ABDICATION

75.

The old woman step onto the last step to reach the throne. The new king smiled kindly at the wrinkled eyes and bowed down his head to her level. The old woman place the royal crown on top of king's head and patted his hair softly. When the king straighten up to his full height, he looked down at the smiling lady who was in awe. The lady looked more proud than his own mother and he wasn't sure if it's acceptable to his heart or not. The second time the king bowed down in front of the old lady was to take over the antique royal sword as a part of his body now. Getting on his one knees he spread out his palms up while the old lady handed the heavy sword down.

The crowd was cheering in delight when the king stood up and took his place on the royal throne. The old lady smiled walking down the steps. Once she joins the crowd, the crowd waited for king to say something.

"In this precious hour of night, I would like to introduce new rules to this new kingdom." The hall was so silent that the king voice was echoing.

"I will ask you only the thing in return of everything I give to you." The king began. " Give and take "

"You fight for me, I fight for you." The king added.

"You work for me and I work for you." He stated.

"You respect me and I respect you." He walked closer to the steps.

"You protect me and I protect you " he stood gracefully at the edge of stairs.

He roam his eyes over the faces in the crowd.

"At this time, we are on the detoxification period of the Kingdom and I won't tolerate any kind of ignorance in my kingdom." He pointed at the whole new appointed crew of newly employed ministers. "And a single mistake and consider yourself dead."

"From this night, I'm being your king, and as a new king I would like to introduce some new rules for this kingdom." He walked back to his throne and stand beside it.

"After the first sun ray to tomorrow, The gates of this kingdom will be closed from now on. Nobody enter or leave this kingdom without my permission." A few gasps escaped.

" What are we? Prisoners?" A voice came from the crowd.

The king's eyes met a young boy in the crowd who look frightened on getting caught.

" Made sure you leave before the sun rise then." The king smiled. " Everybody who would like to leave, can leave before the sun rise because after that it's me who is going to allow or disallow the movement."

" What about we want more food or crops from other towns? What about trade." The question came from the crowd.

"We have enough crop to use in our kingdom. And trade will continue as it was but it will be monitored what going out and coming inside our kingdom. " The king answers.

The crowd was silent , grasping and processing the new information.

" Another new rule is, no more prisons and no more prisoners." The king announced. The crowd was concerned.

"It will be a direct death sentence." The king let his voice become rough. "On the spot."

"The punishment of defying the king is an offense to take seriously, which will be treated equally as a crime."

The crowd was terrorised for once.

" But nobody had to worry much until you do something you shouldn't be doing " the king smiled. " The royal court will be always open for complaints for each and every people of this kingdom.

"Anyday you think that I'm not the king you would want" he paused "then you all are free to go right now." He ended.

He waited to get response of the crowd while they all Murmured to each other.

Once the crowd felt silent, he waited for complaints but nobody spoke.

"Anybody who want to go, can leave." He said again. "But not after the sun rise."

He waited again but nobody spoke.

Smiling to his own he took his seat on the throne.

"I'm assuming you all seem fine with the rules." He smiled.

"Then here are my first three commands." The king straighten his back.

"Nobody leave the halls empty handed ." He motion towards the gifts he had arranged for the crowd.

"Escort my father in the royal court by tomorrow night." His eyes stoned.

His jaw clenched before he tell his third command.

"Go to Aarav's kingdom and ask him to return what's belongs to me." His eyes were determined.

"If he said no then tell him to be prepared because I will be bringing a war to his kingdom to take what's rightfully mine."