“You've got mail!”
Hermes* #quote
Today I ordered some trading cards so I can totally nerd
out with CJ during some upcoming tournaments with him. Anyway onto the flash fiction!
The Leftover Prince
It's been a disgusting passing down of the crown. The king had five
sons and now the youngest, a mere child, holds it because a sickness
struck the aristocracy killing all his brothers and his father. Now
the remaining nobles fight to manipulate the child into ruling in
their favor. They figure that doing that is easier and less risky
politics than war or assassination. After all if the child dies then
I, the royal advisory, rise to power. And they figure I would be much
more difficult to deal with. I wonder how many of them have
considered a double assassination and then trying to see if they can
pick up the pieces after a civil war when no clear inheritor of the
crown pops up.
The old king would sit on his throne thinking and staring into
space. Mostly waiting for news and something to react to. The boy
just plants his brown eyes into a book while he sat in the thrown.
It's easy to see his sloppy black hair with the crown at a tilt. He
swung the limbs of his lanky body as he sat in a slouch.
“My Lord, there's a matter you must attend to.” It felt a bit
insulting to talk to him in the same way I talked to his father. To
kneel and see my robes spread across the floor and dirty themselves
and my blonde bangs to fall in front of my eyes. He didn't react. I
hated when he did this. “My Lord. My Lord! Zack!”
He looked up startled when I called him by his first name. “Yes?”
He still had yet to adapt to being called “My Lord” instead of
his first name. Being the youngest of five sons his chance of being
the king was so slim he wasn't raised at all to be a king. He was
raised on the sidelines of the siblings and often left to his own
devices in the libraries of the castle. Those books and the librarian
raised the boy more than his own family. Despite her being a commoner
I overheard the librarian calling the child by his first name, like
she was treating him like an average child, but since he was
unnoteworthy child at the time back then I ignored it.
“My Lord. A visiting king wants to have an audience with you.” I
felt afraid at this moment. The child was inexperienced. We could go
to war from his impoliteness. And the king was just outside the room.
“Bring him in.” The child put down his book and sat up. I never
saw him do that on the throne before. I went outside and brought in
the king. The king was dressed much more extravagantly than the
child. His kingdom was rich. Powerful. Our kingdom was large but his
was arguably equal. I felt certain that this king wanted to show off
to the child and impress him. Figured he could manipulate the boy
into something easy with some dazzle. I hoped that wouldn't happen.
The fancy king bowed and smiled.
“King Zachary, I wish to enter a treaty with you, it will be
beneficial to both our kingdoms. I hope you sign it immediately.”
The king produced a fancy scroll, feather and ink from his robes.
“Please do hurry. Upon my arrival your court decided to throw a
banquet to celebrate my visiting.”
I wanted to speak up but I was afraid of angering either king. I
feared that the child would just sign the paper but then to my
surprise he just started reading it in silence. The visiting king
looked surprised as well.
“No thank you. Now let's go to banquet.” He gave back the ink,
feather and scroll to the visiting king and left his throne. “So
where's the banquet?”
“What? Why?” The king asked.
“I don't like what you're asking for.”
The visiting king grew angry. “What do mean?”
“The lands you want to buy from us in this 'treaty' are bunch of
very valuable trade routes for us. They have been for centuries. I
read about it in a history book in the library. If you'd like
something else ask and I'll consider it.”
The visiting king calmed himself to a more political demeanor. “Yes,
let's go to the banquet.”
Later at the banquet I pulled the child aside to speak to him about
his decision.
“That was a very wise decision about the treaty My Lord.” I
didn't tell him but the child's wisdom surprised me.
“Thanks. Now could you show my father's private library? Well it's
my library now that he's dead. I want to read up on all the
confidential stuff on the kingdom, especially all our intelligence
stuff. I've pretty much read everything in the normal library twice
over. I love books but y'know I've run out. Maybe it'd be nice if I
knew everything about our armies.”
I laughed. The child didn't understand why. I guess I found it
amusing that my despair had been smashed I had a new bit of hope for
the new king.
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