The Perfect Strategy

The frightened Guard rushed into Prince Amon's palace carrying a roll in his hands. As soon as he reached the rooms, he heard a low voice asking him to come closer. The man with no identity removed his hood, bent down and held out the parchment perfectly sealed by General Qiang Mao, notifying him of the news from the border. With hurried fingers, Amon removed the seal and read the contents smiling. The general was seriously injured and had been referred to the healers.

Finally, his father was dead.

- Mifu - Amon called the prime minister who was on the other side of the rooms sitting on a low chair looking at the snow-covered palace with a glass of wine in his hands waiting for the climax of the night. The fall of Kong Naran II and the rise of Amon to the sublime throne. - Come on, it is time.

Amon got to his feet and soon his servants approached him, wearing the black hanfu with the embroidery of the royal dragon, the king's ultimate symbol. When he wore that he already called himself the new ruler, and he was fully aware that when he left that door he was rebelling against his sister. On his coronation night, he had to be as dignified as his father had ever been. That was the night of his glory and I renew the world. He would do things that no king has ever done. Finally, he would take his title as a bastard and be called as the "Dragon King" as his ancestor Kong Naran everyone had recognized me.

The two walked together through the palace courtyards, the moon in the clear and bright in the sky seemed to bless Naran's new era. Escorted by the army, the two reached the throne room. Mifu already had the necessary scrolls to make Amon the future king of Naran, and all the necessary evidence to turn the heiress princess into a criminal.

- Is the poison in Mei Yang's room? - Amon asked while looking at the golden throne that, until the end of that night covered with betrayals, would be his.

- Yes, the servant has already implanted the necessary proof, now just wait for the show to begin.

Amon was nervous; he could feel sweat dripping from his forehead. What if something went wrong? He never thought that his day was so close. The day he would be king, something he had longed for since he was just a boy who ran stumbling over his own feet through the halls of the palace and did not even know how to count to ten. He always wanted to sit in his father's chair and order as he did. However, he wanted to do it right, even if he had to get Mei Yang out of his way. The people would soon recognize him as sovereign when he brought back the glories that Naran once had before Kase's revolt, when his kingdom had been split into six and Naran lost his majesty.

If it depended on Amon, he would restore what he had not seen with his eyes and only heard about, the power, the riches. He would overthrow each king if necessary just to achieve his dream of unification and peace.

The people suffered enough with all the war and separation, barbarians attacked small towns, looting houses, raping women and taking children as slaves to an unknown kingdom.

Amon realized that the soldiers' movements between the pilasters were already noticeable. Them the doors opened, Mei Yang hurried in with a slightly rumpled red cloak and her hair loose, indicating that she had just woken up and ran there. Followed by Mi Gu and the two ministers who would never betray Naran's traditions to put the bastard on the throne, the minister of works and the secretary of the national treasury.

Amon was well aware that his accession to the throne would not be easy. Just as he had his allies ready to stop any ancient law to put him on the throne, Mei Yang had his own to defend the old customs that still cherished the purely royal lineage. She had stronger allies than his. Trade representatives supported the princess, as did the main landowners, powerful and ancient men who would never accept her coronation. However, Amon did not pay attention to this, when he took the crown he would manage to get rid of everyone in his way.

- What did you do to my father? - Mei Yang took a courage that she never dared to have in her mere fourteen years of life. The princess's black eyes finally took on the glow that Amon had always feared to see. The sparkle that her father carried in his eyes when something bad happened, the strength of the hatred his eyes had and the thirst for blood that he sustained in his pupils were enough to make any enemy fall back in fear. However, he was used to it, and Mei Yang no longer had strength, as of that night, he would be the symbol of supreme strength in Naran.

- Where is our father?

- I think you know the answer, my sister!

- Where is my father? What did you do with him? - Amon held Mei Yang's eyes with false resentment. Soon the brief silence was cut short by the arrival of Naran's troops who invaded the place, astonishing everyone present. Naran's ministers entered the hall looking for real news about the king's death, but upon witnessing the scene of Amon perfectly dressed in the embroidery of the royal dragon ready to sit on the throne challenging the authority of heiress princess who was surrounded by the army all it fit. The Day that everyone feared had finally come.

Amon and Mei Yang would fight for the throne.

- Where is the arrow that killed my father? - a soldier approached the prince and handed over the thin, pointed object that had taken the king's life. Amon studied the arrow for a moment and briefly, his heart faltered. His father was dead, that blood encrusted in that lock was yours too, blood of your blood, your father. In addition, there he was, staging something over the bloodshed that he arranged for him to die. His father would be ashamed; maybe he would regret everything in the future. To incriminate your poor sister, to have your father killed just for power.

Amon was quick to chase away some terrible feelings of resentment and looked at Mei Yang, who was crying profusely when he saw the arrow bathed in the king's blood.

- Look, look what you did! - Amon shouted - Have you killed our father in exchange for what? The throne? You teamed up with King Naki to destroy our nation, our people. What did he give you to do that? Or are you the one who gave something in return to make him rebel against us.

- I would never do that. I never met the king of Naki until my birthday night - Mei Yang protested in complete despair. - See how he is dressed, ready to sit on the throne that is rightfully mine.

- Guards! - Amon ordered and soon a group of twenty men surrounded the princess and lowered their spears and swords towards her. Mi Gu, who was looking at the distant scene, tried to approach and save her, but he was caught by two Ammon men who held him and pinned him to the ground. - Today is the day of my revenge. I will avenge my father's death!

- Nobody will take the heiress princess, she is the legitimate one to the throne, you are just a bastard who is simulating all this for power. - The Minister of Works spoke meddling between the swords directed at Mei Yang - her father had been an honorable man. I did not always agree with all his decisions, but Kong Naran II was and always will be a just king. He would be ashamed to see him plotting plan against his own sister.

- Minister - Amon spoke nonchalantly - We have enough evidence against the princess. If you prefer to continue to defend her, know that you will be framed as a traitor with her.

- I prefer to die as a false traitor, than to serve a cruel and bastard king. - the minister raised his face in a gesture of honor and held Amon's gaze - I will never bow to a prince of impure blood

Amon's ire rose so high that he raised his sword himself and in such a light movement crossed the minister's throat.

Everyone there was astonished when the man's fat body fell to the floor, staining the throne room with the red of blood and the cry of despair that the princess had given when she saw the minister die beside her.

- A traitor must die! - Amon drew his sword back, which now drained the minister's blood and raised it. - He protected a murderer. Mei Yang Naran killed our King. Look at the arrow - Amon showed the object that took the king's life. - She had been bathed in the poison known to Naki's trades. This poison was given to Princess Mei Yang on her birthday night. Look at that