Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 278: Suicide or murder
There was no one else around, so Orville didn't need to use diplomatic rhetoric to fool the other party. He was quite sincere most of the time, and there was no loss for him to tell the truth at this time.

"To be exercised under the supervision of the Romans?" King Ptolemy smiled sarcastically as if he had heard something interesting. "Then I understand. Please put away your sympathy, Your Highness. I will no longer accept anyone's mercy and charity. If Egypt is going to fall into your hands, then you can take it. You may be able to control this land, but I will not go anywhere, and I will not abdicate, because I will die gloriously as the last generation of orthodox Egyptian pharaohs, and I do not need your mercy."

Ptolemy had now had enough of these treacherous people. Their thirst for power seemed endless. The Egyptians had been tolerant again and again, but both the Romans and greedy eunuchs like Berdinus kept on asking for more and were still insatiable.

He has been a puppet for too long, and it is impossible for a person to tolerate it forever. Now he has decided to throw the jar into the air. No matter what the Romans will do next, he will not accompany them.

"Greed will destroy all of you sooner or later. I will enter the underworld first, and I will wait for your final moment there."

After saying this calmly, Ptolemy stood up and left. Orville showed a little respect and watched him leave without stopping him.

After Ptolemy left, Cleopatra came out from the blind spot behind Orville's seat with a complicated expression.

Her eyes gradually changed from confusion and sadness to determination: "I think it would be better to take the initiative and control my brother directly. He is not very rational now and has lost his attachment to the world. This kind of person is very dangerous and there is no telling when he will explode."

Perhaps Cleopatra was genuinely concerned about political stability, or perhaps she simply wanted to eliminate a potential competitor to the throne; in any case, she advised Orwell to resort to force.

Orville shook his head and refused the other party: "No need, be more tolerant and understanding to your relatives, people don't want to keep their heads down. If he really wants to do something, such as contacting officers and soldiers from all over the country to start a war, then my people will notice it at the first time. If he doesn't do it, it doesn't matter if you give him some time and tolerance."

".I understand. I'll follow your instructions."

While Orville and Cleopatra were talking, they did not expect that after Ptolemy returned to his room, he would immediately choose to commit suicide.
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Perhaps because of the subtle inertia of family thinking, Ptolemy also chose to use a poisonous snake to end his life. When the servants discovered the situation, his breathing had stopped for some time. The Egyptian King Ptolemy XIII was confirmed dead.

At this time, the person could definitely not be saved, and Orville did not know the underground god of death. Moreover, the underground gods of death might be competing for performance and arguing about which system Ptolemy's soul should belong to. He didn't even know whether he should look for the local god of death or the Greek one.

This caused a lot of trouble for Orville. He did not conceal the news of the other party's death. The death of King Ptolemy caused an uproar. Many people, even many Romans, believed that the other party was assassinated by Orville because he had the ability and the most sufficient motive to commit the crime.

For a while, people's hearts were in turmoil. After all, a king was a king. Because of his death, many people in Alexandria and even in Egypt began to openly oppose the Roman rule in Egypt, which made him extremely anxious. He kept mobilizing the army to suppress the opponents one after another, and used political operations to suppress various restless nobles.

This may be exactly what Ptolemy XIII wanted to achieve. He did not leave any last words or suicide notes, and even wanted to disgust the Romans, especially Orwell, before his death. It must be said that the effect was quite good. It can be said that this was the only successful strategy of Ptolemy XIII in his life. It was just a little useless. At this critical moment, Cleopatra did not forget her identity as an ally of Orwell, and she made a very controversial decision.

She summoned all the officials and went to a central square in Alexandria, where she gave a speech in front of all the good people. In her speech, she made one thing clear: King Ptolemy was not killed by Orville, but was killed on her order.

She showed everyone the poisonous snake that Orville had collected and told everyone why she killed him.

King Ptolemy was a foolish and incompetent monarch. He watched Berdinus, Antonis and others plunder the people and even participated in these things. His evil deeds were too numerous to list. Now she believed that they had lost their qualifications to be king and should be sentenced to death for their evil deeds.

Regardless of how many people believed this rhetoric, this series of actions is at least logical.

For ordinary people, this argument is certainly acceptable, because they have been troubled by heavy taxes and levies over the years.

To the nobles, this was nothing more than Cleopatra's further elimination of dissidents after she came to power as the new king. Logically, Orville should not have killed Ptolemy XIII, because it would certainly not do him much good, on the contrary it would only create hatred. Perhaps Cleopatra had done this on her own initiative, and now under pressure from Orville she had to admit it herself.

Now the conflict was reduced from that between the Romans and the Egyptians to that between the royal families. For these Greek immigrants, murders within the royal family were commonplace. Over the hundreds of years since the founding of the country, the Ptolemaic royal family had never been spared from these things since the middle and late periods.

Their dissatisfaction with Cleopatra was certainly greater, but the degree of dissatisfaction would not be much more serious, at least not to the extent of immediately raising the banner of rebellion.

After all, her father Ptolemy XII was a more abstract ruler. In comparison, Cleopatra's actions were more understandable.

There must be people who don't believe this, or don't want to believe it for the sake of their own interests, but it is certain that the opposition Orville faces is indeed much weaker than before. After his efforts to remove a few disobedient thorns and send a few sets of house-confiscation packages, the situation was finally under control.

He did not feel relieved by this, but instinctively felt confused and abnormal - he was not sure whether Cleopatra had really murdered Ptolemy XIII and then disguised it as his suicide, and probably designed this drama.

(End of this chapter)