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Is the continent where Germany is located called Europe?
"Yes."
"So, does Germany border your Russia, that is, the Soviet Union?"
"No."
"Ahem... Between Germany and the Soviet Union... was there a country called Poland?"
"Yes."
No one in the meeting room knew what expression to make. Weren't there just too many coincidences?
……
“Alright then.” With that, Caronville opened the cloth bag and unfurled the Union Jack that had been sent from District 45.
Does a country called Britain exist in your world?
“Yes.” Davis hesitated for a moment.
"So, is this the flag of Britain, or rather, the United Kingdom?"
"Yes."
Is the continent where Britain is located called Europe?
"Yes."
"Is the capital of the United Kingdom called London?"
"Yes."
Is the mainland of Britain called Great Britain Island?
"Yes."
……
"No way! This... there really is a country called Britain here, and it's located on the British Isles?"
……
"How do you usually refer to the country of Britain?"
"Britain, Great Britain, the British Empire, the empire on which the sun never sets, and so on and so forth."
"Wait a minute? The sun never sets? What does that mean?"
"If you pick any hour in the 24 hours of your local area, there will always be a British colony with the sun shining over it. Its territory is all over the world, that's how it is."
"W-what?!" The roommates exchanged bewildered glances. "Same bloodline from the British Isles, same masters of the same world?!"
……
"Well, you mentioned your world war before." Caronville frowned, unsure of what to ask. "What aspects of the world war did your country participate in? Tell me as much as you can."
"We're divided into two sides. On our side, the United States, stand the Soviet Union, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and China; on the other side, there are Germany, Italy, Japan, Austria, and so on. The rest of the countries are too small for me to remember."
"You just mentioned Japan? Then I'd like to ask, who started this war?"
“Japan attacked China first, then Germany attacked Poland, France and the Soviet Union, and then Japan attacked us.”
"No way, this can't be possible!" The conference room fell silent, filled only with a group of people shaking their heads and muttering to themselves. "How could these countries exist there? And what's going on with Japan?..."
……
“Alright, I have two last questions.” Caronville took out a map of their world from his bag. “Is the distribution of your world’s continents the same as on this map?”
"Geographical distribution? Hmm, they're probably exactly the same."
"Good, very good, Sergeant. Now answer me a question, one that I've been keeping in mind for a long time: When you were captured by us in Berlin, why didn't you name the British and French?"
"First of all, when I was about to bring up those two words, I said, 'Apart from the United States and the Soviet Union, other countries basically have no power in Berlin,' but you shut me up. Secondly, the area outside Berlin is all territory that the Soviet Union had partitioned Germany into. Whether it's us Americans, the British, or even the three countries that occupy Berlin, if we were to devote all our efforts to dealing with this behemoth in the east, we wouldn't dare say we could win. As for you, I was very upfront about it back then. I was even mentally prepared for Soviet tanks to drive into your city hall. At that time, I really had no confidence whatsoever in your ability to defeat the Soviet Union."
This disdainful remark did not elicit any ridicule in the meeting room.
One of the barons, upon hearing this, looked on with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. He then glanced at Admiral Windsor, who had just returned from reporting to his post in District 45, and saw him looking at him with a serious expression. He then quietly made a "200" gesture with both hands.
The Baron subconsciously added the letter "k" to the end of "200"—200k, two hundred thousand. This was a rather heavy number that the Britannian expeditionary force from District 45 had sent back in just under two months. What did it represent? It goes without saying.
"That's enough for now, Lieutenant Colonel Caronville..."
……
Now, most of the people in the conference room have left, leaving only Schneizel with a few generals and officers, watching everything on the big screen.
"Elizabeth, you've seen the entire interrogation, haven't you?"
“I understand, brother…” She sat in front of the screen, dumbfounded, holding her younger brother beside her. Her eyes were lifeless, as if her brain had just fallen into an endless hell and then been pulled out, traveling through a world of madness and screams of the dead, turning into chaos and returning to her body. This had left the young girl with no more of a lively voice.
"Sister? What's wrong with you?"
“I’m fine…I’m fine…” Elizabeth shook her head mechanically. “Brother, what should we do now…”
"You've already told me that the expeditionary force is completely submerged in the terrible flood brought by that Union Jack, right? I'm sorry, but here in Area 11, this matter has spread like an out-of-control virus. All the officials, nobles, officers, and soldiers know about it, and even the Empire itself is starting to clamor about what's going on with that Union Jack... The only good thing right now is that this matter hasn't reached the common people yet, otherwise the country would definitely collapse in terms of public opinion..."
“I know what you mean. When we invaded District 45, we treated them just like the people of District 11, like cattle and sheep in our circle. But now, brother, the Union Jack is right in front of us. Does that mean that the flag of our ancestors from over two hundred years ago has become our enemy? A lowly race in our circle? And this so-called America, they were actually founded by that bandit leader Washington? The exact same name? How can we explain this to our warriors?”
"There is only one Britain in the world. Wherever it is, the existence of anything that turns its back on it or opposes it is irrational. Do you understand what I mean?"
"This may be our only option. Sector 45 has finally seen a turning point in the war, and if we now have to let the warriors of the expeditionary force swallow their anger and return home, I'm afraid..."
"Moreover," Schneizel coughed, "it's impossible for us to sow discord between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain. The expeditionary force must be resentful about that Union Jack right now, right? If we don't first make our presence known, the impact on morale will be enormous. It will only be a very short time before the enemy learns of us because we attacked British warships."
"We can't expect the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the expeditionary force to keep the truth hidden forever... It's time to open the dam gates. I understand, Your Majesty..."
Chapter 173, Section 236: Bu Wu in 1945, The Dark Sky of the World
The absence of annoying propeller birds flying around in the sky has given Berlin a moment of peace and quiet.
On the site of the shattered Victory Column, a towering iron tower, flashing a red warning light, now stands tall, its slender antenna piercing the pale morning clouds. Even the sun lingers on the horizon for a few moments before rising again later in the evening.
"Alright, the radio tower is finally finished. Her Highness really went to great lengths, even going out of her way to build this thing. Actually, I was thinking of complaining about why their world doesn't even have a television yet..."
Two officers, a man and a woman, sat side by side on the windowsill of the Capitol Building, quietly watching the morning sunlight fall on the cold steel frame of the Eiffel Tower, which emitted a chilling, eerie light.
"After all, it's always better to let as many people as possible hear about a declaration of war. Not just the entire expeditionary force, but also the enemy more than 100 kilometers away, and even cities and capitals hundreds of kilometers away. It would be too tragic if civilians and military officers alike were to go to war without ever hearing about it."
"A hundred kilometers away, hahaha." The boy laughed, calling the girl by her nickname, "Speaking of which, Little Nie, is this Area 45, England, also on the island of Great Britain? Just a few hundred kilometers away? Geographically the same, so what's their history like ours?"
"Well, wasn't there a second part to the live broadcast where we questioned that American from Area 45? That American soldier said that the British here are much better than us... well, not really."
“Tell me about it? They have ‘North American Rebellion’ and George Washington here too, don’t they?”
"Yes, but... first of all, their rebellion was renamed the 'American Revolutionary War,' and Washington was the Founding Father of the United States. After that, he led this country, which used stars and red stripes as its flag, to independence in North America. Then, Canada and Mexico, although not U.S. territory, were also independent of their European masters."
“I understand. If they couldn’t even control North America, how did they manage to survive on the island of Great Britain?”
"Trafalgar. He said the British won the Battle of Trafalgar."
"Hmm?" He touched the girl's forehead, then his own. "You don't have a fever, do you? I thought there was no Trafalgar here."
"Why would I lie to you, you idiot? Don't you know how the British here, and their Royal Navy, held the English Channel and defended against the French... Oh right, back then the British also had a rival named Napoleon, but there was no Elizabeth III on the island of Britain..."
"Well, so when you calculate it that way, I don't know if they're doing better or worse than us."
"Since they are both pivotal figures in the world, I think they are roughly equal. Besides, Britain and the United States, two countries that can control everything, are now in cahoots. If we add the Soviet Union to that list..."
As they were talking, Elizabeth and Kelly, accompanied by several generals, slowly approached from the passageway next to them.
"Your Highness!" The boy and girl quickly turned around and saluted, their lips slightly curled up, their excitement overflowing.
Elizabeth, looking equally hopeful, unexpectedly approached, slightly adjusted the girl's hat, gently flicked her cheek with her finger, then patted the boy's shoulder a few times before heading upstairs.
……
On the rooftop of the Capitol Building stood a statue on the central axis. By this time, the statue had long since been uprooted and thrown off the building by Britannian soldiers after days of Soviet air raids. Now, the statue's base was left empty and had been set up as Elizabeth's lectern.
Under the tranquil sky, soldiers and officers gathered in greater numbers in front of the Capitol, and the piercing radio waves traveled far away with the slight vibrations of the radio tower.
……
Today is December 1945, 12.
Nearly 30 kilometers north of Frankfurt, in the town of Bad Nauheim, where the US military is stationed, a military train slowly pulled up to the platform of the train station.
"Hey! Buddy! The chauffeur's here!" A soldier dressed as a pilot jumped off the train first, and then a guy sitting in the driver's seat of a jeep on the side of the road greeted him.
"Sergeant Jonathan Campbell. How's Christmas going, buddy? How was it on the Russian side?"
"Not so good, brother. Surviving in the air is much harder than on the ground," the pilot said, glancing at a large bird with a propeller on its head on a train carriage behind them, its canvas being removed.
"Go up in the sky above the Russian soldiers and fight a bunch of bastards of unknown origin. Then I got my fuel tank punctured. If it weren't for the lack of woods during the forced landing and the fact that these gentlemen were talking nicely to those Russians, Mustang and the others might not have come back. As for me? I'd probably either have to RIP on the spot or sit under that sickle and hammer for a while."
"Maybe it's not that bad, is it?"
"What do you mean, Pat?" Jonathan asked the private sitting next to him in the back seat.
"If I remember correctly, it was the Russians who asked us to send our army aviation guys to them. So, it's probably because those Russians wanted to curry favor with us and let us have this opportunity."
"Well, no matter what, it's a good thing, it's a good thing. We can be the big brothers too."
Just as the jeep was about to start and speed away, the three people in the car noticed that the soldiers on the roadside had suddenly put down what they were doing and were heading in the same direction, and the word "radio" could be heard in their conversation.
"W-what's wrong?" The three of them got out of the car instinctively. In the house that everyone was rushing towards, Karl squeezed out and ran towards him.
"What's wrong, Corporal?"
“Sir…can you believe it? Those punks who came out of Berlin two months ago have revealed their identities themselves.”
……
"To those who are dying, desperate, and on the verge of death, I am honored that you, the people of this world who stand in front of radio stations, can still hear my voice in the days before your human rights are taken away."
"Two months have passed. You may still be weeping for your compatriots who died in Berlin, or you may still be in some house praying that the calamity of war will not befall you again. Now, from this moment on, any beautiful dreams or fantasies you have for the future will turn to dust because of our arrival. Don't even think about picking them up again."
"You are now doing what you are doing, being shocked by our identity in fear and the unknown? Listen carefully, Schein. We come from Berlin, from another world connected to your Berlin. We are called the Holy Britannian Empire. We come from a sacred land that you have never set foot in."
"That's right. Two months ago, your comrades in Berlin died under our advance. The fact that your world has become even more devastated since then is our doing. Soviets, look at the corpses and remains scattered around Berlin? Americans, think about those green helmets you have nowhere to hide? If we were to put your dead bodies in the Berlin River, perhaps looking north, the shores of the Baltic Sea would be stained red with the blood of these ignorant fools who tried to stop us."
"Perhaps you still have doubts about our names? I know, of course, that your poor world also has a country that can call itself Britannia, Britain, or, fortunate enough to share the name England with us. Is this a coincidence? If a commoner and royalty share the same surname, does the commoner deserve a noble status?"
"There is only one Britain in the world, and we are the true heirs. Your so-called empire on which the sun never sets is nothing but a cow left to be slaughtered on the British Isles; your so-called United States standing on the American continent is nothing but the remnant of rebellious offspring; and the Soviet Union, shivering in the Siberian cold wind with its red flag flying high, perhaps out of pity I will return the guns and tanks you left behind on the outskirts of Berlin to use for you to start a fire and keep warm in this terrible winter, and to wear clothes stripped from corpses? Reflect on the dirty red stars scattered on the west bank of the Oder River, the sickle and hammer deformed by the flames spewing from the tanks, were you born in Siberia, yet do you not know how to define the coldness of death?"
"Many days ago, Britain also abandoned the opportunity to coexist peacefully with us, insisting on taking up arms against our army. Perhaps you are indeed a group of people who would rather die than understand that the price of peace is actually very cheap? No matter how your names are written, no matter which town you were born in, no matter which pale and powerless flag you stood under, you fools who swore to block the Holy Britannian Empire have already sent yourselves into an inescapable hell from which you can never rise again."
"Look up at your skies, in the brilliant sunlight of this sunrise. Russians, do you see our Britannian flag and military might flying across the river? Americans, British, and Frenchmen huddled in Paris, hundreds of kilometers away, do you see the shadow of the Britannian Empire soaring under the sun? And stop your trembling breaths, can you hear Britannia's unparalleled zeal for destruction?"
……
Berlin, under Elizabeth's resounding voice, transformed into a raging, frenzied sea of passion. Soldiers stood beneath their flags, their spirited roars echoing through every city street, pouring into the city center, and surging up to the ambitious young woman atop the Reichstag building.
The sky seemed to be overflowing with the blue and purple of the national flag, and even the shattered white clouds were torn into lions and snakes in this unparalleled fighting spirit—this is the coat of arms of Britannia, and everything under this sky will belong to them, and everything will bow down in the shadow of the Britannian flag that blots out the sun.
“Let us wait and see, warriors of the Empire!” Elizabeth stretched out her hand and raised it in front of her.
"I want to hear the triggers of your weapons roar in your strong hands, I want to hear your tanks and KMFs awaken before your upright chests! Today, from this moment on! Let us prepare to look forward to tomorrow with the triumphant song! We will make the stubborn resisters hiding in sandbag trenches raise their hands! We will make the stubborn resisters hiding in fortifications throw out their weapons! We will make the stubborn resisters cowering in their homelands raise their ridiculous white flags! The ignorant, the stubborn, the abandoned by the times, will finally understand before the boundless Britannian army that this world called District 45 will ultimately be ruled by us!"
"All Hail Britannia!—"
……
Inside the train station, no one uttered a sound; the radio went silent, and everyone continued quietly doing their own thing.
"Sergeant?"
“Hmm?” Jonathan looked at Carl.
"You bit your lip until it bled again because you were so angry?"
"Ah, cough... I... are you all ready?"
"Purge the new bastards? Okay, maybe it'll be a tough job, but what did you expect us to be sleeping with guns under our heads for two months?"
……
Meanwhile, in Hanover, a C-47 transport plane took Eisenhower to a building in the city, where he met an old man wearing a black beret.
“OK, Monty, you heard that speech on the radio from Berlin, didn’t you?”
“Hmm, they haven’t missed a single one.” Montgomery chuckled softly. “It seems these extraterrestrial visitors’ enthusiasm for replaying the recording on such a large scale is far greater than their enthusiasm for learning how the Germans bombed London? They’ve played it at least four or five times since this morning, and the gentlemen have almost memorized every single word the girl said.”
"Have these people's identities been confirmed?"