2
Far Eastern Russia. More precisely, the Grand Duchy of Far Eastern Russia.
A constitutional monarchy that gained independence from the Russian Republic, one of the constituent countries of the Soviet Union, in the 1950s, with Vladivostok as its capital at the time.
To briefly explain the circumstances of independence, we need to start by explaining that in the Soviet Union, after destroying Imperial Russia, the Red Army carried out great purges, and civil war broke out with the White Army, called the anti-Red Army.
During this time, most of Russia’s nobles belonged to the White Army – even if they didn’t belong to the White Army, they were treated as White Army by the Red Army for being former nobles – but the civil war ended with the Red Army’s victory.
This seemed to have eliminated the nobles, but the nobles had not perished.
Of course, those in major metropolitan areas like Moscow were almost all targets of purges, and social titles like baron or marquis disappeared, but their blood and power survived in the form of “local notables.” This tendency was apparently particularly strong in areas considered countryside, such as Siberia and the Far East region.
So these people, who had been living in fear of the Red Army threat in places considered countryside, had a turning point at one time. That was World War II and the existence of demons summoned at the end of the great war.
The Western European countries that had formed an alliance with the anti-Nazis also became preoccupied with anti-demon activities, and America, which had been providing large quantities of various military supplies like tanks and ammunition through Lend-Lease, also withdrew from Europe.
In addition to this, the Soviet Union, whose military forces had been largely destroyed by the aforementioned demons, had no means to solve the problems of poverty and famine that were erupting domestically and internationally.
It was the former nobles living in the countryside, the nobles who had fled abroad after being expelled from Moscow during the Soviet Union’s founding, and Japan, which was wary of Soviet movements, that moved at this point.
Japan and the Soviet Union had concluded the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, but that was merely a non-aggression pact, not a military alliance or an alliance to strengthen economic ties.
Also, Japan at that time had adopted a constitutional monarchy with even stronger authoritarianism than now, so it was in an incompatible relationship with the Soviet Union, which was essentially a one-party dictatorship by the Federal Communist Party while advocating socialism after overthrowing the imperial system.
In fact, the Soviet Union, together with the Republic of China, cooperated in establishing the Korean Republic, which had strong anti-Japanese sentiment.
In response to these movements, the Japanese government decided that a buffer country between Japan and the Soviet Union was necessary.
The former nobles who were smoldering as local notables in the Far East region of the Russian Republic were chosen for this purpose.
Those who had been nobles during Imperial Russia could regain their former social status – their pride, from their perspective.
Japan could obtain a buffer zone with the Soviet Union, and it would also serve as a check against the Korean Republic and the Republic of China.
With these intentions, Japan, freed from the unreasonable expansion of battle lines during World War II and able to catch its breath, decided to implement a strategy to divide the Russian Republic, the greatest military force within the Soviet Union, as its first move.
Negotiations between both parties proceeded smoothly since both had much to gain, and in just a few years, the Russian Far East region proclaimed itself the Grand Duchy of Far Eastern Russia and achieved independence from the Russian Republic – not the Soviet Union, but specifically the Russian Republic.
Naturally, the Soviet Union opposed this, but they didn’t have the strength to fight the Japanese army, which had maintained its surplus strength and withdrawn after being devastated by demons and demon races a few years earlier. Their ally, the Republic of China, was preparing to invade Southeast Asia and refused to openly cause trouble with Japan at this point.
The Korean Republic was in a semi-civil war state with internal power struggles unresolved, so it couldn’t oppose the Grand Duchy of Far Eastern Russia, which had considerable military strength due to its lineage from the Russian Republic, and had no choice but to tacitly approve that country’s founding.
The Western European countries and America, who might have objected to Japan’s expansion of influence, were too busy fighting demons and demon races, and ultimately the Grand Duchy of Far Eastern Russia achieved independence with the result of no opposition from anyone except the Soviet Union.
However, the location was what it was.
Due to the environment where crops were difficult to grow, Far Eastern Russia initially couldn’t even operate as a nation without support from Japan.
This was improved only after technology developed and the development speed of Siberia and the Far East region increased.
What was fortunate for them was that, for some reason, demon races and monsters didn’t advance into Siberia and the Far East region during the period until development got on track.
Though, there’s a proper reason for this.
The reason was that for the demon races, who had been instructed by demons to moderately corner humans, the Far East region beyond Siberia was not an attractive land.
Therefore, opinions like “Do you want to go to a place colder and more remote than here? I don’t want to” refusing assignments, or “We can leave it alone, right? If we don’t have to annihilate them all, let’s just ignore them” advocating for neglect continued to emerge among demon races, and since these opinions were accepted by other demon races, they ended up being left alone – there’s this rather unlaughable story, but naturally such stories don’t come to light publicly, and it’s concluded simply as “Far Eastern Russia’s good fortune.”
So the Grand Duchy of Far Eastern Russia, which had miraculously become a safe region due to the disconnect between demon races and humans, but that’s now a thing of the past.
Several years after the Korean Republic’s collapse, that land too had come to be threatened by monsters.
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“The collapse of the Korean Republic, plus the fact that development has progressed considerably and the population has increased, probably makes them think it has value. Especially over the past few years, the number of monsters advancing into Far Eastern Russia has been on an increasing trend.”
“I see.”
That’s quite troublesome.
“So, until now we’ve been providing trade… aid mainly in exchange for resources and food, but recently they’ve been wanting weapons in addition to food.”
“Hmm.”
If they’re being attacked by monsters, they’d need weapons to fight.
“And among the companies connected to that country, there are surprisingly few companies that can handle weapons.”
“That would be so.”
Companies can’t just make weapons and scatter them around anywhere. Companies without permission can’t make them.
“Because of that, our company has mainly been providing weapons support to Far Eastern Russia.”
“I see.”
So that’s where the earlier “getting away from the battlefield” comes in.
“Looks like you understand. Until now, I’ve left it to my subordinates because I was busy, but from now on I’ll go there directly to provide aid.”
“I’m the escort, is that it? And incidentally, we’ll conduct field tests locally. That’s this special mission?”
“That’s right. Performance experiments are proper missions. Escort for us sponsors and development supervisors is perfectly fine to treat as special duties. Furthermore, diplomacy is involved. No matter how much the Ministry of Defense is involved, it’s just the Defense Policy Bureau, and within that, it’s not something that can be handled by the peripheral guys in the Operations Policy Division.”
“You seem to have various things built up.”
“Of course! I could predict that the zaibatsu guys would envy me and try to kill me, but for military men – and in a situation where their comrades’ lives are at stake – to pull this kind of petty trick!? I’ve been extorted by those guys before with things like ‘If we don’t approve, you can’t even enter the competition,’ but this isn’t on that level!”
“Ah. So they were saying things like that.”
“You bet!”
That’s exactly the kind of line that petty officials who mistakenly think they have power would say.
If you’re doing business with guys like that, stress would certainly build up.
“So that’s how it is. As for me, I’d like to get proper revenge. …Though I do feel bad that soldiers will die on the battlefield for that purpose.”
“About that, it’s as I said earlier.”
Rather, if we don’t drain the pus now, it’ll be dangerous later.
And more importantly.
TLNOTE:
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