Summoning Our Country - NHS Kai

Chapter 14: Donnerschlag Part 1

Note: This is rose. This is the penultimate chapter to the Gra Valkas Empire's introduction and the following would be its conclusion. The chapter after the next would be a return to the situation in the East with Japan. Unfortunately, due to IRL work clogging up some of the team's holidays, we won't be releasing the next chapter until the week of January 9. We hope you understand. Have a rose ✿

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/p7NJppEjza

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April 19, 2022 NOTE: This is to serve as a notice that this chapter is due for minor revisions. Any information mentioned here will soon be obsolete and I highly encourage rereading this chapter again in the future once the rewrite has been released.

Cent. Calendar 09/06/1639, Royal Palace, Priscina, Kingdom of Paganda, 8:25

A lone man in fine, gray robes cloaking his formal, mustard-colored uniform walked down the simplistic yet elegant halls of the royal palace. The hard soles of his leather boots made loud footsteps as he paced on the polished marble floor. The man, Royal House Secretary Andres Lardaye, was heading to a meeting hall after delivering the declaration of war to the Gra Valkan diplomatic mission off the coast of the kingdom. On his face was a determined expression that notified the world of their conviction to fight. His eyes were dead set on the two large, elaborately decorated wooden doors at the end of the hall. Grabbing the long, ornate, wooden handles, he pushed the doors back to enter into a room bustling with activity. There, military officers, diplomatic officials, representatives of trade unions, and government officials rushed around talking with one another. In the midst of them all was the king, who was talking with some of the diplomats. Seeing him, Andres walked straight towards the king, who then noticed his presence.

"Secretary Lardaye."

"Your Majesty."

After bowing to the best of his extent while standing, Andres then straightened his back and looked at the king with eyes that said it all. The king noticed this and understood what it meant but still waited for the man to say it out loud explicitly.

"The Gra Valkans continue to refuse our demands, therefore as you ordered, we have declared war on them."

Hearing this, the other personnel in the room fell silent as they looked at him with faces that said, "this is it." However, the representatives of trade unions had a more negative reaction, sighing and leaving the room altogether in disappointment. The diplomats looked back to the king with worried faces.

"We do have a pact with Leifor. However, I doubt they'd take this action well, Your Majesty."

"It'll be fine. If we explain to them that the Gra Valkans had attacked us first, they'd understand that our actions are justified."

The diplomats then bowed before leaving. The king, followed by his advisors and Andres, moved over to the military officers and government officials. Seeing the king approach them, all of the men stopped their conversations and simultaneously bowed.

"Your Majesty!"

"I want to know how long we could last against the Gra Valkans."

The military officers looked at one another with confused faces. They did not know what the king meant or what answer he wanted. One of the senior officers answered in their place.

"With all due respect, Your Majesty, I will say some things before answering that. First, neither the army nor the navy is prepared for war. While being on the defensive makes things easier for us, there's simply a lot of things we have not done yet. We are currently issuing orders to the garrisons on the west coast to begin reinforcing their defenses, and we are still talking about whether to begin conscription or not. Once we've done that, we can probably last around one month at most against an attack by the Gra Valkans."