frog&fog (17) Revised
After Joker left, another villain came over and said this to me:
My name is Roland. I was once the best archer in the Sheep Kingdom.
My former friend Berkeley was the ball champion of this country.
Our country had a tradition: every year during Carnival, there would be an archery contest and a ball game.
Berkeley always won the championship. He might have been the most popular man besides the king.
He was always surrounded by people. I had once been proud to have such a friend.
One day, I went to war in the Partridge Kingdom for the king.
When I returned, my wife Emilia and my best friend had betrayed me.
She thought I was dead, so she let Berkeley get close to her and take care of her.
Ah, how I wished that festering wound had taken my life, so I would not have had to witness that scene.
Poor man.
I said to Roland with sympathy,
Women were always easily deceived.
Roland continued, "In the Sheep Kingdom, the ball champion and bakers have enough influence to rally the commoners into struggle.
To keep matters from growing worse, the king had Berkeley and me settle our conflict with a maypole.
I asked, "What is a maypole?"
Roland said:
When a conflict cannot be mediated even by the law, we erect a maypole.
On one side are the poor, on the other the rich, or else two hostile factions.
They fight within a certain range around that pole.
The loser is expelled from the kingdom."
I asked, "How did you not die?"
Roland said:
If no one had helped him cheat, Berkeley should have been the one to die.
He always won ball games and brought wealth to the rich and nobles.
And the