A Variety of Incidents

Okay so I went back and changed last chapter because I was really unsatsified with how I made the story, like genuinely lying in bed and thinking "Why did I do that?" the answer was to force conflict, have a historical reference, and sound cool. Not sure what I'll do with the old version- might just tack it onto the end of this fic if I ever finish it. Didn't want to disappoint anyone by making an edit and tricking people into thinking it was a chapter, so I waited a bit even if that meant leaving up work I wasn't proud of. So go back and read the revised version of the last chapter, although it's the exact same up until the meeting with Metternich so you can start from there. It's also a little shorter, I think.

While you're here, thank you so much for reading. Seeing this story pass 1000 views meant the world to me.

Napoleon Bonaparte II did not get many visitors. Sure, Corsica wasn't completely isolated, but it was his prison. Emphasis on his, as he ruled as Prince of the island, a signori like those of the olden days on an island that had its nobility gutted by the French Revolution.

The island already had a preexisting republican government, so he largely let them run their own country. He was no Corsican, as much of an alien to the island as the stout Percheron horse he rode through the vineyards of Corsica when he wasn't inside, studying warfare or playing chess with the small unit of soldiers sent to accompany him. All of them were loyal to him, and he supposed that if he really wanted to, he could escape to the French mainland, maybe attempt to dredge up support for a restoration of a Bonaparte to the throne, although he didn't have the same public support that his father did.

His life was regular, and so a ship flying the naval standard of Britannian Sicily- well, wasn't it Britannian Italy now?- was certainly a break from the norm. The craft was small, a speedy little sloop as opposed to the hulking battleships that ruled the high seas, but it was a break from the boredom of day to day life, even if the ship was only revealed to be carrying a letter from mainland Italy, along with a few cases of wine. His bright mood was dampened by the wax seal, the color of black ink. In many circles, black ink meant ill tidings, like death, although Bonaparte didn't have many people left in his life to mourn over.

Bonaparte,

I hope that this letter reaches you in good health, in fact I hope it finds all of Corsica in good health. Apologies for the black seal, but I needed to express urgency, and warn you of a tremendous potential for death. A disease is spreading in Italy, called cholera, which can kill a man in days through dehydration. I have reason to believe it spreads through the water or at least through the diarrhea the disease causes, although I would remain cautious and quarantine any visitors to the island. With caution, you could probably dampen the effects of the disease greatly.

Sincerely,

Lelouch vi Britannia

That was certainly unfortunate news, and after making sure that the crew of the Italian sloop would stay and potentially spread the illness, he rode to the parliament in Ajaccio.

In one of the great ironies of history, the French invasion of Germany would only serve to create stronger German states in the end, even if it took up to two decades for the French to loose control over them. The Imperial states of the old Empire had been reorganized into larger states as well as receiving ecclesiastical land due to French secularization.

Prussia stood as the strongest German power of all these states, rivaled only by the Empire of the Danube, who were too focused on their many non-German holdings, especially the revolting Italians, to try to achieve hegemony among the German powers, and so they played no part in the forming of a German confederation. It was nothing approaching an overarching state, but it linked the kings and princes of the ex-Holy Roman Empire in a defensive pact and a few tentative discussions were underway about a customs union.

Even if the Danubian Empire couldn't check Prussia inside the confederation, it still remained weak and plagued by indecision from within, at least in the beginning. A similar lack of direction was found in their northwestern neighbors, where the Dutch provinces were still stuck in an interregnum, with the States General controlling all matters of state as Catholic Flemings and Walloons protested the appointment of a Protestant from the north. In the short term, the country was running almost like a republic, although the threat of force from the reactionary powers of Europe meant that the debate should draw itself to a close- eventually.

The three armies marched into a ruined St. Petersburg, the city scorched by flame, and resistance from the liberals was largely futile, as their defensive works and stores were as damaged by the flames as everything else was. Schneizel was glad that the embassy hadn't burned down, but the lack of any authority in Russia proved troubling.

Hours of frantic searching by loyalists did eventually yield something, or rather someone: a surviving member of the Imperial Family, who had managed to hide themselves away in some small pocket where the smoke and rubble couldn't reach them. Unfortunately, said surviving member of the Imperial Family was Alexander II, the eight year old son of Nicholas, the man who would have become Tsar if Konstantin's refusal to take the throne was made public.

The boy would have been heir apparent if things had gone a little differently, but now he ruled one of the greatest empires in Europe, from the flowing waters of the Vistula in Russian Poland to the shivering coasts of Kamchatka. Senior military officers and court officials were already jockeying for the position of regent to the boy emperor. Back to business as usual for Schneizel, although the news of the young Tsar would be critical to good relations with Russia in the future- considering how many wives Emperor Charles had, surely there was a sister of his around Alexander's age…

The failure of Washington's Rebellion led to massive installations of nobility in the colonies, and many second or third sons were given a chance to start cadet branches in the Americas. The nobility certainly had a few issues adapting to colonial rule, but they put down roots wherever the empire conquered, from the Cape to more recent conquests in regions like the Spanish colonies, from La Plata to Louisiana. Of course, these ex-Spanish territories didn't particularly want to be Britannian, but that just meant more wars to be won and titles to be granted.

When Lelouch vi Britannia won his bid for Italy, many nobles started thinking about what would be done with all that land. While there were rumors of disturbingly Jacobin tendencies from the Sicilian Prince in addition to the fact that Britannian Sicily was perhaps the only portion of the Empire with an actual, non-lip service constitution, many nobles were still interested.

International recognition of his conquests, in addition to the Emperor expanding the viceroyalty from Sicily to include all of Italy inflamed this interest. More romantic nobles mused that this was another triumph against Rome by the Britannian line, with all of Italy and the Eternal City itself under the rule of a son of Britannia. More practically, there was money to be made, titles to awarded, or at least that was what the nobility figured. Rarer than both was the occasional liberal noble, who wished to go to Italy for the same reason peasant groups like the Peat Gatherers had, to live somewhere a little less absolutist without being seen as abandoning their country.

So dozens of chartered boats sailed for Italy, unsure of just how Lelouch vi Britannia would receive them, and completely unaware of the festering disease that was already spreading in much of Southern Europe.

Technically, Metternich had requested that he hunt down revolutionary societies in his portion of Italy, to prevent them from causing trouble across the Piave, but Lelouch saw no reason to waste this pre-organized resistance to the Danubian powers, he just needed them to apply themselves differently. Less violence against Danubian officials or causing unrest, more gathering information. Knowing exactly how many soldiers they would be facing if combat broke out would be worth a lot more to Lelouch than a bit of rabble rousing.

As it turned out, finding revolutionaries wasn't exactly as easy as asking around on the streets, even if Lelouch was technically on their side, when it came to Italian unification. Getting cozy with the rebels would take a while, so Lelouch started work on other projects- it wasn't like they didn't lack workers.

Firstly, a long line of semaphore towers, following the curve of the Alps, to make sure that no force entering Italy would catch him off guard, and he ordered the construction of great macadam roads to speed the movement of his armies as well, in addition to restoring the Roman roads tracing the countryside. Foundations were being laid for a factory, hopefully the first of many, using schematics given to him by Lloyd, and artisans were already working on the complex parts.

Italy may not be as perfect for industrialization as Britannia proper was, but he wasn't going to miss out on something as important as this. They had experimented with some small scale gunpowder production in Sicily before, exploiting the excess of sulphur on the island, but this would hopefully be the start of the Italian industrial revolution, now that the country was unified.

A lot his activity would be restrained to Venice in the near future, but he sent orders to start work on factories in the south as well, particularly in Naples. The city was vast, and all those laborers could produce an incredible amount of textiles if provided with cotton from the Ottoman Empire, Egypt especially. Cholera was going to be bad for the cities and therefore bad for industrialization, but other than the measures he sent out, he couldn't do too much to fight the disease, at least for now.

Lelouch had the pleasure of observing the elections for the Senate in Venice, although Lelouch supposed that the structure of their senate made practically every politician one of the Populares, if speaking in Roman terms. Of course, this was in large part due to the fact that there weren't many nobles left after the French descended upon Italy, so most politicians by their nature were more like the tribunes of the plebeians than the patricians of old, even if a fair number of the elected were on the richer side.

He also took steps to make sure that cholera wouldn't hit as hard in Venice, especially considering the Grand Canal that meandered through the city. If his theory about cholera was correct, then the potential implications of the disease spreading into the city were enough to make his head swim. It seemed like Britannian trading ships from India were the root cause of the cholera outbreak, so seeing Britannian ships on the horizon sent a chill down his spine as he rode to the docks.

As it turned out, the ships weren't from Brittannian India, although Lelouch still insisted on sending them to the Lazaretto, to make sure they weren't carrying something. Many of the nobles who had traveled to meet him were, to put it simply, a little upset with being placed in quarantine. Most of the nobles had sailed to Italy in hopes of entering the administration or pleading for titles, which obviously wouldn't work out with the very republican leaning constitutional monarchy Lelouch was trying to encourage in Italy. Some of the nobles were interested in military command though, and the sheer lack of officers the military was suffering from meant that he was practically forced to accept them, although as paid officers and not as landed nobility. He definitely wasn't planning on placing them in charge of the Britannian volunteer brigades, because that was a recipe for tension,but they were a welcome addition, even if many of them couldn't speak much Italian.

Some of the nobles just came to escape Britannian absolutism, which was certainly a relief, although Lelouch hoped that this wouldn't be the start of more waves of immigration. The Britannian nobility in particular subscribed to a fairly moralizing view of the world that saw success as a direct indication of goodness and favor from God while misfortune was a clear sign of moral failing, and Lelouch didn't want such an odious understanding of the world trickling into Italy. The Romans started Latinizing people by installing Romans in the highest levels of administration, and while Jeremiah was Britannian through and through, only learning Italian by necessity, he wasn't enough to really impact Sicily, especially considering how Lelouch leaned into his image as an Italian. The last thing Lelouch wanted Italy to be was a Britannian colony, especially one that adopted Britannian culture wholesale. He couldn't exactly start complaining about the spread of Britannian culture considering how Italy benefited from Asplund, but he didn't want to see Italian culture warped beyond recognition by a foreign power.

It seemed like most of the noble immigrants were interested in seeing him personally, so they traveled to Venice to meet him, and once it was clear they weren't suffering from cholera he let them out into Italy proper. While he didn't plan on giving them land, some of them proved more than helpful when discussing modern farming practices or Britannian industry, so Lelouch was happy to keep a few of them around.

Of course, things didn't go according to plan. Apparently, some second son from a ducal house that came to plead for a title didn't take the rejection well and went out to get wildly drunk on Italian wines. While not very fitting of a noble, fondness of the drink was certainly not a crime, at least not until he picked a fight with some of the locals and managed to kill two of them with his sword while teetering drunk.

The locals and the army were baying for blood, but the murderer himself seemed pretty calm about the whole situtation, reassured that killing a couple of commoners, especially non-Britannian commoners wasn't that big of a deal, and perhaps in the colonies it wouldn't have been. Due to Lelouch's proximity it was decided he serve as a judge, especially considering the murder's pedigree. As viceroy, he could execute a noble if he truly thought it was necessary, and he was sure that the issues this would cause with the nobility would only be worse if the verdict was passed by a local court.

Executing nobility had a very bad look in the court ever since the French Revolution really got bloody, and with the exception of treason it was almost never done. Titles may be revoked or the family may be exiled to a holding in far-flung Rupert's Land or some other colony, but executions only happened in the case of treason. However, Lelouch's law code and the Italian constitution made one thing clear: equal rights for all men, and Lelouch intended to fulfill that part of the law. No one, regardless of bloodline, was above the law, and if it came down to it, he'd rather enrage the Britannian court than his own people.

Of course, Lelouch wasn't going to execute a man without evidence, but it was damning. Dozens of witnesses had seen the noble scion use his sword to kill two locals, and he really didn't argue against the fact.

"In the name of Charles zi Britannia, Emperor of Britannia, King of Italy, Ireland, and France, Duke of Lancaster and Defender of the Faith, I, Lelouch vi Britannia, as Viceroy of Italy and Prince of Britannia, hereby condemn the criminal to death for murder." The moment Lelouch made his sentence, the criminal's face turned chalky while the commoners in the room murmured with excitement. It wasn't quite attainder, where a noble's titles were stripped as well as the ability to pass them on, but it was the closest Britannia had seen in years.

Venice was home to one of the largest manufacturing processes in the world before the Industrial Revolution, the Venetian Arsenal, which could produce a galley in around a day at its height. Napoleonic rule had dismembered the shipyards, but during their day they were an industrial marvel, where each worker would focus on one particular part of the ships before they were all assembled together.

Speaking of navies, Asplund was traveling to Venice by sea, having finished his work in Sardinia, and apparently he was bringing a new naval gun that could fire exploding shells horizontally, although it was much larger than the average piece used by his armies. Lelouch was no admiral, but he could recognize the value of being able to use explosive shells in naval battle. Perhaps they would have to develop a countermeasure of some kind? Iron plating on the side of a normal ship might improve the chances of survival, although it might slow the ship, although such a problem might be alleviated by a paddle steamer? Of course, the paddle wheel would be a major weakness, but a floating battery that could blow enemy ships apart would be a terrifying weapon indeed.

Paddle steamers were another idea that had been in the works for a while, although the problem at the moment was producing enough steam engines to meet demand, although a few had already been finished for the first fabric mills. It was a beautiful sort of symbiosis, more efficient looms being fed more thread by more efficient spinning technology like the spinning mule, which increased demand for cotton. He hoped to make a steel mill somewhere, perhaps in Tuscany, to exploit the iron mines of Elba.

Asplund was seeming determined to never focus on anything for an extended length of time, and his next interest was something the French had developed during the throes of the revolution: the hot air balloon. There was something incredible about the idea of flight, but there were also tremendous military applications for such a balloon. With a viewpoint in the sky, the battlefield would be as easy to observe as a chess board, and the idea of striking the foe with cannon without even needing to see them was incredible.

Of course, like so many of Asplund's inventions, it was expensive, as the body of the balloon was to composed of taffeta silk, some of the lightest fabric available. Hopefully, after the initial investment into the balloon, it would require less expensive maintenance and some burnable fuel each flight. Of course, it would pay back its price many fold if it proved reliable, and some of the officers were discussing flag signals to be used to communicate the status of the battlefield from above. It wasn't steerable, and would probably require rope to keep it drifting away from the battlefield or even over enemy positions.

After an initial test where the balloon simply went up in the air then came back down, the next issue to be faced was carrying a man up and bringing him back down alive. The passenger was supposed to land via parachute, a sort of silk dome that would slow a falling object down through drag. Rather obviously, there was a lack of volunteers to potentially jump from a great height and splatter against the ground, but when Lelouch offered a monetary reward, one of his Sicilian soldiers stepped forward.

"Your highness." He gave a clumsy sort of bow. "If I… don't survive this, please get the money to my family." Lelouch nodded, it really was the least he could do for the man if he did perish.

The balloon rose into the air once more, although not quite as high as it did when it was unencumbered, but eventually Lelouch had to use a telescope to see the man, who was looking down in deep amaze. Eventually, the balloon began to slowly descend down and the soldier leapt, tumbling through the air for a second before the parachute spread out and his descent slowed.

The man hit the ground with a tumble and stayed laying on the ground as Lelouch, Asplund, and company ran over to see if he had survived. Fortunately, the man didn't die, but was instead staring up at the sky, his eyes wide. "Are you alright?"

The soldier sat up, and rose to his feet. "I am. The landing was a little rough, but it was worth it, to see the world as the angels do."

"What's your name, soldier?"

"I'm Vittorio Russo, your highness."

Lelouch smiled and tossed the man his pay. "Perhaps you could assist Sir Asplund? You're the only Italian yet who's managed to fly. Our first aeronaut, perhaps."

The subject of flight was certainly a fascinating one, and Lloyd wandered off with Croomy and Russo to test his balloon more while Lelouch puzzled over finances. Italy wasn't poor, exactly, but it had been a long time since the Venetians and Genoans made their fortunes off of the Silk Road. Sure, there were a lot of people to tax and Italy still played a key part in the Mediterranean trade, as limited as it was, but once their obligations to the Britannian Empire and their reparations to the Empire of the Danube were factored in, along with the costs of running a government and fielding a military, the budget was still in the black, although just barely.

He sat in the Doge's Palace, wondering how exactly he could revitalize the Italian economy, when he realized that he was sitting less than two miles away from one of the country's most famed industries. When Napoleon seized Venice, it wasn't just the Arsenal that suffered for it; the collapse of the Venetian state had also led to a economic downturn for the glass makers of Murano, an island off Venice where skilled artisans produced glass as clear as crystal or milkglass that could pass for porcelain of Saxon or Chinese make.

The Viceroyalty of Italy was in a curious place when it came to trade, under Britannian control but not subject to quite all their laws- including, conveniently enough, a tax on glass manufacturing that crippled Britannian production.

"Jeremiah?"

"Yes, your highness?"

"We're visiting Murano."

The Muranese were happy to greet him, especially when he revealed his intent to help revitalize the glass industry. The glassmakers had found themselves there mainly because the risk of fire was to great to risk the entire city of Venice on, although it was just as divided by canals as the city it neighbored.

The glass was some of the finest Lelouch had ever seen, and while he saw tremendous potential for profit, he knew that if he just dropped tariffs on the glass makers it would mean no real profit. Sure, he was going to economically exploit the Muranese glass industry, but to do so he needed to make their glass so desired that the tariffs wouldn't put them out of business. Reuben Ashford would be great at selling all that glass, Lelouch was sure.

It turned out that steam engines might be able to help out here as well, in the process of polishing and processing the glass, and he made plans to get one to them- as well as to start mass production of the engines. Italy would certainly need them.

Eventually, Lelouch got in contact with the rebels hiding out in his borders, and they were more than happy to help him get information on the Danubians, so he let them stay around with a warning to make their activities more subtle.

Reports were that a large portion of the Danubian Royal-Imperial army was just across the Piave, somewhere around 120,000 men, which was thought to be around half of the full strength of the standing Austrian army, although some 30,000 were sent to stomp out the liberal revolt in Russia, leaving the country garrisoned by around 210,000 men in the standing army, plus whatever soldiers they could conscript and whatever impromptu irregulars might take shape if war began.

In the short term, they outnumbered him about 7 to 2, and the ratio would worsen to 4 to 1 once the Russian expedition came to an end, and that was assuming that the reactionary powers didn't try to pull a coalition on him. Of course, he could expand the army more, but that would only worsen problems with a lack of training and a small officer corps, not to mention potential economic issues. In the short term at least, Italy wasn't ready for war, and Lelouch was grateful to the Britannian Empire, at least in its capacity to act as a threat against anyone who got funny ideas about Italy.

The people of Venice were informed of the symptoms of cholera, as Lelouch saw no reason in warning the people of an illness if they couldn't even recognize it, and they seemed to be taking his advice about being cautious when picking places to draw their water. Of course, given the fact that it was winter and Venice wasn't exactly covered in trees, boiling water wasn't as common as Lelouch had hoped. People simply had better things to do with their wood then spending it to boil water for the sake of their viceroy's eccentricities.

To make up for this, Lelouch made sure to keep track of how things were going in Venice, to make sure that if a case of potential cholera was caught, the victim could be isolated quickly. From there, the best treatment that could be given was to give the victim as much food and drink as could be afforded. At first, they fought the dehydration using just water, but then someone realized that part of the reason the disease was so deadly might be because it sapped the body of nutrients and not just water.

Lelouch could have kissed the nun who came up with that particular idea, and he sent news of it to the rest of Italy. Of course, that didn't mean the disease was over, but there was something more effective they could do than just leaving a victim in their own filth or trickling them water.

Charles is totally the kind of dude who would keep the title King of France just because he's stubborn. The British monarchs still styled themselves Kings of France until the French Revolution in our timeline.

Spain actually did own Louisiana for a period between the Seven Year's War and the Napoleonic War. Spain traded off the territory for land in Tuscany, so let's say just in this timeline Spain was still holding onto the colonial dream instead of trying to get in on Italy.

Since Darwinism isn't a thing yet, I translated that into a sort of twisted version of moralism, where success was due to Providence and rightness of character, sort of a proto-Social Darwinism where those who succeed are inherently good.

As always, I'm curious to hear what y'all think. Yet again, thank you very much for reading. Something about my silly brain just sets my heart a racing when I see numbers get big. Sorry if this chapter felt a little rambly- maybe I just feel a little cautious about pushing the story forward too much without really thinking it through.