As I was standing on the balcony, reminiscing about the past, someone had come into my room. I could hear they were trying to sneak up on me.

“Clara, why did you enter my room without knocking? I could have been in the middle of changing,” I said without turning to the intruder. “You need to learn about privacy.”

“I would prefer you in the middle of changing instead of you in these clothes,” she snorted. “I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing these.”

I sighed and looked at her. The girl’s name was Clara. She was pretty short, around 150 cm, but the vibe she gave off was less of a frail girl and more of a stern parent. Her shoulder-length chestnut-colored hair fluttered freely on the wind, sometimes revealing slightly pointy ears hidden beneath it. Behind her glasses, I could see the piercing gaze of her hazel eyes. She was wearing a formal white shirt along with black business pants. The only thing clashing with her elegant image was the pink slippers on her feet.

I asked:

“Why are you so worked up in the morning? And what’s up with the outfit?”

“Why aren’t YOU worked up? Today’s the meeting between the Union officials. And you happen to be one of them, Zett.”

Zett Avalon. The name of the person I incarnated at this time. As the son of the previous city governor, I was now in charge of it.

“Who cares about some meeting? It will be like always: we won’t decide on anything and just go home.”

That’s right. Our city was a part of the Union. A country that didn't have a ruler, but was governed by the leaders of the four main cities – Dawn, Zenith, Dusk, and Nox. We had Dawn on the West, Zenith on the North, Dusk on the East, and Nox on the South. I was the governor of Dawn. The sad thing was, the nation wasn’t doing well. There was clear animosity towards me in the council. I didn’t know why, but any reform or change I proposed was instantly vetoed. I could only guess that they wanted to maintain the status quo in the country.

“It’s because you keep antagonizing everyone on them! Besides, who in their right mind would be in favor of realizing your ideas?! They are ridiculous!”

“Oh come on! They can’t be THAT bad.”

She then pulled a notepad out of her pocket. Seriously? Did she have my ideas written down in there? She inhaled deeply and started reciting:

“Changing our agriculture focus to slimes, teaching citizens advanced warfare magic, allocate 10 percent of the Union’s budget into building a navy…”

“Hey, the last one is reasonable!”

“We are landlocked, Zett!”

Ugh, how unimaginative these people were. Can’t a man dream? Well, I got the point so I gestured for her to stop.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Anyway, you better get ready because you still have things to do before the council meeting,” Clara said with exasperation. “Get dressed up decently and get to work downstairs.”

She then turned on her heel and left. Was she always so uptight? When I first met her she was a delicate little being, unable to put her foot down.

“How fast they grow,” I muttered under my breath.

One might ask, what was my relationship with her? The thing is, she was a unique person – a half-elf, half-dwarf. Normally, these two races could never get along with each other. One loved nature, the other one – mechanism, technology, and something like that. So it was extraordinary to see a child conceived from a relationship between them. Long story short, the existence of Clara had been concealed. Until she had been discovered, and her parents had been murdered. Fortunately, I could reach her before the killers. I was currently her guardian.

I put on some more "fashionable" clothes. A dark military garb, with a touch of some red accents. It was also adorned with golden ornaments here and there. I may have looked regal but that didn’t change the fact that it was itchy and tight as hell. But the other guys frowned upon sloppiness so I had to endure. I took a last swig from the bottle of wine I had hidden before Clara could see it.

The hallway was empty. Figures, since only my closest attendants lived on that floor. When I went downstairs, it was hell, though. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry, documents flying everywhere, people almost walking onto one another. Some man approached me, handing me a bundle of papers.

“Sir, would you take a look at this? What do you think?”

I briefly glanced through them and gave it back to him. My mind was elsewhere though.

“Looks pretty good to me, show them to Clara and ask for her opinion, too.”

He bowed and quickly ran off. She would take care of it, I was sure. I had never been keen on paperwork and preferred to delegate it to someone else. My forte was doing, not reading or writing. Come to think of it, I was pretty hungry, so I thought of doing some cooking. I headed to my private kitchen. No one would bother me there, probably.

It was a surprise to see someone already there. A massive man, at least a head taller than I was. The only hair on his head was his thick, black mustache. But the things that attracted the most attention were the decorations pinned to his suit. There were a lot of them.

“I don’t see you wearing these often.”

This man was the captain of our Elite Forces – Ogden. Because of relative peace on the continent, we didn’t focus much on our regular army. Rather, we recruited some skilled adventures or mercenaries and created the Elite Forces. Ogden was a perfect candidate for a captain. He had experience with being in the military and his skills were nothing to scoff at.

“The leaders are coming. Gotta dress like a captain should, eh?”

We exchanged handshakes. His grip was firm, his hand callused, definitely from the hard work he was doing. Yet contrary to his appearance, he was a soft man. He never did like fighting. Ogden had always preferred peace over war. Hey, so did I, mostly.

“Can’t wait ‘till the meeting is over…”

“Shouldn’t ya be looking forward to it?”

“Looking forward to it? Don’t make me laugh,” I scoffed. “You can look forward to a dinner or a party but not to a meeting with some wet blankets!”

He smiled wryly and handed me a sandwich. I thanked him and took a bite.

“Well, ya might say that but they are a clever bunch, ain’t they?”

I stayed silent, chewing on my sandwich. Of course, from a logical standpoint, he was right. The leaders were doing everything in their power to guarantee the well-being of their citizens. But their goals differed from mine. I had something to do, something that I valued more than my city. Sure, I was being selfish but I needed every convenience I could get. Everything that could help me kill that blasted Emperor would be welcome. That was the point of these reforms I had been suggesting.

“Well, I’m off to check up on the boys in the squad.”

He slapped me on the back and got up from his chair.

“Oh, and try to sober up. I can smell the wine you drank from here.”

I just shrugged and continued eating.

“Good grief…”