“Queen Amelie Ludendorf finally gave her first statements about Lieplatzan atrocities against its civilian populace during a press conference this morning. She had called their actions against the Lieplatzan nobility to be ‘utterly reprehensible’, ‘vile’, anda violation against human decency’. She had reiterated that the Kingdom of Orland’s goals of restoring order throughout all of North Opellia would remain as her top priority and that all rebel forces, both Orlish and Lieplatzan, would be put to justice if they commit further crimes against humanity.”

- ROCN News

“The United Crowns of Arkelia has now moved troops into the Orlish–Arkelian border, as Chancellor Lies Lozeman and the Confederal Parliament of United Arkelia passed the vote for the formation of Arkelian Expeditionary Forces to assist the Kingdom of Orland against the State of Lieplatz and the Federal Republic.”

- Geopol Press

+++

West Orland

Amelie took her morning sip, as she listened to the animated discussions around her room. The state visit from the United Crowns down south had been quite the surprise for her, but it seemed that their sisters down south were truly adequately spooked that they finally came out of their shells.

United Arkelia…United Arkelia. I thought they’d be too preoccupied with their internal bickerings, but I suppose they finally placed that on hold.

“If we join the war,” Princess Denise van Ruland, the new Arkelian Foreign Minister who hailed from the Kingdom of Delstaag, one of the Kingdoms inside of the United Crowns, was talking to Adelaide over tea as well. “Would we be dragged into Orland’s wars across the sea?”

“Your Highness, of course not,” Adelaide replied. “Unless Arkelia is interested, you have no obligations to the Ivory Alliance. Still…it would be quite a good development should you join us in this conflict.”

The Princess of Ruland smiled a bit before turning to Amelie, who had so far kept herself out of the conversation. Quite frankly, she wasn’t a great fan of the United Crowns. It was always painfully confusing to deal with a nation so recently united from four crowns. She remembered that her mother once despaired about the confusing foreign policy of Arkelia, for their four Queen (of equals, as they would like to say) always bickered and placed forth a confusing back-and-forth policy about whether or not Arkelia would ascend into an alliance with Orland and the Ivory Alliance.

Regardless, Arkelia was firmly under the Orlish economic sphere, and so, now that their northern master found itself in dire straights, Arkelia at first tried to weasel itself out of its obligations to help Orland. Amelie still remembered when she asked for the United Crowns to accept Orlish civilians as temporary refugees, only to be denied.

And so, personally, her opinions of that ‘Confederation’ or whatever they wanted to call themselves weren’t the most positive ones. Still, Amelie was open to something, especially now that their new energetic Chancellor was dead set on finally fixing Arkelia’s messy foreign policy and uniting her nation firmly under the Confederal Parliament.

That would help Amelie’s goals, at least. Not for the four Queens down south who were rapidly losing their influence to the United Crown’s central government. The United Crown’s new ruling High Rose Party led by Chancellor Lies Lozeman was an aggressively reformist one, borne out of last year’s men’s mass protests and strikes that were running in parallel to the crisis in Orland.

“Your Majesty,” the Princess started. “Could I perhaps respectfully ask a question.”

Amelie nodded. “Go on.”

“What do you think are your regime’s chances against the Federal Republic?”

There was a momentary silence, as Amelie tried to find her bearings after that question. Her chances? Saying that she’d surely triumph was easy to say, but Pollos’ globally recognized superpower fell into civil war. It had been a year of knee-deep fighting against the Federal Republic, and all she could show for the world was that victory in Halia and her stopping the Federalist tide across the frontline.

That was all she could show the world. That was alongside Orland’s complete economic withdrawal from the rest of the world in response to the war. It was why it remained difficult to fully wrestle all MN members to her will. The question of Orland’s continued existence was…well, in question.

And so, could she really end the war against the Federal Republic and triumph in Orland?

“We’ll do our best. Chances of defeat are high, but we are confident that we would triumph otherwise. Because otherwise, the Federal Republic would not be gentle to all of North Opellia.”

That veiled threat managed to make the Princess’ confident smile falter for but a moment, and Amelie relished her small verbal victory. That was why they were here, after all. It was why Adelaide’s months of work to convince them to join the war was finally working and that they finally began forming their own expeditionary force. Arkelia was afraid.

Very afraid.

Especially after Orland showed what was happening up there, and the panic must have further intensified. If there was one silver lining about her troops finding out what General Richstoff’s regime was doing up there in the north, it was the fact that Amelie was now armed with hundreds of hours of footage and countless images of poor, poor, Lieplatzan noblewomen dead on the ditches with bullet holes or worse.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Even those ever-pacifist and isolationist Asanaians were now terrified of the prospects. Now, everyone was looking at the revolutionaries with growing fear and anxiety. What if the Republic of Asturia was doing the same? What if the Confederation was doing it too? What if North Hebei was on the same game?

And for the Arkelians, what if the Federal Republic was doing it too? And what if…the Kingdom lost and the Federalists crossed the border to do the same ‘operations’ to the United Crowns?

Fear brings everyone closer together.

A truly effective tool, Amelie could tell. A nasty, dirty, and quite frankly, disgusting tool. But to paint a group of people as something to be feared, it was too damned effective. Propaganda sure could easily do its job when pulled off well. Especially when young men, the demographic most associated with the current global crisis, had already been utterly demonized.

She hated to use hate. But damn it, the world sure hated men, especially young men, who everyone was now starting to view as nothing but violent, radical, rabid murder machines that went rogue of all things. They hated them with a special passion that Amelie couldn’t fathom that even when her propaganda attempts were only targeted at General Richstoff’s junta, the receivers perceived the revolution and young men as a part of it.

The most effective tools sure were vile. She’d have to reign on it soon, but she didn’t know how. Should the current trends continue, the othering of young men would only intensify. Even older men were starting to view the demographic that participated the most in this conflict with an increasing form of hostility.

But what can I do?

“So, would your country want to fight them with us too? Fight them before they reach your own borders?”

“Look, Your Majesty, this is a difficult matter for us,” the Princess said. “We have no obligations to Orland, but…we have to defend you, or else.”

“Exactly.”

“But even then…if Orland, a military power beyond us, could barely stop half of your own Army, what could the United Arkelian Armed Forces do?” She shook her head.

“General Albrecht already looked into it. While your military is less advanced, that four hundred thousand expeditionary force could surely do something.” Amelie smiled. “The Orlish Armed Forces is the most powerful in the world, but it would benefit from more people joining in to help it.”

“I see…” The Princess then looked at Amelie dead in the eye. “Next, what about Princess Celeste? What are Orland’s plans for her?”

“As we’ve said, we’re restoring the Lieplatzan throne, and she’d be in there, as the line of succession says. Do you really think Orland would take land?”

“Who knows,” the Princess said. “But just know, if you try something to her, Arkelia would back down from sending our forces, and oppose you even.”

“Reasonable,” Amelie said. “But we would never do such a thing…so worry not.”

+++

“Then so be it,” Princess Celeste von Reintz reluctantly said. The former Lieplatzan Prime Minister also solemnly nodded after General Albrecht’s words about what was about to happen to Nordia. There wasn’t much the both of them could do. “If the OAF wishes to assault it and…deal such enormous damage to it, then I suppose there is no other choice.”

“Look, I know it’s difficult,” Amelie tried. “But we did all we could do. We already asked for their surrender, yet they didn’t agree. Instead, they continued their fortifications.”

“Is starving them out really just…impossible?” Their Prime Minister asked. “Is it really?”

“Prime Minister Gerson, please, the General already said it himself,” the Princess said. “We can’t let them stay in the city any longer. They’ll only use that time to harm more of the half a million civilians still left on Nordia.”

General Albrecht nodded. “As I’ve said ladies, we did what we could. We cut them off with our pincers from the north, and we blockaded them. Then we bombed their forward defenses. But they still refused to surrender. Encircled or not.”

“How many troops are even trapped inside?” Amelie asked, and General Albrecht sighed.

“Approximately forty-thousand Lieplatzan soldiers are encircled in Nordia. Around at least four hundred armored vehicles too that managed to escape us during the advance.”

“That’s the majority of the Lieplatzan Armed Forces left, is it not?” Amelie asked.

“Nah, impossible,” William interjected, his eyes still glued to the map. He turned to General Albrecht. “They escaped up north, didn’t they?”

“Yes. Probably a hundred thousand. But most of them are infantry and mechanized infantry. Their armored divisions have been annihilated or trapped in Nordia.”

“Still probably a few brigades of armor that they could use to slow us down,” William said, still pessimistic. “We were too slow.”

“Thus our current situation. We have to clear out Nordia quickly in order to chase them up north. Otherside, we’d have nothing to push there. We can’t divert more of our troops from Orland, especially when two of our Army Corps that are in reserve are now preparing for a voyage to Gallia.”

“Just…please,” everyone turned to Princess Celeste. “Just do what you can. Assault Nordia, and chase them north to save my imprisoned subjects, but just…limit the civilian casualties. I can see that the OAF has no other choice.”

Amelie sighed, turning to General Albrecht. With that, she now has the full approval of the upcoming Lieplatzan Queen to take the necessary measures to end the West Lieplatzan Campaign. Still, Amelie felt queasy about it. Assaulting a major city? Her troops would be in a truly bad spot with this one. Including the Lieplatzan civilians still trapped inside.

“You heard her, General. You have the permission to commence the operation. Take the city with as little bloodshed as possible, even if that’s probably impossible.”

He gave them a brief salute. “We’ll be on it then, Your Majesty.”