Ch.249Red Flavor Federation is lonely today too. (1)

# Chapter 249: The Red Taste Federation is Lonely Today (1)

Around two weeks after Arto was plotting strategies at the Three Wives Alliance meeting…

“To think that Aeternia was right in front of us all along! How could we have known?”

The deactivation of the Aeternia Holy Empire’s psionic veil had revealed their position, causing tremendous confusion within the Fuxviet Federation.

“Anyway, it’s your fault for failing border patrol duty.”

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

The confusion was gradually subsiding with the help of the Fuxviet-style remedy—namely, purging the admiral in charge of the area by blaming him for failing his border patrol duty(?).

To be precise, this was only true on the “surface.”

“Look! The conspiracy theory about the Precursor Empire existing right in front of us was true after all!”

“Wow.”

“This is actually correct.”

Perhaps because the conspiracy theory that had been circulating for years—”The Precursor Empire’s territory is actually right next to ours!”—had been proven true.

“Did you know? They say the newly appointed Supreme Commander of Prosnack is just a puppet.”

“I heard Fern’dus is already dead, and the current one is just a fake.”

“There are rumors that ISTO’s treaty forces will invade us soon.”

“I heard Prosnack is allying with ISTO to split us in half.”

“Actually, this whole situation is a plot by the shadow government trying to eliminate us.”

“Oh.”

Within the Fuxviet Federation, all sorts of bizarre conspiracy theories and rumors were swirling like a storm.

Of course, as the past tense suggests…

At the current point in time, all these conspiracy theories had been suppressed under the iron fist of the Supreme Military Committee, which refused to believe such nonsense.

——————————————–

However, as those conspiracy theories were suppressed, another faction began to raise its head.

“From our observations of Aeternia’s territory, it appears those Precursors are engaged in some kind of battle near their capital planetary system.”

“Perhaps due to civil war, they’ve destroyed whatever was hiding their territory?”

They had mistaken the battle between unmanned fleets and space monsters in Aeternia’s territory as a “civil war.”

“If we play this right, couldn’t we invade Aeternia’s territory?”

“Would they even have the capacity to worry about us while they’re in the middle of a civil war?”

“And if we conquer their territory, couldn’t we absorb their technology?”

“Oh.”

This was the typical militarist faction’s clamoring to invade the territory of the Precursor Empire, Aeternia Holy Empire, and expand their own territory in the process.

Of course, such talk was not at all welcome to the Supreme Military Committee governing the Fuxviet Federation.

Nor to its leader, the Secretary-General.

“Wow! Where exactly do you plan to get the fleet to conquer Aeternia?”

“Well…”

“Right now, Prosnack and those ISTO bastards are watching us with eagle eyes. If we pull our fleets from the border regions, wonderful things will happen, right?”

Especially from the perspective of the Supreme Military Committee’s General Staff in charge of such matters…

“These lunatics, don’t they understand the state of Prosnack’s fleet?”

“Of course they don’t understand. Those blockheads are evaluating Prosnack’s shift to ‘mobile warfare’ formation as them being unable to maintain formation.”

Knowing that the current situation was only deteriorating, they wanted nothing more than to execute all these militarists who kept singing about expansion through people’s trials.

Moreover, the threats they faced didn’t end there.

“Report, sir! ISTO is sending additional reinforcements to the eastern front—one fleet each from the Seveli Empire and the Riksi Council territories!”

“Sigh…”

ISTO’s forces, which were already much larger than Prosnack’s when combined with the Eastern Alliance’s own troops.

And now with additional reinforcements on the way…

The frontline fleet admirals and General Staff personnel of Fuxviet were suffering from nervous tension, stomach cramps, and hair loss.

But they weren’t the only ones in pain.

“Secretary-General! Members of the Supreme Military Committee!”

“…”

“If we continue like this, we’ll truly be ruined!!!”

With the purpose of simultaneously checking both Prosnack and ISTO, the Fuxviet Federation had forcibly deployed their entire fleet to the border.

They had succeeded in achieving their immediate goal of not falling behind in the material battle at the front lines.

But the price was that the Federation’s economy could not possibly sustain the extreme consumption of capital and resources, and was now screaming in agony.

Those who were openly wailing that the country was about to collapse, right in front of the terrifying Supreme Military Committee.

That is, the Ministry of Finance of the Fuxviet Federation was their comrade in suffering.

————————————-

Normally, no matter how much the Ministry of Finance ranted, the Supreme Military Committee and the Secretary-General would never have listened.

In fact, the weak civil servants of the Ministry of Finance wouldn’t have dared to open their mouths in the face of the Committee’s sharp blade of purges and killing intent.

But the situation facing the Fuxviet Federation now gave the Finance Ministry officials tremendous courage.

“Bankruptcy!!! Imminent!!!”

“Even if we wanted to squeeze more, there’s nowhere left to squeeze from!”

“We’ve already reduced rations for the people of each planet and restricted all luxury goods!”

“The capital gained from exports through the Loiracan Republic has truly reached its limit!”

The crisis mentality that if they remained idle, their nation—once among the galaxy’s top three single states—would suddenly become a beggar.

Additionally, patriotism provided the courage to rant in front of THAT Supreme Military Committee and Secretary-General.

As mentioned above, the Finance Ministry’s outburst wasn’t just whining about not having money.

It was literally a “desperate struggle” based on crisis awareness and patriotism.

As such, even the Supreme Military Committee and the Secretary-General couldn’t bring themselves to rebuke the Finance Ministry’s desperate struggle.

From the beginning, they too had recognized that the current situation couldn’t be sustained for long, which added to their sense of helplessness.

“Damn, it’s definitely impossible to endure any longer.”

“But if we pull back now, it threatens our power structure.”

—————————————

So they received the Finance Ministry’s outbursts and asked the Foreign Ministry if there was anything they could do, but…

“Hey, don’t you have some way to handle this?”

“No, I can’t.”

“What?”

The Fuxviet Foreign Ministry had lost its fear, though for different reasons than the Finance Ministry.

Naturally, the Supreme Military Committee raised its blade against the Foreign Ministry for such a response…

“You bastard, how dare you!”

“What.”

“???”

“Do you not remember how all our existing diplomatic channels were destroyed because of the stupid actions of you people and those military idiots on the front lines?”

“…”

“And in the midst of that, some idiots claiming to uphold the ‘loyalty’ of the previous generation created a humiliatingly unequal diplomatic relationship with Loiracan?”

“…”

“And it turns out they were taking bribes, and because these fools made such stupid contracts in our absence, we can’t even get out of them now.”

“…”

“Go ahead and kill me if you want, I have nothing left to lose, you bastards.”

…He didn’t actually say it quite like that.

But with a similar level of fury-filled 570,000-character speech from the Foreign Minister, the executive committee members of the Supreme Military Committee could only shrink back.

“How cowardly to attack with fact-violence.”

“Let’s fight fair and square with propaganda and agitation, Foreign Minister!”

“Oh, really?”

Of course, some committee members who hadn’t come to their senses, with their youthful vigor.

And the combination of old men subtly pushing them from behind tried to pounce on the Foreign Minister, but…

“Now the Fuxviet Foreign Ministry will bombard Fuxviet with facts~”

“Ah.”

A 57-million-character report flew in, containing sharp criticisms of the frontline fleet admirals’ various idiotic and deviant actions, and the Supreme Military Committee’s prevention of any diplomatic activities.

-Trembling.

“Besides, I’m a revolutionary comrade of your Secretary-General. What can the likes of you do to me?”

“Haha, everyone, let’s back off and leave the Foreign Minister alone.”

With the backing of being the Secretary-General’s revolutionary comrade.

The Supreme Military Committee, having disturbed the previously quiet Foreign Minister, now found themselves engaged in self-purging and self-criticism sessions.