A Call from Kin

Following the demise of the United States, the global situation generally became much less chaotic. Because basically most nations could claim a share of the spoils, this also allowed the citizens of many countries to hold a slight sense of expectation, feeling that at least their future held hope.

Yet this did not apply to all countries. Some nations still languished in the depths of water and fire, and the situation in certain regions remained mired in chaos or even warfare.

What this referred to was neither Germany, which had already grown accustomed to chaos, nor Russia, whose economy and industry were still collapsing, but rather Portugal, a country lacking any significant presence in Europe and gradually being marginalized.

Why mention Portugal in particular? This nation represented a relatively typical example in Europe of a country transitioning from a monarchy to a republic.

Even more worth mentioning was that Portugal's final dynasty happened to be the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the illustrious family to which Arthur belonged.

Tracing back even further, the downfall of the Kingdom of Portugal also involved Australasia. It was precisely because of that disastrous defeat in the war against Australasia, compounded by the abysmal governance of the then Portuguese King Carlos I, that the Portuguese populace grew thoroughly dissatisfied with royal rule, subsequently igniting a revolution that directly buried the kingdom.

Naturally, with more than twenty years having passed, Arthur had long since forgotten about this small-scale war, and the Portuguese people harbored no deep-seated grudges either.

Yet the current condition of the Portuguese people was far from favorable. The economic crisis had dealt Portugal a fairly heavy blow, and coupled with the genuinely chaotic internal state of the so-called Republican Government, the country was suffering through its most turbulent era in a century.

Speaking