Chapter 250: Discussing The Albania Question
The Chaos of Albania spilling into the rest of the Balkans was a nightmare situation become reality. And Bruno did not know how he was going to contain the fire that was rapidly
spreading throughout the region.
It wasn't exactly a surprise that this was happening. In fact, it was highly expected, if not outright inevitable. Though Bruno was caught a bit off guard with the timing. Austro- Hungary's collapse was inevitable.
All civilizations crumbled eventually, and all species reached a point of extinction. Time had a way of bringing all that existed in this universe to utter ruin. But Austro-Hungary's collapse was destined to be far quicker and more brutal than most stable empires.
The reason being was simple: different religions, cultures, and ethnicities could not inhabit the same lands for long before they began to fight over control of it. Forcing the various identities in the Balkans to live beneath the same banner was a bad idea to begin with, but far more so when they were being ruled over by a foreign monarch.
A German ruling over an empire primarily built in the Balkans? Apparently, the inbreeding within the Habsburg Dynasty had a far greater long-term effect on their gene pool than the mathematic equation would otherwise suggest.
It was honestly the only explanation Bruno could rationalize as to why Francis I had decided to maintain control over his holdings in the Balkans when he dismantled the Holy Roman Empire as a political entity.
What else could possibly be used to explain such a reckless idea? Building an empire on loose sand in front of a crashing tidal wave was not exactly conducive to long-term stability. Now, was it? It was pride, wasn't it? The damn pride of a man who refused to give up his recognition as an "Emperor."
Pride really was the root of all evil in this world, this was the only conclusion Bruno could properly come to as he looked upon the faces of the deceased who had been taken hostage by the local militants, and killed during the assault to bring them to justice.
Among them was a young girl, no older than ten, whose lifeless eyes conveyed the fear and anguish she must have felt right before her life was snuffed away, most likely not by the devils who had held her by gunpoint, but the men who had come to "save her."