Palazzo Sforzesco
Nuova Milano, Kingdom of Nuova Lombardia
15:00hrs Local Time, February 2, 2019
To say that the Kingdom of Nuova Lombardia had complicated beginnings was quite an accurate statement. The nation's origins lay in the overthrow of the Borgia-ruled Roman Empire and the subsequent rise of the new Roman Republic, as the political upheaval saw many noble and mercantile families re-evaluate their positions. Many sided with the new Republic but there were those who did not do so, either out of disdain for a republican system or because rival families were positioned against them. The latter reason was why the House of Sforza-Riario abandoned their ancestral holdings and fled to the New World. The Sforzas had absorbed the Riario family following the Riario loss of lands at the hands of the Borgias, then ingratiated themselves with the Borgia dynasty while collecting other dispossessed families from around Italy. These families included the House of Pazzi, ejected from Florence for trying to usurp the Medici (with covert assistance from the Sforza-Riario via Girolamo Riario, the husband of Caterina Sforza). The House of Sforza-Riario inevitably found themselves isolated when the Empire fell as their previous plots came back to haunt them, so they fled with their collection of dispossessed families and any assets they could safely transport to Central America. They spent just over a century worming their way into the colonial administration and successfully deflecting investigations from the homeland before leading the colony of Guatemala to their independence from the Roman Republic. The new state was renamed as the Kingdom of Nuova Lombardia with the House of Sforza-Riario as the newly-installed royal dynasty. In the following four centuries Nuova Lombardia had developed into an ethnically diverse nation with two official languages, Italian (due to the ruling class) and Spanish (as the majority of immigrants to the kingdom over the years had come from Spain). The population consisted primarily of 'Euro-Lombardians' ('white' European ancestry; 17%), 'Mestizos' (mixed European and indigenous ancestry, named using a Spanish term; 37%), indigenous 'Amerindians' (38%), and 'Afro-Lombardians' (African ancestry; 6%); the remaining 2% of the population consisted mainly of Asian-Lombardians and a small Jewish community which had arisen over the centuries. Primarily an agricultural nation organised along similar lines to the hacienda system, Nuova Lombardia was still the playground of the Sforza-Riario and their cronies. A Sforza-Riario always occupied the throne with the rest of the royal family acting as advisors and sometimes enforcers (depending on the temperament of certain family members) for their monarch. The Pazzi had settled into a 'management' role where they too provided advisors to the monarch but they also handled the administration of industries described as being of 'strategic national significance' including the major utilities such as energy supply, water supply, and communications; these industries operated as monopolies under Pazzi management. The family also maintained substantial influence over the kingdom's burgeoning financial and banking sector. The two families had worked together for so long that a saying had developed within the kingdom that 'the Sforza rule and the Pazzi manage'. The other families who traced their line back to the original exodus alongside the Sforza-Riario, such as the Borromeo and the Albergoni, had become prominent landowners and owners of large family-controlled conglomerates within the kingdom.
It was a glorious Saturday afternoon in the capital of Nuova Milano, with a temperature around 25°C and a relatively comfortable level of humidity. The city was divided into twenty-two zones for ease of navigation, with Zone One containing the national library, the national theatre, and most importantly the Palazzo Sforzesco (Sforza Palace). The Palazzo Sforzesco was the primary residence of the reigning monarch and also possessed a spot regarded as the 'Kilometre Zero' of Nuova Lombardia, regarded as the point of origin for all roads within the kingdom. The front of the palace faced out into the Piazza Reale (Royal Plaza), a public park and garden area which was often used as a gathering point for the public to hear addresses from their monarch. The Baroque and Renaissance-style Palazzo Sforzesco appeared to have a very light tinge of green to its exterior due to the mix of concrete and oxidized copper used to coat the building, a procedure performed because the reigning monarch at that time liked the colour green. The palace had been constructed between 1939 and 1943 in order to provide the monarch with a more modern residence at the heart of the capital; while it did not feature extensive grounds, the walled-off palace was more than adequate as a royal residence based on the interior. There were two open-air courtyards built into the centre of the palace so that the residents could enjoy pleasant weather, although in recent years one of the courtyards had been covered over and tranformed into a Renaissance-esque swimming pool area. The rest of the interior was decorated in obvious Renaissance styles in a nod to the previous high point of the Sforza-Riario fortunes in Italy, with a large number of tapestries, murals, and mosaics displayed throughout the palace. Authorised regular visitors to the palace were permitted access to the high-security underground parking area beneath the Piazza Reale which was linked to the palace, while other visitors used the small ground-level parking area which lay between the palace and the Piazza Reale.
Aurelio Pazzi thanked his driver as he opened the rear door of Aurelio's silver Bentley Arnage, allowing the Lord Chancellor of Nuova Lombardia to exit the vehicle followed by his personal secretary Isabella Milanesi. With styled gray hair and a neat gray beard and moustache, the sixty-seven year old Aurelio wore a gray business suit accessorised with a light brown tie; the thirty-eight year old Isabella wore her black hair tied back and was dressed in a cream skirt suit accessorised with a wide black belt. The pair crossed the underground parking area in the same manner as every other visit to the palace, Aurelio leading the way while Isabella followed a few steps behind, holding a black leather briefcase. After having their identification checked at the guard post which was situated before the elevator up to the palace, the pair entered the elevator in the knowledge that they would be greeted by additional security once they entered the palace proper. The security of the palace was handled by the Sforza Royal Guard, an intensely trained brigade-sized unit of six thousand troops which provided security at all royal residences. The Royal Guard were unofficially known as the 'Black Guard' due to the fact that all of the personnel were of African heritage, a throwback to the practise of recruiting slaves as the Royal Guards during the slavery era; the slave soldiers were believed to be more loyal than free men because they relied on their monarch for their lives. The modern Sforza Royal Guard were recruited from the Afro-Lombardian population as well as from Africa itself if the possibility arose. Dressed in dark green uniform with a black tactical vest and a red beret featuring the heraldry of the royal house, the Sforza Royal Guard had an excellent reputation as no Lombardian monarch had been injured or killed by would-be aggressors since the brigade's inception. Upon exiting the elevator Aurelio and Isabella were greeted by yet another member of the Sforza Royal Guard who escorted them to the swimming pool area, where the three primary members of the House of Sforza-Riario were wiling away the afternoon. Queen Mother Graziella and Princess Valentina were sat at an ornately-carved Lombardian mahogany garden table in high-backed mahogany chairs, chatting about various subjects while sipping at glasses of Limonada con soda, a Lombardian beverage made from fresh squeezed lime juice, sugar, and carbonated mineral water. Both were dressed in comfortable clothing, Valentina wearing a white knee-length dress while Graziella wore white trousers and a flowery patterned blouse. As Aurelio stepped into the vicinity, the two women waved in greeting before Graziella gestured towards the pool.
King Fiorenzo II was idly swimming around in the clear blue waters of the palace pool in a pair of white swim shorts, performing a rather lazy version of a breaststroke before he noticed Aurelio and Isabella patiently standing in anticipation of his attention. The twenty-three year old monarch slowly made his way to the pool ladder and climbed out, instantly being handed a fresh towel by Matteo, the household's fifty year old bespectacled butler. Slightly shorter than his youthful king, Matteo always wore black trousers with a white shirt, black waistcoat, and a burgundy tie. After handing over the towel Matteo quickly retreated while Fiorenzo dried himself, eventually draping the towel around his shoulders and wrestling his neck-length brunette mane into some form of order before finally addressing his chief advisor.
"My apologies for calling you in for a chat on a Saturday, Aurelio. Would you like some Limonada?"
"I appreciate the offer, Your Majesty. Thank you." Aurelio then waited as Fiorenzo gestured with his fingers, the cue for Matteo to approach with a six-inch long silver cigarette holder which was decorated with the Sforza vipera. Fiorenzo took the cigarette holder and casually placed one end between his lips as Matteo produced a silver lighter and lit the Lombardian-made cigarette which was perfectly set in the mount at the opposite end of the silver tube. Fiorenzo took a draw and then exhaled the smoke before continuing, while Matteo moved to the table and poured two more glasses of Limonada, handing one each to Aurelio and Isabella before once again retreating into the background.
"So I've been giving some more thought to our refugee programme idea. It would be wonderful if Nuova Lombardia could become a refuge for the displaced but cold reality means that we cannot simply let anyone in. There are nations that would shamelessly use the programme to insert spies and agitators into our kingdom, abusing our good intentions in order to advance their ambitions of making every other nation into their obedient puppet through violence. We would require some safeguards against such infiltration."
Aurelio nodded. "Quite correct, Your Majesty. We would need definitive proof of each refugee's identity and homeland, evidence of why they require refuge, and secure accommodation to house them while we verify these things. We would also need to keep them under long-term observation once they pass the requirements in order to ensure that they are genuine refugees, and we would have to provide them with employment, homes, and the like."
Fiorenzo pointed at Aurelio with his cigarette holder. "Now that I think about it, there's also the matter of transporting them here in the first place."
Aurelio sipped at his drink before replying. "Indeed, no small feat. I hate to say it, Your Majesty, but the cost of taking in refugees will probably outweigh the value that they could provide to the kingdom. Perhaps if we reduce our ambition to accommodate the reality of the world? Rather than announce a refugee programme we could simply wait and see if anyone requests asylum. We can then handle each asylum request according to their unique circumstances. If we suspect an attempt at infiltration then we can put the onus on the applicant or applicants to prove themselves."
"It would also make it much easier for us to refuse requests on that basis. Wise counsel as ever, Aurelio."
