#fc 01.

there's an aura that surrounds me   ,   there's a different kind of wealth .    (     N . L .   9/?   )

‘   king n.ikolai photographed in the backyard of his estate during early fall .  ’ having put the ruling down a few years ago once his country fully transitioned to a democracy under his and the country’s current leaders   -    the triumvirate   -    hands    ,   he has moved on to work as a shipwright and moved to a permanent residency on the coast    -    it can be assumed that is where shipwrights should live .   finally managing to move the country his family ruled for generation forward and out of his hands    ,    the former king made time to look for life elsewhere .    “   don’t write this     ,     technically i am still king .  by title .  you know    ,    like those fancy royals in all the other european countries  ,   ”   he chides but there is no malice in it .  this is another thing about n.ikolai lantsov  :   most of the rumours about him are true    ,    especially those on how charming and genuinely pleasing he is to be around .  talking to him is like talking to an old friend     ,     or the bar tender who knows your favourite drink .  he is easy to be around and there is a vitality to him that is hard to find in anybody else who fought two wars and went on to rule a country at twenty-three after losing his whole family .  he understandably doesn’t talk about that   ,    but he talks about anything else . “  but that move   -   that was important .  not only letting people who know what they are doing do what they do best .  but to step away from the political aspect of it all when i did .  if i would have kept going the way i did    ,    i would have burned out by thirty.  and i wouldn’t have been happy .   there are perfectly capable people in our government now and i am fairly sure they are all awfully happy to not see my face every day .  ”    he gets quieter then     ,    and looking at him now    -   the setting sun making his hair look as golden as the stories of him always promised it to be    ,    but his face sharper with age than the young boy the country has obsessed over growing up    ,   he looks settled and happy .  pointing it out has him smiling    ,     a warm and open smile that is maybe not less charming than all the other ones he gives the world    ,    but more private for sure   -   as if the secret for that happiness is behind that smile .  “   i am .  i have never been happier in my life than right now .   and i don’t take any of it for granted . getting to this happiness cost me a lot   ,   but that’s for the next cover story   ,   don’t you think? ”

‘  aren’t you tired?  '   he was . saints  ,   he was . he thought he had grown used to his scars   ,    but he had never grasped how much of his will it would take to hide them .   he had fought and sacrificed and bled . he had gone long days without rest and long nights without comfort. all for ravka  ,   all for an ideal he would never attain and a country that would never care.

NOT  BAD  LOOKING ?   DAMNABLY  HANDSOME.  (  N.L.  EDITS  9/?  )

   ‘   they  know  you  walk  like  you’re  a  god .  ’         /               (     tsar n.ikolai lantsov  .  5/?  )

NOT  BAD  LOOKING ?   DAMNABLY  HANDSOME.  (  N.L.  EDITS  8/?  )

'   a diamond down in the mines .    ’         /             (     N.L. EDITS  . 7/? )

NOT  BAD  LOOKING ?   DAMNABLY  HANDSOME.  (  N.L.  EDITS  4/?  )