Code Antony

The Chosen One Arrives

Lepidov was quick to reach the Palace emergency lines, which only Kaiser and his inner circle had exclusive access. He contacted the Russian government at Tokyo.

"Governor! How are you?"

"Deputy Dictator! I didn't expect an urgent communication with you!"

"Oh, please. Don't call me that anymore, with our glorious dictator passing."

"I apologize, sir."

"Well then, let's get to business. Get me Kaiser's nephew Octavian."

"Oh, sir!"

"What is it?"

"Octavian is not in Tokyo. He is currently taking studies at Osaka."

"Then connect me to Osaka ASAP!"

Silence followed as Lepidov waited for the Russian embassy to complete the necessary arrangements. Meanwhile, Antony has proposed the most uncanny resolution to the Senate.

Senator Ludwig Cinna stood up and remarked, "Truly we are being presided by a madman! Who would grant pardon to his master's enemies?"

"I am not mad, my friends," Antony responded with unexpected candor, "Rather, why bring down the hammer of justice in our own hands? We are different from those we oppose. Where they are destined for, who are we to judge?"

"Liar! Deceiver!", Cinna declared, "Why hide from us the true intentions of you damned Populists?! Let the matter be handled democratically!"

"The Senate is not the sole government body in our noble government. If we take it all now, the foundations of our Republic will die in haste. The Senate will soon turn into a dictator it earnestly succeeded to decimate!"

"Alright, oh-so-great Antony!", Cinna said while bobbing his head side by side, "Let us pretend I'm not an informed senator for a second... Give me the reason behind the pardon."

"With pleasure, honorable Cinna," Antony began with a bow.

He then arose and continued his answer, "As I said, we are different from those we oppose. If we execute them now, the people will think we are bound for revenge. This will give the Liberators ample reason to shift public support to their advantage. Our motto is SPQR... Senatus Populusque Rus. If we do not keep up with our creed, what is there to defend?"

SPQR is a simplified abbreviation which stands for the "Senate and People of Russia", a motto which has been in use since the Republic's first days.

One senator shouted from the back, "On point!"

Then, murmuring reigned in the hall once more, with Cinna being forced to sit down and talk with senators nearby. Antony retreated from the center of the hall to the podium, wearing a thin smile as he waited for the outcome of his proposal. Meanwhile, the embassy has connected to the mayor of Osaka.

"Yes, sir. The dictator's nephew is currently in the university. Shall I take him in custody?"

"No, no. The child would think we're abducting him. Be nice. Make him think he's getting a day off from school... Though it might be for an indefinite period."

"What do you mean, sir?"

"You'll know soon enough. What's important is to send him to Moscovia as soon as possible."

"Shall we arrange an escort, sir?"

"Why, of course! Give him all you've got in Osaka!"

"Understood."

The mayor got up and went to Osaka University at haste, bringing with him an escort that may well occupy four vehicle lanes. Complete with police mobiles and motorcycles, as well as a fleet of black vans (with most of them aimed to be decoys only), it seemed far from what his orders implied. At the least, they kept their sirens off as they go, a practice also observed by the late dictator.

The guard stopped the mayor with his baton, "Mayor Hashimoto, classes are ongoing."

"Move aside. We're on urgent and official business."

"No, sir. I'll have to confirm this with the university president."

"I simply don't have time for this!", the mayor said loudly as he motioned his hand to the Osaka Chief of Police. He whispered to his ear and the chief nodded.

Soon enough, the university was flooded with policemen, rushing towards the college buildings.

"Sir, I protest!", the guard managed to utter while he was cornered by three of the policemen.

"Man, you have to understand. The republic is in crisis now," one policeman told him.

"What crisis? I didn't hear..."

"Lord Kaiser is dead!"

Silence came as if something struck their tongues to speak any further on the matter. They waited at the gates, and minutes later, a jolly 19-year old student emerged with the mayor, the chief of police, and their armed entourage. The student turns out to be Octavian himself. They were quick to bring him to the Kansai Airport, where the charge for Octavian's transportation was carried over to the Russian security agency Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB). Kaiser himself organized the KGB as his elite guard in 1954 (the time he became dictator), but only a few of them were with him during the fateful day of his assassination, and none of them were able to intervene to the incident.

Lepidov returns to the conference hall where he finds Antony waiting by the podium. He whispers that Octavian has been secured and is on his way to Moscovia. With this news, Antony walked forward a few steps, raised his hands, and shouted, "My friends!"

With his voice thundering through the hall, the Senate falls quiet. Antony then spoke, "Has the noble Senate reached a decision?"

Cinna thought to himself, "If the Liberators live, but their support in the capital was dissolved, they might get the chance to raise an army outside Moscovia. In that case..."

One senator budged Cinna, as he is the main opponent of Antony's current proposal.

"Yes," Cinna finally answered, "I've no more questions to the resolution. I'll let it pass."

"I see," Antony said, "how about the rest of the senators?"

Voting ended quickly as most of the senators approved Antony's proposal to let the Liberators free. The Senate adjusted additional matters including the schedule of the special sessions, since that year was not supposed to be a regular session year with a dictator in position. As the day ends, so did the Senate session in Kaiser's Palace. Antony and Lepidov remained, as well as Populist leaders of the Senate.

"Are you sure about this, Antony? Let an inexperienced teenager handle all of Master Kaiser's fortune?"

"Even after death, I can't let Master Kaiser's will go unfulfilled..."

"What about you, Sir Antony, and Deputy Dictator Lepidov?"

Antony looked towards Lepidov, and the latter responded with a laugh, "We're still here, aren't we?"

Antony followed up, "That's a simple way to put it, really."

"What do you two mean?"

"I admit, I'm disappointed because neither of us were in our master's will, but what else can we do? Rather than think on what the dead might have done, we should just act on what the living can still do now. I believe that Kaiser's will go beyond these documents, and we'll carry them out as much as possible... until we achieve the will that shall bless this world with peace."

The following morning, the chosen one arrives. Octavian has come to Moscovia, and with his arrival, the will of the late dictator finally began to move. However, as it attempts to uphold his controversial legacy, where shall this take the Russian Republic?