A Royal Beginning [Book 1 of The English Lion]

XXXIV. Hugo

Friday, 29th November 1929

Dear Diary,

It's been a month since the stock market crashed, and everything... seems to be under control and somewhat managed under Alexander. Despite the economic issue that is spirally out of control for a month now, Regius Obligatus seems to have the least impact, to a certain extent, as it gives work for the agents, and of course, the Troopers, especially in the Americas. Oh, since we're talking about the Americas, let's look at Hoover. Judging from afar, I don't think he has no plans in place whatsoever for the economic recession... I fear this would greatly impact the world, and Alexander, again, has the voice of reason. That bloody- well, I was about to trash talk my dear friend here, but again, who's the judge of that? He's thinking about the bigger picture, and sometimes... it's damn frightening. It's a short diary entry, yes, but I fear some things are now uncertain due to the economic recession, and I'm not entirely sure how it will impact the world economy, and the individual country's economic situation.

-Hugo

Friday, 13th December 1929

Dear Diary,

It's Friday, the 13th, a day where many have observed as unlucky, and I'm not sure whether or not that had affected Douglas, Emily, Alexander and I today, but we did manage to get back to London safely, and the fact that Alexander had managed to correspond with Isabelle every day makes me wonder.... How on earth did he have the time to write letters to her considering all the things that we have under our belt right now? "A pen pal in France," he'd reply, deflecting any possibilities and shutting it down immediately when anyone asked why he corresponded with Isabelle every damn day. That's enough ranting from me, but... the Italian and Soviet Russian bases are now almost 80% finished, and what's surprising is that... Americas bases are now close to 40% finished in construction... Guess the economic recession has a few benefits, but then not a lot because there's a lot of... say, economic and political issues going on in the world.

Well, I'll finish here with another short diary entry... Seems like it's recurring, ain't it?

-Hugo

Thursday, 26th December 1929

Dear Diary,

Tradition, tradition, tradition... But we did have that annual meeting with the King and received our gifts. Alexander received several gifts from Winston and Isabelle, no surprise there, considering they both spoil the living crap out of Alexander with gifts. Surprisingly, Winston offered to give me lessons in politics too, which I accepted, wanting to know more in terms of politics, and because why not? There wasn't much else that's happening, except that Alexander and I had picked up some new hobbies, well more like one... That's fencing, and I have no idea where that hobby came up but hey, why not do something that might help our skills for the RAF? Well for Alexander, it'll be both the RAF and Royal Navy. Why does he have to do a lot? Bloody hell, he's a pompous royal patriotic git who's my best friend.

The recurring theme here... Short diary entries. I have no idea why I'm keeping it short, but it's better than nothing, ain't it?

-Hugo

Friday, 3rd January 1930

Dear Diary,

Well, I just arrived at Oxford, and am back in the apartment with Alexander, who had a moment, spent a few hours in the living room with Guinevere and Arthur. I was in my room the whole time, reading a book on politics during that whole period. Well, I'm looking ahead to another term of the academic whirlwind despite the economic situation that is still spiralling out of control for almost four months now. I think, with the academic whirlwind, it'll keep all of our minds off the economic situation for a short moment. I'm not sure how it will greatly impact the future, considering the future now is quite uncertain.

-Hugo

Friday, 31st January 1930

Douglas, Emily and I were in our first class, and Alexander wasn't here, at all. I mean... it was unlike him to not show up to class. After all our classes, and I've gone to all the professors for Alexander's afternoon classes, asking them for work, considering I have no idea where Alexander is and the fact that I'll just get the lecture notes and assignments for the sake of it, just to be sure. After I got back to the apartment, Alexander was nowhere to be seen so I went to his room, and there he was, sleeping on the bed.

"He looks peaceful," Douglas's voice came out of nowhere, almost scaring me for a moment before I turned and slapped him with the stack of paper in my hands, which is Alexander's work that he missed today.

"Scare me again like that, and next time it won't be the stack of paper that I'll be slapping you with," I hissed at him before putting that stack onto Alexander's desk, "Come, let's go and do our work, considering there are still assignments that we're putting off."

Throughout the rest of the day, we'd work on our assignments, and Alexander, somehow, managed to have a day's worth of sleep... Incredible, considering he isn't normal. By normal standards.

But how the hell did he manage to have a full day of sleep? That's not unlike him at all.