1815
"What are you thinking, son?" The new monarch of the former Spanish colonies asked as he also looked up.
"Nothing… nothing at all." Felipe, only five years old, smiled while looking at the starry night.
There is almost zero pollution. That is why the clear sky was nearly as bright as day; he could easily see the features on his father's face; it was a new moon, so the only light was from the countless stars from the milky way.
The sky looks like it has been tainted by Michelangelo in the 16th Chapel, though this time with more detail and more beauty, painted by God just for humanity to wonder and gaze upon it.
"... We just spent a fortune in weapons and shipped to this gamble," Luciano said as he sat beside his minor child, covered in a warm blanket. They are now on a long trip from Nova Scotia to the British Virgin Islands, where they will land in South America.
Felipe smiled as he felt like the luckiest person in the world; for once, he was reincarnated in a world from which he knew quite a lot. The latter and most important was his father, who had helped him since the very moment he remembered.
Who in the right mind would buy French learning books for a 2-year-old? Who in the right mind would listen to 2-5 years old on how they should spend their entire family's fortune to the winning or losing of Napoleon?
And especially, who in their right mind would trust the words of a freedom-stricken general that decided to liberate his own land to give them the crown of such land after a few months of conquering?
They have yet to determine whether Bolivar has entirely successfully landed in Caracas and whether he has successfully taken over the people there or not, as there are a few weeks for the travel of information between countries. They decided to take on the voyage as Felipe had convinced his father to wing it.
"It is not a gambling father; it is written in the stars, Bolivar will win. The gamble is to whether he will give us the imperial crown." Felipe explained with a smile. It was indeed a fact that Bolivar would liberate Venezuela First, then Colombia, then Peru and all the way to Bolivia.
But, it is also well known that he cursed Napoleon when he made himself emperor as he had a very romantic mindset of liberty and republicanism. Not a king.
"A gamble, it's a gamble nonetheless."
"Worry not, Father, even if Bolivar betrays us, it will not be in his interest to capture or kill us." Felipe leaned on his father while shivering; the blanket protecting him from the cold winds was not enough.
"… Why is that?"
"We are an imperial family of the Roman Empire; we might not have influence, but the fact of him betraying an imperial family of Europe and stealing their whole investment into his war will not make anyone in Europe happy; he will lack the recognition of being an actual nation, they will be just rogue colonies." Felipe closed his eyes as he felt safe around the person who had cared for him for the past 5 years and had come to view him as his real father.
"…" Luciano smiled at his son's innocence.
"The only thing we might lose in this endeavour is money," Felipe murmured while his tiny body was physically running out of energy.
"Only money?" Luciano's eyebrow twitched as he heard his son, confirming that he had spoiled his child way too much.
"Don't worry, Father. I can make enough money to buy our entry to heaven." Felipe has been using God as a pretext ever since he tried to find any excuse for his knowledge; he has spoken his name in vane, and he has told lies on which only his understanding of his future cant prevent them from falling like a house of cards.
"…" Luciano smiled bitterly, he never thought of ambition and glory, but his son would treat such things so casually.
'Sofia, if you can hear me, I just want you to know that our son is more than okay. He has more ambitions than Napoleon himself. You were right; he is indeed special. I wonder if he is my son or the holy spirit's.' Luciano laughed in his head as he gazed upon the Milky Way.
The milky way being naturally white, Luciano looked at it as if it was the gates to heaven, as if Saint Peter was there and you could see him if you had a telescope big enough.
'I wish you were here to see his rise and success, for you to be proud alongside me.'
In between the massive noise of the wood of the mast creaking and the water being split by the large wooden ship, Luciano could hear Felipe's abnormal breathing as he fell asleep.
The British have decided to settle their debt with the Aragon Family, at least most of it with a contract to provide weapons to the Aragon Family. They have also decided to offer loans to the Aragon Family based on their accumulated war bonds.
Luciano remembered how he negotiated all those deals and all the conditions and how everything he said in front of English Gentlemen was conjured by Felipe himself. Unannounced to him, Luciano's act of waiting a day to see over the new contracts would pressure the English government to accept them very favourably to the Aragon Family. Still, in reality, he was checking in with his son.
They made a mortgage, but instead of a house, a car or land, they took a mortgage to fund an entire independent war in South America.
On the one hand, Europe has just gone through one of the most disastrous wars in its history. The United Kingdom was doing everything possible to contain the Republican sentiments that the French Revolution had spread across Europe. At the same time, they pushed the walls of their empire.
So, maintaining the Spanish Empire's status quo was in the United Kingdom's best interest. Still, liquidating a massive amount of war bonds, the creation of influence, bank loans, and the war industry in South America appealed to a declining country that had lost its trading partners. As extended South America Remains a Spanish Colony, they will only trade with Spain.
So just like that, the UK has gone from Enemies with Spain in the per-Napoleonic era to allies during the Napoleonic era and back to Enemies in the post-Napoleonic period; there are no eternal enemies or eternal allies. There are only eternal interests.
The UK has tried to exert influence in the South American Colonies for ages; one of the biggest failures of the British Navy would be the battle for the liberation of Argentina, where they claimed to save them from the oppressive Spaniards, but they have just changed administration. In such war, entire towns would walk through deep mud to bring armies to slaughter British soldiers. The first case would be capturing a ship while being mounted on a horse on an active battlefield.
In other words, the weapon technology of already European colonies was too much of a liability and risk. That is why they decided to try and use financial ways to exert influence. But they didn't expect the Aragon Family to see their fortune grow so huge that they didn't have a problem paying their payments and interests.
Luciano looked at the sky and saw how the painting made by God was being covered by dark clouds in the distance.
"Sigh… time to get in." Luciano slowly picked his son up and slowly brought him inside the interior of the ship; it was practically a private ship as they had paid handsomely to the Hutson Bay Company to let them go on one of their forceful trips to the Caribbean that England had made them do to make way for them to arrive to South America.
--
A few hours later.
Felipe suddenly woke up as he heard shouting of everyone and the sudden increase of side-to-side movement of the ship. They were in a storm, a big one at that.
Felipe balanced himself out as he slowly made it outside, where he had just found his father already out looking for him.
"What is it?" Felipe asked in his faint voice.
"A huge storm," Luciano said as he took his child back to the room from when he came out; he is only 5 years old, and a boulder rolling around would severely injure Felipe.
'Oh god, I better not die here today… What I was thinking, cruising the Caribbean in the winter months; I thought hurricanes were only bad in the future.' He worried as he let Luciano feel like he was protecting him, but Felipe knew that if things worsened, they would be sleeping with the bottom fishes.
Pah pah pah.
The sound of wood snapping in thousands of little pieces traveled across the ship—the mast snapped.
And so when it fell, it landed right above where they are; the sound was indistinguishable, but what gave it away was the roof cracked in the form of a long pole. Still, the ceiling did not give up and sustained the little bit of structural integrity it had left.