Nameless King

"Wain... What happened next? What did you do in your world?" Eva asked with a curious look.

"Hmm... The same thing I'm doing now. I fought and killed. My life was complicated, but not particularly interesting." Wain shrugged in a calm manner, "I was able to get out of the slums, but I didn't escape, I became a winner, then I gathered allies around me and gradually built up my strength to move on."

"What...? Aren't you the kind of person who doesn't like to lead? That's why Gisle is the leader of Last Light, not you, isn't it?" Eva uttered while in confusion.

Wain was silent for a while, then he took a sip of wine and said, "Yeah, but I was a teenager then. My reluctance to lead others has to do with not the fondest of memories..."

"Tell me more about that, please!" Eva exclaimed with a pitying look.

"Ah... okay. My world was a little different, as the most important thing for everyone was power. Organizations ran the economy, resources of countries, and so on, so whoever was in charge of the organization owned it all. You could only get to the top if you were stronger." Wain muttered in a slow voice, "In the beginning my organization was fine, but later something happened that made me not want to lead anyone else."

"Well, your world was different from this one before the apocalypse... Money and politics were the most important things here, though now almost nothing has changed, just added power to that formula." Eva muttered while tearing off a piece of pizza, "What happened to your organization? Did you have a bad experience?"

"No, not really." Wain shook his head, "Everything was going well, it's even surprised how much. My organization became the strongest in the whole world, but it wasn't because of my leadership skills, other people were doing it. In the beginning, I wanted to be like Gisle, but when a few of my mates died, I decided I'd had enough."

Wain's face darkened as his eyes became cold as ice. Eva could see that this was a difficult subject for Wain, but she didn't want it to be an eternal stigma for him.

"If everything in your world was decided by force, it had to happen at some point anyway. No matter how strong an army is, it is impossible that in a few battles none of the fighters die, so you must not blame yourself for that. I'm sure you fought to the best of your ability and did everything you could to reduce such incidents to a minimum." Eva said with a serious look as she put her hand on Wain's shoulder.

"Huh, maybe you're right, but I don't want to take responsibility for anyone else." Wain uttered before removing Eva's hand.

"When I fight, even if I die, I'll know that it's only my fault and no one else's. However, if I send people on a mission and they die, it will be my fault, because I sent them to fight, I told them to do it, so I was the one who sent them to their death. I've been through it a few times and it will never happen again." Wain said with an ice-cold look as he clenched his glass.

Crackle.

The glass cracked as the stem fell off of it, that fell on the table, and rolled to the floor.

"Damn... Good thing I didn't spill any wine." Wain muttered as he finished the contents of his glass and set it aside.

"Ah... Wain, you're even better than I thought you'd be." Eva said with a slight smile on her face.

"Hmm? Were you even listening to me? Do you think I should have kept sacrificing my people? If they want to follow me, that's their right, but I'll never make anyone fight in my place again. I have killed hundreds of men in my life and will continue to do so, but that only concerns my enemies, not my allies." Wain uttered with a deadly serious look.

Eva smiled, looked at the visitors of the Green Hat, and said, "Look at all these people. A year ago they were terrified and didn't know if they could live to see another day, but now here they are, sitting at the table and eating while talking about something. This all happened under Gisle, he's the leader of Last Light from the beginning until now."

Eva continued, "You and I are not stupid people, so we understand that all these cities, economies, living standards, allies, and other stuff were literally built on bones and flesh. There are thousands of bodies buried in these lands and even right now someone is fighting."

"Yes, your words make sense, but Gisle doesn't care about any particular person, he doesn't care about people. His goal is to make Last Light great and he's doing a great job with that. I'm sure he uses every method to do it, even the worst ones." Wain said as he waved as though Eva had said the obvious.

Eva nodded as a sly smile appeared on her face, "You're right, but do they hate Gisle for that? Does the fact that hundreds of humans have died in battle make him a bad leader?"

"Of course not, and he understands that. These people used to have hope that Gisle would make their lives better, despite all the sacrifice, but now they have full confidence that if they keep going with Last Light, every day will be easier for them, their friends, and their family." Eva said in a confident manner.

She took a bite of pizza, took a sip of wine, and said, "Gisle will always be the leader of Last Light, but you are the strongest I know, so I hope that in case of danger you will protect us. However, always remember that there are quite a few people here that are willing to die in battle with you. Also, you have a Void that depends entirely on you."

Wain wanted to say something, but Eva beat him to it.

"Will you stop thinking about what happened years ago? How can you be the strongest if you can't even overcome your doubts? Just let the others go after you, again." Eva uttered while looking directly into his eyes.