St. Petersburg, Ruthenia Empire.


    Beneath the General Staff Building, the high-ranking officials of the Ruthenian Empire watched the emergency broadcast of the Britannia Empire with a puzzled expressions.


    "The Britannia Empire just dered war on us?" Sophie repeated Anne''s deration, confused as to why.


    "The soldiers that they caught are part of the security detail of His Majesty. But it still doesn''t it still isn''t a solid justification. And this attack just happened for like six hours and they already finished investigating?" Alexeimented, utterly befuddled at Britannia''s decision.


    "Well, it doesn''t matter," Sergei chimed in after talking to someone on the telephone. "I just got a call from the Britannian Embassy. The ambassador has sent us an official deration of war. Your Imperial Majesty, the Ruthenia Empire is now officially at war with the Britannia Empire."


    "Got a transmission from the Burnyi Destroyer carrying His Majesty. His Majesty said that he''ll be taking over and dered a battle-readiness level 2," the Joint Chief of Staff announced.


    "This is really happening? Huh?" Sophie muttered, biting her nails in fright.


    "Your Imperial Majesty, as of now His Majesty, Alexander Romanoff, has dered a takeover. This means your executive authority has ended. But you can still stay here," Sergei said. "His Majesty is currently at the English Channel, a territory next to the country that just dered war on us. Things could go south and…"


    "I understand, Sergei. Thank you for exining," Sophie interrupted his words, not liking what he was insinuating.


    Sergei pointed out that Alexander might get into some ident, incapacitating him, and hence she''ll have to take over her husband''s duties again.


    "I''m transmitting orders to all our military personnel. Battle readiness has been raised to level two," Alexei said.


    "Have we concocted a battle n against the Britannia Empire?" Sergei asked.


    "Yes," Alexei confirmed. "Despite its current position of being the strongest empire in the world, they have a weakness that we can exploit. It''s an ind nation, meaning it gets all of its supplies and materials from its colonies. Simply conducting a naval blockade by employing submarine warfare in the Antic, English Channel, and North Sea would cut off the Britannia Empire from the rest of the world. We''ll force them into submission until they start to implore peace talks," Alexei exined. "We can send our North Fleet into action and disable the Britannian Home Fleet. The Baltic Fleet is already in their territorial waters so we can simply back them up."


    "I agree," Admiral Kusov nodded his head in affirmation. "I will inform the navy and have them execute the n, right away. Let us show to them the might of the Imperial Ruthenian Navy."


    "Wait, wait," Sergei stopped Admiral Kuzov from reaching the phone on the table. "We should inform His Majesty about this and get his authorization."


    "Authorization? Look, I know His Majesty as much as you do. We are a nation at war. We are certain that His Majesty is going to authorize it right away, so why bother?"


    "Because that''s insubordination," Sergei exined as he hissed. "We can send His Majesty a message about this n and if he agrees, then you can now scramble our fleet."


    Kuzov sighed defeatedly. "Fine. Please inform His Majesty right away."


    Just as Sergei was about to reach the phone, it rang suddenly. An iing call from who? He nced at the operator responsible for finding who was calling.


    "It''s from the Embassy of the Deutd Empire, Sir Sergei," the operator said.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Sergei picked up the phone to hear what the ambassador of the Deutd Empire had to say.


    "Mr. Ambassador. How can I help you? As you can see, we are quite busy after the Britannia Empire''s sudden deration of war. So whatever is it that you have to say, make it brief."


    "I''ll make it brief to you, Mr. Sergei. The Prime Minister of the Deutd Empire, His Excellency Erik Jan Hanussen, has issued an official statement of deration of war to the Ruthenia Empire due to the attack made to the Britannia Empire, resulting in the death of the Kaiser and his family," the ambassador of the Deutd Empire announced.


    "Wait…what?" Sergei stammered, scoffing at what he had heard just now. "You are all too reckless with your decision. It''s true our men were there but their sole responsibility lies in the protection of our emperor."


    "Then how will you exin to one of your soldiers who just confessed that your n all along was to harm Her Majesty, Diana Rosemary Edinburgh, and members of the royal family from different countries, including our Kaiser."


    "The man you are referring to is not one of ours. Like why would we wage war against the world? We are not that stupid!" Sergei inadvertently raised his voice, infuriated that there was someone pulling strings behind the scene and implicating the Ruthenia Empire.


    "I have nothing to exin, Mr. Sergei. I have fulfilled my duty of delivering the message of His Excellency, Erik Jan Hanussen. The people of the Deutd Empire willed it."


    The ambassador of the Deutd Empire hung up the phone after saying that. Sergei too, but with a force that almost broke the telephone.


    All the attention of the staff present in the Command Center was suddenly on him, looking at him concernedly. Including the Empress of the Ruthenia Empire.


    "What''s wrong?" Sophie asked, holding her hands nervously.


    "Your Imperial Majesty, we are not only fighting the Britannia Empire. I just got a call from the ambassador of the Deutd Empire saying that they are dering war on the Ruthenia Empire under the same pretense of the Britannia Empire," Sergei shared, and everyone gasped lightly.


    The operator handling all the iing calls in the Command Ops panicked after seeing the monitor screen in front of him receiving calls from different countries.


    "This is madness!" Alexei roared.


    The Austrean Empire, Sardegna Empire, and even their close ally, the Francois Republic. The rest of Europa dered war on the Ruthenia Empire.


    The huge LCD screen mounted on the far wall showed the map of the world. The Ruthenia Empire is marked red while the rest of the countries in the Europa continent were marked blue.


    "This is…" Sophie sat back down in her seat. Her heart raced in a panic, mind filled with confusion.


    "It''s a war against the world," Sergei mouthed, staggering to his feet.


    "Can we even win a war against a coalition of the great powers?" One of the staff asked.


    "There''s only one way to find out," Alexei said, his voice calm, unlike the others. "The Ministry of Defense is created to protect the sovereignty of the Ruthenia Empire and its people from foreign invaders. We will not falter. We will show them how far the military of the Ruthenia Empiree."