POV

The head bureaucrat Riell

"Damn the new king, he doesn't know that you should not bother with the bureaucrats and mind your own buisness." I said to my subordinate, Johnson

"Yes, my lord we have to contact Count Phillips and seek help from him as we cannnot rescind the king's orders on our own"

I thought about how I should go about contacting Count Phillips and explain to him what happend. I got on my carriage and went back to my house. I say to my subordinate to bring me some cold juice to rid myself of this headache. After drinking the juice, I decide to go meet Count Phillips. When I went into his parlor and asked about him, the bulter said that I have to wait for a few minutes for him to come. Count Phillips was one of the most powerful nobles in the kingdom due to the fact that his ancesters helped the royal family establish this kingdom. He also holds a lot of land but unfortunately most of it was forests or hills and has not been developed but he has a lot of influence in the kingdom.

"Hello Riell, why did you come here. Is there a problem" Count Phillips said

" Yes, my lord the new king has been carrying out reforms to change the bureaucracy and purge many bureaucrats"

"So, he has removing been removing traditional way of doing things and is breaking the status quo that our great ancestors has established. The diverse people of the country need the status quo to prosper and make the country great"

I knew this all was pure sophism but I decided to go along with it due to the intrestiong mannerisms of nobles and how they can easily change good sounding things to bad sounding things and vice versa. He knew that status quo was bad for the country but in the face of intrests, he didn't care for the country. This was the normal mindset among most nobles due to the high amount of rights and power they have.

"I will deal with this issue, why dont we talk about the 'gifts' you are going to give"

"Yes, my lord I have brought some jewlery as a gift for the service you are going to do"

"Can you show me the jewlery"

I showed him the jewlery. It was a jewlery piece made out of sapphire and emeralds which he seemed to like quite a bit. I felt pain due to the fact that it was extremely costly and it cost almost a year's worth of income. I left and got on my carriage and went back home. I again ask the servant for some juice. After I drink it, I feel pain in my chest and fall down. The last thing I saw and heard was Johnson smiling and saying "You betrayed the king. Now I betray you."