In a western side of a country that lived underneath the reign of colonialism, the story of the prince and the flower was quite famous, varying village by village.
No one knew who the original author of that story was, but it started circulating by word of mouth after the great war had broken out and foreign colonies had arrived to take their land over.
Most of them wore heavy, woven robes and wooden slippers, while the colonial soldiers wore their brown uniforms buckled with a black, leather belt. The people have only little freedom as they are being constantly observed. Restrictions and labors were placed here and there.
However, in the little village that most of them have overlooked, there was a lurking spirit, passionate of liberty – thriving to drive the colonists out with careful scheming.
Muren, a talented scholar, became a leader of a secret organization that gathered independence activists after being trapped in the west while he was on a home visit.
After getting trapped by the colonization, all entries in and out were blocked, rejecting his return to the government.
It had been months since then and the situation regarding the great war seemed to be only worsening week by week. There were some informant spies that were able to sneak in and out with an excuse of labor or message relay to the county head, but were too rare to be used for emergencies.
The foods were usually being rationed at a minimum amount and could only receive additional foods by special occasions or merit prize for laborers.
It was a bit more hellish to the underclass people, most especially to the abandoned and orphaned children who'd oftentimes attempt stealing from post guards as they were distributing the foods.
There was once an incident of food smuggling at the third week of a hot April when a child called Ruollo was caught stealing at the stockroom of a sentry.
As soon as he was caught, he ran as fast as lightning.
But since the guards were stationed at a lot more posts than the rows of houses, he was eventually caught red-handed. The food was confiscated from him and was instructed to state his name and residence.
He was a bit tight-lipped at first, but when he was brought to the chief guard who was known for his cruelty, the boy immediately spilled out the information solicited.
This was meant, he knew, to punish the rest of his family by blocking the foods that will be given to them.
He was too hungry, he reasoned out.
"This place belonged to us!" Ruollo yelled in despair as two guards pin him down. "You greedy monsters must be chased out for you do not appertain here!"
The chief guard silently listened to the boy's ramblings as if he was calm until he finally snapped and had enough. He pulled out his sword, which sharply rasped and quickly beheaded the child before it could even scream for help or scream for pain.
The two guards began taking the corpse out behind the stockroom and dug a grave for him.
Ruollo's death quickly spread out as a woman happened to witness the horrible and bloody incident.