Chapter 13

Scotland frowned as he read the documents in front of him. It was weird. He read the papers again. This boy is claiming to have memories of his past life. That's the main reason his coworkers even passed him this case.

The boy was right age, and Scotland heard from the ones that already saw him, that the he certainly looked like he belonged to the Kirkland family.

But… that was about all Scotland could deduce from the documents on the boy. His birthday was wrong. There were cases of nations birthday moving, but it always had some meaning to it.

"Did even anything major happen in England on September second?" Scotland murmured as typed away on his laptop, trying to find anything with historical meaning for that date.

A knock pulled Scotland out of his thoughts.

"Yes?" he called and the door opened revealing his coworker, looking serious.

"They are here," said the other man seriously and Scotland nodded.

The man quickly opened the door more and led his guests inside.

The guests were young blond woman in her thirties and a ten-year-old boy.

Scotland looked at him with great interest. Yes, those eyebrows were quite distinctive, but then again, he saw ordinary humans with similar eyebrows. But the blue eyes that stared back at Scotland were dead giveaway that the boy definitely wasn't England. All his brothers, including him had green eyes, and they mostly had red hair, sans England who was blonde, and Wales, who was strawberry blonde.

Okay, so he wasn't England, but was he a nation like his coworkers thought?

Scotland stood up, extending his hand toward the woman, "Hello, I am Scotland, thank you for coming in, Mrs. Bates."

Sarah Bates smiled politely, "Thank you for seeing us. I thought we were going insane. This situation is really weird."

Scotland offered them seats which they quickly took.

And then Scotland asked them to talk about what led them here. And talk they did. How the boy, known as Peter Bates, started say things, he couldn't have known about. About his dreams. And how after what took maybe months, he suddenly proclaimed that he was Sarah's deceased sister.

All something that could happen accidentally, like someone telling him some information, or maybe watching a TV and confusing it. Scotland had to make sure..

"It… it is unbelievable," Sarah sighed, "I didn't want to believe it… but…"

"It's okay, Mrs. Bates, it is confusing for most people," Scotland assured her.

Sarah smiled, "As soon as we realized that Peter could be telling the truth, we tried to contact someone, but… it still took a few months for someone to call us back."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Scotland apologized, "We… weren't exactly ready for someone to contact us the way you did. When a nation awakens, they know the right channels and whom to ask for, because they communicated that with their government before… you know."

Scotland sighed and looked at Peter again, "Truth to be told, it would probably take even longer, if we weren't expecting contact from England."

Peter blinked, "So… I am England?"

Scotland sighed, "I don't think so. You would have had his memories... but there is still a little chance that you are the new England, someone new, someone to replace the old England, even though I don't know reason for that to happen. But let's do a little test."

Peter watched him intently.

Scotland pointed at a wall, "Behind that wall, there is another room. Tell me how many people are there?"

Peter's eyes flew to the wall and stared. His faces scrunched in concentration. Then his shoulder's sagged.

"I.. I don't know," he whispered quietly.

Scotland nodded, "That's okay, I didn't expect you to know anyway, I just wanted to make sure."

"So, he is not a nation?" Sarah asked confused.

"I didn't say that," Scotland looked at the woman, "It's just that he is not England, so of course he wouldn't feel English people."

"Then what?" Sarah blinked.

"Hmm, is he even a nation?" Scotland leaned towards Peter, "Tell me the first dream you had. If you concentrate enough, you know EXACTLY which one I mean."

Peter stared, thinking.

"I think that was when," Sarah started, but Scotland raised his hand, stopping her.

"I'm sorry, but this is something Peter has to work out on his own," said the redhead.

Peter stared at nothing, trying to remember which of the memories was first he got back, but then he remembered something. It was not a memory, more like a fever dream, that he would forget, but now that he thought about it, that was the first time, he started to feel funny.

His eyes widened and Scotland smirked.

Julia was floating in darkness. She felt light, and heavy at the same time.

She didn't know where she was, nor how long she was there, but then she heard a soft voice.

"Welcome child, she didn't know the voice, but it was so warm and welcoming.

"Where I am?" she wanted to ask, but her mouth didn't work.

But the voice seemed to hear her anyway, "You died, my child, so you are nowhere and everywhere."

"D-died?" she thought/said again, "Wait, my father! He was in the car with me! What happened to my father?"

The voice laughed softly, "You died and you still care for others more than about yourself? I knew I chose the right person?"

"What? Chose? Chose for what? Julia was confused.

"I quite liked your work," the voice said vaguely, "So I chose you for something."

"Chose for what?" Julia asked.

"I will give you two options," said the voice, "You can move on, go to the next stage, and be like everyone else."

"And the second option?" now was Julia curious.

"The second option is," voice said slowly, "That you go back, you devote your life to your people, you become your people. You will help to guide your people with your experience, because you will remember, the good things, but the mistakes as well. It will be on your shoulders the weight of a whole nation. So, what it will be?"

Julia was silently contemplating. She wanted to help… but could she do it? Could she shoulder go help a whole nation?

"I… I…" she stuttered nervously, and then she decided, "I WANT TO HELP. I WANT HELP MY FAMILY, MY FRIENDS, MY PEOPLE TO HAVE A BETTER LIFE."

You could practically hear the smile in the voice, "Good. You are no longer just Julia. You are now a nation. A proud nation of Sealand.

Peter stared at his hands. He is really a nation. He is Sealand.

Scotland leaned back, satisfied with that answer.

"Oh my god, how could have I thought that I am England?" Sealand asked, "I am not even an English citizen."

Scotland waved his hand dismissively, "You are a new nation. You were more focused at figuring out what is happening, so you didn't focus on details. But glad we cleared that up."

Sarah looked between them, confused.

"So, he really is a nation? He is Sealand?" she asked carefully, "I never heard of Sealand nation…"

Scotland nodded, "Yes, he is your very own nation. He is a new nation, as the Principality of Sealand is pretty new country. So yeah, nobody expected you to develop a nation, but congratulation."

They talked for another few hours. Well mostly Scotland and Sealand talked, with Scotland skimming over how the nations operated. But there was so much to talk about, that they had to say goodbye to each other, with the promise, that they would be in close contact, about what should Sealand do, and what will happen to him. Because even Scotland himself wasn't sure about how to proceed with the new nation and will have to discuss it with his brothers, even thought Sealand is his own country, he felt a bit responsible for the young nation, being so new to everything.

The only thing he suggested for now, that his official name should be Peter Kirkland, to match the British Isles siblings. At which Sealand practically jumped, 'cause he desperately wanted to feel included.

After the young nation left with his mother, Scotland leaned back in his chair and started to massage his temples, feeling a big headache coming. Not only was England still missing, now he had a brand new nation on his hands too. And all of his brothers are still in school, so he is shouldering part of their work on top of his own, so he was practically doing the job of 4 people. Talk about being stressed out.

Just then his cell phone rang and Scotland groaned before he picked up.

"France, I swear if you…" he started with a gruff voice, but a female giggle interrupted him.

"Don't worry Ali, it's just me," came the voice of his mother.

"Ah Ma'… I planned to call you.. sometime, I swear," Scotland sighed in relief.

"Sure sure," his mother giggled, already knowing he forgot because of his work load, "I take it from your voice, that the boy was an impostor? He was not England right?"

"Not exactly an impostor, he is a new nation, Principality of Sealand," Scotland said, "But yeah, not England."

Scotland groaned.

"What's wrong sweatheart?" his mom asked.

"I just imagined how France will call again," Scotland sighed in response, "And do not have the time for that shit… I am practically working for four people now…"

"Hmm," his mum mused, "Maybe you should communicate better? That it would be better to wait till next year for when Connor graduates so you can split the work?"

It was as if a lightbulb went off above Scotland's head.

"Yeah," he said thoughtfully, "And next year England should be eleven and start a secondary school… there are far less secondary schools than there are primary ones… So if by that time he won't make a contact… it would be far easier to find them."

"The your go Ali," Scotland could practically see his mom grinning.

"I… have to call him now," Scotland said, "Thank's ma."

And with that they said their goodbyes and disconnected.

Scotland sighed and stared at his phone for a few seconds, mentally preparing what he will say. Then his eyebrow twitched, as he realized that he was just delaying the inevitable. The sooner he informs the French nation of his intentions, the sooner he will shed this weight of yet another responsibility of his shoulders.

He checked the time, yes, it was definitely after school over there. And with one last deep breath, Scotland found France's number in his contacts and pressed it to call.

It took a few rings, but soon Scotland heard France's voice: "Allô oui j'écoute."

"Oh hey France," Scotland said.

"Scotland?" France asked confused, "You never call me anymore… Oh did you find..?"

"No," Scotland said quickly, "It's not that. I… have something to say to you. But you have to stay calm, okay?"

Hearing the seriousness in Scotland's voice, France immediately got serious as well.

"I am listening," he said.

"Listen here, I know you are very nervous about England, we all are, but…" Scotland took a breath, bracing himself, "But right now there is so much to do, I practically have to do not only my work, but parts of England's, Wales's and North's too, and then go to world meetings to represent us. It's just too much."

"Oh," France said softly, "I… I understand, I am sorry that I was putting pressure on you too…"

"Don't be, it's pissing me off too," Scotland relaxed now, that it was out, "I would have started looking, but both the world situation and internal circumstance… I am doing all I can to keep us afloat."

"So… what now?" France asked.

"North is in his last year, so let's wait for him," Scotland started to explain the plan, "Then we can divide the work. And as a bonus, England should be eleven and start secondary school. There is about 3500 secondary schools and almost 17000 primary ones. We don't have enough people; it would take us years to go through all the primary schools and we still would have to then move to secondary. But if we wait, we can just concentrate on those, and I can have enough people searching that we can go through them in a year."

"Makes sense," France said thoughtfully, "Yeah, let's do that."

They talked a bit longer, but after a few minutes they said goodbyes as France was going out with Spain and Prussia and Scotland still had work to do.

- APH – APH – APH – APH –

(Main language is polish)

The world was in perpetual haze. Feliks tried to concentrate, but the woman was keeping him drugged up all the time.

The woman was actually Aleksandra Lewandowska, her (Poland was female last reincarnation) granddaughter from previous life. They were very close then, but Poland died of old age. And it seems Aleksandra didn't take it well and hunted him down again.

"A-aleks… d-don't do this," Feliks managed to rasp out.

Aleksandra smiled sweetly, "Oh it seems it's wearing off. We can't have that now. We are nearing the borders.

Aleksandra stopped at the next resting area and got out only to open the back doors, where Feliks was and pulled a syringe with a small glass bottle from a bag on the floor.

Feliks tried to fight back, but he was only eight and he was strapped into the car seat so tightly, any resistance was futile.

Aleksandra filled the syringe with the clear liquid from the bottle and then simply grabbed his arm tightly, and injected him with that.

Feliks squirmed, but soon the fog in his head got worse and he slipped back into the place between consciousness and unconsciousness.

Aleksandra sat back behind the wheel and drove to the polish border. She was so happy with her plan. There was no way she could fail. She even dressed "her" in a cute dress, so that nobody would recognize her as the weird boy, she took from the school. Now she can be back with her grandmother forever.

The policeman looked at her a bit funny, with having a drooling, not really aware girl in a car seat in the back.

"Oh, I am sorry officer, that's my daughter Lena, she is autistic and non-verbal," Aleksandra said with a hint of sadness, "She is being sick often, so we are actually moving for her treatment."

Then she handed him some documents confirming her story. The officer glanced at the girl with pity in his eyes and then nodded.

As they were driving off, further into the neighboring country, Aleksandra glanced back.

"It's okay grandma," she beamed, "We made it. Nobody will bother us here. We will have so much fun."

Feliks wanted to say something, but any words he tried to formulate, turned into incomprehensible moaning.

World building time:

The role and works of nation changed throughout the history. Talking mostly for European and maybe Asian nations. If I mention something it stays the same until I mention it changed, so I won't have to write the same thing for every time period.

In ancient times, they often got into the inner circle of the leader only as adults, after proving it is really them. The only things they owned were those their bosses gave them, or if by any chance they had wealthier family, whatever they gave them. They were usually treated as a trusted advisors and generals. Because they remembered what happened in the past, they were trusted to help make the leaders better decisions.

In the Middle Ages, the kings and generals realized that the nations are not only good at keeping the history alive and advise, but they can literally tell them what the people feel. They started to actively look for and welcome the nations into their courts. And the nations let themselves known sooner and sooner after their awakening. The leaders then usually bought them out from their families, so that they can raise and educate them to high standards. At this time, they lived in the royal court, being attended by young nobles. They didn't have much personal belongings, but they were not lacking. And if the leaders were making an alliance with foreign countries, not only did they marry their children, but they married their nations too.

This is one of the reasons, that being homosexual is not a big deal in this world. The leaders wouldn't just wait fifty some years just for the chance to have straight couple, they didn't care if they got two men or two women married, they didn't have to have any heirs, that's what their children were for. And because of their nature of switching sexes, nations tend to be bisexuals/pansexuals. And of course, after some time normal people realized it's normal. And back to the nations, they too were inspired by their leaders and had multiple affairs, because they didn't marry for love, so they had some on the side. And yes, they had some children too. There is quite a bit of nations descendants running around the world, like Oliver Kirkland for example. Also, because the leaders impatient, there were some… questionable pairs married off, because it was never about consent for the nations, but what they could gain from the alliance, so dubious consent warning.

Later on, the nations were given a noble title, and a residence where they can live, still with their own small hand-picked entourage of nobles, who were trained for that responsibility by their families, and some servants. They retained this title and residence after reincarnating. The kings and queens tried to gain their favor to secure their place on the throne, or their reign might be short.

In late 18th and early 19th century there was a bit of change that families didn't want to give up their children anymore. So, the nations retained their connection to their birth family and the families didn't get money to buy them out, but to raise them in better conditions. Around this time, they got to have some private properties, and they started to use surname aliases for official documents.

Also after the American and French revolutions the responsibility to help the nations with their duties started to slowly shift out of the hands of nobility (because there was less and less nobles or, in case of USA and France, no nobles at all) and into the hands of high ranking politicians and diplomats, who volunteered their children, or subordinates, which weren't properly educated or prepared for the role, and had to learn about the quirks and responsibilities practically on the go, and often times changed with the government change, making it harder for the nations, not only having to teach new people how to do the job every few years, but making it also harder to create trust between the nations and their subordinates, so they couldn't really entrust them anything more delicate or difficult, often times making them into glorified party planners.

Over the 19th century the birth families raised the question of inheritance. The deal of personal property and distribution after death slowly changed into something similar that is in the modern days. After death the nations property is divided by 4, one part goes to the government, one is left to the family as inheritance, one is prepared for the future family to raise them, and they retain one forth to live on, together with their residence.

Early 20th as the tensions were rising not much changes to nations duties were made, but in 1915 thanks mostly to Canada's lobbying the archaic act of marriage that tied nations together as a sole official relationship for the nations in question and anything else was extramarital affair. So, as I mentioned in 1915 was passed and Act Mariage d'une nationalité, which set the rules for alliances/marriages between countries. In such occasion the marriage is between two nations, the certificate is signed by both parties' official names, and allowing the nations marry whomever they like for personal reason under their family/civilian names. This also created an opportunity to have more than one nation marriage if need to be, more than one alliance spouse, but in personal life they could still only have one spouse. This act also made the Entente Cordiale, marriage between England and France in 1914, the last marriage that they had to act like really married.

After the World War II the lower classes started to realize, that they wanted to have more involvement with the nations, but nations were reluctant as they were already dealing with subpar help and normal civilians had absolutely no idea about diplomacy and managing a country. Though with talks about making a union of countries in Europe, came a talk about having a school that would help educate people so that they could work with a nation and actually help them. In the second half of 60s the construction of World Academy began, in Luxembourg where a area of 15 square kilometers was reserved for this project, finishing the infrastructure for it in 1970. At that time only most of the European countries, countries of commonwealth and USA participated, but over the years more and more countries joined, seeing the positive impact of having trained staff for nations and for better diplomatic relations between countries. Today only North Korea doesn't participate. More on the World Academy next time.

With the creation of WA the nations finances were reworked as well, so that the countries would be draining their budgets and still allowing the students to attend for free. After the nation's death 60% goes for the WA budget, 10% going to the government, 10% is inheritance for the past family, 10% is for the future family and leaving 10% for the nation when they reach 18. With their centuries of experience of money management and investments, it's still enough money for each party. Also they can retain up to 3 real estates, the papers have to be signed by they official name, and they can change it, they just have to switch the deed from official name to civilian name and back if they want to keep a home.

The last thing to mention is probably how they life goes. Every nation has it a bit different, but usually they have a section in their government that is to handle the contact between the government and the families and nations. There goes a lot of communication into that, but nations remember the people from their past lives and can contact either them directly or the division that handles that. Also their lives improved significantly as they don't have to start working as soon as they get in touch like in the past, but their full work starts at 18. But they are required to attend the WA as sort of passive duty, to get to know the people they will be working with in the future and to improve the international relations. They start their working life at 18, they get paid, usually pretty hefty wage, and have 12 weeks' worth of vacation days, but also if something happens, they are required to work during vacation, make presentations and such, that's why they get so many days off. And they can never retire. To be a nation is to be fully there for their people. When they get older, they may delegate more work to their attendants, but they can never quit. Also, they are not allowed to vote, at least not on their own internal affairs, the only voting they do is in their own meetings. It's so that they can't sway the elections.

Thank you, I hope you like this world building segments.