After a complete month in power without any armed men banging on my door with the intent to usurp me, I’d finally found myself feeling comfortable in my office.Going as far as personalizing it to suit my rather unique tastes, I’d gotten a much larger fridge, stocked with my favourite drinks Coca-Cola especially. I had a closet installed as well, for days I didn’t return to my room and I’d change the couch with that in mind as well. It was longer, wider, fluffier and all the more comforting and pleasing to my eyes with its purple colour.Today, bright and early in the morning I had Niaina and Matthias seated in front of me, ready to report on the assignments I’d given them a week ago. Although I’d much rather lie on my couch I daydream of finality, this had to be done. I had no idea what the consequence of my failure to unite the world under my rule would be, but I could be certain the devilish being that tasked me with the job would ensure to deprive me of whatsoever reprieve I might
To implement my rather ballsy plan I had to first discuss its feasibility with an expert.And that was where Nizar Razafy came in once again. Not too long ago, I’d met him to discuss the possible need to extract our agents from the countries they monitored.He sat before me looking just as brainy as the last we saw. That being the day of the chief’s execution. Nizar had been chosen by Matthias as the most competent person to head up the ministry of information, I thought it was a terrific choice as well.“Uhm…You needed me, sir?” he says, fear largely staining his voices as he shrinks into his seat, pushing up his spectacles as he avoids my gaze.“Yes, I needed you, Matthias has briefed me on the, RDOS proposal. You did a good job contributing quite largely to its feasibility.” I say in praise, he lifts up his head, now a lot more willing to meet my gaze.“Thank you sir, I was only doing my job,”I nod, hurriedly dismissing the platitudes in favour of moving on to my major concern.“N
Exciting news is what it was. I’d previously dismissed whatever possibilities lay in the Aridoria or Zephyria making contact to take me up on the deal I offered. Seventy-million dollars for the best quality cargo ship they had. But when I heard they’d made contact three days ago it’d been the highlight of my week.Even more exciting was that they weren’t just declaring that they were open for business, they’d formally invited me to their nation. This would mark another historical moment in Schelarian history, the first ever State Visit.Although, I was ecstatic at the prospect of being so publically recognized, it would be the first time the I was outside of Schelar in this life, and to a country I’ve never been to in previous lives either.This action had me mixed feelings. On one hand, it would be great exposure for Schelar, I would no doubt be seen, filmed and captured in the media of a country where the internet is freely accessible. The news of my presence in the country would s
The boy who ruled.Is what the newspapers called me bright and early on a Sunday morning. I’d read many headlines from the stack of newspapers that had been brought to the room and they all said the same about me. The boy who ruled. I idly wondered if they media houses had all come together to and cast a ballot on what to dub me.After we were taken from the Airport to meet Bernardor, I found myself being greeted by a large extravagant ceremony held in honour of my visit. In past lives I hadn’t gone on many state visits, but I had enough sense to recognize the proper respect of etiquette the Aridorian Government had shown me by organizing a formally welcoming ceremony despite the shady view the rest of the world had of me and my administration.Though I did not expect the ceremony that didn’t mean I wasn’t prepared for it. As custom of State visits, I exchanged gifts with the President. I’d gotten him a nice () and he in turn had presented me with () I was flattered really.After much
As promised, Bernador had sent a file with information on all the cargo ships available. We were allowed to choose three out of the thirteen ships. I was still in vacation mode so I took advantage of my peppy mood and went out to see the ships in person. So we flew out to the nearest port.Niaina and Johannes, Bernardor’s awfully handsome chief of staff went along with me. The man carried with him a little slim black note that only held a few pages, he was coming along to record the choices I would make, it would be necessary as their value would equate how the trade negotiations would go.Normally, a single cargo ship with around 7000 TEU would cost around seventy-million dollars. I wasn’t much at all for a country to afford usually, but with extreme poverty plaguing Zephyria , I had banked on them jumping at my very fair and opportune deal never did I expect Aridoria to express an interest.The fact that they did hammered in the fact that I’d been making moves with things I was alre
Perhaps I was an impulsive shopper and I just didn’t know it since about everything I ever needed was provided. Either way, I couldn’t technically afford the large ships, not all three of them at least.If I forced that we have the three ships the deal would have to be adjusted in a manner unfavourable to us in the long run. Schelar had to bring in another export to cover the costs of the three ships that totaled the cost of four hundred-million dollars.Of course I could just cover the costs instantly with Schelar’s federal funds, but that would instantly put the nation into a massive recession as the profits from trade would take a while to be assimilated into our revenue. There was also the little fact that we were export much of our agricultural produce to Aridoria, it was absolutely necessary the plan for rapid development with agriculture went off smoothly and swiftly. According to my minister of Agriculture it would cost much more than four-hundred-million dollars to cover the
A rather awkward silence prevailed, amplified by hands and eyes looking for everything except one thing to lock on to and interact with.Despite my usual self, I’d yet again found myself feeling uncomfortable in silence. A state I thrived in. The last time I’d felt this way was with Luciano right after I’d pretty much flipped off President Nawab of Zephyria .Then I felt uncomfortable and tense because I sensed I was about to be told things I didn’t want to hear. Things that didn’t sit well at all with me. Things I didn’t want to realize.However, this time was different yet just the same in the amount of discomfort it gave me. I can’t remember how many times I’d thought of walking right out of the room but I imagined quite vividly how much more awkward that would make things when I inevitably met again with this person.With my eyes trying and failing to read the contents of a magazine I’d forced into my face, I gulped as I finally amassed enough courage to take a peek at the woman s
“I wore your favourite.”I could see that and I couldn’t deny it made me feel attracted to her even more with the colour staining her appearance.Aina had stolen my attention and time away from Niaina and Vao the moment Bernador left the premises. I had much to talk to the two about but she’d confidently dismissed the two ministers. How troublesome.She stresses, reaching to the back of her packed up brown hair and takes off the purple hairclip letting her hair fall at its length. It’d grown longer from the short bob it was a month ago when I first met her at the funeral. I find my young body reacting enthusiastically to the new look. Over a century and my tastes hadn’t changed.“You look good,” I understate.“You look like you don’t want to see me.”I barely keep myself from wincing at her accusations. “I don’t have any reason to feel that way, Aina. Don’t you think you’re reading too much into things?”She shook her head, letting the hair fall equally onto both sides of her shoulder
As usual, the Hospital was crowded and there were people waiting for one thing or the other in all corners. It was a good thing then that Alban had brought along his friends from the government then, with a flash of their badge and a silent glower, doors were opened and people made way.Marina’s room was set in the far end of the Hospital, completely closed off from the others. Alban wasn’t entirely sure why this was done but he didn’t complain.Entering the room, the first thing he observed was that it was a single man bedroom, Marina didn’t have anyone she was sharing the room with, perhaps that would have been different if he’d been injured as well.The second thing was marina herself, she had her hands wrapped up in sloppy bandages and had almost fallen over reaching for the pistol she now pointed at him. The dogs Alban had brought along shamelessly backed out of the room, choosing to stand outside rather than help diffuse whatever situation might be occurring.“Hello Marina.”“Al
Alban wasn’t sure how many days had passed since he’d been in audience with the President. But he was aware that he’d spent quite a few number of days under some observation of sort.His memory was sufficiently distorted that he didn’t care much about what had happened during that period, all he knew was that he was soon released to do as he pleased after they had stared at him day after day.Luckily, his memory wasn’t so distorted to forget the events that had transpired and once he’d been released he was intent to find his only surviving teammate, Marina.Before he could do so, however, he’d been quickly beset by more ‘Government Dogs’ as he’d begun to think of them. They’d been waiting for him the moment he’d been released from what he could only describe as a detention centre.The two dogs wore polished black suits and wore matching black sunshades, if Alban was the man he was a month ago he’d think the two just had a bad fashion day, but now vividly aware of the rot that called i
As soon as I’d given authorization the operation began in full force, my men knowing their responsibilities trooped out of my office to begin the operation in earnest, communicate to the troops and get them into offensive positions.From that moment to whatever moment I found myself either at the end of a gun or handing over terms of surrender to Leopold Marofo, began the most stressful days of my life.We’d given the order to begin the operation to the troops and all priority one regiments; Helgen, Peridot and Upsilon were set.Helgen had been given the order to move in with the rest of our men on ground and begin placing pressure on the enemy at one point in the theather, a point we’d marked as a soft spot.But the soft spot wasn’t as soft as the name implied, it was simply the least defended front with less close air support and rather non-existent bombers flying through as our squads advanced over their lines. That still left the men, their tanks, heavy artillery and often anti-ta
The vassalization of Verdantis was a thought that had only come into mind a few times. I think a majority of my Government, myself included was going on with the war with the thought that we’d be annexing the hell out of the bane of our existence thus far.But Niaina put up several good points as to why vassalization was much better than annexation.Firstly, it would be several times more efficient for the Government to administer the region through a puppet state than to attempt coring the entirety of the states with military rule and fear.“The Schelarian military would and should be put to better use than quashing rebellions.” She’d said. “The cost of maintenance of those armies would be the same as the current cost during this war. It is just not profitable to do so, especially seeing as it would take months if not year to effectively begin the taxation of the newly conquered regions. The deficit would kill the country and the Niluthiaians would break away.”Secondly, it would be
Discovering that I could control the emotions of people to whatever extent really suited my needs, but it made it a bit difficult to handle when all my test subjects either viciously began trying to attack me, fell asleep, or tried killing themselves.Yes, I’d finally tested out Pain-Infliction on with mental illnesses. It was the most difficult to control, it was like trying to fill up a shot glass with a giant jug held by only one hand. I felt a bit bad that some actually succeeded in killing themselves right before my eyes and even worse that they used my security as a means to do so.I’d learnt my lesson though and I arranged for an observation chamber, like an interrogation room but with less concrete and more fluff. For the tests I had to fly out to Sava, one of the few provinces we held onto after the first war with Verdantis. This meant the generals were on by themselves at the frontlines, but it was only for three days, Nizar had said it would take quite a bit of time to mass
It’d been a long day. Not unlike any of my previous days, I’d always be subjected to long hours, the position came with it. But today had an extra slap of stress set onto it.I’d spent an uncomfortable amount of time on the phone with Matthias, assuring him that everything was fine here and Luciano was completely safe. I’d beefed up his security several times and only authorized myself and a few doctors after running a background on them with the intel-ii.I’d taken to the idea that perhaps Luciano was in fact the target of an assassination. The explosion seemed too convenient for it to simply be an accident. The Verdantians may have found a way to get behind our lines, a spy of their own, an inside man, a traitor within the ranks even. Anything was plausible at this point.I then spent over twelve hours testing the War tab on its ability to coordinate my forces. It was a delicate mission and the simple part was rendering everyone blind.Nizar had long developed a bomb that not only d
They’d flown fast and high, everyone with two working eyes kept a look out for the Jeep Alban had mentioned. Meanwhile he only pretended to do search, his mind was clouded with so many conflicting thoughts. Thoughts of the state of his last surviving companion, Marina.Despite the both of them receiving the best first-aid treatment the troops could provide, she hadn’t woken up all the while thy flew, and it’d been a minute. He was also worried for his saviours; they’d spent some time searching for the vehicle behind enemy lines, he didn’t know how they could afford such at all, so he asked.“How are we still behind enemy lines? The Verdantians will surely be on our tail by now.” He questioned the Captain.The man shrugged, taking a moment to give Alban a look before answering, “It’s all on the President’s orders apparently. Some minister had us drop some large device at the frontlines before we left. It rendered all sensors and communication devices dark, except for these archaic Noki
Alban woke up with a splitting headache, if the red in his eyes and the ringing in his ears was anything to go about, his head had been injured. He also found through trial that his hands were bound.He looked down as he felt something heavy on his legs. It was Marina, they’d bound her broken arms together and thrown her into the vehicle they were in right now. Seems they went for capturing them alive anyway.He could hear them speak to each other, obviously pissed about all it took to capture them. Alban couldn’t help but feel a bit good about himself, they’d managed to fend off five military vehicles for over two hours in a rapid chase to the border.Suddenly, he noticed something was off. He didn’t see Daniel anywhere. He looked out the window and sure enough there were the other beaten up cars driving beside them. He couldn’t see into them from the left side of the backseat, so he went on and asked his captors.“What happened to my other teammate? Where is he?”His captors in the
He’d never felt the sun so hot against his skin. He was soaked in his own sweat and the dunes of sand he drove on slapped against his wet skin. He felt rather uncomfortable with the whole thing. But there were these moments where he didn’t feel like he was speeding across a desert, racing away from a horde of armed men and vehicles that sought to capture he and his companions. Companions that screamed at the top of their lungs as they continuously chucked grenades at their pursuers and fired their rifles blindly.He was in one of those blissful moments now. His mind was clear, without fear, and completely at ease and at peace with his predicament. He didn’t know how long the calming feeling would last before he went on to screaming his lungs out with his companions, so he was sure to appreciate it while it did.Whoosh. BOOOM.And that was a rocket launcher.“They’re firing rockets, ALBAN!! I told you we should have taken one!” Marina spat out.“They aren’t looking like they’re taking