Chapter IV

I slipped on my old leather boots, and finally my outfit was complete. The full military uniform. I straightened my jacket out in the mirror, admiring myself, and finally made my way out onto the street. "Good morning, M'Lord. Where are you headed? I thought you had nothing scheduled for today."

I smirked, and told the lowly servant, "That's what you thought."

I walked with my hands folded behind my back, and grabbed my megaphone, along with my finest stallion. I rode until I came upon the barracks of my personal guard, who hadn't seen service in a while.

"Arise, men! Duty calls upon you to accompany me to the center square of Moscow, and you must stand by me until I am done with my speech there! Bring all your gear and equipment, for it might be put to use!"

Without taking another look back I proceeded to the center square, the busiest part of grand old Moscow. Countless numbers of people walked through there every morning, all of them perfect examples...

"People of Russia! I have an announcement to make to you all!"

Reluctantly everyone in the square gathered around, slowly however.

"It appears that most of you... don't believe in my power anymore. A shame, really, because I've also heard news that you people want to revolt! A revolt, against your beloved king Rurik?"

I shook my head, purposely exaggerating the motion to show how disappointed I was. Now it was time to close in for the moment I was waiting for!

"I guess the only thing I can do to show you people that I'm a capable leader is to... pick some volunteers for execution. Who would like to come up and be an example?" Of course, no one raised their hand. I decided then that I would pick them myself.

"Alright then. General Gastrov, the man in the blue tie with the Democratic briefcase. Bring him to me. I'll do it myself."

With a quick salute, Gastrov galloped on his jet black horse to snatch the fool who had aligned himself with my enemies. He started to run, but naturally on horseback, Gastrov caught up to him. After a few whips frm his revolver, Gastrov was able to bring him within arms reach, and handcuff him. "Do what you please with 'im, M'Lord." I nodded to him.

As the young, stupid businessman struggled, I pulled out my favorite gun- A prototype shotgun pistol, one I had yet to put to actual use. But at the Royal firing range, it was great. So accurate. So lethal.

"Well, I guess we've got our first volunteer. Now, who wants to see what will happen to them if they try to revolt against me?" No one answered, of course. In that case, my gun would do all the talking.

"Young man, I'm sorry this must happen. I truly am. But, someone had to do it, and it was your brave soul."

I could hear the young man cussing up a storm, though no one but me could hear him. I raised my pistol high into the sky, and slowly let the weight of it push my arm down to the right angle, pointed right at the volunteer's head. A beautiful silence had set over the center square, and I broke it with a single pull of the trigger. "Bang!" I almost smiled, but I quickly got myself together.

"..." No one spoke. No one in the crowd had dared to come against me, now that I had made an example of someone. I considered maybe stopping there, but I knew that would've been too easy. I motioned for General Gastrov "How about... 9 more volunteers? No wait, make that 20. Gather them here, just like with the last one."

Gastrov leaned closer, asking, "Any preferences for who you're going to execute, King?"

I smirked, answering, "Democratic Party members. The scum of this nation."

Without any hesitation, Gastrov ordered his men to do just what I had asked. Even though I had been alive for a long, long time now, I still could never get used to the moments where I got to exercise my great power. "Hah... Hahahahaha!"

I was thankful no one could hear my horrible laughter.

After the first ten were put out of their misery, a lot of people in the crowd started screaming. No matter how hard they were beat with the end of a rifle, or sprayed with tear gas, they would never shut up. The 15th person to be executed was an elderly man, wearing a button boasting that he had "voted" Democratic, he caused quite the riot among the crowd.

"Bastard!"

"Tyrant!"

"Let him go! He's just an old man!"

"Stop it, you son of a bitch!"

"I'll kill you!"

All their cries, all their yelling... it only made me angrier. "Argh... just die, old man!" I watched the bullet go through him, cutting clean through. the next thing I knew, a huge mass of people had broken through the barricades and were trying to reach me.

"Personal guard! I expect you to clean up this mess! And if you do, I'll double your pay! Get on it!"

I noticed that some of my soldiers grinned upon hearing that, and it made me smile, too. Undying loyaltly always made me happy. As I retreated from the mess behind me, I also became nostalgic. Those men, fighting for me, had done so ever since axes and clubs were the cutting edge in weapons. Back then, no one dared to riot. No one ever questioned me. I missed those days.

But now I knew, this time, right now, was the time to destroy those Greeks. My own people may have hated me right now, but I didn't fear them. I was still set on sealing my name in history as the greatest leader the world had ever seen, and I would do it by winning the new space race. Even if no one working on the spaceship showed up to work, I would go and build it piece by piece. That was the kind of ruler I was.