EP.286
Imperial palace throne room.
“Captain Peter Jaeger of the Reich Imperial Army meets His Majesty the Emperor, the only sun of the Empire.”
As is customary, I got down on one knee and bowed my head, and as always, His Majesty walked down to where I was and helped me up.
Normally, he would look at me at this time and ask me with a bright expression, curious about what I’m up to, and whether something good or bad is happening.
When something good happened, he liked it and gave me a gift to celebrate. When something bad happened, he comforted me. If there was anything he could do to help me, he did so.
For example, the other day I casually mentioned that Frederick was suffering from a fever, and he immediately sent the emperor’s personal physician to receive treatment for the cold.
But now, even though he looked at me, his expression was not bright, as if he was having a lot of trouble with that damn militarist Lieutenant General Manstein.
“I would like to ask you how you are doing these days and hear your story, but given the current situation, I will just ignore it. So, for what purpose did you come to me?”
“Nothing different than that, I heard a rumor that recently retired soldiers formed a bad gathering, so I came to report this to Your Majesty.”
After hearing what I said, His Majesty nodded with an expression that showed that he already knew everything.
“According to the head of intelligence, I heard that Baron Pietro, some retired soldiers, some active-duty soldiers, and some from noble families with titles have gathered to impeach Peter Yeager. You rotten bastards, why are you gathering together and talking nonsense about how there are other great generals who have helped the empire as much as you? Since they are so incompetent, it seems like they have lost their minds out of jealousy towards you who are capable.”
People tend to feel jealous when they see someone who is successful because their abilities are superior to theirs, even though their abilities are inferior.
When the feeling of jealousy enters the mind, the person who uses it positively will try his best to keep up with that person and focus on increasing his or her capabilities.
Humans who are negatively dominated by the emotion of jealousy try to somehow bring the object of jealousy down to the same level or below themselves, whether through words or actions.
So, in the eyes of His Majesty the Emperor, it may seem like those with an inferiority complex are trying to carry out political maneuvers… but as someone who
studied modern warfare and its history before being possessed, from my perspective, this meeting clearly shows that it is an assassination preparation plan that militarists love so much. This comes out.
So, I looked at His Majesty and spoke carefully in a very serious voice.
“I think the reason they gathered wasn’t just to impeach me.”
His Majesty looked at me with a questioning expression.
“Think about it, Your Majesty. How would the Imperial Council react if they impeached Captain Peter Yeager? At best I would say this. ‘Captain Peter Yeager was impeached by an active-duty officer, a noble retired officer with 00 titles, but after investigation, it was determined that he had done nothing wrong, so this case is dismissed. However, in order to ask you to be careful about your future actions, you will be sentenced to 00 days of probation.’ That would be about the same. “My position will not be undermined as they want.”
When a subject openly says that his position is so strong in front of the emperor, it can be interpreted as if he is boasting to the emperor that he has enough power to keep the imperial authority in check.
There is already a very strong relationship of trust between Your Majesty and I, and we are discussing an even more absurd situation: a political gathering of retired military and active-duty officers.
His Majesty said, pouring out his unpleasant feelings not at me, but at damned Baron Pietro.
“Normally, impeachment is done when you are confident that you can overthrow the opponent, but after listening to you carefully, I see that it is indeed so. Although the Imperial Council and most of the nobles are happy about the strengthening of the Imperial Army and the successive victories, they are well aware that the territories they own are having a hard time because they have already collected a lot of special war taxes. However, if they follow the will of those who argue that more war should be waged here, they will have to collect taxes again and are worried that not only their territory but the entire Reich Empire’s national power will be weakened. Because they were such people, they were happy to hear your argument that we should stop the war for a while, give the empire some rest, and increase our national power. “There is no way you will side with those who want to impeach you for this.”
“Then let me ask you again. In this situation, what will you do if they end up impeaching me before your Majesty?”
His Majesty clenched his fists, a little angry.
Then he took a deep breath, exhaled, and spoke.
“I will not accept their impeachment. You have abilities that go beyond your reputation as a great general who saved the empire. If only I could help you dedicate yourself more to the empire. Of course we will dismiss it and arrest all the people who said such nonsense. And active-duty officers and retired soldiers will be punished severely for banding together to engage in political activities.”
Strictly speaking, an officer discharged from the empire is a civilian A who has nothing but a noble title.
As soon as they are discharged from the military, they immediately undergo a qualification test for appointment as administrators for military officers and are allowed to become administrators of a rank similar to their rank when they were in the military or to enter the Imperial Council and act based on their rank.
In other words, retired soldiers can immediately enter politics.
If an active-duty officer with the power to command soldiers intervenes in the political arena, political policy discussions may lead to a civil war by drawing in his soldiers.
You must be saying that because any officer on active duty who participates in politics for any reason, as well as making comments about it, is subject to treason and becomes a serious criminal who must be executed immediately.
“From this perspective, I think gathering to impeach me is just an excuse. Since impeachment of high-ranking officials such as incumbent ministers and vice-ministers or generals in the Imperial Diet happens all the time, it is possible to escape from the scope of surveillance by thinking that the intention of the meeting is impure. “Your Majesty can’t punish active-duty officers without permission until they write down their names in the impeachment document, right?”
The emperor nodded his agreement.
“If you gather people together and air their complaints under the pretext that they cannot be punished, there will definitely be someone who makes comments like this. ‘There is only one answer. Peter Yeager must be assassinated. “Even if we use a bill of impeachment, it will be of no use, so we have to kill him.’”
His Majesty waved his hand and tried to deny it, but I continued.
“Your Majesty is probably claiming that it was all a trick of General Peter Jaeger that purged Lieutenant General Manstein and his faction and made the Imperial Army, which was sure to win the next battle, rest without fighting. So, when I die, His Majesty will increase the size of his army, and they probably think that they will be able to wear stars and achieve glory in my stead. “If they weren’t such rotten idiots, the staff officers wouldn’t have said such nonsense without considering the internal situation of the empire.”
The reason I can think like this is because a friend of mine who majored in Japanese once told me this while telling me how stupid and foolish the Japanese military was.
Until the early 1930s, the country of Japan took steps to properly read the international situation.
So, since it seemed like the United States and the other great powers would make a fuss and say something about eating Manchuria, a proposal was made in the Japanese cabinet to eat only the economic sphere of Manchuria and pretend to rule together with China.
This story was told by a man named Tsuyoshi Inugai, who was the prime minister at the time.
If things had gone on like this, the Japanese military’s biggest challenge, joining the Axis powers, might not have happened.
However, the crazy militarists in the Imperial Japanese Army killed the Prime Minister, perhaps because they thought that their officers would have nothing to eat if they did not expand their territory into Manchuria, or perhaps because they were just crazy patriotic.
As a result, Japan was truly ruined.
Of course, the biggest factor behind this was that there was no supreme authority to take over and control the Japanese state after the Japanese Prime Minister died.
Even if I die, His Majesty will personally wield the mace to prevent any unnecessary expansion of the army.
But the problem is that if those bastards succeed in assassinating me, problems beyond the level of Louise Laura Charlotte Anya’s sadness will arise.
The problem is that enemies from other countries will frantically try to take over the empire’s land.
Therefore, I will not give in to these bastards’ threats of assassination and will survive, and I will not only uproot these bastards, but burn them down to their very roots.
“I am sure. “Those guys gathered over there must have gathered to assassinate Peter Yeager.”
His Majesty’s face looked very serious when he heard the word ‘assassination’ come out of my mouth.
“Okay then, what do you plan on doing?
A word from the author (author review)
Today’s series has been delayed by about 10 minutes.
As a writer who has to meet on-time deadlines, I am truly sorry.
We will try to prevent this from happening in the future.
Lastly, your comments and interest are of great help to the author.
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