Outside the castle, not a huge crowd but the entire state was gathered. Every person from every house was there. They had large posters and banners that stated that they didn’t want Abraham to step down from the throne.

Ryan was leading this protest and unfortunately it seemed quite a violent one.

Austin, Thomas and Frederick were watching everything from the castle. Austin angrily asked,

“What the hell is this?”

“Obviously, they like Abraham too much,” Thomas answered, “They don’t want his reign to end.”

“That is very unfair!” Frederick yelled angrily.

“Calm down,” Thomas said to him. “We’ll sort out some way.”

“Why did this had to happen when my time was about to come?”

Austin said to both of them,

“This is not the matter of concern at the moment. What’s bothering me is that our public is getting out of our control. They have the guts to put eyes against ours.”

Meanwhile outside the castle, the young adults were burning wood and they were breaking furniture. They had to present some terror as they could not risk another two years. They knew that all the brothers were corrupt except for Abraham.

This protest was getting worse as the general public sat outside for an entire day. All the brothers including Abraham were about the situation and they had to sort out something.

Abraham finally stepped outside the palace and decided to give a speech. It was early afternoon when he came outside and stepped on a high spot where he was visible to everyone. He had a mike in his hand that could make his voice somewhat audible to a large distance.

Anyways, he began the speech but as he said his first word, the entire public started shouting in protest,

“We want King Abraham. Long live King Abraham. We want King Abraham. Long live King Abraham.”

“Hold on please, hold on,” Abraham stated trying to create silence, “We are civilised people and we should talk like one.”

Slowly there was complete silence, so then Abraham began,

“People of Prestige Land, I am honoured to see how much you people respect me. I value your love and respect. But if you truly like me then you won’t do what I don’t like. And that is this…disrespecting the law.”

“We don’t mean disrespect,” Ryan the leader said, “We just want you to be our permanent king.”

“I understand that,” Abraham said, “but let me finish first. All the kings got their respective times. Each one got to rule for two years. Nobody interfered during any king’ reign; now it is Frederick’s time; we should not be unfair with him. I have taught you honesty and discipline, and what you all are doing is clearly nothing among the two.”

There was some chattering among the public. Ryan however, said,

“The previous kings broke the law. They did plenty of stuff that was against the constitution, why should we accept a new king whom we don’t know and don’t trust.”

“You didn’t know me, but you trusted me.”

“Look, Sir Abraham,” Ryan spoke boldly, “this debate will not end. We simply do not want you to step down. And as you declared it a time of democracy, we want you to accept our demand.”

Abraham then looked at the general public who seemed to agree with him. So he stepped down after saying,

“Alright, we brothers will conduct a meeting and then decide.”

Half an hour later, the five brothers and I were seated in the meeting room. Abraham was seated at the center point as he was leading the meeting. He began,

“Alright, as you all know that we are in a middle of crisis and we need to come up with a quick solution, therefore, I need suggestions from all of you.”

“You are the king,” Thomas said in between, “just give one order and impose Frederick as the new king over these animals.”

Jacob stopped Thomas and said,

“Alright, stop this now. We need to work on this together and more importantly, wisely.”

“I am asking for your suggestions,” Abraham said.

“What do you want our suggestions for?” Austin mocked. “You took away our designations. You fired us all. What do you expect now?”

“Abraham listen to me,” I finally spoke in between, “let me suggest something. People out there are demanding something; I think we should give them what they want.”

“That is absolutely not happening,” Frederick said. “It is my time to become king.”

“These people might assassinate you Fred…”

Abraham gave an expression that seemed as if he agreed with my last statement.

Jacob gave a suggestion,

“I have an idea. What if we divide these two upcoming years?”

“Divide?” Abraham asked.

“Yes, we can give you kingdom for one year and then to Frederick for one year.”

“What the hell do you mean?” Frederick yelled.

Only two people liked this suggestion. Abraham and I.

“I agree with this one,” I added.

“I think this will work,” Abraham spoke.

“What about us?” Austin asked. “Won’t you ask for our opinion?”

“Alright,” Abraham said, “What do you suggest?”

“Frederick should be the new king. No one interfered during anyone else’s, so why should we let you take over Frederick’s time.”

“Okay, then tell us how we can control the public out there.”

“Use swords and guns.”

There was a noise in the room for a while as everyone disliked his words and stopped him.

“Alright,” Austin finally said trying to create mischief, “If Frederick dies before he becomes the new king, Abraham will get complete two years time.”

No body responded. Abraham looked at Frederick.

“Sure,” Frederick said.

Then everyone agreed to this.

**************

That evening, Abraham came out and greeted the public. He finally gave his short announcement speech,

“We all have mutually decided that I will get to rule this state for one more year. After this one year, Frederick will get his one year. I hope this is clear and you all will agree to this. If not, then I’m sorry, I’ll simply have to resign.”

Ryan stood up and talked to the people. Abraham observed that he was trying to convince them to agree with the government’s decision.

Few minutes later, he came towards Abraham and said,

“We all agree!”

“Good,” Abraham responded.

Abraham went back up and gave his final speech,

“I’m glad you all agreed to what I proposed. And I am also honoured to be your king once again. This one year, I will make the most of it but I also expect you all to treat our future king with kindness. These violent protests do not suit you or educated people.”

So, it happened. Abraham took over the throne once again and so rose up the excitement and expectations of people of Prestige Land.

********

Few days later, something unexpected happened. This happened between Jacob and I. He came over to my house while it was raining. My wife and I were alone in the house. I answered the door and saw Jacob standing outside.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I need to talk to you,”

he said to me.

I saw that there were tears in his eyes. He seemed very upset. I however, said,

“Alright, come inside.”

“Thank you.”

Several seconds later, while the two of us were standing on the terrace, Jacob began the conversation,

“You are the eldest man of the family.

I can only confess my feelings to you.”

“What is it Jacob?”

“I am a criminal. I have destroyed lives.”

“Are you talking about the time when you were a king?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m referring to,” he cried. “I’m a bad human being. I have made people suffer. All the while I was enjoying, people were dying. They were committing suicides. I know this for quite a long while and I have been crying secretly for this.”

“Alright, calm down Jacob!”

“I am here for redemption. I want you to take me to Abraham.

If Abraham sentences me to death, I am okay with it.”

“Look, don’t worry. It is good that you have confessed your crime and you are willing to take responsibility. Now, instead of any legal punishment, I suggest you should join hands with Abraham. As you know that all the other brothers are clearly against him and are conspiring with their maximum effort. So, as an elder brother, and eldest of all, you should take responsibility of bringing them all together.”

“That is very difficult and not likely to happen as long as Austin is in our way.”

“Look, don’t be afraid of Austin,” I said to him. “You are elder than everyone else. We all will work together and make this state a perfect one.” Jacob nodded.

We had a good conversation that night and I was really happy as Jacob finally admitted his mistakes and was willing to take full responsibility for his actions.

The state deserved great leaders like Abraham. It was Abraham who had influenced Jacob and had made him understand the meaning of patriotism.

*************

For the next few months, Abraham continued his reign like the previous times. He was so sincere with the people that anyone including beggars on the street could easily get in touch with him and put their needs and demands before him.

Jacob and Abraham had reconciled and instead of punishing Jacob, Abraham gave him a chance to make up for his sins by fulfilling the demands of needy citizens.

Jacob really surprised us when he donated his entire wealth to the welfare organisations of the state. He had to ease his conscience and he did.

The Prestige Land was approaching towards a point where other countries could call it a developed or developing state.

The export had increased and the state was no more under debt. From rural state, it had become an urban state. The roads and buildings had improved to such an extent that no one would believe how this state appeared to be in the previous times.

The standard of everything from education to hospitalisation had improved. The discipline standard had grown so fiercely that no one could even imagine doing any sort of corruption in their jobs. But of course, all good things must come to an end.

Finally, the end of Abraham’s one year came. It was now official that Abraham must hand over the throne to Frederick. But unfortunately, things did not turn out to be what we expected.

Thomas came to the meeting room the day we all were seated and said,

“Frederick is not in his room.

He is missing.”

We all stood up in panic.

“He must be around somewhere,” Jacob claimed.

Thomas answered,

“His wife said that he hasn’t returned since last evening.”

We all were quite worried at the moment until Austin flared it even more saying,

“Okay, the only person responsible for this is the beneficiary of this incident. And who else than Abraham is benefitting from this?” 

to be continued...