The Gifted House

 

Nothing had changed for Viktor Lascorsi for the last twenty years since his birth except for the fact that he had grown up.  He resided at the same house and in the same town following the same daily routine for many years.  His parents, Alonzo and Merina, were very vocal about their intentions of not moving out of their ancestral house of Alonzo, which his ancestors had got as a gift from a king of Medieval Hungary, Matthias Cornivinus of Hungarian dynasty.  It was a very well-known fact that Alonzo’s ancestors had worked for the Royal Kings’ palace. Post the death of the King in the year 1490, his ancestors had moved out of the palace to this house which the king had gifted them. It was since then that the Lascorsi family were residing at this place. Viktor had often heard stories from his grandmother that the female ancestors of his family had been very close to the queen and it was through the queen’s request that they had managed to get this house in which he was born and continued living. But what also intrigued Viktor was the fact that often in the stories narrated by his grandmother, there were certain mysteries surrounding the house hinting towards some special reason for which the house was gifted.

 Viktor had analysed that it was a long time since the house was erected and handed over to the Lascorsi family, so it wasn’t really best of the times to investigate any aspect of the house which could lead to the actual reason for this house being made.  The year was 1750 and it turned out to be one of the coldest in Hungary that made Viktor take cover in his woolen garments especially during the nights. Budapest was the largest city of the country of Hungary since ages and living in this county was the gift which was passed on by generations after generations of the Lascorsi family. Though Viktor wanted to travel the world and live at different places, his home at Budapest which consisted of two floors and a beautiful green lush garden was his world. His friends would often suggest him to move out of the city with them, but his family would often tell him that the ancestors had said that till they all live in this house they would never face any problems in their lives. So, it was a wish which couldn’t be overruled.

 Viktor was not much fond of the climatic environment of the country.  Showers would spell its cast without any warning and summer would bring in heat but without humidity though. Also, the fact that apart from the summers, the city received very little sunshine did not actually impress Viktor.  To kill his time, he would often spend his time in the city library which was known as the Bibliotheca Corviniana library which housed Europe’s greatest collection of historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works. Co- incidentally one of the reasons for Viktor frequenting the library was the fact that the same Library was once the personal library of the last great King Matthias Cornivinus, the same king who had donated the house to his ancestors in which he currently lived. 

 The library turned out to be a soul stirrer for Viktor. Once he entered the building for the first time he was awestruck. The mammoth collection of books and historical chronicles actually made him fall in love with the library. Since his first visit he would spend at least an hour every evening in the library reading through whatever he could get his hands over.

 Since childhood itself, Viktor loved questioning. He questioned everyone about everything and didn’t stop when he got the answer because he would then question the logic of the answer itself. His parents would often link this habit of questioning to one of their ancestors whose stories they had heard from their grandparents.  So, whenever Viktor would read books, he would come home and ask questions about the same to his parents. His parents had by now become an expert in making stories about any of the question which Viktor would ask. So, what Viktor did was, he rechecked what his parents informed him with the books in the library.

 It had always intrigued Viktor that the King had donated this house to his family and why not to the other families. Though his mother had repeatedly made him understand that their ancestors had been very close to the queen through whom the request was sent to the king for construction of this house, the reply actually never did convince Victor.

 He could hardly find any reference of his family in any of the ancient books which he read about the king or the queen and the royal family. Days passed in months. Viktor continued with his daily life but would often come back to the library. 1750 turned into 1751 and Viktor grew one more year unaware that his twenty first year would finally reveal him his one-year-old cherished question about the house.

 During one of the reading sessions in the library, Viktor chanced upon a book which was written back in the year 1475 by a local scholar named Isaac. It was an untitled book but it had a sub title going by some ancient Hungarian language which was later interpreted by Viktor to mean “The Royal palace”. It took Viktor more than three months to translate the ancient language into the one which he was more conversant with.  It was during this read where he had pounced upon certain pages that described about the mammoth proportions of jewels hidden by the king in separate small houses which the king had created and gifted to his most trusted staff members. The relevant paragraphs mentioned that there were more than hundred such houses which were erected in between 1450 and 1470 underneath which huge volumes of jewels were hidden. Viktor learned that the King feared that the ottoman kingdom would invade Hungary and hence before they would fall, he wanted to disperse all the treasure into different locations which could be used for the kingdom at a later date. Viktor felt intrigued and amazed at this discovery. He read the book in detail over the next two months and discovered that each house was constructed over a very big pit that was made to hide those treasures subsequent to which the pits were covered by voluminous concentrations of cement and muds upon which one storey and two storey houses were constructed. It had taken more than twenty years to hide all of the treasures.  What also surprised Viktor was the fact that all of the hundred houses had a secret underground pathway to the palace through an underground tunnel that was constructed at the time of the erection of the houses. He looked at a hand drawn map which was printed inside the book. It gave away the points where such safe houses were constructed.  Viktor found it difficult to locate his own house, but he was sure that unlike as informed, his was not the only house which was gifted by the king, and there were ninety-nine others like his house.

 That night as Viktor went home and stood inside his room, he could imagine under his feet, thousands of feet under, a mammoth proportion of treasure which was hidden from the Ottomans but which could never be put to use or discovered and the secret to which lay in a book that was preserved in the library that was created by the king himself. Of course, Viktor was not going to search for the treasure.  He felt that the knowledge of the treasure under his house and under the other ninety-nine ones were in itself a discovery which should be preserved for the future.  Sometime later in life, Viktor thought that he would surely try to search for the treasure and until then the knowledge of the same itself was enough for him.

 Alonzo and Merina, over the next few weeks observed that Viktor had stopped asking questions about the house. Why would he? He had got his answer !

The King and The Cannon

 

It wouldn’t be entirely wrong, if it was said that there was no one happier and jollier than Alejendro Martinez in Tenochititlan after the Crown of Spain took over and changed its name to Mexico City, and made it the capital of New Spain in 1521. Mexico City had had a long history before, which was more evident when considered that the name of the city was also changed by the Spaniards. Before that time, the Aztecs were ruling them until they were defeated by the Spaniards. New Crown meant new rules and new way of life. But everything that took place hardly impacted Alejendro Martinez, the only king who agreed to go with the Spaniards.

Alejendro Martinez who had passed forty-five years of his life in Tenochtitlan as a ruler of a small province, was gearing up with the new Crown to change things in his province. Unlike the other kings and rulers, Alejendro was loved by the people of his province which comprised of a mix of indigenous and local natives. His popularity was one of the reasons for the Crown of Spain to offer him a small kingdom in their rule. The truth was that even the Spaniards didn’t consider Alejendro dangerous or harmful to their rule. The positive and jolly nature of the king went along very glowingly with everyone.  It also didn’t come as a surprise when people were told that King Alejendro Martinez was the only one who hadn’t fought even a single war or fight with any other ruler or crown. Like anyone else, the Spaniards knew very little of Alejendro’s family history. Only the people visiting his small palace would be the evidence to the hand drawn portraits of his ancestors. Alejendro had always been a lover of nature and this aspect of his made him make early morning rounds of his province. He could be heard complimenting to his royal entourage   about the beauty of the nature during the early morning rounds. The locals welcomed the royal entourage, which was followed by an interaction in between the king and the people of the province. Though Alejendro had the power to make decisions but the Crown of Spain had to be intimated about all the interactions and the promises made by the king. However, this aspect hardly bothered the good-hearted king.

Alejendro was good looking, tall and handsome. He had a reasonably good built that was natural rather than artificial. His handsome looks were creamed by his polite nature. Britishers would surely have termed him as a Gentleman. The king was very popular among the females of his Palace and the province. But unlike other kings, Alejendro always knew the limits, which was the result of the teachings by his grandmother. Alejendro was unmarried as he believed that until you find your match you cannot get settled with any female just by mere compromise or arrangement.

Though under the other provinces, the indigenous people did not live a satisfied life, Alejendro made sure that there were no complaints on their part in his province.  During that time there were far heard events of the local population being tuned into forced labour for various infrastructure monolithic constructions. Alejendro made it clear to the people that if people worked, they would be paid handsomely. As the word of mouth about the good-hearted nature of King Alejandro spread, more and more natives from far off regions came to Alejendro’s province to take accommodations. Over a period of time King Alejendro maintained a good relation with both the Crown and his own people. The goodness of the king made the lives of his people reasonable enough to live off.

It was during this period that the Crown of Spain had made quite a number of deliveries of Cannons for the protection of the cities and palaces. The Cannons which were transported by the sea over a period of many months from various destinations had finally reached the port. From there, those were transported to Mexico City.  Few cannons were allocated for Alejendro as well, though considering the size of his province those would have fallen short in case there was a war. The cannons, four in all, which arrived at King Alejendro’s palace, were a set of monstrous equipment for the people who never had seen anything like it. Not surprisingly, even Alejendro was excited to see the cannons. It was decided that each of the cannons would be pulled up on one side each of the palace thereby covering all the four sides which meant that one cannon would be placed at each corner of the palace. It intrigued Alejendro when one of the cannons was placed on the palace terrace corner which faced a sea. He wondered how he would eventually use the cannon on the sea. Perhaps, if there was an attack through the sea, he thought. The monstrous sized cannons had taken more than one month to be pulled up at their expected locations on the palace terrace. Alejendro was proud of himself. He had four cannons in his Palace which he could use, but often asked his royal advisors when they would use them as his province had never gone into war with anyone. Perhaps, the Spaniards had some plan, the kind king thought.

Over the next few days. Alejendro’s sleep was disturbed. Most of the time he kept thinking about the cannons. Sometimes he just walked out of the Palace and looked at the cannons by standing outside the palace boundary. Some fortnights later, Alejendro grew impatient. The problem which was finally figured out was that the King was eager to know how to the use the cannon. It was his curious nature to know new things.  The fact that some monstrous equipment had arrived in his palace and he was unaware about its method of use was making him restless and impatient like a ten-year-old boy. The cannons had become an attraction even for the people staying around the Palace area. They would often stand outside their houses and look at the monstrous cannons. The gunpowder blocks which were to be used in the cannon was kept in steel buckets near each of the cannons.

One early morning when the King’s assistants went into his room to wake him up, they were surprised to not find him there. They searched the room but to no avail. The king wasn’t even found on the floor. The assistants informed the King’s advisor and other members of the Palace. Everyone started a search for their beloved king. Some of the assistants could be heard saying about some curse which made people disappear. The entire search team which consisted of the royal advisors, courtesans, assistants and soldiers searched the entire Palace and the rooms. By mid-morning, news had spread to the people in the province that the King was not within confines of the palace. The locals started to look out in the province for their beloved king.

It was not until evening when a young man by the name of Marques Alamilla arrived at the gate of the Royal Palace. The entire search team arrived at the gate by then. Marques informed that last night when it must have crossed one hour after mid night, he had come out of his hut to feel the cold air and it was at that time that he heard a noise coming from the top of the Palace. At that moment when the sound was heard, Marques informed that he had seen some smoke from the east side top corner of the Palace. One of the Royal advisors ran towards the Palace terrace upon which others followed. Marques stood at the gate unable to understand the confusion. The entire team reached the Palace terrace and went to the east side corner.

As all reached there, everyone looked at the Cannon and the gun powder which was scattered all around it. It seemed as though someone had fidgeted with the cannon and its placement. One of the advisors found one of the Diamond rings at the spot which the King would often wear before his sleep in one of the fingers in his right hand to keep evil away during the night. The senior Royal advisor, Cardozo, looked all around and then towards the round oval ground which was in front of the Palace. Looking back at the Cannon, he observed some foot marks in front of the Cannon. Gun powder was spread all over the Cannon too. By this time, Cardozo had guessed the reason for the King’s sudden disappearance.

Cardozo looked towards the sky and then again on the terrace. He imagined it to be sometime during post mid night. He could imagine King Alejendro walking from his room to the terrace and towards this cannon with a fire light in his hand. Cardozo imagined the king picking up the gun powder blocks and putting it into the cannon. He guessed that King Alejendro must have stood in front of the cannon and put the fire stick into the cannon and with that King Alejendro disappeared from this world as the Cannon shot took him off into eternity. Knowing Alejendro, Cardozo correctly imagined that the King must have assumed that the shot would come out from the gap at the middle of Cannon and not from the point where he was standing.