Lord Shadow

IN A SECRET ROOM

THE WORLD GOVERNMENT

Raymond and Hirate look at each other in the dark room illuminated only by the flame of the candle.

It was late at night. People were already asleep.

They were both sitting in their chair looking opposite of each other as they both review the reports they got from their spies.

The reason why this report gained such attention from them is because the secret that it carries.

It begins late this afternoon.

One of Raymond spies in the Central Plains was caught by Loki Intelligence Agents. One escaped. One executed.

The escaped spy manages to meet a city officer outside of the World Government town to send a report to Raymond.

The spy was then rescued and is now in the Healing House.

Hirate after finished reading sighed.

He then looked at the opposite direction of the round table and seeing Raymond creasing his eyebrows, Hirate knows that this secret threatens not only the Quorum but the existence of the World Government itself.

After reading the full report Hirate sighed and then he looks at Raymond and saw the complex expression on Raymond face.

It was not shock but it was more of an amazement.

Hirate then said looking straight at Raymond eyes.

‘Raymond, if we move on Will without any evidence we will only repeat past mistake. The Quorum laws will protect him. Unless of course you decided to do a coup.’

And saying this Hirate look at Raymond expression.

He was calm.

Raymond shakes his head.

He respects the laws of the Quorum. It might seem illogical considering that Raymond once declares himself King.

But the reason he declare himself king was because of his comrades and the circumstances of that time that requires a leader, a tyrant to prepare for war.

And to prepare for a war at that time, it needs a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy

Now, the World Government has decided a new and more efficient structure. Of a World Government that is govern by defined laws.

Lord Acton once says that that ‘all power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’

Raymond believes this with his heart. And Raymond knows power will corrupt him. He was a simple man before the Fall.

Now, he was the general of a large army with overreaching influence. Each choice that he makes concerns millions of lives.

To be honest, the fact that Raymond wanted a democracy in this broken world is idealistic and at best naive.

Azief once he heard about the structure of the World Government scoffed and said these words.

‘In the end, that democracy will be led by one man. It will be no different than a monarchy only the monarchy is hidden. The only thing that the World Government will offer is an illusion of democracy. The Old World is dead’ he concluded with certainty

Human beings act in a great variety of irrational ways, but all of them seem to be capable, if given a fair chance, of making a reasonable choice in the light of available evidence.

Democratic institutions can be made to work only if all concerned do their best to impart knowledge and to encourage rationality.

But this world is crazy.

Azief knows it best.

In the times before the Fall, it matters how much troops you have or how many nuclear weapons you stored in your country.

This is the indication of power.

But after the Fall, a new hierarchy of power is formed. And it revolved around exceptional men and women.

Azief once saw a man cleave a planet into half with his bare hands.

One time he saw a man exploded and the explosion generated from his body was like the sun was going supernova.

One man could possess the power to end all life on Earth.

In Earth Two, Azief was only in Energy Disperse Stage and he was powerful enough to alarm that world.

In fairness, Earth Two is a slightly weaker version of Earth prime.

And the only way the World Government will survive the oncoming years, is to throw their lot with a powerful defender.

An individual.

And if they do not succeed in nurturing one, sooner or later, the World Government will be swallowed.

And if the World Government wanted to make sure its democracy exist, then it needs a defender that will not turn his back on the rules of such democracy.

Someone that believes protecting that democracy as a public service. Someone that believes in the concept with all of his heart.

A man like Cincinnatus.

But how many would be that honorable? That is why Azief didn’t think it would work.

But clearly Azief has never met Raymond. Those who have known Raymond in the year after the Fall, describe him as a stubborn bull.

Azief governance on the other hand was like an anti-thesis of Raymond idealistic ideas and notions.

Because Azief never live in a democratic country.

His country was ruled by the same party for 58 years, tyranny in disguise. Azief don’t believe such party is not corrupt. Only a naïve person would think that.

Azief was living in a police state for most of his life before the Fall.

It might laud democracy loud to the world, but to him who lives in Malaysia he didn’t see democracy.

The police was on the side of the rich and the powerful

Free speech?

The moment you express you opinion that runs contrary to what the national party is selling, you will be thrown to jail and accused of inciting a national riot.

The police will come to your house and accuse you of things and that is how the honest one rots and dies in the so called democracy of his country.

Azief don’t believe in the self-correcting character of humanity. Azief has seen a lot of people.

And he believes some people need to die, to be put down…because some people are like mad dogs.

And the only thing you can do to a mad dog is to execute it.

Because some people are not fit to live among normal people. Serial killers, cruel men and women, those that take pleasures over somebody else pains.

You only need to hear an audio tape containing various recordings that some serial killers made to change your stance on death penalty.

The serial killer Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris made an audio recording of themselves raping and torturing a 16 year old girl.

You could only wept in anger and you would be convinced that there are some people that needs to be put down like the animal they are.

Azief was a radical more so in his country.

But he was a silent radical. He was weak and does not possess any power to change anything.

He always believes there is something fundamentally wrong in his country, not just because the inequality of wealth, not because of the racism that is fanned by political party but something rotten at the core.

The situation required not just a new prime minister or new laws, but an uprooting of the old order.

Now, that he has power he could change the world as he wished and pleased. Nobody normal likes to see the suffering of others.

Especially if they were kind and good. A benevolent dictator. A perfectly obeying bureaucracy.

At least Azief was honest in how he views the world and did not put his hope in some kind of a broken democracy where democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’

Sooner or later that democracy will fall.

This fundamental difference in governing and ideological notions is what separates Azief and Raymond.

‘Raymond, are you listening?’

‘Yes’ Raymond replies. Then rubbing his chin he said

‘What you said is right. But I think with this much evidence even though it is circumstantial we can convince the Quorum member.’

Hirate nodded.

‘Who are you thinking?’

‘Oreki’ Raymond replies.

‘He’s a good choice.’

Hirate does not like Oreki that much especially because he was the one that stop Hirate investigation last time but Hirate knows that Oreki did not stop Hirate investigation because he was protecting Will.

It is because Oreki was wary that Hirate and Raymond will come for him next.

‘But there is still one problem’ Hirate said as he closes the documents.

‘What’s the problem?’

‘How do you trap a man as fast as Will?’ Hirate asked as he laid his back on his chair asking for Raymond input.

Raymond closes the documents and sighed

‘I don’t like asking for his help’ he said under his breath and he remembers a man with a white lab coat and a funky hairstyle.

A Japanese man who is lanky and pale all the time.

Akira. The Mad Scientist.

Then Raymond resigning himself looks at Hirate and said

‘I know a guy’

***