OR1-EP3: The Bloody Coat of Arms (1)

Despite the public harboring heavy suspicions about the unexpected fire accidents in northern Rhodesia, their limited energy was quickly diverted. After only a week, people stopped talking about these disasters and started discussing other new hunting news that caught their eyes. The defense forces and Governor-general Herzog had accurately grasped the psychology of the citizens, believing that if they waited long enough, they would be able to silence all those pursuers who had invested their energies only out of momentary curiosity. In this way, not only did no one care about the cause and effect of the fire, but even the army itself selectively forgot that they had a task force that could cause trouble. It was a ploy Adalbert had come up with for McNeil, who felt he had to get the defense force or Guardian Corp to stop considering the aftermath associated with the task force a threat before McNeil would have a chance to claim the bounty he deserved for those who had died.

About a week after returning to his original neighborhood from the secret prison, McNeil was notified by Governor-general Herzog, who invited McNeil to be his guest at his private residence. McNeil had already heard from Father Palaskas that the Governor-general was going to give him an important mission, and having prepared for it, McNeil arrived at the residence with ease, and this time he was able to walk in with a straight face and the envious eyes of the guards at the gate. The last time he had come here, he had been so penniless and desperate that he had chosen to go out of his way in the hope of gaining Governor-general Herzog's attention - now that he thought about it, he felt only a little amused.

The guard remembered the young man who had then come to the door with a black umbrella begging to see the governor, and after confirming to the butler that the message was true, he opened the door and let McNeil in.

"How did you do it?" The guard looked at McNeil, who was dressed in a leather top, with interest, "I didn't realize that His Excellency would actually invite you to visit."

"Business secret." McNeil said lightly, "It's a life for a life deal, and the common guys can't do it."

The mansion district where Governor-general Herzog was located had an equally long history. These castle-like buildings were originally built by the colonial administration for the upper class, and no one of commoner origin had been able to move in here for many years, while Governor-general Herzog's property was still left to him by his father's generation. Major Adalbert Herzog didn't like it here, and according to Major Herzog himself, he always felt that these faux-fortress mansions harbored the ghosts of the natives.

Outside the door, McNeil, who was grooming himself, met the butler in a suit, and the older butler, knowing that he was a guest invited by the Governor-general, hurriedly dragged McNeil to the parlor. Governor-general Herzog was there talking with another guest, as soon as he saw McNeil appear in the doorway, the Governor-general immediately stood up from the sofa and took the initiative to shake hands with McNeil to greet him.

"You guys come and get acquainted." The Governor-general first pointed at McNeil, "This is the hero of Rhodesia, he and his crew burned thousands of natives to death, those bugs won't have the chance to jeopardize our law-abiding citizens of EU ever again." Having said that, the Governor-general then pointed to the guest who was still sitting arrogantly on the sofa and said to McNeil, "This is Mr. François Malcal, the uncrowned king of the EU, as their family is called."

If Jacob Herzog appeared thin and refined, François Malcal was a tall and burly human tank, and it was hard for McNeil to imagine what kind of pressure someone with such a physique would create for his opponents in a business negotiation. He didn't know the knowledge that was common sense to the average EU citizen, but he had read about the Malcal family in the newspaper. The family that controlled the economic lifelines of the EU seemed to be keen on attachments and prided itself on marriages with old noble families. If it wasn't for the very tense relationship between the EU and the Britannian Empire, it's sure the Malcal family wouldn't mind recruiting some downtrodden nobles from the Empire. They were already doing so, and the exiles from the Empire were more or less funded by them.

"Nice to meet you." François Malcal merely nodded slightly toward McNeil, not even attempting to rise from the sofa. McNeil was keenly aware of a hint of dissatisfaction surfacing at the corner of Governor-general Herzog's mouth, as if he was blaming Mr. Malcal for not treating his guest with the proper courtesy, but that dissatisfaction changed to disappear almost instantly. The Governor-general asked McNeil to take a seat on one side of the room, and waited for McNeil to be seated before continuing his speech.

"Jacob, I don't understand why you would think of inviting an unidentified hobo to participate in this matter." Before McNeil could speak, Francois Malcal gruffly voiced his opinion, "We can't afford to make an issue out of this, the EU has almost no allies in the international community, and when we look around, they are all our enemies. If we have any animosity with the Britannian Empire, it was over a hundred years ago. As long as the Britannian Empire doesn't want to inflict their stupid monarchical rule on populations outside of the New World, we still have a lot in common with each other."

McNeil didn't say anything, he was a man of few words, his status depended on the support of Governor-general Herzog, and in case his statement embarrassed the Governor, McNeil, who had already offended Colonel Duttmann in South Africa, would not be able to move an inch.

"... You don't want to kill your compatriots, do you?" Francois Malcal's tone gradually became a bit puzzled when he saw that Governor-general Herzog was unmoved, "Don't be a fool, we're all old men of a certain age, let's not be as obsessed as the young people with what to identify with ..."

"Compatriots?" Governor-general Herzog said to himself, "I have no compatriots. I speak the same language as the Britannians, yet I live in two different worlds from them. I am a citizen of the EU, yet I am labeled a betrayer ... Francois, I am sixty years old, and I want to do something that will be remembered by our children and grandchildren."

As far as McNeil could tell, Francois Malcal and Jacob Herzog were originally allies, and when Herzog took office as Director in Germany, Francois Malcal campaigned for him back and forth, going out of his way to offend some of the powers that traditionally shared the Malcal family's interests. As a result, Herzog rolled off to Africa in disgrace when he stepped down as Director, and François Malcal's investment was a complete failure. Today, Mr. Malcal has been kind enough not to abandon Herzog completely. It would be a fool's errand to expect the EU tycoon to continue to support Herzog as he has done in the past.

Francois Malcal unbuttoned his collar with some annoyance, still not accustomed to the African weather. Unfortunately, there was no air conditioning in these old houses, and anyone had to put up with the local climate, the Governor-general himself being no exception.

" Vous jouez avec le feu."

"Thanks for the compliment, so are you. Don't think I don't realize you're funding two different factions at the same time." Governor-general Herzog laughed, "The internal conflicts of the Britannian Empire will soon be out in the open, but those corpse-like senators won't even dare to intervene. I have a hunch that this is the only chance my country has had since the end of the Second World War to eliminate a potential rival at such a low cost... Francois, the real obstacle to cooperation between our two countries is not our hostility, but theirs. You think it's the antiquity of our country that prevents us from doing business, but it's actually the Britannian Empire that hasn't given up on its intention to destroy us since the beginning."

McNeil listened with rapt attention as the two older men talked about the relationship between the EU and Britannia, and he could already see Governor-general Herzog's impending response. François Malcal had many businesses in the Britannian Empire, enough of them to form a large intelligence network, and Father Alexandros Palaskas could use his participation in charitable events as a cover to begin a covert intervention in the Britannian Empire. He had reason to believe that the Governor-general had planted him in his team as the most important pawn, but he could not rule out the possibility that the Governor-general had sent others forward to infiltrate and sabotage as well.

"There is no need. We are the only civilized nation in this world, a beacon that has defended the legacy of the Republicanism." François Malcal was exuberant, "The barbarians will one day fall at the feet of civilization, all we need is time."

"Mr. Malcal, there have been countless cases of civilizations being destroyed by so-called barbarism since the beginning of time." McNeil finally relented, "Do you think the Germans were more civilized than the Romans? If you admit that the barbaric Germans destroyed Roman civilization, you should admit that the Britannian Empire, which seems backward to you, has the ability to threaten us."

Francois Malcal ignored McNeil's words and continued to talk to Governor-general Herzog. The argument between the two sides centered on the cost, Governor-general Herzog himself had not invested anything at all, and if the operation failed or was detected by the Britannian Empire, all of the Malcal family's business in the empire would be over. François Malcal, no matter how bold he was, would not dare to gamble with the fate of his family, and he was firmly opposed to Herzog's risky plan, and even if Herzog was determined to carry it out, he would only choose to provide limited assistance that would not be enough to set him on fire.

Governor-general Herzog decided to keep the two for lunch, which was a sumptuous affair, with the gray-haired old butler attentively bringing plate after plate of delicious food to the table, but the three present were hardly in the mood to move their knives and forks. Governor-general Herzog's obstinacy was not only beyond François Malcal's imagination, but also shocked McNeil. It was partly bad luck that the governor-general had ended up in the position he was in today, isolated from almost everyone, and partly perhaps his character.

"I must remind you that the attitude of the present government and your program are at odds with each other." The always well-informed François Malcal casually spoke of information that was top secret to others, "They believe that if the Britannian Empire continues to weaken, before we can intervene, the Chinese will turn the entire Pacific Ocean into an inland lake, and the situation will become even more intractable at that point."

"Nonsense, when did they get that delusion?" Herzog slammed his fork aside in exasperation, "Turn the Pacific Ocean into an inland lake? ... If the Chinese were capable of that, they would have fought their way across Siberia long ago. Would they have watched us build defenses north of the Ridge?"

"It's none of my business, and I'm not sure what those guys who are just trying to make a buck are thinking." Francois Malcal hastened to comfort Herzog, "I just want you to have a mental preparation, even if you succeed, no one will be grateful to you for it ... By the way, what is the specific job of our Mr. McNeil?"

McNeil realized that his time to shine had come, but before he could get half a word out, Herzog had already blocked out everything he wanted to say.

"His mission is to make sure that the two sides of the Britannian Empire that are fighting within themselves end up in a lose-lose situation." Governor-general Herzog explained, "Whether it's the Emperor who wishes for great power or the magnate nobles who want to secure their privileges, they are both a scourge to the EU. Emperor Charles won't completely eliminate the noble group even if he wins, and in order to divert the conflict, he will only wage wars against foreigners; and if those nobles have their way, their control over their territories will rise to an unprecedented level, and the Britannia Empire will turn into a confederacy similar to the Holy Roman Empire, and our EU's economic interests in the empire itself will be severely affected... ...In short, we need to weaken the Britannian native power's control over the empire, and as long as we have control over the empire's economy, the emperor and the nobles are just our puppets."

Feeling puzzled, McNeil hastily interjected:

"Wait, if Britannia is in pieces, it should be good for the EU."

"Young man, you've never been to the Britannian Empire, and you don't understand what kind of creature the Britannian nobility really is." Governor-general Herzog laughed and shook his head, "When you get there, you'll realize that they're nothing more than a bunch of incomprehensible livestock ... that are worse than livestock."

However, the mission itself became rather irrelevant compared to what was to come. Governor-general Herzog proposed to François Malcal the creation of a foundation dedicated to granting pensions to the dead of those who had secretly carried out special missions, disguised as a general charitable organization. This was Herzog's really big gift to McNeil, not only to personally oversee the pension issue, but also to use really effective means to prevent something like this from happening again. With this kind of statement, Governor-general Herzog was confident that McNeil would have no qualms about doing his job for him.

Francois Malcal, having heard Governor-general Herzog's account, asked in an incredulous tone:

"What do you get out of it? I cannot see any value in such an investment."

"Look at it this way: I am old and have no use for money." Governor-general Herzog looked out of the window at the falling leaves, an inexplicable sadness shining in his tired eyes.

TBC

Chapter Notes:

As the title implies, we will then focus on the chaotic state of affairs within the Britannian Empire before and after Emperor Charles' ascension to the throne.

Character Profile:

François Malcal, grandfather of the three Malcal brothers.