Several years have passed since I last wrote in my journal. It's no longer as necessary as it once was, and besides, one could say that I've been busy all this time.

There have been several changes. I reduced the percentage of necessary tributes and made new changes, such as allowing payment not only with harvests but also with gold. With these adjustments, the farmers worked for themselves, reaping the fruits of their labor, and I managed to encourage trade as they wished, thus giving meaning to the currency that previously meant nothing to most of the central plaza.

Some tried to take advantage of the situation in an abusive manner, for there is no worse criminal than one who seems to follow the rules of the law believing that being one of the many who marched by my side gave them immunity. But I trusted that with time there would be order once the first lawyers of this city were trained and could repeal the laws of the Merciful to make new ones that were fairer both in terms of civil rights and penalties for offenders.

It wasn't difficult to achieve. I reinstated mandatory education, and with it came a new generation of scholars willing to unravel the secrets of the library for the benefit of tomorrow. Knowledge was no longer solely the domain of laboratories, which, it should be said, remained the same, listening to the requests of their scientists to contribute technological advances that would later be of public use, even if it took time to publish them commercially, such as electric lanterns.

As for security, some who survived the siege against the Merciful, and as I had promised, I spared the lives of those who did not resist. Many still wished to be guards after the fall of the Merciful, for the most staunch supporters of the previous ruler were killed in defense of the king.

But I have seen up close the kind of people many guards are, so I have taken measures to ensure that not just anyone can be a guard, but only those who are capable of being the living image of order can serve and protect as guards.

The miners were a complicated issue. There was not enough space for everyone, and someone had to occupy their positions. But with time, I fulfilled my promise, just like all the promises I made to the people, although this was the one that took me the longest to make a reality. It's like that old saying; better late than never.

Although I am now a hero to them, firearms had to be destroyed or hidden to maintain security. While they now knew of their existence and how to make them, I managed to maintain peace. I ordered the inhabitants of the central plaza who had participated in the siege of the palace to deposit their weapons, promising to return them in case of need.

People see me as a hero, the giver of justice, and the bearer of freedom.

Coming from the very nothingness to bring order to this city, as I told the people at the time:

"We seek to prosper, not kill each other."

That night in the throne room, the people saw me, stepping on the tyrant they had as king. It was an image that was burned into their minds. They composed songs and wrote poems about it while I walked through the streets of the central plaza, not as a stranger, but as their king. Although I wish to establish democracy by the day of my death.

Sometimes I ask the guards to bring certain books from the library, but there are too many, and not all of them are to my liking. Opening its doors to the public is just a show of the love I feel for these things. I just hope that future generations will value this place more than they did during its era of privatization.

I don't know what the future of this city will be, but I managed to make it a new home for me and for all the people who live here. Possibly far from my old town that had done so much harm to me, but now I don't remember why.

It's funny, who would have thought that a solitary vagabond from the inhospitable lands would be the one to start this revolution in a city that didn't seem to exist for the rest of the world? My foolish heart can't take it anymore, but now my mind is clear.

In the middle of the heart of the city, there I was, wearing the repaired violet tunic of the king, using the last pages of my diary, sitting on a throne in a palace whose tower can be seen from the outskirts of the walls.

I got power, that's what I wanted all this time.

Finally; I'm happy.

As much as my clear mind, the skies of these lands are also starting to clear up thanks to the hard and prolonged work done with the purifying machine. They were starting to clear up in the brightest times of the year, which the scientists called "solstices" as the books recounted how they were before the great catastrophe. Skies that will once again be clear and my objectives are also clear right now.

I am still broken for good; I will never be repaired. What happened before entering the mist and storm that surround this city was left in the past, and if we do things right, we will be the next great empire of humanity, just as its founding members would have wanted it to be.

It's time to end my diary. Perhaps someday they will know that deep down, I was not a good man, that my motives were selfish even if my actions say otherwise.

Either way, the city... this city will not be lost forever, and the day the purifying machine loses its range, we will have to be part of the new world.

And that day... Is already close, even if I don't live to witness it.