The sound of the leader’s escort could be heard even when they were not still in her sight. It was a mix of trumpet trumpeting and guard’s boots smashing upon the ground, joined in by the nervous chatter of the people of the city below her.

Sophia’s nails dug into the tree bark of which she was crouching on, but whether or not it was from nervousness, anticipation, or anger, she could not say.

‘He should be passing through the trading square by now.’ Sophia thought, her hand reached into her hoodie’s pocket and touched the thing inside. With Lana’s gone, mom and dad had given Sophia all of her sister’s things, but this was the only one she took, Lana’s doll.

It was a ragged little thing, only had a vaguely humanoid shape and a few strings that was meant to be a hair had nearly all fallen off, but Sophia knew that Lana treasured it greatly. She had taken it to sleep with her every night and to school every day.

‘She said it was better this way.’ Sophia thought, squeezing the doll gently ‘But, it’s not. I miss you, sister.’

But her feeling was not pure sorrow though, she was angry too. Angry at her family for not trying to help Lana more, angry at the watchman who took Lana away and still called himself kind, angry at the Supreme Leader Musol for his stupid laws, but most of all, angry at herself, for not being able to do anything to save Lana.

A tear started to form in her eyes, but she quickly wiped it away. She must be strong, for Lana’s sake, for the last time she broke down, Sophia could only gave her sister a sad embrace, instead of a word of confidence she should had gave her. For the past week, she had been visiting the execution pit near every day, to maybe catch a last sight of her sister, or what remained of her, but the place was built so that you will only see the pit when you are over it. One night she had decided to break into the site but realized halfway through that she had no idea what she would actually do when she did found her sister’s dead body.

On that same day her sister was taken from her though, when the Last bell rang its three rungs, Sophia’s sorrow had turned into near-mad but bitter laughter. Oh, how ironic it was for the leader to die the same day as Lana, who was sentenced to death by that leader’s own law. Sophia’s laughter was so long and loud that her parents need to muffle her to avoid any more guards arriving at their home. Later Sophia had heard several rumors on the man’s death, some said that he had a stroke while lying with his courtesan; some said he choked on a chicken bone instead, but some would say that that wasn’t right, it because he just eats so much that he choked, or maybe his belly explode, forcing the servants to sewn it back together for his funeral. But one thing is clear, he was dead, and he died horribly.

“They’re coming!” someone shouted, and Sophia gave Lana’s doll a last squeeze for luck then turned to the street.

The first to appear was the guards, several column of watchmen marched in unison in front of the escort, followed by the royal musicians, playing their instruments for apparently all the world to hear in a marching tune, then the dead Supreme leader followed.

Sophia leaned closer, the glass coffin was carried on shoulders by ten nobles in matching black outfit, and they wore a sorrowful expression, of which Sophia knew that a few was faking. Inside the coffin was the dead man himself, cladded in gold and grey coat, his black hair trimmed back into a handsome hairstyle and his fat belly was smoothed out. His handed was arranged to have them holding an elegant cane over his chest and around his body laid many flowers of gold, red and black.

Sophia was surprised, he actually looked better than the last time she saw him, which was two years ago, back when he emerged from his Last Stronghold to pay customary tribute at the hall of leader, she had remembered him as a big fat oaf, a man who looked twice his age with tired eyes and coarse laugh, far from competent and further from respectable. Then she realized that they probably dressed his corpse to look as grand as possible for his funeral. That made her even madder.

As far as Sophia could remember, she had been against the Supreme Leaders as a whole. The system relied on them to actually be a decent human being to work, and some of them were, like Geor the generous and Jefikus the Just, but the rest were not. They went on and on in their greatness, registering new law on their ever-changing whim and saw the city as their own personal playthings. For they are the one who hold all the power, and people who are not nobles could do nothing but quake in fear, living in this miserable city as it was the only place left in this dying world.

‘At least this one is dead.’ Sophia thought and pressed her hand over her sister’s doll ‘Please rest in peace, Lana.’

The escort continued slithering through the road, like a snake of finery and expensive garments, some of the nobles were afoot, some rode horse which was raised and breed in the farmland across the weeping rush, and the rest rode in cars, complex machinery that only the nobles and the commons on work could use, with its cushion seat, self-rotating wheels and booming engine. She had remembered Ren telling her about it with excitement a few years prior after his class took a visit at its factory, and that was when he decided that he wished to become a mechanic in the future.

Future, that was another thing that differentiates her from her family. Lana had always said that she wanted to be shop keep when she grew up, a simple life, she said, a life of selling essentials and making people happy, while Sophia’s ideal work was still non-existence, as her hobby consisted mostly of reading file in the public archive and rambling out about things to anyone body who willing to listen, who mostly was Lana.

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‘I’m good with history.’ Sophia thought when her mind drifted through the memory ‘I suppose I could make a decent archiver.’

But it would all be for naught, when the picking day came to them, the higher up will be the one to choose which work they would do in the future, based on their score, body, and even look. Ren’s strong build will work against him, despite how much he scored in science and math, in the end, he will be selected to undergo training to be a miner, forced to dug into the earth for gold and gems for the nobles to decorate themselves. Lana, if she had life and retain her prettiness when reaching her teenage year, would be pick as a courtesan, to be nothing more than a beautiful object for nobles to gaze upon and had their way with.

‘It is better to have no expectation.’ Sophia had realized that long ago ‘So you will never be disappointed with what you get.’

Sophia slapped her face; she realized that she had pondered out for too long; it was time she returned to gazing at the escort, hoping that no one of significant had already passed by.

Speaking of which, who had to come but the threes advisors themselves, judging from the handsome destriers below them and the many royals guard who marched by their side. Sophia had learned their name at the school, their works at the library, and their true nature beneath the history’s text. The bald man with a golden tooth must be lord Corlius of the Rivergate family, while the man with hair reaching his back and insanely buff body is lord Ptis of the Guardhand family, and the last one with a semi-ugly face, sandy hair and can only be lord Rubos of the new-made Dawndoom family, but more commonly called by the name ‘Traitor of the yellow dawn’ by the people whose relatives were part of the rebellion. All three of them wore a black suit and coat, though with great variation from each other. All of the three had a solid gold pin of a sunburst on their shirt, a symbol of their positions.

‘Next can only be…’ Sophia leaned even closer.

And there he was, the new supreme leader, Gorbach Godlead. Sophia had never seen the man before, he was never with Supreme leader Musol when he made his few progresses around the city nor did he make any progress himself. He seemed to be no older than 25, his thick black hair swept to the right side of his head in a neatly comb fashion. He had a handsome face though, with sharp and lean features, and she heard a few giggling from the girls beneath the dead tree. His face was also complimented by his clothes, a black long trench coat with thick golden inlaid; under it were a white long sleeve collar shirt and a tie. His black trouser was fastened together by silver medallion, and over all of it was a grey mantle tied together with a rope of gold. He was sitting on the backseat of the fanciest car in the escort leaning casually and crossed legged. She could notice an earpiece on his ear, and he wore an expression of someone who would rather be anywhere but here.

A sudden realization went through Sophia, it didn’t matter whether or not the old Supreme leader die, for a new one had taken his place, and in all likelihood, he would be as bad if not worse than his predecessor. As the frustration kicked in through her body, she started to lose balance and fell off the tree.

Her face landed on the dirt where the dead willow once grew from, it was not a far fall, barely 10 feet, but it still hurt nonetheless. Nobody was helping her up though; they were too busy watching the new supreme leader.

“Fuck the new leader…” Sophia said out loud, full of bitterness, her hand dug into the dirt “Fuck the city…”

She pushed herself off the ground, her cloth and part of her face dirtied by the soil, but she didn’t bother to wipe it away. Her hand curled together and compacted the earth inside.

“Lana, this one is for you.” She spoke under her breath and flung the dirt at the supreme leader. She watched as the ball of soil glided over the crowd and made a splat sound beyond her sight.

“Who threw that!?” A voice boomed out “Who dare throw such filth at the supreme leader!”

‘I actually hit him.’ Sophia thought, more surprised than terrified. The crowd starting parted away and pushed her forward, and then she realized that she was doom.

Two royal guards ceased Sophia by the shoulders; one of them pushed her thumb over the device on his wrist while the other pulled out his gun and pressed it over her head.

“A word and she’s a dead girl, your leadership.” The guard said, turning toward his supreme leader.

‘So this is it.’ She thought, history shall know her as the girl who flung dirt at the supreme leader on his coronation day, and she was surprised by the fact that she’s somewhat okay with it.

Her attention turned to the supreme leader, who had climbed out of the car and was striding toward her. He had already wiped away the dirt, it would seem, for his beautiful grey cloak was now partly stained brown, a servant quickly rushed to him and tried to reach for the dirtied cloak, but he simply pushed him away.

A moment later, the supreme leader was upon her, he gave the guard with the gun pointing at Sophia’s head to hold, then kneeled on the ground, so his eyes could match her.

‘Green eyes.’ She thought as the supreme leader studied her face ‘The same as Lana.’

As Sophia was considered spitting on the man’s face, he got up and asked: “What’s your name?”

“Soph…”

‘Why did I say that?’

“…Sophia”

The supreme leader raised his eyebrow “Which is it?”

“Sophia, Soph is…” She paused as bitterness seeped into her mind again “…was what my sister calls me.”

“Pray, Sophia…” He said, his way of speaking had a nobleness to them “Why did you throw a pile of dirt at my face?”

‘Why is he asking me this?’ A thought went through Sophia’s head, then she realized she had to say something.

“Your father…” Sophia started to said “Is a vile and evil man…”

‘This is just an unsounded accusation; you can do better than this!’

“…He feasted in his grand castle while many starve outside, and did nothing to help them. He spent most of his time in his lavish life and little to no time rule. And when he did, he does it through fear. Corruption leaked under his reign and many men, women and even children perished during it…”

“Did your parents tell you all this, Sophia?” The supreme leader asked suddenly, breaking her sentence.

“They were too much of a sheep to speak out on your father’s terrible reign.”

To her surprise, the new supreme leader smiled “And you are afraid mine might be the same as well?”

Though confused on his expression, Sophia nodded.

“I will try my best not to.” He whispered to her and rose from his knee, and commanded the guards holding her arms to release her.

“I took a liking of this girl.” He decreed to everyone around him “Take her back to the Last Stronghold, wash her up, put her into something more presentable and send her to…” He pondered for a moment “My old bedchamber.”

“But your leadership…” One of his advisors, Lord Ptis said: “This girl makes a capital offense that is punishable by death!”

“Then in the name of the supreme leader, I pardon that offense.” He responded, then gave another look at Sophia. And just like that, the escort continued on their way.

“We best get going then.” The guard who had pointed a gun on her head a second ago said: “His leadership had commanded it.”