The Harvest of Souls

CHAPTER 18

ASTURIAN ISLAND
08.01.8462 - 11:30 PM

Sitting in one of the rooms of the Manor, the television connected to Royal TV, Vaughan and Richard waited apprehensively as to what Charlotte's reaction would be. Their communicators received minutes before the official message from the World Government, informing them that an urgent broadcast would be transmitted.

At exactly 11:30 pm Ástur time, Charlotte's face appeared on billions of screens around the world.

"Dear citizens, good morning, good afternoon, good night," Charlotte began, her voice firm and serious. The Camera was firmly positioned, centering Charlotte's alert face and the family portrait behind. "I'm sorry to bother you during your duties. As everyone knows, we wiped violence from our globe. We do not tolerate fights, disaffection, prejudice, or aggression. We managed to raise the whole globe to the same level of equality and development," Charlotte pronounced the false phrase as calmly as possible. "We created the Career Steps, we created a worldwide and well-distributed tax collection, we can say that finally the being is born equal. The new generation that listens to me had the same opportunities. It doesn't matter if we're talking about a child born in Bruvno, Chimutanda, Shimosuwa, Vierzon, Amandola, Provo, Wurtzburgo, Arkadia, Oberá, Winnitoba, or Weinan. They all had the same educational standard, the same opportunities, and the possibility to climb all the Career Steps. This sense of equality, in addition to the strong collaborative sense developed by a World Government, has finally made us understand and respect the choices of others," Charlotte paused. The Supersovereign Queen looked directly at the camera and then continued: "It made us fairer, equalized and above all: made us give real importance to life. We went through dark moments in the past, where life was not valued enough and worse: we felt we had the right to judge which life was more important than the other," Charlotte paused and faced the camera again as she took a breath. "Those days have finally come to an end, our violence rates have plummeted, and development rates have grown, our mutual respect reigned. For decades, my dears, our armed forces, and our police serve only as a reminder of what the past has forced us to do. Almost two centuries ago, we began to organize ourselves for what we consolidate today. Unfortunately, we have gone through a three-year war in these last two centuries of development and unification. A war whose enemies discredited us and attacked us, it was a short but devastating war, and we dare to call this the Last War, in the certainty that new ones will never arrive. The first two decades after the Last War were arduous. Ungrateful and selfish nations broke our built stability, but we managed to return to our initial project with great determination, and it was fully in force until today. My dear citizens, I am sorry to inform you that something is shaking our structures. In the past, murder wouldn't even be a reason for a newspaper, but today, a murder makes me address an entire planet."

Inside the Royal Airplane of Arkadia, Fernanda gently placed a glass of water on the coffee table. Charlotte took the sip and drank some of the water.

"Something strange has occurred to us, and I have to inform you, as well as is your duty to watch over us and assist us in understanding these events. One of the junior representatives of Asturias, Jean Andrulis Van der Veen, is missing, as is a chief representative Oswaldo de la Fontaine, also from Asturias. I have just received the sad news that Marlena Patrícia Arruda, who had just joined the CriSPe Institute, was murdered just now inside the walls of the Institute. I now turn to Marlena's family," Charlotte's fixed eyes, on the camera, got teary. "I'm really, really sorry for what happened, I work tirelessly to prevent this kind of sorrowful event, and now, I feel like I've failed, I've failed you, I've failed terribly, and there's nothing I can do to reverse this situation, a horrible circumstance for the whole world, for me, and above all, something that must be unbearable for you," Charlotte stammered, her tear-filled eyes staring at the camera steadily until she calmly blinked. "Dear citizens, something is haunting Asturias. My government will take control of the lands of Asturias, and its King: Richard Saint James will be temporarily removed," Charlotte purposely failed to mention Richard's middle name: Herrscher. "We will carry out deep searches throughout the entire Asturian territory, continental, and its archipelagos. At this moment, I order that the Purple Security Alert must be adopted at all borders."