Gorbach turned closed the beautifully carved double door of the council room, wondering whether or not his ‘advisors’ would be talking behind his back the minute he left them to themselves.

“So…” Sophia asked him, lifting herself off the floor that she was sitting on “How does it go?”

“Just as you said.” He replied, sighing.

“I would need you to be more specific than that.” Sophia told him, giving the ornate door a small knock “As you can see, these things are quite soundproof.”

“Walk with me.” Gorbach decided, and gave a gesture to the three royal guards that were stationed in front of the door; they nodded and moved to follow them.

Gorbach and his little retinue started descending through the corridor of the Last Stronghold, a few servants, royal guards and nobles passed by them as they moved. All three groups gave their supreme leader a gracious bow, but he had also noticed a few stiffed stare by the last group at Sophia’s clean yet rugged face and the uncomfortable way she moved with her grey and white dress.

‘Why am I surprised?’ Gorbach asked himself, for the past few days of Sophia’s stay in the Last Stronghold, this common girl who had flung a ball of dirt at his face had been in his presence repeatedly, so much so that a few…disturbing rumors started to float around. Gorbach had tried to reduce the tension by dressing her in noble’s clothes of dresses and gowns, so she would have looked more fit in to the castle, but it seemed that the attempt had made it worse somehow.

Though it was true that Gorbach had favored Sophia to quite an extent, even giving his old room to her, but it was only because Sophia was quite frankly more useful to him than all three of his advisors combined.

“Lord Corlius had been quite indifferent about the policy.” Gorbach explained to her as they climbed up the carved spiral stairwell for the third floor “Until of course when I told him that I will need to reduce the noble’s share of food for the plan.”

Sophia stopped to think for a moment “What’s about Lord Penis?”

Gorbach flinched at that, though Sophia was smart for her age, she was still her age. “Refuse from the start, speaking of how it will destroy the status quo of the city and all that. The only one who is supportive is Rubos, but his constant licking of my boot came off more as condescending rather than supportive.”

A brown hair servant rushed passed them as they went through the corridor, her shoulder bumped into him. “Forgive me, Supreme leader.” She said quickly.

“It’s alright,” Gorbach assured her, his hand tucked into his coat’s pocket. The servant rushed away afterward.

“So are you still going to go forward with this?” Sophia asked as they went around the corner. In truth, Gorbach did not have a destination in mind, but walking around kept his head moving.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Gorbach asked back “You and I both know that giving ration to the young citizens too is a good thing.”

Gorbach had known the system of parents sharing a part of their food is a terrible way of managing citizens and wasn’t even sure how it even came to be. Not only did it slowed down the population growth, as it encouraged the citizens to not had children of their owns, it also caused starvation, which caused theft, which caused execution. All of which Gorbach did not want in the city he envisioned.

When Gorbach had told his little group of advisors, Lord Corlius had expressed concerned that Sophia was having too much influence on him, of which he could not deny. For when she told him the story of her sister died, he has seen the glaring problem to the system and decided that it would be the first of many changes he would be making.

“But your advisors don’t like it, do they?” She pointed out, pulling him back to the conversation as they slithered their way through the corridor with the view of the outside world.

“Don’t even try to make it sound like that is a problem to you.” Gorbach spoke back, Sophia had made her disliking of the council of advisors very clear.

Sophia laughed at that, the roughness in her laughter disturbed Gorbach in a way that he couldn’t explain. It did not sound innocent, but it did not sound like it was sarcastic either, there was just something…off about it.

“Well, this policy of yours…”

“Ours” Gorbach corrected her; Sophia had put as much effort into the planning of this policy as much as he did.

“Yours” Sophia corrected him back “I work for you, not with you, remember?”

Gorbach shrugged “If that is what you want, then I will be willing to take all the credit.”

“To get back to my point…” Sophia continued their discussion “Yes, your three advisors are corrupted to the core, from what I can see of them. But it just seems to defeat the purpose of the council’s existence to go forward with a policy that 2 out of 3 of them disagreed with, don’t you think?”

Gorbach stopped to think for a moment, she did have a point “So what do you suggest I do?”

“Kill them?”

“Violent is out of the question, Sophia. My rule had just begun, and it is not stable just as yet.”

“Replace them then.” She suggested next “Have someone who you actually trust advise you.”

In truth, after that faithful day, Gorbach was half-afraid that he made a mistake of taking her into the stronghold, as her existence here alone was likely to tarnish his rule in the eyes of the nobles, and he only had a few words with Sophia before making her his personal advisor. But the fear faded away almost immediately. For the last few days, Sophia had given him many honest and useful counsels not to mention provided him insight about the city outside the Last Stronghold. She also had a passion for reading, which was a trait Gorbach appreciated anyone for having.

He gave out a long sigh as his mind drifted back to the conversation “I would love it if it was that simple. By tradition, a council member could only be dismissed if the supreme leader had a good reason for it, and I believe that ‘You don’t share the same vision as me’ will probably come off as condescending rather than reasonable.”

Sophia nodded in understanding. But her words did hold some truth though, Gorbach needed to do something about the council, otherwise, words will eventually soon get out that he ignored their counsel, and that would be very undesirable for his rule.

“Well, I’m glad that you change that stupid system.” Sophia suddenly said, her tone noticeably shifted “I just...wish…”

“That it was implemented a month earlier?” Gorbach asked, without thinking.

“Yes,” Sophia replied, her face half-stiffed as if she had taken his words as a slight.

“I’m sorry, that was careless of me,” Gorbach told her, wondering how much of a weird sight it would be to see the supreme leader apologizing to a thirteen years old girl. It was obvious from what Sophia had said about her deceased sister that she very much cared for her, likely even more than the rest of her family combined from the love and grief flashed on her face every time her sister’s name was mentioned, though the emotion had been noticeably lessened over the days, it was still plain to see.

“It’s alright.” Sophia reassured him, her voice sounded broken, as if just thinking of her sister brought sorrow to her “Lana, can you believe stealing that stupid honey bread is the first and only time that she broke a single law?” Her mouth let out a bitter laugh, which was near worse than her normal one.

“I had a sister too, you know.” Gorbach found himself said.

“Really?” Sophia questioned, her tone shifted to doubtful “Where is she?”

“Dead” He replied, his voice stern “10 years ago she contracted an infection from outside the city, and the royal healer couldn’t save her.”

“Sorry, I shouldn’t ask.”

Gorbach shook his head; he was the one that brought her up in the first place “Ellie was 2 years my younger, a sweet girl, kind and smart, and was supposed to rule with me.”

“We all have our own ghosts, it seems.”

He sighed in return “Yeah”

After a moment of silence, Sophia took her leave “If you need me, I will be in the Stronghold's archive.”

“Suit yourself,” Gorbach told her, a little too dismissive than intended. Sophia had been taken up to study history as of late, and there was nowhere in the city that had more knowledge than the giant achieves at the top of the bell rhyme. They parted way, one of the royal guards in their retinue leave with Sophia.

“Today’s supreme leader work is finally over.” Gorbach said after a while, relief in his voice, and turned to his remaining two guards “What should I do now?”

When they gave no answer, Gorbach decided for himself “I haven’t practice on the solar gun for a while, might as well do that.”

So there he went, back down the circling stairs, through the marbled corridors and a few more gates, he arrived at his destination, the back garden.

Gorbach walked passed a pair of noble boys who were trying to hit each other with a stick and both were failing at it somehow. then passed an old noble lying on a cushioned chair gazing lazily into the sky, with a servant attending him, a few young noble girls were also playing with dolls near the flower bed. They all bowed to him when he passed by.

That was what you mostly see of the back garden; a place where nobles came to leisured around and relaxed after they finished their hard work of whatever they do. Though there was the front garden, it was made for just being beautiful, and he had heard that noble said it was ‘too close to the commoners than their liking’, so they came here instead, the place which made for comfort. Most of the time, it was either the young or old who came here, for the between preferred the company of other nobles and luxurious foods rather than the beautiful greenery, the sound of children chattering and the vast toxic wasteland just outside the wall.

Gorbach took a deep breath of fresh air. In truth, he had never liked it here, though not because of the reasons that he had listed, he had tried to bring a book here once but found that the atmosphere was too distracting to concentrate, so he mainly came here just for the scenery, as the sunset that could be seen over the wall here was very beautiful. He also came here to practice on solar gun, as the noble’s firing range was also located here.

“And what do we have here?” Gorbach said aloud when he reached his destination, for he had found the certain someone he was hoping to find.

Standing alone in the firing range was a man of his age, with thick brown hair and a well-looking face, cladded in an overall simple garb of bleached shirt, jacket, and black trousers. He was crouching on a bench concentrating on the noble-grade solar gun in his arms and the target he was aiming, but he broke all of those when he saw who had arrived.

“Supreme leader” He gave Gorbach a stiff bow, the gun still in his hand.

“It would be more preferable if you remain calling me Gorbach, I think,” Gorbach told his old friend.

Howland smiled “Very well, so why did you grace this place with your visit, Gorbach?”

He shrugged in answer and took another gun from the holders “I just believe that I haven’t practice on this for a while.”

“Never know when someone will come for your head, isn’t that right?” Howland jested, Gorbach only nodded for politeness and went to the firing area, his friend did the same.

Gorbach took a deep breath and took aim at the target “I had heard that Jaque is expecting a child.”

Howland smiled with pride as he crouched down beside him “3 months in now, or at least what that the healer said. May we name it Gorbach if it’s a boy?”

“You may not.” He replied and pulled the trigger, the solar blast didn’t even hit the target but simply burnt the wall behind “You know that I do not appreciate the pointless appeasing gesture.”

“And you know that I did not wish to do it just for that.” Howland countered, and fire his own gun, which hit the target perfectly to his annoyance “But if that what you wish, I won’t name my son after you, but…”

He lowered his gun “If it’s a girl, can I at least called her Ellie?”

Gorbach’s eyebrows twitched “I will be less than appreciative with that.”

“I know” Howland spoke back “But she meant a lot to me, Gorbach. Not as much as to you, but I miss her all the same.”

Gorbach sighed “Very well, but just spoke this with Jaque first, alright?”

He smiled and nodded “I will.”

Gorbach shook his head and got back to practice. He and Howland had known each other since they were young, as he was part of a particularly old and important family of noble, the Goldeye, so he was see fit to be a constant companion to the heir of the city. From being raised together, they developed a closed friendship that extended to their adulthood.

“I suppose I must congratulate you.” Gorbach said, as he hit the outer edge of his target “You will soon become a father, but I’m not even married yet.”

“I sure you will find someone eventually..” Howland attempted to comfort him.

“Huh huh” He gave out a nervous chuckle, suddenly clumsy on the gun cocking “Maybe” Gorbach decided to change the subject “So, when will you be taking on the position?”

Howland bit his lip on that, his finger froze at the trigger “I had gone to inspect the great barrack a few days ago, and they are in quite a terrible state. But be that as it may, I am afraid that I’m not ready to take the position as of yet, I still had a long way to go on military and security.”

“Study as long as you like.” Gorbach told Howland “Just be quick about it, the faster you remade the order of guard, the better my reign will be.”

He fired another blast, and nodded “I will see to that.”

Gorbach smiled and took another aimed, that was what he liked about Howland, since he’s young, he was aspired to be the grand general, the man in charge of the order of guard, who acted as both police force and solider in time of rebellion. But instead of just asking Gorbach to made him one, as he knew that he would likely abridge his request for their friendship. Howland instead studied the art of justice and war, to make himself worthy of the position. Which was all well and good, as Gorbach needed someone who was actually competent at their job to work on what is essentially the most powerful position someone could have, not counting the supreme leader, the heirs, and the advisors.

Speaking of whom, Gorbach cocked his gun after missing a shot and decided to lay back for a breathing break. As Howland continued firing, he put the gun aside and reached into his trench coat’s pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.

Gorbach carefully unfolded the parchment and read the content.

‘Lord Corlius is having a secret meeting with the captain of the royal guard every few days.’

‘It’s a good thing I had that servant on my payroll, otherwise, this might go completely under my radar.’ He thought as he put the paper away. Captain of the loyal guard was someone he had overlook, as the position’s allegiance had determined the success or failure of many coups in history, he would have to win the man’s loyalty before he was swayed into other lord’s hand if he meant to rule for more than a month.

‘These advisors really are giving me a headache’ Gorbach complained in his head. Sophia was right, they were so much of a hassle than it was best to replace them, but the age-long tradition was really holding him back.

He took a quick glance at Howland, and had a sudden epiphany. He might not be able to replace the advisors, but he could expand them.

“Howland” Gorbach called him.

“That is me,” He said and lowered his gun.

“What do feel about putting on a sunburst pin for a while?”