Faith, Influence, and Government (Season 2 of Previous Work)

Volume 8 Chapter 1

A/N: Welcome to Volume 8. Remember to vote for this chapter in the series. Thank you!

In the western side of the continent of Ishgar, there were three kingdoms. In the north, there was the Kingdom of Seven, famous for its lavish Latin culture. It is the only country that has had direct influence by the Ancient Roman civilization of antiquity. Bordering them to the southwest was the Country of Isvan, said to be one of the coldest countries in Ishgar. Finally in the southeast was the Kingdom of Fiore, a country known for its beautiful beaches and its warm climate. The Fiore Kingdom was also known for its friendly people and its vibrant culture. Now our story is set in the latter kingdom, where a young man lives with his wife in relative obscurity. His name was Yeshua Goldstein, and he was happily married to his wife Sarah, because she came from the famous Goldberg family. The Goldbergs were among the wealthiest families in Fiore, owning a net worth of 5 billion American dollars, which is only less than 1% of Fiore's entire GDP. Unfortunately, the Goldbergs had a dark secret that they kept to themselves, away from the prying eyes of the media, which is their vitriol against Yeshua. They ridiculed him constantly, ever since he married Sarah. She too, was forced to deal with the constant ridicule by her family for marrying a commoner husband. Everyone in the family knew that Yeshua was an orphan who used to grow up in lavish wealth. His parents were civil servants to King Touma E. Fiore, granting them a high salary per hour. But then tragedy struck in which his parents were caught in a conspiracy to overthrow the King in a palace coup. The aristocrats accused them as the ringleaders of the coup plot and so Touma's Prime Minister, Darton Trump, had young Yeshua's parents apprehended by men wearing suits and black sunglasses. The boy was distracted from the gruesome sight of his parents being shot without mercy by the Garou Knights, Prime Minister Trump's secret police. His grandfather Pyotr Goldstein took him in as his own, but he was ill with type-II diabetes. It was unlikely he'd live long to watch young Yeshua grow up into a respected young man by his peers in college. Unsurprisingly and tragically, Mr. Pyotr Goldstein died of a stroke, forcing Yeshua to become a ward of the state. As such, he was sent to an orphanage that was run by the Roman Catholic Church, under the pontificate of Pope Nerva I. 

Nerva saw greatness in Yeshua the moment he took him in as his own dependent. As such, the middle-aged Pope gave him a private tutoring experience that Yeshua would enjoy as a boy. For instance, Nerva introduced him to the study of history and philosophy, which would become the foundation of his future wisdom and knowledge. Of course, these were not the only subjects that Nerva taught. Yeshua also studied chemistry, biology, rhetoric, sociology, ethics, political science, economics, and the visual arts. When he became of age by turning eighteen years of age, Pope Nerva enrolled him to study at the prestigious University of Fiore's School of Macroeconomics. Yeshua spent 4 years studying the systems of past civilizations throughout world history, as well as the contemporary economic systems used by neighboring countries as well as other countries in Ishgar. He was particularly interested in the system used by the Tsardom of Iceberg, a vast nation in Ishgar that shared a border with the Kingdom of Seven and the Country of Isvan. Iceberg's economic system was the type that encouraged foreign investment to flow into the country's stock market through guaranteed subsidies on foreign imports. Thus, Iceberg was known as one of the wealthiest kingdoms in the history of the continent of Ishgar, right behind the Pergrande Kingdom in the continent's far east and Fiore. Upon graduating with his Bachelor's in Macroeconomics, Yeshua decided to enroll at the University of Seven's School of Business Management for an extra four years. His studies were focused on the Royal Economy of Iceberg and its unique system of taxation. He graduated with honors and went on to work for the government of Seven, helping the kingdom reach new heights of prosperity. It was while working as an advisor to the government that he met Sarah Goldberg. At the time, she was a civil servant of King Svyetoslav the Great, Seven's current monarch. They eventually married, after working together on a variety of government projects. But their marriage was not as peaceful as Yeshua had hoped. His in-laws, Fergus Goldberg and Mrs. Lorraine Goldberg utterly despised him. They ridiculed him at every chance that they had, insulting his status and looking down at him just because he had no socioeconomic status compared to the Goldberg family. One day, Yeshua was working from home on a government project that King Svyetoslav commissioned through Parliament when an email reached his inbox. The sender claimed that he was a friend of Yeshua's late grandfather and they agreed to meet at a cafe in the South End neighborhood of downtown Rosalba, Seven's capital city. They met and discussed the mysterious individual's friendship with Yeshua's late grandparents and the individual offered their sincere condolences for their passing. The individual who sent that email introduced himself as Stephen, an aide-de-camp of Yeshua's grandparents and the current owner of Goldstein Incorporated, a freight supply company that delivered goods by truck from the factory to the local supermarket chains. They headed to the Royal Ministry of Business and Economics, where Stephen signed some documents that transferred ownership to Yeshua. Now he found himself as a multimillionaire and he knew he had to keep it secret. So, Yeshua ran the company behind the scenes under the pseudonym "Prometheus". Yeshua and Stephen worked together to keep the secret, and Stephen was paid handsomely for his silence. The company boomed and Yeshua became a very wealthy man. All of a sudden, his in-laws respected him. Even the head of the Goldberg family, Mr. Simon Goldberg started looking at him with pride. His wife frequently asked him why her relatives had a sudden change of heart, but Yeshua kept it secret. Therefore, Yeshua became the wealthiest businessman in Fiore's history, despite his Jewish background. 

Yeshua was told that the late Pyotr Goldstein, the youngest of four, hailed from Smolensk in the Russian Empire, where his great-grandparents, mere peasants, were under the thumb of the nobility. His bar mitzvah, a coming-of-age milestone, was overshadowed by a rampage of aristocrats through his town. The ensuing chaos claimed the lives of Yeshua's great-grandparents among many others. Left an orphan, Pyotr was taken in by Tsar Nicholas II, only to endure a youth filled with mockery. Fed up, he ditched the royal digs to join the Russian military, aiming for a colonel's stars. But instead, he was given the rank of lieutenant general of Russia's worst infantry regiment. It was a regiment of 70,000 men that were primarily of common status and poorly disciplined. Whenever Russia engaged in war, Pyotr's regiment was treated as expendable, charging towards the enemy amidst intense machine gun fire from both allies and foes. The numbers of Pyotr's regiment dwindled to 5,000 as many deserted, only to be captured and executed by a military tribunal. In anger, he sought restitution from his adoptive father, but was scornfully dismissed from the Winter Palace. Pyotr would hold an enduring grudge against the Russian Imperial government for their role in the wrongful executions of his subordinates. As a young adult, he joined the Russian Revolution on the side of the Bolsheviks and personally took pleasure in apprehending the Tsar and his entire family, forcing them to move to a poorly maintained mansion in Siberia.  Former Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, and their children were later all executed to death by machine gunfire. Pyotr was then offered a commission to serve as the Colonel of the newly formed Red Army by Vladimir Lenin himself. He accepted and throughout his tenure in the Soviet Union's Red Army, he trained his troops with harsh discipline and loyalty to the Soviet government of Russia. Lenin was so impressed that Pyotr was given the honorary title of Grand Marshal of the Red Army. Following Lenin's death, Joseph Stalin, an ambitious and ruthless man from the Transcaucasian Mountains of Georgia, ascended as his successor with aspirations to dominate the entire Soviet Union. Besieged by paranoia of a military coup, Pyotr was forcibly presented to the new Supreme Leader, restrained and silenced. Compelled to relinquish his role as Colonel of the Red Army under the threat of death by Stalin, Pyotr fled to Fiore under the veil of night, eluding the NKVD agents who sought to execute him. In Fiore, he established a new life, fathered Yeshua's father, and in partnership, they launched Goldstein Incorporated, amassing a fortune as multi-millionaires. Steven later told Yeshua the story of Pyotr's past in Russia as a Jewish commanding officer. Because of his grandfather's fame, everyone in Fiore's aristocracy was forced to respect him. Anyone who dared utter his name in disrespect was swiftly and mysteriously killed by NKVD agents. After Stalin's death from pancreatic cancer, the NKVD pardoned Yeshua's grandfather and appointed Yeshua as their Executive Director. Believing the position would bring prestige, he accepted. With direct access to the NKVD, the aristocracy vied for his favor, and aristocratic men sent lavish gifts to appease him, lest they and their families face dire consequences from the NKVD agents. Aristocratic women took a bold step, proposing marriage. However, they were politely declined and instead offered positions at Goldstein Incorporated. The aristocratic women of Fiore accepted hastily, intimidated by the threat of the NKVD. For example, a tale circulated of an affluent aristocratic family of five discovered deceased by a serf one morning. Their mansion was thoroughly plundered, leading the aristocracy to believe the family had erred in antagonizing Yeshua. Consequently, Yeshua's notoriety as a merciless businessman who toppled competitors single-handedly and savagely punished any opposition to his quest for complete economic control spread throughout Ishgar. The NKVD, his elite guard, were lavishly compensated with the noble titles of those they exterminated at his behest. One day, a mission arrived in Yeshua's mailbox that would elevate his prestige to new heights, but that tale is for another time. Yeshua's cutthroat business methods and the NKVD's devotion to him garnered a formidable reputation across Ishgar, instilling dread in both aristocrats and competing firms. Thus, Goldstein Industries very quickly dominated Ishgar's freight business, with offices opened all over Ishgar.

A/N: To be continued...