Celestina Shoukan

Chapter 12 - The Request From Selarong

7th September 1523 / 224, A week after Selarong Kingdom reject the demand

"What's happening with the plan?!" came an angry shout.

"Yes... The Imperial Oversight's Army twenty-four ship fleet will depart shortly to administer punishment to Selarong," the aide replied nervously.

The Papaldia Empire's 3rd foreign affairs department was located in a facility outside the palace. Just like Celestina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, these departments were in charge of diplomacy, but in Papaldia the responsibilities were split between four separate departments.

The 1st department was found in the palace and dealt solely with five superpowers in the civilized area. These relationships required the most delicate care, the most scrupulous political decision-making, so only the elites of the elite were assigned here. Next year, they will attend the Eleven Country Leadership Conference as a fixed participant according to the Intelligence from Lyrallei's unit.

Next, the 2nd department was situated outside the palace and handled foreign relations with other countries in the civilized area other than the superpowers. Using their national power as leverage, they pushed forward Papaldia's national interests while pulling back against unreasonable conditions. Because these countries were all backed by other superpowers, they couldn't just recklessly exploit them, so a level of prudence was necessary. This was where the rest of the elites worked.

Next, the 3rd department was in charge of all countries outside the civilized area, also known as the "barbarian countries." They were given leave to apply as much pressure as necessary to squeeze whatever they wanted from these countries. With permission from the imperial oversight army, they were allowed to take punitive action on them whenever necessary. Because there were so many barbarian countries, most of the entire foreign affairs department worked here.

Lastly, the 4th department was in charge of preparing a strategy or known as strategy team and information network. Their team was involved with Rodenius War and also, the ones who offer a strategy to 1st to 3rd department should they doesn't have another plan. The workers at the foreign department are mixed up between 1st to 3rd department due to their main role is to collect information from overseas and devising a strategy for diplomatic relationships outside the Empire.

Celestina already infiltrate the 3rd and 4th department before the Rodenius War started as they successfully obtain evidence of the Papaldia Empire's involvement in the Louria Kingdom before the department scuttle it. If it was by Celestina, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will work together with CIISA (Central Imperial Intelligence Security Agency) to obtain intelligence before sending in diplomats in an attempt to open a diplomatic gate.

The national resource acquisition stratagem being executed behind the scenes in the Kingdom of Louria had failed because the 4th department had moved independently. Because they had invested so many resources into it, they couldn't hide their failure, but all the information was currently still limited to the 3rd and 4th foreign affairs department, so no one else knew about the country of Celestina.

Returning to the previous matter at hand...

About 250km east of the Papaldia Empire, there was an island that looks like a mirror Island. The size was around 180km in length and 60km in width. This was the Kingdom of Selarong. East of Selarong, across the bay, like a mirror, was a slightly larger island the Holy Land of Gahara. Another 650km of Gahara lay the island of Celestina.

As part of the Emperor's national expansion initiative, the 3rd foreign affairs department demanded that a 400 square kilometer area in Selarong to be gifted to Papaldia. That area only contained forests – the 3rd department could gain credit for obtaining land for the initiative; it wasn't being used by Selarong anyway, so it was not a loss for them; it would be an act of loyalty towards Papaldia, so they could turn into a semi-civilized state once Papaldia share some of their technologies; and finally, they would become allied with Papaldia, which, given the power behind their name, would be a large deterrent for any surrounding countries that were thinking of invading them. Papaldia would expand and Selarong would get rich.