Royals (Book 1)

Chapter 32 : Another Lie

Luis took us to a private section of the building, where there were some monitors set up with live footage of the streets directly outside of the building. I'm guessing it was to make sure no police enforcement officers found them squatting here. Other than the screens, the rest of the room was barely livable. There were cracks and splints in the wooden floors, the wallpaper aged an unappealing yellow with a couple of folds in the top corners.

"Not up to your castle standards, princess?" Luis commented on the way I was observing every inch of the room, an old habit I picked up from spending too much time in my home.

"I'm not sure why you only make these references with me, Alarik is a prince too." I reminded him.

"You're just more fun to pick on." His freckled lips quirked up, looking towards me for a moment before typing something onto his keyboard. The monitor in the center stopped displaying the street and he went into his files. "You remember that rebellion that took place in Ostana back in the 1950's?"

"From what I read about it." I crossed my arms over my chest, still feeling that pestering loyalty to my family trying to break through.

"What did your textbook say when it says what caused the rebellion?"

"The ruling royal family at the time did not have the supplies for trade anymore, and wanted to remove themselves because they had been acting selfishly with their supply." I explained, making Luis scoff.

"At least you paid attention in history class, but just the wrong history. Your book is similar to ones given to public education as well, Dragran is desperate to rewrite themselves as the lawful good."

"So what happened then?" The way he dragged this on was irritating me, but I had to keep my patience if I were to win.

"Before the MultiCountry Union Act was written up, your family sent troops to smaller countries to gain control over their supply and taxed them to the point where they could not stand on their own two legs. Once they had enough countries under their control, they wrote up the act to force a trade where your country would get more materials while still having a high tax on every country they seized. When they had no other choice, they signed the act thinking it would save them. Every other country saw others complying and decided to as well, not realizing what was going on."

"Like Hinyst." I turned to Alarik, his gaze forward as Luis continued.

"Hinyst was equally as powerful and could afford to keep Dragran back, your parents knew that and did not even try. Hinyst just signed the act to keep the peace. Dragran played fair with the countries they knew they could not overpower, and just drained the smaller ones. All of that war was expensive, and by the 1950's everyone was getting tired of being abused. Rebellions formed all over the globe, but your family kept an iron fist over them."

I saw the images displayed on the screen, old pictures of crowds protesting while being attacked and harassed by officers. The force they used was haunting and disturbing, but I kept my eyes glued to the screen. This was not the time to turn away, no matter how much I could not stomach it.

"When Dragran was running out of money, the force let up and the countries took this opportunity to resign. They were forced to pull back territories on certain countries and decided to focus on a few that could make Dragran some money while they devised a new plan. The mines emptying was probably the only thing that saved countries like Ostana, since they resigned from the act directly after. Dragran raised taxes were raised on their own citizens along with wages, most of the citizens in your country are now living below the poverty line."

"So everything my book says about peaceful transactions and fair trades?" I gulped.

"Propaganda, there were so many rebellions with high mortality tallies that your publishers probably pasted a few together and hoped you would never question it. Those people sacrificed everything for future generations and it worked, I do not think that lives are disposable but-"