What Was Going On? - Part 1

-Keyden City, the Empire of Carona-was

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Over at Carona, there were celebratory banners everywhere.

The food stalls were crowded and busy, while the inns were also full to the brim.

Children were running about happily with their parents, while making their way to the side of the palace.

Santa stood with his family outside the palace, facing a giant terrace, while waiting for the king to appear.

All the citizens were waiting as well.

Today was the day that they had all been waiting for.

Who would be king?

The 3 prince's who were already standing on the terrace, displayed arrogant demeanors as they watched the people beneath them.

The only princess were also there as well.

Suddenly the trumpets were played and the royal message relayer, walked on to the giant terrace.

Then the royal announcer, rushed out to the terrace and took out an iron funnel like object, which was called a speaking trumpet (also called a loudhailer or megaphone).

In this era, the speeches from royalty were made by the a royal announcer.

These announcers worked like how the white rabbit in 'Alice in wonderland' worked.

Their biggest asset was ther voice.

Since a king was beneath yelling, the royal announcer would use these instruments and read out any document or announcements from the king.

The king was just present to indicate that whatever was read out, was true.

"Announcing, his royal majesty King Carmelo, the first queen, Queen Megara and the 2nd queen, Queen Othena.

Following them is King Adrian and Duchess Veronica... Duke Samuel and Duchess Kate.... and finally, Duchess Mina and Duke Ruchard." The royal announcer yelled out.

12 knights first went ahead and stationed themselves along every main corner of the terrace.

Then, king Carmelo stepped out with 2 knights in front of him, and his 2 wives: Queen Megara and Queen Othena by his sides.

Behind him where the former king Adrian (Carmelo's father), his own queen, Duchess Veronica (Carmelo's mother), Duke Samuel (Carmelo's brother)and his own wife duchess Kate.

Following them were, Duchess Mina (Carmelo's sister) and her own husband Duke Richard, as well as another 12 other guards behind them.

The children of King Carmelo's siblings were also on the terrace as well.

Duke Adrian, had only married one woman his entire life. This woman was duchess Veronica who gave birth to Carmelo and his younger siblings.

The siblings really didn't have any issues with each other since they were blood siblings.

Plus, they kind of liked pushing all the work for Carmelo to do.

Duke Samuel used to say that he would rather have Carmelo do all the work, while he just sat there and ate all the money.

He was really lazy, and didn't like work at all.. He just enjoyed having knight battles.

Who had time to do all the paper works and maintaining all the peace and order within the empire? It was such a drag.

Back in their days, when it was time for their own trial, Samuel had faked illness just so that he could miss out on the trials.

But King Adrian wasn't having it, and rescheduled another trial session.

Then Samuel knelt and begged Adrian to pass it over to Carmelo.

Samuel had seen all the work his father had put into Carona. Who would like to have such responsibilities?

Although he was a good person at heart, he knew that he didn't like ruling the empire.

When he was younger, all the royal tutors had headaches because of him. He would skip out on classes and always complain about some illness that didn't exist.

In fact the entire empire knew of Samuel's antics... But they also knew that he was a good person as well, he was, sadly... just too lazy to be king.

Because of this, Carmelo had won without even fighting for the position.

In all honesty, Carmelo also didn't care who took over the throne.

The royal family had money, so he got the same pay as his siblings.. even till this day.

So in essence he was just doing all the work, while they still got their pay.

Now he began to understand Damuels point..... It really was a drag..

Carona's way of ruling and allocating funds, was completely different from most parts in the continent.

You couldn't just take money just because you were king. And if you insulted, bullied or stole from the people, you would be removed feom the throne immediately.

But what people feared was that the next kings, would change these rules.

Rules were made by people and could also be broken by people. That's why one needed to be careful over who they gave the throne to.

All the citizens cheered, clapped and waved their hands at the sight of their king, whom they deeply respected.

Once the king had gotten to his normal position on the terrace, he began waving at them with a smile on his face. The queens and the other royals, also began waving as well.

The people even cheered more loudly, and some people even raised their children in the air, to have a better look at the king.

"Look! Look!... he waved at us!!"

"Ahhh!!!.... did he just wink at us?"

"The king has a very warm smile.. he is still charming after all these years"

"I couldn't agree with you more"

"Look look, king Carmelo waved at my son just now!!"

"Daddy daddy, king Adrian also looked at me."

As the people talked and smiled, some people even began crying at the sight of their king.

He had done a lot of humanitarian jobs for the people and everyone knew of his boundless kindness within his heart.

Such a king was definitely the best within the entire Pyno continent.

The people had heard of the ridiculous things that other kings did, and were truly shocked.

They knew how fortunate they were to have such a king. Even the previous king was the same as their present king.

The people knew that it was due to their practice of choosing an heir to the throne that made them feel safe.

But now, they couldn't help but feel that their happy days were coming to an end.

Who didn't know the real nature of these prince's.

They had been going about bullying and treating people like garbage because their father was king.

They felt that they deserved everything just because they were royalty.

Left to the people, they would rather have their present king stay on the throne till he died.

After a while, the king raised his right hand straight up to the sky, and the tune of the trumpets changed, indicating that the citizens should quiet down.

Now, it was time to get down the business.

King Carmelo handed over a parchment letter to the royal announcer in the presence of everyone, and the royal announcer knelt down and accepted it.

This was to tell everyone that the message or paper had not switched hands and had indeed been from King Carmelo.

The royal announcer opened it and was stunned.

Just what was going on?