Claude left home well before the sun rose. First thing he did was to go to Dawsbury city. The streets were crowded as usual, with the early morning merchants setting up their tents in order to sell their products, and the shop owners opening up their shops. He headed north through the thick crowd, crossing the Prarotori River and fifteen minutes later, he was in front of 'Edward's Medicines.'

As soon as he got inside, he saw Edward sitting behind his desk with a smile on his face.

"Ah, well if it isn't Mr. Claude Rayforth, my favourite customer." He approached Claude with a smile as soon as he noticed him entering the shop. "I hope you were satisfied with your previous purchase. I hope that it was put to good use."

"Hello Edward. It's nice to see you as well. And yes, I am satisfied with my purchase, if you really must know." Claude spoke with a smile as well.

"Fantastic! Knowing Mr. Rayforth, I'm sure that you must've used the product to its full extent. And knowing that my products have fulfilled the needs of my customers makes me very happy." Edward clapped loudly as he spoke and spun around, and began walking the other way. "So, may I ask the reason for your arrival today, Mr. Rayforth? Is there something else that you wish to purchase?"

"Ah, yes. In fact, I was looking for two very specific drugs; Erythrimum and Dioserum." Claude took out a piece of paper in which he had written down the names of the two drugs and read it aloud for Edward to hear, and said. "Do you have them in stock? If not, is there any way you can get them for me? I'll pay you well."

"Erythrimum and Dioserum, eh.." Edward placed his hands on his chin and rocked his head back and forth. "I'll be honest, Mr. Rayforth. Not a lot of people come looking for those drugs. I'll be honest, it'll be a miracle if I do find them in stock today."

"Just tell me directly, Edward. No funny games," Claude snorted. "Do you or do you not have these two drugs with you?"

"Alright, alright. You're no fun, Mr. Rayforth. Did no one even tell you to relax a bit?" Claude looked over to Edward and got a reluctant nod from him. "Lucky for you, I do have some in stock. Though I wasn't kidding about them being not too popular with the folks here. You are really lucky to have gotten these from me, because I almost never restock them."

"For god's sake, I did promise you that I'll pay you well, didn't I? Now can you please stop your whining?" Claude massaged his temples with an annoyed face, and Edward looked back at him with a hurt expression. "I can't believe that you thought I was trying to trick you into paying me more, Claude. Not everything is about money, you know?"

"How much do you want?"

"..... twelve gold coins."

Whoosh!

A pouch was flung into the air, and Edward stretched out his hands and caught it eagerly, his eyes twinkling with delight.

"Now get me the drugs," Claude said in an indifferent voice. "And don't call me Claude. We're not friends."

"Understood… Mr. Rayforth."

***********************

As the new King and ruler of Argria, Blake Bancroft had to ensure the public that they were in safe hands. He had to ensure that their fears were unfounded and the country was safe now that the previous King and Queen are dead. And to ensure that these ideas stay in the people's heads, he had to give speeches. And there were a lot of speeches.

For something of this magnitude, it was inevitable that he would have to address the public, but King Blake Bancroft was simply too exhausted by speaking like a noble every minute or so.

"I apologize, your highness," Minister Burne told the new King as he kneeled in front of him. "But I'm afraid I cannot help you get out of this. We need this. The public needs this. And most importantly, you need this as well, your highness. The public speeches are what builds the support and respect for the king amongst the common people. It lays the foundations so that we can continue our rule as smoothly as possible. Call it bad luck if you want, but you must do these speeches if you wish to be the king."

"I understand that, Minister Burne. I really do. But I am pretty sure that the little show we put on in Josenheim is more than enough to get the support of the public," King Blake Bancroft said tiredly as he let out a yawn.

"Perhaps. But we can never be too sure now, can we?" the Minister sighed. "It's better to be safe than sorry."

"Not fun being a King, is it your highness?" General Ivan said when he entered the room.

"What do you think, General Ivan?" The answering face of Blake Bancroft contained almost no enthusiasm at all. The King looked very tired. "Want to take a wild guess?"

"No, your highness. I'm afraid the guess wouldn't be as wild as you think." General Ivan shook his head. "And forgive me for interrupting your therapeutic sessions about the horrors of being a king, but I have news from the Valley of the Dead."

"Oh? And? How did your talk with Gottfried go? Tell me everything that happened," King Blake Bancroft asked acidly. He was upset enough to allow his anger to show for once. The speeches were just too much, and add to that the threat of Gilbert Gottfried, and the King was more than pissed. "I want to know it all."

"Well, it went reasonably well, your Highness," General Ivan spoke as he handed over the written report of the mission over to Minister Burne, who passed it on to the King. "I believe that our plan worked. We've successfully convinced Emperor Gilbert Gottfried that a new ruler has taken over the throne. Someone who's of Royal Blood. You should've seen his eyes. He couldn't believe it."

"He didn't have any suspicions?" King Blake Bancroft asked as he flipped through the report that was handed to him. "He didn't seem to think that we could've done something?"

"I am pretty sure that he does have suspicions about the part of your highness being of royal blood, considering the King and the Queen were said to have no children at all..." the General the King. "But then again, it is not that easy to get the approval of the Church of Karinthian to be a rightful successor for the throne and a messenger of the gods. The fact that we were able to successfully ascend the throne without any accusations from the Church most likely made him less suspicious."

"But he is suspicious?"

"Yes, your highness." General Ivan nodded his head as he replied. "Emperor Gilbert Gottfried is most likely investigating the issue as we speak. But fortunately, he agreed to meet with you, your highness."

King Blake Bancroft leaned back and took a sip from his golden cup that was filled to the brim with wine. "Are you positive that we can make him believe us?"

"He will have to believe us, your highness." Minister Burne interjected. "He may be suspicious, but if he finds nothing, he'll be forced to back down and accept the truth!"

"We have informants as well just for this reason. If he's suspicious about something, then we'll know, and we can do whatever we can to fix it," the General added.

"Fine. I guess I'll have to make an effort in front of the emperor as well." The King sighed as he gulped down the wine. "I sure hope he likes a fake smile, because I sure as hell don't."

*************************

Inside Gryfino forest.

*grrrrr*

Deep in the jungle, a herd of tigerwolf beasts stopped moving, turned around and started to growl with bloodshot eyes.

They were staring at the trees, growling as though there was something in the woods that were their enemy.

*GRRRR*

One of the tigerwolf beasts leapt forward, heading towards the darkness, and disappeared from the other beasts' view.

The rest of the beasts, as though they were being cautious, waited for the beast who leapt forward to return.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

All of a sudden, the earth began to shake in a rhythmic manner, as though something huge was heading towards them, and the tigerbeasts, now ready for a fight, roared loudly and revealed their sharp teeth and claws.

BAM!

A body shot towards the tigerbeasts from the trees, and it bounced of the ground as it landed right in front of one of the tigerbeasts. The body that landed in front of them was the corpse of the tigerbeast that had leapt forward a few seconds before.

"Well, that was a disappointing fight. He didn't even last a minute," A voice rang out from the wilderness in front of them, causing the tigerbeasts to become alert. A young man walked out from the darkness of the forest, revealing a katana in his hand, as his gaze landed on the group of beasts. "But I suppose you'll all make up for his failure, right?"