Chapter Text
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A's father, who was king before him, died when he was at a very young age. A was crowned king almost immediately and, as both A and his father had been only children and his grandfather's sister had died childless, there was no immediate family to take care of the kingdom for him until he was old enough to do so himself. Instead, his father's ministers did it for him. There was one minister who wasn't entirely trustworthy. He was actually A's second cousin once removed (A's great-grandfather's brother's second daughter's son) so he believed he had a right to the throne (he didn't).
Before A's father's death, B had a plan to claim the throne. He'd planned to come to the palace as a minister and spend several years working his way up until he became the king's closest and most trusted adviser. After he'd done this, he'd poison the queen - gradually so that it seemed like illness rather than poison. (He'd do this before she had a child so he wouldn't have any competition. He knew that if an heir was born he'd have no chance of gaining the throne.) She'd die, then the king would fall in to mourning. He would then start poisoning the king the same way he did the queen. It wouldn't seem suspicious - he could just say that the death of the queen had weakened him, both physically and mentally as the king loved the queen a lot. As the king's illness got worse B would remind him of the fact that they were family - second cousins. He'd subtly remind him of the need for an heir. He'd make it seem like it was the king's idea that he was named next in line for the throne.
There was a problem, however. Before he could get close enough to the king for the plan to work, the queen became pregnant. He couldn't just kill the queen because he knew that the king would be crippled with grief. He wouldn't be able to get any closer to him when he was like that and, if the king recovered, there was always a chance that he would remarry and have another child. B decided to let the queen have the child, then he'd deal with both her and the child later on when he was close enough to the king.
But then- another problem happened. The queen died in childbirth. This caused the king to fall into mourning. He became ill - just as B's original plan had been except it happened without B's help and far too early for his plan to work. The king died and B realised that he'd have to completely discard his old plan, so he came up with a new one.
B's new plan was this - he'd allow the other ministers to run the kingdom while the child (who was A) was growing up. He instead would focus on becoming very close to A, like family - possibly as a father figure or an uncle. He would be the one who A would turn to for help or support, who A'd come to if A was happy or sad. He would be A's closest friend and A would love him more than any other and A would trust him unconditionally.
And that was what he did.
It wasn't hard, when A was old enough, to have A name him heir to the throne.
Once B was named heir, he started plotting A's downfall. He couldn't just have A killed because not only would that make him look extremely suspicious, but people would also contest his right to the throne. He needed to bring A down but make it seem as though he had nothing to do with it, or at the very least make it seem as though he couldn't have done anything about it. He needed to make himself popular and A unpopular. He did this by guiding A to make the wrong decisions. Just little things at first - having him raise the taxes just a little more than he needed to or firing a few staff members for trivial offences that certainly weren't worth being fired for - but it got worse as it went on and on until eventually A seemed almost tyrannical - a brutal suppressor, a hated dictator. While this was happening, B, in public, was ashamed, upset, outraged at A's behaviour, all the while, in private, supporting him and telling him that you're doing the right thing, even if it doesn't seem like it. I'm sorry about having to seem as though I think you're doing something bad - you're not, really. Do you understand?
...
Yes, and I love you too.
When it eventually got bad enough, when A was hated enough and B was loved enough, B had the king executed.
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From the very beginning A didn't realise that any of this was happening. To other people he seemed like a tough, firm, possibly even cruel man, but when he was alone with B he turned into a child. That, essentially, was what he was - a child who loved B far too much and had been manipulated since he was less than a year old. He really did trust B unconditionally and believed that B was right about everything and that although B spoke against him in public, B loved him really and knew what he was doing. Even up until a week before his execution he trusted B, even though B had been the one who suggested having him executed. He believed that B would get him out of it and that everything would be alright again.
When B came to him in his prison cell and told him the truth, A didn't know what to feel.
So he felt nothing at all.
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