Ch.384France’s Rearmament

# The Reluctant Queen of France

One downside is that while it’s slightly lacking as an anti-communist theory compared to Russia, it’s not bad for something that escaped from the Commune.

But that’s one thing, and the actual presence of Reds in France is another matter entirely.

So I had Beria, who was looking into Egypt and Libya, investigate.

“What does the Okhrana think?”

In the end, what the Okhrana discovers is what matters.

Whether there are Reds in France or not. This needs to be confirmed.

“Yes, there are no Communes in France now. The Cross of Fire caught even the last hidden Red and tortured him before executing him in the street.”

Beria handed me several photographs.

Looking at them, Commune members had been captured in various places by the Cross of Fire and were either hanging from buildings or, at best, had their heads shaved and were left rolling in the streets.

“It was truly a barbaric land after the war.”

Still, that’s something to appreciate.

Isn’t it quite amusing? That France. Or is it because of the Cross of Fire?

Anyway, thanks to the Cross of Fire’s efforts, we have what we have today.

“Is this reliable enough?”

Now that I’ve become the Queen of France, I need to remove some of the shackles placed on France.

Actually, it doesn’t really matter whether they’re removed or not since it’s the Rome Treaty.

“Yes. France is now actually united in anti-communism.”

They’ve actually united in anti-communism now. Thanks to their experience with the Commune.

If they hadn’t done that, I might have had to rebuild France myself. To be honest, it would be troublesome if there were Reds when I became the Queen of France.

Frankly speaking, I’m the goddess of anti-communism, so it wouldn’t make sense for Reds to exist in territory directly under my rule as queen.

It’s fortunate they’ve submitted on their own.

“Hmm. I see.”

Then, can I loosen restrictions on their self-defense force?

Actually, the self-defense force itself is almost meaningless to begin with.

Even though Algeria exists, the Rome Treaty’s army is currently led by Russia and mainly handled by the Donut Federation and the German Empire. The navy is commanded by Britain, with Russia, Turkey, Northern Europe, Spain, and other countries under it.

The air force is overwhelmingly dominated by Russia, so let’s set that aside.

Even if I allow the self-defense force, it will only exist as a formality.

“And this is the situation in Egypt and Libya.”

The situation in Egypt and Libya.

It’s called a situation, but it’s really just a power game among rulers.

In Libya, people I’ve never heard of have been embezzling Rome Treaty Organization funds among themselves. The same goes for Egypt.

They’re even trying to secretly chip away at the Suez shares.

“Is this possible? Don’t we control all of Suez anyway?”

“They must have secretly persuaded the Suez administrator behind the scenes.”

Has it become that corrupt?

How has the Rome Treaty become so corrupt in such a short time?

“Has the Rome Treaty become that rotten?”

Surely not. That’s what I think.

“No. They might have been able to recruit local administrators, but the treaty organization itself is fine.”

“That’s a relief.”

If the treaty organization had already become corrupt, it could have been dangerous.

I vaguely had such thoughts.

“Hmm, I see. It looks quite difficult at this point.”

This is truly insane.

How could they even think about taking a share of the Suez Canal?

Do I really need to push into this myself?

I honestly don’t know these names, and even if I were lucky enough to want to study world history, including the minor parts, this is a bit much.

“Your Majesty, how about leaving this Libya and Egypt matter to them to resolve?”

“How do you propose to resolve Libya and Egypt?”

Well then, let’s meet with de Gaulle and La Rocque again.

* * *

When I met with La Rocque, he applauded me.

“Your Majesty, congratulations.”

What is there to congratulate? You just put me on the throne as you pleased.

I thought this, but it seemed a bit pitiful to confront him directly, so I decided to let it slide.

“Then, the Cross of Fire will be integrated as France’s party.”

“The Cross of Fire, you say?”

I nodded slightly.

There’s no need for national division in France anyway.

“It’s better to consolidate parties that are practically useless. Don’t you think?”

Honestly, what use are they?

Just one party representing the Gallic region. That should be enough.

Look, it’s just about selecting representative parties for each region represented by the Rome Treaty.

Britain seems to be consolidating into one as well. Only Russia is being kept as an exception.

Russia is just too big right now.

“That’s true.”

“First, abolish the self-defense force and reorganize it as the Gallic Defense Force.”

Abolishing the self-defense force.

This is essentially the same as allowing France to rearm.

At this point, even if they seriously rearm, France doesn’t have the power to defeat Russia, let alone the German Empire or the Donut Federation.

The Rome Treaty Organization would crush them.

“So, you’re authorizing rearmament?”

Authorizing rearmament. This has a slightly different meaning.

Originally, even if we say the self-defense force is disarmed, it’s just changing its title from self-defense force to Gallic Army.

“To be precise, it’s a bit different.”

First, Gallia is Gallia. Since it’s Gallia, we’re establishing the Gallic Defense Force.

France already has the Main Russian Army anyway.

It sounds cool to call it the Main Russian Army, but anyway. There are armies from countries responsible for the Rome Treaty’s ground forces.

So for now, it’s just a superficial rearmament.

And I’m allowing this because they’ve been diligent in their anti-communist efforts.

“Indeed, Your Majesty. I am truly grateful for Your Majesty’s grace.”

You certainly know how to talk.

I’m basically here against my will.

It feels like I got swept up in the atmosphere, but it can’t be helped.

When all the French people are elevating me, how could I coldly refuse?

“There’s no need to call it grace.”

I don’t think it’s necessary to call it grace.

Rather, I’m the victim of your forced crown gifting.

But still, now that I’ve become the Queen of France, I want to make sure of certain things. That’s what it is.

I’ll definitely see to it that a new Anastasia Palace is built on French soil.

“Your Majesty, what are these?”

La Rocque looked at the documents I placed on the desk.

What do you think they are? They’re things for you to handle.

Yes, that’s what I brought.

I intend to have France handle this Egypt and Libya situation.

They share a border with Algeria, don’t they? Then they should be able to handle matters all the way to Egypt quickly.

“I hear Libya and Egypt want to give me crowns too.”

“Aren’t they both colonies or semi-colonies?”

Both Libya and Egypt were ultimately colonies or semi-colonies.

Libya was Italy’s front yard, wasn’t it?

“I suppose that’s one way to look at it.”

This makes everything suspicious.

“So, how should we resolve this?”

Should we mobilize the Gallic Defense Force?

Hmm, does this mean we need to crush them like colonial empires?

We’ve just cleaned things up, and this doesn’t seem right.

But it’s true that there’s no answer without using the military.

“That’s what we’ll have to do. Is it possible?”

“Isn’t it unconscionable for Egypt to demand Suez shares and Libya to demand oil shares?”

“I suppose it would be.”

It’s not simply unconscionable.

This goes beyond that. We gave them some leeway as Rome Treaty partner countries, but they don’t know their place and are overreaching.

Just fools who don’t know their place and are climbing too high.

How will Gallia judge these people?

“How would you resolve this?”

“Actually, we don’t need to look far, do we?”

We don’t need to look far? Then what’s the solution?

“We don’t need to look far? Then?”

Beria’s side suggested assassination, but assassination is meaningless unless you can control the situation perfectly.

That’s how I judged it, at least.

“Couldn’t you just use the military to strike?”

Using the military to strike means using force.

“Use the military right away?”

I grant permission to rearm, and this is what happens.

These cruel colonial empire types. I give them a little freedom, and they change like this.

The Commune era was just mediocre after all.

“We just need a suitable excuse. For Libya, we say the oil fields are threatened and need to station troops there. The same goes for Egypt. These are partner countries without military presence to begin with, aren’t they?”

He’s literally saying we should handle it with force.

Is there any reason to tolerate this?

True to a country that was a pillar of the former imperialist era, he said such outrageous things with ease.

“Is the self-defense force level sufficient?”

France’s military power must be terrible right now. That’s why I easily permitted rearmament.

Of course, no matter how terrible it’s become, I don’t think it would lose to North Africa, but still.

Yes, they wouldn’t lose to backward countries like Libya or Egypt.

No matter how bad our France has become, it’s not that bad.

“Most of the self-defense force members are from the war generation. They may be older now, but with the Algerian army as well, there shouldn’t be any difficulties.”

Even if they’re from the war generation, decades have passed. Moreover, the current French army must be the successor to Free France. Free France wasn’t particularly strong militarily.

The Commune Army was literally torn apart in the Sudetenland.

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

“Yes. Please trust us.”

La Rocque confidently asked me to trust France and withdrew, but I can’t help feeling uneasy for some reason.

Am I making a mistake by entrusting this to France?

Should I just hand it over to the Rome Treaty itself? Wait, as I was lost in such thoughts, Maria spoke up beside me.

“Will France do the job properly?”

Whether France does the job properly or not isn’t important.

Even if France messes up, I’m the one who ordered it. This might get troublesome.

Handling it militarily seems problematic.

“I don’t know, but what’s certain is that the situation will be better than it is now. It’s right to root out corruption while we can.”

If we don’t handle this, it’s obvious that former colonies will cause trouble in the future.

Even this time, we only learned about the situation thanks to the crown.

“Hmm.”

“What’s wrong?”

Maria has a face full of thoughts.

What’s that? It’s very suspicious. What do you want to do?

“I just had an interesting thought.”

Now even Maria has interesting thoughts. Please leave your Tsar alone.

Wait, I thought that, but she is Maria II after all.

The Maria family has always been helpful to me.

Who knows? There might be something else.

“What’s this interesting thought?”

“How about leading the French army yourself?”

For a moment, my ears went numb.

Is she telling me to go to North Africa myself? That seems to be the only explanation.

“Lead the French army myself? You mean a royal campaign?”

At my age, you want me to lead a campaign myself?

Are you telling me to march to North Africa and show my might!

Hearing it, I can’t help but feel excited, but it’s problematic coming from Louise.

“Yes. Wouldn’t it make quite a picture? The French army marching to North Africa?”

“That’s a good idea!”

Now even Louise agrees, clenching her fist.

“You too, Louise? Suddenly telling me to go out, what’s this about?”

The French army advancing to North Africa.

Haven’t I seen this somewhere before? Especially thinking about going to Egypt, it has a strong Napoleon vibe.

Hmm, me becoming like Napoleon. At first glance, it really sounds good.

Even I, despite appearances, am a manly person who would like to experience such excitement.

I’m not Korean, so I’d rather get excited about something like this. But the current French army can only mobilize tens of thousands at most, right?

That number isn’t small, but when you think about the original France, especially the numerous armies France mobilized during the Commune era, it’s become pitiful.

“Well, that’s not a bad idea.”

“Why do you hesitate?”

Sigh, it’s a bit of a dilemma.