Reincarnated: Vive La France
Chapter 273: That Europe is no longer united by fear of war.

Chapter 273: That Europe is no longer united by fear of war.

Next day someone had moved Mussolini closer to Stalin.

Göring now sat farther from Bonnet.

But everyone knew better.

Chamberlain started.

"We’ve spoken of Spain. Now we speak of France in Spain."

He looked to Bonnet, but Bonnet said nothing.

All eyes turned to Moreau.

Moreau didn’t blink.

He sat upright, coat still on, hands folded.

"I didn’t come to ask permission."

Hitler leaned forward, smirking. "That much is clear."

Stalin drummed his fingers.

"You seized a country."

"No," Moreau said. "I repaired one."

Mussolini scoffed. "With tanks?"

"With engineers," Moreau replied. "Tanks don’t build power lines."

"Your tanks cut through three sovereign corridors,"

"Sovereign to whom?" Moreau asked. "To generals who vanished into forests? To councils that hadn’t held session in months?"

Roosevelt leaned in, voice calm.

"Marshal, you moved troops into another country’s borders. Replaced their administration. Rewired their cities. Do you not consider that occupation?"

"No," Moreau said. "I consider that transition."

"You didn’t ask the world," Stalin said.

"I didn’t need to."

"You do now."

Moreau looked at him. "And what will the world do?"

Stalin raised an eyebrow. "We’ll tell you to leave."

Moreau nodded slightly.

"Then say it."

The silence returned.

Until Hitler broke it.

"You don’t belong in Spain. You’re not Spanish."

"You weren’t in Austria when you drew up Anschluss either," Bonnet muttered.

Göring’s face flushed. "France shouldn’t throw stones. How many governments have you had this decade?"

"And how many constitutions have you burned?" Bonnet snapped.

"Gentlemen," Chamberlain said sharply. "Focus."

Roosevelt turned to Moreau.

"Marshal, what is your intent? Why are you still there?"

Moreau’s voice was steady.

"I didn’t come for conquest. I came for continuity. Spain didn’t fall. It stopped breathing. I restarted the lungs."

"You installed your own system," Stalin growled.

"I installed water, rail, teachers. Your commissars brought pamphlets. My people brought insulin."

"And yet the tricolor flies over city halls."

"No flag," Moreau said. "Just function."

"But French function," Hitler said.

"Because Spain had none."

"Convenient," Mussolini muttered.

Roosevelt was quiet a moment.

"Would you leave if asked?"

Moreau met his eyes.

"No."

Stalin grinned.

"There it is."

The mood shifted.

Even the aides noticed it from behind the glass.

This wasn’t dialogue.

It was prelude.

"You have no right," Mussolini barked.

"You had no right in Ethiopia," Roosevelt countered.

"That was restoration!"

"That was slaughter," Bonnet said.

"You bombed Barcelona!" Stalin said to Hitler.

"And you flooded it with spies!" Göring snapped back.

"The Republic was broken," Bonnet said. "But not yours to fix."

"It wasn’t yours either," Hitler hissed.

"No," Bonnet said, calm. "But he made it ours."

Hitler stood.

So did Stalin.

Moreau remained seated.

"Do you think this ends well?" Stalin asked.

"It already has," Moreau replied. "Spain is quiet."

"Too quiet," Mussolini said.

"That’s called peace."

"It’s called control."

"It’s called function."

Chamberlain stood.

"This cannot continue. Europe cannot sustain this contradiction. Spain must return to itself."

Roosevelt added, "Withdraw, Marshal. Keep your pride. But return Spain to Spaniards."

Moreau spoke without pause.

"They are still Spaniards. I didn’t change the people. I changed the power grid."

Hitler scoffed. "Don’t pretend to be neutral. You rewrote their laws. Their borders. Their soul."

Stalin’s voice went flat.

"You’ve created a vacuum, and filled it with yourself."

Moreau looked to him.

"No. I filled it with roads."

"You bypassed Madrid’s sovereignty."

"Madrid surrendered it."

"To you?"

"To anyone who showed up."

"You replaced a revolution," Mussolini spat.

"I replaced starvation."

Chamberlain walked to the center.

"This summit must decide."

Moreau stood now.

Finally.

He looked at each man.

One by one.

"I didn’t take Spain by force. I took it by absence. You were all too busy arguing over ideologies while cities blacked out. While bakeries ran dry. While soldiers traded bullets for bread."

"No mandate gives you control," Roosevelt said.

"No flag gave me permission," Moreau answered. "Need did."

"You sound like a monarch," Hitler said.

"No," Moreau replied. "I sound like a doctor watching a room full of politicians debate symptoms while the patient flatlines."

"And what is your cure?" Stalin asked.

"Stability."

"At what cost?" Mussolini asked.

"Less than yours."

They broke again for lunch.

No one ate.

No one sat near Moreau.

Only Bonnet stood beside him, offering water.

"You knew this was coming," Bonnet said quietly.

"I counted on it."

"What will you do?"

Moreau didn’t answer.

He just looked out the stained glass window.

Below, guards marched in double file.

Flags didn’t move.

Even the sky seemed paused.

He knew the result already.

No one will do anything.

Not today, not in future when Hitler marches across Austria, Czechoslovakia.

When they returned, Chamberlain stood before the group.

"This body demands.."

"Don’t say demands," Bonnet interrupted.

Chamberlain nodded. "Requests the withdrawal of all French personnel from Spanish territory within sixty days."

"And if we decline?" Bonnet asked.

Stalin replied. "Then Europe prepares."

"For what?"

"For pressure."

"Diplomatic?"

"For now."

Mussolini spoke next. "You act as if we are divided."

"You are," Moreau said.

The room went still.

"None of you agree," Moreau continued. "You share nothing but fear. Fear that I succeeded where you stalled. Fear that Spain functions. Fear that I didn’t need your permission to end your experiment."

"You’re isolating France," Roosovelt warned.

"No," Moreau said. "I’m anchoring it."

"To what?"

"To a future that doesn’t need this room."

Stalin turned to Chamberlain.

"Then let’s draft the resolution."

Hitler nodded. "Put it on paper."

Bonnet looked at Moreau.

But Moreau was already turning away.

"I’ll read it," he said.

"But I won’t obey it."

He walked out.

The door clicked shut behind him.

Silence again.

And then, softly, Roosvelt spoke.

"We just witnessed something historic."

Chamberlain sighed. "Yes."

Stalin whispered, "We witnessed precedent."

"No," Hitler said, his voice low. "We witnessed proof."

"Of what?"

"That Europe is no longer united by fear of war."

He stood.

"But by fear of irrelevance."

In Madrid, school bells rang on time.

In Toledo, bakeries opened with fresh loaves.

In Granada, the trams ran without delay.

Spain did not wait for resolutions.

It already had one.

His name was Moreau.

And he wasn’t leaving.