President Olaf has the respect of the majority of the wealthy citizens of the Scandlovania Alliance as well as a large number of regular people. Although if they knew what his true intentions were by starting a war the people would immediately lose all respect they had for him and his government. In truth, President Olaf was a greedy man, driven by the lust for power. He had made deals with countries like the Republic to the west of the Reich, the Holy Empire to the south and the Bulgarian federation to the east, all enemies of the Reich. He asked them for help during his war against the Reich as he knew that they would do anything to weaken or destroy the Reich. You see the Reichs is a landlocked nation meaning it has had to expand its borders just to not be completely surrounded, it raged wars with the Republic to gain more trade routes to bring in more wealth, it battled against the Bulgarian federation to gain more farmlands and fought against the Holy Empire to secure gold mines in the mountains that separate each other. The whole continent was out for the Reich, almost everyone had some hatred for them. The one nation that was neutral was Britainian Kingdoms, that nation had not had any wars with the Reich and instead had an agreement with the Reich that allowed it to build up its navy to be a third of the size of the Britainian Kingdoms. Because of this, they were probably the closest thing to an ally the Reich had.
Olaf was counting on the idea that all old animosity will be rekindled. If his plan was to succeed, all the nations that helped would also greatly benefit from this, in fact, while sitting in his lavish office Olaf concluded that with the fall of the Reich the Scandlovainia Alliance would benefit not only from the wealthy trade routes south of them but from financial services as well. They would be able to ransack Reich banks to obtain the gold from the reserves, almost all of which would be for the private use of Olaf. This is why of the common people of the Scandlovainia Alliance would immediately turn on him. In order for the people do not realise he would use a group of mage loyal only to Olaf to do this. But first, he must initiate a war. Information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or MFA, had reported that the rising tensions within the Reich had grown to the point where nobody would be surprised if some group of ultra-nationalist instigated some attacks on the borders. President Olaf was certain that with the tension mainly coming from the west, the northern part of the Reich would be unprepared for a large scale "training exercise" from the North, and would believe that it was an invasion army. To which the response of the Reich would be immediate retaliation. The plan was full proof, the Reich would fall and the Victor's would reap the rewards, money, power, colonies, the alliance would move into its imperial age finally, and Olaf would be immeasurably wealthy.
"President Olaf, Sir."
"what is it Mr Calllands?"
" The training exercise forces are all prepared, the commanders are awaiting your order to begin. The commanders you payed tell me that the expected casualties from this will most likely exceed over 60% of the force. That is if the Reich fall for the trap. "
" And what makes you think they will not? Do you really believe that the generals of the Reich will take a second to think about it, the moment they know about the large army on their border they retaliate dramatically in a way to use them as an example of what happens if you consider invasion. Honestly the fact that the Reich is a primarily military nation, and that they only think with their weapons, makes it almost too easy to scheme like this, if it were any other nation it would be troublesome, but because they were so eager to show their might and claim so much land they basically pissed of every nation on the continent. Even better they don't have any real allies, unless you consider the unofficial bond between them and the Britainian Kingdoms. They are alone. "
" As expected sir you have thought this through to a fault " although Mr Calllands sounded as if he was full of astoundment, he was worried about one thing and one thing only. The people, who will protect the commom people from the wrath of the Reich, only the wealthy are considered in Olaf regime. As a man of questionable backgrounds he was already a black sheep in the flock so to speak. Not only that but he was completely different from everyone im appearance too, a tall, dark haired man, not only that but build was unique, compared to the somewhat obese politicians and upper class citizens he was lean, and muscular showing that he would often participate in manual work. With this he had a sense of belonging with the common people, not something many people in his position had, in fact only around 0.4% of government officials felt like this.
"President Olaf, Sir. If I may ask..."
"Go ahead, speak your mind"
"Thank you sir. What are your plans with the common people during the war, it is important that we keep them safe during this time as the Reich will surely begin a campaign to conquer our great nation."
Olaf stared at the man in front of him for a good few minutes, clearly thinking over his words carefully. He then stood up and walked towards his window overlooking the capital of the Scandlovainia Alliance, Odinholm. The clear blue sky slowly darkening, he let out a strained sigh before turning and stating nonchalantly " Apart from those who work hard in our industries, they are acceptable casualties." with these words Mr Calllands face lost all colour as if he had just seen a ghost.
"Im sorry sir but I think I miss heard you. It sounded like you said acceptable casualties"
"You heard me correctly, they are acceptable casualties. Think of it as a way for our nation to rid ourselves of some unwanted pests."
"Y.. Yes sir"
"Now relay this message to the commanders loyal to me, tell them to begin, this is the beginning of a great crusade, we will be prosperous after this. Our names shall be written done in history.
" Yes sir, it will be done" Mr Calllands could not help but answer with a tone of distress as he cared deeply about the common people, yet they were considered as acceptable casualties. Even though many of whom were loyal and deeply trusted Olaf, he looked down upon them to see them as nothing more than pawns in a game of chess. Nobody should have the right to play with people's lives in this manner, only God has the right to see people like this, and even then God would not, God could not.
Mr Calllands left President Olaf's office feeling quite conflicted, his loyalty was with the people and the people were loyal to President Olaf, but upon hearing this he could not help but feel conflicted. How could he serve the people if the man they had chosen to lead was willing to let them die. But then he couldn't side with the Reich to save the people because that meant betraying the people too. What could he do? Let the people die and gain their hatred. Or does he go to the Reich and warn them of Olaf's plan to save the people, but in that case he would be hated still.
"What kind of situation is this. What the fuck can I do?" inside his heart was turmoil.
"When he first was elected he promised to help the common people, I supported his ideas, I trusted him. What the fuck happened to him to make him change like that.... No, i guess he's always been like that. People don't change, they just reveal who they really are.... Monsters.