Britannia Empire, London, Buckingham Royal Palace

Princess Diana strode all the way towards the office of her father, King of Britannia to discuss the matter of the rather concerning development in Ruthenia and their allies.

She makes it to the door and the door security let her in, her father hard at work managing the empire spread across the world.

“Father, sorry for my sudden visit, but there is something urgent that might threaten Britannia’s national security and interest.”

Her father, King George V, puts away his cigarette into the ashtray before speaking to his daughter.

“May I ask what is so threatening that you have such a worried look plastered on your face?” He spoke before he started coughing. The doctors found no signs of tuberculosis but the shortness of breath, brought on by his heavy smoking habit.

“It is regarding Ruthenia’s rise in their technological achievements, recently the Secret Service Bureau has obtained photographs of larger than normal naval ships at the far east ports of Ruthenia.”

Diana pulls out the folder with the photographs inside, grabbing it and handing it to his father to see..

“It is estimated that what looks like a giant aircraft carrier, a super-dreadnought, and some new smaller ships with strange small torpedo tubes, strange dishes that rotate, and some sort of strange small crane in the rear. These photos were taken two weeks ago.”

The king hums as he looks at every picture carefully.

“Not only that,” Diana continued, taking out another folder. Containing a list of people’s names. “There have been strange ongoings in the wilderness of Ruthenia. Trucks and planes going somewhere outside into Ruthenia’s vast landscape. Also, there have been sudden vacancies in universities in Britannia, the only lead was the people who left their teaching positions had visited Ruthenia at least once before coming back and resigning before completely disappearing from the public. “

She presented the file to her father.“And apparently it is happening to universities across Europa. Deutschland, Francois, Sardegna, Austrea. What’s really concerning is these people are in advanced scientific fields. It is as if the Ruthenian Empire is poaching scientists for their gains.”

George set down the photos and pondered briefly.

He turned to the window, looking out at the city of London, before speaking.

“So what should we do about it? The person in charge of Ruthenia is Alexander Romanoff, the man who cured you from tuberculosis. Since then, he has been making leaps and bounds far too impossible for a normal person. Hell, even their shipbuilding industry has surpassed our own shipyards by unbelievable margins.” The king coughed to clear his throat, “This Tsar of Ruthenia is like those demented ruthenian nesting dolls. Has so many layers that you get scared to see what lies in the middle. “

“He did save me years ago, but now they are our trade rivals and still a potential enemy. We’ve never been amicable, they have always been our archnemesis when it comes to territorial expansion.” Diana replied and continued. “I still cannot understand why he is interested in the leftover uranium from radium extraction. There is nothing left to make paint from.”

The king stroked his beard, contemplating deeply.

“Then I say we have our operatives look into it. Find out what strange things he is up to.”

“Although that would be the wisest decision, I must warn you father that sending operatives in Ruthenia would only sour our relationship with them,” Diana said firmly. “Most of our operatives in Ruthenia have been either caught or killed by the Ruthenian secret police. Their methodology for tracking our agents is still unknown. We can’t deny the possibility that they have agents stationed in London.”

“So what do you suggest we do, Diana? It’s not like we can’t do something about Ruthenia right”

“That I can agree with, father,” Diana acknowledged. “The Ruthenian Empire has been a huge paper tiger until Alexander came to office. His economic, military, and administrative reforms drastically changed the Ruthenia Empire a lot. In his first four years, he modernized his military and industrialized nearly every region. They are producing cars, machinery, and aircraft of such a high quality, defeating the Deutschland Empire in terms of exports. They are also becoming self-reliant, and independent of foreign aid, buying oil from them must be in rubles, therefore threatening the sterling pound as the global currency. It’s all thanks to their large swath of land,” Diana paused, catching her breath before continuing.

“Instead of keeping an eye out for the Deutschland Empire, we must look out very closely for the Ruthenian Empire.”

“So, you’re saying that Ruthenia poses a greater threat than the Deutschland Empire? “

“Yes…father,” Diana confirmed.

“If that is so, what is your plan?”

“The same thing we always do, we must isolate Ruthenia. We should fix our relations with the Deutschland Empire and the Francois Republic. We can do so by settling territorial disputes and claims in Africa. If the Deutschland wants more land in the continent, we shall give them, the same goes for the Francois Republic.”“…I understand. This could work. I would like you to help me in this matter, Diana.”

Diana smiled adoringly. “Of course, father. For our Great Empire that spans across the world, I would do everything to keep it that way.”action

“That’s my daughter,” King George smiled in satisfaction. “Anyways, what happened in the Hague? I heard one of the secret diplomats from the Empire of Choson was found dead in his hotel?”

“Ah…I was there. Yes, I did hear about the incident. The two emissaries fled to Ruthenia and Alexander granted them asylum after the Yamato demanded them to be handed over back to Choson to be tried as traitors of their country,” Diana shared.

“What does Alexander want from the two of them now?” George asked.

“There is a high probability that Ruthenia will use the emissaries to expand their influence over the Choson Peninsula. They might even provide aid to the revolutionaries and any surviving royalist factions in the Yamato Empire-controlled puppet state of Choson.’

“But that would be violating the St. Petersburg Treaty, right?” George asked, trying to clarify himself.

“Exactly, which means, another conflict is brewing in the Far East. Another war between the Ruthenia Empire and the Yamato Empire would be inevitable. We must also keep tabs with our ally, the Yamato Empire to keep a check on Ruthenia…Oh, I almost forgot. There’s a report from our Hanese legation that Ruthenian is ramping up their forces in Manchuria.”

“So, a prelude to invasion…was that right?” George thought aloud.

“I won’t say that father,” Diana corrected. “The Ruthenians realized their weakness during the war with the Yamato Empire. Their Far East is so underdeveloped and couldn’t match up to the more heavily modernized forces of the Yamato. To prevent that, the Ruthenians invested heavily in industrializing Manchuria and built up their defenses.”

“That makes sense, you’ve read the situation well Diana,” George praised.

“It’s nothing special really, it’s just elementary deductions. It wouldn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out what Ruthenians are planning in the Far East,” Diana said humbly.

“You’re undoubtedly correct in your deductions regarding the developments in Manchuria by the Ruthenians, Diana. Very well, we shall instead shift our attention to the Ruthenian Empire.”

***

Alexander felt a pinch on the bridge of his nose.

As he rubbed away the strange sudden twitch of pain. He is reminded that in his previous life that odd twitch on his face means a competitor is up to something that might affect him. Mostly it is his nasal sinus passages requiring a massage.

He look at his wife and child and smiled, his decision to poach scientists, engineers, and capable personnel allowed him more free time to be with his family and prepare more projects.

He might be a genius that can build a rocket from scratch alone, but he is still one person and very human.

Having more people handle and work upon his schematics makes it easier and saves time than doing it by all himself.

Still, the workload of an emperor with ever-growing ambitions never ends.