THE PEACELAND TRILOGY (For Critics Only) #Wattys2020

35

8

"Ma'am, there is no other way. His Majesty does not want to descend into madness. Therefore, he needs some time. He really loves you but you just have to wait for him to recover" said Sabah.

"But how long? He's acting mad. How long he would recover?" asked Amyrah.

"Do not worry. Time will come. You can go to Jahangir Nagar to educate the orphans and send your stories to the world. He will one day call you. Do not worry" said Sabah.

Amyrah agreed.

The day after that, she left the castle to Jahangir Nagar with a horse carriage.

Meanwhile, the king's crops started to grow on the one side but on the other, the crops of corn got rotten. That dissatisfied the king as such that he called all the farmers including Sabah's old father to plant out the seeds and grow the crops. The plantation started. Loads of farmers tried to grow their crops but was tortured by Shahbaz's soldiers with whips.

'Shahbaz-a monster' as of now most people in the village were saying. The happiness of the village fade away when most men were killed because of 'harassing' women and children. May be it does look good but for the sake of humanity, they should have given the lifetime imprisonment.

I am scared of those extremely brutal characters. Shahbaz was also misbehaving with the guards. How?

One day, the guards were bickering about Shahbaz's cruelty towards the farmers. When he heard of it, he rushed and choked one of the guards : not his neck but the collar.

"You insolent fool. Never speak of it again" said Shahbaz with a quick anger.

He threw the guard and left like a dominant figure. Qifar also got scared of Shahbaz's strange and aggressive behavior. But what he realized was more than that. One of the farmers entered the castle.

"Your majesty, I need help. I am getting ill. No Hakeems (Hermit) want to make a treatment of me unless I give them 30 anahs (coins)" said the farmer.

"Sorry, I cannot reward you 30 anahs!" said Shahbaz.

"I have no family but I am old and weak" said the farmer.

"Guards, take him out and he will be never seen again" commanded Shahbaz.

The guards mercilessly took him out.

"Your majesty, please I beg you! Please! I have no family but I want to recover that I can work on your farm again. I am just a poor man. Please your majesty!" cried the farmer.

The cry of the farmer implanted upon Qifar's head. That gave him a lot of nightmares regarding the king's treacherous behavior. He was not that of a person when he was quite young, not even a brat who had a sense of decency and human. Was Shahbaz's madness was just a stress in the kingdom? Was he losing his mind due to Karimi's painful death? Because as he lost his loved ones, he became less innocent and could not accept the reality to move on his life.

The heart within him was gone but little did he knew that he could have gotten his innocence back if he could spend time with Amyrah whom he hardly talks to or Qifar whose friendship was quite immortal but getting mortal.

One day, the farming of the crops continued. Therefore, he saw Sabah's father who was weak and could not do the farming.