I woke up to the sound of a loud knock. ‘Wait, this isn’t my bed, how… oh god, it wasn’t a dream, was it!’

Another knock followed, and I swiftly stood up from the bed with full clothes on. I hadn’t dared to take them off, due to fear of having to make a run for it if some malevolent group suddenly decided to burst through a door. I looked at the self-barricaded door with focused eyes and touched a dagger strapped to my right thigh. Dagger was actually a pony equivalent of a short sword, which I had reappropriated from the armory before going to sleep. As I simply couldn’t escape the paranoia that some group of Sombra loyalists or, alternatively motivated group of ponies wanted me dead and would then storm my room to hack me to pieces at middle of the night like Basil I did to Emperor Michael III of Byzantium.

Approaching the door that only Amethyst should be knocking due to him being the only one to know my sleeping place and being instructed to come wake me up before most of the caste staff got up themselves. I proceeded to remove the make-shift barricades while simultaneously keenly listening for any sounds to detect any evidence of whether others were outside as well. Hearing no auditory signs of others, I opened the door with a slam inwards and retreated to the side of the door so potential ambushers couldn’t attack me from both sides. Amethyst was startled by this act and took a step back.

I waited a few seconds and determined there were no others but only Amethyst and then came out, plus my new dagger still hidden under my jacket, which was virtually unnoticeable.

‘’Why did you do that? Sir.’’

I answered, "The first 24 hours are the most dangerous for any sovereign, so I personally felt bit wary about my own security."

'The same principle applies to new prison inmates as well, and I am practically one now, because I couldn’t really leave the caste for two reasons: 1. I would still be treated as a monster by the locals and, 2. The council will probably send someone to look for me now.’

I thought back on having ordered him to wake me up earlier than the others, so I could get to know them, before breaking the news to the general population, which would soon leak out anyways, as much of the population would inevitably notice something was wrong.

"First stop will be Emerald Spear’s room. Amethyst, you can escort me now on."

Approaching Emerald’s door one more, I knocked. Stallion soon opened the door.

Emarald Spear was slightly surprised at seeing me, "Wait! Yesterday actually wasn’t just some dream then?"

"Yes, unfortunately. Meaning that we have a very busy and long day ahead of us."

"Oh", said Spear.

"Now I would like to know some basic facts about yourself personally and the guards.", Emerald Spear looked with raised eyebrows alongside, expressing a strong flavor of uncertain anticipation.

"How did you end up in charge of the guards and do you believe other guards will respect your, now… shaky authority?"

Unnerved by the question, he still answered after a few seconds of contemplation, "I was an advisor to the Count of Rubrum before King Sombra enslaved us. He then quickly assembled a large army of mind-controlled soldiers and marched southwards towards the still freshly formed nation of Equestrian to eliminate the only serious threats to himself, namely the alicorns of sun and moon. After some major setbacks and military engagements during the campaign, events were assembling for the coming battle of Neighagra Falls.

Equestrian leadership, for some reason, had chosen to engage us with far fewer soldiers, but apparently the royal alicorn sisters had instead utilized it as a mere distraction to help them infiltrate the Crystal City itself. I personally saw them among several others, namely the two alicorns engaging King Sombra in a massive magical battle, until suddenly we all suddenly fell asleep forcefully before waking up simultaneously as well. Strangely, his mind control had for some reason been broken, and two sisters weren’t anywhere to be found either. King Sombra then soon marched back to the castle afterwards and immediately proceeded to execute my predecessor on the spot in a fit of fury. Then he appointed me on the spot and installed me as the one to oversee crystal guards within the inner-city area. After coming back, he has…

Been spending the last three days trying to reestablish his own control over the entire Empire until-, Uhm, you suddenly showed up.", he said in a nervous tone.

What Emerald had said instantly raised some very alarming implications, like: the Empire was way bigger than I had thought, Sombra had spent considerable time in charge and seemingly there had been a genuine war that might still be ongoing. The more I thought about it, the less safe I suddenly felt and the less likely this place seemed to be just a one-to-one copy of the show... ‘The show… Do-… DON’T THINK ABOUT IT!!!’

...

"Sir, you have been standing there just staring blankly for a minute, and I was wondering if I would be permitted to fill my morning needs.", was a sentence of deep concern and tense anticipation.

My mind was interrupted by alternate lines of thoughts, "Actually Emerald, I think you should do that, you may go now.", I spoke, and Emerald Spear looked to be very relieved by these words and soon closed the door with a thank-you.

I had now realized something important and started to quickly walk back towards my room. I then instructed Amethyst to go fetch Dusk Sight and went inside and proceeded to eat the remaining food from the satchel as breakfast/lunch, ‘That should do until midday’ and then started eyeing something in the corner of the room.

Using a chamber pot was one of the strangest experiences in my life but was ultimately merely a minor inconvenience in comparison to what was yet to come. ‘I doubt these ponies poses any advanced technology alongside any modern standards of living if that is the norm.’

Now sitting on the bed, I started thinking, ‘Okay, what to do now?’.

After debating with myself, I came to the following conclusions: ‘Apparently, I have been literally given the ~~mandate of haven~~ and should be the ruling king, which honestly was probably the most absurd thing of all time!!! ‘Like, how in the hell am I even supposed to ever convince the general equine population to somehow accept ME!, A literal alien to be there actual ruling king despite not knowing anybody around here that could meaningfully support my claim in a political or military sense, and could I even really refuse this insane job assignment at all?!? ‘Like, only real thing I personally had going on for me was lack of legitimate rivals and likely backing from the castle council apparently, which honestly didn’t mean much, and I doubted they now would take a ¨No¨ for an answer after yesterday’s display, if I refused this horrifyingly impossible task of unimaginable proportions that would make even Hercules look deeply concerned.’

Cold sweat touched my cheeks for a brief moment and, I stopped and realized thinking anymore about the current circumstances would be pointless until I got a better handle on the situation. I got up and headed towards the door, ‘because there is certainly nothing more difficult than having to personally establish The Neuordnung.’--

-

The guard duo met me, and I replied first "Let’s go fetch Emerald Spear, Again.", and the guard duo nodded. While walking back, I noticed that the sun was starting to rise over the horizon, ‘Now easily begins the second most important day in my life (hopefully, because one's own death is ultimately the most important one).’

A door knock later and Emerald looked up to me. "I think you should come with us, to help explain the current situation to the castle staff due to them starting to wake up now."

He nodded in understanding and replied "Very good idea Sir, I think it prudent to do that.’’

"Follow us then and let’s begin by going to the guard quarters first!"

-

Afterwards, we spent well over two hours walking around the castle and catching every pony we four came across. It generally took about two to six minutes of convincing to make all of them generally believe our explanations about the newly developed situation, but when I personally had all three guard ponies vouching for me and then showcasing the heart to them, it didn’t generally take much convincing to make them believe us. Thankfully, there were no real notable incidents during this time, even though we/I received many frightened reactions and interestingly, some afterward showed that of... ‘Uh, a form of admiration? After becoming a believer in Sombra's own demise.’

‘Okay, the general of the castle staff has now been sufficiently pacified and normalized to my own presence. Then it would be time for a comprehensive council meeting on how to break the news of Sombra’s death and how it would be disclosed to the city’s inhabitants.'

"I will then go gather them, Sir! It will take a moment.", said the old stallion.

Emerald Spear soon went on his way, and I couldn’t help but dread what was to come. I had now concluded I should try this whole king business because ‘If I refused, then some pony warlord will probably eventually come march to the castle and kill me for political reasons. Plus, being a play-pretend King would considerably improve my general chances of living more than it would retract in the immediate term.’, If that failed (which it near certainly would), then I hoped I could survive long enough to be able to escape to Equestria.

‘Who am I kidding, there is no way this whole King thing won't fail miserably past the current castle walls.’, because in all honestly, at this point I was just the king of the castle at best.

Self-contemplation of my difficult predicament made my perception of time flyby, and before I knew it, Emerald told me the meeting was ready. Looking at the same door from yesterday, I couldn’t help but feel that my entire future would be decided here, which brought feelings of strong anxiousness like never before. ‘Courage is ultimately about knowing you are afraid’ and then, opened the door.

Pairs of half familiar eyes beset me once more and I returned the gesture. Seeing none were actively screaming, I headed towards the same mini-throne and sat down. Some flinched, but it certainly was a lot better than yesterday's. 'Had they some form of learned helplessness going on?', I thought back to yesterday's events, as I was a bit weird that any of them hadn't screamed or tried to run away by now.

Seeing none were willing to start up this conference, I spoke: "We have gathered here today to discuss the status of the reigning government or more accurately, the lack there of and anything else relevant to the current situation that you might know about.", and that line immediately created an atmosphere of fear within the room.

Now suddenly hoping to lighten the mood, I chose to say the following: "I think most of you have realized I’m obviously not from around here, so I would like to ask some questions now. Like, how many ponies currently live within this city?", so I personally had an idea about how big this place really was.

One of the ponies chose to speak, which was the same mare from yesterday with Azur furred and indigo-toned mane, whose words were filled with great dread, "Y- Your highness, I’m... I'm the current chief director of national population information archives, and after Sombra’s... death… I estimate the Crystal city currently holds about seven to eight million inhabitants."

My brain stopped, "What? How is it even possible to logistically cram that many people in the same area with pre-industrial technology!?", 'I mean places like Rome and Angor Wat could theoretically only have been able to manage at an absolute maximum, slightly less than one and half million inhabitants!'

Council members were terrified by this sudden outburst, but the mare seemed to suddenly muster new courage to replay, "It simply can’t, your highness!"

Dumbfounded, I said: "Uhh… Why are there so many ponies crammed in here?"

The Azur one looked briefly downwards and said, "King Somb- THAT MONSTER, had massive numbers of crystal ponies to be forcibly moved to the city, so he could better control them. Despite the city having started surpassing its maximum carrying capacity even before... Him."

Her tone suddenly changed to that of complete distress, "Because of this unsustainable overpopulation and Crystal Heart's created shield area shrinking, causing the loss of nearly half of the all-year-around farming area, plus the city having virtually used up all the remaining food stores in late winter. I- I think we are about to start entering the latter stages of the greatest historical famine until now!"

‘Am I literally surrounded by millions of starving and scared ponies who many would aim to kill me for nothing else than fear and ignorance!?’, I rapidly thought until I remembered how bad things could soon be, and now I noticed that the council members didn't seem to have eaten all that well or healthily.

"Death estimates? For the Famine."

Mare looked even more scared, "I think the total number of victims will range from... one quarter to two million ponies and this is assuming... the food distribution system doesn’t collapse! If so, then the famine could easily wipe out over half of the Crystal city’s own population in a span of one and half a years!!!"

"This sounds like something on level with the Holodomor!", and I immediately said that without really thinking about it. All the ponies in the room looked completely terrified by this piece of news with some sobbing. Half a minute passed in the very unsettling atmosphere of the conference room and the mare suddenly asked, "What was that Hol-mor thing you said?"

And before I knew it, my internal historian activated; "Holodomor was an artificially caused famine that happened within Communist Ukraine between years 1932 to 1933, primarily due to cruelty by the Stalinist Soviet government that killed about three and half to five million people respectively, with the word Holodomor meaning Terror-Famine." I said that and then immediately regretted it.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have said that!!!’

Disquieting feelings washed over the ponies in the room, and it seemed the weight of the current situation had started to sink into them as well alongside myself. Looking down at the table due to realizing the extreme seriousness of the reigning situation, which would only worsen if something didn't soon change.

I looked up soon after and saw others doing the same as I was. Understanding none were willing to continue this disturbing conversation, I tried to lighten the mood by rubbing my hands together and saying; "Due to the situation being somewhat out of our control, I would like to start discussing what we can do in an effort to establish some sort of control over the city or at least the immediate surroundings to-", and was interrupted by a loud knock to the door, 'What?!'

Almost flinging, I turned attentively look at the door like many others in the room. After a few seconds, I decided, "Yes, you can come in!"

The door opened and a new guard’s pony appeared who looked very nervous and spoke, "I have come to inform you that there is now a large and growing crowd of gathering ponies within the caste basin that are currently asking what is happening. I ask what sort of action we should take?"

Part of me hoped this wouldn’t happen this quickly, but it was inevitable when the citizenry woke up with their brainwashing missing. I stood up and headed towards a window. Looking down, I saw at least hundreds of ponies below whom most seem to be currently wearing guard armor.

‘What to do, what to do?’. I knew the Crystal Heart would have to be delivered soon to the castle basin or the population would eventually start breaking down the doors to find it.

‘Do I deliver the heart or somepony else?’, I thought. Anxiety of the crowd and their possible reaction to me almost got the better of me, but I remembered that the one who ever delivered it would instantly gain huge social status and would then be interested in silencing me if they wanted to be the next king.

Concluding it might be safer to do it by myself than some other one, I turned at the guard at the door, "Tell the other guards that the heart will be delivered to the castle basin by midday, and some of the crystal guards should gather for instructions regarding the organizing of the ceremony."

The lone guard was a bit weirded out like others in the room and honestly me as well.

"I will then spread the world around then!", said the guard, and soon left. I wasn’t sure if I breathed out in relief or worry, and finally turned to look at the council members.

"’Do you have anything to say that might be relevant to helping the current situation?", was said by me and the ponies seemed hesitant to talk.

I almost continued due to lack of voices until Emerald Spear spoke up, "’Uh, King Isaac!? I think I can speak for all of us and would want to say that it’s doubtful we could accomplish much by ourselves, but you can come to call for us all if need be.", he said with deep nervousness.

‘So, he just admitted they are half useless in a polite way. Okay, so I’m mostly on myself then. Yeah, no pressure.’, I thought in a half-sarcastic manner if this situation wasn’t so unfunny.

"I will leave then to organize the guards then, do as you please meanwhile.", was stated sharply and no responses followed. Sighting, I headed to the door and exited with Amethyst and Sight in tow.

"Emerald come with us as well!", which was obeyed wordlessly.

‘Am I seriously pretending as if I am in control of this horrific mess which holds my life as a very real stake?’, and I almost let the stress of the situation wash over me, but now there certainly was no time for resting. Heading towards the crystal guard quarters, I started coming up with possible schemes for how to proceed next.

With three ponies on my side, it was extremely easy to get the castle guards to listen to my instructions regarding the Crystal Heart returning pseudo-ceremony, but I noticed that their numbers were only about a hundred souls and concluded that it might be a good idea to supplement their numbers still in an effort to give a better impression of power and control to the coming crowd. I was half-surprised when I heard of the existence of a dungeon under the castle filled with genuine prisoners and decided to go there to look for any useful and likely considerably more loyal and morally indebted candidates to add to the ceremony guards.

I couldn’t help but wonder why Sombra had even bothered to keep prisoners in the castle and any hypothetical reasons I came up with certainly didn’t paint any sort of rosy pictures. Descending the stairs with my entourage in tow, we reached the bottom and met several guards who were extremely terrified about experiencing potential retribution for their involvement here. After a few minutes of emotionally intense communication and receiving a few extra ceremony guards and useful info, we finally headed to the cell block or, more accurately, Me.

It was as grim as I had feared, as the sight of utterly terrified inmates retreating deeper to their cells upon seeing me and the unmistakable smell of rot, bodily waste and corpses filled the air. This place’s standards for inmate care appeared to approach Oubliette levels for the most stored in here, which was the reason I had left the pony group behind, as I sensed they were seriously disturbed by this place, and even I had a seriously hard time keeping a straight face there. A quick look around the side rooms revealed that this place was actually a testing ground for unethical creature experimentation, primary mind control and dark magic on unwilling victims, with one of the nearby room's contents was better be left unmentioned.

Opening a door, I came to a small room filled with several scrolls and instruments, but most interestingly, a live captive strapped to an operating/prison table. Pony looked at me and noticeably didn’t show any strong signs of fear.

"Have you come to kill me in Sombra's stead?", were his words that didn’t betray any real sign of weakness under such circumstances.

A bit impressed by this pony, I replied, "Actually, I killed Sombra several hours ago, and I’m looking for some competent help." Brief silence followed, and then the stallion showed great signs of relief.

"I suspected that potentially was the case if someone like you was just walking around here. My name is Humble Glass, and I’m a pony of many talents, mainly social ones, and I would very deeply appreciate it if you let me out of these straps."

Moving to remove the strapping mechanism locking him in place with my hands, I continued, "I think you were... was one of his test subjects for rather new and interesting forms of mind control, am I correct?"

He said with a heavy sigh, "Yes, I was, and he kept trying to utterly break my spirit, but thanks to you, he has now failed. Uh, mister?"

"Name is Isaac, The Human."

The reply made a fairly large smile on his muzzle for those words and the restraining straps finally gave away fully. He looked incredibly relieved as he could finally move his muscles once more and began giving a growing flood of tears of joy. Before I knew it, my trained reflexes to pet my dog came in. He seemed initially confused and then was ready to break apart until he hugged me for comfort, which I awkwardly returned to him in an effort to comfort him after his likely unimaginably horrid ordeal.

One minute of silent but still dignified weeping later, he looked up with that sort of eyes whose exact meaning I couldn’t exactly put my finger on, but only that of one looking at a savior; "What do you need?"

After getting out of that seriously creepy dungeon and making sure that some of the guards would make sure that inmates in there wouldn’t die for now. I proceeded back towards the meeting room once more. Walking down the castle hallways, I noticed that some of the staff didn’t try to get away from me anymore after spotting me but gave slight bows and remained still like statues during it. I was still a bit weirded out at suddenly receiving such treatment, but I knew it was a lot better than most alternatives and couldn’t feel a bit more confident that I might actually be able to pull through this madness.

A quick knock on the conference room door later and walking in with my pseudo-entourage in tow, I saw there were only two ponies there. One was the Azur mare and the other was the unhappy stallion from yesterday who seemed to have been debating with each other until I arrived. They only looked at me sheepishly.

Deciding to break the ice, I started: "What have you two actually been doing, while I was gone?"

The last part raised some of the withers from the other male pony and the Azur mare answered, "We have been looking into the issue of managing the food distribution, and have thankfully come to the conclusion that nearly all the food workers remain in the nearby area of the castle and have managed to contact the nearby distribution stations that have now asked for directions from-… The highest authority available."

"Good to see that this city and its population might not be completely screwed over then." I said and two of them seemed somewhat relieved by those words.

"Continue the good work and I will then go make the final arrangements to return the Heart, clear?"

Both tensed a bit and said it like soldiers, “Yes, Sir!”.

Receiving that bit of a cringy but satisfactory response, I thanked them and soon left towards the guards assembling area. 'I might want to look at that stallion more when I have the time.'

I was fairly nervous at seeing almost two hundred guards armed primarily with various spears standing in the hall that seemed to be for dining, before they turned to look at us, with few of them being slightly familiar faces, like Humble Glass who looked a lot better now in terms of appearance. They seemed to be no less tense about seeing me as I was of them, but my pseudo-entourage seemed sooth them over fairly quickly to being somewhat more normal in their behavior. I seriously hoped no one would try to challenge me as things could quickly turn ugly otherwise, because I couldn't hope to fight off more than one attacker, as I started my speech for instruction giving.

Thankfully, no one questioned me seriously in any way, as any who seemed to be hesitant to follow my instructions got a stern glance from Emerald, which immediately put them back on the line with the rest.

After distributing the simple plan for the guard positions for the ''ceremony'' and briefly simulating their standing positions relative to each other in the hall. We finally got ready to begin the Crystal Heart returning ceremony.

Looking down from the window, I couldn’t help but feel I was walking on eggshells as the crowd which I saw below was absolutely massive! A random assortment of dot-like colors covered the entire castle-surrounding ring-like area like some incomprehensibly knit together multicolor carpet and a quick calculation in my head suggested that there were about 150000–250000 ponies if my assumption of two and half ponies per square meter held any water. I couldn’t help but briefly hate myself at that moment, as I had so grossly underestimated the sheer number of participants and couldn’t but feel incredible anxiety if something went wrong. ‘If the crowd went on a stampede after seeing me, there would undoubtedly be a large number of deaths.’

‘Or worse, attack us.’, I thought as I went down to the same door as I entered the castle, with a sizable convoy of crystal guards in tow, which now held the old ceremonial guard armor before Sombra's rise to power.

The audience below was listening to some announcer's speech about how, “The great and powerful creature called Isaac had defeated evil King Sombra by himself and recovered the Crystal Heart to return it to the crystal ponies!”. That last part certainly got the emotionally mixed but surprisingly silent crowd's attention, based on the looks and voices of uncertainty and awe in terms of what I personally could perceive through a tiny opened viewing crack from the very same door I had entered the castle.

A pair of flügelhorns blared as the signal for the start of the ceremony, and I was feeling on edge as the next few moments here would either make or break my future here. Two lines of guards exited the door in synch and began heading towards the center of the castle basin which Crystal Heart was planted during ceremonies, with me still staying out of sight. Two lines of guards formed a corridor to the holding platform-area in a very synchronous manner, which was meant to give an impression of power and control so no one would try anything rash. Emerald Spear’s commanding voice caused all the guards then to turn towards the crowd in virtually perfect synch.

Knowing my moment had come, I stepped outside with the strongest air of confidence which I could personally project, while internally I was nearly cracking under the sheer pressure of the situation. A gasp of untold thousands of voices followed and the hawklike stairs of many more that treated me as if I was suddenly the only thing to currently exist in the universe. Noting that the situation had not immediately gone to shit as I had feared, as the crowd had fallen into a trance-like state, after a few seconds I came into view with most mouths hanging open to varying degrees.

Deciding to quickly march to the Heart holding area while a crowd of untold thousands of pony eyes was still petrified. I arrived at the inner ring area and felt a tug in my hands, where I visibly held the Crystal Heart for all to see. Suddenly, a spike rose from the ground from the very middle of the castle, while another far longer and narrower one descended from the ceiling to form a clear area where the Heart was to be put while the pull on my hands strengthened further.

Feeling I had to say something to the stunned spectators, I started a short semi-improvised speech with a strong voice directed towards the almost dead silent audience, which was on the edge of their figurative seats, “The dark days of King Sombra have finally passed away, so let us cast off his works of darkness and put on the light within our own hearts to work towards a better tomorrow together, which we all share the magnificent light of the Crystal Heart."

I hoped they bought my mini speech and then put the hearth next to the holding pedestal with an open palm. The heart swiftly took to the air and floated to the middle of the two spikes and then began to glow as the street also began to glow. The heart began to spin with increasing force and the crystal ponies suddenly acted as if they remembered something, namely bowing down, and then the growing spin of Crystal Hearth reached the final phase.

My closed eyelids did little to help, as the extremely powerful light flashed from the Heart and its sheer intensity put me worrying if I would go blind, but thankfully, after a few seconds, I regained my vision with overwhelmingly intense cheers of joy that were nothing short of deafening! I think I might get hearing damage as I almost jumped from my skin due to the sheer intensity of the collective voices while being seriously on edge.

Spike in my heartbeat stabilized a few seconds later, and I decided to leave before somepony decided to act on their own volition. Giving a small wave which, meaning I wasn’t sure the crowd could even understand, was still given. Many were very excitingly stomping in their places, and some were even giving looks that only fans would give to their idols, which at some level seriously unnerved me in the back of my mind.

Quickly walking back towards the castle door, I went in with most of the guards from the bridge corridor in tow, while the ones surrounding the Crystal Heart stayed behind to keep the crowd at bay, including Emerald. Noticing how exhausted I felt from sheer adrenaline being released during that ordeal, I almost wanted to sit for a moment and rest, but remembered the presence of the following crystal guards and began kind of panicking internally.

‘What the hell will I do now?’, as a glare from my peripheral vision, which revealed the group of crystal guards following me like a herd does a Shepherd, as the voices outside remained clearly very audible still. Even more disturbingly I saw myself being semi-transparent and sparkling like the ponies, which I tried to not think about currently.

Deciding I couldn’t dismiss them now, I decided to then march back to the conference room. Opening the door, I saw the unhappy stallion and the Azur mare alongside most other council members in the room, who seemed to have held a heated discussion between themselves before I came. Some looked uneasy but most seemed to be still in a very good mood, with their coats visibly sparkling like others.

The Azur mare greeted me as others council members seemed to be a bit intimidated by my new guard entourage in tow, as the guards were partially of the council members. I personally decided it would now be either fully conforming my dedication in pursuit of this insane scheme of being a king or simply dropping it now, as I currently had kind of amassed the required jump start for a required militant following in terms of theoretically trying now for the possible genuine takeover of the Crystal Empire.

I briefly let out a small breath at such an indecisive moment, ‘I need a consensus on opinions.’, for what to do next.

The mood in the room only communicated that I was the only one really allowed to talk, so I did: "As you know, I have been quote on quote; Anointed... by the Crystal Heart as the possible new King of The Empire and now ask if you believe in such a thing to be even possible and you would personally be on board with it, or I should now simply end any such pursuit in favor of an alternate optio-"

"NO!" was a sudden and emotional shout from the very same Azur mare from yesterday which caught me and others majorly off guard.

"Wait, so you personally believe I would make a possible good fit as a future king?", I questioned with major skepticism about the sheer dubiousness of such a prospect.

"ABSOLUTELY!!! For you are our only fitting choice we have!!", was staunchly stated with far greater emotional intensity then before.

I was a bit shocked by this sheer emotion of the outburst alongside some others, but chose to continue after two seconds, "What is your name then? If you truly believe so."

"My name is Starry Sea and why should you be! For you are the only hero we currently have!!!", was said in desperate plea. The rest of the audience seemed to come to some sort of realization as the figurative gears in their heads were apparently turning and then all were soon awaiting my response collectively.

I looked around and decided to interrogate them further to confirm their sincerity, "Are you all with this decision, for there would be no turning back afterwards then?"

I saw only expressions that signaled various forms of approval from them and said more than mere words, and then I came to a terrifying moment to make a truly huge decision.

‘Can I even refuse at this point?!?’, as the situation would certainly collapse to complete anarchy otherwise and all the deaths that would result from it. If I did, then I would have to literally perform likely the most ambitious and impressive power grab of all time! That normally would be completely impossible, but now it is barely even borderline possible, only due to the sheer uniqueness of the situation! It would undoubtedly be a huge uphill battle, but I had kind of received the required political backing to even try and the concept of ruling held some considerable personal appeal to me in terms of other personal career paths, despite how short it all would likely end up being. Plus, having access to state resources would help me possibly get back home or at least grant me a decent standard of living.

I was consumed by those possibilities of very slim chance success and most likely fatal failure for a few seconds as the all-consuming tension within and without simply didn’t dissipate, then I came to a final conclusion.

‘Okay, Screw it! Better to be a lion for a single day than a sheep for a hundred years!’

I looked at the audience with a determination and a smile filled with determined confidence even if a bit artificial, "If you so wish, then I will be your Champion of a Revolution."

Author's Note

Notes:

• The chapter came later than planned as the production phase took longer than expected (Note: I have mostly written the content of future chapters then fully completed them). Expect the next chapter to come out before the end of April.

• About the Ukraine mention (I’m neural about the topic), I almost didn’t add it until I remembered its necessity to test out waters and experiment on how the audience reacts on easily controversial topics on this site, due to planning to add a lot more politically and thematically controversial topics later on within this story that will eventually be introduced and discussed. I also added it due to feeling it would add good future story points. (I’m smart enough to discuss with proper care about such sensitive topics (I refer to other subjects here)).

• EaW is inherently pretty political and in this story politics will be a huge component of it which comes in. As you have probably noticed by now, I try to aim for maximum realism in terms of my story telling. This story will include often overlooked/interesting topics in all its forms, including the uglier aspects of them.

• I will try to answer all questions that aren't too spoilery. (Note: Notify me if I make a mistake in regards EaW lore, so I can fix it due to my strong personal attitudes towards canon compliance.)