THE AFTERMATH

The next morning, the enitre kingdom went into a sharade after hearing about the kings death. People ranout on to the streets hugging each other and shedding tears. Somepeople were helding small meetings in which they praised the king and the queen while some went on protests raising slogans against the queen for causing all of this to begin with.

A whole lot of people stomed at the palace gates and were demanding the ministers to comeout and explain what had actually happened. A lot of people from near by kingdoms were visiting the palace on by one.

Prejen was receiving them all with folded hands and an extremely sad face. He looked as if he is about to cry. His eyes were filled with tears. People who knew his bondage with the royal couple came upto him and comforted him.

After a while, a couple of guards came running to him and told him about the commotion outside the gate. The ministers too came upto him and begged him to go outside and handle the people.

But he is in no mood for that.

"Please! You people take care of that. I just lost my best friend. I dont know what i would speak." he said trying to go away. But they wouldnt leave him. They kept on persuading him explaining that the person whom the people would listen to is Prejen the most trusted person to the royal couple. Finally, he gave in and went outside to the gate.

As soon as people saw him walking towards the gate, they shushhed among themselves and went silent in a moment. He camly walked upto them and said with a deep tone gushing with sadness.

"Today is one of the darkest days in my life. Our beloved kind, my best friend, my dearest Foloe passed away last night. He.. "he went silent for a minute before continuing tried to hide his sadness "he did it to himself. He should not have done that. I told him he should try to be strong in this sad moment. He should have listened to me. I should have stayed with him. Had i known he would try to kill himself, i would have followed him like a shadow and prevented this. I feel like i killed him my very own hands. This is my fault. I am sorry I didnt protect the king. I am sorry Foloe, I am so sorry you couldnt rely on me!" he broke down crying while he fell on to his knees.

Hearing his speech, every person who stood there teared up.

One young man came upto the front and shouted. "Sir Prejen, we believe and trust as did the king and the queen. Dont blame this on yourself. We are with you. You are not alone"

"Yes! We trust you" all of them shouted in unison.

Prejen slowly got up rubbed his eyes and said "Thank you! The memorial service would be in an hour. He said as he slowly turned away and walked back into the palace.

"Why would you make me a murderer ..why Foloe ...why you both had to do this to me..i hate this feeling" prejen thought to himself as he walked inside.

Meanwhile in the palace, the old woman and the short man were shocked to hear the death of their own son. Chend took care of the proceedings and came back to the palace to see a wailing mother and father.

"This is unfair. My son didn't deserve to die" the old woman went into a frenzie as the rest tried to control her.

Chend was obviously suspicious of the situation. He remembered how he met the king after dinner to show him the sealed cover he was holding that day in the court room. They were the proofs people said they found in the queens room. He remembered how furious the king got when he saw the proofs.

"These are the proofs based on which they punished my wife."he said throwing them onto the floor after just giving a single look.

Chend know well about the king and his intelligence. He sure has figure out the queen was set up in no time.

"Chend! Why didn't you stop them" the king said holding both chends hands

"My dear king! You know how much I love that little girl. But I have neither the power nor the position to stop all of them and save her. I did believe she was set up. But there is nothing I can do than to watch that poor girl die. But my dear king! Please please have faith in the princess. You said she told you to move on and watch over the kingdom. Please trust her. Please pull yourself together and do what needs to be done. Do not blame yourself. Am sure god has a reason for everything. Please have faith in god for now" chend replied

"How can I believe god now Chend? How can I ?" he cried hugging chend

"I know! But you should believe in the princess" chend said and went away as the king sat on the bed with his eyes filled with tears.

They have not been married for that long..but the princess did manage to gain herself the most respected place in the kings heart. Both of them being so young never even behaved that way. They just were a spectacle to the viewers. That's how noble they were.

Chend couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. In his mind, somehow he couldnot picture the king killing himself. Last night the king sure was sad but he would have respected the queens words and atleast tried to rule the kingdom with honour. But then again, any human is susceptible to grief. Even a king is not an exception to it. Chend couldnot decide if it was really a suicide or not.

But in his mind, Chend knows exactly what to do next. Things have happened a little bit different than he hope for. But for the longer good, he kept quiet and took leave from the royal court quoting old age.

Nobody even suspected him a little bit. But good old Chend has a trick or two up his sleve which he would use later.