The Noble Marauders

"Phew! I'm saved!"

Andrássy let out a ragged sigh of relief, watching the rebel nobles being ruthlessly purged by the rampaging cooperative mobs. It had already been a year since chaos erupted in Hungary. Gritting his teeth, Andrássy had survived this peasant uprising as if walking on the edge of a blade.

"Burn it all down...!"

"Follow Comrade Hitler! Behead the aristocrats and take what is rightfully ours!"

The cooperative rioters swarmed in small groups like locusts, raiding the estates of nobles they had long detested. It was a sight highly reminiscent of the Red Guards of twentieth-century China.

Andrássy himself could not entirely escape being a target of the peasant army. However, there was a difference.

"Baron Andrássy?!"

"Aren't you... Felix, who went to Baron Teleki last time?! You said you were going to work hard and buy land, didn't you?"

Andrássy pushed his brain to its absolute limits, barely managing to recall the name of the serf—no, the agricultural laborer—who had once worked under him. It was only because he had treated his agricultural laborers as equals while purchasing massive quantities of fertilizer from the Stahl-Wittgenstein Chemical Company that he could recall it at all.

"You know how it is, Baron. Baron Teleki withheld our wages and fled to Russia. So we rose up to get back what we're owed."

"So that's what happened. But why are you here?"

"Well..."

Felix hesitated for a moment, then quickly vanished back into the crowd of peasants without giving a proper answer.

"What is it?"

"Baron Andrássy has always been cooperative with us. We should bypass his manor."

Reinhardt, commander of the 1st Battalion of the Cooperative Revolutionary Guard, fell into deep thought. Hailing from the 16th district of the Vienna Slums, Reinhardt had steadily climbed the ranks at the SFW Chemical Company and was eventually dispatched to the Hungarian Agricultural Cooperative.

Reinhardt had been dispatched to the cooperative under these direct orders from Stahl.

"For several years now, Baron Andrássy has treated his tenants properly in accordance with the Stahl-Ferdinand Model. The receipts he kept from purchasing fertilizer should serve as proof."

"Hmm, is that so?"

Reinhardt naturally decided to bypass Baron Andrássy's manor. The looting itself could not be stopped. Frankly, calling it looting was a bit of a stretch—wasn't it essentially just the peasants collecting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their rightful wages? However, innocent bystanders must not be harmed in the process, nor should it escalate into indiscriminate slaughter.

Thus, by presenting his receipts from the chemical company, Andrássy managed to escape with his life.

Pant, pant... I survived...

While letting out a sigh of relief, Andrássy's mind began to spin rapidly, fitting for a young, forward-thinking noble—the "MZ generation" of the Hungarian aristocracy.

If I want to preserve my family and our estate, I must move quickly. The times have already changed. The new business opportunity... is the Agricultural Cooperative!

While it usually takes decades for mountains and rivers to change, Hungary had been completely transformed in just a few short years. The universal suffrage introduced a few years ago was a prime example.

In the Hungarian Parliament, the Hungarian Social Democratic Workers' Party made such a staggering leap forward that one had to rub their eyes to believe it. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Independence Party, which had previously dominated the chamber, failed to secure even a single-party majority.

Even so, the Hungarian Independence Party remained the ruling party. They had scraped together a coalition cabinet with various minor parties, and the election itself had been far from clean. While Austria had maintained a relatively decent standard of secret ballots—though even Austrian elections weren't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠perfect, being the first universal suffrage of the twentieth century—Hungary was a different story.

"Think carefully about what will happen to you if you don't vote for the Hungarian Independence Party."

"Ah, I see you voted for the Hungarian Independence Party. Take a keg of beer from over there."

Because the landlords used all sorts of corrupt methods to coerce their serfs into voting for the Independence Party, they somehow managed to retain control of the cabinet. But just a few years later, that very cabinet was shattered once again.

There was no way the Emperor would leave a cabinet that had brought about the Hungarian crisis untouched. The cabinet collapsed, and the Hungarian Parliament was forced to hold another election. However...

"Parliament? Par-lia-ment?! What kind of joke is that? We can't trust these garbage elections anymore!"

"Not this time, please trust us just once! Look, we've even set up proper booths so you can cast a secret ballot!"

"Get lost! How do we know you won't just swap out the ballot boxes?"

"Here, this is beer prepared by our party! We've even got leather shoes this time. If you vote for us..."

"This is exactly why we don't trust you!"

After their long-dreamed-of first universal election ended in utter futility, and the elected ruling party was branded as traitors to the point of near-dissolution, the Hungarian public completely lost all hope and trust in the electoral system.

"...The voter turnout this time was eight percent?"

"Only eight percent? Does Parliament even have any meaning at this point?"

Of course, one had to account for the chaos gripping the country, which naturally depressed turnout. But even with that in mind, the turnout was so abysmally low that maintaining a functioning parliament was practically impossible. Yet, shockingly, the Hungarian Independence Party won the election again, securing an overwhelming majority reminiscent of the pre-reform era. Why? Because the peasants who opposed them simply didn't bother to vote.

But what real power could a majority party hold in a parliament elected by a mere eight percent of the population? Sure, they had legal authority and constitutional power on paper. If they were eager to find themselves at the business end of a guillotine, they were welcome to try and exercise it.

Yet, this did not mean democracy in Hungary had completely regressed.

"Starting today, elections for the regional board of directors of the Agricultural Cooperative will be held over the next ten days. We request everyone's participation."

"The Hungarian economy is going ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to run entirely through the cooperative now anyway. Let's hurry up and vote."

"Who are you voting for as Chairman? Comrade Hitler, obviously, right?"

"Hey now! It's a secret ballot, isn't it?"

"Well, it's obvious Comrade Hitler is going to become the General Chairman anyway. We just need to focus on electing our local cooperative leaders."

In place of the paralyzed Hungarian government, the Hungarian Agricultural Cooperative implemented various welfare policies, coordinated the imperial economy, and overcame the depression. They even possessed their own police and military forces—albeit at a militia level—and held the authority to negotiate with Austria as the representatives of the Hungarian people. If this wasn't a state, what was?

Following the birth of that bizarre entity known as the National Revolutionary Republic in the heart of Central Europe two years prior, a Cooperative Republic had now been born.

Of course, the cooperative vehemently denied such claims. But to the Emperor, the Agricultural Cooperative was a far more reliable partner than the official Hungarian government and parliament, which did nothing but threaten rebellion, riots, and independence on a daily basis. It was tacitly recognized by the Empire.

Reflecting this reality, anyone could purchase a vote for the Cooperative Leader elections by paying a nominal fee to the cooperative. For the impoverished who couldn't even afford that small sum, they could earn their voting rights through a brief period of voluntary labor.

Baron Andrássy took his barely preserved cash assets and his entire estate and walked straight into the cooperative. If he wanted to keep acting as a lord? It was simple. He just had to get elected as a regional Cooperative Leader.

Before I knew it, the year was 1909—just five years away from the outbreak of the First World War. Or was it really five years? Serbia had transformed into a bizarre state entity known as the Democratic Revolutionary Republic of Yugoslavia.

Of course, this alone didn't feel like a massive alteration of history. Rather than changing history, it felt more like accelerating it. In the original timeline, Serbia was a kingdom, so its actions carried a certain weight, and it didn't completely lose its mind and run amok as an entire nation. Granted, having a secret society rule the country behind the scenes was a mess in its own right, but still.

But now, Serbia was acting far more recklessly than in the original history. Russia couldn't afford to abandon Serbia anyway. How else would they control the Balkans without them? Knowing full well that Russia had no choice but to back them, Serbia was constantly provoking even Russia to compensate for their own lack of legitimacy—behaving ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠much like North Korea standing beside China.

At this rate, just like in the original timeline, Serbia will pick a fight with Austria and spark a war. For instance, by having me assassinated... Son of a bitch.

I really needed to tighten security around myself and my associates. There was no telling what those lunatics—who were backed by the Russian Tsar while simultaneously inciting coups and rebellions through their National Revolutionary Party—might pull.

But surely, the place that had changed the most was none other than the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself. There were no longer any elements threatening to destabilize the empire from within. Of course, embers of unrest still smoldered here and there, but they would never grow into a raging inferno capable of consuming the state.

The empire is finally united. Neither Hungary nor Bosnia will be threatening to declare independence anymore.

In fact, Hungary and Bosnia had become the Emperor's strongest pillars of support. Yet, every time I looked at Hungary, I felt a wave of dizziness wash over me. When I first established the Agricultural Cooperative, my intention was merely to resolve the agricultural crisis and the economic depression, and perhaps position it as an influential administrative body within the Kingdom of Hungary. The cooperative's growth was certainly in line with my plans. But...

Holy shit, I didn't expect it to go this far.

I had no idea how a literal Cooperative Kingdom had suddenly sprung into existence. They were running their own police force, managing economic policies... and now, the cooperative's audit department was even trying to usurp the role of the judiciary. Of course...

"Comrade Stahl! The success of the Hungarian Agricultural Cooperative is truly remarkable. Of course, it was only possible because Hungary has a bizarre structure where agriculture grew abnormally, but my goodness. To realize a socialist utopia that abolishes private property! If we view the peasantry as a single enterprise, wouldn't this be possible in Austria as well?"

"...I am not so sure."

Lenin visited me every single day, looking so ecstatic he might drop dead of joy. Naturally, as a stubborn radical leftist, one would think he'd look down on a mere cooperative model. But Lenin was a man who would embrace anything—whether it was vanguardism or something else—as long as it achieved the abolition of private property and the collapse of capitalism predicted by Marx. He only stuck to the vanguard party line because it worked; if a revolution had succeeded through the Social Democratic Party, he probably would have pivoted to social democracy in a heartbeat.

At any rate, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had once been as fragile as a house of cards, was now reasonably unified. With this, we possessed enough national strength to hold our own in the Great War. What if the Great War didn't happen, you ask? Oh, please. The lunatics in Yugoslavia were engaging in provocations that would put North Korea to shame on a daily basis, and the European alliance system hadn't changed a bit.

"Sigh. Anyway, I need to catch my breath."

I leaned back on the sofa. I had been living solely as a public figure for far too long. It was time to attend to some personal matters.

"Ah, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. You're here? Shall we go on a picnic? It's been a while."

"What brought this on? More importantly, what on earth are you going to do about marriage? I went out of my way to arrange matchmaking meetings for you, and you rejected every single one of them! What does that make me look like?!"

"Pardon? No, a marriage between royalty and a commoner... If we did such a thing..."

"Are you mocking my marriage right now?"

Ah, oops! Come to think of it, Archduke Franz Ferdinand despised being bound by the archaic custom of morganatic marriage, which was probably why he went out of his way to introduce me to noblewomen. I wasn't sure what the Emperor thought of it, but seeing the shifting political landscape lately, it seemed even the Emperor had had a change of heart. Whenever I visited the Emperor regarding matters of the Hungarian Agricultural Cooperative, I noticed that his infamous list of over a hundred daily rules had been cut in half.

"The Emperor's rules..."

"Ah, the rules? His Majesty realized how tedious they were and ordered them to be put away. He has changed quite a bit lately. He even sleeps in sometimes."

Having ascended the throne without solid legitimacy, the Emperor had spent his entire life fighting the empire's enemies, which had manifested as a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. But now that order had finally been restored to Hungary—the very land that had plagued him for half a century—his obsession had naturally eased.

I need to keep a close eye on the Emperor's rules. If that list starts getting complicated again, it means a siren is going off in his sharp political instincts.

According to Freudian psychoanalysis, an unhealthy individual expresses repressed unconscious desires through obsessive-compulsive symptoms, whereas a healthy individual sublimates those desires by dedicating themselves to various hobbies or work. The Emperor had found himself a new hobby.

"By the way, when is the next mass game scheduled?"

"I shall speak with Adolf and have him set a date."

The Emperor spent his days engrossed in card stunts and mass games, taking great pleasure in calling out and berating those who made mistakes during the card stunts, as if he were playing a game of spot-the-difference.

"Are you the one standing third in the twelfth row? You raised your card two seconds too early, throwing off the entire image. What was your intention behind this?"

"I-I-I-I am terribly sorry, Your Majesty!"

It was a rather bizarre spectacle, but for a constitutional monarch, it was actually quite desirable. If only he would completely lose interest in politics like this, living as a mere totem like the Emperor of Japan, and focus entirely on his hobbies whenever he got bored.