RISE OF EROS

Richard wasted no time and immediately went out to make the arrangements. He delegated one of the mansion's butlers to prepare the carriage and quickly went to one of the mansion's towers.

In this tower there were a large number of falcons and doves that were used to send messages, most of the great nobles had such a facility.

Richard quickly arrived in front of a hawk that looked much smaller than normal and apart from its size it was no different from the others. He took a blue ribbon and tied it around the hawk's neck and placed a small piece of paper in the tube that the hawk had tied to its leg.

The falcon flew out of the tower at high speed in the direction of the palace. The blue hawk did not mean that the animal was blue, but that a ribbon of that color was tied to it and represented a message of high importance known as a national level message.

The falcon did not take a minute to reach the palace and when the keeper of the palace tower saw the blue ribbon around the falcon's neck, he ran quickly towards the falcon, took the message and the ribbon, and ran with all his might towards the king's study.

He hadn't even read the message, because the order he had was that when a blue falcon arrived at the palace he just had to take the ribbon and the message and take it to the king immediately.

The king was in his study discussing with his sequel some reforms they planned to implement. There were 5 people beside him in the room. They were all nobles and had unique titles of high positions.

One was the minister of agriculture, the Marquis Dalaga, an old man in his 60s, with a bald head, tanned skin, and a muscular body, who did not belong to a man his age.

The infrastructure minister, the Marquis Undesy, was an old man of about 65 years very similar to the Marquis Dalaga, corpulent body and tanned skin, but unlike his counterpart, he had full white hair.

The Minister of the National Treasury, the Marchioness Alcaly, was a 50-year-old woman who, despite her age, had a curvaceous body, silky white skin, and midnight black hair, was definitely a beauty without equality.

Defense Minister Marquis Zelfit, a 50-year-old man who despite being one of the most powerful warriors in the empire, did not have a corpulent build, in fact, he was quite thin, but if you saw his naked body, you could see how incredibly solid his muscles were.

Finally, there was the prime minister, the Marquis Vermut, an old man in his 60s who still had the black color of his hair, white skin, and well-groomed, by a man's standards, he was elegant and good-looking.

The five were notifying the king about the latest developments in each of their specialty fields. This was a routine that was done at least once a month since King Cannaris liked to be informed of everything that was happening in his country.

In fact, King Augustus Cannaris could be considered a good king, since he always cared about his subjects, always seeking to improve the quality of life in his country, and these meetings were one of the methods he used to implement his policies.

The six of them were in the middle of their conversation when the office door was thrown open violently, causing everyone present to be upset at the lack of manners of the person who had entered.

What disputed them the most was the fact that the guards allowed this aggression, but when they saw that he was the head of the message tower, they repressed their disjunction, not because of the position of the person who arrived, but because of what he represented.

As ministers and the king of the empire, they were not foolish people by any means, so they quickly understood that the message would have to be quite urgent and important, for this man to dare to interrupt a meeting of this caliber.

The caretaker of the message tower did not even greet or bow to the king, he simply ran to the king with his heavy breathing and placed the message that Donald's hawk had brought, next to the blue ribbon.

Normally this behavior could get the caretaker's head cut off, but there was a special situation when he could ignore all protocol and that was when a blue falcon came to the palace.

When those present saw the blue ribbon, their expression changed. The seriousness was palpable to those present, that was the importance of these messages and the king wasted no time, he took the message and opened it.

The small sheet of paper didn't have much written on it, just one sentence, "A spy has been found, I'm heading to the castle. Valoid Marquis". The five ministers were eager to know what the message said, but the king said nothing to them, instead speaking to the keeper of the tower who had brought the message.

"The Marquis Valoide will arrive soon, inform the guards to let him pass quickly", the caretaker of the message tower, did not dare to delay and quickly went out to comply with the order given by the king.

Once he was gone, the office door closed and the room fell silent. The ministers were waiting for the king to say what was happening because they had noticed that the king's expression was cold since he read the message, so they knew that it was not good.

However, the king did not speak. The ministers did not dare to ask either, but as intelligent people deduced that the Marquis Valoid should not have given details in the message, he only wanted to announce an important matter and would come to notify in person, so they decided to wait.

The wait was not long, because in about 10 minutes Donald arrived at the office where the king and the other 5 ministers were waiting for him. Donald approached and bowing slightly said, "Greetings, Your Majesty, Ministers," to which the King solemnly replied, "There is no need for such courtesy. Marqués Valoide tell me the details".

Donald didn't dare to be negligent and began to explain, "Majesty, last night my wife attended an event where a friend had invited her and she was attacked," he paused and continued.

"Fortunately the attack was unsuccessful and my guards caught the attackers, who turned out to be men sent by Count Gistaly", Donald paused again and noticed that the expressions of those present were not good, but still continued his story.

"You may not know, but I have been investigating Earl Gistaly for a while since the rumors about him are too bad for the image of the nobles, and for this reason, he thought of kidnapping my wife to control me."

Until that moment, everyone did not see the reason to send a message of the level that had been used, it was simply a complaint of disagreements between nobles, it was something that the king would not bother with, so the ministers were puzzled with Donald.

They knew him well and knew that he was a correct and loyal man, they didn't see how such a man would come to complain about such a trifling issue, not to mention send a blue falcon for it, but the king was different.

The king knew that Donald was only giving all the details in advance to avoid asking too many questions at the end of his story. He approved this method, because although there were some roundabout ways, in the end, less time was wasted in taking action, so he wait patiently.

Donald didn't care about the strange looks from the ministers and continued talking to the king, "Without the intention of creating a conflict between nobles, I stepped up surveillance on Earl Gistaly trying to find evidence and my men found that Gistaly has relations with a clandestine organization to which he sells information about the empire."

When Donald finished these words, the first to jump, upset and surprised, was the Marquis Zelfit, Minister of Defense. The king understood the annoyance of his minister since his duties included ensuring that these events did not occur, but the king was not so arrogant as to think that all leaks could be prevented.

So, with a wave of his hand, he asked him to calm down and let Donald finish, "Your Majesty, my men do not know exactly what information he sold, nor what country this organization is from because it would be risky and would allow Gistaly to escape, but I confirm the place where you keep the proofs of the transactions".

Donald finished his report there and the king immediately said, "Marquis Zelfit organize a team and visit Gistaly, Marquis Valoid tell him where to look, I don't want mistakes, I want Gistaly here in two hours."

Neither of them delayed, and they left the office to make arrangements to raid Count Gistaly's mansion. The rest of them waited in the office next to the king with cold expressions on their faces.

The Cannaris empire was prosperous thanks to the policies of its king, there is no doubt about that, but the work of these ministers could not be underestimated. All of them were men of their word and very loyal to the empire, which is why they could carry out so many reforms and improvements, that is why they were so upset when they found out that one of the nobles of their empire was a traitor.