Ota's Tales

Three brothers

Once upon a time a country was ruled by a righteous and wise king with a huge army. He was old now, and his end was in sight. He had three sons, triplets. And being righteous above all else, he decided that after his death all three would be given kingdoms.

The court builders surveyed three equal parts of the kingdom, and the king named each of the sons his successor. He died happily not long after. So the sons embraced their territories and began to rule each according to his own qualities.

Charles, the eldest of them, ruled in the west. He ruled by force. He liked to fight, to wage war. He was hot-headed and disliked his younger brothers. He ruled by intrigue, and justice was never to his taste. The subjects feared him because he commanded a huge army. But he had a great fondness for women. But they all rejected him because of his rudeness.

Joseph, the second eldest son of the king, ruled in the east. He was the opposite of Charles. He was a man of honour, a true knight. The servants respected him. Justice was his most important value. But he was not so wise. And unlike Charles, he took one woman after another. But he never found a queen.

Francis, the youngest of the brothers, was never tempted by kingship. If he could, he would rather go out into the world. But he took what he was. He never complained. Of the brothers, he was a born sage. He ruled in the north and south.

In less than a year, Charles declared war on his youngest brother. He hoped that Francis would surrender immediately before his army. But he did not count on Joe to come to his aid. Joseph tried to persuade Fran not to surrender to Charles, because then he would have both kingdoms and easily gain the third.

"For all I care, let her take him," Francis was saying.

Eventually, Joseph persuaded him to entrust him with an army, that with that he would have a better chance of defeating Charles. Francis agreed, but bequeathed his entire fortune directly to his brother. Joseph objected, but in vain. And before Charles arrived, Fran went out into the world and let the brothers fight.

Francis would hear people whispering on his travels that his eldest brother was burning villages and murdering innocent people, but he never stopped. He went somewhere, but he didn't even know what he was looking for and where he was going. Along the way, he posed as a poet or a doctor. He knew countless people. He saw countless landscapes. He recognized animals, birds, insects, plants, but it still seemed to him that he hadn't found what he was looking for. He kept missing something.

By the fifth year, he had reached the village of Krakor. The knights were there looking for able fighters in the still-ongoing war between Charles and Joseph's kingdoms. Francis remembered his brothers and asked the Armsmen how the war was going.
"Their warfare resembles a game of chess," said the first.
Another Armsman said, "Chess? Nope. It's more like a dance. Much faster."
The third Armsman lashed out at the previous two and said loudly, "It's a battle between the Devil and God himself. They are angry gladiators. Beasts fighting to the death. It's the end of summer and the coming of winter. It's the end and the beginning."

Fran realized that he didn't miss his brothers and worldly affairs at all and moved on.

At the end of the seventh year, he reached the edge of the world. Here was the last place he had never been before. He was always looking for something, hoping to find it here.

He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the sign that announced the end of one kingdom, but there was no other that represented the beginning of another. Instead there was a rotten tablet on the floor that read "No Man's Land."
"What do you mean, no man's land?" thought Francis, "my father said the whole world was divided into three parts that he left us after he died," he marveled.
And as he mused it occurred to him that the best thing to do was to go to that No Man's Land. It wasn't even that big. There were the same animals, there was a similar landscape. There was no sign that he would find what he was looking for here. And suddenly he saw a small wooden cabin on the horizon.

Franta came to the cabin and went inside. To his surprise there was a hard-to-read parchment in the middle of the room. Otherwise there was nothing there at all. Franta sat down at the parchment and began to read it with difficulty.
"Where there is an end, there is a new beginning. You will never understand everything and don't even try. Accept everything as it is and don't look for something that you know isn't."
A chill ran down Fran's spine. It was as if someone had known he was coming here. He stayed in the cabin for a few days before he realized that it must have been his father who had written the parchment. He took an inkwell from his pack, a quill pen, and wrapped the writing on the parchment. Then he left No Man's Land and went back to his brothers.

The war had been going on for ten years. Both sides had always rested, but they were tired from the protracted dispute. And yet there was no winner. One side had an extra moment, the other had an extra moment.

When Joe saw Francis, he was delighted. Moreover, he was surprised when he told him that he would join the dispute. This boosted the morale of the whole army. Within a month they counterattacked several times and drove Karl's army back. They managed to capture Karl in the end. Francis was glad that they were all together, but under not very nice circumstances. He told them about his travels, about No Man's Land. He made peace with Karl and advised him to go out into the world, too. That he might find a great queen for himself. He advised Joseph the same.

For a year all the kingdoms were very quiet. But Charles then announced to both of them that he was taking the No Man's Land. Joe disagreed and sent word to the diplomats that he intended to defend it. But the army on both sides refused to go to war again because of the territory that belonged to no one. Both went there with a small company and fought a bloody battle, which was survived only by refugees, who then reported to Francis that both brothers had died in the clash.

Afterwards he gave them a majestic funeral. After their deaths Francis won all three kingdoms, because neither had a descendant to take over the kingdom. Franta then married a beautiful and clever woman, with whom he had three sons by an incredible coincidence. Remembering their father, he raised them as complementary princes. And he reigned justly until his death.