At the very moment the British Government received the news, the Vienna Government also received an urgent telegram from Africa—the British-Austrian conflict in South Africa had erupted.
According to the telegram, the incident began when one of Viscount Aguirre's cattle from the Holy Roman Empire's South African holdings was grazing near the border and was shot dead by Jorge, a British farmer on the other side.
The compensation negotiations failed. Enraged, Viscount Aguirre directly led men over to loot the other man's farm, incidentally killing several unlucky souls.
There was nothing surprising about it. In colonies where the strong preyed on the weak, such scenes had long become commonplace.
Colonists these days were all desperadoes; if words failed to agree, fighting was standard procedure. The Holy Roman Empire's landed nobles were just as hot-tempered—every one of them had fought their way out of battlefields. Whoever backed down was a grandson.
Especially when there was a conflict of interests between the two sides, it was even less tolerable. Since they could not reach an agreement, they would settle it by colonial rules—through force.
Originally, this was nothing much. Killing one or two people in colonial conflicts had long been an everyday occurrence in the colonies.
It was only that Viscount Aguirre had poor luck. During his retreat, he ran into the British Army, which had rushed over after hearing the news, and fierce fighting broke out between the two sides.
Relying on his extensive combat experience, Aguirre successfully carved out a bloody path, but his identity was still exposed.
Everyone had always done this sort of thing in secret. So long as no evidence was caught, no one would lift the lid.
But things were different now. The British had confirmed Viscount Aguirre's identity, and that could not be tolerated.
Handing