A Royal Beginning [Book 1 of The English Lion]

XXX. Douglas

Monday, 4th March 1929

I was at the dining hall, sipping my cup of coffee, and reading the newspaper. Surprisingly, I'm always the first one here, but then it was old news. Emily came and sat at the table, with a tray, containing her plate of breakfast, a cup of tea, and utensils while a neatly folded newspaper was folded under her arm.

"Good morning," I greeted her.

"Good morning," Emily replied, "Where's the other two?"

"Late, but they're somewhere, last time I check," I replied bluntly, and the two in question walked in, talking to one another as they made their way here. They just sat, not giving a damn about breakfast, which made me curious.

'Maybe they already ate at their apartment before coming here,' I thought before I cleared my throat a few moments later. They looked at me, with a raised eyebrow. I set the newspaper down onto the table, before looking at them.

"How's your morning, guys?" I asked, looking a bit curious.

"Oh, we're fine," Hugo asked, and Alexander nodded, looking slightly distracted.

"What's wrong, Alexander?" I asked, seeing that he's slightly distracted.

"I'm not sure. There's a lot of things going on now..." He replied, and the three of us nodded, which is true when it applied to our academic situation.

After Emily finished her breakfast, and I finished my cup of coffee, I folded my newspaper, and the four of us stood, heading to classes.

Friday, 29th March 1929

Dear Diary,

It's been two months since attending Oxford after returning from Christmas break. It's quite a lot of work, but hey, the four of us didn't complain, except for the occasional agreements of the need for procrastinating on our academic life, where, we focus our attention on Regius Obligatus. The Italian and Soviet Russian bases are now 50% finished. Meanwhile, the bases across the Americas are approximately 25% finished, now that several things are coming together. According to Alexander, we are on track. Or maybe, even ahead of the bloody schedule, in Alexander's words.

This is the beginning of the monthly conventions of Regius Obligatus where there are meetings of the Heads and Deputies of Regius Obligatus. These meetings include the Heads and Deputies are of the Branches and the Junior Leadership team. The four of us - the senior leadership team - have decided that one of the four members of the senior leadership team will sit out of the monthly conventions, for the fear that there is an assassination on the whole team, and whatnot, alongside the head and deputy of a randomly chosen branch. This results in the survivors of the senior leadership team and the head and deputy of the randomly chosen branch rebuilding the leadership from ground zero.

Anyhow, it's the early hours of the 30th now, and I need to head off, considering it was a very long day.

-Douglas

Thursday, 18th April 1929

Alexander's 8th birthday is today, and Isabelle is here for Alexander's birthday. She came early in the morning today, getting Emily and me into her birthday plan for Alexander. When Alexander and Hugo arrived at our table, Emily and I just glanced at one another, before looking at the two of them. Not that they notice anything suspicious nor anything out of the ordinary. We go through our daily routine at the dining hall, before going to class.

After heading to class, we'd head over to Alexander and Hugo's apartment. The moment we entered; the place was decorated to both of their surprise.

"Well, bet the two of two didn't expect it considering they were away, sleeping in the library at the moment," I muttered, as Emily swatted my arm. I rolled my eyes as Isabelle surprised the two of them, scaring them a bit. We celebrated Alexander's birthday throughout the lunch break before we'd return to class, as Isabelle went with us, considering she hadn't visited the University of Oxford yet.

After Isabelle left in the early evening, we were at Hugo and Alexander's apartment, watching him open his presents. He stared at a present.

"What's wrong, Alexander?" I asked. Alexander took out the bottle of Scotch.

"It was Winston's. I can't believe him... Winston... he..." Alexander muttered, eyes widened slightly.

"What?"

"Well... I do drink Scotch responsibly, and yet, people just give me a bottle of Scotch for my birthday. They think I drink it every damn day. I drink it on particular events, like receiving acceptance letters from the University of Oxford and Cambridge, among other things," He replied, and we all nodded. Alexander also received several books from several people that knew him well, as well as birthday cards from the members of Regius Obligatus. Isabelle, of course, gave him a hand-drawn portrait, and a hell lot of memories today.

It was a few hours later when Emily and I excused ourselves so that we could get back to our apartment, getting tired, and not even bothered about doing our assignments because we ended up sleeping after doing our individual night routines and getting to bed.