A Royal Beginning [Book 1 of The English Lion]

LXI. Emily

As December rolls into January, Hitler and Nazi Germany have been quite silent in Europe as there seem to be interesting socio-political events that are happening (or have occurred) in Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini. Of course, Alexander was made aware of this.

In terms of the atmosphere here in headquarters, everyone seems to be on edge, to a certain extent, as who knows when the war will become inevitable, not just some far-fetched idea or just a possibility like one would have thought it would be. As I observed the events that happened since the Great Depression, and so far, what had happened in January of 1935... It is safe to assume that I don't need to have a public opinion on what should be done. Violence seems to have slightly increased, both in Europe and in Asia. What had stunned me, and had stunned both Regius Obligatus and Alexander, is the Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935 that happened earlier this month: 7th January of 1935.

According to the Regius Obligatus reports of the Agreement, there were three main agreements:

1/ A small territory in French Somaliland (south of Eritrean Rahayta) was to be given to Italian Eritrea

2/ The village of Aozou and the surrounding strip located in French Africa Chad was to be given to Italian Libya

3/ Italy was to be given a free hand by the French government to occupy Ethiopia

According to Douglas, Alexander was just silent for the whole day, just silent, and he was just concentrating on getting his work done. No comment whatsoever, which was odd, to say the least. He probably have his opinions and comments, but he's keeping it to himself. I wonder why. =

January rolled into February, and everything seems to be normal until the 26th. Valentine's Day is per usual, as with the tradition between Alexander and Isabelle. The 26th of February has - to a certain extent - played a major role in increasing Regius Obligatus's influence across the world, tightening surveillance across the world, and the need to maintain peace for as long as possible as Regius Obligatus prepares for war, and of course, the rest of the world to catch up in the preparedness of war. Hitler - on the 26th of February 1935 - has begun defying the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, beginning with the establishment of the Luftwaffe.

Again, according to Douglas, as this is old news, at least to the Senior Leadership team of Regius Obligatus, King George V and Winston... Since the Night of the Long Knives that occurred the previous year in June, Alexander has begun drawing up plans to infiltrate Nazi Germany's high command and to bring down Hitler from the inside, through politics.

Alexander had argued that he will infiltrate Nazi Germany's high command, as Hitler has seen him as the greatest threat to the Third Reich for reasons only the King, Hugo and Winston knows of. Douglas and I are kept on the outer circle of the planning that goes with this. Alexander has dubbed this operation as the Inner War. Douglas and I only know very little information about it, and Alexander had explained it very carefully: "It is just a matter of national security. Hitler must not know what I am up to. The more people know about the Inner War, the riskier it is for me to carry it out."

Douglas and I had agreed that if he doesn't want to update us in the loop regularly, he has his reasons so we can't probe him why he doesn't want to update us in the loop. It is his decisions after all.