness of the situation. “How did that even happen? One second, they were preparing for the rescue, now…”

“It’s a damned mine,” William said. “If it collapses, it’s going to be all accidents from then on. They’ve dug something wrong and too fast to meet Beatrice’s production quota. Shit happens.”

“Not to mention, they’re penal laborers,” Minister Sobieski said. “I knew it. This is why all of this is stupid. Allowing corporations a free hand at using penal labor is just giving them excuses to be reckless and lower safety standards. We’re practically running a slavery ring in all but name here. Hell, even the courts started jailing men left and right faster for non-violent offenses to meet demand. Demand for what? Free labor of course. Does that not sound similar to something?”

“Slavery?” Amelie asked. “Look, Minister Sobieski, much as I loathe what happened, I don’t think Orland ever engaged in that…that kind of dirty business. We already outlawed that…centuries ago.”

“Until the rise of male crime rates two decades ago. When your mother decided that penal labor would be a good way to deal with the millions stuck in prisons.” He laughed. “You women really are beyond blind to the realities below you. You saw those words at the entrance, didn't you? ‘Work sets you free’. Literally, we’re making them do borderline unpaid labor to lessen their sentences. And this crap happens.”

“Well, I’d be waiting for a nuclear reactor disaster with all these reductions in safety standards,” Minister Hegel said. “Seems like we’re on track to the Empire of Larissa’s safety records in their industrial accidents. Unless we change course now.”

“Yes, I already said that. We just…okay.” Amelie breathed out. “This will have direct consequences on our production capacity and economy, does it not? But if we do not cease these practices…”

“Well, that’s up to you really, Your Majesty.” Minister Sobieski said. “Prioritize the war, the production quotas, everything to win it, or are you going to enforce stricter standards that may result in short-term productivity losses just to improve the morality of all this…your choice. Or, well, the Prime Minister’s choice.”

“I’m…” Amelie looked back at the Dubois sisters, who still remained silent.

“You can’t fully pin every blame on the two of them, Your Majesty, even when I’d love to do that.” He looked at Mr. Rudolf, who also remained silent. “I mean, this guy is still doing it too.”

“But I do not recklessly do it. Rebenslof Steel treats its penal laborers as best as we can.” He said. “I…I do not…”

“Yes, but still the same regardless. Morally at least.” Minister Sobieski said. “Just because you had fewer accidents does not mean you’re completely better. In any case, let this incident be a lesson. The only question is, when should we change it?”

Amelie didn’t really have an answer yet. She needed more guns, artillery, tanks, aircraft, and everything in between. Which meant she needed more raw materials and energy to create that. This meant…that she needed more laborers in these…places…and they needed to speed up their production. Oh, had it been peacetime, she would seriously combat these problems, but…

“I have no decision yet. We’ll consult the other members of the government. But, things will change. I’m sure of that. Just…investigate, and…send all of your findings to my desk.”

“We’ll make sure of that, Your Majesty.”

“Thank you.”

And with that, Amelie retreated from the site with William and Nia. She didn’t want to stay and confront it any further, for now. Yet a question remained in her mind.

Why? Why did I not know this? This…under her rule? This was happening?

She almost wanted to vomit.