Flint Locked

He staged a coup and killed the king to save the country he loved. The treasury was empty, the borders thin, the old order rotting from within. He did what had to be done, quickly and without spectacle. By morning the palace had changed hands. By noon the royalists were firing in the streets. Now the capital burns for that choice. Muskets crack through smoke and men die on wet cobbles while he walks into the chaos to bring it to an end. Across the square stands a royalist general who once fought at his side, now an enemy by necessity. The first shot removed a king. The next may end a friendship and decide the fate of the nation. History doesn’t wait for permission.