“Are you really the supreme leader?” The boy in front of him asked.

Gorbach gave a click on his pin, then handed the box of food to him “Most definitely, go run along now.”

The boy nodded and dashed away, letting the next child approached the table.

Gorbach shook his head and received the next box from the distributioner behind him ‘Not even a thank you…but no matter, it’s not as if I’m doing it purely for appreciation.’

As he continued giving out set after set of provisions, Gorbach took a hasty look on his surroundings. He was in the city schoolyard, sitting behind a foldable table and chair, his coat draped over his seat. Behind him stood a group of distributioners and royal guards, standing over thousands of food boxes, neatly arranged into several stacks based on what ages they were made for. In front of him were lines and lines of children, waiting eagerly to receive their very own provision set for the very first time.

Sophia sat by his side, sharing his table, herself cladded in her plainest noble clothing. Together the two had taken over the nine years old lines, while the few dozen of nobles who accompany them took charge of other ages.

‘Nothing has gone terribly wrong yet, as far as I know.’ Gorbach thought ‘So this occasion is quite a success.’

The plan was his idea, though he could not take full credit since he spoke it over with Sophia and Howland, perfecting it as best as possible, even came to inspect the site with her before enacting it. The intention was simple, for the first day that his policy came into play; Gorbach would descend down from the last stronghold to personally enact it, as a meant to ease the tension between the two social classes.

‘They all have their own ideas on who I am.’ Gorbach thought as he gave another child a provision box ‘Now let’s them see me right up front and revaluate that.’

Naturally, a supreme leader coming out of his ivory tower would attach quite a scene, and attached quite a scene it did. Beyond the schoolyard not only stood the parents who came to pick up their children, but also a large amount of curious common coming to see Gorbach in the flesh, despite his recent appearance at the picking ceremony.

‘I will show them who I really am, or at least the part that I want to show.’ Gorbach went on in his head ‘They shall see me as a humble man, a supreme leader who cares about their misgiving. And perhaps they will support the actions I would take throughout the rest of my reign.’

As Gorbach handed the next child another provision set, a few minutes after he realized that this day would be filled with tedious work, he took a notice that Sophia was glaring around at all the nobles who had follow him down from the last stronghold.

“More come than expected, huh?” Sophia said, a strange tone in her voice.

He gave a nodded, Gorbach had announced to the entire noble population that he would be coming to the school at this very day to distribute the food himself, and asked, not commanded, for a retinue to accompany him. Most definitely his friend came along Howland, Fillius, and Leaf, along with some other nobles. Most thought such an act was beneath them, and his old advisors shared the same view. Lord Corlius had stormed off from the council room after Gorbach announced his plan, and though Lord Rubos promised to attend his supreme leader, he stood by it the last second, citing that his knee was hurting. Which was certainly quite precarious for just before they left, his informant reported than he had seen the shifty advisor pacing around his chamber all morning.

‘When I said none of them came, that was not wholely true.’ Gorbach thought. He handed out another box and glanced at the table next to him, where Lord Ptis was leaning on his chair, smiling his strange smile like he understood some secret jab no other don’t. Ptis was not handing the food himself, instead a pair of distributioners flanking him left and right had the honor to did the deed for him, which seemed to defeat the purpose of being here in the first place. Yet came he did, and even though his presence did not caused any mishap so far, it was still odd to see him at this place, observing everything.

“What do you think is the reason they are here with me?” Gorbach asked Sophia, he already knew the answer, but simply asking to start a conversation.

“For your favor, what else?” She replied, giving out another set while she did. Sophia had picked a simple gown of an undyed wool today, with her common hoodie worn over it, and she looked very lovely.

“What else indeed...” Obviously most of them did not care about the people they were feeding, but these nobles simply recognized that following their supreme leader’s direction would make them seemed loyal in the eyes of their supreme leader “But what matters is that they come.”

“Come as a sheep, to be fair,” Sophia muttered.

Gorbach smiled “I heard a wise girl once said that whatever your reason for doing good is, all that matter is that you are doing good.”

Sophia raised her head, one of her eyebrows shifted “So what, you trick them into being good people?”

“You could say that.” This whole charade was for the image, after all. With nobles showing closeness to the common, it would pave the way to lessen the disparity between the two groups. Very much crucial to the reformation process.

“Don’t you have a friend to catch up to?” Gorbach asked, he knew Sophia avoided the line of her age for a reason.

Sophia stopped for a moment as if she was carefully considering her word, the child in front of her looked on in confusion, so Gorbach handed the boy a provision box and waved for the next one.

“I have a few friends of my age.” She finally answered “But we’re not that close. They will notice that I was gone for a month now, but will not distraught themselves over it.”

“So you disliked socialization, even before you join me,” Gorbach observed.

Sophia shrugged “You could say that I’m just the type of person who is okay being alone, and if I’m not by myself then I always got Lana with me, until…”

Sophia shook her head “Regardless, though I still got this boy I’m very fond of, he is one year older than me so he is probably recruited for an order by now.”

“I see” Gorbach replied, wondering why Sophia would tell him that “Can you handle the line on your own? I wish to visit other nobles.”

She shrugged “Go ahead.”

Gorbach grabbed for his coat and slung it over his back. It was a simple piece of clothing, to compliment his plain grey shirt and dark trousers. After a hasty adjustment on his belt and the chain that held his silver medallion, he gave a playful flick on the forehead at Sophia and quickly excused himself before she could retaliate in any manner.

He strode across the back of the table lines, replying to the greeting he received from the nobles who decided to accompany him as he did, nodding and thanking them for the effort they put in today.

‘Whatever their true intention is doesn’t matter.’ Gorbach thought after he greeted another noble whom he did not recall the name of ‘What matters is that they come and gave the commons the illusion that we cared for them. The illusion that is at least true for me.’

Gorbach glanced by to his right, where the only building of the school stood. It rose ominously from the floor in an orderly mess of concrete and junction, he could not determine how many floors it had, though perhaps the chaos of its plan was the beauty of it. He wasn’t Elia, so he couldn’t be sure.

‘There is no need to tear it down, but mayhap it could be improved in some way.’ Gorbach contemplated about the site, it would be good steps in reformation, as education was a major part of one life, but he was getting ahead of himself. He circled through the stack and stack of provision, thanking the distributioners for their works as they bowed as a means to salute him.

Distributing food to the minors of the common was his first policy for a reason. Not only it reaped many benefits as a gateway to expand and improve the city, but it also showed the commons his good intention. The policy was sending a message, if you will, saying that he was here for the better, not for worse.

But of course, such a drastic change to the system came with a cost. As a means to gain enough food to run the operation, several stores in the trading centers must be closed, and the noble’s food supply was reduced by one-tenth of its original amount, to the complaint of lord Corlius, who was growing bolder and bolder by the days. Regardless, it was the cost Gorbach was willing to make to create a slightly better future for his peoples.

He shifted his gaze to near the end of the table lines, where the nobles stationed there was giving food set to the children twelve years of age.

Gorbach frowned at the sight ‘What is happening with those two this time?’

As he approached his friends, Gorbach saw what was truly going on. Fill and Leaf was sitting together, and even though they were providing the provision to the children as they should, Leaf was very much distracted by a nine years old boy clinging to the skirt of her dress, and Fillius was more interested in the food box he was rummaging through at the moment.

Gorbach decided to address the problem at hand “Fill, perhaps you can tell me why you are eating the children’s provision.”

Fillius was chewing on a dough of bread when Gorbach asked him. He held out his hand for a moment and gulped down the food in his mouth, then answered: “I was hungry.”

Leaf shook her head, she looked more tired than usual “I do not believe that that is sufficient reason to be eating these children’s food, Fillius.”

“Well, it is sufficient for me.” He replied and took another bite “By the god, these things is tasteless.”

Leaf gave a long sigh and laid down on the table, though to give of them some credits, the two were still handing out provisions for the lines of children waiting for their food.

The boy who was clinging to Leaf’s skirt was now trying to tuck her wrist to get her attention “Churchier, I’m hungry too.”

As Fill was holding in his chuckle, Leaf turned to address the child with an annoyed look “We will be going back to the castle soon enough, dear. So please wait until then…”

The boy puffed up and started to pout “But I want to eat nowwwww!”

Fillius was on the verge of breaking into a fit of laughter “Yeah, your lord husband wishes for a bottle of milk, Leaf. Why don’t you perform your wifely duty and bring him some?”

Leaf’s face turned shifted annoyance to frustration, which oddly resembled her young spouse. So Gorbach decided that he perhaps should step in and defuse the situation.

“I can smell candies around here!” The boy continued to whine “I WANT CANDY!!!!”

“Musolin” Gorbach called the boy with his name “I believe that Lady Masia has ordered a servant to bring her a packet of sweet, so why don’t you ask her for some?”

“Really?” The boy who shared the same name as his father said, then went running away, abandoning his noble wife in the process.

Leaf gave out a sigh of relief “Gorbach, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

Fill was still digging through the provision set while everything happened “I suppose I’ll go out on a limb here and said that your marriage wasn’t going very well.”

She shook her head “What else is new?”

“If you wish for it …” Gorbach started to say “…I can make an arrangement for him to be fostered by other nobles, and rejoin you when he became more mature…”

“No” Leaf refused Gorbach’s offer “As much of a pain as he can be, he’s like a little brother to me.”

“That is quite a strange thing to say about your husband.” Fill added, then dig out a few slices of apples from the provision set “Seriously, you are giving these kids apples?”

“Shut up.” Leaf shoot back “The fact of the matter is, I’m all he got. And no matter how much I hate him and our sham marriage, I still need to be there for him.”

“Remind me to choose my spouse by myself.” Fill muttered, then he seemed to have a realization “Wait, isn’t that brat your cousin or something, Gorbach?

“Third cousin once removed,” Gorbach told his friends. Though they did not share the same last name, his great grand aunt had married into the Holycross family, and Musolin was the last of that line, the same as Gorbach for his.

“He has a drop of the Godlead’s blood, to be sure.” Leaf said “Why else would my lord father offered me as his bride.”

“Well, my own father often said that you are being very stubborn on not choosing an heir.” Fill pointed out “Why not just give the pin to this boy and be done with it?”

But when Fill caught Gorbach’s expression, he had an epiphany “Oh right, he’s twelve, I got it. But to be fair, you make a thirteen years old girl as your chief advisor, so I do not believe you see age.”

“I see potential, Fillius.” He retorted “Musolin was very much a pampered boy, while Sophia matured faster due to her poor upbringing.”

“Ah-huh” Leaf muttered.

Fill raised his eyebrow “Woman, you are acting very strange, and more than usual.”

She shrugged as she continued handing out food to the line of children “It’s not my fault if you are too blind to see the truth.”

Fillius gave out a sly smile “You cannot rile me up, Leaf, simply give up on it. I make jape at your expense, not the other way round.”

Leaf smashed her hand on the table, which startled the line of kids in front of them “Then may I ask nicely for you to stop doing that?”

Fillius tossed a chunk of meat up and down in his hand, before flicking a small bite into Leaf’s mouth, landing in perfectly “It is in my nature, woman, and it comes with the rest of me.”

Leaf spat the meat on the ground and used the sleeve of her dress to wipe her mouth “You rotten piece of…”

Gorbach finally gave out a long and frustrated sigh “Can you two please keep your play in just the bedroom?”

Upon hearing that, Fillius dropped the provision set on the ground, scattering soup and vegetables on the schoolyard, while Leaf faced turned redder than the orange part of her hairs.

“How…did…” She was struggling to say.

“I don’t” Gorbach admitted “But I know that you two cannot stand each other, but you still together constantly. I know that Leaf is an adult woman in a marriage that could not fulfill her need, and I know that once a week or so, FIllius would disappear from his chamber through the servant passage to somewhere my informant can’t track.”

Fill was sweating bullet when Gorbach was finished, but still managed to keep his smile “For your information, I was sneaking into the wine cellar and have some fun by switching the labels on the kegs. Not, eloping with Leaf, I do that some time else.”

The woman in question shook her head “You won’t tell my lord father right? It’s just a little messing around, I don’t even like him.”

Fillius looked hurt “Ouch”

“What happens between you two is none of my business.” Gorbach reassured them, he had never understood the need for those sorts of acts, but perhaps it was because he had no interest in sex in general “But please, for the love you bear to me, try to get along.”

And with that, Gorbach turned and left them to their work.

‘I wasted too much time with those two.’ He thought concernedly, the lines of children had near completely dispersed by that moment in time. Gorbach estimated that he wouldn’t be able to get back to his table and helped Sophia in time, so as he gave a light tap to his silver medallion, he decided to make one more stop.