Intuitions of War
Chapter 6: Arrival at Scotland
"God damn it, why is Scotland so damned far…" Harper was exasperated, his breath having far since left his body. He had been running and sleeping for a few days while on the way here, along with trying to pursue the next use in his life.
During the interaction with the farmer on the way here, he learned just how useful a physical body could be. He always talked about guns, grenades, and other things, but he clearly misunderstood just how much people had them.
In reality, almost nobody outside of the armies of the world had such weapons, and most of the other people in the world would probably be using their fists or some kind of farming tool to fight.
That's how a lot of people would think, right?
Harper completely threw all of that out of the window, and focused only on his legs.
'I don't care for fighting, not at all… I've gotta play it smart, outrun everyone else, use my legs to run away and think…' he had a completely different train of thought than most people, who would usually focus on their upper body. He wanted to take a completely different approach to strength, and to put all his effort into his legs.
This was the way that he was thinking:
Most people focus on their upper body, and because of that, their confidence in fights rise, and they continue to fight. However, most people who focus on fighting usually don't make it far, and the few that do make it are considered legends, such as many of the commanders in an army. In fact, the majority of people who get strong and start fighting usually don't live long.
So, what if he focused on his legs? What if he didn't fight, but kept running, 'till he couldn't run anymore? Besides, the legs could also be used to kick, though it isn't considered as honorable as a normal brawl, which is probably why many people don't train the lower body. Either that, or they just really want to brawl.
'Still, in the end, training my body physically is just to make me seem more valuable when it comes to picking people for jobs.' However, in the end, Harper just thought he would increase his chances of being hired if he worked his physical body. In the end, he didn't care at all.
"I'm too lazy to do anything…" Harper, repeating his iconic line, while arriving at an iconic city of Scotland as well, Glasgow. It looked very similar to Newgate, what with the stone paths and the bridges here and there.
'However, this isn't a port city, so there won't be any docks here.' Harper, even though he had grown up in Newgate, he wasn't so infatuated with it that he would just look down on Glasgow. He acknowledged that it was different in many ways, and came with many pros and cons.
However, he came for a single reason, mostly. That reason would be that Scotland wasn't involved in the war, and was not likely to be involved in the war anytime soon. He could live a somewhat peaceful life until then.
So for now, Harper would continue to live in his silly little dream, but that's just for now.
--- sequence 2 ---
Harper had spent all the time since his arrival at Glasgow just strolling through the city, breathing in the smell of the terrible sewers and the somewhat fresh air, and looking at all the starving children just lying in the middle street.
"Just like Newgate." Harper commented, as he continued to walk through the city of Glasgow. He looked left and right, and saw many displays of different things. There were cooking utensils on display, clothes on display, fishing gear on display, pretty much everything.
'The variety in this city is pretty good, wish we had this sort of variety back in Newgate.' Harper, no matter how much he tried to get over Newgate, had grown up in it basically his whole life, so he just couldn't stop comparing Glasgow to Newgate.
Finally, after walking around for quite a while, he reached the other end of the city. It was a somewhat small city, but he could deal with it. It'd make a fine place to live in, for now at least.
'Still, It's good as long as I get to live.' Harper, trying to censor all the negative things out of his mind, kept thinking positively, just as any normal kid his age would.
All in all, the city wasn't too big or too small, there were nice displays to his left and right when he walked down the streets, and though he couldn't smell the fresh air of the ocean like he could in Newgate, there was still a somewhat nauseating smell that he believed was coming from the sewers, so there were some smells that he was used too.
"Now then, onto the topic of finding work…" Harper began to get down to business, or as some people would say, the serious stuff. He began to think about all the shops he passed that looked like they could use a helping hand.
'There seemed to be some sort of bar around here, I'm sure they could use someone like me.' Harper immediately remembered the bar, mostly because he always used to go to the Turtle's bay back in Newgate, so he was sure that he knew how he could help out in a bar.
If he remembered correctly, the bar wasn't that far from the edge of town, which is where he currently was. He just had to walk a couple of streets down, and he would arrive at the bar.
Just like that, Harper set out on his small little journey to the bar, content with himself.
-- sequence 3 ---
*Meanwhile*
'This man… I can't stand against him, I simply can't. We can't deal with this, we have to work with them.' Scotland itself was in quite the predicament, its predictions about staying out of the war being quite terribly wrong.
"So Mr. Adair, are you willing to cooperate with us?" The man sitting in front of Mr. Adair shot a question at him, and Mr. Adair began to sweat even more. The man in front of him then turned the chair he was sitting on towards the window, and looked out of it and stared into the endless sky.
"The world is quite beautiful, but war isn't. You want to stay out of the war, but you're simply being selfish. Did you think we'd just let Scotland stay out of it? All the countries going into war are almost certainly going to go into a depression after the war, and you think you could somehow keep Scotland out of the war? Just because we're currently fighting each other out there doesn't mean we just stop paying attention to other things." The man shot quite a long speech at Mr. Adair, the current Monarch of Scotland.
Meanwhile, the Monarch himself was lost in thought, not knowing what to do.
After thinking about it for a few minutes, Mr. Adair slammed his hands on the table, while twitching crazily.
"F...Fine, have it your way." Mr. Adair sent out, nervousness and tiredness strikingly obvious within his voice.
"In a month from now, we'll invade the current capital of the UK from the North, just as you have envisioned." Mr. Adair began to recite the plan that the man sitting in front of him stated, who was definitely a man holding much more power than all of Scotland combined.
"While you send out your people, the Germans, to invade London from the South, am I correct, Mr. Bernard?" Mr. Adair asked, seeking out confirmation for the plan he just tried to recite.
"Correct indeed Mr. Adair, seems like you do know how this is going to turn out. One way or another, all countries currently within Europe will go into a depression whether they like it or not, so don't feel like you and your… what do you call it? 'Scottish Pride'? Yes, don't feel like you and your 'Scottish Pride' are being picked on." Mr. Bernard said, while standing up from the chair.
"I'll be heading back now, the Soviet Union is also another nation that I have business with, the damned comunists." Mr. Bernard spat out, shocking Mr. Adair severely.
'This man doesn't know the meaning of fear… if I wanted to, I could easily relay these words to the Soviet Union and start a war within a war.' Mr. Adair began to smile, thinking that he finally had some dirt on Mr. Bernard.
"I don't like the looks of that smile, so listen to me well. If you dare to relay any of the things that I just said, Scotland will not exist past next year's December, do you hear me?" Mr. Bernard wasn't having any of it, and immediately shot down Mr. Adair.
Mr. Adair paled right away, and wiped the smile off his own face.
"Yes, Mr. Bernard." The monarch of Scotland wasn't an idiot, he wouldn't get all of Scotland slaughtered just because of how he acted.
"Good" Mr. Bernard replied, and simply began to walk to the exit of the castle.
The Monarch, who once had the dream of staying out of the war and conquering Europe from within, stared at the back of the man who shattered those dreams in an instant, who took everything he believed in away.
'Even within my own castle, all I can do is look at the back of this man, an enemy leader…' the Monarch stared at the back of the man known as the executioner, as he walked away.