The lost Prince

Chapter 1

Nuremberg, Germany
26th May 1828

It was a beautiful day in the old medieval town of Nuremberg in Germany. The sun shone beautifully over the little houses, its picturesque cobblestone alleys and the colorful adorned trees and flower arrangements. It was the day of Whitsun and the church had just rang its bells to announce the end of its service. The town was filled with laughter, playing children, the sound of horses and dogs barking. Maids pulled up the beddings of their Masters from the opened windows while lunch was cooked on their stoves. A perfect image of a large city.... almost perfect.

Uneven steps echoed through a little alley of the old town. Wobbly, like from a drunkard but this young boy was far from drunk. He had difficulties to walk and hold his balance, the sun made it hard for him to see and in his tender but dirty little hands he hold two letters... which he was unable to read. The noises, animals, humans were all strange to him and he was frightened. It was the fear which kept him going to an unknown destination. There was one name though. A name he had been taught before he was released into the wild: Police officer

An old woman stopped in front of him with a look of utter confusion. She asked where the boy was headed to and all he was able to say was 'Police officer'. She pointed him the way and the strange boy made his way up the alley to the house where the old lady had pointed to. There he remained standing in front of the door, without a clue of what to do. He never heard of knocking or even ringing a doorbell before.
It took the neighbours no more then ten minutes to contact the local police officer of his strange visitor in front of his door. They did the ringing and gathered in a small group around the boy since he didn't respond to any of their questions. He looked at the people like a frightened fawn, his slim frame shaking. And they looked back at the pale, thin boy. His dark brown eyes were partly covered by his dark, half-long hair, his lips were without color. He looked very sick and neglected.
The police officer opened the door and with his bushy eyebrows, he looked down onto the little boy... and the noise of all people speaking at the same time made the boy almost loose his mind.
He dropped the letters and covered his ears. Slowly, he went down onto his knees and before he knew it, he lost consciousness.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was the next morning at the supreme court of town.
President and highest lawyer of the supreme court in Nuremberg, Akira Nakayama, sat behind his desk where he worked tirelessly on a revised edition of laws against torture for the Free State of Bavaria. The sleepless nights remained uncounted but his dear wife understood and took good care of their kids because this work was for the greater good.
It was early in the morning when Akira realized that something was strange. People were whispering on the corridor and when a unit of the detectives left in a hurry, Akira put his pen down. He walked out of his office, with his monocle on the right eye. There he caught the first group of secretaries.

"What is this commotion all about?"

"Sir," the Lady said, "didn't you hear of the strange boy who was found in front of the police officers' house yesterday?"

Akira shook his head. "No, what happened?"

"That's all we know. They found him and put him into the tower of the castle of Nuremberg."

Akira turned around immediately and stormed back into his office to get his coat and hat. That would explain the absence of the police officer this morning and he would find out what was going on.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was a day almost too warm for May when Akira made his way through town to the castle of Nuremberg. Before he went around the corner, he could already hear the mob of people talking and discussing loudly before the castle's closed doors. He had to fight his way through the crowd and found the main entrance to be closed. Without hesitating, he went around the castle to the back entrance and rang the bell there. One of the castle's staff looked through one of the windows and recognized the high lawyer of town. They opened the door and Akira stormed into the registration office of the castle. There he also found the main Police Officer.