Even Steve Rogers, because of his uniqueness, did not see himself as an ordinary person. Only Solomon could blend naturally with ordinary people, as if he were no different from them. Few in this world cared for others through such genuine acts the way he did, and fewer still would so unhesitatingly sacrifice many lives to achieve a greater goal. No one knew the real truth, because he had refused all psychological counseling—Nick Fury's greatest lifelong regret. In a flash, Natasha Romanoff recalled how she had gradually grown familiar with this young man; perhaps it was precisely that passionate heart concealed beneath a cold exterior that made him so compelling.
"The reason I wanted to meet here is because this family makes the best pasta in New York. The Bernadello eldest son's pastry skills were passed down from the previous Mrs. Bernadello—absolutely unmissable Italian delicacies. Bayonetta really wants a taste of home, so I came to them. Take a portion—you definitely haven't eaten. I'll take you to a hotel to get some good rest. Next, you're heading to the UK!"
"Why am I going to the UK?"
"Oh, you'll find out soon. Please convey my regards. I'm sorry I can't go in person."
Twenty-two hours after the attack on the carrier strike groups, Victor von Doom, who had been stationed in Latveria's capital (now territory formed by the merger of Silcaria and Transylvania), left the tightly guarded administrative departments. After routine inspections of public infrastructure construction sites, helping farmers at newly built livestock farms catch sheep, and driving brats out of collapsed buildings, Victor von Doom headed to the military airfield built during the civil war to begin a diplomatic tour.
Victor von Doom's first stop was neighboring Serbia.
Only two other countries in the world knew about the Mediterranean battle group's situation; Serbia would be the third. As planned, Solomon would display overwhelming personal force, while Victor von Doom would use political means to persuade and coerce neighboring countries into unity, promising to establish a joint defense system, share advanced air-defense systems, and maintain stability in Eastern Europe at any cost—to achieve unity, mutual compromise comes first. The Eternal City's advanced technology was an extremely important bargaining chip, and Unified Truth was another chip and a program of action.
If the allied neighboring countries did not recognize Unified Truth, then the future troubles would be far worse than expected—especially for a country like Serbia, which was moving toward classical national values and required careful handling to integrate through multiple approaches. Now that the U.S. Navy's Mediterranean carrier battle group had disappeared, NATO power in Southeastern Europe could be largely ignored. Once Victor secretly revealed this information, diplomatic requests came in immediately. He believed the news would make neighboring countries think carefully about where to stand. Latveria was much closer than the United States or Western Europe. It was an easy choice: accept Unified Truth or accept missiles.
Victor had another objective on this trip: Albania and Kosovo.
The former was a NATO member in Southeastern Europe, the latter semi-independent and drifting ever further with NATO support. This was intolerable to the Eternal City. Leaving it to the people to elect a governing party colluding with plutocrats while naively believing the future would improve could only exacerbate the current situation of rampant gangs, widespread drugs, and flourishing human trafficking. These two countries, composed of Illyrians and Thracians, would be key parts of Latveria's next step—pinning NATO down in Southeastern Europe. Serbia would be the best choice to share Kosovo's administrative costs. Through political means, the plan was to unite neighboring countries and completely eradicate this chaos.
From the founding of the Eternal City, Solomon had focused on the turmoil in Africa, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. The Sisterhood's first regimented battle took place in Eastern Europe. Using heavy firepower, they fundamentally struck at the human-trafficking chains in Albania and other Eastern European countries, brutally cutting off the revenue streams of monopolistic pharmaceutical giants and the underground organ-transplant industry. Today, many young Eastern European girls were in the academy learning the skills necessary to join the Sisterhood. This forward-looking mission had now borne fruit: years of recruited, coerced, and converted grassroots forces across the Balkans would become another pillar of this diplomatic action.
Before Victor von Doom's departure, Latveria had taken over the television broadcast systems in Albania and Kosovo, restoring, in an irresistible way, the Cold War-era programming and Unified Truth, awakening those countries' past ideology. The Eternal City also aired specially produced, highly incendiary television programs exposing dirt on almost all officials, including but not limited to profits from human trafficking and gangs, as well as chaotic private lives. Although the Eternal City was focused on the former, the local populace was focused on the latter—but that didn't stop the Eternal City from shoving everything in at once and making them accept it all.
Only Stephanie Malick felt conflicted about this. Rebuilding order meant her purview would expand further, which was the best kind of commendation. But it also meant she would receive a massive influx of administrative data to process and would constantly face the ever-intensifying "threat" of the piles of paperwork on the desk and the endless data in the computers "murdering" her and her subordinates. Whenever progress was made, Latveria's administrative and military organs would be thrown back into a frenzy. The commander of the Wild Warband, "Silver Marten" Silver Sablinova, was summoned back by the administrative department from the countryside where she had been stabilizing order.
Latveria's administrative headquarters was located in the former royal castle, a tall historic structure—a fortress-palace built of gray stone blocks. After the damage of the civil war, engineers had done their best to preserve its original appearance during reconstruction and added many defensive works. Two bipedal war machines patrolled constantly along the bastion's trenches, ensuring the safety of the internal staff alongside armed gene-enhanced warriors—or more precisely, ensuring the safety of the Eternal City's Sovereign and Victor von Doom, though they themselves cared little for such measures.
At the gate guarded by gene-enhanced warriors, Silver Sablinova handed over her weapons to the custodian. She squeezed past clerks in the Internal Affairs Department's red-and-black uniforms, speaking Latin in various regional accents, and past soldiers in gray uniforms from various military branches under the War Council. She traversed lofty corridors and hundreds of rooms to reach the top floor, originally belonging to the Grand Duke, now guarded by the Imperial Guard. To date, the Imperial Guard had thwarted two royalist assassination attempts on the Sovereign. Though their methods had been clumsy and laughable, Hammurabi dared not relax, for these separatists could easily be exploited by foreign intelligence agencies like the CIA. After consulting with Konstantin, Hammurabi established a set of security measures requiring all administrative personnel to comply, including 24/7 close protection, to maximize the Sovereign's safety within the castle.
The moment she stepped into the vast Latverian administrative office, she caught the delightful scents of pasta and sweet cream. The tall female mercenary, shaking her long snow-white hair, sniffed about until she spotted Diana List seated at her desk in a corner of the office, surrounded by stacks of data storage devices and documents, bobbing her head as she happily devoured a mound of sweets. The most prominent piece of furniture in the office was an enormous oak desk, and the person seated behind it was also enjoying the delicacies—only their hand never stopped writing, unwilling to give up work even while eating.
It wasn't her first time here. "Where is the Regent?"
"Didn't you get the notice?" Solomon shoveled a forkful of noodles into his mouth while setting down the newly established bio-farm production estimate report. To feed everyone, the Eternal City's grain reserves had been emptied—but that was far from enough. The Regent had to find a food trade route to ease the crisis. As soon as Silver arrived, Diana List quickly stood and pushed a chair out from beside her. The former mercenary smiled kindly; although she was much younger than Diana, her demeanor made one think she was the elder of the two.
"Victor has gone on a secret diplomatic mission. Someone has to hold down Latveria until you and your Wild Warband finish the task that should have been completed days ago," Solomon said. "What explanation do you have for that?"
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