5

Scavenged Restoration

Chapter 5

-VB-

Between all manners of bureaucratic nightmares and reforms, I needed to take care of myself. 

This didn't just mean eating well and healthy, exercising regularly, clearing the mind every once in a while so I don't go crazy (very important), continuing to learn, and visiting the doctors to make sure my body worked properly, if not at optimal condition. No, those were mandatory activities once one became a powerful person with consequences. Not doing those would result in their state suffering some kind of consequence as a result. 

Just look at me and the Capellan Confederation. 

Hohiro Kurita and the Draconis Combine. 

But there was one thing Hohiro did better than I did. 

He had kids. 

I am forty years old and I didn't even have a mistress. 

The ten year long house arrest might have put an end to any love interest I might have had before, not that I was a particularly loose man. I mean, despite being me, I've had a few lovers. 

Most of whom Romano killed by arranging accidents, poisoning, or gang rape, which I found out before my house arrest. Kind of why I didn't have someone by my side even before it. 

But the needs of the state kind of demanded that I find someone to have kids with because no one was going to accept any of Candace's children, no matter how loyal and capable they might turn out to be. Just the fact that their mother associated with a Federated Suns spy or that one of their siblings was half-Fed Suns would be enough to put them out of the line of succession.

And any mention from me about even considering any of her children as my successor would be swiftly met with "accidents," no matter how much punishments I would levy upon the transgressors. 

Because they were loyal to the confederation. Their loyalty was above their lives. And the idea of the state's hated enemy rising to become its chancellor? 

Unacceptable. 

Well… 

There wasn't anything I could realistically do about that nor did I want to. 

I understood intellectually that I was a product of the same system that spawned those extremists, but because I loved the confederation just like they did, I understood in my heart that, sometimes… sometimes violence was necessary, even against family. 

Especially when the family became the threat to the state. 

If Candace ever truly turned her back to the confederation, then I would do the deed myself. After that, I would scream and grieve like a madman for however long I can afford to before going right back to the job.

Because that's what it meant to be a ruler. 

The Steiners, Davions, and Mariks might sugercoat their own state-sanctioned fratricides, but they did it because they loved their country just as I loved mine. Oh, I'm sure plenty of them did it to save their own power and skin, but not all of them did it for their own sake. 

The fucking Davions liked weeping about that. Self-righteous pricks…

At least the snakes in the House of Kurita didn't hide it. Most of the time. 

… Or maybe all of that was just me rationalizing to and for myself and others for what was the norm for the Capellan Confederation. 

The latter was more likely than not. 

I sighed as I completed my last set of bicep curls. 

"Chancellor."

I looked up and saw one of the servants standing at the doorway of my personal gym within the Chancellor's Palace. I looked at her and then realized something. 

I knew her. 

She worked in the palace when I was young. 

"Oh my God, Jennifer! You're still around!" I laughed out of surprise. 

She smiled. She knew what I was like. I wasn't going to have her killed because of some reason like dad and littlest sister. 

"It has been a while, Chancellor," she bowed. "I apologize if I haven't met you to reintroduce myself."

"Don't worry about it," I told her as I shook my hand. "I'm sure you've had your own work. But how is the family?"

Her smile became just a little bit … wooden.

Did… something happen?

"My three children are doing well. One of them is actually a mechwarrior now in the CCAF."

"Oohh. Where is he stationed at?" I asked her, noting to remember. 

"He is currently guarding Tikonov."

And just like that, my good mood disappeared. 

After all, Tikonov was … most likely to be lost in the coming war. 

"I see, I see. Does he like it there? Have any girl he's seeing?"

She sighed more genuinely. "No, he has been complaining about that in his letters. Something about how the local girls are not to his taste."

I snorted. "Well, if you want, then I can have him stationed here on Sian."

She blinked. "Y-You would do that, Chancellor?"

"Of course!" 

Jennifer was good to me when I was a child. Treated me better than she had to. If I could save her son from Tikonov's fall by moving him to Sian, then I will. 

"By the way, what brought you here, Jennifer?" I asked her.

"Ah. I almost forgot. Apologies, chancellor, but you have three missives for your perusal. One is from the Minister of Citizens, another from the Ministry of Trade and Exchange, and the last from Grand Master (Gao-shiao-zhang) Yadi."

I blinked. 

Yadi. Or rather, Charles Karl Yadi, son of the late Karl Yaquinto Yadi who was also a Grand Master of the Warrior House Imarra, which represented all of the Warrior Houses.

"Thank you," I told her. "You may leave."

She bowed and left.

I sighed as I leaned back into my workout bench.

'I wanted to train with my new battlemech…' 

It will have to wait, though.

Pleasure and leisure always had to wait. 

-VB-

Rather than a missive, it was rather a request for an audience by Grand Master Yadi to me after he arrived on Sian quietly. 

I granted it, putting in his audience with me right in between economic reform on taxation and trade relations meeting with the Prefecture and the military asset distribution meeting with the newly produced Cataphracts with the Strategios. 

So I came out of the former meeting just a little bit haggard but extremely proud of the fact that I managed to eke out a 0.5% increase of state revenue. It won't start hitting the reserves until next year, but that was enough money to start equipping all regiments spread across the Capellan Confederation with at least a pair of Cataphracts! Of course, I didn't intend to spread them out like that, but that's for the next meeting. 

I sat upon my throne and waited. 

And then the crier spoke up.

"Now entering, the Grand Master of the Capellan Warrior House Orders, Charles Karl Yadi!" 

And then the giant double doors of the throne room groaned open.

I watched as a single man, flanked by two Warrior House mechwarriors and two of my own palace guards, walked in. I knew that he was supposed to be about as old as I was, but man, he looked younger than I did.

At halfway through the throne room, he brought his hands up, clasped them, and gave me a deep bow. 

"Grand Master Charles Karl Yadi greets the Celestial Wisdom!" 

Oh man, he had a great voice, too. The perfect material for a drill sergeant.

"Approach," I told him without raising my voice. But my voice traveled (speech lessons, how I hated thee) through the throne room.

The grand master stood up and approached me until he was just a few meters from the bottom of the staircase leading up to my raised throne. 

"Chancellor, I must apologize for my inability to travel as soon as I could," he began. "But I have arrived. I am ready to accept your orders, Celestial Wisdom."

I looked down at him for a moment. 

Was he testing me? 

The reason why I thought that was because of the manner in which he arrived. Quietly with only a few guards? Speaking of apologies but not asking for forgiveness even as he asked for orders? 

"I forgive you," I said. For now. "Realities on the ground are what they are, and you've made good time as far as I am concerned."

He relaxed. 

… Oh, did he think I was Maximilian Liao ver. 2? 

… I mean, it's my dad we're thinking of here but I'm slightly offended on behalf of my dad and myself. My dad might have been insane but at the very least he was efficient about it. 

And all I've done was get locked up for a decade. Actually, a decade of house arrest can drive someone insane, so maybe he wasn't wrong to probe me as gently and subtly as he thought he was being. 

As for orders…

Well, I had an idea of how to use them, but it was going to cost them a lot. In fact, I was wary about issuing this order because the Warrior Houses represented the second most elite branch of the military; the foremost elite branch was the Death Commandos, of course. 

"Guards. Leave us."

Even the Grand Master's guards left at my command.

"Come closer, Grand Master Yadi."

He did, coming right up to the bottom step of the short staircase. 

"Chancellor?"

"... I have confirmed intel regarding our neighbors," I said quietly. "The Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns are going to make their alliance ironclad."

It took the Grand Master a moment to realize what I was getting at. Alliances between Successor States was not a long term thing. In fact, such an idea was anathema to how the Inner Sphere operated. Hell, even the Kapteyn Accords was seen by all of its member states as being temporary at best, especially since our confederation and the League still raided each other despite being "allies."

For an alliance between successor states to become ironclad, there was only one way. 

Marriage. 

"Melissa Steiner and who?"

"The First Prince himself."

The grand master grimaced. "This is bad."

"It is. Worse, their jumpships have been frequently moving back and forth across the territory. From the periphery to the core and back. Full and then empty."

He froze.

"... They are amassing their forces."

I nodded. 

"Even if I were to deploy 40 of the 45 regiments available to us, I do not see how we can stop them from overrunning whichever commonality they chose to attack, and I believe they will strike at Tikonov Commonality to bridge their two states together."

"... You wish the Warrior Houses to station ourselves at Tikonov?"

"No. God no. I can't afford to lose you like that."

He took a deep breath in. "I see. Then the Capella Commonality."

"Yes," I confirmed. "But deployments must begin at Tikonov Commonality. And so this is my order to you and the rest of the Warrior Houses, Grand Master Yadi."

"I am ready to receive them."

This time, I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. 

"You and the rest of the Warrior Houses must spread out across both Tikonov and Capella Commonality. Train the local militia and garrisoning regiments to the best of your abilities. Slow down the invaders when they inevitably invade us in the future. But never allow yourself to die for something we will lose anyway. Your survival is more important to the state than a world where we barely get manpower and tax. Understood?"

He saluted. "As you will it, Celestial Wisdom!" 

"Good." I paused. "Well, now I have to get to a meeting with the Strategios. Are you interested in joining me?"

"I would be glad to, Your Grace."

-VB-

A/N: there is barely a year left before the Fourth Succession War breaks out, but William is trying his goddamn best to bring up the CCAF's experience and skill up to speed. First, it was by making sure mercenaries working for him had every reason to continue working for him. Second, by spreading his elites to train the rest of the country before amassing them again once the war began. Unfortunately, eight month is barely enough for anyone to be trained up significantly. Whether this will have a significant impact on the war effort is up for you lot to discuss