On a cold morning within the walls of Athens, the royal palace was buzzing with whispers. Everyone was talking about the provisional government Melos had formed and the new decisions he had made to secure the kingdom. But behind these decisions, there was a man moving silently: Perdus, the investigator who had been entrusted with the most difficult task of his life.
Perdus entered a small hall that had been transformed into an interrogation room. On the table in front of him were files, letters, and strange instruments collected from the scene of King Silius's assassination. He sat alone, his piercing eyes scanning the evidence.
He said to himself in a low voice:
"A king like Silius is not easily killed. It can't be just the blow of a passing traitor. There is a mastermind behind this."
Perdus began questioning the guards who had been in the palace on the night of the assassination.
He said to the first guard:
"Tell me, how exactly did the king die?"
The guard answered, faltering:
"Sir… we found him in his room, with no visible wounds, no blood. He was sitting in his chair, as if he had fallen asleep and never woke up."
Birdus raised his eyebrows.
"So no stab wounds, no arrows, no visible poison. Strange…"
Then he questioned the second guard, who said:
"Hours before his death, the king was speaking with a mysterious visitor. We didn't see his face clearly, but he entered the palace with an official credential."
Birdus paused at this point. A mysterious visitor with an official credential? This meant that the crime wasn't just from outside the palace, but perhaps from within as well.
That evening, Berdus met with Milos to present his first findings.
Birdus said:
"Sir, the king's death was not natural. There are no clear signs of murder. But there is evidence that he met with a mysterious person hours before his death. This person entered the palace with an official credential, which means that an insider helped him."
Melos's face darkened, and he said, "Are you hinting that the betrayal reached inside the palace itself?"
Berdus replied coldly, "I'm not hinting... I'm searching for the truth. And the deeper I dig, the more the conspiracy seems to be greater than we can imagine."
That night, Berdus returned to the crime scene. The room where Silius had died had been sealed since the incident. He lit his lamp and began to inspect the place carefully.
He noticed something strange: On the table near the king's chair was a glass half-filled with a clear liquid. No one had noticed it before, because it looked like water. But Berdus held it up to the light and smelled it. It didn't smell like ordinary water.
He said to himself, "This isn't water... but it's not a known poison either. Perhaps a rare substance, slow-acting."
He scribbled a note in his notebook: "The king wasn't killed by a sword... but by his mind."
The next day, Berdus summoned one of the royal physicians. He asked him:
"Could a strong man like Silius die without a wound or blood?"
The doctor replied:
"There are rare poisons that leave no trace. Some are extracted from plants that grow only on distant islands. Their effect is slow, putting the victim to sleep… then never awakens."
Perdus nodded. Now the picture was beginning to become clearer.
But the most important question: Who possesses these poisons? And who was able to introduce them into the heart of the palace?
Perdus returned to Melos and said:
"Sir, we have a new lead. The king wasn't killed with a weapon, but with a rare poison. And only someone with a wide network of merchants or pirates possesses this poison."
Mados, the old advisor, intervened and said in a deep voice:
"So we are dealing with a double conspiracy: an internal hand opened the door, and an external hand supplied the poison."
A heavy silence fell.
Melos said sternly, "Search everywhere. Interrogate the merchants, monitor the ports, search the palace. I don't want anyone in Athens to sleep until we know who killed Silius."
That night, Peridos sat alone in his room, studying the map in front of him. He marked the ports through which the poison might enter and the names of those who might be involved.
He whispered to himself, "The threads are beginning to emerge... but who's behind them isn't just a hired killer. It's a mind that wants to bring down Athens from within."
He raised his head toward the window, where the moon was illuminating the palace, and said, "Silius... I'll find out who killed you, even if it's the person closest to you."