Lord Shadow

Chapter 1185: One beautiful night (3)

Azief had never liked art. To him, art is simply equal to fraud. It did not do anything for the people. It did not fill a starving stomach and it could not be used to make shelter

It had no purpose. 

As for beauty that people raved about in art, he could see it every day when he opens his eyes, looks out the window and see the sun rising, seeing the birds flying in the sky, the clouds moving pushed by the winds, the waves that kiss the shore, the green of the forest, the majestic beauty of mountains…. the beauty of nature.

When you see it, you find no other painting that could beat it. 

But…. because Katarina likes it, he made the effort. 

He became patrons of artist in Pandemonium and he even set aside some budgets for art related project, he collects beautiful painting and even sometimes bought some of the painting that is painted by the Immortal Couple.

There is a garden in the Centre Palace of Pandemonium. It is called the Garden of Pandemonium and it is the most beautiful garden in the world

It had a famous Botanist, a rare class of Herbalist that maintains the garden. Azief is known for his brutality and merciless punishment to his enemies. 

But many artists in Pandemonium regarded Death Monarch as a patron of arts as he has many sculptors and painters in his retainer. 

Azief had hired and recruited people to beautify the Garden of Pandemonium. 

What some people don’t know was that there is a section on the garden that he had dedicated to Katarina

One part of the garden is designed to look like Claude Montre’s Garden, in Giverny of Northern France.

That area has a pond filled with water lilies. That area is a tribute to Katarina who loves Monet artwork.

The painting of the water lilies.

Azief created it simply because Katarina when she looks at arts, talks about it, there is this kind of light in her eyes

And Azief love to see that light. He loves to see her smile. It almost felt like her happiness infected him and he too become happy

He had never understood art. But he did not need to understand it. It matters that Katarina loves it and because it matters to her, he makes an effort to make it matter to him

And it is the same thing for Katarina. Katarina did not like coffee that much. But she has learnt to love it.

She knows that it is Azief most favorite thing to do, brewing coffee. And he is pretty good at it. To be more accurate, he is an expert in it

She likes her coffee a bit sweet. Azief called her having the palate of a child and he had always tease her about that.

And Azief……this man that he loved always have a good story about coffee.

It is unthinkable, probably for the rest of the world, that one of the most fearsome person in the world, a threat to many world powers is a man that is so excitable when talking about coffee.

There are only a few topics that Azief would feel excitable about and Katarina knows each one. 

She knows why Azief likes to brew coffee. It is not simply just because he likes drinking coffee. It is because he used to want to become barista. 

Maybe some people would laugh and not believe it. A Barista? The strongest person in the world? That person who kills without batting an eye? That kind of person wanted to be a barista?

People forget that before the Fall, most of the powerful figures in the world right now from Azief to the World Powers high echelon, most of them are normal people

Raymond for example was a cosplayer stuck in a Comic Con when the Fall began. 

He is basically a nerd before he became Raymond the Earthshaker. Now, no one could imagine Raymond as a young kid going to Comic Con 

Before the Fall, Raymond every year he would go to Comic Con to meet his favorite celebrities, to buy comic, and connect with like-minded people who also likes comic

Of course, Raymond himself was quite an oddity among the more extreme nerd. He was a bit chubby but he was a confident person.

He likes comic but he was sociable. The stereotypes that people who likes comic and nerdy stuff are all people who could not socialize is not all correct

Of course, there are some nerds like that. But there are also the kind like Raymond who channels his inner kid once a year. 

He was basically a normal guy with a normal hobby whose life changed because of the Fall

He became a leader and in that desperate times he leads the people that was trapped with him to fight monsters.

Katarina did hear that in the beginning of Raymond rise to power, he had a falling out with the leader of the group

But from what she heard, Raymond was preferable and those who were loyal to him ousted the leader in a violent coup.

Since then, that normal guy become the leaders and eventually called himself the King of the United States of America. 

Of course, it is not like there is no resistance. The United States was special in that almost all of their people has access to gun.

You think that would have helped them. 

But when facing monsters that have thick skin like a tank a few hundred bullets from AR 15 would not help

Some places like Japan have just a few powerful monsters. 

But there are some that are unlucky like Australia who is ravaged by monsters from the sky, monsters from the sea and even monster from the bottom of the Earth.,

And then there is China whose population was decimated by dragon monsters that burns, eat or freeze them to death.

United States on the other hand, while they did not have such powerful monster attacking them like it did in China, it is by no means weak monsters.

Most of the casualties of the United States happens in the first 24 hours of the Fall. Raymond was a shining beacon of hope as he pacifies the states with his generals and for a time, he was the ultimate ruler of the United States before he relinquishes power and put the United States of America under the jurisdiction of power of the World Government

And this man, this person….in the beginning was a young man who went to Comic Con one day and become one of the most influential people in the world.

Then there is Hikigaya and Oreki, the Two Twin Sages of Japan

Hikigaya and Oreki both of them were just high school senior when the Fall happens. They were basically high school kids that eventually went on to be known as the Dragon of Echigo and Tiger of Kai

To many they were like Shingen Takeda and Uesugi Kenshin as Oreki come from the area which used to be Echigo and in his earlier conquest he pacifies those areas which used to be the ruling area of the Uesugi clan and to spread his prestige some people began calling him the Dragon of Echigo

It is the same Hikigaya whose sphere of control in the beginning is around the area of Takeda Shingen territory. 

In that early days, there are many warlords in Japan. When the world order crumbles, there are some sick people that rises up.

In the past, they were constrained by laws and by societal pressure. But ethics is a vague concept 

And vague concept is easily abandoned. There were many warlords all over Japan that all wanted to become powerful people, wanting to have harem like some kind of reincarnated hero story.

There are some extreme people, sick people in the head that rises up. But humans, any humans with a heart, would always gravitate to light

The darker it is; the more people gravitate to light. The other warlords wanted to satisfy their desire

It did not matter whether the warlord is a man or a woman. The man rapes the woman, the woman rapes and tortures man. 

It is people with sick heart and sick mind having power that brings tragedy to the world.

But Oreki in Echigo ruled the people under his protection fairly and justly. It did not mean that he did not do any wrongs but as for the people under his protection, he did not touch

In a world where one could die at any moment, at least they should die with dignity.

The same is for Hikigaya. And so, people went to them, run to them wanting to be taken under them

These two warlords then easily expand their powers and influence because of one simple thing that they did.

They treated humans…like humans. 

Light shines brightest when there is a great darkness. In that warring period, people seek hope. And even a slightest light shines bright like a sun burning its lights.

Not before long, the whole island nation knew of this two people, the two prominent warlords. And as they have more people, they have more resources and the safer it is to join them.

The more resources they have, the stronger they became. There is Hikigaya and then there is Oreki. 

One by one, the other warlords fell under them. They gained the hearts of the people and so they gained the world.

Such thing did not change even as the world turns fantasy-like. In the end, there is only two great powers in the island nation.

As for the other power, they would surrender and become vassals of these two great warlords.

And as they always clashed with each other without no clear victor, the title of Oreki Dragon of Echigo and Hikigaya Tiger of Kai solidified.