Forced to Decide: Ultimate Clue to a Crossword Conundrum

Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a powerful kingdom. One day, his advisor came to him with an urgent message. He explained that a neighboring kingdom was threatening war unless they were given a certain amount of gold as tribute.

The king was furious but knew that he couldn’t afford to go to war. So, he decided to send a message back to the neighboring kingdom, giving them an ultimatum: either accept a smaller amount of gold or else face the consequences of war.

The advisor began to write the message and when he got to the ultimatum, he needed to choose a word that would convey the severity of the threat. He chose the word ‘ELSE’ – a word that sounded both powerful and ominous.

When the neighboring kingdom received the message, they knew that the ultimatum was serious. Instead of risking the wrath of the powerful king and his army, they decided to accept the lesser amount of gold and avoid any possibility of war.

And so, the word ‘ELSE’ became synonymous with ultimatums and threats, both in the kingdom and in the crossword world. People would use the word in other contexts, like “you better do what I say or else,” referencing the power of the ultimatum that the king had used years before. And now you can easily remember this when trying to solve that tricky crossword clue!