Dimensional Trader in Marvel

January 31, 1957.

The sun was shining brightly.

A giant fireball, about 5,000 meters in radius, suddenly exploded in the dark polar night at the North Pole, lighting up the entire Arctic sky.

Soon after, a huge mushroom cloud—40 kilometers wide and about 64 kilometers high—rose into the sky and stayed there for a long time.

The shockwave from the explosion spread as far as 1,000 kilometers.

Several countries that had been closely watching the launch of this nuclear bomb went completely silent.

Its range was long, and its power was massive.

Big countries might be able to handle it, but small ones could be wiped out by just one bomb.

"Can we build a nuclear bomb like this? Can we stop a missile launched this way?" In the White House meeting room, President Eisenhower, who had just been re-elected last year, asked this question to his group of military advisors after hearing the full report from Europe.

The generals looked at each other. No one answered.

The answer was obvious. No one in the room was stupid. When the missile flew out of the atmosphere, they all knew: with the current ability of the U.S. military, there was no way to stop it.

Eisenhower understood this too.

He was only asking the question to prepare for the compromise he was about to make.

"Mr. President, while we can't stop a missile like this, we can make and launch one ourselves!" At that moment, General Maxwell Taylor, then the Army Chief of Staff and an old acquaintance of Josh Kahn, spoke up.

Everyone immediately looked at him.

Until now, the U.S. military had carried out many nuclear tests, but their power was kept within limits, and they were mostly dropped from planes.

They had tested missiles before, but their long-range missile technology wasn't very advanced.

"Go on," Eisenhower nodded to General Taylor.

"In fact, our military and Boeing began a series of strategic missile research projects back in 1951. We made good progress, but the program was shut down two years ago by the Secretary of Defense. However, Boeing continued the research on its own and made a breakthrough last year. I reported this at the time, but it seems it was ignored," Taylor said, both praising Boeing and blaming the Secretary.

Taylor's words made Eisenhower and Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson frown.

Everyone in the room started glancing between the three of them, realizing something deeper was going on.

Who owns Boeing? It's a subsidiary of the powerful Continental Group, led by Josh Kahn.

During the Truman years, Boeing was the U.S. Army and space industry's top supplier.

Since World War II, Josh Kahn and the Army had a close relationship known to anyone with enough rank.

General Taylor, in fact, had a very good personal relationship with Josh Kahn since the war.

But after Eisenhower took office, the partnership between Boeing and the military faced some pushback.

The real problem lay with the Secretary of Defense appointed by Eisenhower.

Before taking this position, he had spent nearly ten years as the president of General Motors.

During World War II, General Motors had been the U.S. military's top supplier. It wasn't part of the Council network but had its own strong influence.

Back then, GM mainly provided planes, trucks, and tanks.

Josh, at the time, was mainly supplying medicine, food, and other daily necessities. So there wasn't much conflict between them.

But after the war, Josh used his connections with the Council and the Chicago financial group to buy companies like Boeing and began getting heavily involved in the arms business. That's when the conflict began.

Josh had a close relationship with Truman's government, and the military gear his companies developed was better than GM's. Josh even joined the government as a senior intelligence officer. Even J. Edgar Hoover, who once held enormous power, was removed.

In that situation, even though GM sided with Howard Stark's camp, most of the time, they could only rely on old contracts and take on some leftover manufacturing work.

After Eisenhower took office, he generally got along well with Josh's Continental Group. For example, Eisenhower supported both the robotics industry and the nationwide anti-mafia campaign, which were backed by Continental.

But in some areas, Eisenhower thought Continental had too much influence over the military and the government. So he promoted some agents of competing financial groups.

Josh, whose focus had already moved beyond America, didn't care much.

But in the past year, while Josh was away from Earth, GM seemed to see a chance and started causing trouble—especially the Secretary of Defense, who used his position to cancel many military contracts with Boeing.

Because the losses weren't too big, Josh, who wasn't on Earth at the time, didn't bother to push back—after all, technically the moves were within the rules.

But not responding at the time didn't mean forgetting about it forever.

Now was a perfect chance.

Boeing belonged to Josh. It had already developed strategic missile technology, but the Department of Defense shut it down.

Austria's queen was Josh's daughter, and Josh's Continental Group had major influence there. Suddenly Austria had advanced missile tech.

It was hard not to connect the dots.

Secretary Wilson wanted badly to shout that Boeing was guilty of treason.

But he wasn't stupid—he knew saying that would only bring ridicule.

Taylor had only said Boeing had the technology. He never said Austria used Boeing's tech.

At this level, if you accuse someone without proof, it's serious—and dangerous.

Wilson didn't want to end up dead in a back alley.

"I'm sorry, Mr. President. This was my mistake. I'll personally apologize to Boeing and restart cooperation with them. I promise to help our country get top-level strategic weapons as soon as possible," Wilson said, taking the blame.

"This isn't urgent," Eisenhower waved it off. "What we need to focus on now is the founding parade of the United Kingdom of Austria tomorrow. Let's quickly decide who's going to attend—we're running out of time."

Once again, everyone in the room looked at each other in surprise.

Wow—there were only a little over ten hours left until Austria's founding parade. Was the President really planning to fly to Vienna himself?

Thankfully, today's planes were fast—otherwise, he'd never make it in time.

Similar scenes were playing out in other countries too.

In France, troops that were on their way to Germany were suddenly recalled by urgent government orders. President Gustave Coty personally sent a message to Vienna, congratulating the founding of the United Kingdom of Austria and saying he would attend the parade on time.

In the UK, Prime Minister Anthony Eden announced his resignation—not only because of Austria.

Back in 1956, during the Czechoslovak-Hungarian crisis, another conflict had broken out in Egypt: the Suez Canal Crisis.

In the original timeline, Britain, France, and Israel had won militarily but were forced to withdraw under pressure from the U.S. and the Soviets.

But in this world, Israel was founded somewhere else and didn't get involved. Egypt's military secretly received help from the Ouroboros group. So even though they didn't defeat the British and French outright, they managed to stop their operation and crush their dream of retaking the canal.

Afterward, both the U.S. and the Soviets slammed Britain and France for their military actions.

Eden's position had already become shaky. He had hoped to use the Czechoslovak-Hungarian crisis to regain support at home. He even brought his retired mentor, Churchill, back to help.

But one intercontinental missile test crushed all his plans—he had no choice but to resign.

There wasn't even a new prime minister yet. So what now?

In the end, the young Queen of the UK—just thirty years old and only a few years into her reign—stepped forward and gave a speech.

She praised Queen Carol Kahn of the United Kingdom of Austria and her idea of peaceful coexistence. She said that Britain and Austria had a long history of friendship and should work together for Europe's future.

In short, the British royal family officially recognized the new Austrian kingdom.

After the speech, things looked bad for Churchill. Just a few days earlier, he had been shouting warnings about the "Austrian threat" in the streets. Now, at over eighty and in poor health, he was rushed to the emergency room. It looked like he might soon be reunited with his old wartime friends.

The Soviets were the only European power that hadn't backed down. They kept attacking Austria's actions through international media, calling its nuclear tests the biggest threat to world peace and saying creating a monarchy was a step backward in history.

They also claimed Austria had secretly started the uprisings in Czechoslovakia and Hungary—that it was all a conspiracy.

They refused to attend Austria's founding ceremony and sent their top deputy, Mikoyan, to Vienna for "serious talks."

At the same time, they halted attacks on Hungary and Czechoslovakia and instead began building defenses along the borders of Romania, Poland, Ukraine, and what was left of Yugoslavia—declaring that Austria must be forever kept out of Soviet lands.

As for other European leaders—especially those from the former Mediterranean Trade Alliance—they had already boarded planes and were on their way to Vienna.

"How do you feel?" On the morning of February 1st, in the queen's bedroom at Schönbrunn Palace, Josh and Margaret smiled as they looked at their daughter, Carol, dressed in full royal regalia and standing before the mirror.

From now on, Schönbrunn would be her royal palace.

Isn't this place way grander than Buckingham Palace?

Though she was only thirteen, Carol already stood tall at nearly 1.6 meters, thanks to good genes, a privileged life, and early development. Dressed in her elegant royal gown, she carried herself with the poise of a true queen.

Of course, her twin brother Mike and younger brother Ben, also dressed up for the ceremony, looked just as impressive.

"Don't worry, Father. I'll be a great queen!" Carol said proudly, lifting her chin like a graceful swan.

Over the past few years, she had been receiving royal education under Josh's careful guidance. Though still young, she had accepted her future role early on and worked hard for it. She was proud of it.

After all, girls around the world were still dreaming of becoming princesses, she had already skipped all the steps and become a queen.

Wasn't that something to be proud of?

She knew this was all possible because of her father, Josh.

But hey—being born lucky is a skill too, right? (TL/N: ..What?)

"Of course I believe in you," Josh said, looking at his daughter, who suddenly seemed all grown up. He couldn't help feeling a bit sentimental.

His little girl had grown up. Who would she marry one day?

Wait a second—with Carol's status and position now, was there anyone on Earth even worthy of her?

Would he have to find a son-in-law from some alien civilization?

Just thinking about the weird aliens he'd seen before sent chills down Josh's spine.

While he was lost in these thoughts, he suddenly sensed a familiar ripple in the air.

Everyone in the room—including the handmaidens helping Carol get ready—were trusted people, so he didn't bother asking anyone to leave.

A moment later, a portal appeared in the room—and the Ancient One stepped out.

Since Josh had revealed everything to Margaret, the Ancient One had become a regular visitor at their home. Even the kids were used to her and greeted her with respect.

"Master Ancient One? What brings you here?" Josh asked, surprised by the visit.

"Well, Carol once called me her teacher. How could I miss her coronation? Sweetheart, this is for you," the Ancient One said, hugging Carol and putting a very old-looking necklace around her neck.

Josh could tell right away—it was a powerful magical item. A very valuable gift.

"...There's more to this than just a gift, isn't there?" Josh asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," the Ancient One nodded. "Besides this, I'm also here to let you know—two princes from Asgard will be attending the ceremony on behalf of their realm."

Josh froze.

Two princes from Asgard?

Thor and Loki?

Coming to witness a human coronation?

Has Odin finally lost his mind?

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