40 Eris POV 4

I walked with a determined step towards the throne chamber, a servant left me a message and unfortunately I had to leave the poor Celes standing there, but hey, work is work.

Lately I have been very busy with my little personal project of following Leonora and the most recent one of teaching Celes, so I have neglected my obligations, even the joyfull news reached my ears that his Majesty recovered from his "illness"

There was even the innocent attempt to hide his recovery, obviously to surprise me, I almost feel shame to ruin the surprise, but he should learn that nothing happens in this Kingdom without me finding out, it was quite annoying to leave standing up to the adorable Celes, and more so when our conversation was leading us to Leonora.

I have to admit that maybe my informants were a bit slow, it seems that his Majesty recovered last night. My itinerary today consisted of going to see Leonora in the morning, and at noon I was supposed to receive Celes. It was around lunchtime when the great news reached me, maybe so many years of peace have slowed them down, even though they tried to hide the fact from me, my people should have discovered it before, obviously I was not going to cancel either of the two commitments, but if I had known before I would have taken a couple of minutes of tea time to fix the matter, but it does not matter, they will already receive their corresponding punishment.

Now I have reached the double doors of the throne chamber, the guards were preparing to open them and let me pass, and I mentally prepared myself for my little talk with his Majesty.

It seems that he had a whole night, and half a day, it's not enough time to be a danger, but it is still a nuisance that took away some time.

I sighed and smiled.

Decrepit old man, I'll make you pay for every minute of my time that you wasted, I think I was very lenient in letting you live.

But upon entering the throne chamber, I was surprised to find it empty.

That was why I kept walking around the castle aimlessly, I was sure to find him on his throne wanting to appear imposing for our meeting, but perhaps someone notified him of my arrival and would prefer to interpret a farce where he is still senile, but I don't think if that's the case, really I didn't remember the king being a coward.

I walked a bit more, when met Prince Maxwell.

(Eris) good morning young prince, how are you today?

(Maxwell) oh Marchioness Johansen, nice to see you today.

Hmm, he turned his eyes, they told him something.

(Eris) well, after what happened yesterday, I wanted to go through the castle.

(Maxwell) but... how did you find out?

Oh honey, you are so easy to read that it's even adorable.

(Eris) find out what honey? I caused a little trouble with the magicians yesterday, and I came to apologize.

(Maxwell) ah... yeah... how is Johan?

(Eris) He's fine, I personally had to take care of him, but now he's fine.

(Maxwell) I'm glad, so I'm not taking your time anymore.

The prince turned and left, so I kept thinking, honey, if you want to be a king, you have to learn to dissimulate better.

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(Eris) So, let me see if I understand... You say the king recovered, but then he returned to his "condition"?

(Maid) yes it's a lady.

When I found the empty throne chamber, I asked to know where his majesty was, so they told me he was in his personal office, when I arrived I met the king, but nothing in him had changed, he was still the same senile old man.

Technically I shouldn't know about his Majesty's condition, so I was careful, I have lost some confidence in my informants in the castle, so I started to investigate personally, I was lucky to meet an ex-maid who had seen the king when supposedly "was" in full use of his mental faculties.

That was why I invited her to my house for tea.

(Eris) are you sure honey? The king can be somewhat eccentric, that could be one of his eccentricities.

(Maid) I don't think so, I was there when he met another servant from the castle, he said something like he recognized her or something like that, then they called Lady Dorothea, and sent me to look for Prince Bruno.

(Eris) hmm, to Prince Bruno? You know why?

(Maid) I don't know, for all the time it took me to find him and then catch him, I did so many things and still got fired, can you believe it?

You had only been here for a week, and you already broke a tableware and 4 vases.

(Eris) they are very ungrateful people, darling, you would like to work for me more, but go on, what else can you tell me about his majesty?

(Maid) I didn't see him again, but when I arrived with Prince Bruno, there was also Prince Maxwell waiting, and from there they fired me, and I thought they would give me a raise, hu...

(Eris) hmm, then his two sons... but tell me, why do you say that the king returned to normal?

(Maid) ahh of course, I wanted a memory of the castle and I went to look for something to take with me, of course, and there I met the king, and he told me something about, that if I did not bring him his tea on time, he would banish to my family and I would end up working in the mines or something like that, you know the usual with the king.

(Eris) hmm, interesting, and what time was that?

(Maid) first thing in the morning, they only gave me permission to stay until noon at the castle.

(Eris) thanks for answering my questions honey, you can leave now.

(Maid) very good Marchioness Johansen, I promise you I will do a good job, and you will not regret hiring me.

She really doubted it dear, but you told me what I needed, so I'll keep you close for a while.

That girl came out of my office, and I began to review everything I had discovered.

It seems that the king recovered more or less at nightfall, his first order was to call his two sons, Maxwell and Bruno, he also ordered that I did not find out about his improvement, so I try to make the information only for a small group of people.

On my previous visit to the castle I met Prince Maxwell by chance, he has great respect for my family, he has a good relationship with my older children, but he does not get along so well with Johan, when I casually greeted him, I saw him look away for a second, it's obvious that his father must have told him something about me.

So, recaping, the king recovers, calls his two sons, warns them about me, and the next morning he was senile again.

Apart from the fact of his improvement, which is already strange in itself, there is something that doesn't fit, why would he warn them about me in their first meeting? As a mother, I can understand the desire to want to see your children, but I would first repair our relationship before warning them.

Maybe they asked him why he didn't want me to find out, and there he warned them about me?

No, I have learned that I should imagine the worst case scenario first, and from there to work to reach a conclusion.

I must believe that the king knew his time was limited, and so he chose to warn his children.

Hmm, that makes sense, if the king recovered by himself, then his first order would be to execute me, and from there he would concentrate on trying to fix the relationship with his children, but instead he called his sons to a private meeting, and in addition to hiding that fact, I do not take any other retaliation against me, as if I knew of the political power that I have acquired in all this time.

Yes, the second option definitely makes more sense, but it brings us to the problem, how did the king regain his sanity?

It is rare, but not impossible that the effect of the poison I used has lost it's effects, but the improvement should have been gradual, you should not regain sanity only to lose it again the same day and even less, be aware of it.

It's obvious that someone helped him, and that makes me think, where was Leonora at that time?

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(Eris) are you sure that's it?

(Shadow) yes my lady.

(Eris) I hope for your and your teammates sake that nothing has been overlooked, I haven't yet forgotten your last mistake.

(Shadow) no, my lady, that's all the information we could gather.

(Eris) well, you can leave then.

In front of me I had detailed reports of all of Leonora's movements during her time in the capital, as well as the names of all the people who had been handed over to the castle in recent days.

First of all, for Leonora to know my relation with the current state of the king is simply impossible, but impossible and Leonora are words that go hand in hand.

Leonora was not yet born when I and the king had our little dispute, and when I was victorious, Leonora was little more than a newborn.

In addition, there is no one who knows that fact, I was in charge of silencing them all, the only people who know it now now are the king and me.

But one must always be prepared for the worst, and from there go to work.

That is why I reviewed all of Leonora's movements in the capital, the vast majority knew of them already, due to the time we spent, but Irma made sure that Leonora's room is safe, and I do not know what happened there, although of course, that hardly stepping out of it was at my mercy again.

As I already knew, Leonora didn't approach the king again after her audience, but on the second last day, curiously the day of his majesty's improvement, she received a visitor, a man with a ridiculous hairstyle.

That man was only a few minutes alone with Leonora, and according to the report, Irma was especially insistent with her mistress's privacy, so I don't know

what they could argue with.

And that same it took me, a few hours before the king's miraculous improvement, I was very busy watching over the health of my little one, so I left her alone.

It fits, it just fits, for one thing, Leonora is not stupid.

She gains nothing from it, why would she bring the king back to sanity just for a few hours? A possible alliance? For what? If the king finds out about her position as the witch, any alliance goes down the drain, also why would she try something like that, without being sure that the effects of the cure are permanent, if she only had a 50/50 chance of having a cure, why would she do it? Leonora is not the type of person who does things by halves or who starts something that will might fail.

In addition, Leonora isn't so stupid as to have me as an enemy, I'm still not sure about her possible dispute with the gods, but if she dared to conspire with the king against me and threatening the health of one of my children to carry out her plans, she would have to beg the gods to hide her from me.

That's why, as perfect as it may seem, it simply doesn't make sense, she wouldn't risk so much if she weren't going to get something of great value out of all that, and the king doesn't have anything so valuable that's worth it.

But even if she has nothing to do with all this, it's obvious that she is up to something, but Leonora is always up to something, so I will let her go for now.

But that brings me back to the question, who helped the king?

After reviewing the list of names of the people who entered the castle, there was one that caught my attention, and after locating all their movements, it seems that he was talking to the king just before his sons.

That man, I see it more difficult, but not impossible, I know that he is an old friend of the king, and he seems more of the type that would try things until he found a cure for his friend.

To my bad luck, he is an elusive man, and since he retired, it is very difficult to follow his movements.

For now the damage it caused isn't so serious, it seems that I have lost the trust of the future king, but honestly I don't care, by then I saw myself taking care of my adorable grandchildren, rather than attending to the affairs of the kingdom.

Well, I'm still hard at the work of finding good wives for my children, so my grandchildren are still a future project, hmm, how many grandchildren would be enough? ten? fifteen? I just can't wait to see their adorable little faces and for them to start calling me grandma, that would make me so happy.

I think I'm getting off topic.

The point, is that I will leave a secure kingdom and my children, sufficiently prepared so that no matter how useless the king is, the kingdom can stand without my intervention.

Well, I have to do a damage control, and make sure nothing else has happened, it was fortunate that the king wasn't so stupid to tell his children the truth about what I did to him.

I think somehow, they warned him that the effects couldn't be permanent and since he was not there to protect them, he only gave them a slight warning about me.

You were clever old man, I really would have felt bad for a while, if I had to silence both princes, I have known Maxwell since he was a baby, and poor Bruno makes me very sorry for what he had to go through, besides that both of them will study with Johan at school, and they could be good friends in the future.

I put the papers back on my table and I was about to leave. Celes was waiting for me for her first lesson, and I don't want to waste any more time on this matter.

But again, that man was in my mind.

I really wonder, what could the king and the inquisitor of the past generation talk about?

Maybe Leonora is involved in some way.