In the winter of 1987, a young man from the Federated States arrived in Ordostok with a group of friends, intending to spend New Year’s Eve in the infamous frozen capital. Accounts and later testimonies describe him as consumed by a peculiar fascination with Aldira’s ideology. His bedroom walls back home had been covered with Aldiran propaganda posters, which he described as “the highest form of art.” This interest, however, was not the result of rigorous study or philosophical commitment, but rather a naive and adventurous expression of youthful rebellion. He understood little of Aldiran Thought, treating it instead as a “dark philosophy” and admiring not its metaphysical foundations but its “cultic vibe.”

  The group lodged at a state-approved hotel in Ordostok. As with all foreign visitors, their movements were discreetly tracked by civilian security agents, and their rooms were fitted with listening devices under standard internal protocols. Arriving with little comprehension of Aldira’s social reality, they had anticipated the familiar indulgences of American youth culture—bars, nightclubs, and uninterrupted celebration. Instead, they encountered a city defined by disciplined austerity and asceticism, where restraint functioned as a civic norm and noise itself was treated as disorder. The young man, shaped by a culture of abundance and spectacle, had entered a society governed by a hermitic elite that had deliberately erased the exhibitionist world from which he came. Among foreigners, Aldira was already regarded as a “dead society,” devoid of conventional appeal and largely irrelevant as a destination.

  Two weeks in this environment stretched into psychological stagnation. Frustration accumulated until the young man staged an impulsive act of protest. In a central city square, he set fire to an Aldiran flag—not as a calculated ideological gesture, but as a desperate attempt to provoke reaction. He shouted that the population was “asleep,” unaware that, within Aldiran perception, it was he who appeared so. No crowd gathered. Passersby neither intervened nor lingered. The act unfolded in near-total public indifference. Yet while invisible to the population, it was immediately registered by internal security. Within the hour, under emergency public-order statutes that permitted summary enforcement in cases involving foreign provocation, he was executed in the same square. The procedure was recorded, archived, and sealed. His companions were designated as “collaborators,” detained, and subsequently transferred to forced labor facilities in the northern regions.

  The incident was never publicly acknowledged within Aldira. No announcement was made, no explanation issued, and no reference entered the state press. For the internal population, it did not exist.

  The Federated States subsequently sought clarification regarding the disappearance of its citizens. Initial inquiries through diplomatic channels yielded only procedural acknowledgments without substance. After days without resolution, a formal delegation was dispatched to Ordostok. The delegation was received without overt hostility, but with rigid formality and administrative distance. Meetings were convened, yet effective communication proved impossible. Aldiran officials, shaped by a martial political culture, regarded the diplomats not as negotiators seeking compromise, but as representatives of a latent adversary—temporarily restrained by protocol rather than trust.

  Stolen story; please report.

  After hours of inconclusive discussion, the delegation exited the government complex. Outside, several members mockingly directed insults at a municipal street cleaner while casually taking among each other, using slurs drawn from American vernacular. Nearby Aldiran civilians overheard the exchange. A typical Aldiran would not have cared at all; yet the fact that Americans—foreigners—could both set foot on land regarded as sacred and then insult that sanctity was enough to provoke even the most indifferent Aldiran into reacting. Thus, tension escalated rapidly. Authorities did not respond verbally. Instead, officials recited standing civic declarations defining such conduct as unacceptable on Aldiran territory, particularly when committed by foreign representatives. When the diplomats refused to issue an apology, orders were transmitted to nearby guards.

  The delegation was detained. Sacks were placed over their heads, and their arms were bound. They were transported in unmarked vehicles to a secured facility outside the city, where two members were executed under internal security authority. Their bodies were submerged in industrial acid designed to dissolve organic tissue while preserving skeletal remains. The bones were later blackened with coal dust, sealed, and sent to the American government as an insult.

  Although not every member of the delegation had participated in the insult, all were detained. Aldira was fully aware, however, that executing the entire delegation would have constituted an explicit declaration of war, and its strategic position at the time was not suited for a direct confrontation with a superpower. For this reason, only two members were killed. The remainder were held temporarily, subjected to interrogation and formal denunciation, and then expelled under escort. They were transferred to the Siberian Commune, which maintained neutrality toward both the Aldiran Order and the Federated States. There, under strict supervision, they were allowed to return to their homeland, carrying neither an official explanation nor any material evidence of what had occurred.

  The shipment containing the bones of the two deceased diplomats was received without prior notice. Upon confronting its contents, the American president reacted with shock and fury. His immediate response was to criminalize the possession of Aldiran symbols nationwide, except in educational contexts; to ban all travel to Aldira by citizens of the Federated States, whose visitors already numbered only in the dozens out of a population in the tens of millions and dropped to zero after the official ban. However, the existing isolationist and pacifist government proved inadequate in delivering a more radical response, such as an open war to eradicate the totalitarian regime in Northeast Asia, leaving the American public feeling humiliated. This was one of the factors that contributed to the government’s defeat in the next election years later. Shortly thereafter, largely under public pressure, the Federated States conducted air strikes against selected Aldiran urban and industrial targets, resulting in the deaths of several hundred civilians.

  Within Aldira, the air raids were presented as unprovoked aggression, disconnected from any preceding event. The population remained unaware of the original incident, encountering only its final consequence: confirmation that the outside world remained hostile and irredeemably violent.