Ota's Tales

King and Poor - Rudolph yearns for immortality

Let me tell you a story that a very interesting little man once told me. Once upon a time, in other times, there was a very clever ruler named Rudolph. He lived in a picturesque, rather small country where there was enough of everything. That there was enough for everyone was proved by Rudolph's justice, which he did not spare at first. People respected him, praised his rule, respected him, built statues of him, sang glorious odes to him, cheered him and enjoyed his reign. King Rudolph respected everything, and knew that his hard work brought an ovation. For kingship is not at all easy, as some might think. It is, as Rudolph himself liked to say, "the hardest job I have ever done."

The kingdom flourished, people had enough wealth, were not hungry, and were often merry. The king never dragged the country into war. Wars seemed to him a useless pastime for those who were bored. Besides, why waste people's lives when they could be used for something else? Attacking Rudolph's kingdom was out of the question. It would be a losing battle. International treaties and conventions would invite other kings and queens to side with Rudolph, who had secured a kind of immunity through diplomatic tricks. But he was not only good at diplomacy.

King Rudolph was, above all, the king of progress. He invited all manner of innovators, industrialists, scientists, or philosophers to his court. The language was florid, and the libraries were brimming with poems, scientific writings, dramas, tracts, or essays. The universities there were attended by the greatest scholars, and only the best-known teachers taught. Though the military arsenal was meagre, it included only the most modern weapons. While in other countries the fight was fought with primitive firearms, Rudolph's royal guard owned the best muskets and cannons. This could only be done because the court scholars, on the one hand, created designs for improvements and gadgets, and, on the other hand, produced in bulk gunpowder, which was a very valuable commodity.

Rudolph uncovered its commercial potential. He sold it for vast quantities of gold, which he then exploited for inventions and discoveries. It was a time of progress. To be sure, electricity did not exist then. Energy was generated either by animal or human power.

And so Rudolph's kingdom grew richer, amassing international commerce, the best technology and the brightest minds. Some would say that he had conquered the world of that time. While King Rudolph was respected by his subjects, he longed for something far greater. He wanted to be the best king forever. Most of the gold he received from the trade was spent on making the elixir of life. This, according to legend, was supposed to be a curious liquid that, once drunk, gave you permanent immortality.

His best alchemists worked for almost days. They cooked, chilled, stirred, measured, weighed, sometimes ran away, sometimes watched dangerously close, and then wrote everything down carefully. The process was exceedingly complex and required proper knowledge and skill.

The average alchemist who worked for Rudolph had graduated from the best university in the world. But even that wasn't nearly enough. He must have had years of practice. Whether he was making medicines, world-famous perfumes, or working on his own, he was in the sights of Rudolph and his advisors.
The best alchemist there was a famous poisoner who called himself Mr. Poison. Before he was discovered by Rudolph and his minions, he was mixing such violent poisons that, in miniature quantities, could bring about an exceedingly painful death in a matter of seconds.
No one could figure out the cause of death with such poisoning. Mr. Poison was a suspect, but without witnesses and evidence, he couldn't be convicted.

But all that changed when he carried out an assassination at the royal court. The king couldn't just let that go. He had called in the best of the best investigators to find out who had killed the courtier. Thirty people were working on the case. Only Thirty-one was able to find the murderer. And it was this thirty-one who became the king's adviser. They called him Shadow because he listened without being seen or seen without being heard. No one really knew where the strange man had come from, but since he was capable, Rudolph and no one else asked questions.