My Baltimore

I was still smiling when I took a sip on my coffee, remembering how my husband to be praises my kingdom, which will be his after a month from now. I suddenly took a deep breath when I saw the other names on the list of our sponsors, The Kings and Queens of my country, the United Kingdom of Aseana followed by the names of the Kings and Queens of the Allied countries of the United Kingdom of Aseana.

My Kingdom, Baltimore has been the center of military and commercial services of our country for almost half a century now. We produced stuffs for War including high calibre guns, swords, darts, bombs, carriages, ships, etc. This was the reason why my Kingdom was respected by the other kingdoms of the country and highly recognized by the six allied countries. We have the largest number of Armies for War giving half of the country's total Reserved Armies. I remember when I was 12 years old seating beside my Grand Father, The Great King when a messenger from the United Kingdom of the Eastern Lands arrived.

"A Messenger from the Allied Country of the United Kingdom of the Eastern Lands!"

"Let him in." my grandfather said.

"I pay respect to His Majesty The King of the Kingdom of Baltimore, I am a messenger from the United Kingdom of the Eastern Land sent by our Majesty Emir Shurev III to carry this urgent message." The messenger said with a loud but respectful voice.

"I am honoured to receive a message from His Majesty." My grand father answered.

The golden envelope was handed by the messenger to the Kingdom's Secretary and my grandfather's secretary. He opened the royal envelope and it was written in a Red Paper with the Emir's Official Seal as an indication of authenticity, urgency and importance then read

"Dear Majesty King of the Powerful Kingdom of Baltimore, His Majesty George X. It was our kingdom's honor to be a good friend of yours in the past centuries. We received gifts and services from yours supporting us with our basic needs and I know how indebted us to the Kingdom of Baltimore. I know that your majesty was aware of the conflict that we have with our neighbouring country of Asucarera due to their territorial expansion taking six provinces of our kingdom in the western part about five months already. We sent messages to the Royalty of the Kingdom of Asucarera but we received no reply at all. We scheduled a peace talk a month ago near our territorial boundary as agreed by them but no one showed up.

Your Majesty, we have reports that the armies of Asucarera keeps on killing civilians, women and children who paid respect to us from the six provinces they've seized. They also killed in-charge of the provinces including our Royal Armies there. They also took control of the major financial institutions and official provincial executive halls. It was alarming that the 10000 armies of Asucarera presently there will be joined by another 20000 cavaliers which was spotted at the mountains of Kremer about 100 miles away from our kingdom. Your Majesty, Honesty not fear leads me to seek help from our allied countries as advised by the Royal Council of Advisors of the Kingdom of the Eastern Lands because we received notice that the United Kingdom of Asucarera has plan of merging the whole Kingdom of Eastern Lands to them.

Due to this, I humbly request for a military aide from the Most Powerful Kingdom of Baltimore because my kingdom's army was only 20000 at present and a reserved of 10000. I advised my Minister on War to wait for further instructions while seeking assistance from our dear friends. Paying respect to the Majesty King of Baltimore, This is Emir Shurev III of the United Kingdom of the Eastern Lands."

I observed that in the following days, my grandfather was very silence silent. After two days, he requested for the presence of the Minister of War and International Affairs together with the one in-charge with the Minister of Communications and Public Information. I was asked to leave by him during their talks but I insisted to stay. My grandfather asked the minister of war on how many armies we have at present and how large was our reserved. He also asked the International Affairs minister if we have official understanding or whatever economic relations with Asucarera.

"Your majesty at present we have 500000 armies together with 900000 cavaliers and a reserved of 1300000, presently holding the largest among the kingdoms of the country and the allied countries." The minister of war answered.

"How many armies does the United Kingdom Asucarera have? What about their allies?? My grandafther's followed up.

"Your majesty, the United Kingdom of Asucarera has 40000 armies and cavaliers as to the records released in the beginning of this year. And they are in good friend with the United Kingdoms of Chelea, Reusque, Trai and Moors and they all have 600000 armies and cavaliers combined?" answered.

"Your majesty we have no official businesses and understanding with the United Kingdom of Asucarera. They also closed their country for anyone from our kingdom regardless of the purposes of travel or visit since last year while the other countries of Chelea, Trai and Moors rely a lot on our preserved foods due to their weather which is not good for farming and their waters are not capable of producing enough products for their people. The country of Reusque also rely on the clothing products that we have since their country is almost covered by iceberg and their people are not capable of processing one for them, they get their food from the Kingdom of Ayatullah since they eat more meat than vegetable and fish and we are not exporting meat." The minister of International Affairs answered while holding some reports on exports and imports.

"Okay then, I directed the minister of communications to have a call with the other kingdoms of the country and seek their opinion regarding this issue." My grandfather answered.

After few hours, the minister of communications returned.

"Your Majesty, the Kingdoms of Oz, Cex, and Ayatullah said that they also received the same message and agreed to send 10000 each of armies, while the Kingdoms of Treiz, Esshire and Orex called my office and waiting for your direction and opinion, they are willing to send 12000 armies each. They pointed out that the United Kingdom of the Eastern Lands served as the main port in the east and they're position is very essential to their people." The minister of communications reported.

The Minister of War arrived following the report, "Your Majesty our armies are alerted by my office to secure Westbledon and maintain strict security in the different entry points of the Kingdom working hand in hand with the other ministries of the other kingdoms of the country." The minister reported.

"I directed you to send 30000 armies and 40000 cavaliers as military aide to the United Kingdom of the Eastern Lands. And you call the other kingdoms regarding my opinion." My father ordered to the two ministers.

"Your Majesty, May I request that the other armies from the other kingdoms be informed that we will be divided into three, the military aide from Oz, Cex and Ayatullah will enter from the south, the kingdoms of Treiz and Esshire from the west while ours together with the armies or Orex will enter from the north since they always relied on our military techniques." The minister of war said.

"So ordered!" my grandfather said.

After a week, our kingdom received emissaries from the United Kingdoms of Moors and Reusque bringing gifts. I don't understand at first because it was just few days ago when my Grand Father sent armies for war. I was in my study area when I convoy of armies followed by a Royal Carriage. It seemed familiar. Then I run towards the Grand Palace to witness the event and to see who arrived. Exactly,

"Open the Grand Gate! The Prince of the United Kingdom of the Eastern Lands with the Royal Minister of War and International Relations of the United Kingdom of the Eastern Lands arrived!"

I said never mind because that time I have to take the philosophy class of mine and have my archery class after. At the end of the day after having all my classes done, I went to my room and asked my secretary what happened to the Grand Palace,

"Your Majesty, the Prince of the United Kingdom of the Eastern Lands came to paid gratitude with our military aide during the seized of their eastern provinces." My secretary explained.

"Why? Is the war over? Who won? How many armies of us died?" I asked curiously.

"Your majesty when the United Kingdom of Asucarera knew that the United Kingdom of Aseana was sending more than 120000 armies and cavaliers, they withdrawn their armies from the six provinces." He answered smiling.

"So what about the war?" I followed up.

"Your majesty, their was no war that happened. The United Kingdom of Asucarera said that they will be giving half of their country's income for five year to the United Kingdom of the Eastern Lands as payment of the damages they have done in the six provinces." He answered.

"Half? How would they survive then? Five years?" I asked while thinking the economy of the said country in five years.

"Your majesty, we have what we called allies or friends in terms of politics, army, finance and economy. I know that the Asucarera's friends will help them in those years."

Unlike any other countries in the world, ours, The United Kingdom of Aseana has no Royal Council of Advisors that gives opinion to the king of their respective countries. Our country has nine Kings sharing and contented with the same political, social and territorial independence that we have. In the international affairs, the nine heads of the different kingdoms decide who will address certain issues and represent the United Kingdom of Aseana as a country. Baltimore covers one third of the countries territory and has five overseas protectorates and maintains half of the country's military, having the largest in the land.

I was thinking while having my philosophy class, so if the time comes that I will be the king, definitely I will be facing all the issues around me, and I have to be as friendly as I can. Suddenly, I asked myself.

"Will the other Kingdoms of the country respect me in case they'll know who the real me is? Will the allied countries still be our friends once they get the news that the next king of the Great Kingdom of Baltimore is a GAY? It's a must that I study a lot on deciding military and territorial issues I know my excellent knowledge regarding this will help me. How will I tell them? And when will be the right time?"