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The story behind the portrait

You look at the Chamberlain, who tells you why Prince Shane has turned into a portrait. "You see, what I was unable to speak until you transformed Prince Shane into a portrait is that he is not our rightful ruler. As you can see from the portrait, he had an elder brother, Prince Einar. Prince Einar led our people through a long and difficult war."

"At one point during the war, it appeared that the entire Royal Family would be taken prisoner. Prince Einar had a young son, whose life he didn't dare risk. Against the advice of the Privy Council, he took his son away from Court one night and refused to tell anyone where he'd hidden the boy."

"Of course, everyone, including Prince Shane, tried to find out the boy's whereabouts. But Prince Einar never revealed his secret. And when he was captured in battle, his foresight turned out to be a stroke of genius."

Eventually Prince Shane led a resuce expedition. They defeated the enemy and freed Prince Einar. But our enemies were infidels who resorted to war tactics that are not approved by any international committees. They had brainwashed Prince Einar and rendered him completely uncommunicative."

"Prince Shane did everything he could to restore his brother's wits, but to no avail. Our doctors discovered that the enemy had also poisoned Prince Einar, and that he had only a week to live. Prince Shane was desperate to find his nephew. But there was no way to make Prince Einar say a word."

"Finally it occurred to Prince Shane that there might be one way to communicate with his brother. He revealed to the Council that all his life, Prince Einar had had the most incredibly ticklish feet. The family had kept it secret becuase it was a breach of regal decorum. Whenever his feet had been tickled, he immediately became quite hysterical."

"Prince Shane knew that the only chance to get Prince Einar to reveal the whereabouts of the rightful heir was to tickle him until he recovered his wits. He immediately began doing so. But, while Prince Einar did laugh hysterically, he was never able to speak. And just before he died from the poison, his old nurse arrived from the country. She assumed that Prince Shane had deliberately tickled him to death, and immediately cursed Prince Shane. But now that you, a stranger, have tickled Prince Shane and turned him into a portriat, now our people shall be blessed with the arrival of the true heir!"

"Of course there's just one problem..."


Written by stephan

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