CHAPTER ONE
VIKTOR
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I am, or rather I was, a king. People, land, government - all me - and sovereignty, I had everything to form a nation. Oh, but I've yet to tell you how I got these four components of a nation-state.
The land I acquired from the people who no longer need it, the ones who are "excessive" a good word to call them.
I recruited and inspired, I conversed and orated... Then the people went knocking. Managing all my people by myself could be somewhat unstable and inefficient. I am no genius, I may be brilliant, but no, I cannot micromanage every single living, thinking specimen in my ranks - which was exactly the word I needed, ranks, a hierarchy was the solution.
And last, but not least, I solidified my power and authority through "the dream" which is-
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My ears suddenly hears the sound of a loud, popping sound near me. A clap, near my fucking face. It takes me a few milliseconds to perceive my surrounding, another second to assess the situation.
"Who the fuck are you?!" I exclaim in a low, grumbling voice.
"Come on, we've already had this talk a few hours ago." With a voice of a young man complaining, most likely early twenties, he looks into my eyes and I look into his.
I recognize him by his eyes. Gray irises, quite unique around these parts. Most probably, by that I mean about ninety-nine percent sure, he is my confidant, and commander of my former army, Siegmund Krause. "You're thinking again."
I scan my surroundings with a sharp gaze. Retro-styled designs scattered everywhere, I see two waitresses, one waiting by a table next to ours, another serving the food she gets from the chef behind the bar.
There aren't much people inside here, but that's a good thing. I don't like crowds when I'm thinking. That's pretty amazing to say when I'm actually supposed to be an inspiring leader.
Krause is sitting across me, fiddling with his spaghetti using a fork, not really eating, probably waiting for me to respond. "Krause."
"I thought I told you to call me Sig."
I immediately respond. "Not yet." He sighs, accepting my response, or rather tolerating it for now.
Turning my eyes toward the beef steak with an scrambled egg side dish (I'm quite the protein eater) on my side of the table, I begin to eat.
After a few minutes of chewing and swallowing, I find myself ogling the Cocoa Cola poster next to some retro pin-up girl poster, suddenly I get smacked in the head with a menu vertically. Frankly, it actually hurt a bit, but I just groaned lightly.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"Viktor, it's impolite to stare at other girls..." One of the waitresses, specifically the one fetching the orders, glares at me while whispering out loud. The way she spoke reminds me of a snake, albeit a really cute and beautiful snake humanoid that is. "Especially when you got me."
Only did I realize right that moment that I was indirectly staring at someone, a relatively beautiful girl, right below those posters I was ogling. Cassandra took notice of this really quickly and brisk walked toward me while readying her menu to smack me, and she did it with all her strength.
If my head wasn't as thick as it is, I might be hurting a lot more right now.
"I love you." Three words, and she's knocked out. Her cheeks blushes and she plays with her hair, twirling strands of it, while her heel rises slightly; all of that merely in three seconds. I'm pretty amazing to have noticed all that in three seconds.
She actually immediately turns her back on me once those three seconds were over and she collects herself pretty well, adapting a cool demeanor, one might blink twice and think that those three seconds never even happened, but I know her well enough that she does this to focus.
Unlike me, my girlfriend knows how to handle herself pretty well, she rarely spaces out and she does not commit as many mistakes as the other waitress, who is actually the wife of this retro-styled diner's owner.
I gaze at my girlfriend taking a few steps away, she actually almost tripped, I noticed it, have I ever mentioned how amazing my perception is? Well, now you know.
Not only that but my reasoning is also quite good. As I said, she never makes mistakes, but me being sweet to her really jumbles her mind a bit. I know what you're thinking, am I never sweet to her? Stupid question, I am always sweet to her.
I really mean it when I told her I love her. But she never gets used to it, and I feel very lucky to have a person so level-headed and logical to love me this much that she never gets used to me complimenting her or saying I love her.
Moments like this one is what keeps me calm and relaxed, and keeps the 'dark thoughts' away. My best friend, Krause, is always there for me. He knows what I need and want, he is actually the one who introduced me to his friend who has a cousin who has a mother who knew a moderately successful singer who had a daughter who introduced me to Cassandra.
And she's exactly what I need, and sometimes, bordering on most of the times, she's becoming what I want. Only thing that's holding me back is my own mind breaking down on me.
Krause actually just calls her 'waitress' which seems awfully distant for an extrovert like him.
"Let's go, Vickie." Krause stands up from his seat and slips a gold coin under his plate. "I know, I know, it's Viktor, not Vickie."
I could hate this guy for being like this, one upping me, always thinking like he knows what I'm going to say, and that hell-awful nickname. It does annoy me quite a bit, but he's the only person who truly cares for me, despite all of the things that happened, and frankly, I've grown used to his antics.
"Let's go." I didn't comment on the gold coin he slipped under the plate, or even grumbled about my annoyance, I just let him do his thing. There is a reason why he became my commander back then, and he only does things for my sake anyways.
Standing up, I suddenly felt a bit lightheaded, thinking back, I suddenly realized something. This revelation quite scares me as well.
But I just shrug it off, it is a common occurrence to me after all. But I wasn't always like this. In fact, I really was an inspiring leader, and Krause... He's all I've got left, literally.