Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1338 Complete Trust (Second Update)

Although Viktor von Doom was confident, he also knew that his actions could very well trigger a war and jeopardize any trade agreements Latvia might sign. Interior Minister Stephanie Malik was protesting the incident. Anyone with political acumen would know the devastating consequences of such an act; if the emperor's horseback march into the UN headquarters was a restrained armed demonstration, then the breakout from the UN detention center was a blatant act of terrorism.

Now Victor von Doom stood before the Emperor, awaiting the Chief of the Interior's conclusion after his complaints and contingency plans, before explaining his actions to the Emperor privately. Stephanie Malik left the Emperor's office in a rage, and Hammurabi of the Janissaries secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Stephanie's temper was truly like a dangerous pressure cooker; fortunately, the Emperor's presence calmed her, and a sense of awe temporarily quelled her anger. But the matter remained unresolved; the objective fact that hindered further trade treaties persisted, and this had to be addressed. Latvia was suffering far too many sanctions.

"The prisoners are not happy," the emperor said. "They were originally just being imprisoned, but now they may face death."

The Emperor didn't directly ask him why he did this. Instead, he brought up the prisoners that the First Secret Service had brought out of The Hague. The attack on the UN detention center was now in international news. Although the Dutch hadn't captured images of the attackers' vehicles, and an investigation would take time, a simple headcount of the remaining prisoners would easily reveal the attackers' target. Anyone with normal intelligence could guess the perpetrators' identities. If Regent Victor von Doom wanted things to unfold as he planned, the war criminals would inevitably reveal themselves. Therefore, denial now was pointless; a frank admission was the only way.

"Have you decided on the sentence for each prisoner?"

"Not yet. But I will resolve this issue, and soon it will be no longer a concern." Victor von Doom found himself a chair. He wasn't wearing power armor when facing the Emperor, while the Emperor was always fully armored, after all, he was the military symbol of the country. The Regent said, "I will issue a statement that The Hague refuses to transfer war criminals. You don't need to worry about the impact of this on the Balkans. You are the only person besides Marshal Tito who has almost unified the Southern Federation, and the common people's respect for you is no less than that for Marshal Tito."

"When did you ever think that our trust needed to be repaired with kind words?"

The Emperor found the Regent's behavior amusing. Their trust and understanding required no such flattery, nor did they engage in any cutthroat power struggles. Such low-level games were not suited to this office. Viktor von Doom was merely using the opportunity to express his discontent—a less-than-direct form of irony. He knew the Regent knew he couldn't possibly express dissatisfaction over such matters; when he entrusted the Regent with trivial matters, he also entrusted him with his utmost trust, which destined them to face difficulties together. In fact, the Emperor knew that if he rode his celestial horse to the White House every few days, many of the world's problems would be easily solved. Even the American national machinery couldn't withstand the highest level of defense every day; after all, installing anti-aircraft guns on the White House roof was hardly a good thing.

The Emperor calmly reviewed the documents submitted by Stephanie Malik. The research department listed numerous possible scenarios, such as creating a memorial day to commemorate the war criminals who were to be executed by the Emperor. This was something that would definitely happen; regardless of the Hague Tribunal's original verdict, they would now be portrayed as innocent and saintly figures in the Western media, and there might even be annual events. This was already the least disgusting of all the scenarios; in a few months, "war survivors" would appear, recounting their firsthand accounts of the crimes committed by the Emperor's army.

The Ministry of the Interior's assessment of the situation was quite poor. While the previous trade terms wouldn't change, they would certainly encounter some bureaucratic obstacles. The Emperor believed the Regent was aware of the consequences, and therefore, he trusted Victor von Doom's methods and assessment of the matter. "While I don't think publishing the Hague Tribunal's statement will be of any use, if you think it's meaningful, then do it. We have too many tasks running at once; it's my fault."

"I'm glad you're willing to stay here to handle official business, Your Majesty," the Regent said with a smile. He noticed several carts in the Emperor's office, piled high with cardboard boxes filled with documents. These documents concerned the financial expenditures for compulsory education in Latvia, including the selection of sites for new schools, printing free textbooks, purchasing free stationery, commuting allowances, free lunches and dinners, school security expenses, and personnel screening; the local government allocations for school-age children in each province; and federal education funding, among other things.

These documents, numbering in the tens of thousands of pages, were brought in by Diana Lister's men just an hour ago.

This was the problem the Emperor had to solve today, and his sense of responsibility required him to read every single word on every piece of paper. As for the more rudimentary document outlines, those were handled by the Regent, Victor von Doom. After the Emperor reviewed the documents and proposed a solution, the Regent would revise them before they were brought to a meeting of the Ministry of the Interior for discussion.

Following the First War of Expansion, the centralized tax system designed by the Emperor and Regent proved to be the true force weakening local extremist armed groups. After all, they couldn't send genetically modified soldiers into every military operation; effectively stripping local authorities of their control over finance, military, and administration was crucial. To this end, the Emperor and Regent implemented thorough reforms, establishing a conscription system (a professional army), veterans' militias (a cost-saving measure), and primary military academies (to unify ideology). They restructured tax laws and administrative institutions, established rural grassroots and agricultural support systems, built modern industrial sectors, and created an independent administrative oversight system. This effectively unified the administration, military, and economy of the Yugoslav Federation, rather than merely creating a federation in name only and adding stars to its flag.

The result of this was a degree of social stability in the Yugoslav Federation, but the scars wouldn't disappear forever. The regency's decision helped heal the wounds and raise the upper limit of social stability. However, that was a matter for later. Right now, the existing systems had piled up a huge amount of paperwork on the emperor's desk. After all, rights and obligations are equal, and even after the local governments relinquished power, the emperor still had to play a decisive role. Establishing all of this in such a short time required an absurdly high level of efficiency.

Some might have hoped to exhaust the emperor through such methods, but the Regent knew this was merely a common person's fantasy and a joke told over drinks. These documents would only consume some of the emperor's time, and wouldn't even interfere with his scientific research schedule. After all, during the Latvian Liberation War, the emperor had to personally handle corruption and fraud in rural elections in addition to fighting, yet he still completed his work at near-computer speed, ensuring the safety and stability of the rear bases to prevent famine among the frontline troops.

"What are you talking about, my dear Victor?" The Emperor raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat surprised. "I heard that fish have recently been released into the pond in the garden, and I'm planning to go there to try out my new fishing rod."

"Then I can only hope you catch some fish at night, because I also have a research report here regarding the Ministry of the Interior's request for the Ministry of Transportation to investigate the locations of newly built secondary highways and high-speed railways, the engineering department's feasibility report on this research report, and finally, the Ministry of Finance's budget assessment of the engineering department's feasibility report. After that, there's the Ministry of Transportation's request for a unified railway information security network, the Mars Foundry's implementation status of the Ministry of Transportation's requirements and equipment procurement list, the documents submitted by the Ministry of Finance to the Mars Foundry regarding the procurement list, and the arrival time of the next cargo hold for Mars Logistics..."

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(End of this chapter)