Drakoria: The rise and fall of a Dominion

"Reincarnation, huh?"

I stood on the balcony of my room with an overview of the darkness of the kingdom. The faint light of dawn was just starting to tinge the horizon, casting a subdued glow over the landscape.

It turns out the old man wasn't full of shit after all.

He was a new inmate that befriended me a week to my execution. He loved telling weird stories about reincarnation, powers and something he called systems. He was a cheerful old man, always with the happy smiling face. He said swallowing the tiny red coin that he was always twirling between his fingers would give me a chance of reincarnation. When I asked why he didn't take it for himself, he replied "what for?". I didn't understand what he meant. He placed the coin on my palm and said the choice was mine and after that I didn't see him again. I swallowed the coin at the last minute but I wasn't expecting anything. Who would have thought?

A knock came to my door.

"Come in" I said and the massive, insanely well crafted wooden doors creaked open, revealing the butler as he gracefully wheeled in an ornate cart laden with ancient parchments. The impressive fluorescent light filled the room, giving a warm glow to the old manuscript that held the records of the kingdom's past years.

As the cart came to a stop before me, I couldn't help but marvel at the sight before me. The parchments were weathered and yellowed with age, I hope, holding centuries of history in their fragile fibers.

"Is this everything?"

"Yes, my king"

I nodded and he left. I looked at the hundreds of records. It was going to take at least half a day to look through all this but I wanted to. I needed first hand information about the kingdom, and I didn't mind putting in the hours.

┌─────── ⇦♕⇨ ───────┐

It took hours more than I anticipated. I didn't have breakfast nor lunch as the day was running into the evening.

The Kingdom is called Drakoria, ruled by the Dragonharts of which I'm the 13th successor after I took over when my father died suddenly of an illness 3 year ago. It is a small nation that seems to be getting smaller as more lands are taken over by neighboring nations. The nation is crippled by debts right now and the economy is in shambles. The previous me's solution was higher taxes and more loans which led to more people leaving and a heavy debt of 60,000 gold coins. With the average kingdom annual revenue been 5,000 gold coins that will take a long time to pay off, especially considering that we still owe the army 6 months salary.

How does this idiot not know he has been sitting on a freaking time bomb?! He even exempted some regions from taxes based on signed deals.

"Fuck."

[Name : Daran Dragonhart]

[Class : King]

[Level : 1]

[Attack : 10]

[Defense : 20]

[Agility : 10]

[Stamina : 10]

[Skills: Appraisal;Copy]

The more I think about it the more I think the old man was grooming me for this, but why me? Why give something like this to someone like me?

There's an arrowhead highlighted under the tab and when I tapped it more information came out.

Hmmm. Unique? Seems like I'm not the only one with a system in this world but my Class, King, is unique? I should have played more games as a kid. I clicked on skills. The tab opened and the window showed , . I clicked on .

This is a broken skill. Does it have a limit? It should have a limit otherwise what's stopping one from becoming a god? It didn't say how it works though. I guess I will figure that out with time.

If the Kings of this world have this skill then it means they already have many years headstart and there's no way I can catch up in time, my existence would continue like that of the previous me. I rather die than be someone's bitch again, but if this is unique to me then I'm a threat and I will definitely die. I have to stand above, be the strongest. I already know what happens when you are not the strongest. That seems to be the only choice right now, and not just me but my kingdom as well. If there will be bloodshed, it won't start with mine.

I called for the butler. He came in in less than 10 seconds.

"Assemble the kingdom's soldiers and Generals" I instructed, moving towards the room extension that serves as a massive walk-in wardrobe.

"Many of them are...unavailable, my king"

I don't know what he meant by that but the way he said it made it seem like I do and it's something he couldn't comment on so I ignored it.

"Then assemble the ones available" I told him, looking through the wardrobe for something simple to wear. The guy sure have expensive taste.

"Going somewhere, my king?"

"Yes" I said, picking up the least expensive looking cloak. "I need to take a stroll of my kingdom. Alone."

"...that's not advisable, my king"

"Well, I have to do it" I said. "Find a way to make it work"

"Very well, sir" he bowed and left.

Time to find out what modern ideas I will be taking advantage of.