Your Majesty, my dear brother,

When you read this letter, in all probability I will have already returned to dust. I have long been expecting to submit to death, since it is everyone’s destiny. However, as the knell summons me to heaven or to hell, I choose to write down my tortuous life, rather than to bury it in this bleak and grim palace, which merely facilitates the villain’s ambition and has had my honourable lord deceived.

Twenty years ago, when you determined to send me to this chaotic country, I could not help but hold a grudge against you. You ought to remember that we once reached the consensus that no country under the sun was as glorious as ours. Thus, I knew that although seemingly a special favour to me, dispatching me to be the lord of one of our vassal states was actually intended to eliminate me as a potential threat, thereby consolidating your throne.At that time you had been married for six years without children. I was your only brother, appreciated by our father and ministers in court. You forced me to e here against my own will to bee the lord of a boorish and unruly people, who never understood the importance of respecting their monarch. My sources informed me that you intended to use borrowed hands to kill me, yet I could find no other path other than to obey your orders. You also sent John, Barry and Lambert, your ever-trusted ministers, to go with me, asserting that they were there to assist me. Nevertheless, who didn’t know this was but an underhanded way to monitor and control your brother? You may not know that when I took the last look at my homeland, I swore to myself that I would rid myself of your restraint, subjugate the people of my new land and turn the domain into the most prosperous vassal state that had ever been, no matter what the cost. I wanted to make the motherland aware that you only became the King by right of the firstborn and humiliate you by the scale of my achievements. As for the assistants you gave me, I would take them as my own, making them most willing to serve me, not you. I had already lost the opportunity to outmatch you face to face, but I would still surpass you, even from afar.

If time paused at the tenth year, nothing would be regretted. During the first ten years, I made full use of the three assistants’ conflicts and managed them by alternating kindness with cruelty. They all maintained suspicion of one other, and wanted to maximise their own benefits with the help of my power. Moreover, I made a mon enemy of the local malfeasants and united us in our efforts to stamp out corruption. They provided me with the greatest support when I fell foul of the local grandees. I took bloody means to eradicate venality, and developed our economy and education system to the highest degree. Our tributes ranked first among all the vassal states. You sat high in the capital, and should have already heard my good name as I brought this country to a pi

acle of culture and power, a period of political stability, social tranquility, and economic prosperity.

However, it is pathetic that just as my achievements peaked, I began to sink. Perhaps because I nonetheless realised that I had little chance to return to my mother country and my reign seemed going well, I increasingly delegated my responsibilities to John, who betrayed my trust, engineering Barry and Lambert’s removal and death. From then on, I sought nothing but sensual pleasures until troubles broke out at home. John had a tight grip on power, and step by step, made me his puppet. The woman he sent to me was an unrivalled beauty, yet nothing more than a form of poison; intended to age me while offering him ultimate power. The whole country, from those in the court to those in the countryside, submitted to him instead of to me, while I went on a spree with my mistresses day and night, living a life of luxury and debauchery. Later, I lost everything, as karma dictated. He occupied my wife, and my children were driven to suicide. Every retainer that I once favoured turned to him and endeavoured to please him. Nobody stayed behind. Not one. Behold! Human beings forever follow power meekly and abandon loyalty and integrity without hesitation as long as the lure is sufficient. I, your brother, was forced to endure misery and extreme solitude—a sharp contrast to those bygone years of glory and prosperity.

John kept me in captivity, and by the time I realized I was unable to resist, it was too late. How ironic it is for me to escape the dangerous trap you set, yet die in the sweet greenhouse he established instead. John’s ruthlessness had long provoked outrage from our people, but he used me as his shield, attributing all of his evil deeds to my orders. I know that even if I am not killed by him, I will one day be trampled to mud by the people. And our armed forces, weakened by your long enforced disarmament, are no match against the mob. By then, the country will not belong to the royalty, and will not belong to you. What will happen then?

【话，目朗读听书app，野果阅读， 安装新版。】

I am not sure when, or even if, you will receive this letter. If someday you send a reliable messenger to see me, I will undoubtedly pass it on at any cost, and then embrace my death. What you must know is that I do not resent you any more after the last blood-soaked decade, but I really hope you can avenge me, and keep eternal reign of our great country and vassal states.

Finally, I present you a lavish gift. John probably lowered his guard against me, enabling me to overhear a secret during one of his private conversations. He has been worried that you may recall him, or that there may be riots, so he has kept transferring the treasures and wealth he has built——legal or illegal, far beyond your imagination, even more than the riches that fill your palace, to an unknown island by boat, just a *all amount in each trip in order to avoid being conspicuous. He exaggerated with pride that the island was a heavenly place. From his description, I guess that it lies to the east of my country. It should be an elongated landmass spa

ing a diagonal northwest-southeast axis with vast lowland interspersed with swamps in the east but lush mountains in the west. He said he could set up a rich kingdom for his offspring just by trading the local coffee, palm oil and gold, without even touching the treasure he took there. My lord, once you get there you will be able to effortlessly take the treasure as your own, and use it to establish an invincible army. If you have even the tiniest slither of mercy for me, e here and shatter John’s dream. For you must realise that only with armed force can you govern the world. Nothing else can.

I will be soon gone with the wind. Long live our illustrious Royal family.

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Yours,

Edward

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吧，凡**本某知名产业……（未完待续）