Chapter 77:

January 16, 1940

Budapest, the capital of Hungary After my meeting with Horthy, I wrote down its contents and my opinion, sent it to my home country by telegram, and was walking through the urban area of Budapest while waiting for a reply.

Nem, nem, soha!

Graffiti written in their language, vowing not to forget the grudge as a victim of the last great war and not to repeat it, could be commonly seen on any building wall.

The thought that they were only dragged into the last great war because they were part of the Austria-Hungary Dual Monarchy, yet Hungary suffered all the damage, fills every Hungarian.

As a defeated nation of the last great war, they lost two-thirds of their entire territory, and even as it was torn apart under the pretext of the principle of national self-determination, they had to hand over Transylvania, a region densely populated by Hungarians, to Romania.

This was the harshest treatment among all the defeated nations, so the aspiration to reclaim their former territory, the livelihood base of their compatriots, was surely not the thought of a single dictator named Miklós Horthy.

As a nation in the most emotionally similar situation to Germany during the interwar period, suffering from an immense victim mentality and sense of loss, is there any need to mention that the military that was as active as Germany in the World War II of the original history was none other than the Hungarian Military?

"Ah, welcome. Thank you for accepting my invitation."

I didn't know why, but he showed a favorable impression towards me and invited me to his home as soon as the first conference ended.

"Thank you for the invitation."

"It is my glory to have you here. Haha."

Young Horthy, who was a bit older than me, had a beaming face as if something was very pleasing.

"I was very interested in Vice Minister Schacht, who played a core role in ousting the Nazis from Germany. I am very happy to meet in person someone I only knew through the foreign press."

"Is that so? I'm surprised that the son of His Excellency, the Regent was interested in me."

Separate from Hungary having been one of the Axis powers, Regent Horthy was a conservative authoritarian with anti-fascist leanings.

It seems his son dislikes the Nazis as well.

I couldn't discern his intention, so I subtly shifted my gaze.

Then, a photograph of him with a young woman in a frame caught my eye.

"Is that your wife?"

"We plan to marry this year. Haha."

"I see.

Congratulations in advance."

Perhaps his face relaxed because someone naturally came to mind, as Young Horthy smiled at me.

"She's a good person. I hope you meet someone like that too, Vice Minister."

I already have.

I just smiled faintly.

"You may not know well from just yesterday's conference, but my father also evaluates you quite highly. Haha, we are only clashing over national interest, so I hope you don't think too badly of it."

"Well, I am just holding a temporary post in a transitional war cabinet.

I am not in a position to be highly evaluated by the supreme ruler of a nation."

Young Horthy's eyes widened upon hearing my statement.

"Is that just humility? Or are you being sincere?"

"Well…"

"You are already a celebrity. A very famous one at that. It's only because you are still young that your position is that of a Vice Minister; right now, even our people may not know Germany's ministers or generals, but they know your name and speech. There are even those who analyze you as being the de facto leader of Germany."

I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

"And everyone is wondering. About whether you and your father, who appeared like a comet and drove out the madmen called Nazis, will become the new rulers who will reign over Germany for a long time with the support of the entire nation."

A new ruler who will reign for a long time.

He could have just said dictator, but is he phrasing it like that because he's a dictator's son?

"Well, I suppose we'll find out when an election is held in Germany."

"An election, are you really going to hold one? I don't understand. You have the position of Chancellor, don't you? Can't you just continue? The Emperor has already authorized it, and I don't think the German people will object if you continue in the position."

After saying that, Young Horthy saw my facial expression and smiled slyly.

"Ah, don't get me wrong. I've lived in America, too. I know well enough what democracy is."

He's lived in America, too… Reminds me of the Crown Prince.

"But even if you or your father continue as Chancellor here, you and your father have too impressive a track record and too much popularity for the so-called democrats to oust you at once. Rather, people will be anxious if you gracefully transfer power and step down."

"Why do you think so?"

"Because people fear what they cannot understand.

Just think about it. Let's say you hold an election and quietly step down.

In that situation, could you really not exert any influence? You are already widely known to the military, to the people, and even in the diplomatic world."

After saying that, Young Horthy added with a deep smile.

"So, yes. You are a competent and young soldier, a diplomat, and a famous politician in his prime. For such a person to say he'll quietly step down and leave the rest to an election now that the national state of emergency is over? I wondered what your true intentions were, even if you speak of the reintroduction of democracy, but meeting you in person, I am both surprised and feel respect that you seem to genuinely think so."

He looked me straight in the eye and remained silent for a moment, then drove the point home.

"As such, there will surely be those who see you as a thorn in their side. If I were in your position, I would never try to leave power and return to being an ordinary civilian. Who would believe you when you say you truly have no lust for power? They will be anxious unless they get you on the same boat or neutralize you completely."

Young Horthy, who was older than me, spoke as if it were a matter of course, and it gave me a headache.

It's not like I came all this way because I wanted to be a person in power in Germany, so how did I end up in this position?

Perhaps it's because I ran looking only at one thing: ousting Hitler and turning Germany back into a normal country.

From a modern person's perspective, my immediate goal after being suddenly dropped into the interwar period in this world was the ousting of Hitler and the Nazis, and the end of dictatorship, which could easily drive Germany into another rampage.

But because I hadn't thought about what came after, the reality of a rapidly changed world began to crash down on me as soon as I was done with Hitler.

"Vice Minister, you are fascinating in many ways.

Honestly, I was also amazed that such a person really exists. But I think being a person of great character and being a great leader are separate issues.

Gladstone is respected as a great man, but was he truly a great leader for Britain?"

Gladstone, the British Prime Minister called the greatest commoner.

He is most famous as a supporter of moral politics who sought solutions through avoiding dispute and using international public opinion and arbitration, but in the end, he had to resign, unable to overcome the gap with the reality of the age of imperialism.

"In this current state of affairs, realpolitik is needed, and a strong leader is needed. I don't understand why you, who are already doing well, have no lust for power, but you need to compromise more with reality.

When Germany needs you, what good is all that morality or democracy?"

I let out a bitter smile.

"Do you think I'm a devotee of moral politics?"

"To be honest, yes. That is my father's and my judgment."

Moral politics.

First his father, and now his son. It seems that's how they see me.

But in the end, I am the one who would assassinate Ribbentrop, even if it meant getting my lover's hands bloody, and who would start a civil war, fully knowing that Germans' blood would be shed.

By justification and morality, I should liberate Czechoslovakia right away, but I'm looking for the right timing, which is also not quite that.

There are countless difficult moments because I have the sensibility of a modern person, and I worry a lot, but I have never stopped moving.

"No, I am a practitioner of realpolitik. We just have different points of view."

The reason I place so much importance on diplomacy, to the point where I appear moral in their eyes, and persuade our government to move according to my vision, is simple.

It's because of Germany's situation, where France might attack with any pretext, and the existence of America, a nation whose power they cannot even imagine right now.

If we give France a pretext and they enter the war, or if we get on America's nerves and our lifeline, our trade with America, is cut, what good is Hungary or anything else?

Rather, what ruin did the Axis powers of the original history meet when they ignored diplomacy and rose up, claiming to reclaim their just rights as an unjust victim?

They had to vomit back up everything they had reclaimed, or were reduced to a state worse than that.

The countless sacrifices and devastated fatherland were a bonus.

"Germany and Hungary are certainly victims of the last great war, but they are also perpetrators. The fact of being a victim does not grant an indulgence to become a perpetrator. We ultimately live in the same world as those so-called 'victorious nations,' and to them, a single one of their tears is more precious than the blood we have shed."

The actions of the victorious nations, which passed all the damages of the last great war onto Germany, Hungary, and other Central Powers, are certainly harsh and unjust.

But if because of that, nations begin to believe that the war to reclaim their rights is justified because they became victims through no fault of their own, they are the very culprits who caused World War II.

Is it even possible for one of the leading nations of a great war that engulfed the world to be innocent?

Former territory that must be reclaimed as a victim? It would be good if it could be acknowledged.

If the people are burning with the aspiration to reclaim it, to blindly turn a blind eye to that is also a problem.

But if we start a war to get compensation for the damages we've suffered, what about the other damages that will arise from it? So what about that? Exactly how much blood is 'allowed to be shed' to reclaim territory?

What if we lose the war, only shedding countless blood without reclaiming anything? Then what will you tell the people?

That our intentions were good and we tried our best, but we were not strong enough? That won't bring back the people who died a senseless death, nor will it revive the ruined nation.

István Horthy wore an uncomfortable expression at my words.

"That we were also perpetrators? We only did our best as a member of the Austria-Hungary Dual Monarchy! Are you saying we must endure all the unjust damage our people have suffered? The will to reclaim what we have lost is not just mine or my father's, but the will of the entire Hungarian people. A politician should naturally respond to that."

Of course, their victim mentality is natural, and their justification for wanting to reclaim what they've lost is sufficient.

But Germany also thought that way and started World War II.

Hitler and the Nazis were exceptionally mad, so Nazi Germany itself was treated as the axis of evil, but even if it weren't so, the ending would not have been much different.

The members of the Axis powers would have had to take responsibility for the countless blood that was shed. Just as in the original history.

"It is precisely because one is a politician that one must not get the means and the end confused. You can't ignore the aspirations of the people? But is it realistic, let alone moral, to start a war just to answer the people's aspirations, fail to see reality, and turn one's fatherland into a defeated nation again? What is realpolitik?"

István Horthy fell silent.

The answer I had postponed when the Regent asked, because I wasn't sure, seemed to come to me now.

"His Excellency, the Regent asked me if it is moral to practice moral politics to the point where the people's blood is shed.

Then I will ask in return. Is it realpolitik to irrationally drive a nation to war just because there is something to reclaim?"

Can one become a normal country just by not committing the Holocaust, by not committing overt genocide?

If one gambles with the people as the stakes, without considering the consequences, just because there is something to reclaim, then that is exactly the Axis powers of the original history.

"War? If it's necessary, we must fight. I'm not foolish enough to discuss world peace while being attacked.

But, does that mean that responding to the blood the people are shedding is to lose one's cool and cry for war and revenge?"

Of course not. Rather, this moment, when Germany is being attacked and shedding blood, is a situation that fills me with more rage than ever.

I started a civil war to oust the Nazis to avoid that fucking World War II, but now I'm being dragged along by some suppressive force of history and fighting a war. This very situation is hateful.

But who gives a damn about my feelings? If Germany loses its leash and starts running wild here, it will be the second coming of the World War II from the original history.

"I don't value morality more than the blood Germany sheds. I am trying to appear moral because I want to minimize the blood Germany will shed."

I want to suppress the German Military from inflicting excessive damage on enemies and committing war crimes out of a desire for revenge during the war, but even so, I don't think a democratic Germany would become a completely innocent and just nation just because it fought a just defensive battle.

Even if I wished for it to be so, it is not possible, just as Claudia said. How many of the modern democratic nations of the 21st century can be called 'moral'? Are there any at all?

Right now, among the many generals at the front line, not a few have condoned or aided and abetted the war crimes of Nazi Germany.

To end the war, we will advance into the enemy's land, and the damage the enemy nation will suffer is inevitable.

I have my own moral standards and will suffer in situations that go against them, but I am not an idealist who doesn't know his place.

For me, this process of ousting Hitler and turning Germany into a normal country, for Germany and Germany alone, is already overwhelming. I've been through many trials and errors, and will go through more.

Moral politics. Morality is, of course, good to uphold if you can.

As this is an era on the cusp of modern times, I believe it will one day become an asset for Germany.

But if I become bound by it and am forced to demand losses from my own countrymen, that would not be moral as a nation, as Horthy said.

Personal morality and national morality cannot perfectly align.

There will be moments ahead where I must make choices that go against my personal morality, but I can only hope that the Germany we create as a result will be better than the one in the original history.

"I only made that judgment for the national interest of Germany. I am not convinced that my choice is unconditionally right, but I have never once thought that I have forsaken the blood of Germans."

I won't go around saying I'll bring about the downfall of Poland and Italy like Hitler, but we will have to collect the price for the German blood shed in their invasion.

Be it Danzig, or whatever.

But for that very reason, we must absolutely appear to be moral.

Am I moral for calculating and acting like this? Probably not.

The reason I demand the people to be vigilant, and to constantly be wary of Germany's rampage, and even my own rampage, is not because I believe Germany must be moral and just.

It's because I believe that only by doing so can Germany become better than in the original history, and become a normal country without going through the worst of the Nazis and the ruin of World War II.

I looked at the silently staring István Horthy and asked.

"How about the Kingdom of Hungary? Indeed, does this war seem to have a high enough chance of winning to be worth betting the blood of the Hungarian people as the stakes? Or perhaps, were you not about to bet the stakes just because it looked like an opportunity?"

What they really want probably isn't Slovakia, but Transylvania, the core region of the Hungarian people.

Yet, the fact they tried to enter this war at first means there's a high possibility that Poland promised to get them Transylvania in some form.

But since Poland doesn't seem to have the spare capacity, they approached us, mentioned Slovakia, and then asked us to help them secure Transylvania.

But in a situation where we don't know when or how the Soviet Union will act in the east, and furthermore, since we have to be mindful of diplomacy, we are not in a position to touch Romania.

The possibility that Poland received or purchased equipment or oil from Romania, as they said, is high, but I saw the possibility of Romania having guaranteed something to Hungary as not very high.

Then the problem is whether Hungary has secured enough military power to be a threat to us alone, but Hungary's rearmament itself probably started from the 1938 Bled Agreement.

But even Germany's state of armament was in chaos during the Invasion of Poland after rearming for four years after the annulment of the Treaty of Versailles, so how could Hungary be any better?

Isn't it nonsense from the start that we have to choose between ceding Slovakia or helping them invade Romania just because our situation is difficult?

If they were truly confident in overwhelming us, there would be no reason to secretly call me for negotiations behind the back of Poland, which they call a brother nation.

Looking at István Horthy's stiffly frozen face, I deliberately smiled.

"Has this been enough for you to learn about me?"