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“Wait a second. Did I hear that right?”

“You really killed him?”

“They say it was with Cyclone B.”

“Cyclone B? Was that what we sent?”

“Exactly, it was sent by us. Specifically, I sent it. Just thought I’d send it, just in case.”

“Wait, are they really using this to exterminate the Communists like bugs?”

“I never thought they would pull something like this since the Jewish Holocaust was way back in the 1940s.”

“Have I been too naive?”

“Is there any backlash?”

“Hitler has long propagandized that Communists are a species that must be exterminated, calling them inferior beings too pitiful to even be called bugs, and it seems the citizens of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire are siding with him, so there’s been no reaction.”

“Right. Hitler’s silver tongue does have that effect.”

“Austria was a defeated nation in the Great War, and the idea that it should be merged with Germany has vanished, largely due to the influx of Germans from the German Communist Revolution.”

“Still, it’s troubling how they’re capturing Communists like this.”

“Doesn’t it look like I’m the one behind pushing Hitler?”

“The Austria that Hitler leads is definitely on an anti-Communist course.”

“Hitler knows how to seize power.”

“This world seems to run on its own rules.”

“The problem is that anyone who knows Hitler will know I support him.”

“This bastard is using me perfectly.”

“Any decent person would realize that I’m supporting Hitler, and that very Hitler is currently capturing the Communists.”

“That’s what I wanted.”

“But sending Cyclone B to have them locked up and killed in concentration camps feels a bit excessive, doesn’t it?”

“Sure, it would make it difficult to find Communists in Austria.”

“Yes. I worry that this might cause problems.”

“But we can’t abandon Hitler. At least, we need someone like him in Austria to hold on.”

“Right now, there’s no one else but him.”

“I get that much. So, it would be better for him to exercise some restraint.”

“Indeed. There’s no other anti-Communist figure like Hitler. His rhetoric has united the defeated Austrians and Hungarians in despair.”

“Hmm.”

“We have to wipe out the Reds! That’s true.”

“But treating them like bugs and orchestrating a Holocaust is a different matter.”

“That crosses the line of common sense.”

“Won’t I end up labeled as the one who used Hitler’s hands to exterminate the Communists like bugs?”

“Even if they might be scum, they’re still human.”

“Even if they’re to be killed, there should at least be a trial before execution, right? I don’t want it to be said that they were killed like bugs.”

“There’s always someone in any era advocating for human rights.”

“Your Majesty, what troubles you so? Your authority is absolute. Can’t we just treat them like bugs?”

“Is that so?”

“If I call them bugs, can we define the Bolsheviks as bugs in a conceptual sense?”

“Your Majesty has previously labeled them as a plague, didn’t you? You even said you’d purify them by crucifying the bodies of the Bolsheviks.”

“Right. I did that to express hostility toward Communists during the Civil War.”

“And then there were executions of Communists all over Russia. Since Hitler took that route, I guess they can refer to me as well.”

“Anyway, it should start with me.”

“That’s right.”

“Now that I think about it, it does make sense?”

“Instead of directly calling them bugs, I can say that Bolsheviks must be purified through death. Keeping it at that should suffice.”

“Honestly, that’s true.”

“There are many bourgeois who are Communists, but the majority are from the impoverished class.”

“Since they’re a plague among the poor, they must be purified through death. That’s all it takes.”

“Russia was treated that way already. Even the socialists are maintaining a moderate approach.”

“Still, in this world, it’s wild for Hitler to be focused solely on the Communists for a Holocaust.”

“After all, the Jews have come over here too, so it won’t be easy for Hitler to go after them, but he can easily target the Communists.”

“If that bastard Hitler has used your authority, he should be taken out by Okhrana, but since you’re backing him, we should make the Bolsheviks into plague-like bugs.”

“Yeah. That’s a good idea.”

“I could protest to Hitler later, but for now, we can just overlook it.”

“At least the Soviet Union has an image as a superpower in our original history, but right now, it’s just a failed ideology.”

“Hmm. Is that so? But saying I killed them isn’t quite right, is it?”

“Yes, they’ll say the Communists in the concentration camps committed suicide out of fear of trial. That’s the narrative in Austria.”

“It’s like closing your eyes and pretending.”

“Yeah. I can understand it at that level.”

“They’re saying it’s not them, but really, you intentionally killed them! That can’t be allowed.”

“However, the dead in the concentration camps need to be portrayed as martyrs.”

“Hmm. Well, we do have some who committed suicide in the camps, don’t we?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s use them as examples. We could say, ‘The filthy Reds were treated like martyrs and committed suicide, fearing trial.’ This way, Hitler will have to manage the Communists so they won’t become martyrs.”

“That bastard Hitler is making things troublesome.”

“Doesn’t this mean I should put a collar on him?”

“If Hitler goes on a rampage, won’t it pose a risk? It could tarnish your authority.”

“That’s right. Some restraining is necessary.”

“A collar around the neck.”

“Hmm, but if I ask if there’s a proper way to do that, there’s none.”

“I certainly can’t kill him.”

“I might warn him to be a bit more careful, but what would that achieve?”

“What would slapping a collar on Austria even accomplish?”

“I’m not planning to turn Russia into a rogue state.”

“If possible, I’d rather have an image of the Land of Saints than a brutish bear country.”

“Recently, there have even been caricatures circulating in the Communist camp depicting you marrying Hitler.”

“Alexei Gastev handed me a caricature.”

“In it, Hitler is the groom, and I’m the bride.”

“Are you kidding me? Me, with none other than Hitler? This absurdity?”

“Why is this even happening? What the hell?”

“Well, Benito Mussolini and Karl Liebknecht will likely live through this.”

“How dare they make such a caricature! Ugh!”

“Ugh! How dare those Reds make such things! We need to march on Berlin and Rome!”

“Honestly, I want that too right now.”

“The problem is that the situation isn’t favorable.”

“The picture I envision is a perfect victory for Russia with no external obstructions.”

“Not now, and if a war broke out due to this, then people would just view war as the norm.”

“In that case, we can respond with a caricature.”

“Let’s also create a caricature. One where Karl Liebknecht and Benito Mussolini are passionately kissing.”

“I dislike BL, but for the sake of giving the Reds hell, I can tolerate it.”

“Oh, giving them a gay twist, huh?”

“If they come at us childishly, then so be it.”

“Make a caricature like that?”

“We must give it back and make them suffer. At least we’re straight while they’re gay.”

“Let them experience being treated like gays.”

“Understood. I will instruct the propaganda department.”

That was Alexei Gastev’s response.

Seeing how excited he was to speak, he clearly wanted to proceed with this.

“Then, are we simply going to leave Hitler alone?”

“Hitler, huh? Hitler. He’s still our bastard. There’s no way he’ll stop being our bastard.”

“For now, let’s just leave him be.”

“There’s no need to put a collar on Hitler right now.”

Haven’t we already captured quite a few Communists?

A couple of times, we can let it slide.

This isn’t something that happens every time, and if Hitler goes on a rampage, it could trigger a war between Austria and Russia.

Will that be possible with Austria’s current standing?

It’s tough enough to defend against Germany and Italy.

If Hitler goes around killing the Communists in our stead, that’s good for us.

If it comes to that, Communist Germany and Communist Italy won’t just stand by while Austria openly kills off Communists.

To protect the Communists, they’ll likely try to take Austria first.

“Anyway, a little while from now, there won’t be time for that.”

Killing the Communists will be a brief matter.

There might be controversy, but at least they’re not killing the Jews.

History belongs to the victors anyway.

If you think about it, the other great powers committed all sorts of atrocities, but after World War II, Hitler took all the blame and left the other powers with clean hands.

Whatever Hitler does, when World War II is over, Communism will be branded as the real plague.

Hitler’s Holocaust of Communists may even be viewed positively.

And regardless of Hitler’s rampage or whatever, at least it’s a gain for us.

As long as he sees us as inferior Slavs without launching a preemptive strike on Germany, we’re fine.

“Wouldn’t it be better to give a warning?”

“Go ahead. Just don’t give them a pretext for war yet.”

Moreover, that bastard Hitler is surprisingly considering me.

Not in a fond way, but in a respectful one.

I bet Hitler sees me as a great ruler who led the inferior Slavs this far.

* * *

The United States

During this time, the United States was in chaos.

The reason was something every American was now aware of.

The full-scale rise of KFC.

As that KFC expanded, its head, Leon (Trotsky), started broadcasting his methods for dealing with the Great Depression everywhere.

In the midst of this, the White House also had to welcome a new owner.

But.

“Franklin Roosevelt! Die!”

“Ugh!”

In this process, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was supposed to become president in the original history, faced assassination right before his inauguration.

In original history, he was threatened by Giuseppe Zangara, who was hired by the Chicago mafia, but in this timeline, it was Giuseppe Zangara hired by KFC who posed the threat.

With KFC’s emergence further amplifying the societal chaos of the Great Depression, was it a rolling snowball effect?

The gunfire from KFC member Giuseppe Zangara struck Roosevelt, and just days later, Roosevelt passed away.

Considering that in the original history it was Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago who died instead of Roosevelt, this outcome was the worst for Roosevelt.

Following that, in an extremely chaotic United States, after many ups and downs, John Nance Garner was also killed by Communist terrorists, and Huey Long was inaugurated as president.

Huey Long’s government had to face the KFC problem head-on.

“We need to deal with that KFC problem immediately!”

“What do you mean ‘deal with’? How do we do that?”

“Naturally, we have to capture and kill all those black Reds! If they grow in power any further, it’ll be bad for us!”

The White House discovered through the FBI that KFC was behind Giuseppe Zangara, but it was somewhat unrealistic to suppress KFC by force at that moment.

Huey Long had to make a choice.

Whether to suppress KFC or not.

But no matter how I looked at it, trying to suppress them now might cause KFC to grow even bigger.

In that case, perhaps it would be better to compromise and find a way out of the Great Depression.

“We need conversation and compromise here. Shouldn’t Americans be fighting amongst themselves?”

“Sir, this isn’t the time for that. Those guys are currently exploiting the Great Depression to grow in power. The time for compromise has passed!”

While everyone was in a frenzy, Huey Long surprisingly remained calm.

“KFC has announced something about how to resolve the Great Depression. First, we need to solve this. Then, they will quiet down. If we draw weapons now, we could be in for a big disaster.”

“……”

“The government must distribute some of the wealth from the rich and big businesses to the people. Only by doing this can we start to block the Communists.”

Huey Long had been carefully observing the Russian Civil War.

He had also paid attention to the welfare policies of White Russia.

Upon observing that the Bolsheviks seemed unable to present effective policies, he analyzed that the Crown Princess had pioneered the workers’ policies first.

Thus, the current situation of America was not different.

He concluded that if they did not compromise and instead sought to maintain the status quo and suppress KFC, the United States would fall into deeper chaos, and they might even risk a civil war.

His predecessor, Herbert Hoover, had put in place measures such as governmental financial aid, yet Huey Long proposed more radical conditions for a quicker escape from the Great Depression.

“Isn’t that something only socialists would say?”

“It’s just the government intervening in response to the Great Depression. Just that much. If the government directly utilizes KFC’s solutions to respond to the Great Depression, then we can block KFC’s maneuvers and effectively counter the Great Depression. Just look at Russia. The Empress of Russia successfully navigated through the Great Depression by implementing many policies as part of the reconstruction efforts.”

“Ugh. Still, the circumstances are different.”

“After the situation improves, we can then deal with KFC. Just like always, we Americans can see ourselves through such crises.”

Huey Long’s words sounded plausible.

For now, they should compromise with KFC and act to deal with the Great Depression, redistributing wealth to prevent the spread of Communism.

This reform policy garnered substantial support from many American citizens, and even those who had supported KFC applauded Huey Long’s reform declaration.

Naturally, during this process, the KFC’s issue concerning black people was sidelined, but regardless, the Great Depression took precedence, so Huey Long pushed ahead with these radical reforms.

 

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