Sir Varus stared mercilessly at Nira. Sword in hand. Standing, Sir Varus was much taller and tougher than she had previously thought. She hadn’t realized how much he dwarfed her by. While he wasn’t as tall as Advisor Sweren, she could tell that he was stronger. He looked at the ceiling for a moment, muttered something that Nira didn’t catch, and looked back at her with anger increased tenfold.

“Get up,” Sir Varus said in a cold, hard tone. The kind of tone you don’t test.

“Sir, please. Let me explain.”

“Did I ask you to talk or to get up?”

Nira got up.

“Please, just-”

“Just what? Do you know what that paper was? Did you bother to read what it said?”

“I can’t read, but I was-”

“Of course you can’t read. Why would I expect a lowborn whore to be able to? If you could use your pea sized brain for once in your miserable life, then maybe we wouldn’t be here, but no! All what you think about is stealing. About silver. About yourself. That's why my room is a mess right now, right? At least have the decency to not damage belongings of mine that were of no value to you.”

Nira didn’t know what to say. How could she? Life never really prepares anyone for what to do in situations like this.

Sir Varus walked to his desk, took off his blue jacket, and wrapped it around the chair’s back. It may have been in her mind, but he seemed to whisper something to it as he did so. After throwing a spiteful glance at Nira, he crouched on the floor and began picking up the small pieces of his letter and placing them carefully on the table. He paused several times, staring at the pieces like they were a dead comrade, and in those moments, it appeared that his anger would vanish. But those moments never lasted.

As he picked the last of the pieces on the ground, he sighed and said, “You know why this letter was so important? It is from the first man I ever killed.”

“Huh?”

Carefully, he placed the last of the pieces on the table and walked towards Nira.

“He was a good man. An Academ from the Istria’s capital who had been sent on a mission to analyze the strategic importance of the mountains in Marsonia. Unfortunately for him, he had started in late summer and by the time he arrived in Marsonia, it was mid-autumn. To make matters worse, winter came early that year and the snow caught him. At first he was fine, as he had gotten rations and supplies from the university. But, determined to finish his task, he took too long and got caught in the worst of the winter.

“I was just a child at the time, but I was staying alone at my grandfather’s hunting lodge. By the time I found him passed out near the lodge, he was barely clinging on to whatever life he had. It was a cold and dark winter, that one. Very similar to the one that just passed. I will admit, I didn’t think that he would live, but the Academ was tough. Within a few days he started to show signs of improvement as I tended to him.

“But the winter is a long beast to fight. In the depths of its clutch, I ended up taking the man’s life. It was a simple choice really. I was wasting food, energy, and water on a man who may or may not have survived. Why should I have taken a suboptimal path in which both of our lives were at risk when there was a clear one where one of us was guaranteed to live? Can you answer me this?”

Nira just laid and stared at the stranger in front of her, a tightness in her chest growing.

“It was funny. He gave me everything he had, even the name that I now carry, begging to live. In fact, the entire chest is full of items I received from people I have killed. Souvenirs, you could call them. I guess people do silly things when they are near death. But it is people like you and them, inefficiencies in this world, that should be removed.”

“You… you weren’t supposed to be like this...”

Sir Varus chuckled. “What did you think I would be like? Some saint that would save the world?” He gave a boisterous laugh. “Was it because I said that I am creating this invention for the people or that I am not working for any noble? I did not lie when I said those things, but I am baffled to think that you would be foolish enough to think that I would do this for free. I am doing this because this is the only way a man like me can gain power in this world. Tell me, how do kings and queens get their power?”

Nira opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, he continued, “Why, it's from the people they rule. It doesn’t matter what power they are born with; a king cannot be a king without people to lead. Now, what would happen if the people did not support the king? Well, then he wouldn’t be much of a king now, would he? This is the essence of my goal. To give this invention to the people and have them support me, so that I will be the man with the crown. Yes, I am helping the people, but they will be helping me as well. They will fight my wars, pay my taxes, give me their daughters, and I have no doubt that eventually, all the people and kingdoms in this world will bow down to me. Then, and only then, can I fix this world by removing its problems.”

“So in the end, you are just like the rest of them. I thought you would be better. I really did,” Nira whimpered.

“Then I will teach you to think harder next time”, he said calmly as he walked towards her, Nira’s heart shattering with each step he took. She tried to move any part of her body, maybe to run, but nothing worked.

“Please sir, don’t hurt me,” she cried faintly.