Chapter 206: Twenty-third Episode: Chapter 7 (1/2)

Chapter 206: Twenty-third Episode: Chapter 7

Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Church's Calendar year 801, the 19th day of the 2nd month, Saturday, 4 o'clock in the afternoon was a special moment, according to the God of Light's classic literature. It was in the fourth minute when He created the world and eliminated the unsuccessful creations. This moment that represented death was the most appropriate time to hold a funeral.

The Imperial Secretariat held a grand state funeral for the former Head of Secret Service Department of the Empire, Rudolf Hoss, in Dulin Scott Cathedral. No matter how despicable the Head of Secret Service was before his death, the guests who attended the funeral appeared to be genuinely devastated as if they had lost a dear friend. This made Her Majesty the Empress' companion, Baron Bernadot Ogeiro, unsure whether to stifle his laugh or not. He only made one comment in the historical record regarding the magnificent funeral, and it was not even anything related to the incident, ”People seem to only realize all the hypocrisies of life when lying in the coffin. If one was being placed in a crystal coffin, they could notice it with more clarity!”

Rudolph was lying in one of these rarities which he had prepared for himself. As in accordance to the will of the former Head of Secret Service Department, this priceless item was brought out from the basement of the Count's residence, and then the last Count of Hoss House was placed there in peace. It was said that Her Majesty broke out into tears when she was notified about the pedigree of Hoss House being put to an end. The other ministers who understood the situation also shed their tears. They all agreed that the Hoss House was the pillar of the Titan's empire, especially the family's outstanding son – Rudolf Hoss.

Her Majesty the Empress' speech on the state funeral was all real experiences she had been through with the deceased. She expressed her grief in a brief introduction and gave a lengthy remembrance to reminisce about the history of the Empire's first executioner. Who knew what the noblemen at the funeral were thinking about? Few people could appreciate what the Head of Secret Department had been through. For the majority of Titan's noblemen, wealth and power were naturally the priorities in their lives, and then it was to never be involved with the juridical system and secret service system. However, this did not mean that they would behave well in life.

Something strange and embarrassing happened in the state funeral. No one knew whose idea it was, but there was not one soldier in the scene. Normally, the state funeral must be supported by the Paladin to express the empire's respect or flattery to the deceased but Rudolf Hoss? It was rumored that Marshal Alan had made a strict order that whoever appeared the funeral was a jerk! Hence, the soldiers avoided the funeral using various excuses. Her Majesty had no ways to this matter, but she also had no idea there had been a deep hatred intertwined between the Marshal of Imperial Guards and former Head of Secret Service.

Speaking of hatred, the noble circle of Dulin was in a heated discussion about the incident that happened in the early morning of the 18th day. His Highness Prince Consort O'Neil Andrew Morisette of eminent position was being attacked by an assassination group in the streets of Dulin in broad daylight! After the initial stage of shock and surprise, the people began to ask questions about the reason for this assassination, and the answers to this question could be explained in two theories. The first group of people thought that it was a revenge from the enemies His Highness made from the battles he engaged in down south while the other half was rather subtle on their thoughts. Most only smiled and claimed that this was going to happen sooner or later, but it seemed rather unexpected to happen now.

Was it unexpected? Who knew what Alan was thinking! He had several nights of interrupted sleep where he kept waking up for the toilet. Sometimes, his mind went lazy and dozed off which left him no choice but to keep himself awake by gulping down sixty grams or more of concentrated coffee. All of these explained that the Commander of Imperial Guards was getting on in years but still burdened his mind with too many worries and concerns.

Marshal Alan started to review his own mistakes on the second day when His Highness Prince O'Neil left for Vielonna. To be frank, it could not really be considered as his mistake because no one would have thought that General of Imperial Paladins Kiener Ritz would miss his shot. Kiener Ritz had serviced the Imperial Family for almost thirty years and only missed twice throughout his hundreds of assassination missions. Those mistakes were nothing compared to the hundreds of his successes, but why had he not been extra careful with O'Neil Andrew Morisette? This was what worried Alan the most as the failed assassination attempt meant that he had to live the rest of his life in the shadows of the highest security regulations.

No one could live in peace after assaulting Andrew. This was proved in pride by their history of four hundred years of battles. According to Alan's script, O'Neil Andrew Morisette should not die in Dulin but in the battlefield of Slovenia. However, this was only one of the scenarios in the first chapter of the script.

The Slovenian battlefield was enough to cause Andrew and the Southern Army Group to engage further into the matter. Even if the Slovenian army was fundamentally weaker to the Narcissus Knights in many ways, the commander of Imperial Guards could strengthen them through their ”international friends.” With enough time for preparation, the members of the Slovenian Royal Family could have been on the warships of Engels or Farans when Andrew launched the war.

As long as the orthodox royal family of Slovenia was still in existence, their occupation and enslavement on this country would be illegal. The nosy Engels would certainly never let go of this opportunity to extend their maritime power to the Aldrid Sea, or even the Persian Black Sea. As long as O'Neil Andrew Morisette appeared on the chaotic battlefield, the Imperial Paladin would always find an opportunity to assassinate the target.

Note that all the above was just one scenario as Alan had also predicted another kind of possibility. Although these things did not actually happen, an old man's obsession with memory and imagination brought him to where he was right now.

The second scenario assumed that O'Neil Andrew Morisette did not show up in Slovenia. Then there could only be one explanation – the competitive young Prince was forced into giving up the unprecedented Lighthouse Strategy due to domestic protests and international hostile forces. If so, Alan would let Oscar off the hook by then, and he would shift the direction of the arrow to the commander of Andrew House armed forces – Figg Andrew Tibotty.

One question that Alan never quite figure out was why Figg Andrew Tibotty always won on the battlefields? The amount of effort the Commander of Imperial Guards spent studying Andrew House was not any lesser than Deiss people in the North Border. He studied all the warfare history of the Andrew House, especially those regarding Figg Andrew Tibotty whose fame grew rapidly in the 90s of the seventh century! In Alan's opinion, Marshal Figg's strategies were not unusually clever, and in most cases, he won merely by little tricks. Nothing was enough to make him an extraordinary leader. Could it be that the Persian never learn? Or that the God of Light always got Andrew's back? Nonetheless, Alan was envious of the young man's battle records because Figg Andrew Tibotty had conquered quadruplets the size of Narcissus territory. In addition to the land of Slovenia, then Andrew could be the second Titan empire. An empire within the empire!

Hence, Figg Andrew Tibotty had to die, just like his father! His and O'Neil Andrew Morisette's deaths were the stepping stone to the empire! The two of them must be killed, although not at the same time.

The Andrew House was strange! The way Alan saw it, there was no way a massive household that had such a complicated family line could agree eye to eye concerning their leadership principle but Andrew did it! With the Military Command Bureau, they took control over the Empire's governor's office in East Border indigenously. With Narcissus Knights, they took care of the issues related to warfare, territories, interests, and all other disputes. The Duke of Andrew displayed more control than the emperor of Morisette Imperial Family within the Andrew territory. This required the Empire to consider the decision of the Duke of Andrew when it comes to making a decision over the land of Andrew because other family members of Andrew functioned simply like mechanical parts. This was also the root cause of the Empire's inability to implement diversion, separation, and governance within the House. Furthermore, Nedgabel, which was built to counterbalance Andrew, was assimilated by the Narcissus people. This created an even more powerful Andrew.

Therefore, Alan found out from history that any of the political strategies and conciliation policies to control or guide Andrew had lost their effectiveness. The only method they had left was to solve problems using blood and fire.

There was a prerequisite for this issue which Alan grasped clearly. The Andrews respected traditional ideas and they would never launch attacks against the country before the Empire. There was no need to doubt this because Andrew history was built on the foundation of depending on the empire. Hence when the time was delayed between the end of the Church Calendar seventh century and the beginning of the eighth century, Andrew lost its enemy and ushered in a new situation of independent development. The contradiction between the Empire and the first warlord family was then magnified incessantly.

Firstly, although Andrew was the Empire's, its expansion should be an expression of Andrew's own will and not at all related to the Morisette dynasty. However, Western monarchies often magnified this issue by either threatening with force or engaging in diplomatic struggles. In short, they did not want the Titan Empire's territory to continue to expand eastward. Or perhaps more directly, as the King of Weden announced earlier, the benefits should be shared with them too.

Secondly, the Empire was Andrew's empire! Although it was somewhat contradictory to the traditional view and it was a rather vague concept, the Morisette Imperial Family's control over Andrew was almost coming to an end with the advent of the new century. However, the root cause of all problems was that Morisette was not willing to admit their loss of ability to continue limiting Andrew. From this emperor to the bureaucrats of the capital, they still regarded Andrew as the Andrew who guarded the East Border, not this monster that had grown out its fangs and claws.

Based on the lack of understanding on historical records and the irreversibility of the traditional ruling while simultaneously feeling pressure from Andrew, Morisette naturally hoped to further strengthen their control. To put it plainly, to tame the monster being imprisoned in a cage. While Andrew, on the other hand, naturally wished to break free from the gradual tighter restraint from the Imperial Family. However, now was not the best time to gain independence from the empire as Andrew House's tradition did not allow this kind of thought to exist. Even if there was, it was just a non-mainstream idea that surfaced in this big family. Hence, it would only be turned into a reality when the main principle was eliminated.

Anyway, whether it was their intention or not, it appeared that the efforts and measurement taken by this family were leaning toward the idea of independence from the empire. Therefore, the conflicts between the two continued to expand. At least, Morisette was still the emperor of Andrew, and Andrew was still the high ranking official family in the Empire. The continuous expansion of conflicts was not as severe as the real conflict was on political interests and ideological issues.

Finally! My God! Alan finally remembered O'Neil Andrew Morisette and Figg Andrew Tibotty. History was full of coincidences. However, when the Morisette dynasty was caught in a critical situation of internal and external struggles, the appearance of these two extremely knowledgeable young power in the East Border Andrew was absolutely not a good phenomenon for the Empire.

Alan thought it would be wiser to destroy Oscar and keep Figg, because Figg's identity and perspective on important issues represented the traditional Andrews, and even if he had fought for a lifetime in the East, Titan Empire was still the Titan Empire. On the other hand, when it came to O'Neil Andrew Morisette, Alan's imagination could not have shown how the 26-year-old Imperial Marshal would be in a lifetime of battle, and that was what he feared most. Slovenia had happened. Who knew what tomorrow would bring?

To be honest, the battle of merger against Slovenia was not an unacceptable thing for the Titan Empire, but what bothered Alan was that the Empire was not truly the beneficiary in this case. Even Alan could not see the necessity to seek a seaport in the distance of more than two thousand kilometers away from Dulin.

Alan could not read minds, but he understood O'Neil Andrew Morisette thoroughly. Take the assassination attempt on the early morning of the 18th day of the 2nd month for example. To be frank, Alan admitted that this operation took only 13 hours from planning until the final implementation. This was not his usual style, but he must do so after losing Rudolf Hoss.

O'Neil Andrew Morisette would not stop because he was O'Neil Andrew Morisette.

The answer was not to fool the audience because Alan did not have an audience. What he had was the determination for a stricken bloody fight! What would he be fighting against? Against everything that threatened the Titan Empire! Just like the issue of Slovenia, even if it was a question of history at the level of national development, the idea that O'Neil Andrew Morisette had for the current Titan was rather advanced. He was not thinking about the issue from the point of view of imperial interests, but merely striving to prove his war talent.

Alan must prevent this because Titan could not afford the possible siege coming from all three sides. If this situation was attributed to the young man who was extremely immature in terms of psychological and political considerations.

Forget it! Alan only hoped that O'Neil Andrew Morisette would always be the current O'Neil Andrew Morisette! If O'Neil Andrew Morisette woke up one morning and realized that he could have so much more if he was sitting on the throne of the Emperor, then, all grace to the God of Light! Let O'Neil Andrew Morisette to never wake up from his sleep.

Alan finally found the necessity to execute O'Neil Andrew Morisette. He had to achieve this before Prince O'Neil gained all the conditions that allowed him to be the next emperor. To be fair, Alan's thinking was not unreasonable. He had long seen the decline of Morisette dynasty's ruling authority and the privileged class of the empire nobility, but this problem was not something he could solve. However, he was able to solve another problem for the Empire, namely, the potential threat of the current leader of the Andrew House.

When he noticed the thriving Southern Five Provinces that provided their full support to Prince O'Neil, Alan once asked himself why they could not elect a new monarch. This monarch was strong, capable, and had a natural intuition on a series of political and military issues, which was much stronger than the overly anxious Alanis I Her Majesty! However, this problem was too complicated. Alan did not examine it in depth because it involved all the problems that would arise followed by the change of the dynasty, including the ruling policies of Andrew, the intervention of Western forces, the shift of political focus to the south, and resistance of the family which was held strongly to traditional values. Alan was unable to face these problems, so he had to return to the origin of the problem. Although it was slightly ridiculous to attribute the responsibility for all these complications back to O'Neil Andrew Morisette, there was only so much Alan could do!

Should he first get rid of the leader of Andrew, Figg Andrew Tibotty, or the Marshal O'Neil Andrew Morisette? Although Alan had an inclination toward one of the two, he had predicted two more other possibilities scenarios that could have happened. The sudden death of Rudolf Hoss messed up his plans, hence Alan had to come up with another script as a substitute. Although this substitution had failed miserably and the result was not what Silver Fox had expected, this did not affect the initial script he had written.

There were only two things that Prince O'Neil would do when he left for the south. One was to continue to strengthen his power and control over the United Government of the Southern Five Provinces, while the other was to continue the investigation of the conspiracy against Slovenia. Alan had experienced a massive setback in the south before, and he did not want to deal with the southerners again because he was afraid that he would lose. Hence, he shifted his attention to Slovenia. He had shown two of the scenarios he planned for the first act earlier, and now the second act was supplementary to what happened in the first.

Either Oscar or Figg would be the Commander for the battle with Slovenia. If the main principle of his first act was to bring the person who appeared down, the second act had a more precise and clear direction. Of course, the prerequisite being the result of the first act was out of expectation.

In the first act, if Prince O'Neil had not launched the war with the intention to annex with Slovenia, Figg who had been doing well in the border would not have abandoned the use of force. Just like the conversation Alan had with the prince earlier, it was necessary for the leader of a House to have good communication with the commander. What would have happened within the Andrew House at this time if Figg had been assassinated or that Oscar was dead?

Two possibilities! Figg's death would cause his younger brother to carry out a new round of cleansing within the family and the root causes of separation and hatred would be buried. Alan did not want to see this. He did not want Andrew to be in a mess, and he also did not want a chaotic Andrew House that might ignite a fire within the Empire.

On the other hand, the death of Oscar, which was something that Alan dreamed about each night. He had previously stated with certainty that Figg was a representative of Andrew's traditional principle, and that his arrow would be directed to the East rather than the Empire behind him. This was why Alpha III dared to kill the former Duke of Andrew because the fiercest revenge the Andrew House could have against the Morisette Imperial Family was no more than a verbal curse. The saying that ”People who assaulted Andrew will suffer!” did not apply to the emperor.

Even if Alan had no idea that the death of Alpha III was indeed Andrew's revenge, he had already known that O'Neil Andrew Morisette was never to follow the traditional values of the Andrew House. His Highness the Prince did not grow up under the influence of the traditional family environment, but a place where there was no definite concept of right and wrong. From there, he cultivated the vices that grievance must be reported, being unscrupulous, competitive, and exclusive. This led him not to be constrained by any traditional moral thinking when dealing with problems.

Maybe this was the potential reason that Alan kept having the thought to destroy Oscar, as such a villain was not suitable for the upper class. His arrival could only leave the Empire with an unmanageable mess.

Regarding the second act, which could not be carried out if the first act was not achieved. Alan's temporary script was enough for the little villain to carry vengeance for the rest of his life. It was undoubtedly an idiot's dream if he wanted to assassinate O'Neil Andrew Morisette in the same way for the second time!

Therefore, the aim of the second act was to use every possible means to crush O'Neil Andrew Morisette's plan. The first one was the Lighthouse Strategy. Alan's analysis showed that although the Lighthouse Strategy was not a seamless plan, there were no flaws that could possibly lead to a military defeat. Hence, he needed to make a big deal out of it through the military investment. This was what Alan was good at. He could do so in multiple ways, including reducing the number of soldiers allocated in the South Army Group in Slovenia.

Alan smiled as he thought of the United Government of Five Southern Provinces! Most people did not fully grasp the new concept of a ”government.” This was not an independent political power, nor was it a regional self-government organization. United Government of Southern Five Provinces was, at best, the combination of rights of the major provincial governments. Since it was a combination of rights, then the interests that arise must be allocated and regulated as well. Once the order of regulation and control was disrupted due to interests, then the internal body of this combination of rights would fall into turmoil and strife. When that happened, what would O'Neil Andrew Morisette who had no knowledge of the operation of government and economical sequences do? It seemed that nothing good would come out of it.

It seemed that the script of the second act lied in limiting the expansion of the armed forces and political funds of Prince O'Neil. Then, in the third act that would be followed, Alan had not seemed to think about it yet. Based on the current domestic and international situation, it was estimated that the main force of the Westland Kingdom Alliance would have had approached Titan from three different directions by the time the script of the third act was finalized. When that time came, the performance would have to come to an end. Alan even thought of the military's obituary - ”Prince of the Empire, Marshal of the Imperial Guards, Chief of the Military Intelligence Bureau O'Neil Andrew Morisette...sacrificed fighting for the country!”

”Hahahahahaha...”

The laughter of Her Majesty the Empress filled up the grand study room of Hamilton Palace. The paladins in charge of guarding the palace doors looked at each other strangely, as they had not heard the laughter of their Majesty for a long time.

Marshal Alan exchanged glances with the new Head of Secret Service Department who had remained silent. Finally, the commander of the Imperial Guards stood forward.

”Your Majesty! I thought we're not talking about a joke!”

Alanis waved her hands again and again, ”Sorry! Sorry! Not a joke! You're absolutely not telling me a joke!”

The Empress did not stop laughing. She covered her abdomen with her hand as she laughed, and her eyebrows were still as beautiful as the new moon.

”Marshal! Can you tell me how…um...this magnificent blueprint is not a joke?” Alanis finally raised her head. Her face was filled with laughter but the words that came out of her mouth were as sharp as a blade, ”After that incident that happened at midnight, do you think my husband will still be as reckless as before? Look at what happened to Baron Messier! Is it possible that you underestimate O'Neil Andrew Morisette and all that he has?”

Alan kept quiet while the Head of Secret Service Federick just blinked his beautiful blue eyes. Both of them had no idea what to say because no one knew how Baron Messier Doe Quixote died in the carriage. In some ways, this incident proved that O'Neil Andrew Morisette's power and cruel methods in dealing with things, but…what needed to be done had to be done.

”Your Majesty…” Alan took another step forward, ”I know you are mad about the Imperial Army and Secret Service Department's action taken on the midnight of the 18th day -”

”Don't bring that up!” Alanis sprung from her seat. ”Glad to hear you knew that was illegal. I thought you had no idea!”

The Empress of the Empire swept her hand across the desk filled with documents and pushed away from the Head of Secret Service who was blocking her way. She then pulled out a thick scroll from the massive bookshelf.

”This is the Titan Codex. Written on it were oaths of all the former Titan emperors. Refer to it and tell me how we are going to deal with this mess!”

Alan gave a weak smile at the awkward situation and position that he had created for everyone present.

”Your Majesty! After this incident, His Highness Prince O'Neil Andrew Morisette will deal with matters with extra caution. We just hope that he could understand the true meaning and concept of the Empire!” Alan took over the hand scroll from Her Majesty as he spoke and threw it aside like some used toilet paper.

”Empire needs his valiant and intelligence, but not his liking to create troubles and his personal interests group. Besides, this is just the surface of the matter!” Alan looked at the Empress' face as he did not know whether to reveal his theory of dynasty change. It would be good if Alanis could accept it but if she could not, Silver Fox who was also the Commander of Imperial Guards would have to face the suspicion and alienation from the Imperial Family.

”I don't wish to discuss anything in depth!” Alanis returned to her throne once again.

”O'Neil Andrew Morisette is my husband, my other pair of arms. The both of you better remember this before your next reckless action!”