83 Like the king Of England

"I hope this does not turn ugly," Felipe lamented as he looked at the backyard of his massive prison; he was in a chateau. The Gardens that bloomed in summer were now rather pale and woody, with few leaves in the hedges. 

"Who am I kidding? It is already ugly," Felipe lamented as he took a sip from the bottle of Champaign in his right hand. 

"Ahhh… let's hope it does not get uglier." It was not proper of him to get drunk at all, but seeing the stupid situation he had put himself into, he could not help himself but drink. 

He felt like Franz Ferdinand, who, after the bomb assassination of the Serbian terrorist, was overconfident and naïve. Going to France was him trying to go to meet the victims of the explosion that wanted to kill him in the same car which did not have a top!

However, just like Archduke Franz, he did not think it would happen! In the case of Franz, he assumed that after a failed attempt, the Murderer would leave. However, he did not; in his case, he thought another nation would not just capture another head of state unless they were at war! The Colombian Empire has pledged allegiance to help the Haitians not pay their predatory debts. However, they were not at war! They only had high tensions, which, if something like imprisoning the heir and a head of state of the Empire, would be war. 

Even though the French intentions were clear, he would not let his emotions drive the outcome of the following few days. 

We were not afraid of the French and their Navy; he was not. He was so confident in the rifled cannon he had developed that he could bet anything he would win in any naval battle. The impressive thing about rifle cannons was that they had 4-5 times the range of pressure than a smooth cannon. 

So, yeah, he was not fucking around. He wanted to bring Artillery to fight Paez when he was getting back Venezuela into the yoke of the Empire; however, the news of Paez already on his way to the Capital was somewhat concerning, so it was decided to go without Artillery, which, hindsight, it was rather dumb. There was also the fact that most of the Cannons were serving on the Southern Front against Spain, and the only cannons left for him to wage war were smooth. 

The risk paid off, as the enemy was also not looking to drag Cannons from all over Venezuela to Bogota, 2000 meters above sea level! They relayed that there would not be real soldiers in the Capital to defend them, and of course, speed. 

So, a war with France was not in his mind of concern; what was concerning was that France would draw military and regular support from Greece, which, alongside all other powerful countries, had been supporting and flooding it with military talent and power, mostly from volunteers but the naval support from the great powers of Europe have been essential to the complete slaughter of 300+ Thousand Egyptians and Ottoman Troops that should have had landed on Greece. 

The whole thing was rather harsh and humbled the Ottoman Empire. It was one of the main reasons Greece was so big now compared to what it should be. 

Any war the Ottomans would fight would be on land, as the defeat was so great that it was too weak for their power. So Felipe was looking to see if he could use Rifle Cannons for Artillery in the war. 

Felipe believed in technological superiority so much that he was willing to take huge risks that other armies would not even consider. For instance, he changed military doctrine while the entire army was at war in the Empire, angered the officers fighting. However, it was not implemented into the war but into the new divisions that would go into it. 

Nonetheless, he was a prisoner right now, and he could not do anything about it; his people stayed within the Chateau, but the French soldiers patrolling the backyard and the borders of the mansion would stick out like a sore thumb with their very bright colours on their uniforms.

"Maybe we should get a bit drunk." Not looking forward to dealing with reality, Felipe simply took another sip from the bottle, not caring if the people in charge of his reprise would come later tonight.

"The fuck you are, Sergio?" Felipe murmured as if his ambassador to France could hear him from there.

He knew he had not betrayed him, and there had not been a lousy rift in relationships between the French State and his ambassador, so he did not understand why he was in such a situation. 

"After all the fucking money spent here… how can you let things deteriorate so much?" Felipe cursed as he felt himself getting tipsy. Even though his dealings in France have come really out of great profit, the fact was, he has still spent a lot of money in France. 

He has not even enjoyed his massive castle, which his ambassador bought deep in France to throw parties. 'I must at least experience it before losing it.' 

In his mind, the King of France would be more than happy to take everything from them and declare war, which is stupid. However, Felipe has realized that noble people do not follow normal logic and are, more likely than not, spoiled.

--

Next day. 

"Aaaahhh!!!" Felipe woke up stressfully as his regular biological clock shook him from his nightmare. However, unlike when he usually gets his nightmare, the sun was already out, and he snapped right into consciousness as the pain in his head made him hiss.

"Fuck… I don't have a tolerance for Alcohol… at all." Felipe just complained, but he was not looking into making himself tolerable to Alcohol any time soon; maybe if he goes imprisoned on an island in the middle of the South Atlantic, then he will drink his heart content until his liver fails. 

However, he has not yet seen why that would be his 100% fate. 

'Hangovers are worse than waking up soaked in blood and buried on bodies.' Felipe lamented as he remembered all too vividly, and the headache did not compare to anything he had felt in recent memory.

The door opened, and one of his soldiers looked at him as if he was looking if he was alive. 

"Cough, cough, Your Majesty, Breakfast is Ready and poison tested already," he said very seriously. 

"Hahaha, sure, you should ask for breakfast for all your people like mine. We are under house arrest; what could they say? No?" Felipe laughed at the hungry man's situation. "Ask for the biggest portions and everything."

"Can we do that?" 

"Yeah, just say that I have a huge appetite and do not know what I will eat." Felipe smiled at him without a care in the world, "I am not getting mad; we are in house arrest, after all." 

"Alright… but…... but... I do not know French." Alejandro said, quite ashamed. The programs in the Empire would encourage people to learn a third language besides the one compulsory in the school system. However, he has not done so, and French was one of them.

"Speak English. You guys know English, right? Eggs, Chicken, Sausage, Bread... that lingo."

"Oh, I see… I will try! Is everything okay?" Alejandro finally asked as he got to the point. 

"Yes, normal nightmare… I have to pay more attention to my routine." Felipe just waved his hand. "Go, I will meet you guys in a minute."

"Eat with us?"

"What? We are literally inside enemy lines, and the only people I know are you guys… It would be nice if they had some crocodile meat… tail in specific… I wonder how it would taste with other spices," Felipe said while smiling.

"Right, right… I will tell the guys then."

"Bring the sailors as well; make them get a shower first…" Felipe added. They did not even spare the Sailors, hahaha, what a thing. Let's dine like kings… I am sure they instructed the chefs to please me, didn't he?"

"Most likely, yes. Everything was pretty fancy, and there was no end to footmen here… Casablanca thinks they are spies."

"Haha, so be it. Let's hope we stay here until the end of the day so we can lunch and dine." Felipe smiled, as he did not care about anything else. Nothing was under his control and would be for the foreseeable future. 

He had to wait for the British; after all, they had just signed a big deal with him, and they would at least say something. Nonetheless, he was more hopeful that his ambassador would come in clutches and do something if he was not in the same position.

Nevertheless, it was an open bar, and he was not looking to waste anything; he would eat like the king of England.