A Royal Beginning [Book 1 of The English Lion]

XXXV. Douglas

Friday, 14th February 1930

Hugo, Emily and I would be at our table in the dining hall, waiting for Alexander, who has yet to show up. But we all know where he is.

"Here's to being single on Valentine's," I raised my cup of coffee, and the other two would do the same before we'd drink it, but for Hugo, it's a cup of Earl Grey.

"Guess we all know where our dear General Director is," Emily commented after taking a sip from her cup of coffee.

"Mhm," I replied.

"He's a love bird, that's what he is. The even years have two days that allows all of us to trash talk the guy," Hugo casually said as he read a book before looking up at us as we stared at him, "What?"

I shook my head before standing up, putting away the cup of coffee, so did the other two. We'd soon make our way to class. Throughout the day, we'd focus on our assignments, not minding where Alexander is, knowing where he is precisely, and of course, there's Regius Obligatus keeping an eye on him.

"Well, let's have a meeting at my apartment, shall we?" Hugo asked Emily and me, who nodded in agreement. After dinner in the dining hall, we'd head over to Hugo's apartment, where we were greeted by Arthur and Guinevere. We'd hang out with them, as we held our meeting in the living room.

"Received a telegram during lunch, the Italian and Soviet Russian bases are now 90% finished, and the Americas bases are now halfway finished in construction, considering it was two months since our last update," I said, updating the other two.

"Seems like Alexander's move and tactic made it work," Emily observed.

"Seems like it, Emily. But we need to trudge carefully now... Economic recession... will affect a nation greatly," Hugo states carefully, looking at the both of us quite seriously, "Especially Germany, knowing they have reparations, which were made worse by the economic recession."

Emily and I glanced at one another, then looked at Hugo.

'Boy, what did you just say? Since when are you Alexander 2.0?' I thought, almost imagining that Alexander was there, in Hugo's seat. But it wasn't Alexander, but Hugo instead. We'd continue to have the meeting, where it just merged into a quiet talk session, fooling around before Emily and I excused ourselves and headed back to our apartment.

"Those two are always a handful," I muttered, putting my jacket away, "Alexander's back tomorrow, and there goes a day's worth of peace and quiet out of the window."

Emily just rolled her eyes, not giving a damn.

"He's thinking outside the box in terms of Regius Obligatus, Douglas. It's not in every single life that there's a member of the Royal Family that worked this hard to protect his country," Emily told me, and I nodded in agreement before both of us went our separate ways.

Saturday, 15th February 1930

Emily and I went over to Hugo and Alexander's apartment quite early, considering it was just routine for us to do so and to check on the two. When we entered and made our way to the kitchen to make some coffee, we'd walk past Alexander's office, with the door wide open. We both stopped.

Alexander was just wearing his everyday casual three-piece suit, but without his jacket, as he looked extremely concentrated, reading a newspaper as he stands.

"If you both have something important to say, now is the time to say it," Alexander chastised.

"Well... the Italian and Soviet Russian bases are now 90% finished, and the Americas bases are now halfway finished in construction," I informed him and he looked up.

"That's... Is there any espionage information on Soviet Russia yet?" He asked. I nodded.

"And what about Germany, and Italy?" Alexander continued.

"Yes, sir," I replied, "I can get them to write a summary report for you and have it first thing tomorrow."

"Yes, that'll work," Alexander replied, before mumbling under his breath that Emily and I couldn't quite make out. For the rest of the day, we'd be hanging around Oxford.

Friday, 7th March 1930

Dear Diary,

It's been tough since the stock market crash last year. Everyone is coping in Regius Obligatus, and through Alexander, he showed resilience and determination that was respected in both Europe and the Americas. He's eight and man, did he become the man of the people, showing the different ways of coping. He has this aura of resilience and determination that rubs off on other people who are close to him, and who only know him by name, stories, and other means. But anyway, this diary entry is just an update considering it is quite short.

-Douglas

Monday, 31st March 1930

Dear Diary,

It's been over two months since we've gone back to Oxford to study our final term. Things had been worse, academically, because of the increase in projects and such. The time was more spent on the academic side of life, compared to the Regius Obligatus side of life.

Short diary entry here and it's getting extremely late, I've been focusing on my academic life, like the others, which were understandable.

-Douglas