“It’s a good thing that you raised a voice. Some good shall come out of it”

During the second year, the economic conditions got worse. Inflation rose even higher and trade almost ended. The rise in unemployment led to rise in poverty. Therefore the suicide rate also increased. Jacob was not concerned about anyone; he was simply living in denial. Austin and Thomas were involved in their own leisure.

We were sure that matters had gotten worse than they were at Franklin’s time. Franklin enjoyed his life but he never mishandled the economic conditions of the state.

Abraham who was concerned about everything one day met Jacob alone in his room while holding notes,

“Yes Abraham, you wanted to talk to me?” Jacob asked.

“Yes Jacob. I am really concerned about the economic conditions but I have sorted out a solution for everything”

“Ok”

“I have made this list, here are some items through which we can increase our export”

“What else?”

“Ok I’ll come back to it later. About the inflation, we can still survive if we reinstate the original prices of the fruits and vegetables”

“Who cares? We don’t have to pay for anything”

“Jacob please, this is not about us. We have to think about the poor citizens of Prestigeland”

“Don’t worry Abraham, everything is under control. No one is demanding anything from us. There are no protests, there are no public meetings. Why are you creating a trouble for yourself? Just relax”

“Oh my God” Abraham stood up holding his head in shock, “I can’t believe you are saying that. Do you have absolutely no concern for the people of the state? You are the king, you have a responsibility and you are simply not willing to face it because no one is bothering you”

Jacob was speechless for a moment. He wanted to get out of this conversation as quickly as could.

Abraham walked in the room and taunted a bit more but Jacob did not pay attention to any of his words.

During the last few months, Jacob who had realized that he was being unfair, he finally reinstated the prices of all items to their original values and seeing some delightfulness among the people, his conscience got lighter.

Abraham and I were happy about this but unfortunately it was almost the last month when we had some hope from Jacob. The time had some where Jacob had to step down and Austin had to take over the throne.

A period that was beyond worst was about to begin.

Austin’s Reign

Austin was forty four when he took over the throne. A guy you do not want to make angry. Even though he appeared tall and handsome, you would not praise him for his beauty. A stern man, who is always holding a whip looking for an opportunity to use it, is not the man you want to be on the king’s chair.

Austin was the only member of the family whose anger horrified everyone; everyone except Abraham. When Austin used to lose his temper, one could feel some strange kind of smoke in the room. What really provoked him was bold people challenging his’ decisions.

Austin had changed all the governors and had replaced them with others. All the brothers were still in power but the corruption was about increase further, because Austin had appointed some criminals in higher positions, who were his close friends.

During the first week of his reign one day, he was in the meeting room and a newspaper editor was seated right in front of him. Austin was reading the news that was printed a day before. The editor talked to him:

“Well I’m really glad you allowed me to meet you personally. I wasn’t expecting that you would”

Austin’s eyes were frozen towards the newspaper and he replied:

“You are a good writer. The headlines are catchy”

“Thank you King Austin”

“Tell me something, have you written all of this yourself?”

“This one particularly, yes”

Austin’s eyes moved and he stared at the editor with an intense look.

“I wanted to meet you because I wanted to write about your future plans for the state”

Austin kept the newspaper aside and asked again:

“You wrote this entire paper on your own?”

“Yes, with my own typewriter”

“And you wrote this line, can the new king face the economic challenges?”

“Yes, but that was just to make it interesting. It can be changed”

Austin stood up. The editor got really terrified and he said:

“I’m sorry, I can change it if you don’t like it”

Austin looked at the large drum at the corner of the room that was leaving a lot of smoke. Austin grabbed the editor’s collar and dragged him towards the drum. The editor cried:

“No sir please, I’m sorry. The water is really hot”

“Wash your face with it”

Austin pushed him inside the drum, to such an extent that he was inside the liquid portion from head to shoulders.

The poor editor screamed in pain. It was acid.

Austin rubbed his hands against each other and claimed:

“No one can question my method”

Several weeks later one day, there were two kids, both of them were under six years of age, and they both were playing in the middle of the road. Two gangsters, who were in their expensive car had to stop the car because of the two kids playing in the middle of the road.

They both stepped outside and one of them was angry enough to physically assault the kids. Silver pushed the younger kid causing him to fall backwards. The alarmed mother, who saw everything from some distance, came running towards them. She had come to rescue them, but she pushed Silver as he was about to assault the other kid as well.

Silver asked his partner to bring something from inside the car. As the partner left to do as he instructed, he politely said to the woman:

“Lady, your kids need to be careful, that’s all”

“You were about to hit these kids?”

“I’m sorry if I did that”

The general public had however gathered. Silver’s partner brought some metallic rod and handed it over from behind. While Silver was holding it behind, he presented kindness in his face. As the woman was about to say something, Silver with all his strength hit her on her face. The woman felt backwards and her face was all bleeding.

Some women screamed who had witnessed the entire scene. The gangsters went back and sat inside their car. Some civilians rushed towards the woman and touched her bleeding face. One of them who happened to be a doctor touched her neck to check the pulse; after he analyzed it properly, he stated:

“She is dead”

The other civilians got so upset and they looked at her kids.

The criminals had left but there were plenty of people who had witnessed the crime and were willing to testify in court.

The entire case was taken to court and King Austin himself was meant to act as the judge. The entire news had spread like a fire in the island, which was why it was given quite some importance.

The court was at some distance from the castle. On the day of trial, when the case was presented before him he asked the witnesses to testify. There were not few but twelve witnesses who revealed the entire truth. It was also proved through the forensic examination of the dead body that Silver had actually committed the first attempt murder.

I was there inside the court and I could see in Austin’s face that the truth was clear as crystal. He knew that Silver was guilty. But Silver was his friend, and they used to spend every weekend together.

Austin looked at the two kids who were the current victims of the crime. But regardless of all, he declared:

“I’m sorry but the evidences are not enough. The court finds Silver not guilty and they must be released”

There was an expected noise of people chattering but Austin was a dominant person who could talk louder than anyone, so he simply adjourned the case asking the soldiers to vacant the court room.

I was more than heartbroken when I saw this, which was why I walked towards him and said to him in his ears:

“At least arrange a foster family for the two kids”

“Those who are crying for them will do it. It is not the issue of the state”

I looked at him with bitter resentment but it did not matter to him.

That evening, Frederick, Abraham and I were seated at the garden of the castle and there was a silence of grief between us. Frederick began the conversation:

“I have got to say that what happened today was simply unjust”

“I still think we could have done something” I replied. “Or we can further”

“Like what?”

“Providing a foster home for the kids, here inside the castle”

“Providing a home for the kids is not enough” Abraham added. “The criminals are flying free in the state. This will encourage more crimes”

“You are right” I spoke.

“I have no option but to wait until I become the king. Or we can convince Austin to gain a little moral conscience”

“That’s not likely to happen”

“Why not?” Frederick asked me.

Thomas’ Reign

The two years of cruelty and injustices finally ended. People were very happy on Austin’s retirement as he was the most disliked of all the brothers. People actually celebrated privately in their houses when he retired.

Now it was the time to test and face the new king, King Thomas. Let me describe Thomas for a while. He was a careless man whom you could hardly move. His lethargic nature was disliked by almost everyone but brothers were not allowed to interfere in each others’ matters.

Thomas was a fun loving person like his elder brother Jacob. He preferred watching stage shows and listening to music. His life’s purpose was simply enjoying without moving. His reign had begun and his interests were spread.

His period like I stated before was a period of destructive entertainment. Stage magic and trickery was promoted quite a lot in his period. Fortune tellers and palmists also got promoted. Thomas spent most of his time in these theatres and was invited as a special guest every time.

During Jacob’s reign, economic conditions were challenged, but during Thomas’ period education standard was challenged. The core subjects were replaced with courses of magic and trickery. The career of students was on stake.