By dawn, the four maids who had chosen to remain in Adrian's manor had already been carefully briefed on what to say. It did not take long before a different version of the story began to spread through the capital like wildfire.
According to the new rumor, the king himself had orchestrated the duel between the two princes so he could strip the crown from his first son and hand it to the second.
It was a scandalous tale, and that was exactly why people believed it so easily.
There were whispers that Adrian had never stood a chance from the very beginning. Some claimed the crown prince had been drugged before the duel so Enzo could defeat him and take the title without much struggle.
Others swore the king had set the entire thing up from the start, using Enzo's humiliation over Elara as an excuse to trigger a fight that would remove Adrian from succession.
And somehow, that version of events sounded more believable to the people than the truth ever could.
