Alexandra had sat down later that night while Lola came in, she was busy helping set up the silverware and getting the drinks.
"It would have been shameful if you dressed up as a maid though you in some white dress clothes seems to be more akin to you." Alexandra began while Lola was putting down the napkins.
"So should I change my dress?" Lola asked Alexandra. Alexandra felt like she was going to sweat before she began speaking
"White looks good on you. Especially with the white hair ribbons." Alexandra replied almost as if she didn't want her to change her clothes.
"Also Sofia told us that she had managed to get out early and will be arriving shortly, the other guests coming over will be Manami, Runa, Gisela and the tsarevich." Lola also notified Alexandra about it.
"I hope these people like mutton." Alexandra replied. "So we're starting off with some crayfish soup then some of my homemade fish pie or they could have mutton mixed in with Kasha for the main course and salted dill cucumbers on the side. Juice mixes would be served with dinner or water if the guests want to have something boring."
"Sounds about good but we need to figure out what was the cause of the Serbian gang invading Yogurt Academy." Lola added the fact that they needed to get to the bottom of what caused the Serbian gang to go on the offensive.
"We will find out what happened, don't worry about that." Alexandra responded.
"I'm off to the door." Lola replied. Alexandra nodded before she began walking away to find the door that she was going to greet the guests at the door. Alexandra sighed while everyone was coming in.
Within ten minutes, all of the expected people had arrived and had taken seats at the table. The last one to arrive was Tsarevich Alexei. Lola was helping him along and he sat opposite of Alexandra with Sofia, Manami, Runa and Gisela sitting along the flanks. Lola was going to take a seat next to Alexandra. A couple of the staff came around, pouring the drinks and serving the food.
"All right." Alexandra began. Lola was serving everyone's food before she served herself last and sat down next to Alexandra. "We got reports that the Serbian gang has attacked Yogurt Academy and are trying to find out what happened." Alexandra was trying her best to stay calm even though she was still furious at Gisela and wanted to strangle her. Alexei was eating the food he had been given, he had abandoned Megumi for this meeting but he wasn't aware of how explosive Alexandra was going to be.
"From what we had found out was the fact that the Eastern Rumelia part of Yogurt Academy that had been controlled by Ankara ever since the treaty had been laid out by Earl Gray was unfair and the school was pretty divided, then we learned that said part of the school began to rebel against Ankara. When I asked what was happening, they said they wanted to join the rest of the school. When we heard their motives, we welcomed them with our arms and told Ankara that Yogurt Academy was now completely independent which she hadn't taken too lightly." Sofia began with what recently happened in their school.
"But that doesn't answer my question Sofia." Alexandra began. "Why did the Serbian gang invade your school in the first place?"
"Don't rush me, I will get to it." Sofia replied to Alexandra that she didn't want to be rushed to her answering. She began to think it over before she began to speak: "So we asked why the Serbian gang had decided to invade and their leader said it was because Gisela wanted to take advantage of our destabilization and let a gang go in and win a war." Alexandra froze when she figured out who was the ringleader behind all of this and how she orchestrated all of this especially under their noses.
"What exactly happened in the war?" Alexandra asked Sofia if she had any information regarding the war.
"They invaded, we got into a fight, the Eastern Rumelia students helped us fight them off and the Serbian gang ended up losing the war." Sofia explained to Alexandra what exactly happened in this short war. "So Alexandra, do you accept our unification?"
"I do." Alexandra replied.
"Well that's a good thing because Gisela threatened war with us if we continued to maul the Serbian gang to pieces." Sofia replied. Alexandra felt angry, the rage building up in her face. She had remained calm whenever Sofia was talking but the rage had been building up for the past couple of minutes and she was ready to take it out on Gisela.
"GISELA!" Alexandra screamed at the Dual Alliance's commander. Gisela was ready to start firing back.
"So what? We reassured the Serbian gang that they will get compensation if Yogurt Academy absorbed Eastern Rumelia." Gisela explained. Sofia, Manami and Alexei tried their best to remain calm while the shouting continued.
"Compensation?! You were moreover planning to have them annex the school while Sofia was in these troubling times? I demand all sides cease their hostilities before the situation is going to blow up in our faces." Alexandra shouted as she was trying to defend Sofia but she didn't want war happening between these schools. Gisela grabbed her fork and flashed it in front of Alexandra.
"This fork will represent what we will do to Saunders." Gisela called out before she tried lunging at Alexandra with the fork. Alexandra grabbed the fork and yanked it out of her hands.
"Yeah but this is what Saunders will do to your army Gisela." Alexandra taunted her. Alexandra began to bend the metal fork with ease, tying it into a knot. She threw the metal fork at Gisela. "You're a Girly Girl like Kay!" Gisela tried to run forward to attack Alexandra but Lola and Runa came over and began to restrain her.
"I'll be back one day and our alliance will beat Saunders into the ground." Gisela huffed while she was dragged away. Manami and Alexei came over while they watched Gisela get dragged off.
"She's just as bad as Ankara sometimes." Alexandra began. She took a deep breath as she began to calm down.
"Good thing Runa and Lola were there to restrain Gisela from exploding completely. Some could say she is worse as she is just as whiny and will cry if things don't go her way much like Earl Gray and Ankara themselves. Much less than Earl Gray as she just wants to expand her school against Azumi." Manami replied, she didn't know what to do next before Alexei came over. He was doing his best to comfort Sofia about what had happened.
"Let's just hope that nothing like this will happen again." Alexei told them while the ringing from Gisela's yelling was clearing from their ears. Alexandra knew she needed to make something clear with Manami.
"Manami, for the one thing that we've decided on, is the fact that I am not willing to coordinate and have an alliance with a school that has Gisela in it. After what she demonstrated today, I am promptly dissolving the alliance because of the behavior she had displayed. Any opinion on those matters?" Alexandra began. She wanted to figure out if they were going to be able to decide on what to do going forward. Manami began to think about it as she knew she had to come to some sort of conclusion. After a minute of thinking it over, she turned to Alexandra and began to speak.
"I'm willing to accept your terms for leaving as I do agree with you, what Gisela did today was appalling. I'm still willing to ally with the Dual Alliance but keeping the two of you at peace is more trouble than it is worth. You two seem to have bad blood on your hands and the various schools and gangs will be caught in the crossfire if things continue to disintegrate." Manami told Alexandra that she had her reasons for leaving the alliance especially if things weren't going to necessarily work. "I might have to choose a new chancellor for Kuromorimine as allying with you isn't going too well."
"You do that, I was more than willing to chat with you about all of this. I'm in no mood for Saunders to get involved in any major wars. I want to keep peace between us. If you're still allied with Gisela, keep an eye on her so that she doesn't do anything foolish." Alexandra replied. Manami nodded before Lola entered back into the room. "Is she gone?"
"Yeah Gisela's gone. We don't know what exactly is going to happen but we should be alert in case she does mobilize her school against us. I'm willing to fight bravely for the school." Lola replied. Sofia nodded before she bowed.
"I'm willing to help you out in this endeavor Lola." Sofia replied. Alexandra walked over to them and began speaking again.
"There will be no war, I promise you. I don't think Gisela is foolish enough to declare war on when everyone else is willing to pounce on you." Alexandra promised before she hugged Sofia and Lola together.
"I just hope so." Manami responded. "I hope so."
"Well we tried to be peaceful today but from what Gisela had displayed, it shows that peace sometimes isn't the option. She has the guts to fight but the brain is what eventually wins out in the end." Alexandra decided to drop an important lesson for them: it's better to achieve these matters through diplomacy rather than bloodshed. "You're all dismissed." Sofia, Manami and Lola walked out of the room as this dinner date had ended in disaster but at least the dining room didn't explode so that was the plus. Alexandra was alone with Alexei who had stayed behind to deliver some news for Alexandra.
"Hey Alexandra, can I talk to you before I head back to the hospital?" Alexei began. Alexandra turned her head to the tsarevich as he wanted to talk with her.
"Sure, go ahead. What is it that you wanted to say to me?" Alexandra began. She was curious and didn't know what he was going to say.
"Well I wanted to tell you that Megumi is being discharged from the hospital tomorrow morning. Looks like she's finally going home." Alexei began. Alexandra smiled a bit.
"That's great. I'm more than willing to have her back and help out around Saunders, it's getting stressful and the workload is only going to increase." Alexandra replied. Alexei nodded before he began speaking again.
"I'll tell Megumi that you will be coming for her and we'll ride the train back to the school if it would make it easier." Alexei bowed to Alexandra as he had shown her his full respect.
"Okay I'll see you tomorrow." Alexandra told the tsarevich. Alexei nodded before he exited the room he was going back to the hospital to tell Megumi the good news that was bound to happen.
Megumi was resting in her hospital bed when Alexei came back an hour later. He pulled up a chair and sat in it. He then began speaking to Megumi.
"Good news Megumi, Alexandra is coming over when you get discharged tomorrow. You're going straight back to Saunders." Alexei began. Megumi opened her eyes before she turned her head to see who it was.
"Alexei? I'm glad you came back. How was the dinner date?" Megumi asked Alexei.
"Pretty rough, we found out that Gisela has armed the Serbs to attack Yogurt Academy. The Serbs lost and I think this is the only time I've seen Alexandra get mad over the standing of another school." Alexei explained the events in the best way he could.
"This isn't the first time she has gotten angry." Megumi would begin. "She always gets angry over Kay's standing but I didn't mind her. She's just moreover worried that the house of cards she is carefully building up will come crashing down one day and make a mess. This is something that has left me scared while I monitored the situation going on in the school."
"You monitored the entire situation from your hospital bed?" Alexei would ask with shock. This was something Megumi had kept secret from him.
"I expected Alexandra to give me face-time every night to monitor how the situation at the school is evolving. The house of cards is the school itself and while progress is being made, the position of the school is precarious. Alexandra has the power and she's handling the school well but I believe that her reign isn't going to last much longer. Something bad is going to her and although she has the strength to withstand it, she will be taken down from the inside." Megumi explained to Alexei that she had asked for reports from Alexandra every night and these reports were showing that the school was doing good. However, there was a big problem with this and it was now beginning to fester from the bottom.
"Hopefully Alexandra would make it through this alive as we can't have two leaders being hospitalized." Alexei was praying to Megumi that Alexandra will have the strength to see it through.
"I hope she does, if god would be kind enough to spare her from the trauma that will be inflicted onto her, then he will show his mercy." Megumi replied. Alexei nodded before he decided to get down next to the bed.
"The great trial for her will begin tomorrow?" Alexei asked Megumi if this was going to be true.
"That I can say for certain Tsarevich." Megumi replied. She laid her head down on the pillow as she was beginning to fall back asleep. "You're always good company to keep around even in these times of trouble."
"No problem Megumi, I will take you to meet my parents one day." Alexei promised to Megumi that she would have her visit his family.
Manami, Runa and their chancellor Otto were having words with each other.
"We can't have the alliance split up, what if Saunders is going to help out BC Freedom, we're going to be fighting a two front war if that occurs, we can't have them ally together and if they do, Kuromorimine will collapse." Otto began as he wanted to make his case clear, get Saunders back into their fold or risk them allying with BC Freedom which is something he truly feared. Manami and Runa looked at the old chancellor while he was trying to warn them of an imminent danger approaching ahead. Manami was absent minded about this.
"Listen, this alliance fell apart twice, do you really think that more tape is going to keep it together?" Manami asked Otto if trying to keep the alliance together though Gisela and Alexandra not getting along was the problem.
"We can try to smooth out tensions between them." Otto replied. "We can't have Alexandra allying with Azumi, it's game over for us."
"Look, Gisela and Alexandra can't get along and you think throwing them together would make the problem go away? I think the third time is not the charm and we need to take a new stance on how we should look at this." Manami responded. She was ready to dump Otto out the door.
"If you get rid of me, your policies will only drive Kuromorimine into the ground, at the end of the year, will mark the end of Kuromorimine's winning streak and its invincibility in Sensha-Do and the next great war will come from some damned foolish thing in the Balkans." Otto told Manami that Kuromorimine was bound to collapse if he was kicked out of the school's chancellor position, but Manami thought the old man was too much of a failure, holding Kuromorimine back.
"You're fired Bismarck." Manami told Otto. She began to walk away as she left Otto alone. "FIRED!" She shouted. Runa was looking around as old man Otto began to bury his hands in his face almost as if he had brought shame to the school despite being its greatest diplomat for the past twenty or so years. Manami was being brash and bringing Kuromorimine to go all into a very expansionist stance. Runa followed Manami as Otto wept quietly to himself.
"Manami, we fired Otto, what do we do now?" Runa asked, she was curious about what to do next seeing Manami was taking up a new stance.
"We should begin expanding the school, see if we can get one above Earl Gray and St. Gloriana, produce many heavy tanks so they don't have a chance to fight back. We can win again as well as training the students up as we are willing to purchase more tiger tanks for the school after the two we had as test models proved instrumental in last year's victory." Manami explained to Runa that they could purchase more heavy tanks to get the edge over their foe and win again.
"I think more heavy tanks will do the trick but I'm going to consult our middle-school counterparts and their principal Wilhem II for advice." Runa replied. Manami nodded before she began walking away.
"Whatever you do, do it fast, I am willing to begin an arms race with St. Gloriana on who could get the most heavy tanks." Manami told Runa that she better be quick on her feet if they were going to secure the deal.
"Will do." Runa responded before she began walking away to make the letter.
Runa made her way to her desk and began to write up a letter for the middle school as she had a few things to ask them. She began typing away the letter that she was going to send.
Dear Wilhem
We had just laid off Otto when we figured out that the three-way alliance wasn't going to keep working as Gisela and Alexandra have so much blood on their hands over Yogurt Academy and its standing. Kuromorimine wishes to expand by buying up more heavy tanks to help it win this Sensha-Do tournament, what is your input on this? Do you have any suggestions? I would like to hear your advice as we're at a crossroad and wish to go all in this year.
Runa Onizuka
Runa sighed while she was reading over the letter. This letter seemed to be good, she decided to send it over to the Kaiser and hoped he was going to respond by tomorrow afternoon. She got up and began walking back to her dorm to call it a night.
The next morning, Alexandra was getting herself dressed to head on out. She walked down when she spotted Lola who was getting the final touches of her clothes together on the fly. She was placing a white bow in her hair while brushing her hair.
"Yeah I got the call that Megumi is being discharged this morning, we should bring her around and take her out for a treat. She's been cooped up in that hospital for days now. I think it's time we gave her something." Alexandra explained to Lola about their plans.
"What kind of treat does Megumi like?" Lola asked.
"She likes sweets, I think she said that she was eating some caramel chocolates from the hospital. I looked up the brand and as it turns out, they sell them on the ship but also on the mainland. We're going to pay them a visit assuming Megumi has the strength to walk." Alexandra told Lola about their plan.
"Sounds good to me, I have yet to try them." Lola replied. The two girls continued to walk down to the train station as they were going to hitch the first train over to get Megumi and spend the day out with her. After walking out of the school, they went to the local station where they paid the fee to use the transportation services if they were going to be able to ride to where Megumi would be at. Now they just needed to wait for the train. The two girls walked over to the bench and sat down, they were going to wait for the train. They were unaware someone else was waiting for them. Four of them.
"Hey Alexandra. How are you doing today?" One of the voices called out. Alexandra turned her head to the right to see who it was that was talking to her. Four pretty ladies were waiting at the same station as her and they wanted to chat with her. Alexandra recognized the voice that was speaking to her. It was Tatiana and her three sisters.
[A/N]: Leaving this on another cliffhanger as what happened last chapter is explained here and the dissolution of the second League of the Three Empresses happens over you guessed it: The Balkans. And the Chancellor warns that another war will begin because of it despite trying to make sure that BC Freedom has no friends. Kuromorimine and the Dual Alliance are allied together but Saunders is no longer part of the alliance. With the Chancellor now gone and replaced by someone else, Manami is taking Kuromorimine in another direction and pushing for a much more expansionist stance. Manami is no longer holding anything back. I guess the Kaiser has too much personal baggage with old Bismarck.
We're also halfway to 600 views but we need more if this story is going to continue its slow meandering way forward and I don't want to be typing away for nothing. I want the attention for us all. Remember, type "Nicole" or "Remake" in your reviews so I know what you guys want to see and have explained in the future. I will see you in the next chapter. Peace out.
