Chapter 2

The first rays of morning sunlight pierced through the large glass windows of my study, indicating the end of my first night in the State of Gunther, only to quickly disappear as the windows automatically darkened itself, keeping the lighting in the room at a comfortable level.

The cup of coffee on my massive oak desk had grown cold by now, not helped by the cold air blasting out the vents from my HVAC system. Surrounding me by the desk were cans of empty red bull and monster energy drinks, crushed by piles upon piles of documents.

The set of heavy wooden double doors swung open, letting in the jarring noise of construction as renovation works continued outside my sound-proofed study.

"This is the last records we have on the territory." Kruno Horngren, one of my accountant's huffed, wheeling several boxes full of more documents.

"Good. Give them to James's team. Anything that involves the legal department put them in the pile over there, I pointed to the stack of papers at the corner of the room without looking up from my file.

The first 18 hours ever since I got here has been hectic. My new residence was the late Earl's Castle, on top of a hill overlooking the nearby port city of Selatapura.

Without wasting any time, I got to work. Summoning a bunch of people, lawyers, accountants, analysts, builders. Every one of them the best in their selected roles, who had worked in numerous public and private organisations. I had the lawyers' sort through the years of lawsuits and legal jargon the late Earl had accumulated while the accountants and analysts slog through the mountains of paperwork concerning the fief and the Earl's assets.

And while the rest of them and I stayed holed up in the office, while the team of builders scurried around renovating the entire estate to modern standards, installing power, sanitation and waste disposal systems as well as giving it a fresh new look.

One might call this cheating, which is very much is. But I would argue since the royal family is setting me up to fail from the start, why not cheat? I have the power to summon in anything and anyone I want, even money but that would have to be done so carefully as a massive influx of funds would raise suspicion, not to mention increasing the inflation rate.

And It was a damn good thing I did. The accountants and analyst's job were to compile a report on the territory's income and expenditures during the past five years, to root out any corruption within the system.

This was going to take a long time to look through them properly. I estimate it would take about a month of non-stop work before I could even start to put a dent in the stacks of documents. If I were just a normal sixteen-year-old, I would have flung myself out the window behind me.

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It has been a week, and progress has been slow, and I need something to distract me from the paperwork, I could go to the games room and play some video games but, I need to do something productive and at the same time far away from this shit

It has been a week, and progress has been slow, and I need something to distract me from the paperwork, I could go to the games room and play some video games but, I need to do something productive and at the same time far away from this shit.

Excavating the piles of manila files on my desk, I reached for my Razer 2 smartphone: it was a miracle it had not been crushed by the sheer weight of the files on top of it and dialled a number.

On the second ring, someone picked up. "Yes, Boss?"

"Hey Mike, Get the three idiots and meet me in my office now."

"Sure, thing bo-" I hung up before the man on the other end could finish his sentence and went back to reading, or at least try. The overhanging feeling that what I just read would be made useless after new revelations from one of the teams does put a damper on my motivation.

A few minutes later, Will walked in with Ian, Lionel and Mike right behind him, With the exception of Will, Ian and Mike were young, looking just slightly older than me, although every one of them are hundreds of years old.

These four men are the closest thing I had to a family. They were people that were with me throughout my many adventures, and we formed a special bond with each other.

Will, looked the oldest in the group, looking about in his late forties, with strands of white hair sticking out. An ex-Delta Force Operator, he was the first person to serve as my bodyguard and the team leader.

Lionel, like Will, is my bodyguard, an ex-Marine Force Recon, while Will liked to fight at a distance, Lionel revelled in close quarters combat, with his KA-Bar seeing more use than his guns.

Ian, is the designated medic, at first only a SAS corpsman, he got himself an MD (Doctor of Medicine). He became a fully-fledged doctor in John Hopkins during one of my adventures in an alternate earth.

Mike was never a soldier, an scholar through and through, although he has had to resort to violence when the occasion calls for it, which is most of the time when travelling with me. An expert in many fields, his thirst for knowledge never quenched even after so long, and I would need that knowledge of his to get this place back on track.

"So, what do you need from us boss?"

Will was the first to speak, in his usual easy-going tone and lazy smirk. The stench of his smoking session earlier pungent.

"You to stop smoking, for one."

That retort got a few people in the room snickering.

"Anyway, we got more important things to do."

"More important than Will's BO." Ian snickered, earning him an elbow jab from Will.

"Say's the babyface."

"Hey! Lionel is the babyface one!"

"Oi?! Why you got to bring me into this?"

An argument was brewing yet again as per usual.

"Sigh..." I shook my head in despair, turning to Mike standing at the side, "Will they ever stop arguing?"

"Not unless you program them not to," Mike answered with a grin.

"Haiz... whatever..." Picking up four binders on the table, I proceeded to throw each of them in quick succession at the heads of the three. The sounds of their collective yelps' music to my ears, until one of the binders, returned to my face with an audible "slap."

"Ah." The room fell silent, all eyes on me, waiting for my reaction.

"It was him!" the three-pointed at each other.

"Have your fill yet? Can we get on with this?" my voice low, with a hint of venom and a dash of danger to it.

The three stood attention, nodding their heads profusely. Mike, who had been standing beside me, rolled his eyes, he saw what I had done. The fourth binder was not thrown back by any of them. I simply made the binder hit my face. The three of them worked on pure instinct more often than with their heads, so such a simple trick is more than enough.

"Good. As I was about to say... I want to take a look at the conditions in Selatapura. Undercover, of course."

"As the head of security... I-"

"Later, Will. I will talk to you about it once we're done here. Anyway, we will be leaving in 2 hours. Make your preparations. Mike, you're coming with, no point in trying to escape. Any questions?"

"Just no reckless actions okay?"

"You know I can't promise you that," I answered, grinning, Mike shook his head, sighing,

"I'll bring my gun."

The rest were quickly dismissed, leaving on Will at the desk, he did not look pleased with my decision, not the angry type of displeased, he looked more concerned than anything else.

"So, William Kolter, what security concerns do you have for me today?"

"I know I can't talk you out of this trip."

"Well, duh, staying here with all these stacks of paper is giving me an aneurysm."

"So, I'm just going to outline the potential dangers we might face in the city."

"I'm all ears," I said, leaning back, resting my head against the cushion, waiting for Will to start his briefing.

"I will give you the short version. A number of gangs and crime family run much of the streets, but our primary concern, however, is the GLA.

The Gunther Liberation Army: A resistance group. Mostly concentrated in the rural areas, the GLA seeks to break away the Gunter Peninsular independence from the rest of the Kingdom, once a fringe group, the recent economic crisis saw a renewed surge in supporters."

"Any possibility of an attempted assassination? Or anyone recognising me in the first place?"

"Current estimates peg it at unlikely. Public sentiment towards the monarchy and the ruling government is at an all-time low. But the appointment of you as the new lord is still not public. And I would recommend putting it at the down-low for now. The chances of you being recognised are unlikely though since your father keeps himself, and in turn you, out of the spotlight. But we don't have enough time to get all the information. Hence, the jury is still out there."

I nodded understandingly, "So, how should we go to the city? A car or a horse carriage?"

Will thought for a moment before answering, "I would recommend an armoured car with an escort behind it."

"Wouldn't it attract attention?"

"Some, but cars from Osea are getting more popular lately. This is the era where all sorts of strange vehicle designs are flooding the market. Most people won't care; besides I know you like your earth cars."

"You know me too well," I chuckled, "Weapons?"

"Light. Sidearms and compact PDWs only. No need to make ourselves stand out even more. Our normal clothes are already resistant to anything the locals have."

"I'll leave you to prepare then."