Volume 1 Chapter 40 The Knight, Assigned to the Prince Was Holding His Head in the Shadows
The prince was quite the troublesome person.
He was oddly enlightened, had given up on everything, but still felt lonely and sometimes went on a rampage.
There was only one child between the current king and queen.
They had one male heir, so there shouldn't be any problems, but it wasn't guaranteed that the boy would grow up to adulthood.
As for the king, queen, and those around them, they would prefer to have at least 2 more boys of royal blood.
However, although the queen managed to give birth to the first prince, she had a constitution that was not well-suited for childbirth.
The queen searched for a concubine, as she herself could not give birth.
In the end, the king married the 3 or maybe 4 concubines the queen brought, but they all gave birth to girls.
Needless to say, the busy king, who was swamped with work, and the queen, who was running around looking for concubines, had no time to show affection to their son, the prince.
However, the prince did not dwell on this sadly; he firmly understood his position as the next king.
He also clearly understood the pressure of being the only heir.
And each day, he diligently studied under a tutor, growing up to be a quietly capable prince without throwing tantrums or making demands.
This was the story my older brother secretly told me when I decided to become a knight attached to the prince in the future.
However, it's not like that at all.
I certainly understood the position and the pressure.
And in front of adults, he was neither selfish nor had tantrums, and was well-behaved and excellent.
But as soon as they realize that adults are no longer watching, they start going berserk.
He suddenly started drinking and eating excessively, walked around barefoot on the muddy ground, and even read endless books without talking to anyone or eating or drinking.
The worst thing that ever happened was when he got out of control and gathered me and the male servants to compete to see who looked best in women's clothes.
Neither I nor the servants can go against the prince's orders, and the maid who does the heavy lifting looked awful in women's clothing, and there's no way I'm fitting into a dress since I've been training my body to become a knight. So, what on earth are we being made to do?
Moreover, since the prince already has a pretty face, he actually looked quite cute in women's clothing.
Wait, are you saying you're going to dress in women's clothes too!!!
That's the situation.
In the end, the prince laughed heartily, watched us laugh, then sighed a big sigh and returned to a serious face as he walked slowly to the tutor's place.
How small his back looked.
It was hard to tell because he was off in his own little world, but I realized after a while that the prince must be lonely.
Unable to say he's lonely or that he wants attention, when his feelings reached a peak, he'd go on some nonsensical rampage that would leave us vaguely troubled before coming back to reality.
He was that kind of person.
By the way, the prince thought he was being sneaky about his outbursts, but in the end it was kind of obvious, and it had become an unspoken understanding among the people around the prince that he was lonely.
As for me, I was more concerned about whether or not it had been discovered that I dressed in women's clothing.
That prince was really looking forward to going to the academy.
He wanted to hear all about my experiences since I was already attending, and he said over and over how much he wanted to go to the academy soon.
So, it was in the year I graduated from the academy and officially became the prince's knight that he finally entered the academy he had longed for.
...And yet.
"Wasn't the academy supposed to be a place where everyone could become friends regardless of their status!?"
The moment lunch break started, the prince came into the attendant waiting room and said that.
The moment he stepped into the school, the crowd parted, and I saw with my own eyes the students whispering and gossiping, but it seemed that the prince was a complete spectacle in the classroom, and there was no sign of him being able to make friends.
Because he had such a strong desire to have friends, he was so disappointed that he was beyond sad and extremely irritated.
The prince was just about to go out of control when he happened to come across a female student.
She was definitely the daughter of a powerful Count.
I hear that the Count adores his daughter, so I'd rather not stir up any trouble if possible.
But the prince, unaware of my feelings, was getting closer to her.
Moreover, after that, I was forced to buy up all the melon bread.
By the way, that melon bread was completely devoured by me, another knight, and the former servants who had been dressed up as women.
"Melon bread is really delicious, huh?"
Wait, the prince eats it too!!!
This was the first time the prince had caused such chaos that affected us, so I was worried about what to do.
If it had been a typical embarrassing situation like the cross-dressing incident, we might have been able to apologize and make it right, but this situation was entirely different.
His past antics usually calmed down after a while, and they weren't so persistent.
But for some reason, this time it was relentless.
He was clinging to that young lady excessively.
I felt sorry for her and wanted to stop the prince, but if I carelessly intervened and made him stubborn, it would be the young lady who suffers, not me.
I wanted to somehow connect with her discreetly and ask her to bear with it for a while.
Well, her attendant was supposed to be in the Attendant waiting room, so I thought about contacting him, but since that incident, her attendant hadn't come here at all.
He should be at the academy, though.
I want to solve this before it becomes a bigger problem.
Thinking that, I let out a big sigh, and another knight who noticed came over to talk to me.
"You're pondering about the prince and the young lady, aren't you, Paul?"
"...Ah, what should I do? Is there any good solution, Reno?"
I also called out to him, but we both just had our heads in our hands and could not come up with any solutions.
"That young lady is intelligent, so she's been a relief for now, but... I can't just leave her like this."
"That's right. If only the prince's irritation would calm down. That guy, despite his appearance, is a very pleasant person at heart."
To the extent that we could start a cross-dressing contest.
It's just that sometimes he loses control because he has been suppressing his mental pain too much.
But there's no way I can tell someone that.
However, whether he knew it or not, the prince seemed to think he had done something wrong, and after a few days of getting involved with the young lady, he declared, "I want to apologize to her for something."
Hearing that, I felt a bit relieved.
It would be best to sincerely apologize and distance ourselves from the young lady, I thought.
But this was not going to be straightforward.
To my surprise, the prince had genuinely convinced himself that he had become friends with the young lady.
Sure, I heard the young lady say something like "If you apologize for belittling my attendant, I wouldn't mind being friends," but she clearly just wanted him to apologize... or rather, she simply didn't want to be harmed in the future, and from an objective viewpoint, it felt like nothing had been resolved.
The thought that the prince might realize this and then go on a rampage again made my stomach churn.
I wanted to somehow keep the prince away from the young lady, but when I saw him beaming with a huge smile saying, "I finally have a friend," I could only respond with, "That's great to hear."
Even though he was saying he finally made the friends he wanted so badly, how could I possibly get in the way of that?
At this point, I had no choice but to directly talk to the young lady instead of the prince.
Determined to do so, I secretly made my way to the Count's villa where the young lady was said to be living.
But to cut a long story short, I failed.
I couldn't even make contact with her.
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