ch5

In the previous playthrough, most of the puppet states turned their spears towards us at the tail end of the war.

And in this playthrough, I had no intention of repeating the mistakes I made in the last one.

‘The Eastern Intelligence Agency is solely focused on stimulating nationalism to cause division within a country.’

However, this didn’t suit the nature of the schemes we were about to unleash on our satellite states.

What we needed now was to suppress or exploit the nationalism of the peoples under the influence of the Holy Roman Empire, or more precisely, the ‘Habsburg family,’ to quell their discontent.

Fortunately, our empire’s core, the Archduchy of Austria, had been operating a kind of secret police called the ‘Secret State Police’ since the 1780s.

Their main task was to gather information. Specifically, to collect information on how the subjects felt about the emperor himself.

Therefore, until relatively recently, they handled their work in a rather ‘gentlemanly’ manner.

This was because their purpose was to gather information, not to control the press. They were the kind of organization that wouldn’t have been born if computers and search engines had existed in this era.

And it was during the reign of my biological father, Franz Joseph, that they began to take on the character of a full-fledged intelligence organization.

If you were expecting my biological father’s achievements to finally appear, you’d be wrong. Around the time the Secret State Police was transforming into an intelligence organization, he was busy having an affair with the navy.

In any case, the Secret State Police, which had just transformed into an intelligence organization in the previous era, still had the task of rooting out spies and suppressing anti-state and anti-imperial forces added to their duties. Their essence as a search engine remained the same.

And I intend to develop them into a full-fledged political police and intelligence agency.

‘Liberal democracy? Do I look like I care?’

This isn’t my homeland. There’s absolutely no obligation for me to spread liberal democracy in such a place.

And in order to run a country as I please, suppressing the majority of citizens is the easiest and most reliable method.

I summoned the Chief of Police to the imperial palace to discuss this.

“He should be arriving about now.”

Tap, tap, tap, the sound of shoes echoed from outside the door. I gave a faint smile.

Creak. The door opened, and a man in a black suit with an impressive five-to-five hairstyle entered.

“I greet the Empress of Rome.”

I feel it every time I receive that greeting. Why am I the Empress of Rome when I don’t even rule Rome?

I pushed the stray thoughts that arose in my head to a corner and accepted his greeting.

“Chief of Police Johann. I’ve been waiting for you.”

Since the reason I summoned him was what it was, I called him by his title rather than his rank. He didn’t seem to have any major complaints about this either.

I smiled slightly at him.

“First, before we talk… would you like some coffee? Or tea?”

He rolled his eyes slightly. Of course, the conversation we were having here was top secret, so there were no maids or butlers present.

“No, I couldn’t possibly have Your Majesty personally serve me tea…”

‘In the previous playthrough, it was harder to find guys who didn’t betray me after saying things like that…’

Of course, he didn’t betray me in the previous playthrough. To be precise, he silently carried out his duties.

The fact that I was discussing the Secret State Police with him was due to his position, but also to the trust that came from experience. Of course, he wouldn’t remember it.

“Well, that’s a shame. Please, have a seat.”

He sat down in the chair after I gave him permission.

“You know why I called you, Chief of Police, don’t you?”

“Yes. You said it was about the Secret State Police.”

He’s quick. I grinned and said.

“Currently, the Secret State Police, which gathers information for our empire, is hardly an efficient organization, to put it mildly.”

It would certainly be an overstatement to call an organization that hasn’t even been properly divided into departments an efficient organization. He seemed to acknowledge this fact as well.

But… I don’t intend to draw up a detailed organizational chart myself. The precedents of Wilhelm II, Stalin, Hitler, and… myself in the last playthrough, showed what happens when a non-expert leader interferes in professional matters at every turn.

Simply providing sufficient budget support and a few hints to promote development in the field is enough.

“By August 10th, I want you to transform the Secret State Police into the most efficient intelligence organization possible.”

“But… the time…”

Only about a week left. But it can’t be helped. In order to catch the British spies pouring in, we have to do it, even if it’s unreasonable.

“Chief of Police. You are well aware that the war is truly just around the corner.”

“That is correct.”

I walked over and looked out the window.

The capital of the Holy Roman Empire, which calls itself ‘Nova Roma’. The scenery of Vienna came into my view.

“Our Holy Roman Empire is strong. So strong that it is impossible to break from the outside. Our Holy Roman Empire is strong.”

But when I thought of Nova Roma, filled with traitors, a bitter smile escaped me.

“But the inside of the Holy Roman Empire is soft. The flesh inside, a mixture of countless ethnicities, ideologies, and religions, has become so soft that it can be easily sliced with a knife.”

Even within the mainland of the Holy Roman Empire, there are countless ethnicities living together, such as Bohemians, Poles, Dutch, and Italians.

Moreover, regional and religious conflicts still existed between the Catholics in the south and the Protestants in the north.

In addition to that, if we consider the control of the satellite states I mentioned earlier… surgical intervention to create an efficient intelligence organization was inevitable.

“I want ‘informants’ and ‘correctional bureaus’ that can appear anytime, anywhere, within the sphere of influence of the empire.”

I looked him straight in the eye and said.

“I want my own ‘eyes of the king’ and ‘ears of the king’ to be created before the war begins.”

“…Then, may I ask just one favor?”

He also looked into my eyes and said. I replied to his question with, of course.

“Please postpone the war as much as possible. Until the Secret State Police is ready. As much as possible.”

“I understand.”

The longer the war is postponed, the better. But whether the subjects will like it…

“Even if we stretch it out, August 15th is the limit.”

About two weeks. It is almost impossible to reorganize an inefficient intelligence organization in this short period of time.

But… now, both he and I have no choice but to do the impossible.

The world was forcing me to become a superhuman.

The next day.

I summoned key figures such as the leaders of each political party and the ministers of the administration to the audience chamber.

They knelt on one knee and bowed their heads to me, just as their ancestors had done.

“We greet Your Majesty.”

After exchanging formal greetings with them, we moved on to the main topic.

“The reason I have called you here is… to postpone the war as much as possible.”

“Your Majesty. The late Emperor was assassinated. Are you going to stand idly by while those Yugoslavian bastards deny everything?”

“Of course not.”

To be precise, I can’t, even if I wanted to. The empire’s 100 million subjects are only clamoring for war. They want the empire’s iron hammer to punish those Slavs.

The imperial family has neither the power nor the authority to stop the madness of the masses.

“But our empire is not yet ready. The Ministry of Defense and the Railway Department must readjust the railway schedule in accordance with the changed grand strategy. The Police Department must prepare to deal with the chaos that will occur in the event of war. The other departments must provide artificial respiration to the empire, which will suffer from resource shortages if the seas are blockaded.”

But. None of these are perfectly prepared. So our empire still needs time to warm up. That’s what I was telling them.

“It doesn’t matter what method you use. Postpone the war as much as possible. Buy as much time as possible until I, until our empire, finish warming up.”

“…I understand. Then we will try to postpone the war as much as possible.”

I gave them a slight smile.

“Thank you.”

August 6, 1915.

The Holy Roman Empire ‘proposed’ a joint investigation into the terrorist group ‘Black Hand’ to the United Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Exactly one week later, the United Kingdom of Yugoslavia answered briefly and concisely.

“Non.”

The patience of the 100 million subjects began to dwindle.

The Holy Roman Empire was being pushed by its subjects towards the cliff of war.