It had been a few weeks since I had agreed to share the country with Ian. He mostly preferred to stay out of the other countries view, but he had already been introduced to my other friend, China, before he could tell me that. After I introduced them and we chatted for a while, I realized something else about Ian. He wasn't particularly nice.

"Ian… you shouldn't have been so harsh with China…" I had told him tentatively.

"I wasn't being harsh- and besides, you should have told me you were bringing him over beforehand." He glared at me while I struggled to respond.

"I-I'm sorry… I didn't realize it was important…"

"I don't want to run into the other countries," he said matter-of-factly, "But if I'm going to make this a powerful country, I'm going to have to meet up with them eventually… But when I do, I'd rather them think I'm you."

"Why is that?"

"Because, you don't want them to know that the only reason you came into power is because you let your 2p fight your battles for you."

After that I got Ian a uniform identical to mine and a new scarf as well. There wasn't anything to be done about his red eyes, so he'd have to hide them from the others. But that was an easy feat. The only thing I worried about was his personality. He had a tendency to be harsh, and so to-the-point that only he knew what he was actually talking about.

"You have to smile more, da?" I said, pulling at Ian's cheeks forcing them into an awkward smile. "And don't hold your arms so stiffly! You don't look happy at all!"

"That's because I'm not!" Ian said, forcing my hands away, "Is all this really necessary?"

"Da! If you don't smile, they'll realize it isn't me right away!"

"Pfft! Like you smile all the time," he said, crossing his arms.

"Nyet, not all the time. But if you don't smile at all they'll know!" I said, trying to convince Ian. He glared at me for a moment before half-heartedly feigning a smile.

"Bigger! And close your eyes too!" He forced his cheeks a bit higher, closed his eyes, and tilted his head slightly.

"Da! That's perfect"

Soon Ian was making appearances in my place, making deals, fighting battles, etc. All went pretty well until China started asking about Ian.

"So what happened to Ian, aru? It seems he was here one moment and then gone the next…"

"E-eh? Oh… um, he's not around anymore…"

"Oh, aru, what happened to him?"

"He j-just left…"

"Why did he do that, aru?"

"I-I don't know. This isn't that important anyway, so please stop asking about it…" I didn't like keeping secrets from China, but Ian had made it clear that no one was allowed to know about what he was doing.

Sometime later I had overheard Ian and China discussing the same thing, and I was curious how Ian would react to it, so I stayed and watched.

"I know you said to stop asking about it, aru, but I am curious. Why did Ian suddenly decide to leave, aru?"

"I told you not to bring that up again, so just drop it!" Ian said rather loudly.

"Eh? Oh, erm, sorry, aru…" China looked away, obviously confused and maybe even a little hurt. Ian saw this and quickly made up for it using something I had taught him.

"Y-you're one of the only people I'm close to, but I'd rather you not pry into my personal life…" Ian said as politely and sweetly as he could manage. I smiled a little as China's face softened. It had obviously worked. Ian was getting better.

I wasn't entirely sure how, but Ian was fulfilling his promise of making us a more powerful country. He expanded our territory and waged war against the Tectonic Knights and the Tatars. We were still under Tatar's rule, but for the most part we were left alone. We were becoming quite the nation, and at this point we started to be known as "Russia".

It was only after the late 1580's that things began to change. Ian had been slightly distracted for a short period of time, spending a lot of time in the basement of our house. I didn't think anything of it. He told me he was making preparations for the next great advance of Russia. I didn't think anything of that either; I had just assumed he was planning more war.

The morning of my long imprisonment, the 29th of March, 1584, the day after the death of Ivan the terrible, was a morning not unlike any other. There were no suspicious actions from Ian, signaling his betrayal. It was a perfectly normal morning.

I had woken up and prepared something for Ian and I to eat. Ian wouldn't be out of the basement for another half hour or so, so I settled down with a book while I waited. It wasn't anything particularly interesting, just some war records actually. But it was better than nothing.

Right on time, Ian emerged from the basement and walked over to me. I said good morning, but didn't look up from the book.

My mistake.

Something hard was brought down on my head and darkness engulfed my vision. The last thing I saw before my mind went blank and I was imprisoned in the basement were the last few words of the chapter I had been reading.

"Сладкийпобедагорькое поражение." "Sweet victory of one is the bitter defeat of another."