It was the night before the Fifth Coronation, and as the other princes slept soundlessly in their beds, Ryan stared at his grassy ceiling. The snarls that echoed below him could only be kept quiet for so long before the others started to suspect. The city's Royal Court was pure in name and name alone, everyone knew this. Alliances were formed, broken, and reforged at the drop of a hat. It was common practice to back stab your friends in order to impress the ruling King in order to become his successor. Ryan had quickly become adept at such tactics, yet he did not achieve a second coronation alone.
The relationship between Ryan and his pet, Edgar, was common knowledge. The rumors only started at the extent of Ryan's love for the animal. The Mad Prince, as he was so called for this relationship, was said to have simply taken a cow from a local pasture, yet others said that it was a relative of his such as a son or father. Some even believed that he would bring Edgar to the throne as his Queen. When approached with each myth, Ryan simply chuckled and nodded, dismissing it casually. It worked for a while, but Ryan feared that their time was running short as Edgar's cries for food grew louder with each passing night.
A string of disappearances had befallen the kingdom. It started with fewer wild animals being seen, reported by hunters. Then, the local villages began to notice their livestock disappear in the night, followed by the villagers themselves. It was at this point the monarchy had been established in a bloodless revolution led by the six Achievement Hunters, as they were called, who had led the small island to prosperity beforehand. Calls for action had come to each monarch, and each monarch responded differently. King Geoff, the First King, had more pressing matters to attend to, such as setting up the traditions for the court and its succession process. King Ray of the Rose called for security measures to be implemented, such as Snow Golems, trained wolves, and the crafting of full armor sets for each Prince. King Michael, the Crowned Rage, took a more offensive approach, believing it to be the work of the Enderman, and thus ordered them slaughtered. King Ryan, concerned with protecting his power, simply removed the individuals calling for the monarchy to act. "If no one says there is a problem, there is no problem." He oft thought to himself as the Princes were out.
However, he was cunning enough to know that he could not trust any of the Princes to eliminate these dissenters. Each night of his reign, Ryan snuck out of the court and into the local villages, requesting the help of each dissenter by name. Ryan would lead each man to Achievement City, and bid them welcome to his home, locking the door behind them. As was customary for King Ryan, the villager was told to give thanks to Edgar for Ryan's successful reign. The King would remove the glass and help the villager into the shallow pit. As the villager knelt, Ryan closed the glass cell, extinguished the torches, and crawled into bed. While the growling had stopped for the night, it was replaced by the sound of bones breaking and flesh tearing.
During the reigns of King Ray and King Michael, the villagers had learned to stop questioning the disappearances, having realized that only those that questioned were taken by the mysterious force in the night. This would not do, as Edgar's hunger continued to grow, and Ryan resolved to take random villagers to Edgar each night, regardless of their loyalty to the monarchy.
The villagers' anger rose sharply with these new disappearances, and blamed the monarchy for not acting, or even accused them of being behind it. Ryan knew there was not much time before the monarchy is toppled by the villagers that remained, and spent the entire night before his second coronation, the Fifth the kingdom had seen, planning.
The Mad King's reign was tumultuous, but effective for what he had in mind. The Princes had been turned against each other in almost every task assigned to them, but the villagers still called for justice. Succession Day had come sooner than he would have liked, but the Mad King was ready to give the Princes their final task. Below his house, the Mad King had single handedly constructed a labyrinth befitting any minotaur. He walked the Princes to the entrance, and gave them a simple order: "Kill Edgar."
The Mad King would win no matter the outcome. If all the Princes died by Edgar's hands, then he himself can reign for eternity over the villagers, claiming to have brought justice to the Princes who had done nothing to combat the disappearances while keeping a now well fed Edgar under control.. If a Prince manages to slay Edgar, then the disappearances will stop and the villagers will become complacent to the monarchy once more.
To his surprise, it was Prince Gavin the Lame to retrieve Edgar's head and present it to King Ryan. The Mad King forced a maniacal laugh at Edgar's demise. He stepped down from the throne and removed his crown. The village priest walked forward to take the crown for safe keeping until the Sixth Coronation, but Ryan placed it on Prince Gavin's head briefly, letting the Lame revel in his oblivious victory.
Dethroned in the customary manner, Ryan sat at the edge of his bed, peering into the empty hole at his feet. He shook his head and tucked himself in for the night. "It had to be done," he thought, "I am sorry." The last thing his eyes saw before drifting off to sleep was a small, framed picture on his dirt end table beside his bed depicting two young men, one with a sly grin and blonde hair, the other with a goofy smirk, freckles, and curly, ginger hair. Carved into the frame below the picture was "R&E."