Nicle Day

“Alright, everyone has the day off!”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to face their dear leader, who had seemingly popped up out of thin air in the middle of the hall. Everyone present had literally just arrived at work, on perfect time as always. As their leader had always demanded. So this sudden, abrupt announcement was definitely causing a lot of confusion.

“You hear that? You can all go home and spend the day with your loved ones. Everything is good and everything is under my control!”

The crowd remained still and perplexed. No one really spoke. How could they? This was their dear leader speaking. High General Kenon was very confused by this strange reaction.

“Why are you not going home like I ask? You all have today off! As a special occasion!”

Finally, someone spoke. Rethais may have been Kenon’s Vice General, his second in command, but everyone knew he was of no higher rank than everyone else in the room.

“Why, ser?”

“Because I want to give you all the day off!”

“But why? You never give anyone a day off.”

Kenon crossed his arms, tutting. “Well, I am giving you all the day off today. My treat. You all deserve it. All of you. Or at the very least, as many of you as physically possible. At the very least, everyone in this building gets the day off.”

There were a lot of odd glances around the crowd. Slowly but surely, Kenon’s subjects began to understand what Kenon had requested, and started to file back out of the building in an orderly fashion. After all, they had just been given a day off.

Rethais though remained where he was. He was supposed to be dealing with Kenon’s meetings with other beings, and was somewhat suspicious of the High General’s generous offer.

“What about the meetings we have with-”

“Already dealt with!” Kenon smiled a little too pleasantly. “Everything has been sorted out! You may go home and spend time with your wretched little family.”

“Yes, but why?” Rethais continued to ask. “You do not normally give such… large rewards and luxuries out to us. This almost feels like some sort of honey trap for us all to fall in to.”

Kenon was still smiling, but slightly less so. “I wanted to reward you all. For my own private, nigh-impossible to explain reasons.”

“Why can you not explain your reasoning to us?”

The High General’s smile faded. “I just told you. The reasoning is beyond even your comprehension. You are a smart, if overly suspicious being. But I cannot explain the reason why to you. This goes beyond most beings’ understanding of time, space and the multiverse. This particular date has a meaning to me and I thus wish to celebrate by giving you all a day off.”

“Oh…” Rethais trailed off. “Is it really that hard to explain?”

“Not just hard to explain, but incredibly obscure and confusing as well.”

“Would you-”

Kenon grunted. “There is no feasible way I can explain this to you. Just enjoy your damn day off before I change my mind.”

Rethais hesitated, then nodded. “Thank you, ser. Have a good day.”

The High General started smiling again. “You are quite welcome. Enjoy your day off and have a good 10th of August.”