I'd Give Up The World For You

Rukelion could hardly contain his excitement when Harland won the tournament. Finally. Finally they were getting somewhere with his plan!

Due to the sensitive nature of the information he would be collecting once he was inside the palace it wouldn't be safe for him to draw a map himself and have a messenger send it elsewhere. He was going to have to meet up with Conrad, who had been left in charge of the map, and tell everything to him on one of his days off.??

No matter. As long as they were able to get it done waiting a little longer wouldn't be an issue.??

This changed everything! They could feasibly pull off the coup while Daisy was gone after all. Everything was falling neatly into place after so many years of waiting.??

Rukelion's heart pounded in anticipation as he left the stands and approached the champion he propelled to victory before the awards ceremony began. He couldn't stop grinning and Harland looked vaguely alarmed by it as he clapped a hand on his shoulder.??

"Excellent job, Harland! You did very well," he praised though he knew their victory wouldn't have been possible without his interference.??

No one else knew about this. It had to be his little secret. What his underlings didn't know wouldn't hurt them. As long as he kept his promises to make life better for them and the people they loved they would stick with him.??

"Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel!" Harland stammered.??

"I have to get going now but know that I'll be cheering you on from a distance during the awards ceremony. Do stay in touch," Rukelion said before making a tactical retreat.??

What remained of the royal family of Mirea would be present at the awards ceremony. He needed to make himself scarce, afraid that he wouldn't be able to properly conceal his feelings based on Harland's reaction.??

Missing it wasn't a big deal. He already had what he came for.??

Rukelion was so close! Closer than he had ever been. As soon as that map was completely drawn up???which shouldn't take more than a few weeks at this point???he would be able to send for the remainder of his allies and draw up a proper battle plan to seize the castle with minimal casualties.??

He didn't want anyone who didn't deserve it to die. The memory of all the servants who died brutally when the king of Mirea stormed the castle back in Katalya haunted him. They hadn't done anything wrong.??

If royal guards or nobles who supported the king's actions died in the process he would be grateful but anyone who wasn't involved shouldn't die pointlessly. He may be a killer but he wasn't wasteful. Only those involved in the slaughter deserved death by his hand.??

Rukelion headed home feeling giddy. Was this what true success felt like? How would it feel when he managed to overthrow this corrupt kingdom and rid himself of his most formidable enemy?

With far too much energy coursing through him, he ended up cleaning the entire house top to bottom, doing the washing, pulling the weeds, and watering the garden in Daisy's absence. When she came home she immediately noticed how the place was sparkling and blinked at him in surprise.??

"When did you do all of this?"

"After the tournament. I may have been a bit overzealous but I was excited because Harland won," he confessed, rubbing the back of his neck.??

Daisy laughed. "Aww, look at you being a supportive friend! Thank you for doing all of that cleaning, by the way. The house looks amazing. So what does he get for winning? Is there some sort of prize?"

"The winner of the tournament gets fifty gold coins and the chance to become a royal guard. It's a great honor and the pay is much better than being a foot soldier in the military. He's going to be set for life."??

Or he would be if not for the fact that Rukelion planned on changing the system. He did plan on providing for his men though. That was the whole reason he was able to sway most of them to be on his side. The difference was that he wasn't going to put so much funding into the military or the royal guard. Most of the kingdom's taxes went directly to those two things???or the king's treasury.??

Rukelion was used to living as a commoner at this point. He didn't need anything fancy. Providing for the people he had promised to help was far more important to him. He would be perfectly capable of giving Daisy the life of ease she deserved without making anyone else suffer financially for it.??

"Wow," she said, impressed. "Way to go, Harland! I can see why you would be so excited for him."

Ha! He wasn't nearly so altruistic. He was excited because his revenge was finally going to be within reach. It had absolutely nothing to do with Harland's success. He couldn't admit that though.??

"Mmhmm," he said noncommittally. "So anyway, how was your day?"??

Utterly unsuspicious, Daisy told him about Nia's new boyfriend and how she had spent much of the day wandering around outside collecting ladybugs to help deal with an aphid problem. She also told him that back in her world people could buy containers of them for the exact same purpose and that she wished she could do that here.??

Rukelion filed that bit of information away for later. He wasn't sure how he would be able to summon hordes of ladybugs but there had to be a way.??

Once they lived in the castle and had more access he was going to try and recreate as much from her home as possible. Anything to make her happy as long as it didn't make the royal treasury run dry. That would be too irresponsible.??

He had already figured out a few ways to help make things more like her world. She told him about a device called a microwave once that instantly reheated cold food and he was able to do that with his magic. She had been pretty excited about that since she hadn't been able to have warm leftovers the whole time she was living here before then.??

He could also instantly make water boil and other little tricks that made things faster or easier for her when cooking. The problem was that he couldn't do anything unrelated to fire or heat.??

At least not on his own. If he got other people involved he might be able to do more to make this world homier for his wife.??

Rukelion may not be able to watch what she called movies with her but once he was in charge he could institute some sort of theater program. They didn't seem to have one here but the arts had been important back in Katalya.??

Putting on shows honoring the lost culture of his homeland would be wonderful and kill two birds with one stone. He planned on remaking this country in the image of Katalya as much as possible but logically he knew that wouldn't happen overnight. At the very least he wanted to share as much of his culture as possible with his family.??

His children would be half Katalyan and should know of their heritage. He wanted to share everything he could remember with them so they would be able to pass it on to their children and their children's children. Katalya may be gone but he never wanted it to be forgotten.??

Unfortunately, Rukelion hadn't been able to tell Daisy much if anything about his homeland. He couldn't give himself away.??

All their years together and he hadn't even told her he wasn't Mirean until it came up during wedding planning when he didn't know the traditions any more than she did. She seemed to sense that it was a bad topic and never asked, understanding what it was like to have a home you could never go back to.??

It had been too difficult to talk about what he had lost for a long time. Better to avoid thinking about it period so he could carry on day to day. But once his revenge was complete there wouldn't be anything holding him back anymore.

Rukelion had to be so very, very careful not to let anything slip. No one could suspect him so locking his emotions about the worst thing to ever happen to him away allowed him to carry on in his guise as military hero Leo May. Conrad catching onto him was dangerous enough but ultimately ended up working out in his favor.??

He couldn't tell her now???but when it was all over he wanted to be able to talk about his childhood with Daisy. To share his home with her the way she had with him.??

Katalya had been such a beautiful place. Never speaking of it dishonored its memory but he had done it to survive long enough to avenge it. Once he was in charge of this forsaken country he would make sure no one ever forgot it.. Only then would he have done right by the country he loved.??