A SOLUTION FOR THE KING
"Earl of Kaleon, what brings you here to my chambers today?" King Laventios asked me.
"I asked Prince Raslee to bring me to an audience with your majesty because I have found a solution to a troubling matter in the kingdom", I said to the king.
"Really? What is troubling the kingdom? Let me hear about it", King Laventios asked me.
"The murder of Prince Stamatis is causing unnecessary speculations in the kingdom and that will not be good for the peaceful administration of the kingdom", I told the king and the prince.
"How? Do you know who the real murderer of Prince Stamatis is?" Prince Raslee asked me.
"I don't know about that yet, but I can extinguish the people's anxiety about Prince Stamatis' murder", I told them.
"What can you do?" King Laventios asked me.
"Asterix, present the drafts to the king and the prince", I asked my assistant.
"Yes, sir", Asterix replied to me as she handed some draft papers to the king and the prince.
"What are these grotesque illustrations?" King Laventios asked me.
"Those are illustrations of Prince Stamatis' fight before his death which caused his death", I told them.
The King and prince looked through the illustrations with curiosity, before he passed the papers to Minister Holden.
"What is this? How did a demon creature appear in Ellora city. And he can kill Legendary Templar Knights by striking their hearts with their magic claws before sucking all their magic and blood", Minister Holden asked me in shock after seeing the illustrations.
"What is this? Did such a creature really kill Prince Stamatis?" King Laventios asked me.
"The creature in the illustration is the Bloodfiend. He has thousands of limbs that appear like blood veins. These blood veins go into the ground before coming up to strike their victims. Those who are struck by the blood veins would have their magic and blood sucked away", I told the king.
"I've never heard about such a creature before?" Prince Raslee told me.
"This is a creature found in the Demon Queen's army. We saw him in action, killing thousands of Apostles and soldiers and also citiens", I replied to the prince.
"Are you saying the Bloodfiend is here in Eloora? That is a disaster, we must gather the knights?" King Laventios told me.
"Do not worry, your majesty. The illustration is not real? It is just a speculation. Only someone like the Bloodfiend and the Demon Queen will have the ability to murder Prince Stamatis and have the motive to do so. This will calm the people's misunderstandings around Prince Stamatis' murder", I told them.
"Ridiculous, how can you tell the people about a fake account?" Minister Holden asked me.
"Shut up", King Laventios told Holden and he stopped accusing me.
"Are you going to publish these illustrations of Prince Stamatis' valiant battle with the Demon army and the Bloodfiend?" King Laventios asked me.
"Why not? We will run a week long edition about the battle. In the end, Prince Stamatis will have a heroic ending", I replied to the king.
The king thought about the matter for a while before he suddenly laughed out loud.
"Hahaha, you are a clever subject", King Laventios said to me.
"Father, we cannot spread these fake news about the murder of Prince Stamatis, I thought we covered it up as Samlee's doing", Prince Raslee told his father when the king stopped him.
"I wouldn't need the Earl's help if you can do your part properly. You should have stopped that Kimon before he went crazy and killed Kiriakos. It made things worse", King Laventios chided his son.
"There is no need to kill anyone if we have the paper to spread the news for us", I told the king.
"Yes, yes. This is good. The damn nobles will not be troubling me anymore about Stamatis", the king said to us.
"What about the death of Kiriakos?" Prince Samlee asked.
"Yes, Kiriakos' death. The nobles will still give me no rest about it", King Laventios said to us.
"Don't worry your majesty, I have another story that will run after Prince Stamatis' heroic battles", I told the king.
"What story?" King Laventios asked me.
"The story about an overly ambitious minister, Kimon. He found the dead body of Prince Stamatis and instead of reporting the matter, he used the body in his own wicked ways.
He tried to blackmail the Mithridocus family by framing them for the murder of Prince Stamatis. When that failed, and when Duke Kiriakos wanted an open inquiry about Prince Stamatis' murder, Kimon killed him", I explained to the king.
"Fantastic, that is what happened, hahaha", the king said to me and laughed.
"And", I added.
"What more?" the king asked me.
"Your majesty should bring Prince Samlee back from exile", I told him to his shock and of Prince Raslee.
"Impossible, Prince Samlee is the scapegoat for Kiriakos' murder", Minister Holden shouted out.
"Shut up", the king told the minister again before asking me, "Why should we bring Samlee back?"
"The Royal family should not be accountable for the mess caused by Minister Kimon. It is all because of his selfish greed. There is no need to implicate Prince Samlee for it. In fact, I will suggest that Prince Samlee punish Minister Kimon for his crimes", I told the king.
"But Kimon is already dead", the king asked.
"Minister Kimon still has property that can be confiscated as punishment. By doing so publicly, Prince Samlee will be vindicated", I told the king.
"But the nobles already believe Samlee is Stamatis' murderer?" Prince Raslee asked me.
"The people will rather believe the Demons killed Prince Stamatis than Prince Samlee. There is no way the prince could kill Stamatis even if he wanted to", I told them.
"Remarkable. This is how to solve problems, son. Learn from the Earl", King Laventios asked his son and chided him before he asked me, "As for you Earl of Kaleon, for your services, what reward will you ask for?"