“The Imperial Council of Larissa demands the return of Empress Katerina Illyenov in exchange for a ceasefire. Admiral Herard Tresckow of VACCOM however had so far denied the exchange, and cited that the Empress started the war and had to face justice for it. The whereabouts of the Empress is still unknown, though many speculate that she is held captive aboard the ONS Rebenslof at the moment.”

- Geopol Press

+++

Amelie was still shaken by the last encounter. Truthfully, while she had narrowly avoided the assassination, the fact that the plots against her had happened still left a chill in her spine. She could scarcely believe that she would ever be a target of such attacks. She thought only politicians or important personalities would be targeted by it.

Until she remembered she was one of those.

Anyhow, William himself seemed apologetic for leaving her in such a vulnerable state. While she would not chastise him, it seemed that he really was blaming himself for getting into the ambush in the first place.

“William, look, it’s not your fault.”

“I know, but it won’t happen again.”

“It probably will.”

“I’ll stop it before it happens. That’s my job.”

“You did what you can do. Look, it’s alright now.”

They were now en route again to their original destination - the Ministry of Health Headquarters, which was where Minister Allison Thell was based. Minister Thell didn’t exactly leave the city in the ongoing evacuations of the Orlish Civilian government and was even adamant about standing firm in the city.

“Well, for now, let’s put it behind, William.”

“Fine. But I’m investigating this with Marie.”

“You have no objections from me.”

She fell silent as she looked at him. This was his third SUV now, as his first and second ones had been…temporarily placed out of service, unfortunately.

The drive didn’t take long any further, as they arrived at the MoH HQ within minutes. The area had already been long locked down by Royal Guard forces, and they had to pass through checkpoints in order to gain access inside.

It wasn’t really that tedious, as the mere sight of Amelie and William’s ID dissuaded anyone from delaying their drive. Within minutes, the two were walking inside, already seemingly in a rush. The Ministry seemed already devoid of most of its staff, outside of a few skeleton crew that aided them in getting around the building.

“Your Majesty, welcome to my office.” Minister Allison started as she beckoned for the two to enter. It reminded Amelie of her original office in the Palace. It was messy, filled with papers and various documents, and the Minister seemed to have stockpiled piles after piles of empty cup noodles at the side.

Truly, the situation was that dire.

“I do apologize for the mess. I have been holed up here for extended periods, and was too busy to fix stuff.”

“No, it’s alright, I understand.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

They all sat down at their respective chairs.

“So, I assume you came here to ask about the evacuations?”

“Indeed, Minister Thell. The Armed Forces are now diverting the Putschists’ bombardment away from our lines to Rebenslof, right?”

“Yes, we did see a significant reduction in civilian fatalities along the roads and railways straight to Rebenslof. Alongside a significant reduction in damage done to our lines. Still, the broken roads and railways pose a significant hazard and bottleneck to the evacuations…”

“What are you doing to address it?”

Now, previously, during the planning of Operation Silent Spear, Amelie assigned Minister Thell to lead the evacuation efforts. Her job was to coordinate the Grand Duchy’s civilian sectors, both private and public, which included most of the significant civilian agencies still active in the Grand Duchy, all for one goal - to speed up the evacuations.

It was a massive task for someone like her. Most other Ministers had already evacuated the Grand Duchy after all, which left a scant few to lead the various Ministries and Agencies that operated in the region. While nationwide she had no control, over here she did.

And while Amelie could have just assigned Jacqueline or Walter to it, Jacqueline was too busy dealing with the nobles and the Parliament, while Walter was still hard at work in dealing with the squabbles of the Royal Guard and the Armed Forces.

And since Minister Allison had deep connections with her peers in the Grand Duchy’s remaining civilian officials, Amelie knew that she would serve well to smoothen everything out.

And so, she was assigned.

“I am currently coordinating the companies in charge of the railways, and I’m trying to get more buses and trucks even just to transport people out. Not to mention all the lines of civilians in the terminals…”

“I see, by your estimates, how long would it take to get everyone that must be evacuated out?”

“About two weeks at most at this rate. Though, that figure should go down as the evacuations smooth out, assuming that our workers on the ground repair the broken railways and clear out the debris and rubble in the roads.”

“The damage done to our infrastructure seems like a major limiting factor.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“Indeed, Your Majesty, it is. They cause delays, and traffic, or stop trains from moving altogether when we’re talking about rail transport. Sometimes they cause accidents, and while I have placed a lot of our health workers directly on the active areas of the evacuations, they’re stretched thin.”

Amelie sighed. She imagined how severe it must be for the men and women on the ground. They were evacuating millions of civilians in broken roads, broken railways, and wartorn towns and small cities. The routes to Rebenslof must be hell, as she had read and watched the news about how those who had to go through it faced deplorable conditions.

Added to it especially were the occasional artillery strikes, which, according to the Provisional Government, were aimed merely at trains transporting “military supplies and reinforcements”. She had long known that was mere propaganda. They were targeting civilians, or they didn't care if their attacks struck civilians.

Thankfully, Heindhöff didn’t seem to be that deranged. At the very least, he hadn’t employed illegal weaponry. However, she worried about it too. How long. How long till the extremists that tore her country apart decided that more extreme methods had to be done to overthrow her?

Extreme methods that could lead to more suffering for her people.

“Do we have any other problems?”

“Yes, in fact, Your Majesty, I need some more emergency funding to mobilize more civilian transport. Maybe that should help smoothen things up.”

“Is that so?”

Amelie turned to William.

“William, can we send more funding to her?”

“Probably not, much of the funds around the Grand Duchy, alongside the money in the Central Bank is being utilized by the Armed Forces and the Royal Guard. She’s gonna have to ask the Minister of Economy in Eutstadt for that.”

That made sense. With the Civilian Government’s evacuation to Eutstadt, the treasury was also sent there. And while they did receive billions each week to prosecute the war in the Grand Duchy, those were being used up again by the Armed Forces.

“Can we ask her to send more?”

“Probably not, the treasury is being used to mobilize factories or open up factories on the West Coast. Practically the entire national budget is being used for wartime mobilization. Not to mention the billions being used up to buy foreign arms as a stopgap measure.”

“Then that leaves my personal money.”

The Royal Family of Orland…was the richest in Orland, much to no one’s surprise. The amount of Royal Corporations that she inherited, their possessions, and the money from the crownland, alongside the Grand Duchy itself, made her family extremely rich.

Richer than even the largest megacorporations, whose wealth was mostly held up by speculation in the stock market (which had been long slashed by the economic collapse). The last estimates that Amelie conducted on her liquid wealth showed that she had at least two hundred billion Orlish Blancs that she could utilize in an emergency.

Technically, she had three times more than that, but most of that was in tangible assets, stocks of her Royal Corporations, and property. Not something she could simply use to fund crap on a whim. But two hundred billion was…two hundred billion blancs.

Not that I have anything else to do with it anyway.

And what use would it be if her country was gone? Or more civilians died? In fact, a plan bubbled in her mind. What if she used most of her liquid money to aid the war effort on her front? Would that help?

Probably yes.

“Y-your Majesty!” Minister Allison seemed alarmed. “I-Il find other sources of funding. Maybe I’ll try to get William’s help to commandeer more vehicles by force if need be. No need for this, I can settle all of it without Her Majesty’s personal money.”

Amelie smiled. Why did she worry that much? Truly, some of her subjects could be too loyal, straight to the realms of impracticality.

“No worries. How much do you need.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am absolutely sure, Minister Thell. I am the Queen, and if my money has to be used for the well-being of my subjects, then it shall be used. I don’t care about money rotting in storage if it can be used.”

“I...alright. We need fourteen Billion Orlish Blancs to acquire enough vehicles to transport one hundred thousand more civilians daily. That’s…a few hundred buses and trucks, and some trains from Rebenslof.”

“Then I’ll arrange for the funds to reach you, within this day.”

A good chunk of her money after all was still in the Central Bank, untouched due to the fact that it was the Queen’s money. It should not take long for it to be mobilized for emergency use.

“Then…I’ll make sure it is used well, Your Majesty.”

…

She could hear the distant sounds of heavy artillery. Her head hung low on her hands, as she looked at the distant districts of Halia. Truly, she wondered when it would all end. How many lives were being wasted, all while she was merely lost in her thoughts here?

The sun was already going down, and it was getting dark. Yet the sounds hadn’t ended. Each day was the same after all, that was the truth about this “siege”.

Still, she would never accept backing out from the capital. This was her capital. The center of her rule, flawed as it was.

Down below, she watched as civilian and military vehicles moved through the road in front of the Ministry. They all seemed hard at work, as always, just to win the war that she failed to stop.

But this is just the first step.

As William said, all of their work today was just the beginning. The Battle of Halia, and whoever would win this battle, would not truly decide the course of war. While it was a strategic target for both sides, this was an industrial war.

It would not end until one side had exhausted most, if not all of their means to prosecute the war.

“Deep in thought, Your Majesty?”

Amelie chuckled as she turned tiredly to Minister Allison, who approached her from behind, teacup in hand. She placed it on a table beside Amelie, and naturally, Amelie took a sip.

“Mhm…this is good.”

“Glad it is, Your Majesty.”

“You know, there’s no need to call me that way. Please, Minister Thell, call me Amelie instead. We’re both in this together.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

She seemed sheepish, but she nodded.

“Alright…Amelie. But I have a request too. Stop calling me Minister Thell, it makes me feel like an old woman, a politician.”

“But you are.”

“You wound me…please, just call me Allison too. That works just as well.”

“Fine...”

Allison took a seat in front of Amelie and fixed herself a cup of tea as well. Amelie missed these times when she could just take a few cups of tea with her friends. Marie, Jacquline, Alexa…she wondered what happened to Alexa now.

“I apologize for bringing this up, but, I’ve heard you were ambushed on your way here.”

“William took care of it.”

“It’s surprising that many men could stay so loyal to us.”

She questioned it many times herself as well, but truly, she struggled to find an answer as to why. The light in the darkness? She shook her head.

Colonel Kleist must be messing with me.

Though, perhaps his words truly had merit. That men were fighting for her because she was their hope in the darkness.

“It saddens my heart to watch many of them die for us.”

“...Perhaps, we really are in the wrong, don’t you think?”

“I think this civil war shows that clearly.” She looked Allison dead in the eye. “We women have been in the wrong for 3 centuries.”

“But men have been in the wrong before that too, and today as well. We must not forget that.”

But that just meant one thing. Someone had to put a stop to the endless cycle. Of men and women being in the wrong.

But is it even possible?