“I will grant you a huge amount of gold and silver. It is locked up in a place nobody knows about”

The jailor shook hands with him as if they had a deal now.

Few Days Later

Abraham and Mr. Hart were at the meeting room. Abraham began the conversation:

“Now that the government is ours and the entire state has accepted us, we must get to work”

“Absolutely”

“I have made the entire chart. Everything that needs to be done, the budget required, the time required, everything is clear in my mind now. The only issue is resources now”

“Resources?”

“We don’t have enough resources. More importantly we don’t have enough currency”

“By currency you mean gold and silver, right?”

“Yes”

That moment somebody came inside the room without even knocking and gave shocking news:

“King Abraham, Thomas is dead”

“What?” Abraham asked standing up.

“He has been poisoned or something”

Five minutes later, Abraham who visited the lock up cell personally saw that his brother Thomas was lying dead on the ground. Blood was coming out of his nose and mouth.

“What do you think happened?” Abraham asked the jailor.

“We all think that the food that was given to them recently was poisonous”

“What about Austin? Is he dead too?”

“No your majesty” Austin’s mocking voice came from behind.

Abraham stood up and turned to look at Austin who was standing behind the bars, inside his cell.

“You have finally started to break your principles” Austin taunted. “You are killing your blood brothers without execution”

Abraham ignored him knowing that he was trying to provoke him by putting the blame on him.

Abraham saw that moment that Austin had left his food untouched. Abraham therefore instructed to the jailor:

“Throw away this food and arrange new food for Austin. After that bring Thomas’ dead body up”

Abraham walked out of the cell and left the place.

That day’s night, Abraham could not sleep as he was feeling quite uneasy. Mr. Hart was coincidentally sleeping in the castle. Abraham left his room and walked towards Mr. Hart’s room.

Few minutes later, while the two of them were standing together, Abraham apologized and said:

“I’m sorry I had to wake you. I am feeling very uncomfortable”

“I understand why you are. I am also feeling the same. Thomas’ death is quite astonishing”

“I am stuck between two points. Either someone deliberately from our team added poison, or there was poison already”

“The second option is wrong. We had the same food today, we both are fine, everyone else is feeling quite well”

“I think you’re right. Now the only question is who did it?”

“Someone who dislikes both of them. And there are plenty of people in the state who have more than one reason to hate them”

“I know I agree, but how did they access our secret prison”

“Then it must be one of the jailors” Mr. Hart suggested.

“Might be”

“Look I would suggest you to stay calm. You can run a trial after few days when your government would be stronger”

“I guess so”

Meanwhile back inside the prison. Austin was up and he was quite excited. He spoke in his thoughts:

Within few days I am about to flee out of this place. I will simply gather all of my wealth from the secret hideout. After that I will leave this island forever.

He was too excited about the upcoming days that he couldn’t even sleep.

Back inside the castle, Abraham went somewhere underground holding a lantern and a hand gun. He was trying to find out if there was a secret passage way through which people could enter inside.

While he was walking, he saw that there was a door. He spoke in his mind:

I never knew there was a room.

He tried to open it but the door was locked.

That moment he reloaded his hand gun and shot straight towards the doorknob. He did it twice.

He opened the door after that and to his surprise the room was filled with gold and silver. The silver and gold coins were there all over. He got quite stunned seeing that.

Well look at that. He commented.

Next day’s morning, Austin was holding a large knife in his hands. The jailor outside said to him:

“Today you are escaping, ok?”

“Ok, can you repeat again, how?”

“Its no big deal. I will simply guard the other jailors. You will use this knife’s lower side to unlock the door. But not right now. There are guards all around”

“Will it be easy? Unlocking the lock?”

“Yes, although it would require strength”

That moment they both heard Abraham coming towards the cell. The jailor got a bit startled.

As he came closer, Austin moved backwards and hid the knife behind himself. Abraham said to him:

“Thank you Mr. Austin you have made my job easy”

“What are you talking about?”

“I was really worried about how I would cover the expenses of the state with limited gold and silver. But last night, in fact just few years earlier, my task got easier”

Austin understood after a several seconds and uttered:

“What?”

“Yes, I have found your secret stolen treasure and now it will be utilized for expenses of the state”

“No! No!” Austin yelled louder than ever. “Don’t you ever dare to touch that”

“It has already been touched and moved”

Austin got so heartbroken that his entire dreams and hopes shattered. The knife fell off his hand and he fell backwards.

Abraham left seeing all this.

Austin cried out really loud. He was badly heartbroken.

“So does this mean you cannot reward me?” the jailor asked.

Disappointed Austin who was losing his sanity, picked up the knife and sliced his own throat.

His body started shivering like a fish and huge fountains of blood came out of his throat.

Austin was dead.

The jailor got really angry as his hopes had died too.

One Week Later

Abraham was seated on the king’s chair. Mr. Hart was seated next to him as he was the most trusted advisor. Abraham began:

“I will conduct the trials, all trials. Thomas’ murder, Austin’s murder, every case”

“You know very well that Austin committed suicide. Yes, Thomas’ death is a mystery, it must be resolved”

“Frederick’s disappearance has been a mystery for quite a long time”

“Don’t worry, everything will be done. You conducted previous trials quite smartly, one can hope that the same will happen”

“I hope so”

“The entire state is happy to see you as their new king. People have hopes and expectations. We both will do this together”

“I wish Jacob could have seen these days” Abraham spoke, “You know last month was quite a difficult one for me. My three brothers died”

“I know”

There was a silence for a while. Mr. Hart however spoke:

“Alright now get ready for your speech. People outside are waiting”

“Sure”

Abraham stood up.

Abraham walked towards the exit of the castle. Mr. Hart followed him but some unknown person from behind stopped him and said:

“Can you come with me? I have to show you something”

“Who are you?”

That stranger walked towards another direction. Mr. Hart followed him as he was quite suspicious.

After few minutes, the two of them reached a dark place outside the castle. Two adults were talking there. Mr. Hart paid attention and to his surprise one of them was Frederick.

“Oh my God, he’s alive” Mr. Hart commented regarding Frederick.

The stranger said to him:

“He is revealing his conspiracy before this influential man with resources. I want you to listen to them”

Mr. Hart went closer towards them and hid himself behind a wall. Now he could easily hear them two.

The influential man asked Frederick:

“So you did all of this to get kingdom of Prestige Land?”

“Yes”

“So you’re telling me that you deliberately disappeared to create a dispute between your brothers”

“Yes” Frederick answered.

Oh my God. Mr. Hart uttered in his heart.

Frederick began:

“I wanted the throne like any of my other brothers, but I wanted it forever. I knew that if I would disappear and make it look like Abraham’s crime, my other brothers would simply try and punish him. And they would be unsuccessful as the people of the state would not support this. As a result, the state would end up in a position of chaos and violence”

“Ok, I’m getting you so far”

“After that I saw that my brothers were divided into two parties, Abraham and Jacob on one side and Thomas and Austin on the opposite side. These two, Thomas and Austin got power. Jacob and Abraham were weak. However, when the war took place, when Abraham and Jacob announced that they would attack them by force, here is where I played my role”

Mr. Hart now paid even closer attention. Frederick revealed:

“On the day of the war, I was standing at the top of the castle with my weapon. I did what I had to do. I shot Jacob”

Oh dear Lord. Mr. Hart uttered and sat on the ground with utmost shock.